New research findings show that omega three fats in your diet protects your brain cells. It works by preventing the misfolding of a protein resulting from a gene mutation in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Huntington's.

Researchers developed a cell model with a mutation of the Ataxin-1 gene, which induces the misfolding of the protein. These deformed proteins cannot be properly processed by the cell machinery, resulting in tangled clumps of toxic protein that eventually kill the cell. But the omega three fat docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) protects cells from this defect.

The same researchers discovered earlier that neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), a naturally-occurring molecule in the human brain that is derived from DHA, also promotes brain cell survival. NPD1 is capable of rescuing the dying cells with the pathological type of Ataxin-1, keeping their integrity intact.

The biotechnology industry likes to claim that genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. But according to Failure to Yield, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, traditional genetic crosses actually outperform genetically modified crops by a wide margin. 

Failure to Yield is the first report to closely evaluate the overall effect of genetic engineering on crop yields. It reviewed two dozen academic studies of corn and soybeans, and concluded that genetically engineering herbicide-tolerant soybeans and herbicide-tolerant corn has not increased yields.

The biotechnology industry has been promising better yields since the mid-1990’s, but Failure to Yield documents that the industry has been carrying out gene field trials to increase yields for 20 years without significant results.

About 8.5 percent of children and teens who play video games are addicted to them, according to a new study. The study is based on a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. youths.

Douglas Gentile, the author of the study, actually began his research not believing that video games could be addictive. He's changed his mind. "What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing -- in this case, playing video games -- is damaging to their functioning," Gentile said. "It's not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways."

The pathological gamers in the study played video games 24 hours per week, and they were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms. They reported having more trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades, had more health problems, were more likely to feel "addicted," and even stole to support their habit.

U.S. manufacturers have released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways. Many of the waterways are sources of drinking water, but the contamination has been consistently ignored by the federal government.

Pharmaceutical ingredients are by many manufacturers. In addition to runoff from pharmaceutical companies themselves, lithium, nitroglycerin and copper are all used in both medicines and industrial processes.

Federal officials say they don't know the extent of the problem because no one keeps tracks of it. However, the EPA monitors some pharmaceutical chemicals as industrial chemicals, and the FDA tracks some active drug ingredients.

Even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species, and human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of drugs. Some scientists are concerned that the consumption of trace amounts of many drugs could harm people over the course of decades.

The illegal use of injected silicone as an alternative to cosmetic surgery is on the rise.

An underground beauty industry uses injections of black-market, medical-grade silicone or industrial-grade silicone as a cheap, fast and easily accessible way to plump up breasts, buttocks and thighs. But silicone can migrate through the bloodstream, creating potentially fatal clots in the lungs, and it can also migrate through tissues, leading to ugly lumps and chronic pain

New York City’s poison control center has received three calls in the last 10 months from doctors who have treated patients injected with silicone. In the previous two years, there were only two such cases total.

There may be other cases that have gone unreported. Doctors are not legally obligated to report silicone poisoning or even death, and silicone is hard to detect through X-rays or CT scans.

Nationally, reports of buttock enhancement using silicone and similar thick liquids have surfaced throughout the U.S.  Silicone is not approved for injection into tissues at all.

Young women who use oral contraceptives may not get as much out of their weight-lifting routine as women who are not on the pill. A study suggests that oral contraceptive use impairs muscle gains from resistance exercise training in women.

For the study, 73 healthy women between the ages of 18 and 31 participated in whole-body resistance exercises three times a week for 10 weeks. About half of the women used oral contraceptives.

According to the researchers, there were marked differences in lean muscle mass gains between the two groups. Lean muscle increased by just 2.1 percent in oral contraceptive users, compared with 3.5 percent in those who did not use oral contraceptives.

Eating blueberries could help you get rid of belly fat, and a blueberry-enriched diet could stem the conditions that lead to diabetes.

New research gives tantalizing clues to the potential of blueberries in reducing risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to the high level of naturally occurring antioxidants called phytochemicals contained in blueberries.

Researchers studied the effect blueberries had when added to the diet of rats. After 90 days, rats that received a blueberry-enriched diet had less abdominal fat, lower triglycerides, lower cholesterol, and improved fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity.

Boys who swim frequently in swimming pools may be at increased risk of developing asthma. A new study of 6 to 12 year old boys found a significant association between the number of years a boy had been swimming and the likelihood of the child being wheezy in the past year.

The more years a boy had been attending an indoor chlorinated pool, the greater the likelihood of his having asthma.

Parents of some more than 120 boys were questioned about how often the boys went swimming in chlorinated indoor pools. The results showed most boys did so once a week.

A significant link was shown to exist between the number of years spent swimming and a diagnosis of asthma, as well as whether a boy had experienced wheezing in the previous 12 months.

by Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.

(with thanks to Jennifer Berkowitz and the Fund for Personal Liberty)

You’ve been forced to pay Social “Security” taxes since you started working whether you wanted to or not. In return, you’ve been promised that when you retire, Social “Security” will pay you a small amount every month (an amount too small to be called “security”, but that’s a discussion for another time). But did you know that when you apply for Social “Security,” you’ll be refused -- yes, refused the right to your own money! -- unless you also sign up for Medicare (or, as I call it, “Mediocare”) Part A? (Part A is a hospital care program for those over 65).

When Congress created Social “Security” in the 1930s, Mediocare didn’t exist. And when the Mediocare program was created in the 1960s, there was no legal provision written to link the two programs. Yet little-known administrative policies adopted by los Federales in 1993 and strengthened in 2002 say that seniors can't refuse Mediocare, Part A coverage unless they forgo Social “Security” too -- even if they’ve paid Social “Security” taxes their entire working careers! Adding insult to injury, once you’re enrolled in “Mediocare,” the only way you can withdraw -- according to the bureaucracy’s edict -- is to repay all Social “Security” money you received, as well as any hospitalization benefits “Mediocare” may have paid on your behalf.

You might wonder why it matters. Why would you want to pay for your own hospitalization when you can get it for “free” through Mediocare, Part A -- especially when you’ve been forced to pay Mediocare taxes for all or most of your working career?

Perhaps the most important reason is the quality of care -- or more precisely, the lack of it -- “covered” by Mediocare.

Despite having paid thousands upon thousands in Mediocare taxes over the years, you’re only “allowed” to have the diagnostic and treatment procedures “approved” by los Federales. Anything else, even if it could save your life, isn’t “allowed.” If you’re “covered” by Mediocare, you’re not even supposed to go “outside the (Mediocare) system” for an “unapproved” diagnostic procedure or treatment -- even if you pay for it yourself! (Apparently, that’s how los Federales define “American freedom.”)

Another reason to consider not enrolling in Mediocare is the total lack of doctor-patient confidentiality. According to the Institute for Health Freedom, at least 600,000 individuals, institutions, and “entities” may be authorized by Mediocare bureaucrats to read any of your medical records kept in electronic form at any time -- without your knowledge or consent! And the recently enacted so-called “economic stimulus program” contains provisions that will make this lack of medical privacy situation even worse.

Keeping your freedom -- and your benefits!

Now, the good news: Five people have filed a lawsuit challenging these unconstitutional, illegal, and coercive policies.  They’re backed by the Fund for Personal Liberty, a 501(c)3 (tax-exempt) eligible organization, and represented by the law firm of Kent Masterson Brown, a well known health care and constitutional law specialist (and published Civil War historian). Known as Brian Hall et al v. Charles E. Johnson et al, the lawsuit seeks to permanently prohibit the Social Security Administration and Department of Health and Human Services from continuing the policies that force American citizens to participate in Mediocare, Part A (a supposedly “voluntary” program) in order to have some of their Social “Security” taxes returned as “benefits.”

The five plaintiffs allege that mandatory enrollment in Mediocare violates the Constitution, as well as the Social Security and Medicare Acts. They also state that the rules were put into place without proper “notice” and “comment,” as required by federal law.

The lawsuit is slowly making its way through the court system. Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) disappointingly denied the lead plaintiff’s request for a temporary restraining order barring the Department of Health and Human Services from forcing him into Mediocare. (The judge did, however, make it clear that this ruling has no bearing on the merits of the case.) Instead, she seemed to provide early indications that she might very well support the plaintiffs’ position, writing: “It is passing strange that SSA insists that all persons receiving Social Security retirement benefits, a federal program that is running out of money, also must be part of Medicare Part A, another federal program that overruns budgets.”

Not surprisingly, the government has filed a motion to dismiss the case. The plaintiffs, meanwhile, have asked the court -- on the basis of the overwhelming weight of the evidence on their side -- for summary judgment, which is a ruling in their favor without a trial.

The two sides will meet again in Judge Collyer’s courtroom on May 22nd. The plaintiffs and their legal counsel are confident they will eventually win their case, but they still have a long way to go.  While they are capable of paying their own medical bills, they unfortunately are not also capable of paying the mounting legal fees necessary to restore the freedom that all Americans over 65 had by right from 1783 through 1992 -- the freedom to pay their own hospital bills if they prefer to do so!

That’s where I’m hoping you will help!

Please consider supporting their courageous efforts to restore a part of health care freedom for all “free citizens” by sending a donation to the Fund for Personal Liberty, c/o Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20006. Thank you!         

If you would like to learn more information about this important legal effort, visit www.medicarelawsuit.org.

Quest Diagnostics, which operates medical testing labs, will pay $302 million for misleading marketing practices as part of a settlement with the federal government. Quest also entered into a nonprosecution agreement.

The case stemmed from marketing materials for a parathyroid hormone test.

The Justice Department said the settlement was one of the largest recoveries in a case involving a medical device. A Quest subsidiary inaccurately marketed unproven advantages to the Nichols Advantage Chemiluminescence Intact Parathyroid Hormone Immunoassay.

Jet lag could be caused by two groups of cells at the base of your brain falling out of synch.

Your body has a built-in time-keeping system known as a circadian rhythm. This system is partly governed by the cycle of day and night. Changing time zones, or working a late shift, can throw off your body's sense of timing because it changes the timing of your exposure to light.

Researchers found that in rats, the disruption occurs in two groups of brain cells. The groups are separate, but linked in a structure called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, below the hypothalamus at the base of your brain.

One group receives light information directly from the eyes and governs rhythms in tune with periods of light and dark. These neurons are synchronized with the deep sleep associated with physical fatigue. The other group is insensitive to changes in light, and is more closely tied to REM sleep. Usually, these two groups of neurons work together. But when the light-dark cycle shifts, it can throw them out of synch.

Fiber-rich bamboo shoots may improve cholesterol levels and improve bowel health, according to the results of a small study.

Supplementing your diet with bamboo shoots could result in reductions in your LDL cholesterol levels. Furthermore, it can significantly increase fecal volume and the number of bowel movements.

Fiber intake has been shown to benefit gastrointestinal health, glucose handling, heart health, cancer risk and satiety, but these benefits are dependent on the types of fiber present in foods. Eight percent of the fiber content of bamboo shoots is soluble, with the other 92 percent present as insoluble fiber. Most of the dietary fiber in the shoots is hemicellulose, cellulose, pectin, and lignin.

Researchers have discovered that mice given supplemented with curcumin experience a reduction in the formation of fat tissue and the blood vessels that feed it. Curcumin is the major polyphenol in the spice turmeric.

The growth and expansion of fat tissues requires new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. In fat tissue, this process is mediated by the secretion of adipokines, such as leptin, adiponectin, resistin, interleukin-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The researchers first investigated the effect of curcumin in cultured human cells to which adipokines had been added to stimulate angiogenesis. They found that the ability of curcumin to inhibit angiogenesis was partly due to the reduced expression of VEGF.

They then fed mice a high fat diet supplemented with 500 milligrams curcumin per kilogram diet for 12 weeks. Weight gain was reduced in mice that received curcumin. The researchers attributed this reduction to a decrease in total body fat in the curcumin-fed animals. Mice that received curcumin also had lower liver weights, and experienced a reduction in VEGF, indicating reduced angiogenesis.

Parents whose children are suffering from vomiting and diarrhea are actually making those children more sick by giving them flat coke, lemonade or fruit juice.

It is a myth that sugary drinks will ease bouts of gastroenteritis. Instead, bad cases of stomach bugs in children under five need to be treated with rehydration drinks.

Half of all children under five develop vomiting and diarrhea over the course of the year. But some of the most serious cases could be avoided if parents followed the best advice.

Eating walnuts may help to reduce your risk of developing breast cancer. The nuts contain omega-3 fats, antioxidants and phytosterols that may all reduce the risk of the disease.

Mice fed the human equivalent of two ounces of walnuts per day developed fewer and smaller tumors. Although the study was carried out in mice, the beneficial effect of walnuts was likely to apply to humans too.

Previous research has suggested eating walnuts at the end of a meal also helps to cut the damage that fatty food does to your arteries.

Research on mice shows that those carrying the most lice had calmer immune systems than uninfested rodents. This finding could have implications for studying the causes of asthma and allergies in people.

The study adds to evidence supporting the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which holds that the rise in asthma and allergies can be linked to hyper-clean living. If the immune system is not properly primed in childhood, immune cells can improperly react to harmless triggers such as pollen or dander.

The research team wanted to test real, wild mice, not hygienic lab mice that had been raised for generations in ultra-clean conditions. They trapped mice and studied their immune systems, and found that mice who were not infested with lice had much more excitable immune systems.

The economic crash has made many unpleasant truths about the United States apparent. One of the most alarming, according to a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the financial industry has effectively captured the U.S. government.

If the IMF’s staff could speak freely to the U.S. government, it would say us what it says to every country countries such a situation: recovery will fail unless the financial oligarchy blocking essential reform is broken. And if the U.S. is to avoid a true depression, time is running out.

The article from The Atlantic linked below details how the U.S. financial crisis is shockingly similar to problems are more commonly associated with the third world -- and the harsh and necessary steps needed to get out of it.

1. Rinsing your nose with salt water can help keep you healthy and ward off allergy symptoms.

2. Dogs can smell cancer and low blood sugar. A study showed that it is possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. For diabetics, the dogs can smell ketones in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

3. Researchers found that people who pass through an entryway near the kitchen tend to eat 15 percent more than those who use the front door.

4. You're more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, or up to three days after you've been diagnosed with the flu or a respiratory tract infection.

5. You can't get a tan from your computer screen. The Computer Tan Web site was created as a hoax to raise awareness about skin cancer.

6. Obese people spend approximately $485 more on clothing, $828 on extra plane seats, and $36 more on gas each year than their thinner counterparts. An overweight driver burns about 18 additional gallons of gas a year.

7. Smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, thus causing periods of restlessness and waking.

8. Eating fruits and vegetables may help your body make its own aspirin. Benzoic acid, a natural substance in fruits and vegetables, causes people to produce their own salicylic acid, the key component that gives aspirin its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.

9. A 20-minute nap can improve your overall alertness, boost your mood, and increase productivity. In addition, your heart may reap benefits from napping -- a six-year study found that that men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.

10. Your kitchen sink is dirtier than your bathroom. There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in its drain, and the faucet, basin, and sponge are crawling with germs as well.

11. Four out of five doctors in the UK don't work out enough. Heavy workloads, lack of time and poor motivation contributed to the lack of exercise.

12. Baking soda can whiten teeth, garlic can help treat athlete's foot, and honey can soothe a hangover.

13. Using a food diary can double your weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

14. Regular exercise can lower a woman's cancer risk -- but only if she's getting enough sleep. The National Cancer Institute followed nearly 6,000 women for almost 10 years. Women in the top half of physical activity levels showed an approximate 20 percent reduction in cancer risk, but sleeping less than seven hours per night resulted in a decreased benefit.

15. Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

16. Third-hand smoke -- the particles that cling to smokers' hair and clothing and linger in a room long after they've left -- is a cancer risk to young children and pets.

17. Walking against the wind, in the water, or while wearing a backpack burns about 50 more calories per hour than walking with no resistance. People who wear pedometers also tend to burn more calories and lose more weight.

18. Trained sexologists can infer a woman's orgasm history by observing the way she walks. In other news, men find women who wear red sexier than those who wear "cool" colors such as blue and green.

19. Foreign accent syndrome and exploding head syndrome are real (but very rare) medical conditions. A person with exploding head syndrome experiences a loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside their head. 

20. Vitamins don't seem to help older women guard against cancer or heart disease.

21. Some men experience pain, headaches, or sneezing as a result of ejaculation. The increased activity in the nervous system during orgasm may be the culprit.

22. Germ-killing wipes can spread bacteria from one spot to another if you reuse them.

23. Oatmeal, citrus fruits, and honey can boost your sex drive and improve fertility. Oats produce a chemical that releases testosterone into the blood supply, vitamin C improves sperm count and motility, and vitamin B from honey helps your body use estrogen, a key factor in blood flow and arousal. 

24. Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they have skipped filling a prescription due to the cost, and 23 percent use pill splitting as a way to save money.

25. Facebook may be good for your health; studies show that staying in touch with family and friends can ward off memory loss and help you live longer.

New research findings show that omega three fats in your diet protects your brain cells. It works by preventing the misfolding of a protein resulting from a gene mutation in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Huntington's.

Researchers developed a cell model with a mutation of the Ataxin-1 gene, which induces the misfolding of the protein. These deformed proteins cannot be properly processed by the cell machinery, resulting in tangled clumps of toxic protein that eventually kill the cell. But the omega three fat docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) protects cells from this defect.

The same researchers discovered earlier that neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), a naturally-occurring molecule in the human brain that is derived from DHA, also promotes brain cell survival. NPD1 is capable of rescuing the dying cells with the pathological type of Ataxin-1, keeping their integrity intact.

The biotechnology industry likes to claim that genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. But according to Failure to Yield, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, traditional genetic crosses actually outperform genetically modified crops by a wide margin. 

Failure to Yield is the first report to closely evaluate the overall effect of genetic engineering on crop yields. It reviewed two dozen academic studies of corn and soybeans, and concluded that genetically engineering herbicide-tolerant soybeans and herbicide-tolerant corn has not increased yields.

The biotechnology industry has been promising better yields since the mid-1990’s, but Failure to Yield documents that the industry has been carrying out gene field trials to increase yields for 20 years without significant results.

About 8.5 percent of children and teens who play video games are addicted to them, according to a new study. The study is based on a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. youths.

Douglas Gentile, the author of the study, actually began his research not believing that video games could be addictive. He's changed his mind. "What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing -- in this case, playing video games -- is damaging to their functioning," Gentile said. "It's not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways."

The pathological gamers in the study played video games 24 hours per week, and they were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms. They reported having more trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades, had more health problems, were more likely to feel "addicted," and even stole to support their habit.

U.S. manufacturers have released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways. Many of the waterways are sources of drinking water, but the contamination has been consistently ignored by the federal government.

Pharmaceutical ingredients are by many manufacturers. In addition to runoff from pharmaceutical companies themselves, lithium, nitroglycerin and copper are all used in both medicines and industrial processes.

Federal officials say they don't know the extent of the problem because no one keeps tracks of it. However, the EPA monitors some pharmaceutical chemicals as industrial chemicals, and the FDA tracks some active drug ingredients.

Even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species, and human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of drugs. Some scientists are concerned that the consumption of trace amounts of many drugs could harm people over the course of decades.

The illegal use of injected silicone as an alternative to cosmetic surgery is on the rise.

An underground beauty industry uses injections of black-market, medical-grade silicone or industrial-grade silicone as a cheap, fast and easily accessible way to plump up breasts, buttocks and thighs. But silicone can migrate through the bloodstream, creating potentially fatal clots in the lungs, and it can also migrate through tissues, leading to ugly lumps and chronic pain

New York City’s poison control center has received three calls in the last 10 months from doctors who have treated patients injected with silicone. In the previous two years, there were only two such cases total.

There may be other cases that have gone unreported. Doctors are not legally obligated to report silicone poisoning or even death, and silicone is hard to detect through X-rays or CT scans.

Nationally, reports of buttock enhancement using silicone and similar thick liquids have surfaced throughout the U.S.  Silicone is not approved for injection into tissues at all.