An inflammatory factor already linked to several diseases, including pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and arthritis, may also be responsible for the insulin resistance that comes with obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that the inflammatory chemokine known as CXCL5 rises and falls along with obesity and weight loss in humans. They also found evidence tying the inflammatory factor, which is secreted at high levels by fat tissue, to insulin resistance in mice.

Treatments designed to block CXCL5 were found to improve the animals' sensitivity to insulin.

CXCR5 affect a variety of cells including muscle cells, cells that line blood vessel walls and cells in the lung and intestine. This means that increased CXCL5 circulating levels, as observed in obesity, could also lead to other problems such as atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases.

Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch by blocking activity in spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain. However, the effect only seems to occur when an itch is actually present -- scratching at other times makes no difference.

A new study on primates shows that scratching the skin blocks activity of nerve cells in the spinothalamic tract during itchiness, preventing the spinal cord from transmitting signals from the scratched area of skin to the brain.

This information could eventually lead to ways to relieve chronic itch effectively for the first time. However, more information is likely still needed about the chemistry underpinning the effect.

Brazilian food scientists have invented probiotic ice cream.  The product apparently looks and tastes like ice cream, but supposedly replaces unhealthy bacteria in your intestines with friendlier types.

But be careful -- freezing will likely kill off most of those friendly bacteria.  Frozen yogurt, for example, has fewer probiotic bacteria than regular yogurt.

When this reaches the market, it’s likely that the manufacturers will advertise the number of bacteria they put into the ice cream, but won’t say a word about how few survived freezing and storage.

Here’s the latest craziness -- drugs used to treat hyperactive children, such as Ritalin, are being recommended as a means to help solve the obesity crisis.

Dr. Lance Levy of Toronto studied severely obese patients who had failed to lose weight in 10 years. Some were prescribed anti-hyperactivity drugs including Adderall, a type of amphetamine, and a Ritalin-style pill called Concerta. After a year of treatment, those given the drugs had lost an average of 12 percent of their total body weight.

Dr. Levy claimed it was because many obese people have undiagnosed ADHD.  I suspect the fact that one of the drugs given was an amphetamine may have more to do with it.  This is pure insanity that in no way, shape, or form deals with the root causes of obesity.  It’s true that if you take amphetamines, you might end up slimmer -- but you certainly won’t end up healthier.

1. Exercise. You can't exercise to spot reduce, but it will help you shed excess pounds -- and often, the fat your body sheds first comes from your belly. Abdominal crunches can help tone muscles to make your stomach look flatter, but to truly get rid of fat, you have to burn it off through aerobic activity.

2. Be a mindful eater. Researchers are currently investigating whether really paying attention to what you eat can help redistribute body fat from your waist to your hips. Plenty of studies, though, have shown that mindful eating can help with weight loss efforts.

3. Get adequate amounts of sleep. Too little sleep (less than six hours) or too much (more than eight hours) results in an excess production of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone promotes the storage of fat in the belly.

4. Reduce stress. Penciling in 15 minutes a day for relaxation can also lower your cortisol levels, helping you shed belly fat. Deep breathing, a stroll outdoors under the blossoming trees, or a bubble bath can help you leave the world behind.

Three new studies show that most adults have unexpectedly large deposits of a calorie-burning type of fat. Biologists once thought brown fat disappeared after infancy, but its persistence suggests a potential new strategy to fight obesity.

In addition to eating less and exercising more, people may one day be able to stimulate their bodies to get rid of stored energy purely as heat.

At the moment, the only safe way to activate brown fat is to stay chilly, right at the verge of shivering, for prolonged periods. This causes your body to burn the fat for warmth. However, researchers hope to eventually find a less uncomfortable way exploit this ancient adaptation.

Vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid may reduce the frequency, severity and disability of migraines, according to new research. Daily vitamin supplements were found to produce a two-fold reduction in migraine disability.

About 12 to 15 percent of people suffer from migraines, with twice as many women as men affected. The headaches are sometimes preceded by flashes of light, blind spots, tingling in the arms or legs, or anxiety. Suffers generally experience a pounding sensation in one side of the head and many undergo nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and noise. The symptoms are often severe and debilitating.

Scientists recruited 52 people diagnosed with migraine. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either vitamin supplements or a placebo for six months. The supplements were associated with a reduction in the prevalence of migraine disability from 60 percent at the start of the study to 30 percent after 6 months. No reduction was observed in the placebo group.

Reductions in the frequency of the headache and the severity of the pain were also observed in people in the B vitamin group, while no such changes were observed in the placebo group.

A piece in the New England Journal of Medicine by Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and Thomas Frieden, the health commissioner for the city of New York, support the concept of a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened soft drinks.

They argue that such a tax could cut of these beverages consumption by 10 percent. The proceeds, the article says, could be used to promote or even subsidize more healthful foods whose boosters lack the marketing resources of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

According to the authors, "a sales tax on sugared drinks would generate considerable revenue, and as with the tax on tobacco, it could become a key tool in efforts to improve health."

The average American consumes 400 calories a day from beverages, and evidence suggests that your body doesn't compensate for liquid calories by consuming fewer calories later, as it does with calories in solid form.

From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music," comes the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently. This amazing version of “Stand by Me” brought a smile to our faces, and we hope it will do the same for you.

Use our Email to a Friend feature (in the upper right corner of this page) to email this "smile-a-gram" to all of your friends and loved ones who appreciate creative arts and especially music!

Supplements of the Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota may ease symptoms of anxiety in people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), according to new research.

Two months of supplementation with the bacterial strain was associated with a decrease in anxiety symptoms. The research is still preliminary, and raises many questions regarding the mechanism of action.

Researchers recruited 39 CFS patients and randomly assigned them to receive daily supplements of either Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota (24 billion colony forming units) or a placebo for two months. At the end of the study, a significant reduction in the symptoms of anxiety was recorded in the Lactobacillus group.

Steps have been taken to start legal action against the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the Lorain County Health Department for violating the constitutional rights of John and Jacqueline Stowers of LaGrange, Ohio.

The Stowers operate an organic food cooperative called Manna Storehouse. ODA and Lorain County Health Department agents forcefully raided their home and seized the family's personal food supply, cell phones and personal computers.

On the morning of December 1, 2008, law enforcement officers forcefully entered the Stowers' residence without first announcing they were police or stating the purpose of the visit. With guns drawn, they swiftly and immediately moved to the upstairs of the home, where ten children were in the middle of a home-schooling lesson. Officers then moved Jacqueline Stowers and her children to their living room, where they were held for more than six hours.

There has never been a complaint filed against Manna Storehouse or the Stowers related to the quality or healthfulness of the food distributed through the co-op.

The number of food-borne illnesses in the United States has for the most part remained stagnant over the past three years, but in some cases it has been on the upswing. This gives new urgency to efforts to reform the nation's food safety system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"We need greater effort at all stages of movement of food in the food chain from farm to table," said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Food-borne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases.

Preliminary 2008 data show that infection rates for five food-borne illnesses exceeded national goals set by the CDC. In the case of salmonella, the national goal in 2008 was seven illnesses for every 100,000 people, but the actual number was 16 -- more than twice as much. The data did not even include the ongoing national outbreak of salmonella illness linked to peanut products that began in late 2008.

Many skin cancer screenings are held during May, which is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month. To find a free skin cancer screening in your area, you can click on the link below. You should note that skin cancer screenings tend to be rapid and are not a substitute for a full skin examination by your own dermatologist or physician.

This makes May a good time to spread the word that, despite the persistent myth, healthy UVB exposure is not the cause of melanoma. This is why an epidemic of melanoma has broken out among indoor workers. In fact, indoor workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma -- and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.

In fact, UVB light, which causes your skin to produce vitamin D, is protective against cancer.

Dental experts placed teeth in sports drinks and in water to compare the effects, and they found that the sports drinks caused corrosion that could result in severe tooth damage if left untreated.

The researchers cut calves' teeth in half and immersed each half in either a sports drink or water. They compared the results after 75 to 90 minutes. The erosion on the half placed in the sports drink was clearly visible -- dozens of tiny holes appeared. There was no damage on the half which was immersed in water.

Brushing teeth immediately after the drinks would actually compound the problem, because the citric acid in the drink softens tooth enamel, leaving it vulnerable to abrasive brushing.

Believe it or not, looking on the bright side of things can be good for your career and your mental health. Research shows that an attitude of gratitude in trying times can not only help you keep your job, but get you the job you want.

The most common responses to economic problems are panic, fear, anger, distrust, and even hostility. But a study of the characteristics of recession survivors and found that those who avoided being cut were cheerful, likable, generous contributors -- and not necessarily the most skilled and proficient.

Corporate leaders are likely now placing more value on workers who add positive energy to the atmosphere beyond increasing sales and visibility. That means that those who are grouchy and unpleasant can end up on the layoff list, along with the person who never says anything and flies under the radar.

From Lawn to Lunch

To convert your lawn to a lunch box, remove turf in long, 18-inch strips. Cut the edges of each strip with a sharp-bladed edging tool. While one person rolls up the grass like a jellyroll, another slices through grass roots with the edging tool. Remove about an inch of rooty soil with the top growth. When the roll gets heavy, slice it off and load it in a wheelbarrow.

Compost the strips by layering green sides together, then brown sides together, ending brown-side-up. Cover the stack with soil and mulch (straw, chopped leaves, or shredded bark) and let it stand for 10-12 months.

Make beds 10 to 20 feet long and six to eight feet wide, so you can reach the center from each side. Mulch three to four-foot wide paths between beds to accommodate a wheelbarrow. Now fork over the soil strips and remove as many roots as possible. Aerate beds with a garden fork, sinking it as evenly and deeply as possible. Spread on two or three inches of compost, then set plants about six inches apart, in staggered rows. Top with a mulch containing corn gluten, a high-nitrogen protein that prevents weed seeds from germinating.

Eat Your Vegetables

The USDA attributes 14 percent of all deaths in the U.S. to poor diets and/or sedentary lifestyles. You can improve your health and the health of the planet by following food columnist Michael Pollan’s simple rule: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Party with Your Preserves

Ten quarts of pumpkin puree in the pantry, and not a jar of tomato sauce left? Throw a canning swap party. Here are some tips and recommendations from foodroutes.org:

Gauge interest with your friends early on. Then remind them throughout the planting, growing, and harvesting season to set aside extras for canning and swapping.

Try new recipes on your swappers. Bust out that crazy 5-alarm salsa verde recipe you’ve always been scared to try. Make sure to can extra so you can pop a jar open for samples.

Not everything at the canning swap party has to be pressure-canned or boiled in a hot water bath. Dried items, homemade baked goods, candies, and homebrewed beer are all eligible. You’ll be amazed by what can be preserved from the season’s bounty

Glean Those Fields Clean

A lot of perfectly good food is left to rot in farm fields and under fruit and nut trees. With a bit of work, you can gather a group to “glean” this free food, providing fresh, nutritious food to your community.

To glean in your area, talk to farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners. Explain your purpose, share a copy of federal “Good Samaritan” law, which protects them from liability, and ask for written permission to glean.

Family, friends, students, and members of your faith community are potential volunteers. You can also put a notice on craigslist, bulletin boards, at farmers markets, or in the local paper. Contact food banks, shelters, and other facilities to check on their needs, and to arrange delivery times.

On gleaning day, bring collection baskets and buckets, snacks, water, and other necessities that will ensure a successful expedition. As the day ends, gather your freshly harvested food, thank the landowner, distribute something to each gleaner, and leave the land in better condition than you found it.

Shop Outside of Supermarkets

Local foods are not nearly as well-advertised or visible as chain supermarket foods, so even those who want to give locally harvested food a try may not know where to get it. Consider what types of agriculture are natural to your environment. Does your area have a history of blueberry farming or cod fishing? Are there traditional foods that have been neglected in the fast-food age?

Talk to old timers, ask around at farmers markets, look for road-side food stands and U-pick places. Watch for hand-painted signs. You may find a wide variety of freshly harvested foods and get to know new communities and regional traditions at the same time.

Visit localharvest.org, sustainabletable.org, and eatwellguide.org to find sources of affordable and environmentally friendly food.

Start a Community Garden

Call a meeting (or better yet, a potluck) to decide what kind of garden you want, what locations might work, and how to manage plots. Identify possible sites. Look for land that gets plenty of sunlight, has a water source, is convenient to get to, and is free of soil contamination. You could consider combining back yards if several neighbors are involved.

Identify the owner of the land and negotiate a lease long enough to make it worth building the soil and the community involvement. Invite immediate neighbors to join.

Test the soil for nutrient levels and contaminants. Clean the site, mark plots with gardeners’ names, and, if possible, include on-site storage for tools and equipment. Also designate a spot for compost.

For more ideas, including sample bylaws and insurance policies, go to communitygarden.org.

Plant a Row for the Hungry

As unemployment rises, more people are wondering how they will put food on the table. How can you boost food security at home:

• Skip the so-called convenience foods; processed foods almost always cost more for what you get
• Form a buying club to get healthy food in bulk at discount prices
• Buy in season, or harvest and preserve it yourself
• Study (and/or teach) the art of cooking and preserving tasty, nutritious food on a budget

And in your community:

• Contribute something from every shopping trip to local food banks
• Plant a row for the hungry and donate the produce to a shelter, day care center, neighbor, or food bank

Share Your Table

The best antidote to fast-food culture is as close as your table. Invite friends and a few strangers to a local-foods potluck. In good weather, eat outside. Share an evening of conversation and enjoy the good life.

When Dr. Jonathan Leo told editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) about undisclosed financial ties between a researcher and a drug company, all he wanted was prompt, public disclosure. A study published in JAMA reported that stroke patients who took the drug Lexapro were less likely to become depressed -- but the author, Dr. Robert G. Robinson, did not disclose speaking fees from Forest Laboratories, which makes Lexapro.

By the time a correction ran -- five months later -- Dr. Leo had run out of patience. He posted an essay about his concerns on the Web site of the British Medical Journal. JAMA rebuked him for going public and called his dean to demand a retraction. Now the American Medical Association has asked an oversight committee to look into the issue.

In an editorial, JAMA said its confidentiality policy banned anyone who made charges about undisclosed conflicts of interest from publicizing these concerns before the journal completed its own investigation.

Dr. John Cannell, noted vitamin D expert, recently received a great letter from a reader.  I thought I’d share it with you, along with his introduction:

“I want to pass a reader's letter along (with her permission) as many of you may know a couple who cannot conceive and know the heartbreak that brings to childless couples.  While I know of no direct evidence this is true, why should childless couples be Vitamin D deficient?  Both the man and the woman should take 5,000 IU a day.”

John Cannell, MD

Vitamin D Council

“Dear Dr. Cannell,

“I am writing to thank YOU for doing what is important work. I am an RN, BSN, work in the area of fertility in collaboration with an OB/GYN and others. I have studied the research on vitamin D for the past 2 years and came across your site. You can only imagine what treating vitamin D deficiency does for fertility. I see there are no large studies on this in existence anywhere. I have developed protocols based on current research. They are used by the OB/GYN I work with as well, and it's nothing short of amazing. (I guess we do not need a large study to prove what we are seeing, it is across the board success) Everyone of our women have conceived that previously had difficulty. One was infertile for 10 years, another for 3 years, and one had no cycles for three years, they all returned to full fertility within 6 weeks.

“An understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of fertility disorders has led to the development of my protocols that include, Vit. D, diet and lifestyle. All key components. I watched too many women over the years with fertility disorders of every kind, go on to develop breast, uterine and ovarian cancers. What was the link? Well now we know and can do something about it.

“Thank you for all your work and helping educate people on the need for vitamin D in all of this.”

Darcy Hemstad, RN, BSN

Fertility Educator

The world is on the cusp of an explosion of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases. Patients could inundate hospitals and leave physicians fighting a nearly untreatable malady with little help from modern drugs.

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization, urged health officials from 27 countries at a three-day forum on drug-resistant TB to recognize the warning signs of what looms ahead. She argued that traditional drugs are useless against some strains of tuberculosis and health-care costs for treating those strains could skyrocket.

“This is a situation set to spiral out of control,” warned Chan. “Call it what you may: a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation.”

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious bacterial infection that attacks the lungs and can also affect other organs. If untreated, a person with TB can infect 10 to 15 other people in a year. Virulent forms of tuberculosis are on the rise, fueled by improper use of drugs and poorly managed treatment regimes.

A new theory about sleep's benefits has gotten a boost from a study on fruit flies. Researchers found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning.

The scientists looked at whether synapses, or junctures where nerve cells communicate with each other, are modified by sleep. Neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning, but this cannot continue without limit -- which may be where sleep comes in.

Your brain can't indefinitely add synapses, if only because of the finite spatial constraints of your skull. But scientists were able to track the creation of new synapses in fruit flies during learning experiences, and found that sleep pushed that number back down.

According to one theory, less important connections are trimmed back during sleep, while connections encoding important memories are maintained.

Vitamins B6, B12, and folic acid may reduce the frequency, severity and disability of migraines, according to new research. Daily vitamin supplements were found to produce a two-fold reduction in migraine disability.

About 12 to 15 percent of people suffer from migraines, with twice as many women as men affected. The headaches are sometimes preceded by flashes of light, blind spots, tingling in the arms or legs, or anxiety. Suffers generally experience a pounding sensation in one side of the head and many undergo nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and noise. The symptoms are often severe and debilitating.

Scientists recruited 52 people diagnosed with migraine. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either vitamin supplements or a placebo for six months. The supplements were associated with a reduction in the prevalence of migraine disability from 60 percent at the start of the study to 30 percent after 6 months. No reduction was observed in the placebo group.

Reductions in the frequency of the headache and the severity of the pain were also observed in people in the B vitamin group, while no such changes were observed in the placebo group.

An inflammatory factor already linked to several diseases, including pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and arthritis, may also be responsible for the insulin resistance that comes with obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that the inflammatory chemokine known as CXCL5 rises and falls along with obesity and weight loss in humans. They also found evidence tying the inflammatory factor, which is secreted at high levels by fat tissue, to insulin resistance in mice.

Treatments designed to block CXCL5 were found to improve the animals' sensitivity to insulin.

CXCR5 affect a variety of cells including muscle cells, cells that line blood vessel walls and cells in the lung and intestine. This means that increased CXCL5 circulating levels, as observed in obesity, could also lead to other problems such as atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases.

Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch by blocking activity in spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain. However, the effect only seems to occur when an itch is actually present -- scratching at other times makes no difference.

A new study on primates shows that scratching the skin blocks activity of nerve cells in the spinothalamic tract during itchiness, preventing the spinal cord from transmitting signals from the scratched area of skin to the brain.

This information could eventually lead to ways to relieve chronic itch effectively for the first time. However, more information is likely still needed about the chemistry underpinning the effect.

Brazilian food scientists have invented probiotic ice cream.  The product apparently looks and tastes like ice cream, but supposedly replaces unhealthy bacteria in your intestines with friendlier types.

But be careful -- freezing will likely kill off most of those friendly bacteria.  Frozen yogurt, for example, has fewer probiotic bacteria than regular yogurt.

When this reaches the market, it’s likely that the manufacturers will advertise the number of bacteria they put into the ice cream, but won’t say a word about how few survived freezing and storage.

Here’s the latest craziness -- drugs used to treat hyperactive children, such as Ritalin, are being recommended as a means to help solve the obesity crisis.

Dr. Lance Levy of Toronto studied severely obese patients who had failed to lose weight in 10 years. Some were prescribed anti-hyperactivity drugs including Adderall, a type of amphetamine, and a Ritalin-style pill called Concerta. After a year of treatment, those given the drugs had lost an average of 12 percent of their total body weight.

Dr. Levy claimed it was because many obese people have undiagnosed ADHD.  I suspect the fact that one of the drugs given was an amphetamine may have more to do with it.  This is pure insanity that in no way, shape, or form deals with the root causes of obesity.  It’s true that if you take amphetamines, you might end up slimmer -- but you certainly won’t end up healthier.

1. Exercise. You can't exercise to spot reduce, but it will help you shed excess pounds -- and often, the fat your body sheds first comes from your belly. Abdominal crunches can help tone muscles to make your stomach look flatter, but to truly get rid of fat, you have to burn it off through aerobic activity.

2. Be a mindful eater. Researchers are currently investigating whether really paying attention to what you eat can help redistribute body fat from your waist to your hips. Plenty of studies, though, have shown that mindful eating can help with weight loss efforts.

3. Get adequate amounts of sleep. Too little sleep (less than six hours) or too much (more than eight hours) results in an excess production of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone promotes the storage of fat in the belly.

4. Reduce stress. Penciling in 15 minutes a day for relaxation can also lower your cortisol levels, helping you shed belly fat. Deep breathing, a stroll outdoors under the blossoming trees, or a bubble bath can help you leave the world behind.

Three new studies show that most adults have unexpectedly large deposits of a calorie-burning type of fat. Biologists once thought brown fat disappeared after infancy, but its persistence suggests a potential new strategy to fight obesity.

In addition to eating less and exercising more, people may one day be able to stimulate their bodies to get rid of stored energy purely as heat.

At the moment, the only safe way to activate brown fat is to stay chilly, right at the verge of shivering, for prolonged periods. This causes your body to burn the fat for warmth. However, researchers hope to eventually find a less uncomfortable way exploit this ancient adaptation.