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We at STAF, Inc. want to know how this advice website has improved your & your family's life
Let us know in your donation letter
or email: [email protected]
___________________________
To delay may mean to forget
- Your help will ease human suffering and save lives -
Donation instructions: see below & Home Page
__________________________
STAF, Inc. - until every family is doing well©
We at STAF, Inc. want to know how this advice website has improved your & your family's life
Let us know in your donation letter
or email: [email protected]
___________________________
Click the blue image above - it connects directly to Radio Show original recordings (24/7 access).
Before you click please study the instructions below.
For the listening to the previous Show recordings and to get the CEU, College & University credits please study the info below.
Towards the end of this tab (perhaps about 1/2 way down), starting in December 2012, STAF, Inc. has placed the show topic texts for easy listening. Any show will have some additional, spoken parts - it will still be easy to follow the text placed in this tab. The text is also helpful for our listeners whose first language is not English.
The show recordings on the internet and the show texts at the end of this blog are both dated to match.
The titles for the show info close to the end of this tab are Radio Shows Listed and Radio Shows - Original Texts
________________________________
Save The American Family - STAF, Inc.
- not-for-profit -
- the leading new organization in all family & life success topics -
* Nationwide - Worldwide *
__________________
World's # 1 free advice website Successo-Pedia©
for all family matters, success, health, wealth
& for the good life
____________________
with
Free Question & Answer service
__________________________________________________________
To inspect STAF, Inc.'s first 4 pages in its original founding acceptance documents provided by the State of New York
click green mission - STAF, Inc.'s purpose and its mission statements are in those 4 pages.
"STAF, Inc. is your STAFF for your NEW life"
* health * family happiness * financial freedom
________________________________________________
The DrDrCanYouHelpMe Radio Show is an educational show of high scientific level providing the most recent science details.
The show recordings, the present ones & from several past years, are in the internet available 24/7. You, as the listener, can earn free CEU, College & University credits. The show covers all areas of information for a healthy, happy, successful life. All details below.
The show title is DrDrCanYouHelpMe - there may be some other show topics appearing first.
It is not a medical show - the topic of the show is "LIFE" - everything necessary for health, wealth, happiness & full life success, marriage, family matters, all children related including the dangers from the separation or divorce to the couple & to the children, and all topics you see handled in this website.
The past DrDrCanYouHelpMe show recordings are in 'On-Demand Episodes' (from the past 8 years) starting just below the info for 'Upcoming Broadcasts'.
For the past show recordings to start go to 'On-Demand Episodes' and click the blue show topic (sometimes helpful to click on the blue 'more') - it connects and opens that particular show recording for your listening. You may adjust the voice volume as well as go back or forward in the recording.
The show topic list for all past shows will be available in this website in the near future.
You may also call 401-427-2227 to find the show date for a specific topic.
A VALUABLE BENEFIT FROM STAF, Inc. - Get free CEU, College & University credits by listening to the show recordings.
In the internet generation era most people have 2 – 5 different careers during their lifetime – most likely you also – the laws will change, our social security will be less and shorter, our retirement age will get higher, education for your probably new profession is a must; you might go back to College after 5, 10, 15, or perhaps after 50 years.
Some professions demand yearly certain amount of new educational credits.
Because it is a high level educational & science show the credit is provided.
_________________________________________________
Before you click please study the instructions below.
For the listening to the previous Show recordings and to get the CEU, College & University credits please study the info below.
Towards the end of this tab (perhaps about 1/2 way down), starting in December 2012, STAF, Inc. has placed the show topic texts for easy listening. Any show will have some additional, spoken parts - it will still be easy to follow the text placed in this tab. The text is also helpful for our listeners whose first language is not English.
The show recordings on the internet and the show texts at the end of this blog are both dated to match.
The titles for the show info close to the end of this tab are Radio Shows Listed and Radio Shows - Original Texts
________________________________
Save The American Family - STAF, Inc.
- not-for-profit -
- the leading new organization in all family & life success topics -
* Nationwide - Worldwide *
__________________
World's # 1 free advice website Successo-Pedia©
for all family matters, success, health, wealth
& for the good life
____________________
with
Free Question & Answer service
__________________________________________________________
To inspect STAF, Inc.'s first 4 pages in its original founding acceptance documents provided by the State of New York
click green mission - STAF, Inc.'s purpose and its mission statements are in those 4 pages.
"STAF, Inc. is your STAFF for your NEW life"
* health * family happiness * financial freedom
________________________________________________
The DrDrCanYouHelpMe Radio Show is an educational show of high scientific level providing the most recent science details.
The show recordings, the present ones & from several past years, are in the internet available 24/7. You, as the listener, can earn free CEU, College & University credits. The show covers all areas of information for a healthy, happy, successful life. All details below.
The show title is DrDrCanYouHelpMe - there may be some other show topics appearing first.
It is not a medical show - the topic of the show is "LIFE" - everything necessary for health, wealth, happiness & full life success, marriage, family matters, all children related including the dangers from the separation or divorce to the couple & to the children, and all topics you see handled in this website.
The past DrDrCanYouHelpMe show recordings are in 'On-Demand Episodes' (from the past 8 years) starting just below the info for 'Upcoming Broadcasts'.
For the past show recordings to start go to 'On-Demand Episodes' and click the blue show topic (sometimes helpful to click on the blue 'more') - it connects and opens that particular show recording for your listening. You may adjust the voice volume as well as go back or forward in the recording.
The show topic list for all past shows will be available in this website in the near future.
You may also call 401-427-2227 to find the show date for a specific topic.
A VALUABLE BENEFIT FROM STAF, Inc. - Get free CEU, College & University credits by listening to the show recordings.
In the internet generation era most people have 2 – 5 different careers during their lifetime – most likely you also – the laws will change, our social security will be less and shorter, our retirement age will get higher, education for your probably new profession is a must; you might go back to College after 5, 10, 15, or perhaps after 50 years.
Some professions demand yearly certain amount of new educational credits.
Because it is a high level educational & science show the credit is provided.
_________________________________________________
This is one of the must-see websites -
you'll love it and I bet: you'll cry, too
'Humans of New York': The woman who reduced photographer to tears
"I'll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying. I said, 'Mo, how am I going to live without you?' And he said, take the love that you have for me and spread it around.'" It was a moment that moved the photographer Brandon Stanton to tears. The 29-year-old self-taught photographer is behind the hugely popular "Humans of New York" blog and now book. Brandon's willingness to approach strangers has led to some pretty amazing moments of openness, "whether it's someone telling me about their battle with cancer, or somebody even telling me how they were molested as a child," he says of many "startlingly honest revelations." Click all five:
(1) Brandon - Humans of New York - (2) Humans of New York - (3) Images for Brandon Stanton
(4) Humans of New York - Wikipedia
(5) Humans of New York - click: www.humansofnewyork.com
* Good advice for all of us *
__________________________________________
you'll love it and I bet: you'll cry, too
'Humans of New York': The woman who reduced photographer to tears
"I'll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying. I said, 'Mo, how am I going to live without you?' And he said, take the love that you have for me and spread it around.'" It was a moment that moved the photographer Brandon Stanton to tears. The 29-year-old self-taught photographer is behind the hugely popular "Humans of New York" blog and now book. Brandon's willingness to approach strangers has led to some pretty amazing moments of openness, "whether it's someone telling me about their battle with cancer, or somebody even telling me how they were molested as a child," he says of many "startlingly honest revelations." Click all five:
(1) Brandon - Humans of New York - (2) Humans of New York - (3) Images for Brandon Stanton
(4) Humans of New York - Wikipedia
(5) Humans of New York - click: www.humansofnewyork.com
* Good advice for all of us *
__________________________________________
Comments from the public:
The Radio Show DrDrCanYouHelpMe listener:
To Dr. Christian:
The radio show is truly good for all people and I have asked that it grows beyond measure to reach all people in all walks of life if they have the ears to hear the wisdom you speak and truly want to heal. What u give has no dollar amount!!!
Big Hug,
-Joel (original in file)
Mr. Joel is willing to give additional details relating to his comment.
To make arrangements to connect with him, please call STAF, Inc. (401) 427-2227 ___________________________________________________________________
Show link: www.blogtalkradio.com/lazzeolive
Show: DrDrCanYouHelpMe Host: Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc. President, CEO
Recordings from the past several years available on the internet 24/7
College/University & CEU Credits available by listening to this Radio Show recordings.
Each show 30 min. Valuable information for you and your family.
You need to register as "the Achiever of free credit units" - the credits never expire, the credits are free and valid worldwide - See information below how to register under the topic title:
Added Benefits
Earn free College/University & CEU credits by listening to this show
_____________________
STAF-Inc. helps busy people like you live happier, healthier, wealthier lives.
This popular Radio Show gives you the latest important information in any relevant topic in life, including, of course, in health.
The topic of DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show is:
L-I-F-E with all its aspects
Show link: www.blogtalkradio.com/lazzeolive
Host: Dr. Christian
___________________________________________________
Comments from the public:
The Radio Show DrDrCanYouHelpMe listener:
To Dr. Christian:
I enjoyed your radio show!!! Great!!!!
I like your path - amazing person you are!
J.F. (original in file)
____________________________________________________________________
The Radio Show DrDrCanYouHelpMe listener:
To Dr. Christian:
The radio show is truly good for all people and I have asked that it grows beyond measure to reach all people in all walks of life if they have the ears to hear the wisdom you speak and truly want to heal. What u give has no dollar amount!!!
Big Hug,
-Joel (original in file)
Mr. Joel is willing to give additional details relating to his comment.
To make arrangements to connect with him, please call STAF, Inc. (401) 427-2227 ___________________________________________________________________
Show link: www.blogtalkradio.com/lazzeolive
Show: DrDrCanYouHelpMe Host: Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc. President, CEO
Recordings from the past several years available on the internet 24/7
College/University & CEU Credits available by listening to this Radio Show recordings.
Each show 30 min. Valuable information for you and your family.
You need to register as "the Achiever of free credit units" - the credits never expire, the credits are free and valid worldwide - See information below how to register under the topic title:
Added Benefits
Earn free College/University & CEU credits by listening to this show
_____________________
STAF-Inc. helps busy people like you live happier, healthier, wealthier lives.
This popular Radio Show gives you the latest important information in any relevant topic in life, including, of course, in health.
The topic of DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show is:
L-I-F-E with all its aspects
Show link: www.blogtalkradio.com/lazzeolive
Host: Dr. Christian
___________________________________________________
Comments from the public:
The Radio Show DrDrCanYouHelpMe listener:
To Dr. Christian:
I enjoyed your radio show!!! Great!!!!
I like your path - amazing person you are!
J.F. (original in file)
____________________________________________________________________
At the end of every Radio Show there is a valuable offer fit for anyone
__________________________________
Next below “History of Medicine” is put in a humorous manner.
There might be much truth in that anyway.
A Humorous Short History of Medicine
"Doctor, I have an ear ache”
2000 B.C. - "Here, eat this root."
1000 B.C. - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 A.D. - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 A.D. - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 A.D. - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."
2004 A.D. - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"
B.C. = before Christ (birth) A.D. after Christ (birth)
A.D. - The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated as In the year of (the/Our) Lord. It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").
_____________________________________
Next below “History of Medicine” is put in a humorous manner.
There might be much truth in that anyway.
A Humorous Short History of Medicine
"Doctor, I have an ear ache”
2000 B.C. - "Here, eat this root."
1000 B.C. - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 A.D. - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 A.D. - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 A.D. - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."
2004 A.D. - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root!"
B.C. = before Christ (birth) A.D. after Christ (birth)
A.D. - The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated as In the year of (the/Our) Lord. It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ").
_____________________________________
Added Benefits
Earn free College/Univesity and CE credits by listening to this show – YOU NEED TO REGISTER AS
an “ACHIEVER OF FREE CREDIT UNITS” – they never expire – register today
In the internet generation era most people have 2 – 5 different careers during their lifetime– most likely you also – the laws will change, our social security will be less and shorter, our retirement age will get higher, education for your probably new profession is a must; you might go back to College after 5, 10, 15, or perhaps after 50 years. A GREAT benefit from STAF, Inc., as our Radio Show website info indicates, YOU WILL GET, AS THE SHOW LISTENER, FREE CE, COLLEGE-UNIVERSITY CREDITS that never expire. To get the credits and save and keep them for any possible future use any time, you must register with STAF. Inc. When you register as the achiever of the free CE/College/University credits, you will (1) get a personal ID and (2) the related info how to get and keep forever these valuable credits. A wise decision is to register today – you most likely need the free credits sooner or later. The credits never expire. Email or call 212-946-1234 to request info how to register. Email: [email protected] Register today – you need this option for your future. The free credits never expire, they are valid nationwide and worldwide in any country.
______________________________
Earn free College/Univesity and CE credits by listening to this show – YOU NEED TO REGISTER AS
an “ACHIEVER OF FREE CREDIT UNITS” – they never expire – register today
In the internet generation era most people have 2 – 5 different careers during their lifetime– most likely you also – the laws will change, our social security will be less and shorter, our retirement age will get higher, education for your probably new profession is a must; you might go back to College after 5, 10, 15, or perhaps after 50 years. A GREAT benefit from STAF, Inc., as our Radio Show website info indicates, YOU WILL GET, AS THE SHOW LISTENER, FREE CE, COLLEGE-UNIVERSITY CREDITS that never expire. To get the credits and save and keep them for any possible future use any time, you must register with STAF. Inc. When you register as the achiever of the free CE/College/University credits, you will (1) get a personal ID and (2) the related info how to get and keep forever these valuable credits. A wise decision is to register today – you most likely need the free credits sooner or later. The credits never expire. Email or call 212-946-1234 to request info how to register. Email: [email protected] Register today – you need this option for your future. The free credits never expire, they are valid nationwide and worldwide in any country.
______________________________
Next below
- an inspirational article -
Would you do the same ?- With your whole family ?
It would strengthen your marriage & your family union and widen your view of life
At least: drive across the U.S. from coast to coast,
live in the tent or in your RV - drive back using a different route
Do the same in any other country you may live
By experience I say: it will be your best vacation
(Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc., President)
Walking the Country as a Spiritual Quest
KEN ILGUNAS, who is 29 years old, arrived at the Gulf Coast town of Port Arthur, Tex., last month after hiking 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, crossing through the American heartland. On his arrival, he met a big-hearted Texan who knew of him from reading his blog and generously offered him dinner at his home and a place to stay for the night. “To walk across this country is to fall in love with mankind,” Mr. Ilgunas said.
He’s one of a growing number of pilgrims who are lacing up boots and sneakers to walk across America. While their treks may not have the religious underpinnings of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, Jerusalem or the current Kumbh Mela gathering in India, which ends on March 10, they are nevertheless acts of faith and quests for existential meaning.
Mr. Ilgunas had just finished his master’s in liberal studies at Duke, and was living at a classmate’s farm in Stokes County, N.C., working in exchange for lodging, when he decided to hit the road. He had read the 1979 memoir by Peter Jenkins, “A Walk Across America,” and hoped for a similarly transformative journey. So he stocked up on granola and dehydrated meals at Whole Foods and Sam’s Club and had a friend mail them in parcels to various post offices along his route. But it was the kindness of strangers he encountered along the way that really sustained him. “In most every town, some complete stranger would offer me a ride, a meal, a handful of money or their home for me to sleep in,” Mr. Ilgunas said. “This trip had made me proud to be an American.”
Jonathon Stalls, 30, of Denver, walked 3,030 miles, along the America Discovery Trail from Lewes, Del., to San Francisco, with his dog in 2010. He decided to take off because he was burned out from the demands of attending design school, working as a waiter and playing semiprofessional volleyball. “I wanted to slow down and live life at a pace we were built to travel,” he said. “I wanted to trust and depend on the land and on myself.” During the 242 days he spent on the road, he stayed with 120 strangers whom he met when they idled their cars beside him or struck up conversations with him at libraries, convenience stores or parks. “I am forever marked by the openness of people, sharing meals with them and exchanging stories,” he said.
Since 2010 there has been a proliferation of blogs describing cross-country walks, often in excruciating detail. Judging from the numerous posts about bleeding blisters, muscle strains, stinging insects, inclement weather, bear scares, lack of food and leaky tents, many were woefully unprepared for the task.
“The arduousness is what makes it an act of devotion,” said Rebecca Solnit, author of “Wanderlust: A History of Walking.” “Part of the desire to do it is to accept that the world is unpredictable and you will trust what the world sends your way and you will cope with it.”
RATHER than walking to demonstrate religious commitment, many dedicate their cross-country walks to a cause recalling Peace Pilgrim (a k a Mildred Norman Ryder), who walked more than 25,000 miles across America from 1953 to 1981 for world peace. Mr. Stalls, for example, walked to benefit the microlending organization Kiva, while Mr. Ilgunas walked the length of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to draw attention to its impact on the environment.
“It’s a selfish thing to take a pilgrimage just for yourself,” said John Seyal, 26, of Louisville, Ky., who with his wife, Kait, 27, spent nine months last year walking coast-to-coast with their two dogs to raise awareness of pet therapy. “I don’t think that kind of selfishness or soul-searching is a bad thing, but we recognized a way we could do something good with it.”
The Seyals said they embarked on their journey because they didn’t like the way their lives were going. Working at uninspiring factory and restaurant jobs, they felt they were conforming to society’s values rather than following their hearts, and were losing faith in people.
“Almost everyone who does this has some sort of generalized unhappiness with themselves and the world,” said Tyler Coulson, 34, who in 2011 quit his job practicing corporate law at a large firm in Chicago to walk across the country with his dog. “No one who is happy and content wakes up one day and says, maybe I’ll go live in a tent for eight months,” which was how long it took him to walk 3,200 miles, from Rehoboth Beach, Del., to San Diego. Since returning, he’s been dividing his time between writing self-published books, lawyering and advising others on how to prepare for cross-country walks. “I’m a better and happier person,” Mr. Coulson said.
Walks across America tend to end with a baptismal dip in the ocean. “You have no idea the feeling I had putting my feet in the Atlantic waters,” said Richard Noble, who quit his job as a film festival cashier last year to walk 2,700 miles from San Francisco to Jacksonville Beach, Fla., for gay rights. His trip was fully financed by strangers who gave him money, food and shelter en route, as well as donated online through his blog. “You can’t experience that kind of generosity and be the same person you were before,” he said.
Anthropologists have long argued that pilgrims occupy a so-called liminal realm outside of, yet proximal to, society. “In this space you can achieve a direct human interaction that doesn’t take into account hierarchies, so people become intimate very quickly,” said Ellen Badone, author of “Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism” and professor of anthropology and religious studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “Stepping into this extraordinary sphere leads to extraordinary interactions where you very quickly become close and find that people are willing to go out of their way to be helpful.”
Arthur Werner, 58, who left a financial services sales job in Bellevue, Wash., last June to walk across the country after a series of emotional blows, figures he’s talked to hundreds of people along his route. “We are so insulated and sterilized by all our electronic forms of communication and our inane posts on Facebook that we just don’t sit down and have heart-to-hearts with people,” he said. “It’s been very touching and self-actualizing for me.” He plans to complete his walk in April at the southernmost tip of the continental United States, Key West, Fla. But he said the final destination was beside the point: “It really is all about the journey.”
Source: NYT
_____________________________________________________________________________________
======================================================================================================================================================================================
Which Cities Americans Are Moving to – and Escaping From
Conservative Americans are moving to well-churched places, when the liberals are moving somewhere else
Click green for further info
For much of the nation’s history, Americans moved around mostly to find decent work. But these days, people may be more inclined to move in search of low taxes, cheap housing and like-minded citizens they’re comfortable being around. Such shifts in internal migration patterns could transform the U.S. economy and the political establishment in sweeping and unforeseen ways.
That’s the contention in Shaping Our Nation, the latest book from political historian Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute and the Washington Examiner, who also-co-authors the biennial Almanac of American Politics. In Shaping Our Nation, Barone explains a new way Americans define an enduring urge: “to pursue dreams and escape nightmares.” Today's nightmare cities, Barone says, are mostly familiar ones: Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and other former factory towns that no longer have enough jobs to support a shrinking population. The new dream cities tend to be ones in which low taxes and low housing costs are fostering population growth and prosperity: Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Nashville, Atlanta and several “mini Atlantas” including Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and Jacksonville.
Barone detects another pivotral trend, as he explains in the video above: the movement of Americans to “culturally congenial” places where they feel they fit in. This has a lot to do with a kind of self-segregation that's occuring along a blue-red political fault line. Older, conservative Americans, for instance, are migrating to “well-churched” cities in Texas, where the population has grown 53% since 1990—twice the national rate. “Texas has been a huge growth magnet over the last 20 years,” Barone says, “and not because it has pleasant weather.”
Liberals, meanwhile, seem to be increasingly inclined to head for their own cultural redoubts. "You'll see liberal professionals go to the San Francisco Bay Area," Barone points out. "They wouldn't leave for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex if you tripled their salary."
Barone's survey of U.S. migration patterns in Shaping Our Nation goes all the way back to colonial days. Connecting the dots across generations provides a richer view of trends today than pundits scanning the latest poll ratings or batch of economic figures are likely to get.
From 1970 to 2010, for instance, there was a “mass internal migration” of Americans from northern industrial cities to newer, more welcoming Sun Belt locales. This north-to-south migration is typically attributed to shifting job trends (and better weather), but Barone points out that two of the states to gain the most population during that time—Texas and Florida—also lured people because there is no state income tax.
California, meanwhile, enjoyed a huge influx of people from 1930 until 1990, but has since begun to lose people and businesses fleeing high taxes, regulatory overkill and everyday hassles such as congestion. Many of those people have moved to lower-tax mountain states such as Utah, Colorado and Idaho, while most of the newcomers to California during the last two decades have been Latino immigrants.
Cities and states that gain population always enjoy greater political power, of course, as their representation in Washington increases. And economic momentum can be self-perpetuating, since more companies are likely to relocate to a particular region once other businesses have gotten the ball rolling. So there may continue to be a national power shift that favors the south and the mountain states, at the expense of the trendy right and left coasts and unionized cities of the upper Midwest.
Some of the high-tax, high-cost cities can fight back, of course, by lowering taxes and doing more to create a business-friendly environment that lures employers. They may even develop an advantage as their economies stagnate and wage rates fall, lowering labor costs for companies that might resettle there. Still, many nightmare cities remain saddled with pension costs for former employees and other liabilities that aren’t easy to escape. No wonder people move.
Click green for further info
Source: Shaping Our Nation by Michael Barone
_________________________________________________
- an inspirational article -
Would you do the same ?- With your whole family ?
It would strengthen your marriage & your family union and widen your view of life
At least: drive across the U.S. from coast to coast,
live in the tent or in your RV - drive back using a different route
Do the same in any other country you may live
By experience I say: it will be your best vacation
(Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc., President)
Walking the Country as a Spiritual Quest
KEN ILGUNAS, who is 29 years old, arrived at the Gulf Coast town of Port Arthur, Tex., last month after hiking 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, crossing through the American heartland. On his arrival, he met a big-hearted Texan who knew of him from reading his blog and generously offered him dinner at his home and a place to stay for the night. “To walk across this country is to fall in love with mankind,” Mr. Ilgunas said.
He’s one of a growing number of pilgrims who are lacing up boots and sneakers to walk across America. While their treks may not have the religious underpinnings of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, Jerusalem or the current Kumbh Mela gathering in India, which ends on March 10, they are nevertheless acts of faith and quests for existential meaning.
Mr. Ilgunas had just finished his master’s in liberal studies at Duke, and was living at a classmate’s farm in Stokes County, N.C., working in exchange for lodging, when he decided to hit the road. He had read the 1979 memoir by Peter Jenkins, “A Walk Across America,” and hoped for a similarly transformative journey. So he stocked up on granola and dehydrated meals at Whole Foods and Sam’s Club and had a friend mail them in parcels to various post offices along his route. But it was the kindness of strangers he encountered along the way that really sustained him. “In most every town, some complete stranger would offer me a ride, a meal, a handful of money or their home for me to sleep in,” Mr. Ilgunas said. “This trip had made me proud to be an American.”
Jonathon Stalls, 30, of Denver, walked 3,030 miles, along the America Discovery Trail from Lewes, Del., to San Francisco, with his dog in 2010. He decided to take off because he was burned out from the demands of attending design school, working as a waiter and playing semiprofessional volleyball. “I wanted to slow down and live life at a pace we were built to travel,” he said. “I wanted to trust and depend on the land and on myself.” During the 242 days he spent on the road, he stayed with 120 strangers whom he met when they idled their cars beside him or struck up conversations with him at libraries, convenience stores or parks. “I am forever marked by the openness of people, sharing meals with them and exchanging stories,” he said.
Since 2010 there has been a proliferation of blogs describing cross-country walks, often in excruciating detail. Judging from the numerous posts about bleeding blisters, muscle strains, stinging insects, inclement weather, bear scares, lack of food and leaky tents, many were woefully unprepared for the task.
“The arduousness is what makes it an act of devotion,” said Rebecca Solnit, author of “Wanderlust: A History of Walking.” “Part of the desire to do it is to accept that the world is unpredictable and you will trust what the world sends your way and you will cope with it.”
RATHER than walking to demonstrate religious commitment, many dedicate their cross-country walks to a cause recalling Peace Pilgrim (a k a Mildred Norman Ryder), who walked more than 25,000 miles across America from 1953 to 1981 for world peace. Mr. Stalls, for example, walked to benefit the microlending organization Kiva, while Mr. Ilgunas walked the length of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to draw attention to its impact on the environment.
“It’s a selfish thing to take a pilgrimage just for yourself,” said John Seyal, 26, of Louisville, Ky., who with his wife, Kait, 27, spent nine months last year walking coast-to-coast with their two dogs to raise awareness of pet therapy. “I don’t think that kind of selfishness or soul-searching is a bad thing, but we recognized a way we could do something good with it.”
The Seyals said they embarked on their journey because they didn’t like the way their lives were going. Working at uninspiring factory and restaurant jobs, they felt they were conforming to society’s values rather than following their hearts, and were losing faith in people.
“Almost everyone who does this has some sort of generalized unhappiness with themselves and the world,” said Tyler Coulson, 34, who in 2011 quit his job practicing corporate law at a large firm in Chicago to walk across the country with his dog. “No one who is happy and content wakes up one day and says, maybe I’ll go live in a tent for eight months,” which was how long it took him to walk 3,200 miles, from Rehoboth Beach, Del., to San Diego. Since returning, he’s been dividing his time between writing self-published books, lawyering and advising others on how to prepare for cross-country walks. “I’m a better and happier person,” Mr. Coulson said.
Walks across America tend to end with a baptismal dip in the ocean. “You have no idea the feeling I had putting my feet in the Atlantic waters,” said Richard Noble, who quit his job as a film festival cashier last year to walk 2,700 miles from San Francisco to Jacksonville Beach, Fla., for gay rights. His trip was fully financed by strangers who gave him money, food and shelter en route, as well as donated online through his blog. “You can’t experience that kind of generosity and be the same person you were before,” he said.
Anthropologists have long argued that pilgrims occupy a so-called liminal realm outside of, yet proximal to, society. “In this space you can achieve a direct human interaction that doesn’t take into account hierarchies, so people become intimate very quickly,” said Ellen Badone, author of “Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism” and professor of anthropology and religious studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “Stepping into this extraordinary sphere leads to extraordinary interactions where you very quickly become close and find that people are willing to go out of their way to be helpful.”
Arthur Werner, 58, who left a financial services sales job in Bellevue, Wash., last June to walk across the country after a series of emotional blows, figures he’s talked to hundreds of people along his route. “We are so insulated and sterilized by all our electronic forms of communication and our inane posts on Facebook that we just don’t sit down and have heart-to-hearts with people,” he said. “It’s been very touching and self-actualizing for me.” He plans to complete his walk in April at the southernmost tip of the continental United States, Key West, Fla. But he said the final destination was beside the point: “It really is all about the journey.”
Source: NYT
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Which Cities Americans Are Moving to – and Escaping From
Conservative Americans are moving to well-churched places, when the liberals are moving somewhere else
Click green for further info
For much of the nation’s history, Americans moved around mostly to find decent work. But these days, people may be more inclined to move in search of low taxes, cheap housing and like-minded citizens they’re comfortable being around. Such shifts in internal migration patterns could transform the U.S. economy and the political establishment in sweeping and unforeseen ways.
That’s the contention in Shaping Our Nation, the latest book from political historian Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute and the Washington Examiner, who also-co-authors the biennial Almanac of American Politics. In Shaping Our Nation, Barone explains a new way Americans define an enduring urge: “to pursue dreams and escape nightmares.” Today's nightmare cities, Barone says, are mostly familiar ones: Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and other former factory towns that no longer have enough jobs to support a shrinking population. The new dream cities tend to be ones in which low taxes and low housing costs are fostering population growth and prosperity: Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Nashville, Atlanta and several “mini Atlantas” including Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham and Jacksonville.
Barone detects another pivotral trend, as he explains in the video above: the movement of Americans to “culturally congenial” places where they feel they fit in. This has a lot to do with a kind of self-segregation that's occuring along a blue-red political fault line. Older, conservative Americans, for instance, are migrating to “well-churched” cities in Texas, where the population has grown 53% since 1990—twice the national rate. “Texas has been a huge growth magnet over the last 20 years,” Barone says, “and not because it has pleasant weather.”
Liberals, meanwhile, seem to be increasingly inclined to head for their own cultural redoubts. "You'll see liberal professionals go to the San Francisco Bay Area," Barone points out. "They wouldn't leave for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex if you tripled their salary."
Barone's survey of U.S. migration patterns in Shaping Our Nation goes all the way back to colonial days. Connecting the dots across generations provides a richer view of trends today than pundits scanning the latest poll ratings or batch of economic figures are likely to get.
From 1970 to 2010, for instance, there was a “mass internal migration” of Americans from northern industrial cities to newer, more welcoming Sun Belt locales. This north-to-south migration is typically attributed to shifting job trends (and better weather), but Barone points out that two of the states to gain the most population during that time—Texas and Florida—also lured people because there is no state income tax.
California, meanwhile, enjoyed a huge influx of people from 1930 until 1990, but has since begun to lose people and businesses fleeing high taxes, regulatory overkill and everyday hassles such as congestion. Many of those people have moved to lower-tax mountain states such as Utah, Colorado and Idaho, while most of the newcomers to California during the last two decades have been Latino immigrants.
Cities and states that gain population always enjoy greater political power, of course, as their representation in Washington increases. And economic momentum can be self-perpetuating, since more companies are likely to relocate to a particular region once other businesses have gotten the ball rolling. So there may continue to be a national power shift that favors the south and the mountain states, at the expense of the trendy right and left coasts and unionized cities of the upper Midwest.
Some of the high-tax, high-cost cities can fight back, of course, by lowering taxes and doing more to create a business-friendly environment that lures employers. They may even develop an advantage as their economies stagnate and wage rates fall, lowering labor costs for companies that might resettle there. Still, many nightmare cities remain saddled with pension costs for former employees and other liabilities that aren’t easy to escape. No wonder people move.
Click green for further info
Source: Shaping Our Nation by Michael Barone
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Study this article and all its links - everyone of us needs to educated in this topic
Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World
With Incredible Photos
The reason STAF, Inc.'s editors decided to place this article and the links to the pictures is to point out: (1) we humans are spirits, not the body with its system, (2) autism is not a sickness, (3) many autistic children and adult are highly intelligent and have University degrees and are also working as scientists, (4) there is no reason to be ashamed if a family has an autistic child, it can happen to anyone, (5) if you have a negative attitude towards autistic children, change it.
Start reading the readers' comments placed after the article below - you'll find interesting facts from "real" people.
It is beneficial for everyone to study the opinions below.
Study all links in addition to the article & the pictures.
Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos
San Francisco-based photographer Timothy Archibald began taking portraits of his autistic son, Eli, when the boy was 5 years old. “At the time, we weren’t doing a project; we were just being parent and son,” he tells Yahoo Shine. The photos were a way to help him understand his child. “Suddenly, when Eli started school, teachers, other parents — everybody — wanted to know more about him; why was he acting that way, why was he different from other students … If I take a picture, maybe I’ll see what everybody is so freaked out about. ” Archibald and his wife had noticed that Eli could fixate on mechanical objects for hours and get swept up into thunderstorm like tantrums, but had never before identified him as being on the autism spectrum.
From the beginning, Eli didn’t settle for being the subject — the project became collaborative and a way for father and son to communicate. “He didn’t want to be photographed; he wanted to share ideas and work with me,” Archibald says. Eventually, Archibald collected the images in a book, called "Echolilia: Sometimes I Wonder," which is available on his blog and refers to his son's habit of repeating phrases that is typical of children with autism. When the book first came out, in 2010, the photos were controversial, he says. “There is an alarming quality to seeing this frail little boy looking even more frail.” Some people accused Archibald of being exploitative. Over time, attitudes have become more sympathetic, and just in the last couple of weeks, the series have resurfaced and gone viral. What we see is a father exploring the mystery of his son and a son whispering clues to his father. --
Because many links disappear and some stay forever, several are placed below. The last hope to see the pictures is to search with the article title "Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos"
Click green - if expired: search with the title
Images for father captures autistic son's inner world ... - Report image
(1)
(By a teacher)
I had the amazing opportunity to work with an autistic child one year in the classroom. He was a treasure chest of amazing information. His favorite topic was the solar system. When we covered that subject in class, he was thrilled.
He hated the touch of paper on his hands so writing was near impossible for him. I was required to evaluate his progress in class so I asked him an open ended question, "Trey, tell me about the solar system." Our tests were multiple choice questions normally, but I just went through the test and checked off what he covered. By the end, he had talked about everything on the test, plus some.
Sure, he would have his episodes where he would panic (fire drills, off schedules, etc.), but interestingly enough, a calculator would calm him down. Some how punching numbers and adding/subtracting them helped to soothe him.
He was an very neat student to have. He moved a few years later... not sure where to. I wonder how he is. He would probably be in his 20s by now.
(2)
I have an autistic son who is now 13, he was diagnosed at age 4, sure he did things his own way, (like eating the hot dog in the middle), certain noises would make him cover his ears and walk away. When he was very young he would just have a meltdown and cry until we took him away from whatever he didn't like. Because he was diagnosed in pre school we were able to get the special schooling he needed. If he did something different, well then he did something different. He was our proud square peg in a world of round holes. Now that he's older you would not even know he's autistic unless I told you. He's funny, extra loving, makes everyone smile, kind of kid. I think this father is focusing too much on the things that make his son different instead of just saying OK that's my kid. I tell everyone If they came up with a cure for autism I would refuse it. My child Is growing up just fine on his own.
(3)
The autistic children do actually grow up and become autistic adults and most of us function quite well and quite normally if a bit differently. I'm an adult that has autism and I don't act like rain man, I'm not a genius with numbers and I don't stare into space imagining beautiful things to do with other people's garbage, I am able to feel love and empathy(most autistic people feel those emotions more deeply than most it's just that we don't express it like neurotypicals.) these photos are beautiful pictures of a child...not beautiful pictures of an autistic child...some of my non-autistic nephews do the very same things...most autistic people don't want neurotypical's pity, sadness, or awe, all most autistic people want is to be accepted even though we may process things differently than most. As I told a neurotypical aunt of mine talking about my "mental illness", i had to speak up and remind her that it's not an illness, just a difference.(4)
At this age, this child, like all children benefit from exploring their environment. Because he is given the opportunity to explore himself & his multiple environmental settings, he is more likely to discover a niche where he excels beyond a small circle of endeavor. This little boy & the support of his family is showing encouraging signs for a fulfilling life. As a retired school psychologist, I know the responsibility will be heavy at times, but hope you will keep up the effort.
Semper Fi
(5)
(By a teacher) I too have been blessed with an autistic son. His uniqueness has given him the ability to solve problems in ways no one else can see them. I work in education and have seen hundreds of children. My son is by far one of the most interesting and challenging children I have ever been in contact with. I shared in all the obvious parenting struggles of an autistic child but I can proudly say he is graduating college in the spring of 2014. It takes him three times that of the average child to achieve, but when he does, its in leaps and bounds. I think autistic children are intrinsic leaders, not trained leaders manufactured of public schools. Good luck to you and your son and to all those parenting a very special child.
click green for further info
Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World
With Incredible Photos
The reason STAF, Inc.'s editors decided to place this article and the links to the pictures is to point out: (1) we humans are spirits, not the body with its system, (2) autism is not a sickness, (3) many autistic children and adult are highly intelligent and have University degrees and are also working as scientists, (4) there is no reason to be ashamed if a family has an autistic child, it can happen to anyone, (5) if you have a negative attitude towards autistic children, change it.
Start reading the readers' comments placed after the article below - you'll find interesting facts from "real" people.
It is beneficial for everyone to study the opinions below.
Study all links in addition to the article & the pictures.
Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos
San Francisco-based photographer Timothy Archibald began taking portraits of his autistic son, Eli, when the boy was 5 years old. “At the time, we weren’t doing a project; we were just being parent and son,” he tells Yahoo Shine. The photos were a way to help him understand his child. “Suddenly, when Eli started school, teachers, other parents — everybody — wanted to know more about him; why was he acting that way, why was he different from other students … If I take a picture, maybe I’ll see what everybody is so freaked out about. ” Archibald and his wife had noticed that Eli could fixate on mechanical objects for hours and get swept up into thunderstorm like tantrums, but had never before identified him as being on the autism spectrum.
From the beginning, Eli didn’t settle for being the subject — the project became collaborative and a way for father and son to communicate. “He didn’t want to be photographed; he wanted to share ideas and work with me,” Archibald says. Eventually, Archibald collected the images in a book, called "Echolilia: Sometimes I Wonder," which is available on his blog and refers to his son's habit of repeating phrases that is typical of children with autism. When the book first came out, in 2010, the photos were controversial, he says. “There is an alarming quality to seeing this frail little boy looking even more frail.” Some people accused Archibald of being exploitative. Over time, attitudes have become more sympathetic, and just in the last couple of weeks, the series have resurfaced and gone viral. What we see is a father exploring the mystery of his son and a son whispering clues to his father. --
Because many links disappear and some stay forever, several are placed below. The last hope to see the pictures is to search with the article title "Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos"
Click green - if expired: search with the title
Images for father captures autistic son's inner world ... - Report image
- Father Timothy Archibald photographs 5-year-old autistic son ...www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Father-Timothy-Archibald-photograph...Daily Mail
'Nature isn't perfect': Father photographs his five-year-old autistic son's... Curious to get inside the mind of his autistic child, a father started capturing his unique quirks ... Couple welcome new son into the world weighing 8lbs 9oz at 10am..... and turban at charity gala Channelled her inner Marlene Dietrich ... - Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos ...griefrevelations.com/.../father-captures-autistic-sons-inner-world-with-incre...
19 hours ago - archibald3 | Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos - Yahoo Shine. - Google+https://plus.google.com/.../%23Autism/related?...Google+
20 hours ago - View the Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos photo gallery on Yahoo Shine. Find more news related pictures in ... - Hopscotch Adoptionshopscotchadoptions.blogspot.com/
- 5 hours ago - Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos ...http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/father-capture-s-autistic-son-s-inner-world- ...
- 5 hours ago - Father Captures Autistic Son's Inner World With Incredible Photos ...http://shine.yahoo.com/photos/father-capture-s-autistic-son-s-inner-world- ...
(1)
(By a teacher)
I had the amazing opportunity to work with an autistic child one year in the classroom. He was a treasure chest of amazing information. His favorite topic was the solar system. When we covered that subject in class, he was thrilled.
He hated the touch of paper on his hands so writing was near impossible for him. I was required to evaluate his progress in class so I asked him an open ended question, "Trey, tell me about the solar system." Our tests were multiple choice questions normally, but I just went through the test and checked off what he covered. By the end, he had talked about everything on the test, plus some.
Sure, he would have his episodes where he would panic (fire drills, off schedules, etc.), but interestingly enough, a calculator would calm him down. Some how punching numbers and adding/subtracting them helped to soothe him.
He was an very neat student to have. He moved a few years later... not sure where to. I wonder how he is. He would probably be in his 20s by now.
(2)
I have an autistic son who is now 13, he was diagnosed at age 4, sure he did things his own way, (like eating the hot dog in the middle), certain noises would make him cover his ears and walk away. When he was very young he would just have a meltdown and cry until we took him away from whatever he didn't like. Because he was diagnosed in pre school we were able to get the special schooling he needed. If he did something different, well then he did something different. He was our proud square peg in a world of round holes. Now that he's older you would not even know he's autistic unless I told you. He's funny, extra loving, makes everyone smile, kind of kid. I think this father is focusing too much on the things that make his son different instead of just saying OK that's my kid. I tell everyone If they came up with a cure for autism I would refuse it. My child Is growing up just fine on his own.
(3)
The autistic children do actually grow up and become autistic adults and most of us function quite well and quite normally if a bit differently. I'm an adult that has autism and I don't act like rain man, I'm not a genius with numbers and I don't stare into space imagining beautiful things to do with other people's garbage, I am able to feel love and empathy(most autistic people feel those emotions more deeply than most it's just that we don't express it like neurotypicals.) these photos are beautiful pictures of a child...not beautiful pictures of an autistic child...some of my non-autistic nephews do the very same things...most autistic people don't want neurotypical's pity, sadness, or awe, all most autistic people want is to be accepted even though we may process things differently than most. As I told a neurotypical aunt of mine talking about my "mental illness", i had to speak up and remind her that it's not an illness, just a difference.(4)
At this age, this child, like all children benefit from exploring their environment. Because he is given the opportunity to explore himself & his multiple environmental settings, he is more likely to discover a niche where he excels beyond a small circle of endeavor. This little boy & the support of his family is showing encouraging signs for a fulfilling life. As a retired school psychologist, I know the responsibility will be heavy at times, but hope you will keep up the effort.
Semper Fi
(5)
(By a teacher) I too have been blessed with an autistic son. His uniqueness has given him the ability to solve problems in ways no one else can see them. I work in education and have seen hundreds of children. My son is by far one of the most interesting and challenging children I have ever been in contact with. I shared in all the obvious parenting struggles of an autistic child but I can proudly say he is graduating college in the spring of 2014. It takes him three times that of the average child to achieve, but when he does, its in leaps and bounds. I think autistic children are intrinsic leaders, not trained leaders manufactured of public schools. Good luck to you and your son and to all those parenting a very special child.
click green for further info
- Autism Fact Sheet - NINDS - National Institutes of Healthwww.ninds.nih.gov › ... › Autism Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and ...
- Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Center: Symptoms, Causes, Tests ...www.webmd.com/brain/autism/WebMD
Learn about autism, a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) that often interferes with a person's ability to communicate with and relate to others. - Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Center: Symptoms, Causes, Tests ...www.webmd.com/brain/autism/
WebMD
Learn about autism, a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) that often interferes with a person's ability to communicate with and relate to others.- In-depth articles (in case the green link has expired, search the web with the title)
Navigating Love and AutismT he New York Times - by amy harmon - Dec 2011
For Jack Robison and Kirsten Lindsmith, both of whom fall on the autismspectrum, being in a relationship together has created a unique set of comforts and challenges.
The Truth About Autism: Scientists Reconsider What ...Wired - Feb 2008
Science has traditionally viewed autistics as solitary types. Amanda Baggs is part of the increasingly visible community of autistics who use technologies like type-to-speech software, ...
Are You On It? New York - Oct 2012
“Is every man in America somewhere on it?” Nora Ephron wondered about the autism spectrum in an e-mail to a friend a few months before her death. “Is every producer on it? Is every ...
COMPARE: - In-depth articles (in case the green link has expired, search the web with the title)
- Asperger syndroME
- Asperger syndrome is often considered a high functioning form of autism. It can lead to difficulty interacting socially, repeat behaviors, and clumsiness.
Causes - Symptoms - Tests - Treatment -Prognosis
National Library of Medicine - Also search for
- Autism High-functioning autism Autistic Spectrum Disorders
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Pervasive developmental disorder
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Next Below Immigration Related Topics
- after them other topics -
Click green areas for further information
Joke: Town in Oregon, Portland, is commonly called "deportland"
The immigration articles in this blog are not specifically about Portland
All articles in this website are important for all immigrants & for all U.S. citizens. ___________
STAF, Inc.'s Comment
By Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D., N.D., D.D.
The Founding President of STAF, Inc.
(1) The first article is a topic most people are not aware of - a young child 5 or 6 or older alone in the USA facing alone deportation "representing" himself in the U.S. Immigration Court without any legal help.
We must create a law, valid nationwide, ordering (1) a free immigration lawyer and (b) a translator to a young child.
Our organization, Save The American Family - STAF, Inc., -non-profit-, will provide pro bono lawyers and translators for children.
In addition, the young children are arrested and kept in an detention camp like any adult is.
Ask your U.S. lawyer to spread the word around to have pro bono immigration lawyers calling STAF, Inc.
at 401 427-2227 and volunteer to help a young child in the U.S. Immigration Court in the lawyer's own geographical location.
STAF, Inc.'s opinion is - this is a shame - a young child alone "defending" himself in a deportation case in the U.S. Immigration Court. In many cases the child does not understand English.
This is happening, often - it is not rare.
"5"
Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame
_________________________
(2) The second article "Deportation Nation" shows some facts about many wrong attitudes - it is time to fix the wrong and start the right. Immigrants are important to our economy.
"3"
Shame - Shame - Shame
_________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
"3"
Shame - Shame - Shame
_________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
(3) The third article "Faulty Criminal Background Checks" is causing continuously life-ruining difficulties to many immigrants with no criminal record. We need to have the process fixed and updated with correct information to avoid unnecessary suffering.
"5"
Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame
_________________________
Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame - Shame
_________________________
Article 1 of 3 (Articles 2-3 of 3 next below)
A must-to-read: every American, Every Immigrant needs to know
6 years old boy
Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation & No Lawyer Given
Are we barbarians or where is our judgement?
Do our laws have any basic understanding?
Where is hour heart?
Is this humane treatment and is this as the international law demands?
Have we lost our compassion
Definition of compassion = sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others
Have we lost our understanding: Any human being with the special spirit it takes to come here and face death dangers would be the most valuable citizen in our country.
STAF, Inc.'s opinion
When a young child 5 years, 6 years and up, even 15 or 16, 17 or 20 and as a matter of fact no matter what age the person, is willing to take the risk as the people in the first Mayflower in the 1600's did, these kids (and even adults) have the AMERICAN spirit, the SPIRIT of our Founding Fathers - they will work hard, get results, pay taxes and build economy. They have the real spirit. As and example more Latin people in the U.S. own their own homes than people born in the U.S. Recently also our past Presidents have praised these people as a blessing to our country.
Especially the children who have the courage to come alone and take a difficult, dangerous, long trip to live in the U.S. are a real special group - we should give them free education, give them everything but as an exchange of work and service (nothing free - that is wrong; nothing in life is free), give them a legal status, have them being adopted by willing American families or growing up in a special group home. The American College and other higher education should be given full free to these children. Their spirit deserves it and these kids would, no doubt, be model citizen. Sending these correctly spirited human beings back is a bad mistake. When we treat them as written in this brief paragraph,then our country, the country we all love, will benefit greatly from the presence of these strong children.
The above opinion is given
by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D., N.D., D.D., The founding President of STAF, Inc., not-for-profit
The article
6 years old boy Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation & No Lawyer Given
Click green for further info
Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation. The judge called his next case, scanning the courtroom.
The immigrant who was facing deportation rose to his feet, in a clean T-shirt and khaki pants several sizes too large, with his name — JUAN — printed on a tag around his neck.
But the judge could not see him. Juan’s head did not rise above the court’s wooden benches.
Juan David Gonzalez was 6 years old. He was in the court, which would decide whether to expel him from the country, without a parent — and also without a lawyer.
Immigration courts in this South Texas border town and across the country are confronting an unexpected surge of children, some of them barely school age, who traveled here without parents and were caught as they tried to cross illegally into the United States.
The young people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, ride to the border on the roofs of freight trains or the backs of buses. They cross the Rio Grande on inner tubes, or hike for days through extremes of heat and chill in Arizona deserts. The smallest children, like Juan, are most often brought by smugglers.
The youths pose troubling difficulties for American immigration courts. Unlike in criminal or family courts, in immigration court there is no right to a lawyer paid by the government for people who cannot afford one. And immigration law contains few protections specifically for minors. So even a child as young as Juan has to go before an immigration judge — confronting a prosecutor and trying to fight deportation — without the help of a lawyer, if one is not privately provided.
So far this year, more than 11,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in deportation proceedings, nearly double last year’s numbers.
Young migrants say they are fleeing sharply escalating criminal violence in their home countries. Federal agencies have scrambled to muster adequate detention facilities, while legal groups try to find lawyers to represent them. Judges, for their part, have struggled to offer fair hearings to penniless youths who speak little English and often do not even understand why they are in court.
The influx has heightened concerns that young people without legal help may not be able to obtain even the most basic justice.
“It is almost impossible for children to receive relief in immigration court on their own,” said Meredith Linsky, the director of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, known as ProBAR,
a nonprofit organization that defends young migrants in the region. “The reality is they cannot comprehend the system and what is being asked of them.”
Juan David Gonzalez was just another illegal border crosser on Judge Howard E. Achtsam’s docket one recent day. Juan was guided to the front of the courtroom by a social worker so that the judge could see him. Like any adult, Juan was facing charges of entering the United States without authorization, punishable by removal.
Speaking through an interpreter, Judge Achtsam delicately asked the boy his name and age. After the social worker’s nudge, Juan declared them loudly. She informed the court of plans by a federal child welfare agency to send Juan to be reunited with his parents, who were illegal immigrants living in another state.
Judge Achtsam postponed Juan’s proceedings, but he warned the boy and other minors in the courtroom.
“If you do not have a lawyer,” the judge said, “you need to be ready to speak for yourselves at your next hearing.”
Juan left holding the social worker’s hand, grinning proudly when she told him he had done well. But his case was just beginning. Most likely it would end with a final order for his deportation.
A Risk Worth Taking
The rush of young illegal border crossers began last fall but picked up speed this year, according to official figures. From October through July, the authorities detained 21,842 unaccompanied minors, most at the Southwest border, a 48 percent increase over a year earlier.
Some left their parents behind at home. Many came yearning to reunite with parents who have long been living here illegally.
The figures are striking because overall migration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, fell last year to the lowest level in two decades, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington. Yet the numbers of young unaccompanied Mexicans crossing illegally have stayed steady, and minors from Central America — especially El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — have nearly doubled since last year.
Policy changes in this country or Mexico do not appear to have spurred the surge.
President Obama’s announcement in June that he would halt deportations of illegal immigrant students came months after the increases were first seen. From the start, officials made it clear that no recent border crossers would be eligible.
Recent illegal crossers are also excluded from an Obama administration policy applying prosecutorial discretion to spare illegal immigrants from deportation if they have not been convicted of crimes.
Nor has there been any effect from a recent change in Mexican law that would make it easier for young migrants from Central America to cross Mexico on their way to the United States. That law has not yet been put into practice, Mexican officials said.
Some answers came from the click: Women’s Refugee Commission, an advocacy group in New York, which interviewed more than 150 young migrants in Texas in June. Most said they were seeking to escape increasingly violent gangs and drug traffickers at home, who were recruiting children aggressively.
“They are willing to risk the uncertain dangers of the trip north to escape certain dangers they face at home,” said Jessica Jones, a member of the commission’s fact-finding team.
Sometimes parents living illegally in this country will initiate a child’s journey. Tighter border enforcement under the Obama administration has made them reluctant to leave, fearing that they will not be able to return. Instead, they hire smugglers, paying up to $5,000 per child.
“The children at home feel unloved, they feel empty,” said Elizabeth G. Kennedy, a researcher at San Diego State University who studies child migrants. “If parents know their child is feeling empty and is in danger, they will make a decision.”
For the parents of Liliana Muñoz, 6, it was a bloody spree of shootouts and kidnappings by drug traffickers close to her home in Tamaulipas, in northeast Mexico, that prompted them to send for their daughter. Both illegal immigrants, they had been living near Atlanta since 2007.
They had steady jobs, he in landscaping and she in a restaurant, and regularly wired money to an aunt in Mexico who was raising Liliana.
“But we knew what she needed was not the money, not the clothes,” Mrs. Muñoz said in Spanish. “She needed the attention and care of her parents.” (Although their daughter’s name is now in the public record, the parents spoke on the condition that their full names not be published because of their illegal status.)
To avoid the perils of an illegal river crossing, they paid an American friend from Georgia to bring Liliana by car through a border station, with valid documents belonging to another child.
A vigilant inspector detected the document mismatch. Her parents got the phone call from a border agent in Laredo, Tex., at dawn on April 3. Liliana had been detained, he said, and if they did not come immediately, she could be held for many months.
“Don’t do any more psychological damage to her than you have already,” the agent said, in words Mrs. Muñoz recalled with tears of anguish.
Mrs. Muñoz rushed to Texas, but Liliana had already been transferred to a federal detention shelter for minors near Brownsville. It took nearly a month for the parents to secure Liliana’s release.
To their relief, Liliana was content there. She ate well, played and went to school. Her biggest complaint was that she had been placed in an arithmetic class with children who could not do addition or subtraction.
“I already knew how to add,” Liliana said firmly.
But there was no lawyer to accompany her to her first court hearing on June 4. Her parents stayed away, fearful of the immigration officer at the court entrance.
“I had to speak by myself,” Liliana recounted in her small voice.
Even with an interpreter, Liliana had a hard time following the hearing. She gave the judge her name and age. But she did not understand that she had crossed an international boundary, or that she was now in the United States, or what the United States is exactly. She did not know she had done anything wrong.
The judge set a new hearing date and urged Liliana to get a lawyer. But the volunteer lawyers her parents consulted in South Texas have been reluctant to take her case, which is weak since both parents are here illegally.
Yet under the administration’s prosecutorial discretion policy, deportations of very young children can sometimes be suspended, even if they entered recently.
To make the complex argument for discretion, however, Liliana needs a lawyer. Her parents may soon have to decide what to do if she is ordered to leave. Will they give up what they have gained in the United States and return with her — or let her be sent back alone to a violent Mexican state?
Navigating the System
Most unaccompanied migrants are teenagers from Mexico and Central America, seeking safety and work in the United States. In most cases minors from Mexico will be quickly returned there, without any formal court proceeding. Minors from noncontiguous countries are charged with immigration violations and detained. Either way, an overwhelming majority have been required to leave.
But a recent report found that as many as 40 percent of unaccompanied minors who were detained in federal shelters were eligible for some kind of legal immigration status. The report was by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit group that provides services to thousands of youths.
Through the courts, young migrants can gain legal status if they were severely abused or neglected at home or were victims of human traffickers. Sometimes they have relatives living here legally who can sponsor them. In a few cases, children have discovered that they were United States citizens but did not know it.
Even if a judge determines that young migrants must leave, they can ask to depart voluntarily. If they are actually deported, the consequences are severe: in many cases they cannot return legally to the United States for 10 years.
Yet young people have little chance of navigating the system without lawyers. Parents often do not understand that their children, no matter how young, must attend court hearings or the judge can issue a final deportation order — the equivalent of a criminal arrest warrant — in absentia.
Conditions for unaccompanied migrants have improved in recent years. It is not unusual for youths to recall the detention shelters, which are run by the Department of Health and Human Services, as some of the best times in their battered lives.
Immigration courts, despite an already severe overload, have designated special days for juvenile cases, with judges trained to deal with children. The courts offer briefings for family members about a child’s obligations. Many judges will do what Judge Achtsam did for Juan, extending the schedule to leave the child plenty of time to be reunited with his family here, so they can plan his next legal step.
But these advances have been strained by this year’s surge. In the spring, federal officials set up emergency shelters in gyms along the border and at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Although the crisis has passed, officials now say they expect a “new normal” of about 15,000 unaccompanied minors in detention a year, almost double previous levels.
Groups that provide legal services have been overwhelmed. Kids in Need of Defense, known as KIND, is scouring the country for volunteer lawyers. In Harlingen, Ms. Linsky has told the court that ProBAR cannot provide in-depth representation to all the new detained minors on its docket.
ProBAR will at least reach minors to explain their rights. For younger children, staff members offer advance tours to help them to get to know the courtroom. They ask children to draw pictures of how they crossed the Rio Grande — which Mexicans call the Rio Bravo, the Angry River.
One afternoon, Violeta Discua, a legal assistant, gave a marathon three-hour talk to two dozen feisty teenagers, who at first rolled their eyes and slouched in their chairs.
Soon they were riveted.
“Who arrested you?” Ms. Discua asked, spreading her arms and scowling to imitate the eagle that sits atop the badges of agents.
“The Border Patrol!” they responded, delighted at her pantomime.
“What do they want to do with you?” she asked.
“Deport us!” they shouted.
She gave a message many of them later said they had never heard before: “Remember, no one can mistreat you. No one can hit you, not even with their little finger.” She wiggled her pinkie.
The youths fell silent, taking that in.
“Are you bad people?” Ms. Discua asked.
“No!” they exclaimed. She explained the rudiments of their limited legal options, the procedures for their court appearances and what they should expect if they were expelled from the United States, as most would be.
Sometimes, a Victory
When children appear in court without lawyers, it can be distressing for them and for judges. One judge tried to put a boy at ease by asking playfully to share a bit of the child’s lunch. Thinking that he was supposed to have brought food for the judge, the boy burst into tears.
Migrants who have gotten help from lawyers have won immigration cases they could never have attempted alone. Eduín Rodríguez, now 18, was abandoned by both parents in Honduras. He rode the tops of freight trains across Mexico and swam the Rio Grande to Hidalgo, Tex.
Caught and sent to a shelter, Eduín made contact with ProBAR lawyers, who realized he was a strong candidate for a special immigration status for abused or neglected juveniles.
The legal battle wound from immigration court to Texas family court and back to immigration court. By the end, not only Eduín had won a permanent resident’s green card. The lawyers also discovered that his sister, Cintia, who is one year older, had made the same journey before him and was living illegally in Texas. Through Eduín’s case, she also became a legal resident.
The siblings support themselves on their own in Harlingen. They share a small apartment, and Eduín has been working full time, helping his sister while she went to school. Cintia graduated from high school in May with honors and also completed a nurse aide program at a local community college.
“I left Honduras because I didn’t want to be a loser,” said Cintia, who is now working part time at a supermarket while she continues her nursing training. She plans to enlist in the Navy.
“It really was worth it,” Cintia said, “all the pain I went through, the hunger on the trip, the thirst. I’m a successful person now because I graduated and I’m going to college.”
Flashing a smile, she displayed her most vital documents: her Texas nurse aide certificate and her green card.
“Thanks to God I’m here legally,” she said.
Click green for further info
Source: NYT (Articles 2-3 of 3 next below)
__________________________________________________________________
A must-to-read: every American, Every Immigrant needs to know
6 years old boy
Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation & No Lawyer Given
Are we barbarians or where is our judgement?
Do our laws have any basic understanding?
Where is hour heart?
Is this humane treatment and is this as the international law demands?
Have we lost our compassion
Definition of compassion = sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others
Have we lost our understanding: Any human being with the special spirit it takes to come here and face death dangers would be the most valuable citizen in our country.
STAF, Inc.'s opinion
When a young child 5 years, 6 years and up, even 15 or 16, 17 or 20 and as a matter of fact no matter what age the person, is willing to take the risk as the people in the first Mayflower in the 1600's did, these kids (and even adults) have the AMERICAN spirit, the SPIRIT of our Founding Fathers - they will work hard, get results, pay taxes and build economy. They have the real spirit. As and example more Latin people in the U.S. own their own homes than people born in the U.S. Recently also our past Presidents have praised these people as a blessing to our country.
Especially the children who have the courage to come alone and take a difficult, dangerous, long trip to live in the U.S. are a real special group - we should give them free education, give them everything but as an exchange of work and service (nothing free - that is wrong; nothing in life is free), give them a legal status, have them being adopted by willing American families or growing up in a special group home. The American College and other higher education should be given full free to these children. Their spirit deserves it and these kids would, no doubt, be model citizen. Sending these correctly spirited human beings back is a bad mistake. When we treat them as written in this brief paragraph,then our country, the country we all love, will benefit greatly from the presence of these strong children.
The above opinion is given
by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D., N.D., D.D., The founding President of STAF, Inc., not-for-profit
The article
6 years old boy Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation & No Lawyer Given
Click green for further info
Young and Alone, Facing Court and Deportation. The judge called his next case, scanning the courtroom.
The immigrant who was facing deportation rose to his feet, in a clean T-shirt and khaki pants several sizes too large, with his name — JUAN — printed on a tag around his neck.
But the judge could not see him. Juan’s head did not rise above the court’s wooden benches.
Juan David Gonzalez was 6 years old. He was in the court, which would decide whether to expel him from the country, without a parent — and also without a lawyer.
Immigration courts in this South Texas border town and across the country are confronting an unexpected surge of children, some of them barely school age, who traveled here without parents and were caught as they tried to cross illegally into the United States.
The young people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, ride to the border on the roofs of freight trains or the backs of buses. They cross the Rio Grande on inner tubes, or hike for days through extremes of heat and chill in Arizona deserts. The smallest children, like Juan, are most often brought by smugglers.
The youths pose troubling difficulties for American immigration courts. Unlike in criminal or family courts, in immigration court there is no right to a lawyer paid by the government for people who cannot afford one. And immigration law contains few protections specifically for minors. So even a child as young as Juan has to go before an immigration judge — confronting a prosecutor and trying to fight deportation — without the help of a lawyer, if one is not privately provided.
So far this year, more than 11,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed in deportation proceedings, nearly double last year’s numbers.
Young migrants say they are fleeing sharply escalating criminal violence in their home countries. Federal agencies have scrambled to muster adequate detention facilities, while legal groups try to find lawyers to represent them. Judges, for their part, have struggled to offer fair hearings to penniless youths who speak little English and often do not even understand why they are in court.
The influx has heightened concerns that young people without legal help may not be able to obtain even the most basic justice.
“It is almost impossible for children to receive relief in immigration court on their own,” said Meredith Linsky, the director of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, known as ProBAR,
a nonprofit organization that defends young migrants in the region. “The reality is they cannot comprehend the system and what is being asked of them.”
Juan David Gonzalez was just another illegal border crosser on Judge Howard E. Achtsam’s docket one recent day. Juan was guided to the front of the courtroom by a social worker so that the judge could see him. Like any adult, Juan was facing charges of entering the United States without authorization, punishable by removal.
Speaking through an interpreter, Judge Achtsam delicately asked the boy his name and age. After the social worker’s nudge, Juan declared them loudly. She informed the court of plans by a federal child welfare agency to send Juan to be reunited with his parents, who were illegal immigrants living in another state.
Judge Achtsam postponed Juan’s proceedings, but he warned the boy and other minors in the courtroom.
“If you do not have a lawyer,” the judge said, “you need to be ready to speak for yourselves at your next hearing.”
Juan left holding the social worker’s hand, grinning proudly when she told him he had done well. But his case was just beginning. Most likely it would end with a final order for his deportation.
A Risk Worth Taking
The rush of young illegal border crossers began last fall but picked up speed this year, according to official figures. From October through July, the authorities detained 21,842 unaccompanied minors, most at the Southwest border, a 48 percent increase over a year earlier.
Some left their parents behind at home. Many came yearning to reunite with parents who have long been living here illegally.
The figures are striking because overall migration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, fell last year to the lowest level in two decades, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington. Yet the numbers of young unaccompanied Mexicans crossing illegally have stayed steady, and minors from Central America — especially El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — have nearly doubled since last year.
Policy changes in this country or Mexico do not appear to have spurred the surge.
President Obama’s announcement in June that he would halt deportations of illegal immigrant students came months after the increases were first seen. From the start, officials made it clear that no recent border crossers would be eligible.
Recent illegal crossers are also excluded from an Obama administration policy applying prosecutorial discretion to spare illegal immigrants from deportation if they have not been convicted of crimes.
Nor has there been any effect from a recent change in Mexican law that would make it easier for young migrants from Central America to cross Mexico on their way to the United States. That law has not yet been put into practice, Mexican officials said.
Some answers came from the click: Women’s Refugee Commission, an advocacy group in New York, which interviewed more than 150 young migrants in Texas in June. Most said they were seeking to escape increasingly violent gangs and drug traffickers at home, who were recruiting children aggressively.
“They are willing to risk the uncertain dangers of the trip north to escape certain dangers they face at home,” said Jessica Jones, a member of the commission’s fact-finding team.
Sometimes parents living illegally in this country will initiate a child’s journey. Tighter border enforcement under the Obama administration has made them reluctant to leave, fearing that they will not be able to return. Instead, they hire smugglers, paying up to $5,000 per child.
“The children at home feel unloved, they feel empty,” said Elizabeth G. Kennedy, a researcher at San Diego State University who studies child migrants. “If parents know their child is feeling empty and is in danger, they will make a decision.”
For the parents of Liliana Muñoz, 6, it was a bloody spree of shootouts and kidnappings by drug traffickers close to her home in Tamaulipas, in northeast Mexico, that prompted them to send for their daughter. Both illegal immigrants, they had been living near Atlanta since 2007.
They had steady jobs, he in landscaping and she in a restaurant, and regularly wired money to an aunt in Mexico who was raising Liliana.
“But we knew what she needed was not the money, not the clothes,” Mrs. Muñoz said in Spanish. “She needed the attention and care of her parents.” (Although their daughter’s name is now in the public record, the parents spoke on the condition that their full names not be published because of their illegal status.)
To avoid the perils of an illegal river crossing, they paid an American friend from Georgia to bring Liliana by car through a border station, with valid documents belonging to another child.
A vigilant inspector detected the document mismatch. Her parents got the phone call from a border agent in Laredo, Tex., at dawn on April 3. Liliana had been detained, he said, and if they did not come immediately, she could be held for many months.
“Don’t do any more psychological damage to her than you have already,” the agent said, in words Mrs. Muñoz recalled with tears of anguish.
Mrs. Muñoz rushed to Texas, but Liliana had already been transferred to a federal detention shelter for minors near Brownsville. It took nearly a month for the parents to secure Liliana’s release.
To their relief, Liliana was content there. She ate well, played and went to school. Her biggest complaint was that she had been placed in an arithmetic class with children who could not do addition or subtraction.
“I already knew how to add,” Liliana said firmly.
But there was no lawyer to accompany her to her first court hearing on June 4. Her parents stayed away, fearful of the immigration officer at the court entrance.
“I had to speak by myself,” Liliana recounted in her small voice.
Even with an interpreter, Liliana had a hard time following the hearing. She gave the judge her name and age. But she did not understand that she had crossed an international boundary, or that she was now in the United States, or what the United States is exactly. She did not know she had done anything wrong.
The judge set a new hearing date and urged Liliana to get a lawyer. But the volunteer lawyers her parents consulted in South Texas have been reluctant to take her case, which is weak since both parents are here illegally.
Yet under the administration’s prosecutorial discretion policy, deportations of very young children can sometimes be suspended, even if they entered recently.
To make the complex argument for discretion, however, Liliana needs a lawyer. Her parents may soon have to decide what to do if she is ordered to leave. Will they give up what they have gained in the United States and return with her — or let her be sent back alone to a violent Mexican state?
Navigating the System
Most unaccompanied migrants are teenagers from Mexico and Central America, seeking safety and work in the United States. In most cases minors from Mexico will be quickly returned there, without any formal court proceeding. Minors from noncontiguous countries are charged with immigration violations and detained. Either way, an overwhelming majority have been required to leave.
But a recent report found that as many as 40 percent of unaccompanied minors who were detained in federal shelters were eligible for some kind of legal immigration status. The report was by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit group that provides services to thousands of youths.
Through the courts, young migrants can gain legal status if they were severely abused or neglected at home or were victims of human traffickers. Sometimes they have relatives living here legally who can sponsor them. In a few cases, children have discovered that they were United States citizens but did not know it.
Even if a judge determines that young migrants must leave, they can ask to depart voluntarily. If they are actually deported, the consequences are severe: in many cases they cannot return legally to the United States for 10 years.
Yet young people have little chance of navigating the system without lawyers. Parents often do not understand that their children, no matter how young, must attend court hearings or the judge can issue a final deportation order — the equivalent of a criminal arrest warrant — in absentia.
Conditions for unaccompanied migrants have improved in recent years. It is not unusual for youths to recall the detention shelters, which are run by the Department of Health and Human Services, as some of the best times in their battered lives.
Immigration courts, despite an already severe overload, have designated special days for juvenile cases, with judges trained to deal with children. The courts offer briefings for family members about a child’s obligations. Many judges will do what Judge Achtsam did for Juan, extending the schedule to leave the child plenty of time to be reunited with his family here, so they can plan his next legal step.
But these advances have been strained by this year’s surge. In the spring, federal officials set up emergency shelters in gyms along the border and at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Although the crisis has passed, officials now say they expect a “new normal” of about 15,000 unaccompanied minors in detention a year, almost double previous levels.
Groups that provide legal services have been overwhelmed. Kids in Need of Defense, known as KIND, is scouring the country for volunteer lawyers. In Harlingen, Ms. Linsky has told the court that ProBAR cannot provide in-depth representation to all the new detained minors on its docket.
ProBAR will at least reach minors to explain their rights. For younger children, staff members offer advance tours to help them to get to know the courtroom. They ask children to draw pictures of how they crossed the Rio Grande — which Mexicans call the Rio Bravo, the Angry River.
One afternoon, Violeta Discua, a legal assistant, gave a marathon three-hour talk to two dozen feisty teenagers, who at first rolled their eyes and slouched in their chairs.
Soon they were riveted.
“Who arrested you?” Ms. Discua asked, spreading her arms and scowling to imitate the eagle that sits atop the badges of agents.
“The Border Patrol!” they responded, delighted at her pantomime.
“What do they want to do with you?” she asked.
“Deport us!” they shouted.
She gave a message many of them later said they had never heard before: “Remember, no one can mistreat you. No one can hit you, not even with their little finger.” She wiggled her pinkie.
The youths fell silent, taking that in.
“Are you bad people?” Ms. Discua asked.
“No!” they exclaimed. She explained the rudiments of their limited legal options, the procedures for their court appearances and what they should expect if they were expelled from the United States, as most would be.
Sometimes, a Victory
When children appear in court without lawyers, it can be distressing for them and for judges. One judge tried to put a boy at ease by asking playfully to share a bit of the child’s lunch. Thinking that he was supposed to have brought food for the judge, the boy burst into tears.
Migrants who have gotten help from lawyers have won immigration cases they could never have attempted alone. Eduín Rodríguez, now 18, was abandoned by both parents in Honduras. He rode the tops of freight trains across Mexico and swam the Rio Grande to Hidalgo, Tex.
Caught and sent to a shelter, Eduín made contact with ProBAR lawyers, who realized he was a strong candidate for a special immigration status for abused or neglected juveniles.
The legal battle wound from immigration court to Texas family court and back to immigration court. By the end, not only Eduín had won a permanent resident’s green card. The lawyers also discovered that his sister, Cintia, who is one year older, had made the same journey before him and was living illegally in Texas. Through Eduín’s case, she also became a legal resident.
The siblings support themselves on their own in Harlingen. They share a small apartment, and Eduín has been working full time, helping his sister while she went to school. Cintia graduated from high school in May with honors and also completed a nurse aide program at a local community college.
“I left Honduras because I didn’t want to be a loser,” said Cintia, who is now working part time at a supermarket while she continues her nursing training. She plans to enlist in the Navy.
“It really was worth it,” Cintia said, “all the pain I went through, the hunger on the trip, the thirst. I’m a successful person now because I graduated and I’m going to college.”
Flashing a smile, she displayed her most vital documents: her Texas nurse aide certificate and her green card.
“Thanks to God I’m here legally,” she said.
Click green for further info
Source: NYT (Articles 2-3 of 3 next below)
__________________________________________________________________
Article 2 of 3 (Article 1 of 3 next above)
Deportation Nation
Joke: Town in Oregon, Portland, is commonly called "deportland"
This article is NOT specifically about Portland
Newton Centre, Mass. -
IT would have taken a hard heart not to be moved this month as tens of thousands of “Dreamers” — young undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children — emerged from the shadows to apply for temporary work permits and deportation deferrals under a new policy by the Obama administration that has delighted immigrant advocates and enraged conservatives.
Though generous and humane, the policy represents only one side of the deportation story. Barack Obama has presided over a record increase in the number of removals, in many cases on legal grounds that offend our basic notions of fairness. These injustices predate him; they started in 1996, when immigration policy was changed in a draconian fashion so that noncitizens — including permanent legal residents — became vulnerable to deportation even for minor crimes committed years ago, with little regard for procedural rights or judicial discretion.
Consider Marco Merino-Fernandez, a 35-year-old client of a clinic at the law school where I teach. He was brought from Chile to the United States legally, when he was 5 months old, but like many legal permanent residents, he never became a citizen. He speaks English fluently and got a G.E.D. in Florida. Returning from a vacation abroad, in 2006, he presented his green card to immigration agents, who discovered that Mr. Merino-Fernandez, more than a decade earlier, had been convicted of two misdemeanors for drug possession, small amounts of marijuana and LSD.
He was detained for months. After a brief hearing, a judge ruled that he was “an aggravated felon” and ordered him deported to Chile, where he had not been since infancy and where only a few relatives remained. After arriving in Chile, in 2007, Mr. Merino-Fernandez learned that his mother had died in Florida; he wasn’t able to return for her funeral.
Before 1996, deportation was a comparatively small enterprise, with safeguards that allowed judges to exercise compassion and recognize rehabilitation. Since then, one of history’s most open societies has developed a huge, costly, harsh and often arbitrary system of expulsion. Between 2001 and 2010, more than one million people were deported from the United States because of post-entry criminal conduct.
These homesick exiles can be found around the world. In the Azores, off the coast of Portugal, are New Englanders who sport Red Sox caps and speak English with thick Boston accents. Most know no Portuguese. “Honestly, it stinks,” one of them told me. Other men teared up as they recalled their families in the United States.
New Yorkers abound in the Dominican Republic, where the United States has sent around 30,000 deportees. Their distinct dress, walk and language mark them as outcasts, the social scientists David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios found in a book published last year.
In a study of Latin American deportees who had lived for long periods in the United States (on average, 14 years), the sociologists M. Kathleen Dingeman and Rubén G. Rumbaut found that deportees who had emigrated as children suffered the most. Deportees to El Salvador (a country many had fled during the civil war of the 1980s) encountered discrimination because of their accents, style of dress and California gang-themed tattoos.
In 2004, a New Yorker, Calvin James, 45, was separated from his partner and their young son and deported to Jamaica, where he hadn’t lived since he was 12, because of past convictions for selling drugs. As the journalist Julianne Ong Hing described it, the local police asked Mr. James standard questions — “Do you have family you will be contacting? What address will you be staying at?” — but Mr. James had no one to call. He landed in Spanish Town, a crime-ridden community he described as “a battle zone,” before eventually finding low-paying work.
Hundreds of Cambodian youths whose families survived the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields have been deported to a land about which they had heard nothing but horror stories. The documentary “Sentenced Home” tells of Loeun Lun, who was brought to the United States at age 6. He served 11 months in jail for having fired a gun in a shopping mall (no one was hurt) when he was 19, but he turned his life around. Even so, he was deported in 2003, at the age of 27.
Deportation can be inhumane, even life-threatening. In 2000, the Haitian government imposed mandatory, indefinite detention on criminal deportees arriving from the United States. In Haitian prisons, deportees have suffered from a lack of basic hygiene, nutrition and health care, and from outbreaks of diseases like beriberi and cholera.
This vast experiment in deportation hasn’t deterred undocumented immigration, which increased steadily from 2000 to 2007. Nor has it substantially reduced serious crime rates; a 2007 study found that American-born men between 18 and 39 were five times more likely than foreign-born men to be imprisoned. What it has done is forcibly separate hundreds of thousands of families — an especially harsh fate for children or elderly parents left behind in America.
“Well, that’s tough,” some say, “but they broke the law — period.” Laws have certainly been broken. But law is not a one-size-fits-all enterprise. Discretion, as the jurist Felix Frankfurter noted, makes law enforcement more humane and more efficient.
To be sure, some deportees have been convicted of serious crimes. But most are guilty of drug offenses, or misdemeanors like petty larceny, simple assault, drunken driving. Lifetime banishment is an inhumane and disproportionately harsh sentence, particularly for nonviolent drug offenses and crimes committed when the offenders were minors.
What vision of law justifies the deportation of those who have grown up, attended school and raised families in the United States? What purpose is served by permanently barring them from returning home, even for family visits?
In a 2010 decision, Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court recognized that many criminal defense lawyers had a poor understanding of immigration law and that if they advised clients about deportation at all, they often gave bad advice. As a result, many people have agreed to guilty pleas that unnecessarily resulted in deportation. But the Board of Immigration Appeals has held that once they are deported, their cases cannot be reopened. The rule of law, it seems, ends at the border.
Though most experts agree that we need visa reform, better border control and a large-scale legalization program for those already here, no comprehensive legislation has passed. The plight of the deportees is even further down on the legislative agenda, if it is there at all. And so the deportations go on.
Daniel Kanstroom, a professor of law at Boston College, is the author, most recently, of “Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora.”
Source: NYT
August 31, 2012
By DANIEL KANSTROOM
This is for your personal use, only (Article 3 of 3 next below)
____________________________________________
Deportation Nation
Joke: Town in Oregon, Portland, is commonly called "deportland"
This article is NOT specifically about Portland
Newton Centre, Mass. -
IT would have taken a hard heart not to be moved this month as tens of thousands of “Dreamers” — young undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children — emerged from the shadows to apply for temporary work permits and deportation deferrals under a new policy by the Obama administration that has delighted immigrant advocates and enraged conservatives.
Though generous and humane, the policy represents only one side of the deportation story. Barack Obama has presided over a record increase in the number of removals, in many cases on legal grounds that offend our basic notions of fairness. These injustices predate him; they started in 1996, when immigration policy was changed in a draconian fashion so that noncitizens — including permanent legal residents — became vulnerable to deportation even for minor crimes committed years ago, with little regard for procedural rights or judicial discretion.
Consider Marco Merino-Fernandez, a 35-year-old client of a clinic at the law school where I teach. He was brought from Chile to the United States legally, when he was 5 months old, but like many legal permanent residents, he never became a citizen. He speaks English fluently and got a G.E.D. in Florida. Returning from a vacation abroad, in 2006, he presented his green card to immigration agents, who discovered that Mr. Merino-Fernandez, more than a decade earlier, had been convicted of two misdemeanors for drug possession, small amounts of marijuana and LSD.
He was detained for months. After a brief hearing, a judge ruled that he was “an aggravated felon” and ordered him deported to Chile, where he had not been since infancy and where only a few relatives remained. After arriving in Chile, in 2007, Mr. Merino-Fernandez learned that his mother had died in Florida; he wasn’t able to return for her funeral.
Before 1996, deportation was a comparatively small enterprise, with safeguards that allowed judges to exercise compassion and recognize rehabilitation. Since then, one of history’s most open societies has developed a huge, costly, harsh and often arbitrary system of expulsion. Between 2001 and 2010, more than one million people were deported from the United States because of post-entry criminal conduct.
These homesick exiles can be found around the world. In the Azores, off the coast of Portugal, are New Englanders who sport Red Sox caps and speak English with thick Boston accents. Most know no Portuguese. “Honestly, it stinks,” one of them told me. Other men teared up as they recalled their families in the United States.
New Yorkers abound in the Dominican Republic, where the United States has sent around 30,000 deportees. Their distinct dress, walk and language mark them as outcasts, the social scientists David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios found in a book published last year.
In a study of Latin American deportees who had lived for long periods in the United States (on average, 14 years), the sociologists M. Kathleen Dingeman and Rubén G. Rumbaut found that deportees who had emigrated as children suffered the most. Deportees to El Salvador (a country many had fled during the civil war of the 1980s) encountered discrimination because of their accents, style of dress and California gang-themed tattoos.
In 2004, a New Yorker, Calvin James, 45, was separated from his partner and their young son and deported to Jamaica, where he hadn’t lived since he was 12, because of past convictions for selling drugs. As the journalist Julianne Ong Hing described it, the local police asked Mr. James standard questions — “Do you have family you will be contacting? What address will you be staying at?” — but Mr. James had no one to call. He landed in Spanish Town, a crime-ridden community he described as “a battle zone,” before eventually finding low-paying work.
Hundreds of Cambodian youths whose families survived the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields have been deported to a land about which they had heard nothing but horror stories. The documentary “Sentenced Home” tells of Loeun Lun, who was brought to the United States at age 6. He served 11 months in jail for having fired a gun in a shopping mall (no one was hurt) when he was 19, but he turned his life around. Even so, he was deported in 2003, at the age of 27.
Deportation can be inhumane, even life-threatening. In 2000, the Haitian government imposed mandatory, indefinite detention on criminal deportees arriving from the United States. In Haitian prisons, deportees have suffered from a lack of basic hygiene, nutrition and health care, and from outbreaks of diseases like beriberi and cholera.
This vast experiment in deportation hasn’t deterred undocumented immigration, which increased steadily from 2000 to 2007. Nor has it substantially reduced serious crime rates; a 2007 study found that American-born men between 18 and 39 were five times more likely than foreign-born men to be imprisoned. What it has done is forcibly separate hundreds of thousands of families — an especially harsh fate for children or elderly parents left behind in America.
“Well, that’s tough,” some say, “but they broke the law — period.” Laws have certainly been broken. But law is not a one-size-fits-all enterprise. Discretion, as the jurist Felix Frankfurter noted, makes law enforcement more humane and more efficient.
To be sure, some deportees have been convicted of serious crimes. But most are guilty of drug offenses, or misdemeanors like petty larceny, simple assault, drunken driving. Lifetime banishment is an inhumane and disproportionately harsh sentence, particularly for nonviolent drug offenses and crimes committed when the offenders were minors.
What vision of law justifies the deportation of those who have grown up, attended school and raised families in the United States? What purpose is served by permanently barring them from returning home, even for family visits?
In a 2010 decision, Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court recognized that many criminal defense lawyers had a poor understanding of immigration law and that if they advised clients about deportation at all, they often gave bad advice. As a result, many people have agreed to guilty pleas that unnecessarily resulted in deportation. But the Board of Immigration Appeals has held that once they are deported, their cases cannot be reopened. The rule of law, it seems, ends at the border.
Though most experts agree that we need visa reform, better border control and a large-scale legalization program for those already here, no comprehensive legislation has passed. The plight of the deportees is even further down on the legislative agenda, if it is there at all. And so the deportations go on.
Daniel Kanstroom, a professor of law at Boston College, is the author, most recently, of “Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora.”
Source: NYT
August 31, 2012
By DANIEL KANSTROOM
This is for your personal use, only (Article 3 of 3 next below)
____________________________________________
Article 3 of 3 (Articles 1-2 of 3 next above)
The information below "Faulty Criminal Background Checks" is causing continuously
life-ruining difficulties to many immigrants with no criminal record. We need to have the process fixed and updated with correct information to avoid unnecessary suffering. This topic is important for all immigrants & for all U.S. citizens.
Faulty Criminal Background Checks
The federal government has historically paid little attention to the companies that collect and sell the data used by employers in hiring decisions — including data about an applicant’s criminal history.
But because 9 in 10 employers now use criminal background checks for some applicants, and the data are not always reliable, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which share jurisdiction, need to get a better handle on an industry that has grown so fast over the last 20 years that no one can say how many companies there are.
They must make sure that the reporting companies obey the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires them to strive for accuracy. The law also requires the companies that furnish reports drawn from public records for employment purposes to notify the people named in the reports in a timely manner — so that any inaccuracies in the data can be challenged — or ensure that the public record is complete and up to date.
Sloppy reporting was not a huge problem in the past when there were fewer companies gathering data and the only way to get it was to examine court records in person. But, in recent years, this has become a computer-driven industry, with companies buying often incomplete records in bulk from the courts or from other screening companies and then not updating them. An incomplete report might show, for instance, that a job candidate was charged with a crime but not that he was exonerated. And faulty data can circulate forever.
A study issued in April by the National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group, points to many other problems. Background reports often list the same offense many times, making it appear as if the applicant has an extensive record. Worse still, companies sometimes fail to do the basic checking necessary to distinguish among different people who have the same name.
In one particularly startling case that became the subject of a 2011 federal lawsuit in Illinois, a background report on a young white job applicant in his 20s listed several “possible matches” in a nationwide database. According to court documents, three of those “matches” were for a 58-year-old African-American who had been convicted of rape in another state in 1987 — when the applicant was not yet 4 years old.
The federal government clearly needs to step in. It should require companies to be federally registered, outline standards for accuracy, make sure that job applicants have a reasonable time to respond to erroneous reports and seek monetary and other penalties from companies that flout the law.
July 25, 2012
Source: The New York Times, p. A 24 (Editorials)
This is your personal use, only
_____________________________________
The information below "Faulty Criminal Background Checks" is causing continuously
life-ruining difficulties to many immigrants with no criminal record. We need to have the process fixed and updated with correct information to avoid unnecessary suffering. This topic is important for all immigrants & for all U.S. citizens.
Faulty Criminal Background Checks
The federal government has historically paid little attention to the companies that collect and sell the data used by employers in hiring decisions — including data about an applicant’s criminal history.
But because 9 in 10 employers now use criminal background checks for some applicants, and the data are not always reliable, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which share jurisdiction, need to get a better handle on an industry that has grown so fast over the last 20 years that no one can say how many companies there are.
They must make sure that the reporting companies obey the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires them to strive for accuracy. The law also requires the companies that furnish reports drawn from public records for employment purposes to notify the people named in the reports in a timely manner — so that any inaccuracies in the data can be challenged — or ensure that the public record is complete and up to date.
Sloppy reporting was not a huge problem in the past when there were fewer companies gathering data and the only way to get it was to examine court records in person. But, in recent years, this has become a computer-driven industry, with companies buying often incomplete records in bulk from the courts or from other screening companies and then not updating them. An incomplete report might show, for instance, that a job candidate was charged with a crime but not that he was exonerated. And faulty data can circulate forever.
A study issued in April by the National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group, points to many other problems. Background reports often list the same offense many times, making it appear as if the applicant has an extensive record. Worse still, companies sometimes fail to do the basic checking necessary to distinguish among different people who have the same name.
In one particularly startling case that became the subject of a 2011 federal lawsuit in Illinois, a background report on a young white job applicant in his 20s listed several “possible matches” in a nationwide database. According to court documents, three of those “matches” were for a 58-year-old African-American who had been convicted of rape in another state in 1987 — when the applicant was not yet 4 years old.
The federal government clearly needs to step in. It should require companies to be federally registered, outline standards for accuracy, make sure that job applicants have a reasonable time to respond to erroneous reports and seek monetary and other penalties from companies that flout the law.
July 25, 2012
Source: The New York Times, p. A 24 (Editorials)
This is your personal use, only
_____________________________________
Edward Snowden Is Winning
Date: July 6/24, 2013
Click green for further info
Earlier this month, Politico warned that Edward Snowden's "nightmare may be coming true" — that is, that his efforts would yield no systemic change. Even at the time, that was an iffy argument. But now it seems that the opposite is the case. Edward Snowden may be getting everything his heart desired: a change in policies, a shift in attitudes, and — perhaps surprising even himself — personal freedom.
RELATED: The NSA's PR Offensive Is Not Going Well
When Snowden first reached out to reporters, offering details on the National Security Agency's surveillance systems, he did so with some trepidation. "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," he wrote in one of his first communications with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant." In a video interview with the paper, he spoke the line that was the focal point of that Politico article:
The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests.Which brings us to today.
RELATED: Edward Snowden Still Missing as Plane Full of Journalists Lands in Cuba
Policy changes are moving forward. Later today, the House of Representatives will vote on an amendment to a Department of Defense spending bill that would rescind any funding that could be used by the NSA to collect metadata on phone calls — one of the aspects of the agency's surveillance revealed by Snowden.
RELATED: Snowden's Just-Filed Russian Asylum Request Might Be Best for Everyone
The amendment, proposed by Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, has already earned a stern condemnation from the White House. Which doesn't bode well for its adoption, of course; even if it passes the House — which, a representative of Amash's office told The Atlantic Wire, the representative expects will happen — it would then need to be maintained by the Senate and signed by the president. While the president didn't offer a veto threat, he probably doesn't yet feel that he needs to. On Tuesday, the leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee released a statement condemning the amendment, calling it "unwise."
RELATED: Edward Snowden's Flight to Moscow Is Looking Like a Pretty Bad Bet
Ninety days ago, a vote on the House floor to rescind funding for a national security program would have been unheard of — as would any of the other bills proposed in the House and Senate to increase openness about the FISA Court (which authorizes the surveillance tools) or to reform the laws used to justify them. As Adam Serwer outlined at MSNBC, privacy advocates sense a shift on Capitol Hill.
“I think reform is coming,” says Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California. “It’ll take time to determine exactly what form it will take, but I think there is an inexorable move towards greater transparency of the FISA Court and greater restructuring of the surveillance programs.”Attitudes on surveillance are changing. Past members of that Court agree. Two former appointees have proposed changes to how the court works, primarily by introducing an advocate for the public into a process that currently involves a one-sided presentation by the government.
RELATED: The NSA Scrambles to Defend Its Surveillance Tools
The public itself is increasingly skeptical of the Court's decisions. A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University earlier this month found that a majority of Americans thought the NSA's collection of phone metadata was too intrusive. A slightly smaller majority, 51 percent, nonetheless support that collection — which was down from a poll conducted by ABC in June. That poll put support at 58 percent.
In a poll released Wednesday, however, ABC's numbers have shifted significantly.
Americans overwhelmingly think the NSA surveillance efforts intrude on some citizens’ privacy rights – 74 percent say so – and about half, 49 percent, see the spying as an intrusion on their own personal privacy. In each case, though, some also see such intrusions as justified, 39 percent and 28 percent, respectively.The net result is that 40 percent see the NSA activities not merely as intrusions on some Americans’ privacy rights, but as unjustified intrusions.
That percentage is ten points higher than the previous high recorded by ABC.
In other words, there's a trend. The public is increasingly concerned that the government is not finding the right balance between surveillance and privacy. That trend is slow and could easily reverse, but increased attention to privacy from efforts such as the bills on Capitol Hill could also serve as positive reinforcement for it.
Snowden may walk free. When his identity was first revealed by The Guardian, Snowden worried that he might be abducted or killed by the CIA for his leak. Holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong, it wasn't clear whether or not Snowden would end up back in the United States to face criminal charges.
Now it appears that Snowden is about to become a resident of Moscow — a guy with a job and an apartment who's waiting to figure out which Central American country he wants to retire to. Who knows, maybe even find a new girlfriend, if any are willing to overlook his iffy relationship record. This is contingent on the goodwill of the somewhat mercurial Russian government, but so far it seems like a decent risk.
On July 24, some eight weeks after the revelations that shook Washington and made his a household name, Edward Snowden appears to be getting everything he wanted.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet news
__________________________________________
Date: July 6/24, 2013
Click green for further info
- Edward Snowden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American former technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and a former ... - Edward Snowden | World news | The Guardianwww.guardian.co.uk › World news Latest on the computer analyst whistleblower who provided the Guardian with top-secret NSA documents leading to revelations about US surveillance on phone ...
Earlier this month, Politico warned that Edward Snowden's "nightmare may be coming true" — that is, that his efforts would yield no systemic change. Even at the time, that was an iffy argument. But now it seems that the opposite is the case. Edward Snowden may be getting everything his heart desired: a change in policies, a shift in attitudes, and — perhaps surprising even himself — personal freedom.
RELATED: The NSA's PR Offensive Is Not Going Well
When Snowden first reached out to reporters, offering details on the National Security Agency's surveillance systems, he did so with some trepidation. "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," he wrote in one of his first communications with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant." In a video interview with the paper, he spoke the line that was the focal point of that Politico article:
The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests.Which brings us to today.
RELATED: Edward Snowden Still Missing as Plane Full of Journalists Lands in Cuba
Policy changes are moving forward. Later today, the House of Representatives will vote on an amendment to a Department of Defense spending bill that would rescind any funding that could be used by the NSA to collect metadata on phone calls — one of the aspects of the agency's surveillance revealed by Snowden.
RELATED: Snowden's Just-Filed Russian Asylum Request Might Be Best for Everyone
The amendment, proposed by Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, has already earned a stern condemnation from the White House. Which doesn't bode well for its adoption, of course; even if it passes the House — which, a representative of Amash's office told The Atlantic Wire, the representative expects will happen — it would then need to be maintained by the Senate and signed by the president. While the president didn't offer a veto threat, he probably doesn't yet feel that he needs to. On Tuesday, the leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee released a statement condemning the amendment, calling it "unwise."
RELATED: Edward Snowden's Flight to Moscow Is Looking Like a Pretty Bad Bet
Ninety days ago, a vote on the House floor to rescind funding for a national security program would have been unheard of — as would any of the other bills proposed in the House and Senate to increase openness about the FISA Court (which authorizes the surveillance tools) or to reform the laws used to justify them. As Adam Serwer outlined at MSNBC, privacy advocates sense a shift on Capitol Hill.
“I think reform is coming,” says Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California. “It’ll take time to determine exactly what form it will take, but I think there is an inexorable move towards greater transparency of the FISA Court and greater restructuring of the surveillance programs.”Attitudes on surveillance are changing. Past members of that Court agree. Two former appointees have proposed changes to how the court works, primarily by introducing an advocate for the public into a process that currently involves a one-sided presentation by the government.
RELATED: The NSA Scrambles to Defend Its Surveillance Tools
The public itself is increasingly skeptical of the Court's decisions. A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University earlier this month found that a majority of Americans thought the NSA's collection of phone metadata was too intrusive. A slightly smaller majority, 51 percent, nonetheless support that collection — which was down from a poll conducted by ABC in June. That poll put support at 58 percent.
In a poll released Wednesday, however, ABC's numbers have shifted significantly.
Americans overwhelmingly think the NSA surveillance efforts intrude on some citizens’ privacy rights – 74 percent say so – and about half, 49 percent, see the spying as an intrusion on their own personal privacy. In each case, though, some also see such intrusions as justified, 39 percent and 28 percent, respectively.The net result is that 40 percent see the NSA activities not merely as intrusions on some Americans’ privacy rights, but as unjustified intrusions.
That percentage is ten points higher than the previous high recorded by ABC.
In other words, there's a trend. The public is increasingly concerned that the government is not finding the right balance between surveillance and privacy. That trend is slow and could easily reverse, but increased attention to privacy from efforts such as the bills on Capitol Hill could also serve as positive reinforcement for it.
Snowden may walk free. When his identity was first revealed by The Guardian, Snowden worried that he might be abducted or killed by the CIA for his leak. Holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong, it wasn't clear whether or not Snowden would end up back in the United States to face criminal charges.
Now it appears that Snowden is about to become a resident of Moscow — a guy with a job and an apartment who's waiting to figure out which Central American country he wants to retire to. Who knows, maybe even find a new girlfriend, if any are willing to overlook his iffy relationship record. This is contingent on the goodwill of the somewhat mercurial Russian government, but so far it seems like a decent risk.
On July 24, some eight weeks after the revelations that shook Washington and made his a household name, Edward Snowden appears to be getting everything he wanted.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet news
__________________________________________
- Illegal immigration drops after decade-long rise
- While Mexicans make up about 55 percent of illegal immigrants and other Latin Americans represent another 25 percent, Asians make up a 10 percent share, many of whom overstay temporary visas.
Click green for a photo Enlarge Photo - In June 2012, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and immigration reform activist Jose Antonio Vargas, listens as Homeland Security Secretary - (click) …more Activist Jose Antonio Vargas: "This conversation is a question about how we as a nation define who is an American," Vargas said, noting that if politicians don't embrace immigration overhaul now, a rapidly growing bloc of minority voters may soon do it for them. "If you want us to pay a fine to become a citizen, OK. If you want us to pay back taxes, absolutely. If you want us to speak English, I speak English. But we can't tread water on this issue anymore." The data showed that 11.1 million, or 28 percent, of the foreign-born population in the U.S. consists of illegal immigrants, virtually unchanged since 2009 and roughly equal to the level of 2005. An additional 12.2 million foreign-born people, 31 percent, are legal permanent residents with green cards. And 15.1 million, or 37 percent, are naturalized U.S. citizens.
WASHINGTON (AP), 2012 --
New census data released on 12/6/12 affirm a clear and sustained drop in illegal immigration, ending more than a decade of increases.
The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. dropped to an estimated 11.1 million last year from a peak of 12 million in 2007, part of an overall waning of Hispanic immigration. For the first time since 1910, Hispanic immigration last year was topped by immigrants from Asia.
Demographers say illegal Hispanic immigration — 80 percent of all illegal immigration comes from Mexico and Latin America — isn't likely to approach its mid-2000 peak again, due in part to a weakened U.S. economy and stronger enforcement but also a graying of the Mexican population.
The finding suggests an uphill battle for the Republicans, who passed legislation in the House last week that would extend citizenship to a limited pool of foreign students with advanced degrees but who are sharply divided on whether to pursue broader immigration measures.
In all, the biggest surge of immigration in modern U.S. history ultimately may be recorded as occurring in the mid-1990s to early 2000s, yielding illegal residents who now have been settled in the U.S. for 10 years or more. They include migrants who arrived here as teens and are increasingly at risk of "aging out" of congressional proposals such as the DREAM Act that offer a pathway to citizenship for younger adults.
"The priority now is to push a vigorous debate about the undocumented people already here," said Jose Antonio Vargas, 31, a journalist from the Philippines. "We want to become citizens and not face the threat of deportation or be treated as second class," said Vargas, whose campaign, Define American, along with the young immigrant group United We Dream, have been pushing for citizenship for the entire illegal population in the U.S. The groups point to a strong Latino and Asian-American turnout for President Barack Obama in last month's election as evidence of public support for a broad overhaul of U.S. immigration laws.
Earlier this year, Obama extended to many younger immigrants temporary reprieves (= a cancellation or postponement) from deportation. But Vargas, who has lived in the U.S. since 1993 and appeared this year on the cover of Time magazine with other immigrants who lacked legal status, has become too old to qualify.
"This conversation is a question about how we as a nation define who is an American," Vargas said, noting that if politicians don't embrace immigration overhaul now, a rapidly growing bloc of minority voters may soon do it for them. "If you want us to pay a fine to become a citizen, OK. If you want us to pay back taxes, absolutely. If you want us to speak English, I speak English. But we can't tread water on this issue anymore."
Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center and a former Census Bureau official, said U.S. immigration policies will have a significant impact in shaping a future U.S. labor force, which is projected to shrink by 2030. Aging white baby boomers, many in specialized or management roles, are beginning to retire. Mexican immigration, which has helped fill needs in farming, home health care and other low-wage U.S. jobs, has leveled off.
"Immigration is one way to boost the number of workers in the population," he said, but the next wave of needed immigrants is likely to come from somewhere other than Mexico. "We are not going to see a return to the levels of Mexican unauthorized immigration of a decade ago."
The numbers are largely based on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey through March 2011. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, Passel derived estimates on illegal immigrants largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population. The numbers are also supplemented with material from William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution and Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, who reviewed data released Thursday from the Census' American Community Survey.
The data showed that 11.1 million, or 28 percent, of the foreign-born population in the U.S. consists of illegal immigrants, virtually unchanged since 2009 and roughly equal to the level of 2005. An additional 12.2 million foreign-born people, 31 percent, are legal permanent residents with green cards. And 15.1 million, or 37 percent, are naturalized U.S. citizens.
Fewer Mexican workers are entering the U.S., while many of those immigrants already here are opting to return to their homeland, resulting in zero net migration from Mexico.
In 2007, legal and illegal immigrants made up equally large shares of the foreign-born population, at 31 percent, due to ballooning numbers of new unauthorized migrants seeking U.S. construction and related jobs during the mid-2000s housing boom. Naturalized U.S. citizens then represented 35 percent.
Broken down by geography and race, roughly half of all states last year posted declines or no change in their numbers of foreign-born Hispanics, including big immigrant states such as California and New York as well as economically hard hit areas in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, which previously had seen gains.
Foreign-born Asians were a bigger source of population gain than Hispanic immigrants in California, New York, Virginia, Illinois and New Jersey. Newly moving into suburban communities, the Asian population spread out more across the southeastern U.S. and Texas, increasing their share in 93 percent of the nation's metropolitan areas.
As a whole, foreign-born residents are slowly graying, with 44 percent now age 45 or older. They are more likely than in 2007 to be enrolled in college or graduate school (39 percent, up from 32 percent) and to be single (17 percent married, down from 22 percent).
Births to immigrant mothers also are on the decline, driving the overall U.S. birth rate last year to the lowest in records dating back to 1920.
"At least temporarily, the face of immigration to the U.S. is changing in terms of cultural background, education and skills," Frey said. "The fertility bump provided by past Hispanic immigrants may not be replicated in the future, especially if Asians take over a greater share of U.S. immigrants."
House Republicans, seeking to show they are serious about addressing the immigration issue after being largely rejected by Hispanics in the election in 2012, voted last week to make green cards accessible to foreign students graduating with advanced science and math degrees from U.S. universities.
The measure, strongly backed by the high-tech industry and touted as a boost to the U.S. economy, would have a net effect of extending more visas and eventual citizenship to students from India and China. It is opposed by most Democrats, the Obama administration and immigrant rights groups such as the Asian American Justice Center which want to see it packaged with broader legislation that extends legal status for illegal immigrants.
These groups also oppose the proposed new 55,000 visas for foreign students because they would be offset by eliminating a lottery program that provides green cards to people with lower rates of immigration, mainly those from Africa. Senate Democrats on Wednesday 12/5/12 blocked Republicans from bringing up the bill.
A bill introduced by Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who are retiring at the end of this session, seeks to offer some legal status to young immigrants. Critics say it falls short because it does not provide a path to citizenship, an issue that Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., describes as "non-negotiable."
About 77 percent of Hispanic voters in the November election said they thought people working in the U.S. illegally should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, according to exit polling conducted for the television networks and The Associated Press. That is compared with 71 percent of Asian-Americans and 65 percent of voters overall.
The political implications are great.
Hispanics and Asian-Americans are the nation's two fastest-growing population groups, each increasing by more than 40 percent since 2000. A higher birth rate and years of steadily high immigration have boosted Hispanics to 17 percent of the U.S. population, compared with blacks at 12 percent and 5 percent for Asians.
Even if the nation's estimated 11 million illegal residents do not attain citizenship, the nation's Hispanics, who made up roughly 10 percent of voters in November, are expected to nearly double their share of eligible voters by 2030. Asian-Americans, who now are 3 percent of voters, will also continue to increase.
About 73 percent of Asian-Americans voted for Obama, second only to African-Americans at 93 percent and slightly higher than Latinos at 71 percent, according to exit polling.
Asian-Americans don't strongly identify with either party, but they tend to cite jobs, education and health care as issues most important to them and generally prefer a big government that provides more services. Relatively new to the U.S. and religiously diverse, Asian-Americans also may have been repelled by Republican Mitt Romney's forceful stance during the primaries seeking "self-deportation" of immigrants as well as the GOP's sometimes narrow appeal to evangelical Christians, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside who helps conduct a broad National Asian American Survey.
While Mexicans make up about 55 percent of illegal immigrants and other Latin Americans represent another 25 percent, Asians make up a 10 percent share, many of whom overstay temporary visas.
Click green above for furhter info
This article is for your private use, only
Opinion from the public: Even the illegals realize the party's over.
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Burning Question:
Why Do Venezuelan Women Rule Miss Universe?
Date: November 2013
Q: Three of the last six Miss Universe pageants have been won by Miss Venezuela — what's in the water there? Are pageants a big part of their culture?
A: No, pageants aren't a big part of their culture. Pageants are a massive, huge, enormous part of their culture.
In 2010, professor Belinda Edmondson of Rutgers University (NJ) click: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
published an academic paper that pretty much summed it up: "In the beauty contest-obsessed societies of the Caribbean and Latin America, a contestant’s chances of winning a national pageant are directly related to the perception that she has a shot at winning an international beauty contest such as Miss World or Miss Universe."
In other words, in Latin America, beauty pageants serve much of the same hometown rah-rah function that football does in Texas, or basketball in Indiana or soccer*) in London. *) soccer = the European football
[Related: Check Out the Outlandish Miss Universe 2013 National Costume Getups]
"In the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, the beauty pageant is the quintessential middlebrow cultural product," Edmondson writes, "a mix of cheesecake, social desire, commercial canniness, and Third World nationalist ambition. Its winners are frequently used as spokeswomen to promote state initiatives in farming or commerce.
"The beauty pageant, then, covers roughly the same terrain as the romance novel — social aspiration, nationalism, and pleasure."
As for Venezuela in particular, well, a source close to the Miss Universe organization puts it to me this way: "They take their pageants very seriously. It's a big deal, and a ton of girls compete. It's a different level of importance there, and they're fierce competitors."
Maria Gabriel Isler, the contest's new 25-year-old, half-Swiss champion climbed her way to the top of the Venezuelan circuit, while working as an anchor for a national TV network. Isler earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and seems to have specialized in presentation as an art form, having worked as a professional gift wrapper in her early life. She began her rise to Miss Universe winning the Miss Guarico prize — representing her home state — before winning the title of Miss Venuezla and finally the entire Universe.
Q: Which countries have produced the most Miss Universe winners?
A: Well, Isler marks Click: the seventh Miss Universe to come out of Venezuela = Venezuelan crowned Miss Universe in Moscow ceremony October 9, 2013
But there's one country that has produced eight winners. U.S.A
(FYI: Puerto Rico, which sends its own delegate, has won five*) times.) *) Latinas
F.Y.I. = for your information
Q: Does every country have a Miss Universe contestant?
A: Nope. Every year, 80 to 100 countries send women to compete. And the planet has more than 200 sovereign states on it. For example, this year's Miss Universe pageant did not contain a Miss Albania, Miss Armenia, Miss North Korea, or Miss Bahrain. There is also an opening for a Miss Bhutan, if you're thinking of maybe launching the franchise there.
Click green for further info
Source: Internet news
____________________________________________
Black Pastor Speaks Frankly to Blacks About Trayvon Martin
"On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient*)? And expedience comes along and asks the question, is it political? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular--- but one must take it because it's right," said Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.
Well what I am about to say is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but what I believe is right.
*) expedient = Convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral
Blackness seems to be defined as a belief that in the black community you cannot be lied to by our so-called self imposed leaders and the news media. If either one of them says something, we put all our trust in it as the truth, and we act upon that truth regardless of the repercussions.
Truth can stand regardless if anyone believes in it or not, but a lie cannot stand unless someone has faith in it. So what is the truth about the Martin and Zimmerman case? Where do you want to stand and what side of this are you choosing? Laws will never accomplish what Jesus can accomplish with changed hearts in all people of all colors.
When you have a young black boy who is killed by what some are calling a white Hispanic, and Jackson and Sharpton
(of the PPA or the Poverty Pimps of America), and a liberal media involved, you have the equivalent of nitroglycerin.
Oh by the way, I never heard of "white Hispanic" before but I guess this fits the bill in this case. This incident only needed someone to light the fuse. Why is this true because black people are involved?
I believe Dr. James Manning hit it on the head when he said that black people have a difficult time accepting truth simply because they are black. That's right, black people are involved and it is impossible for the average black person to believe the truth. They refuse to believe that a black boy could be in the wrong when it comes to a white Hispanic. Blackness is the apex of victimhood and our blackness is above truth, above our Christianity, above our God, above our Holy Spirit, so that means if our blackness is above the Holy Spirit, then it is above Truth. This is so important for everyone to know this so they can understand why this Trayvon and Zimmerman case is where it is today and why blacks refuse to believe what really happened.
Let's see if we can figure out what really happened that night that Trayvon and Zimmerman met.
I have been told that the medical report revealed Trayvon had marijuana in his system that night. Someone told me if you smoke marijuana you can get the munchies and feel paranoid. So the reason may be that he was out late to get his munchies on and since he may have been a little paranoid, he could have been acting a little suspicious. That is what got Zimmerman's attention in the first place and then add the time of night, then the fact there were other robberies in the neighborhood, and Zimmerman was the head of neighborhood watch. Zimmerman got out of his truck and did not go back as soon as he was told. However, he was going back to his truck and it was then that Trayvon that came back to confront George.
The reason Trayvon attacked George is because he thought George might be a rapist and not a racist. That's right a rapist my friends, because of what Rachael Jeantel said on the Piers Morgan Show. She said she told him to run if a grown man is following you because he may be a rapist (not racist) so that is why he would not continue to go home. He turned back to confront Zimmerman because he probably did not want him to follow him home with his little brother being there.
On The Piers Morgan Show, Rachael Jeantel said that Trayvon attacked George first because that is what you do in the hood.
Now black people will not accept that because their leaders and the media said it was a racially motivated confrontation. They are living black and just can't help themselves.
This reminds me of an incident when I was in college. My professor got so mad at me in one of my freshman biology classes during a lesson on evolution. She said this is how the world was formed and I said how do you know that? She went on to explain the big bang theory and I then asked where did that concept come from? She said that atoms collided and I asked where did the atoms come from?
You get the idea and at the end of class it was obvious she was angry at this black freshman challenging this white professor in a class in 1970. She waited and the last day she was talking about genes. She looked at me and said if your genes are recessive then you are white and if your genes are dominant you are black and there is nothing you can do about it. Can you believe that shot over the bow at me? Wow I guess I have to give her some kudos because it seems that if you are black then there is nothing you can do about thinking this way.
It seems that being black allows us to not look at the truth even when it is screaming in our face because we just can't help ourselves. It is hard to believe that blacks can be guilty of wrongdoing in our society. You know when you look at the truth of blacks making up 30 percent of the population and yet the majority of those incarcerated are black men and women. Can someone please tell me if it is not true that in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and New York that blacks are killing blacks, you know, black on black crime? In those cities blacks perpetrate serious crimes with guns over 70 per cent of the time. Now don't miss that comparison of 30 percent of the population committing over 70 percent of all crimes in our largest cities. There are many blacks who think whitey wants to get rid of us and the way we are killing each other the only thing they have to do is get out of the way and we will accomplish that ourselves. Then it does seem logical that most of the people that are in jail would be black.
Don't turn me off because this is a conversation we must have. Black people will never be the great people that we truly are until we put Jesus above our blackness.
No one is innocent of this racial divide if we don't do something to promote change. I am not talking about more talking; I am talking about doing.
Do you have friends that don't look like you? Does everyone in your church look, talk, and sound alike? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone, to get in someone else's comfort, to teach them how to get out of their comfort zone? Are you willing to help change the conversation about racism and then do what you talk about? Are you willing to do it God's way like Jesus did in his time when there was just as great a racial divide as we are facing today?
Remember what you are speaks so loud I can't hear a word you say.
Click green for further info
Source:
Dr. Ken Hutcherson is Senior Pastor of Antioch Bible Church outside Seattle. He is a former Seattle Seahawk and Dallas Cowboy linebacker who lives with his family in Redmond, Washington.
_______________________________________________
"On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient*)? And expedience comes along and asks the question, is it political? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular--- but one must take it because it's right," said Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.
Well what I am about to say is neither safe, nor polite, nor popular, but what I believe is right.
*) expedient = Convenient and practical, although possibly improper or immoral
Blackness seems to be defined as a belief that in the black community you cannot be lied to by our so-called self imposed leaders and the news media. If either one of them says something, we put all our trust in it as the truth, and we act upon that truth regardless of the repercussions.
Truth can stand regardless if anyone believes in it or not, but a lie cannot stand unless someone has faith in it. So what is the truth about the Martin and Zimmerman case? Where do you want to stand and what side of this are you choosing? Laws will never accomplish what Jesus can accomplish with changed hearts in all people of all colors.
When you have a young black boy who is killed by what some are calling a white Hispanic, and Jackson and Sharpton
(of the PPA or the Poverty Pimps of America), and a liberal media involved, you have the equivalent of nitroglycerin.
Oh by the way, I never heard of "white Hispanic" before but I guess this fits the bill in this case. This incident only needed someone to light the fuse. Why is this true because black people are involved?
I believe Dr. James Manning hit it on the head when he said that black people have a difficult time accepting truth simply because they are black. That's right, black people are involved and it is impossible for the average black person to believe the truth. They refuse to believe that a black boy could be in the wrong when it comes to a white Hispanic. Blackness is the apex of victimhood and our blackness is above truth, above our Christianity, above our God, above our Holy Spirit, so that means if our blackness is above the Holy Spirit, then it is above Truth. This is so important for everyone to know this so they can understand why this Trayvon and Zimmerman case is where it is today and why blacks refuse to believe what really happened.
Let's see if we can figure out what really happened that night that Trayvon and Zimmerman met.
I have been told that the medical report revealed Trayvon had marijuana in his system that night. Someone told me if you smoke marijuana you can get the munchies and feel paranoid. So the reason may be that he was out late to get his munchies on and since he may have been a little paranoid, he could have been acting a little suspicious. That is what got Zimmerman's attention in the first place and then add the time of night, then the fact there were other robberies in the neighborhood, and Zimmerman was the head of neighborhood watch. Zimmerman got out of his truck and did not go back as soon as he was told. However, he was going back to his truck and it was then that Trayvon that came back to confront George.
The reason Trayvon attacked George is because he thought George might be a rapist and not a racist. That's right a rapist my friends, because of what Rachael Jeantel said on the Piers Morgan Show. She said she told him to run if a grown man is following you because he may be a rapist (not racist) so that is why he would not continue to go home. He turned back to confront Zimmerman because he probably did not want him to follow him home with his little brother being there.
On The Piers Morgan Show, Rachael Jeantel said that Trayvon attacked George first because that is what you do in the hood.
Now black people will not accept that because their leaders and the media said it was a racially motivated confrontation. They are living black and just can't help themselves.
This reminds me of an incident when I was in college. My professor got so mad at me in one of my freshman biology classes during a lesson on evolution. She said this is how the world was formed and I said how do you know that? She went on to explain the big bang theory and I then asked where did that concept come from? She said that atoms collided and I asked where did the atoms come from?
You get the idea and at the end of class it was obvious she was angry at this black freshman challenging this white professor in a class in 1970. She waited and the last day she was talking about genes. She looked at me and said if your genes are recessive then you are white and if your genes are dominant you are black and there is nothing you can do about it. Can you believe that shot over the bow at me? Wow I guess I have to give her some kudos because it seems that if you are black then there is nothing you can do about thinking this way.
It seems that being black allows us to not look at the truth even when it is screaming in our face because we just can't help ourselves. It is hard to believe that blacks can be guilty of wrongdoing in our society. You know when you look at the truth of blacks making up 30 percent of the population and yet the majority of those incarcerated are black men and women. Can someone please tell me if it is not true that in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and New York that blacks are killing blacks, you know, black on black crime? In those cities blacks perpetrate serious crimes with guns over 70 per cent of the time. Now don't miss that comparison of 30 percent of the population committing over 70 percent of all crimes in our largest cities. There are many blacks who think whitey wants to get rid of us and the way we are killing each other the only thing they have to do is get out of the way and we will accomplish that ourselves. Then it does seem logical that most of the people that are in jail would be black.
Don't turn me off because this is a conversation we must have. Black people will never be the great people that we truly are until we put Jesus above our blackness.
No one is innocent of this racial divide if we don't do something to promote change. I am not talking about more talking; I am talking about doing.
Do you have friends that don't look like you? Does everyone in your church look, talk, and sound alike? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone, to get in someone else's comfort, to teach them how to get out of their comfort zone? Are you willing to help change the conversation about racism and then do what you talk about? Are you willing to do it God's way like Jesus did in his time when there was just as great a racial divide as we are facing today?
Remember what you are speaks so loud I can't hear a word you say.
Click green for further info
Source:
Dr. Ken Hutcherson is Senior Pastor of Antioch Bible Church outside Seattle. He is a former Seattle Seahawk and Dallas Cowboy linebacker who lives with his family in Redmond, Washington.
_______________________________________________
Weakening "Violence Against Women Act" betrays immigrant victims
STAF, Inc. President, Dr. Christian's comment:
Where is the "Violence Against Men Act"? No where - the lack of it betrays the truth: About 50 % of domestic violence is done by women, about 65 % of all child abuse is done by women.
Throughout the US, on the court room walls, one can see a big question "Was HE violent today?"
Where is the question "Was SHE violent today?"
This is a problematic attitude - the truth must be told - not fiction.
As one of the leading organizations in all family issues,
Save The American Family - STAF, Inc. will educate the nation in all important family matters and also educate all D.C. people, The U.S. Congress & Senate, The White House, The President, and all related Federal agencies.
The D.C. lawmakers and lawmakers anywhere in the U.S. can create correct and reasonable laws only based on facts, not fiction.
Most lawmakers and most other people in our nation do not know the facts.
Most people have the myth belief that "only" men are violent and the women are the victims. VERY WRONG.
About 50 % of domestic violence is done by women, about 65 % of all child abuse is done by women.
___________________
Weakening "Violence Against Women Act" betrays immigrant victims
By: Mark Shurtleff and Doug Gansler
Politico
by Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, is attorney general of Utah.
Doug Gansler, a Democrat, is attorney general of Maryland.
September 11, 2012
All women who have lived through violence and abuse should have the certainty that the law will protect them — no matter their race, creed, color, religion or immigration status. Unfortunately, Congress is now considering proposals that would erode this certainty — and its failure to act is already causing harm.
We urge congressional leaders to move forward now to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, without provisions harmful to immigrants.
As long-time law enforcement leaders, we know this act is crucial. Since passage in 1994, it has helped cut domestic violence by more than half. Still, the scourge of domestic violence remains a serious problem: One in four women experiences an act of domestic violence or sexual assault in her lifetime, and three women die every day at the hands of abusive husbands or partners.
Rates of trafficking women — often from one abusive context to another — are also alarmingly high. Roughly 100,000 survivors of human trafficking live in the United States today, according to the State Department, whose estimates suggest as many as 17,500 foreign-born victims are illegally brought in each year.
We need every available tool to fight these serious crimes, so we fully support reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act — but not in a dangerously altered form that would harm vulnerable immigrant women.
We don’t use “dangerously” lightly. When the House sought reauthorization, legislators made changes that dramatically roll back important protections for battered immigrant women and their children — leaving them vulnerable to abuse and, worse, death at the hands of an abuser.
Several House provisions would further endanger immigrant survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. These provisions would leave them no legal way to break the cycle of violence in which they are trapped and leave law enforcement no way to bring perpetrators to justice. The changes, for example, would discourage immigrant survivors from calling the police, for fear of immigration issues — so police can’t intervene and save their lives.
For many of these women, immigration status is one more weapon that abusers use to intimidate them. Abusers often threaten, “You can’t call the police. They’ll just deport you.”
Under the existing law, our response is clear: “He’s wrong. You’re safe.” If we certify that a victim was helpful to law enforcement during an investigation, she can seek special legal immigration status — known as a U visa.
But the House bill would make this visa temporary and take away an immigrant survivor’s incentive to come forward. “He’s wrong; you’re safe” would be replaced with the far less reassuring message “You’ll have to wait and see.”
What kind of person does the U visa help? Consider “Stephanie,” an immigrant living in Maryland who lacked work authorization. She had already been sexually harassed by work supervisors when a stranger followed her into a room in the building where she was working and tried to rape her. Stephanie was able to fight him off and immediately reported the incident to police, who found the man nearby and arrested him.
After reporting the terrible crime, Stephanie learned she would be eligible for a U visa for her cooperation with police and the state’s attorney. Her assistance helped get a rapist off the streets. Today, Stephanie has her U visa and is confident and self-supporting.
The House bill would silence thousands of women like Stephanie and derail our efforts to put their attackers behind bars. Worse, it would further endanger some of the very women whom the Violence Against Women Act is meant to help.
In late August, we received a reminder of reauthorization’s urgency. Our immigration authorities announced that they had reached the limit of 10,000 U visas for the current fiscal year, leaving a six-week gap before the new fiscal year brings a fresh allotment. In the meantime, lives are at risk.
The Senate’s bipartisan reauthorization bill would increase that visa limit to 15,000, a significant boost for law enforcement and public safety.
The law enforcement community now has 17 years of experience with the Violence Against Women Act and has used it successfully to combat human trafficking, sexual assault and domestic violence. We have relied on it to protect survivors of all stripes and hold their abusers accountable.
These abusers don’t differentiate by race, creed, color, religion or immigration status. In seeking justice for survivors, neither should we.
The House version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization seeks to turn a bipartisan concern for abuse survivors into a partisan wedge. Congress must not let partisanship stand in the way of our work to protect all women, and their families, from harm.
Source:
Politico
by Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, is attorney general of Utah. Doug Gansler, a Democrat, is attorney general of Maryland.
This article is for your private use, only
_______________________________
STAF, Inc. President, Dr. Christian's comment:
Where is the "Violence Against Men Act"? No where - the lack of it betrays the truth: About 50 % of domestic violence is done by women, about 65 % of all child abuse is done by women.
Throughout the US, on the court room walls, one can see a big question "Was HE violent today?"
Where is the question "Was SHE violent today?"
This is a problematic attitude - the truth must be told - not fiction.
As one of the leading organizations in all family issues,
Save The American Family - STAF, Inc. will educate the nation in all important family matters and also educate all D.C. people, The U.S. Congress & Senate, The White House, The President, and all related Federal agencies.
The D.C. lawmakers and lawmakers anywhere in the U.S. can create correct and reasonable laws only based on facts, not fiction.
Most lawmakers and most other people in our nation do not know the facts.
Most people have the myth belief that "only" men are violent and the women are the victims. VERY WRONG.
About 50 % of domestic violence is done by women, about 65 % of all child abuse is done by women.
___________________
Weakening "Violence Against Women Act" betrays immigrant victims
By: Mark Shurtleff and Doug Gansler
Politico
by Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, is attorney general of Utah.
Doug Gansler, a Democrat, is attorney general of Maryland.
September 11, 2012
All women who have lived through violence and abuse should have the certainty that the law will protect them — no matter their race, creed, color, religion or immigration status. Unfortunately, Congress is now considering proposals that would erode this certainty — and its failure to act is already causing harm.
We urge congressional leaders to move forward now to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, without provisions harmful to immigrants.
As long-time law enforcement leaders, we know this act is crucial. Since passage in 1994, it has helped cut domestic violence by more than half. Still, the scourge of domestic violence remains a serious problem: One in four women experiences an act of domestic violence or sexual assault in her lifetime, and three women die every day at the hands of abusive husbands or partners.
Rates of trafficking women — often from one abusive context to another — are also alarmingly high. Roughly 100,000 survivors of human trafficking live in the United States today, according to the State Department, whose estimates suggest as many as 17,500 foreign-born victims are illegally brought in each year.
We need every available tool to fight these serious crimes, so we fully support reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act — but not in a dangerously altered form that would harm vulnerable immigrant women.
We don’t use “dangerously” lightly. When the House sought reauthorization, legislators made changes that dramatically roll back important protections for battered immigrant women and their children — leaving them vulnerable to abuse and, worse, death at the hands of an abuser.
Several House provisions would further endanger immigrant survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. These provisions would leave them no legal way to break the cycle of violence in which they are trapped and leave law enforcement no way to bring perpetrators to justice. The changes, for example, would discourage immigrant survivors from calling the police, for fear of immigration issues — so police can’t intervene and save their lives.
For many of these women, immigration status is one more weapon that abusers use to intimidate them. Abusers often threaten, “You can’t call the police. They’ll just deport you.”
Under the existing law, our response is clear: “He’s wrong. You’re safe.” If we certify that a victim was helpful to law enforcement during an investigation, she can seek special legal immigration status — known as a U visa.
But the House bill would make this visa temporary and take away an immigrant survivor’s incentive to come forward. “He’s wrong; you’re safe” would be replaced with the far less reassuring message “You’ll have to wait and see.”
What kind of person does the U visa help? Consider “Stephanie,” an immigrant living in Maryland who lacked work authorization. She had already been sexually harassed by work supervisors when a stranger followed her into a room in the building where she was working and tried to rape her. Stephanie was able to fight him off and immediately reported the incident to police, who found the man nearby and arrested him.
After reporting the terrible crime, Stephanie learned she would be eligible for a U visa for her cooperation with police and the state’s attorney. Her assistance helped get a rapist off the streets. Today, Stephanie has her U visa and is confident and self-supporting.
The House bill would silence thousands of women like Stephanie and derail our efforts to put their attackers behind bars. Worse, it would further endanger some of the very women whom the Violence Against Women Act is meant to help.
In late August, we received a reminder of reauthorization’s urgency. Our immigration authorities announced that they had reached the limit of 10,000 U visas for the current fiscal year, leaving a six-week gap before the new fiscal year brings a fresh allotment. In the meantime, lives are at risk.
The Senate’s bipartisan reauthorization bill would increase that visa limit to 15,000, a significant boost for law enforcement and public safety.
The law enforcement community now has 17 years of experience with the Violence Against Women Act and has used it successfully to combat human trafficking, sexual assault and domestic violence. We have relied on it to protect survivors of all stripes and hold their abusers accountable.
These abusers don’t differentiate by race, creed, color, religion or immigration status. In seeking justice for survivors, neither should we.
The House version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization seeks to turn a bipartisan concern for abuse survivors into a partisan wedge. Congress must not let partisanship stand in the way of our work to protect all women, and their families, from harm.
Source:
Politico
by Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, is attorney general of Utah. Doug Gansler, a Democrat, is attorney general of Maryland.
This article is for your private use, only
_______________________________
President Obama announced an executive action
to permit hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants to remain in this country
For Many Immigrants, Policy Offers Joy and Relief
By IAN LOVETT - LOS ANGELES
Ana Sochitl graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, on Saturday, with a degree in sociology. But until Friday, she had worried that even after she threw her cap into the air, she would be stuck at her job at a taco shop, the price of having immigrated here illegally at age 4.
But a day after President Obama announced an executive action to permit hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants to remain in this country, Ms. Sochitl said that instead of a life working at a taco shop, she was going to look for a job that uses her degree, working in a rehabilitation center.
“Before this, I wondered what I was going to do with my life,” said Ms. Sochitl, 21. “This is opening a door for me. Now I can get a job that uses my degree. I can do something with myself.”
For many immigrants here, especially students like Ms. Sochitl, Mr. Obama’s announcement on Friday, 6/15/12 of his plan to offer work permits to some illegal immigrants under 30 years old who came to the United States before age 16, unleashed a wave of joy and relief, undercut with wariness about if and how the policy might be implemented. The policy does not grant any permanent legal status.
At the taco shop where Ms. Sochitl works in Boyle Heights, a center of Latino culture in Los Angeles and a home to immigrants from all over the world, everyone knew someone who stood to benefit from the new policy.
Even patrons who were already citizens, like María Cano, who came here from Mexico in 1979, reacted with emotion as they named cousins or neighbors who might now be able to stay in the country legally.
“Immigrants have helped build this society for many, many years, and I think it’s time that we were recognized and given a chance,” Ms. Cano, 46, said, tearing up as she spoke. “I know so many people whose parents brought them here illegally, who went to school and started working here. And now there is finally hope for them.”
For Ms. Cano, like many others in this solidly Democratic neighborhood, the new policy reaffirms her plans to support Mr. Obama in November.
But even in this area, some other Latinos had grown frustrated with the president, as immigration reform efforts stalled in Congress.
Vilma Berrios, who immigrated from El Salvador in 1975 and is now a citizen, voted for Mr. Obama in 2008. As she sat in MacArthur Park, another gathering place for immigrants, she spoke of her conflicted feelings.
She said she did not support Mr. Obama anymore, because so many people had been deported under his administration. But she added that if he followed through on the promises he made Friday, she would vote for him again.
“I have to think about who I’m going to vote for,” Ms. Berrios, 59, said in Spanish. “If he completes what he promised today, I will vote for him. It’s very important. But I want immigration reform that will benefit everyone.”
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said Friday’s announcement had the potential to reinvigorate enthusiasm for Mr. Obama among many Latinos.
“It is a game changer for him,” Ms. Salas said. “It is very motivating. It kind of keeps the hope people had for this president alive.”
Still, after years of disappointment in efforts to change immigration laws, some remained skeptical, reserving their excitement until they saw how the new policy would be implemented.
“We heard the news, and it’s great, but it’s just a first step,” said Maxima Guerrero, 22, a college student who wore a shirt that read, “I Am Undocumented” to a rally in downtown Los Angeles. “When I see it in action, then I’ll say, ‘This is fantastic.’ For now, we’re just getting the ball rolling.”
And most important, Ms. Guerrero said, the new policy did not at all diminish the need for comprehensive immigration reform — a sentiment that nearly everyone in East Los Angeles echoed.
José Pérez, 60, runs the farmers’ market in Boyle Heights with his wife and daughter. On Friday night at the market, as a singer on stage crooned in Spanish and locals perused stands selling cherries, tamales and handmade jewelry, Mr. Pérez said he hoped that eventually, a new immigration policy would offer legal status to everyone in his community.
“I know so many people who graduate, and then that’s it; they can’t do nothing,” Mr. Pérez said. “This is a country of immigrants. Why don’t we help these people who need to be helped?”
______________________
Source:
The New York Times
June 17, 2012
Obama immigration shift a hit with voters, says new poll
Source:
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News, 6/19/12
President Barack Obama's highprofile shift on immigration last week —announcing plans to grant
temporary legal status to as many as 800,000 undocumented people brought to American soil as children--
has the overwhelming support of likely voters in a new Bloomberg poll released Tuesday, 6/19/12.
Sixty-four percent of them—and 66 percent of independents, the frequently up-for-grabs voters thought to decide elections—support the president's decision. The White House has forcefully (and rather implausibly) denied that Obama
sought political gain from his announcement.
But as recently as
March 2011, he had said publicly that he lacked the power to halt such deportations.
The Bloomberg survey found that just 30 percent of likely voters disagreed with the president's plan. Fifty-six percent of
likely Republican voters opposed it, while 86 percent of Democrats supported it. Just 26 percent of independents sided with the Republican majority in the poll.
The results surely cheered Obama's re-election campaign, which has been working to reassemble the victorious coalition that powered his history-making 2008 win—but it faces an uphill fight in the face of deep pessimism about the economy.
The poll, which had an error margin of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, also showed that immigration was the top issue of just 4 percent of voters—the sputtering recovery tops that list in every survey of public opinion.Obama enjoys a lopsided advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney among Latinos. But while they are the fastest-growing voting bloc and could decide the outcome in pivotal battleground states like Colorado, Florida and Nevada, Latinos have the lowest voter registration numbers of any major ethnic group in the United States.
That means the president must energize them enough to register—and then encourage them to show up on Nov. 6, 2012.
The challenge—and the stakes—are evident in Florida. A whopping 638,000 Latinos there are eligible to vote but have not registered, according to a recent report by the Obama-aligned Center for American Progress think tank in Washington. That's enough to make the difference in the Sunshine State.
Both Romney and Obama are due to visit Florida this week to address the National Association.
___________________
Source:
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News, 6/19/12
President Barack Obama's highprofile shift on immigration last week —announcing plans to grant
temporary legal status to as many as 800,000 undocumented people brought to American soil as children--
has the overwhelming support of likely voters in a new Bloomberg poll released Tuesday, 6/19/12.
Sixty-four percent of them—and 66 percent of independents, the frequently up-for-grabs voters thought to decide elections—support the president's decision. The White House has forcefully (and rather implausibly) denied that Obama
sought political gain from his announcement.
But as recently as
March 2011, he had said publicly that he lacked the power to halt such deportations.
The Bloomberg survey found that just 30 percent of likely voters disagreed with the president's plan. Fifty-six percent of
likely Republican voters opposed it, while 86 percent of Democrats supported it. Just 26 percent of independents sided with the Republican majority in the poll.
The results surely cheered Obama's re-election campaign, which has been working to reassemble the victorious coalition that powered his history-making 2008 win—but it faces an uphill fight in the face of deep pessimism about the economy.
The poll, which had an error margin of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, also showed that immigration was the top issue of just 4 percent of voters—the sputtering recovery tops that list in every survey of public opinion.Obama enjoys a lopsided advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney among Latinos. But while they are the fastest-growing voting bloc and could decide the outcome in pivotal battleground states like Colorado, Florida and Nevada, Latinos have the lowest voter registration numbers of any major ethnic group in the United States.
That means the president must energize them enough to register—and then encourage them to show up on Nov. 6, 2012.
The challenge—and the stakes—are evident in Florida. A whopping 638,000 Latinos there are eligible to vote but have not registered, according to a recent report by the Obama-aligned Center for American Progress think tank in Washington. That's enough to make the difference in the Sunshine State.
Both Romney and Obama are due to visit Florida this week to address the National Association.
___________________
Deferred action program could legalize 1.8 million young immigrants
8/8/12 News
As many as 1.76 million young illegal immigrants could qualify for temporary legal status under President Obama's deferred action program, says a new report from the Migration Policy Institute. That's more than double the Obama administration's initial estimate of 800,000 people who would benefit from the program.
The new number reflects the Obama administration's updated guidelines released last Friday depicting who qualifies for the temporary legal status. Initially, only young illegal immigrants under 30 who entered the country as children, graduated from high school and had no criminal record would make the cut. Now, young people who didn't graduate or receive their G.E.D. can still apply for the legal status as long as they re-enroll in high school by the time they apply.
The government will begin accepting applications online on August 15, and administration officials said the nearly $500 application fee will completely pay for the administrative costs of reviewing the applications. Those accepted will also get work permits, and will have to renew their legal status every two years.
____________________________
8/8/12 News
As many as 1.76 million young illegal immigrants could qualify for temporary legal status under President Obama's deferred action program, says a new report from the Migration Policy Institute. That's more than double the Obama administration's initial estimate of 800,000 people who would benefit from the program.
The new number reflects the Obama administration's updated guidelines released last Friday depicting who qualifies for the temporary legal status. Initially, only young illegal immigrants under 30 who entered the country as children, graduated from high school and had no criminal record would make the cut. Now, young people who didn't graduate or receive their G.E.D. can still apply for the legal status as long as they re-enroll in high school by the time they apply.
The government will begin accepting applications online on August 15, and administration officials said the nearly $500 application fee will completely pay for the administrative costs of reviewing the applications. Those accepted will also get work permits, and will have to renew their legal status every two years.
____________________________
How will Obama’s deferred action plan affect the economy?
8/10/12 Yahoo News
As many as 1.76 million young people could benefit from the Obama administration's deferred action program, which gives illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children relief from deportation and a temporary work permit. But what will the influx of new legal workers mean for the U.S. economy and government coffers?
Starting next Wednesday, the deferred action program lets people aged 30 years old or younger who were brought to the country when they were children apply for a two-year work permit and temporary legal status. (Applicants can't apply for permanent legal status or citizenship.) The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that about 620,000 adults ages 18 to 30 would meet the requirements--the rest of the 1.76 million illegal immigrants who qualify are under 18. Eighty thousand of the potential applicants have a bachelor's or associates degree already, and another 140,000 are currently enrolled in college.
While no formal estimates of the economic impact yet exist, Jeanne Batalova, who studies the program as part of her work at MPI, believes that the net effect will be positive. The program most likely will result in increased tax revenues because authorized workers are less apt to be paid under the table. These new, legal workers will thus be more prone to pay into Social Security and Medicare, programs they will probably never have access to unless Congress passes an immigration reform bill.
"When people work legally it creates better opportunities for everyone because it reduces the likelihood that employers will be turning to undocumented workers," Batalova said.
The lure of a work permit may also encourage more immigrants to stay in school and get their high school diploma, which would also mean higher future wages (and thus, higher tax revenues) than if they dropped out. And for the 220,000 young illegal immigrants who already have an associate's or bachelor's degree or are on their way to one, the work permit will probably help them get a better, higher-paying job that's more aligned with their skill level.
Overall, Batalova would expect that the new permits would have little effect on people who are already legally working, mostly because the number of permits is small compared to the total workforce, and because 60 percent of the eligible illegal immigrant adults are already working.
"While there might be some negative impact on individual people...we don't expect to see a drastic impact on a certain group or in a certain geographic location," she said.
But not everyone agrees with this assessment. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies tells Yahoo News that because the majority of those eligible for the work permits do not have a college degree he expects their legal status will have little impact on tax revenue. The reason: Lesser-educated workers tend to have lower incomes on average. "By legalizing them you might get more money for Social Security, but [you] might pay more out in [low-income tax credits]," he said.
The work permits will make it harder for American citizens who don't have a college degree--a group that already faces a high unemployment rate--to compete for jobs, says Camarota. The Center on Immigration Studies advocates for reduced legal immigration levels and encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country through more aggressive enforcement of existing laws.
The administrative costs of the program are less clear. The Department of Homeland Security could need to hire as many as 1,400 new staff to handle the volume of applications, according to the Associated Press; but administration officials told reporters last week that they expect the $465 application fee to cover the costs.
MORE COVERAGE FROM YAHOO! NEWS
8/10/12 Yahoo News
As many as 1.76 million young people could benefit from the Obama administration's deferred action program, which gives illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children relief from deportation and a temporary work permit. But what will the influx of new legal workers mean for the U.S. economy and government coffers?
Starting next Wednesday, the deferred action program lets people aged 30 years old or younger who were brought to the country when they were children apply for a two-year work permit and temporary legal status. (Applicants can't apply for permanent legal status or citizenship.) The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that about 620,000 adults ages 18 to 30 would meet the requirements--the rest of the 1.76 million illegal immigrants who qualify are under 18. Eighty thousand of the potential applicants have a bachelor's or associates degree already, and another 140,000 are currently enrolled in college.
While no formal estimates of the economic impact yet exist, Jeanne Batalova, who studies the program as part of her work at MPI, believes that the net effect will be positive. The program most likely will result in increased tax revenues because authorized workers are less apt to be paid under the table. These new, legal workers will thus be more prone to pay into Social Security and Medicare, programs they will probably never have access to unless Congress passes an immigration reform bill.
"When people work legally it creates better opportunities for everyone because it reduces the likelihood that employers will be turning to undocumented workers," Batalova said.
The lure of a work permit may also encourage more immigrants to stay in school and get their high school diploma, which would also mean higher future wages (and thus, higher tax revenues) than if they dropped out. And for the 220,000 young illegal immigrants who already have an associate's or bachelor's degree or are on their way to one, the work permit will probably help them get a better, higher-paying job that's more aligned with their skill level.
Overall, Batalova would expect that the new permits would have little effect on people who are already legally working, mostly because the number of permits is small compared to the total workforce, and because 60 percent of the eligible illegal immigrant adults are already working.
"While there might be some negative impact on individual people...we don't expect to see a drastic impact on a certain group or in a certain geographic location," she said.
But not everyone agrees with this assessment. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies tells Yahoo News that because the majority of those eligible for the work permits do not have a college degree he expects their legal status will have little impact on tax revenue. The reason: Lesser-educated workers tend to have lower incomes on average. "By legalizing them you might get more money for Social Security, but [you] might pay more out in [low-income tax credits]," he said.
The work permits will make it harder for American citizens who don't have a college degree--a group that already faces a high unemployment rate--to compete for jobs, says Camarota. The Center on Immigration Studies advocates for reduced legal immigration levels and encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country through more aggressive enforcement of existing laws.
The administrative costs of the program are less clear. The Department of Homeland Security could need to hire as many as 1,400 new staff to handle the volume of applications, according to the Associated Press; but administration officials told reporters last week that they expect the $465 application fee to cover the costs.
MORE COVERAGE FROM YAHOO! NEWS
Marco Rubio says he would come to the US illegally if he had to
Source:
By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News
6/19/12
Hypothetically, if Sen. Marco Rubio were not an American citizen and could not
provide food for his family, he says he would cross the border illegally to come to
the United States.
While discussing immigration policy in his new memoir, "An American Son,"
Rubio (R-Fla.) called for "common decency" in dealing with undocumented
immigrants and said that if put in a similar position as those who are fleeing
destitution, he would break the law, too.
"Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we
lived in a country where we couldn't feed our families," Rubio writes in his book,
which went on sale Tuesday. "If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn't give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn't a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here."
[Related: Rubio to Obama: Call me maybe?]
Rubio, a member of a political party that has largely opposed efforts to extend a path to citizenship to those in the country
without documentation, has been crafting his own version of an immigration reform bill that would let some children of
undocumented immigrants avoid being deported.
[Related: Faith a major theme in Rubio's memoir]
Rubio is considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent the primary season voicing opposition to an immigration plan that would give those who came illegally permanent residency.
_________________
Source:
By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News
6/19/12
Hypothetically, if Sen. Marco Rubio were not an American citizen and could not
provide food for his family, he says he would cross the border illegally to come to
the United States.
While discussing immigration policy in his new memoir, "An American Son,"
Rubio (R-Fla.) called for "common decency" in dealing with undocumented
immigrants and said that if put in a similar position as those who are fleeing
destitution, he would break the law, too.
"Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we
lived in a country where we couldn't feed our families," Rubio writes in his book,
which went on sale Tuesday. "If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn't give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn't a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here."
[Related: Rubio to Obama: Call me maybe?]
Rubio, a member of a political party that has largely opposed efforts to extend a path to citizenship to those in the country
without documentation, has been crafting his own version of an immigration reform bill that would let some children of
undocumented immigrants avoid being deported.
[Related: Faith a major theme in Rubio's memoir]
Rubio is considered a possible vice presidential running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who spent the primary season voicing opposition to an immigration plan that would give those who came illegally permanent residency.
_________________
This is for your personal use, only
Yahoo News 8/16/12
Young illegal immigrants flood Manhattan church
for deferred action applications
Hundreds of young illegal immigrants crowded a Roman Catholic Church basement on Manhattan's Lower East Side Wednesday to apply for President Barack Obama's deferred action program, which will shield them from deportation and provide a two-year work permit. Today is the first day applications are being accepted.
Some showed up at 6 a.m. to make sure they got a spot at the pro-bono legal clinic organized by a coalition of immigrant rights groups. It opened at noon, and by 12:45 at least a hundred people waited their turn outside, even when it began to pour down rain.
Cheerful volunteers sat down with applicants one-on-one to ask how old they were when they entered the country, if they've graduated from high school and whether they've had any run-ins with the law. Those who entered at 15 years old or younger, graduated from or are enrolled in high school and have never committed any serious crimes were given the OK to fill out the forms and pay the $465 application fee to the government.
"Once the door is open, it's not going to close," said New York City Councilman Robert Jackson at a celebratory press conference in the church. "This is what America's about," added Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Local politicians praised Obama for enacting the plan. Some national Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have criticized the move as an overreach that circumvents Congress and have accused Obama of enacting the program to cater to Latino voters in an election year.
As many as 1.7 million young people between the ages of 5 and 30 may qualify for the program, 110,000 of them in New York state. Though about 85 percent of those eligible are Hispanic, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the applicants at St. Mary's Church hailed from all over the world. On one table, a passport from the United Kingdom and one from Pakistan lay side by side.
The owner of the U.K. passport, a 20-year-old woman who asked Yahoo News not to use her name since she hasn't received deferred status, said she came to America with her mother and sister when she was 9. She graduated from high school, but hasn't been able to go to college because she can't afford it without financial aid, for which she is ineligible. Her former high school guidance counselor let her know about the deferred action program and encouraged her to apply; she hopes to major in business administration.
"I think [the program] makes sense because so many young children, they come and it's not our decision to come, and I feel that now we're here and we stayed here so long, we shouldn't have to struggle for a decision our parents made," she said. "We should be allowed to have the same rights as other children. We all went to school together, so it's not fair that they get to go on and pursue things and we just get left behind."
Arma, a 22-year-old woman from Brooklyn who arrived in America from Pakistan when she was 14, says the deferred status may help her achieve her dream of becoming a commercial pilot. "It really feels good that I can [continue] my college and ... work properly," she said. Arma says now that she will be able to work, she can afford to take more classes at Vaughn College in Flushing, where she's a part-time sophomore. She hopes to now attend classes full-time.
Twenty-eight year old James from St. Vincent, a small Caribbean island, clutched an umbrella outside the church. James said he hasn't been able to work since he overstayed his visa when he was 11. He's taking a test to become a certified substance abuse counselor and is excited about being able to apply for jobs if he passes. "It's been a horrible experience. You have to live in fear," said James' 21-year-old sister, who came along to support her brother (she declined to give her name). She recently became a legal permanent resident through her aunt, who is a citizen and sponsored her. "I don't have to worry about my brother anymore," she said.
_______________________________
Yahoo News 8/16/12
Young illegal immigrants flood Manhattan church
for deferred action applications
Hundreds of young illegal immigrants crowded a Roman Catholic Church basement on Manhattan's Lower East Side Wednesday to apply for President Barack Obama's deferred action program, which will shield them from deportation and provide a two-year work permit. Today is the first day applications are being accepted.
Some showed up at 6 a.m. to make sure they got a spot at the pro-bono legal clinic organized by a coalition of immigrant rights groups. It opened at noon, and by 12:45 at least a hundred people waited their turn outside, even when it began to pour down rain.
Cheerful volunteers sat down with applicants one-on-one to ask how old they were when they entered the country, if they've graduated from high school and whether they've had any run-ins with the law. Those who entered at 15 years old or younger, graduated from or are enrolled in high school and have never committed any serious crimes were given the OK to fill out the forms and pay the $465 application fee to the government.
"Once the door is open, it's not going to close," said New York City Councilman Robert Jackson at a celebratory press conference in the church. "This is what America's about," added Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Local politicians praised Obama for enacting the plan. Some national Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have criticized the move as an overreach that circumvents Congress and have accused Obama of enacting the program to cater to Latino voters in an election year.
As many as 1.7 million young people between the ages of 5 and 30 may qualify for the program, 110,000 of them in New York state. Though about 85 percent of those eligible are Hispanic, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the applicants at St. Mary's Church hailed from all over the world. On one table, a passport from the United Kingdom and one from Pakistan lay side by side.
The owner of the U.K. passport, a 20-year-old woman who asked Yahoo News not to use her name since she hasn't received deferred status, said she came to America with her mother and sister when she was 9. She graduated from high school, but hasn't been able to go to college because she can't afford it without financial aid, for which she is ineligible. Her former high school guidance counselor let her know about the deferred action program and encouraged her to apply; she hopes to major in business administration.
"I think [the program] makes sense because so many young children, they come and it's not our decision to come, and I feel that now we're here and we stayed here so long, we shouldn't have to struggle for a decision our parents made," she said. "We should be allowed to have the same rights as other children. We all went to school together, so it's not fair that they get to go on and pursue things and we just get left behind."
Arma, a 22-year-old woman from Brooklyn who arrived in America from Pakistan when she was 14, says the deferred status may help her achieve her dream of becoming a commercial pilot. "It really feels good that I can [continue] my college and ... work properly," she said. Arma says now that she will be able to work, she can afford to take more classes at Vaughn College in Flushing, where she's a part-time sophomore. She hopes to now attend classes full-time.
Twenty-eight year old James from St. Vincent, a small Caribbean island, clutched an umbrella outside the church. James said he hasn't been able to work since he overstayed his visa when he was 11. He's taking a test to become a certified substance abuse counselor and is excited about being able to apply for jobs if he passes. "It's been a horrible experience. You have to live in fear," said James' 21-year-old sister, who came along to support her brother (she declined to give her name). She recently became a legal permanent resident through her aunt, who is a citizen and sponsored her. "I don't have to worry about my brother anymore," she said.
_______________________________
Arizona's Response to the Deferred Action, 8/15/12:
Arizona governor: no public benefits for young immigrants
By David Schwartz | Reuters, 8/16/12
This is for your personal use, only
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer, in yet another clash with the White House, issued an order on Wednesday, 8/15/12, barring illegal immigrants who qualify for temporary legal status in the United States from receiving any state or local public benefits.
The action was a response to relaxed deportation rules issued by the Obama administration on Wednesday.
Brewer, whose state has been at the center of the country's immigration debate, issued an executive order denying state or
local benefits to immigrants applying under the new federal immigration rules. The order would bar them from obtaining an
Arizona driver's license or a state-issued identification card.
As many as 1.7 million people could qualify for the temporary federal program, which enables certain illegal immigrants to
apply for work permits, Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Applying for "deferred action for child arrivals" permits will shield some young illegal immigrants from being ousted from
the United States for at least two years. In Arizona, officials said an estimated 80,000 illegal immigrants were eligible to
apply.
To qualify, recipients must have been younger than 16 years old upon arrival; currently not older than 30; have lived in the
country since June 15, 2007; and have no felony convictions.
Thousands of eager, young undocumented students swamped immigration offices in states with large immigrant
populations like California and Texas on Wednesday.
Brewer wrote in the order that the new program "does not confer upon them any lawful or authorized status and does not
entitle them to any additional public benefits."
She said she was reaffirming the intent of current Arizona laws, and preventing "significant and lasting impacts on the
Arizona budget, its health care system and additional public benefits that Arizona taxpayers fund."
Arizona passed a tough immigration crackdown in 2010 to try to drive illegal immigrants from the state. In June, the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld its most controversial provision requiring police to check the immigration status of people they stop if
they suspect they are in the country illegally. The law has yet to be implemented.
Carlos Garcia, director of the grassroots community group Puente in Phoenix, called the governor's move on Wednesday a
"mean-spirited attack" on a well-meaning program.
"Brewer has once again put Arizona's name on the map as the epicenter of anti-immigrant racism and hate," Garcia said in a
statement. "However, like we have continuously showed throughout her time as governor, the community will stand united
against Brewer's latest assault."
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Stacey Joyce)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
_____________________________
Arizona governor: no public benefits for young immigrants
By David Schwartz | Reuters, 8/16/12
This is for your personal use, only
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer, in yet another clash with the White House, issued an order on Wednesday, 8/15/12, barring illegal immigrants who qualify for temporary legal status in the United States from receiving any state or local public benefits.
The action was a response to relaxed deportation rules issued by the Obama administration on Wednesday.
Brewer, whose state has been at the center of the country's immigration debate, issued an executive order denying state or
local benefits to immigrants applying under the new federal immigration rules. The order would bar them from obtaining an
Arizona driver's license or a state-issued identification card.
As many as 1.7 million people could qualify for the temporary federal program, which enables certain illegal immigrants to
apply for work permits, Social Security cards and driver's licenses, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Applying for "deferred action for child arrivals" permits will shield some young illegal immigrants from being ousted from
the United States for at least two years. In Arizona, officials said an estimated 80,000 illegal immigrants were eligible to
apply.
To qualify, recipients must have been younger than 16 years old upon arrival; currently not older than 30; have lived in the
country since June 15, 2007; and have no felony convictions.
Thousands of eager, young undocumented students swamped immigration offices in states with large immigrant
populations like California and Texas on Wednesday.
Brewer wrote in the order that the new program "does not confer upon them any lawful or authorized status and does not
entitle them to any additional public benefits."
She said she was reaffirming the intent of current Arizona laws, and preventing "significant and lasting impacts on the
Arizona budget, its health care system and additional public benefits that Arizona taxpayers fund."
Arizona passed a tough immigration crackdown in 2010 to try to drive illegal immigrants from the state. In June, the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld its most controversial provision requiring police to check the immigration status of people they stop if
they suspect they are in the country illegally. The law has yet to be implemented.
Carlos Garcia, director of the grassroots community group Puente in Phoenix, called the governor's move on Wednesday a
"mean-spirited attack" on a well-meaning program.
"Brewer has once again put Arizona's name on the map as the epicenter of anti-immigrant racism and hate," Garcia said in a
statement. "However, like we have continuously showed throughout her time as governor, the community will stand united
against Brewer's latest assault."
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Stacey Joyce)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
_____________________________
Obama’s DREAM Act-lite runs into more trouble
By Patrik Jonsson | Christian Science Monitor
This is for your private use, only
8/19/12
Nebraska has joined Arizona in opposing legal status for immigrants who are newly-documented under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, setting up a constitutional battle while raising tough questions about the program.
Two days after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer declared her state won’t confer driver’s licenses and other state benefits to newlydocumented immigrants under Obama’s “deferred action” immigration policy, Nebraska, too, put its foot down.
Echoing Gov. Brewer, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) said on Saturday that Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program does not make successful applicants “legal citizens,” meaning they remain ineligible for state benefits like driver’s licenses and other services.
The deferred action plan, which took effect on Wednesday, could make as many as 1.7 illegal immigrants eligible for
“deferred action” status, meaning they’re eligible to receive work papers and driver’s licenses. Applicants have to be no more than 31 years old, must have arrived in the US before the age of 16, and have no major crimes on their record.
The opposition stances taken by Nebraska and Arizona seem to at least partially challenge federal law, specifically the 2005 Real ID Act, which lists “deferred action” recipients as being eligible for driver’s licenses.
Experts, however, admit there are gray areas in the Real ID Act, especially as neither Arizona nor Nebraska lawmakers have ratified it. That means the moves by the two states amount to a “Constitutional throwdown,” according to Michael Olivas, an immigration law expert at the University of Houston, who also suggests the driver’s license ban is “just sheer political pandering to largely nativist and restrictionist forces.”
But as legal battles loom, the moves by the two governors do have the potential to more immediately undermine Obama’s new immigration policy.
Indeed, state opposition isn’t the only concern for applicants. While thousands lined up this week for help to apply, some
Hispanic groups are concerned that immigration authorities may – despite the President’s orders and assurances of
anonymity – use the information to find and deport family members.
It’s not clear whether the program would continue ifMitt Romney wins the presidency.
Nebraska and Arizona likely have over 100,000 eligible illegal immigrants within their borders.
The move by Brewer drew sharp rebukes from some legal scholars, activists, and Democratic lawmakers.
“Jan Brewer has once again shown that she is nothing more than George Wallace in a skirt," Jeff Rogers, the chair of the
Pima County Democratic Party, told reporters in Arizona. "What's next? Will she personally stand outside the Motor Vehicle office and block entry to qualified 'DREAMers'?"
George Wallace is the late Alabama governor who made his “stand in the schoolhouse door” at the University of Alabama to block African-American students from entering, and who, upon his inauguration, insisted, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
Harsh as it is, the Wallace analogy will ring true for many Americans. But it also suggests another underlying problem with Obama’s policy.
In the case of Wallace, he was challenging Congress. In the case of Arizona and Nebraska, the governors are challenging
what some conservatives see as an extra-constitutional gambit orchestrated by Obama alone as a way to implement the failed DREAM Act through bureaucratic fiat.
That debate is one that Brewer and Heineman may be trying to force Obama to have ahead of the election, says Mark
Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “It’s a broader challenge to the government … and also makes sense for electoral purposes,” he says.
But not all Republicans are on board. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who lost ground in the presidential primaries after
sympathizing with the plight of illegal immigrants, has criticized the policy, but has not taken action against it.
In fact,
Texas is currently one of only a few states that allow in-state tuition at public universities for illegal immigrants.
And therein lays one big test for Obama’s new immigration policy. In order for “deferred action” immigrants to get in-state tuition benefits – a key selling point – the bulk of state legislatures will have to pass legislation to make that possible.
At the very least, the moves by Arizona and Nebraska suggest that the state-by-state debate over what some are calling
DREAM Act-lite will continue and likely intensify.
____________________________________
Battle far from over for immigrants who get deferrals
MIAMI/LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
This is for your personal use, only
The Obama administration's new policy to grant temporary legal status to millions of young illegal immigrants will end the immediate threat of deportation but may not give them the same privileges as legal residents.
Within hours of the policy's going into effect on Wednesday,Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, issued an executive order denying public benefits such as driver's licenses to illegal immigrants who are given temporary legal status.
The move by Arizona, which has already clashed with the federal government over a tough immigration crackdown the state passed in 2010, marks its latest challenge to the federal government on immigration policy, with the potential for other states to follow suit.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican, issued a statement on Friday saying the state will continue to deny driver's licenses, welfare benefits and other public benefits to illegal immigrants even if they are granted temporary legal status.
Most states, with California and Texas the notable exceptions, deny in-state tuition rates at public universities to illegal immigrants and that won't change for those getting deferrals unless states take action on their own.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, criticized the Obama policy but appeared to stop short of barring "deferred action" immigrants from obtaining licenses.
Beneficiaries of the new policy should be able to obtain licenses in most states -- Arizona and Nebraska being exceptions.
The larger-than-expected numbers of youths lining up to claim the two-year "deferred action" are stretching the capacity of immigrant advocacy groups to handle requests for assistance.
The Obama administration says the new policy is part of an effort to transform immigration enforcement by focusing resources on the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
The new rules, dubbed "deferred action for childhood arrivals," shield illegal immigrants aged 15 to 30 from deportation for at least two years and allow them to obtain work permits.
To be eligible, immigrants must have been younger than 16 when they came to the United States, have lived in the country since June 15, 2007, and have not been convicted of a felony. Applicants must also be enrolled in high school or have successfully graduated.
The federal policy change has been warmly received by Latino leaders but has been derided by some Republicans as "backdoor amnesty" designed to please Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.
TUITION TROUBLES
In Florida, Monica Lazaro, 19, recognizes "the perks" that come with being able to live openly in the United States without facing the threat of deportation.
She doesn't want to sound ungrateful for the work permit, driver's license and Social Security card she can now obtain in Florida. But that still won't help her achieve her educational goals.
"I'm not going to complain, but I still don't know how I'm going to finish my education," said Lazaro, who was 9 when she came to the United States from Honduras.
Lazaro graduated from high school in Miami with college credits, and with the help of an anonymous benefactor enrolled as a biology major in Miami Dade College's honors program.
Without the financial support of her mystery benefactor, she could not afford the fall tuition of $6,300, she said. But she worries what will happen after she completes her two-year associate's degree next summer.
"After that I'm back in the limbo," she said. "Deferred action is just a small stepping stone in the right direction."
Lazaro's mother died of cancer in June at age 40 and her father can't afford to send her to a university at out-of-state rates. Her dream is to go to medical school to study to be a doctor, but only permanent residents can practice medicine. The same applies to practicing law or teaching.
Federal law would have to change for Lazaro to be eligible for in-state tuition in Florida, said Diane McCain, director of external relations for the state's university system.
Under federal law, states are only obliged to provide basic services such as emergency health and K-12 education, said Ann Morse, director of the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"If we are not going to support them after K through 12 what do we do with them?" she asked. "This decision by the administration really brings that to the fore."
DEMAND FOR SERVICES
While a dozen states have expressed interest in providing support, such as in-state college tuition rates, to the children of illegal immigrants, others have rejected the idea. A Maryland law that makes illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition has been held up pending a referendum vote in November.
"For years we've tried to persuade the Florida legislature," said Cheryl Little, director of the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice. "It's a huge problem. That's why the Dream Act is so necessary," she added, referring to legislation stalled in Congress that would put students who areillegal immigrants on a path to permanent residency.
While immigration advocates welcome the relaxed rules they now find themselves overwhelmed by the demand for their services from immigrants seeking advice on how to file. "We are stretched to the limit," said Little, noting some have trouble scraping together the $465 filing fee.
At the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), where a crowd of more than 1,000 young illegal immigrants and their parents flooded the offices on Wednesday seeking advice on applying for a deferral, spokesman Jorge-Mario Cabrera said the turnout was five times greater than expected.
"This is historic," said CHIRLA organizer Antonio Bernabe, adding that his group had not seen so many people seeking advice since a federal amnesty program in 1986.
As many as 950,000 people currently qualify for the temporary program, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. That number could rise to 1.7 million when factoring in youths under 15 who could qualify in the future, as well as dropouts who could qualify by re-enrolling in school, the group said.
When the Obama administration announced the new policy in June it estimated that only 800,000 would be eligible.
"You just don't know when you are dealing with people who are undocumented," said Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "These are mostly people who have been living in the shadows."
(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)
_______________________________________
MIAMI/LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
This is for your personal use, only
The Obama administration's new policy to grant temporary legal status to millions of young illegal immigrants will end the immediate threat of deportation but may not give them the same privileges as legal residents.
Within hours of the policy's going into effect on Wednesday,Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, issued an executive order denying public benefits such as driver's licenses to illegal immigrants who are given temporary legal status.
The move by Arizona, which has already clashed with the federal government over a tough immigration crackdown the state passed in 2010, marks its latest challenge to the federal government on immigration policy, with the potential for other states to follow suit.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican, issued a statement on Friday saying the state will continue to deny driver's licenses, welfare benefits and other public benefits to illegal immigrants even if they are granted temporary legal status.
Most states, with California and Texas the notable exceptions, deny in-state tuition rates at public universities to illegal immigrants and that won't change for those getting deferrals unless states take action on their own.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, criticized the Obama policy but appeared to stop short of barring "deferred action" immigrants from obtaining licenses.
Beneficiaries of the new policy should be able to obtain licenses in most states -- Arizona and Nebraska being exceptions.
The larger-than-expected numbers of youths lining up to claim the two-year "deferred action" are stretching the capacity of immigrant advocacy groups to handle requests for assistance.
The Obama administration says the new policy is part of an effort to transform immigration enforcement by focusing resources on the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
The new rules, dubbed "deferred action for childhood arrivals," shield illegal immigrants aged 15 to 30 from deportation for at least two years and allow them to obtain work permits.
To be eligible, immigrants must have been younger than 16 when they came to the United States, have lived in the country since June 15, 2007, and have not been convicted of a felony. Applicants must also be enrolled in high school or have successfully graduated.
The federal policy change has been warmly received by Latino leaders but has been derided by some Republicans as "backdoor amnesty" designed to please Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.
TUITION TROUBLES
In Florida, Monica Lazaro, 19, recognizes "the perks" that come with being able to live openly in the United States without facing the threat of deportation.
She doesn't want to sound ungrateful for the work permit, driver's license and Social Security card she can now obtain in Florida. But that still won't help her achieve her educational goals.
"I'm not going to complain, but I still don't know how I'm going to finish my education," said Lazaro, who was 9 when she came to the United States from Honduras.
Lazaro graduated from high school in Miami with college credits, and with the help of an anonymous benefactor enrolled as a biology major in Miami Dade College's honors program.
Without the financial support of her mystery benefactor, she could not afford the fall tuition of $6,300, she said. But she worries what will happen after she completes her two-year associate's degree next summer.
"After that I'm back in the limbo," she said. "Deferred action is just a small stepping stone in the right direction."
Lazaro's mother died of cancer in June at age 40 and her father can't afford to send her to a university at out-of-state rates. Her dream is to go to medical school to study to be a doctor, but only permanent residents can practice medicine. The same applies to practicing law or teaching.
Federal law would have to change for Lazaro to be eligible for in-state tuition in Florida, said Diane McCain, director of external relations for the state's university system.
Under federal law, states are only obliged to provide basic services such as emergency health and K-12 education, said Ann Morse, director of the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"If we are not going to support them after K through 12 what do we do with them?" she asked. "This decision by the administration really brings that to the fore."
DEMAND FOR SERVICES
While a dozen states have expressed interest in providing support, such as in-state college tuition rates, to the children of illegal immigrants, others have rejected the idea. A Maryland law that makes illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition has been held up pending a referendum vote in November.
"For years we've tried to persuade the Florida legislature," said Cheryl Little, director of the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice. "It's a huge problem. That's why the Dream Act is so necessary," she added, referring to legislation stalled in Congress that would put students who areillegal immigrants on a path to permanent residency.
While immigration advocates welcome the relaxed rules they now find themselves overwhelmed by the demand for their services from immigrants seeking advice on how to file. "We are stretched to the limit," said Little, noting some have trouble scraping together the $465 filing fee.
At the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), where a crowd of more than 1,000 young illegal immigrants and their parents flooded the offices on Wednesday seeking advice on applying for a deferral, spokesman Jorge-Mario Cabrera said the turnout was five times greater than expected.
"This is historic," said CHIRLA organizer Antonio Bernabe, adding that his group had not seen so many people seeking advice since a federal amnesty program in 1986.
As many as 950,000 people currently qualify for the temporary program, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. That number could rise to 1.7 million when factoring in youths under 15 who could qualify in the future, as well as dropouts who could qualify by re-enrolling in school, the group said.
When the Obama administration announced the new policy in June it estimated that only 800,000 would be eligible.
"You just don't know when you are dealing with people who are undocumented," said Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "These are mostly people who have been living in the shadows."
(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)
_______________________________________
Asians have surpassed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants
to the United States - according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
Source:
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News, 6/19/12
The study, called "The Rise of Asian Americans" and released on Tuesday, reveals that Asian-Americans also have the highest income, are the best educated and are the fastest-growing racial group in America.
About 430,000 Asians—or 36 percent of all new immigrants—arrived in the United States in 2010, according to U.S. census data. About 370,000, or 31 percent, were Hispanic.
[Related: U.S. Census: Minority babies now majority, surpassing whites for first time]
The wave of incoming Asians pushed the total number of Asian-Americans to a record 18.2 million, or 5.8 percent of the total U.S. population, according to census data. By comparison, non-Hispanic whites (197.5 million) account for 63.3 of the U.S. population, while Hispanics (52 million) and non-Hispanic blacks (38.3 million) account for 16.7 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively.
The influx of Asians reflects "a slowdown in illegal immigration while American employers increase their demand for high-skilled workers," the Associated Press said.
(Pew)
"The educational credentials of these recent [Asian] arrivals are striking," the report said. Sixty-one percent of 25-to-64-year-old Asian immigrants come with at least a bachelor's degree—more than double non-Asian immigrants, making the recent Asian arrivals "the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history."
[Also read: The full Pew report]
The study also found that Asian-Americans are "more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place a greater value on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success."
Last month, data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that there were more minority children born in the United States than whites for the first time in history—signaling what the Washington Post called "the dawn of an era in which whites no longer will be in the majority."
According to the census report, 50.4 percent of children born in a 12-month period that ended July 2011 were Hispanic, black, Asian-American or from other minority groups, while non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in that span. In 2010, minority babies accounted for 49.5 percent of all births.
_______________________
to the United States - according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
Source:
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News, 6/19/12
The study, called "The Rise of Asian Americans" and released on Tuesday, reveals that Asian-Americans also have the highest income, are the best educated and are the fastest-growing racial group in America.
About 430,000 Asians—or 36 percent of all new immigrants—arrived in the United States in 2010, according to U.S. census data. About 370,000, or 31 percent, were Hispanic.
[Related: U.S. Census: Minority babies now majority, surpassing whites for first time]
The wave of incoming Asians pushed the total number of Asian-Americans to a record 18.2 million, or 5.8 percent of the total U.S. population, according to census data. By comparison, non-Hispanic whites (197.5 million) account for 63.3 of the U.S. population, while Hispanics (52 million) and non-Hispanic blacks (38.3 million) account for 16.7 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively.
The influx of Asians reflects "a slowdown in illegal immigration while American employers increase their demand for high-skilled workers," the Associated Press said.
(Pew)
"The educational credentials of these recent [Asian] arrivals are striking," the report said. Sixty-one percent of 25-to-64-year-old Asian immigrants come with at least a bachelor's degree—more than double non-Asian immigrants, making the recent Asian arrivals "the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in U.S. history."
[Also read: The full Pew report]
The study also found that Asian-Americans are "more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place a greater value on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success."
Last month, data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that there were more minority children born in the United States than whites for the first time in history—signaling what the Washington Post called "the dawn of an era in which whites no longer will be in the majority."
According to the census report, 50.4 percent of children born in a 12-month period that ended July 2011 were Hispanic, black, Asian-American or from other minority groups, while non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in that span. In 2010, minority babies accounted for 49.5 percent of all births.
_______________________
Bush wades into immigration debate,
says immigrants ‘invigorate our soul’
Former President George W. Bush made a rare foray into public policy on Tuesday when he urged the nation's leaders to take a "benevolent" approach to reforming the nation's immigration system.
Bush, who has maintained a low political profile since departing office four years ago, spoke briefly about immigration at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a talk that was part of a daylong conference on immigration and the economy.
"America can become a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time," Bush said, (Click:) according to the Texas Tribune. "As our nation debates the proper course of action on immigration reform, I hope we do so with a benevolent spirit and keep in mind the contributions of immigrants.
"Not only do immigrants help build the economy, they invigorate our soul," Bush added.
Bush has said one of his major regrets about his presidency is that he did not manage to pass immigration reform. In 2007, he hammered out a deal that would have put millions of illegal immigrants in the country on a lengthy path to citizenship. The measure died in the Senate when Bush couldn't persuade enough members of his own party to vote to consider it.
Immigration reform is again a hot topic in Congress after President Barack Obama won more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in November. Some leading Republicans have said the party must address reform in order to stay competitive with the growing demographic. Last week, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would give young illegal immigrants visas if they join the military. So far, it's faced criticism from immigrant groups, who say they won't accept reform bills that don't provide full citizenship.
This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________________________
says immigrants ‘invigorate our soul’
Former President George W. Bush made a rare foray into public policy on Tuesday when he urged the nation's leaders to take a "benevolent" approach to reforming the nation's immigration system.
Bush, who has maintained a low political profile since departing office four years ago, spoke briefly about immigration at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a talk that was part of a daylong conference on immigration and the economy.
"America can become a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time," Bush said, (Click:) according to the Texas Tribune. "As our nation debates the proper course of action on immigration reform, I hope we do so with a benevolent spirit and keep in mind the contributions of immigrants.
"Not only do immigrants help build the economy, they invigorate our soul," Bush added.
Bush has said one of his major regrets about his presidency is that he did not manage to pass immigration reform. In 2007, he hammered out a deal that would have put millions of illegal immigrants in the country on a lengthy path to citizenship. The measure died in the Senate when Bush couldn't persuade enough members of his own party to vote to consider it.
Immigration reform is again a hot topic in Congress after President Barack Obama won more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in November. Some leading Republicans have said the party must address reform in order to stay competitive with the growing demographic. Last week, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would give young illegal immigrants visas if they join the military. So far, it's faced criticism from immigrant groups, who say they won't accept reform bills that don't provide full citizenship.
This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________________________
Education: A Predictor of Longer Life - below
STAF,Inc.'s: Comment to this article:
Excellent level of information . Knowledge, yes: applied knowledge, is the key to a long life.
The article below refers to the level and length of our education (High School, College, University) and shows: the broader the education the better choices we make and the longer we stay healthy and the longer we live.
The same principle applies to becoming financially rich. Education & applied knowledge is power.
STAF,Inc.'s: Comment to this article:
Excellent level of information . Knowledge, yes: applied knowledge, is the key to a long life.
The article below refers to the level and length of our education (High School, College, University) and shows: the broader the education the better choices we make and the longer we stay healthy and the longer we live.
The same principle applies to becoming financially rich. Education & applied knowledge is power.
Education: A Predictor of Longer Life
By Philip Moeller
U.S.News & World Report
This is for your personal use, only
If you want to know how long you will live, you might stop fretting over genetics and family history and instead look at your educational achievements. Education is certainly not the only variable associated with longer lives, but it may be the most powerful.
[See Top 10 U.S. Places for Healthcare.]
Recent study findings published in the journal Health Affairs present a remarkable update to the already considerable research showing education to be a powerful predictor of longer life spans.
"The lifelong relationships of education and its correlates with health and longevity are striking," the article said. "Education exerts its direct beneficial effects on health through the adoption of healthier lifestyles, better ability to cope with stress, and more effective management of chronic diseases. However, the indirect effects of education through access to more privileged social position, better-paying jobs, and higher income are also profound."
While the findings are good news for educated Americans, they also indicate that medical and lifestyle breakthroughs that have triggered the much-publicized longevity revolution are not being enjoyed by less-educated Americans whose lifespans have fallen further behind over time. This trend has implications for the debate about raising the Social Security retirement age. It also adds a compelling mortality tale to the economic costs of the nation's falling educational-achievement levels compared with other nations.
Within U.S. racial groups, educational achievement is associated with significant longevity benefits. But compared across racial groups, the longevity gap is even greater, which indicates continued race-based differences in how long Americans live. The Health Affairs article was co-authored by 15 leading academic experts in aging and longevity. The research was conducted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society.
[See 10 Things Aging Americans Want.]
"We found that in 2008 U.S. adult men and women with fewer than twelve years of education had life expectancies not much better than those of all adults in the 1950s and 1960s," the article said. "When race and education are combined, the disparity is even more striking."
Within racial and ethnic groups, there was a pronounced longevity benefit when comparing people with 16 or more years of school with those with less than 12 years. Among women, the differences in life expectancy at birth were 10.4 years among whites, 6.5 years among blacks, and 2.9 years for Hispanics. Among men, the gaps were 12.9 years among whites, 9.7 years among blacks, and 5.5 years for Hispanics.
But the differences were more striking across all racial groups. "White U.S. men and women with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancies far greater than black Americans with fewer than 12 years of education--14.2 years more for white men than black men, and 10.3 years more for white women than black women," the article said.
"These gaps have widened over time and have led to at least two 'Americas,' if not multiple others, in terms of life expectancy, demarcated by level of education and racial-group membership." Compared with similar 1990 measures, by 2008, the gap among men had widened by nearly a year, and among women, by more than two-and-a-half years.
[See Tips on Social Security Spousal Benefits.]
"The current life expectancy at birth for U.S. blacks with fewer than twelve years of education is equivalent to the life expectancy observed in the 1960s and 1970s for all people in the United States, but blacks' longevity has been improving with time," the article said.
That hasn't been the case for whites. "White males with fewer than twelve years of education currently have a life expectancy at birth equivalent to that of all men in the United States born in 1972, while white females with similar education have the life expectancy of all women in the country born in 1964," it added. "And the longevity of these white males and females is growing worse over time."
The impact of education on lifespans is so powerful, the authors said, that improving people's health and lifestyle behaviors alone "are not likely to have a major impact on disparities in longevity." The authors called on policymakers to "implement educational enhancements at young, middle, and older ages for people of all races, to reduce the large gap in health and longevity that persists today."
More From US News & World Report
By Philip Moeller
U.S.News & World Report
This is for your personal use, only
If you want to know how long you will live, you might stop fretting over genetics and family history and instead look at your educational achievements. Education is certainly not the only variable associated with longer lives, but it may be the most powerful.
[See Top 10 U.S. Places for Healthcare.]
Recent study findings published in the journal Health Affairs present a remarkable update to the already considerable research showing education to be a powerful predictor of longer life spans.
"The lifelong relationships of education and its correlates with health and longevity are striking," the article said. "Education exerts its direct beneficial effects on health through the adoption of healthier lifestyles, better ability to cope with stress, and more effective management of chronic diseases. However, the indirect effects of education through access to more privileged social position, better-paying jobs, and higher income are also profound."
While the findings are good news for educated Americans, they also indicate that medical and lifestyle breakthroughs that have triggered the much-publicized longevity revolution are not being enjoyed by less-educated Americans whose lifespans have fallen further behind over time. This trend has implications for the debate about raising the Social Security retirement age. It also adds a compelling mortality tale to the economic costs of the nation's falling educational-achievement levels compared with other nations.
Within U.S. racial groups, educational achievement is associated with significant longevity benefits. But compared across racial groups, the longevity gap is even greater, which indicates continued race-based differences in how long Americans live. The Health Affairs article was co-authored by 15 leading academic experts in aging and longevity. The research was conducted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society.
[See 10 Things Aging Americans Want.]
"We found that in 2008 U.S. adult men and women with fewer than twelve years of education had life expectancies not much better than those of all adults in the 1950s and 1960s," the article said. "When race and education are combined, the disparity is even more striking."
Within racial and ethnic groups, there was a pronounced longevity benefit when comparing people with 16 or more years of school with those with less than 12 years. Among women, the differences in life expectancy at birth were 10.4 years among whites, 6.5 years among blacks, and 2.9 years for Hispanics. Among men, the gaps were 12.9 years among whites, 9.7 years among blacks, and 5.5 years for Hispanics.
But the differences were more striking across all racial groups. "White U.S. men and women with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancies far greater than black Americans with fewer than 12 years of education--14.2 years more for white men than black men, and 10.3 years more for white women than black women," the article said.
"These gaps have widened over time and have led to at least two 'Americas,' if not multiple others, in terms of life expectancy, demarcated by level of education and racial-group membership." Compared with similar 1990 measures, by 2008, the gap among men had widened by nearly a year, and among women, by more than two-and-a-half years.
[See Tips on Social Security Spousal Benefits.]
"The current life expectancy at birth for U.S. blacks with fewer than twelve years of education is equivalent to the life expectancy observed in the 1960s and 1970s for all people in the United States, but blacks' longevity has been improving with time," the article said.
That hasn't been the case for whites. "White males with fewer than twelve years of education currently have a life expectancy at birth equivalent to that of all men in the United States born in 1972, while white females with similar education have the life expectancy of all women in the country born in 1964," it added. "And the longevity of these white males and females is growing worse over time."
The impact of education on lifespans is so powerful, the authors said, that improving people's health and lifestyle behaviors alone "are not likely to have a major impact on disparities in longevity." The authors called on policymakers to "implement educational enhancements at young, middle, and older ages for people of all races, to reduce the large gap in health and longevity that persists today."
More From US News & World Report
- Best U.S. States to Live-in 2032
- Updating Your Retirement-Savings Calculations
- Making the Most of a Disappointing Retirement Nest Egg
- _________________________________________
Identity of Famous 19th-Century Brain Discovered
This article shows an important part for the development of the modern science knowledge
Click green for further info
The identity of a mysterious patient who helped scientists pinpoint the brain region responsible for language has been discovered, researchers report.
The new finding, detailed in the January issue of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, identifies the famous patient asMonsieur Louis Leborgne, a French craftsman who battled epilepsy his entire life.
Wordless patient
In 1840, a wordless patient was admitted to the Bicêtre Hospital outside Paris for aphasia, or an inability to speak. He was essentially just kept there, slowly deteriorating. It wasn't until 1861 that the man, who came to be known as Monsieur Leborgne, or "Tan," for his only spoken word, came to the famous physician Paul Broca's ward at the hospital.
Shortly after the meeting, Leborgne died, and Broca performed his autopsy. During the autopsy, Broca found a lesion in a region of the brain tucked back and up behind the eyes.
Paradigm shift(Added: definition for 'paradigm shift': Your view point or your perspective towards a particular thing completely changes in flash of a time. That’s Paradigm shift.)
At the time, scientists were debating whether specific areas of the brain performed specific functions, or whether it was an undifferentiated lump that did one task, like the liver, said Marjorie Lorch, a neurolinguist at Birkbeck, University of London, who was not involved in the study.
"Tan was the first patient whose case proved that damage to a specific part of the brain causes specific speech disorders," said study author Cezary Domanski, a medical historian at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Poland.
Life reconstructed
Yet Tan's identity remained shrouded in mystery. Most historians believed he was a poor, illiterate laborer, while others said he had gone mad from syphilis and that madness could explain his inability to speak. To discover just who he was, Domanski began to retrace the man's history.
"It was a challenge, for 150 years no one could even determine the name of the man —the same man whose brain is exhibited in a museum and shown in many books," Domanski wrote in an email.
But looking through the old medical records, he finally uncovered a death certificate for Louis Victor Leborgne, who was born in 1809 in Moret, France.
Domanski then used archival records to discover that Louis Leborgne was one of seven children of a teacher (his father) and his wife, and that his siblings were educated. He moved to Paris as a child.
Leborgne had apparently suffered epilepsy from childhood. But despite his seizures, he grew up to be a craftsman and a church keeper, and worked there until he was 30 years old, when he lost the ability to speak and was taken to the hospital. Epilepsy likely caused the damage that took away Leborgne's power of speech.
[The 10 Greatest Mysteries of the Mind]
In the hospital, his condition worsened and he eventually became paralyzed and bedridden, and underwent surgery for gangrene. He was dying when Broca first encountered him.
The new discovery gives a very human identity to one of the medical textbooks' most famous cases, Lorch told LiveScience.
"Language, because it was viewed at that time in Europe as a God-given ability in humans, it was considered part of the soul and therefore not material," Lorch said. "This case was the case that really established the whole area of research on functional organization of the brain."
Paradigm shift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A paradigm shift (or revolutionary science) is, according to Thomas Kuhn, in his .... He defines what he means by "paradigm" and introduces the idea of a "social ...
- Image Gallery: Einstein's Brain
- The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions
- 7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments Click green for further info ______________________________________________________________________________ ========================================================================== What America's Forests Looked Like Before Europeans Arrived Click green for further info European settlers transformed America's Northeastern forests. From historic records and fossils, researchers know the landscape and plants are radically different today than they were 400 years ago.But little direct evidence exists to prove which tree species filled the forests before they were cleared for fields and fuel. Swamp-loving plants, like sedges*) and tussocks**, are the fossil survivors, not delicate leaves from hardwood trees. *) sedges =any rushlike or grasslike plant of the genus Carex, growing in wet places, **)tussocks = a small area that is covered with long thick grass
- Now, thanks to a rare fossil discovery in the Pennsylvania foothills, scientists can tell the full story of America's lost forests.
The fossil site is a muddy layer packed with leaves from hardwood trees that lived more than 300 years ago along Conestoga Creek in Lancaster County, Pa. The muck was laid down before one of Pennsylvania's 10,000 mill dams, called Denlinger's Mill, was built nearby, damming the stream and burying the mud and leaves in sediment.
Researchers from Penn State University discovered the fossil leaves while investigating the lingering effects of milldams. The thousands of small dams — which powered mills, forges and other industry — changed the water table, altering the plants growing nearby and eventually changing the landscape from wetlands to deeply incised, quickly flowing streams.
Before Europeans arrived, American beech, red oak and sweet birch trees shaded Conestoga Creek, according to a study the researchers published today (Nov. 13) in the journal PLOS ONE. Some 300 years later, those trees are gone. The same spot is now home to mostly box elder and sugar maple trees, said Sara Elliott, the study's lead author and a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology.
Fossil leaves encased in mud preserve the history of pre-European settlement Pennsylvania forests.
This is a very unusual opportunity to compare modern and fossil forest assemblages. It's like you're time traveling.
Elliott carefully peeled apart hundreds of leaves stuck together by mud and layered like a pile of sticky notes. Washing the leaves in a variety of chemical baths helped Elliott determine the leaves' structure and species.
Other kinds of trees found in the fossil layer that have since vanished from North America include the American chestnut, which was attacked by an imported fungal disease called the chestnut blight. Leaves from swamp plants also appear in the mud, confirming that the forested spot was on the upslope edge of a nearby wetland. [Image Gallery: Plants in Danger]
"We had a valley margin forest growing right next to the valley bottom in conjunction with all these wetlands," Elliott said. "I think we really have a rather complete picture now of what the landscape was like in this region."
The three dominant tree species found in the fossil forest leaves still exist today in the Northeast, but in different proportions and in different places, Elliot said.
The scientists hope that identifying similar fossil tree-leaf sites will help the massive milldam restoration projects underway throughout the Northeast. The dams left a legacy of toxic sediment piled up behind their walls, as well as reshaped the landscape.
"Having a more complete and enhanced understanding of this past dynamic and complex landscape will help in restoring an ecologically diverse and functional system," Elliott said.- Nature's Giants: Tallest Trees on Earth
- Images: One-of-a-Kind Places on Earth
- 50 Interesting Facts About The Earth Click green for further info - Source: Internet Life Science __________________________________________________________
U.S. baby's HIV infection cured through very early treatment
Date: 3/4/13
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A baby girl in Mississippi who was born with HIV has been cured after very early treatment with standard HIV drugs, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday, in a potentially ground-breaking case that could offer insights on how to eradicate HIV infection in its youngest victims.
The child's story is the first account of an infant achieving a so-called functional cure, a rare event in which a person achieves remission without the need for drugs and standard blood tests show no signs that the virus is making copies of itself.
More testing needs to be done to see if the treatment would have the same effect on other children, but the results could change the way high-risk babies are treated and possibly lead to a cure for children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who presented the findings at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.
The child's story is different from the now famous case of Timothy Ray Brown, the so-called "Berlin patient," whose HIV infection was completely eradicated through an elaborate treatment for leukemia in 2007 that involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.
"We believe this is our Timothy Brown case to spur research interest toward a cure for HIV infection in children," Persaud said at a news conference.
Instead of Brown's costly treatment, however, the case of the Mississippi baby, who was not identified, involved the use of a cocktail of widely available drugs already used to treat HIV infection in infants.
When the baby girl was born in a rural hospital in July 2010, her mother had just tested positive for HIV infection. Because her mother had not received any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the child was at high risk of infection. They transferred her to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, where she came under the care of Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist.
Because of her risk, Dr. Gay put the infant on a cocktail of three HIV-fighting drugs - zidovudine (also known as AZT), lamivudine, and nevirapine - when she was just 30 hours old. Two blood tests done within the first 48 hours of the child's life confirmed her infection and she was kept on the full treatment regimen, Persaud told reporters at the conference.
In more typical pregnancies, when an HIV-infected mother has been given drugs to reduce the risk of transmission to her child, the baby would only have been given a single drug, nevirapine.
Researchers believe use of the more aggressive antiretroviral treatment when the child was just days old likely resulted in her cure by keeping the virus from forming hard-to-treat pools of cells known as viral reservoirs, which lie dormant and out of the reach of standard medications. These reservoirs rekindle HIV infection in patients who stop therapy, and they are the reason most HIV-infected individuals need lifelong treatment to keep the infection at bay.
10-MONTH GAP
After starting on treatment, the baby's immune system responded and tests showed diminishing levels of the virus until it was undetectable 29 days after birth. The baby received regular treatment for 18 months, but then stopped coming to appointments for a period of about 10 months, when her mother said she was not given any treatment. The doctors did not say why the mother stopped coming.
When the child came back under the care of Dr. Gay, she ordered standard blood tests to see how the child was faring before resuming antiviral therapy.
What she found was surprising. The first blood test did not turn up any detectible levels of HIV. Neither did the second. And tests for HIV-specific antibodies, the standard clinical indicator of HIV infection, also remained negative.
"At that point, I knew I was dealing with a very unusual case," Dr. Gay said.
Baffled, Dr. Gay turned to her friend and longtime colleague, Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts, and she and Persaud did a series of sophisticated lab tests on the child's blood.
The first looked for silent reservoirs of the virus where it remains dormant but can replicate if activated. That is detected in a type of immune cell known as a CD4 T-cell. After culturing the child's cells, they found no sign of the virus.
Then, the team looked for HIV DNA, which indicates that the virus has integrated itself into the genetic material of the infected person. This test turned up such low levels that it was just above the limit of the test's ability to detect it.
The third test looked for bits of genetic material known as viral RNA. They only found a single copy of viral RNA in one of the two tests they ran.
Because there is no detectible virus in the child's blood, the team has advised that she not be given antiretroviral therapy, whose goal is to block the virus from replicating in the blood. Instead, she will be monitored closely.
There are no samples that can be used by other researchers to confirm the findings, which may lead skeptics to challenge how the doctors know for sure that the child was infected.
Persaud said the team is trying to use the tiny scraps of viral genetic material they have been able to gather from the child to compare with the mother's infection, to confirm that the child's infection came from her mother. But, she stressed, the baby had tested positive in two separate blood tests, and there had been evidence of the virus replicating in her blood, which are standard methods of confirming HIV infection.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said although tools to prevent transmission of HIV to infants are available, many children are born infected. "With this case, it appears we may have not only a positive outcome for the particular child, but also a promising lead for additional research toward curing other children," he said.
Dr. Rowena Johnston, vice president and director of research for amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which helped fund the study, said the fact that the cure was achieved by antiretroviral therapy alone makes it "imperative that we learn more about a newborn's immune system, how it differs from an adult's and what factors made it possible for the child to be cured."
Because the child's treatment was stopped, the doctors were able to determine that this child had been cured, raising questions about whether other children who received early treatment and have undetectable viral loads may also be cured without their doctors knowing it.
But the doctors warned parents not to be tempted to take their children off treatment to see if the virus comes back. Normally, when patients stop taking their medications, the virus comes roaring back, and treatment interruptions increase the risk that the virus will develop drug resistance.
"We don't want that," Dr. Gay said. "Patients who are on successful therapy need to stay on their successful therapy until we figure out a whole lot more about what was going on with this child and what we can do for others in the future."
The researchers are trying to find biomarkers that would offer a rationale to consider stopping therapy within the context of a clinical trial. If they can learn what caused the child to clear her virus, they hope to replicate that in other babies, and eventually learn to routinely cure infections.
Source:
The New York TimesJune 17, 2012
Sunday Review, p. 1
Moral Dystopia
By MAUREEN DOWD
EVERYONE is good, until we’re tested.
We hope we would be Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” who dismisses his daughter’s pleas to compromise his ideals and save his life, saying: “When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.”
But with formerly hallowed institutions and icons sinking into a moral dystopia all around us, has our sense of right and wrong grown more malleable? What if we’re not Thomas More but Mike McQueary?
Eight tortured young men offered searing testimony in Bellefonte, Pa., about being abused as children by Jerry Sandusky in the showers at Penn State, in the basement of his home and at hotels.
But the most haunting image in the case is that of a little boy who was never found, who was never even sought by Penn State officials.
In February 2001, McQueary was home one night watching the movie “Rudy,” about a runty football player who achieves his dream of playing at Notre Dame by the sheer force of his gutsy character. McQueary, a graduate assistant coach and former Penn State quarterback, was so inspired that he got up and went over to the locker room to get some tapes of prospective recruits.
There he ran smack into his own character test. The strapping 6-foot-4 redhead told the court he saw his revered boss and former coach reflected in the mirror: Sandusky, Joe Paterno’s right hand, was grinding against a little boy in the shower in an “extremely sexual” position, their wet bodies making “skin-on-skin slapping sounds.” He met their eyes, Sandusky’s blank, the boy’s startled.
“I’ve never been involved in anything remotely close to this,” the 37-year-old McQueary said. “You’re not sure what the heck to do, frankly.”
He was slugging back water from a paper cup, with the bristly air of a man who knows that many people wonder why he didn’t simply stop the rape and call the police instead of leaving to talk it over with his father and a family friend.
Tellingly, he compared the sickening crime to the noncomparable incident of being a college student looking for a bathroom during a party at a frat house, and inadvertently walking into a dark bedroom where a fraternity brother is having sex with a young lady.
He said he felt too “shocked, flustered, frantic” to do anything, adding defensively: “It’s been well publicized that I didn’t stop it. I physically did not remove the young boy from the shower or punch Jerry out.”
He told Paterno the next morning and went along with the mild reining in of Sandusky, who continued his deviant ways.
Put on administrative leave, McQueary has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school. (He was promoted to receivers coach and recruiting coordinator three years after the incident.) “Frankly,” he said, “I don’t think I did anything wrong to lose that job.”
It’s jarring because McQueary looks like central casting for the square-jawed hero who stumbles upon a crime in progress, rescues the child thrilled to hear the footsteps of a savior, and puts an end to the serial preying on disadvantaged kids by a man disguised as the patron saint of disadvantaged kids.
Bellefonte, the town in the shadow of Beaver Stadium, also looks like a Hollywood creation: the perfect sepia slice of rural Americana reflecting old-fashioned values. There’s an Elks Lodge, a Loyal Order of Moose hall, a Rexall drugstore, the Hot Dog House with hand-dipped ice cream, and a nice senior citizen shooing you into the crosswalk. This was a big “American Graffiti” weekend in town: the annual sock hop and hot rod parade.
How could so many fine citizens of this college town ignore the obvious and protect a predator instead of protecting children going through the ultimate trauma: getting raped by a local celebrity offering to be their dream father figure? A Penn State police officer warned Sandusky in 1998 to stop showering with boys; Saint Jerry ignored him.
The first witness for the prosecution, now 28, recalled that Sandusky wooed him starting when he was 12, letting him wear the jersey of the star linebacker LaVar Arrington.
In his Washington Post blog, Arrington, a retired Redskin, wrote that it was “mind-blowing” to hear about the boy’s hurt. He recalled that he had asked the kid, “Why are you always walking around all mad, like a tough guy?”
He assumed that since the boy had been involved with the Second Mile charity, he must be from a troubled home.
“I will never just assume ever again,” he said of dealing with an angry child. “I will always ask, and let them know that it’s O.K. to tell the truth about why they are upset.”
That accuser testified that at the Alamo Bowl, Dottie Sandusky, a good German, came into the hotel room while her husband was in the shower threatening to send the boy home if he would not perform oral sex. Jerry came out and she asked him, “What are you doing in there?” But she soon disappeared.
“She was kind of cold,” the young man recalled. “She wasn’t mean or hateful, nothing like that, just, they’re Jerry’s kids, like that.”
Another accuser, now 18, testified that he screamed when Sandusky raped him in the basement; though Dottie was upstairs, there was no response.
NBC’s Michael Isikoff reported on a secret file discovered in Penn State’s internal investigation, led by Louis Freeh, the former F.B.I. chief. Graham Spanier, a former university president, and Gary Schultz, a former vice president, debated whether they had a legal obligation to report the 2001 shower incident, and in one e-mail, agreed it would be “humane” to Sandusky not to inform social service agencies.
That revoltingly echoes the testimony in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn in Philadelphia, where the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua ordered the shredding of a list of 35 priests believed to be child molesters. Lynn testified that he followed Bevilacqua’s orders not to tell victims if others had accused the same priest of abuse, or to inform parishes of the true reason that perverted priests were removed and recirculated.
When a seminarian told Lynn in 1992 that he was raped all through high school by the monstrous Rev. Stanley Gana, Lynn conceded he let it fall “through the cracks.” He also admitted he “forgot” to tell the police investigating a preying priest that the diocese knew of at least eight more cases.
Yet Lynn claimed he did his “best” for victims.
Inundated by instantaneous information and gossip, do we simply know more about the seamy side? Do greater opportunities and higher stakes cause more instances of unethical behavior? Have our materialism, narcissism and cynicism about the institutions knitting society — schools, sports, religion, politics, banking — dulled our sense of right and wrong?
“Most Americans continue to think of their lives in moral terms; they want to live good lives,” said James Davison Hunter, a professor of religion, culture and social theory at the University of Virginia and the author of “The Death of Character.” “But they are more uncertain about what the nature of the good is. We know more, and as a consequence, we no longer trust the authority of traditional institutions who used to be carriers of moral ideals.
“We used to experience morality as imperatives. The consequences of not doing the right thing were not only social, but deeply emotional and psychological. We couldn’t bear to live with ourselves. Now we experience morality more as a choice that we can always change as circumstances call for it. We tend to personalize our ideals. And what you end up with is a nation of ethical free agents.
“We’ve moved from a culture of character to a culture of personality. The etymology of the word character is that it’s deeply etched, not changeable in all sorts of circumstances. We don’t want to think of ourselves as transgressive or bad, but we tend to personalize our understanding of the good.”
Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor dubbed “the Elvis of cyberlaw” by Wired magazine, was seduced by his rock star choirmaster at the American Boychoir School in Princeton in the 1970s when he was 14 and turned into his supportive “wife,” as he calls it. “It made me really feel like a grown-up. Typically, sex doesn’t have to be terrible.”
In 2004, he represented another victim in a successful lawsuit against the school. He told me that “an astonishing 30 to 40 percent” of his peers there had been abused, “and everybody knew and nobody did anything.” That echoes the horror at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx in the 1970s and 1980s, where a culture of sexual abuse by teachers developed.
And as if we needed more evidence that perversity lurks everywhere, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been ordered to pay more than $20 million to a woman who was abused for two years, starting at age 9, by a congregation member in California. She had filed a lawsuit accusing the church of instructing elders to keep sex-abuse accusations quiet.
“You don’t want to be the outsider who betrays the institution; whistleblowers are always the weirdos,” Lessig said. “There are so many ways to rationalize doing the easy thing. And it’s really easy for us to overlook how our inaction to step up and do even the simplest thing leads to profoundly destructive consequences in our society.”
I asked Cory Booker, the Newark mayor, why he ignored his security team and made a snap decision to run into a burning house to save his neighbor. He said his parents taught him to feel indebted to all the people who had sacrificed for his family. And he recoiled in law school at the idea that there was not always a legal obligation to help the vulnerable.
“We have to fight the dangerous streams in culture, the consumerism and narcissism and me-ism that erode the borders of our moral culture,” he said. “We can’t put shallow celebrity before core decency. We have to have a deeper faith in the human spirit. As they say, he who has the heart to help has the right to complain.”
_________________________________
Source:
June 17, 2012
The New York Times
Business, page 1
You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
By NATASHA SINGERIT knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do.
It peers deeper into American life than the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., north of Little Rock, more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data “transactions” a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. Acxiom’s customers have included big banks like Wells Fargo and HSBC, investment services like E*Trade, automakers like Toyota and Ford, department stores like Macy’s — just about any major company looking for insight into its customers.
For Acxiom, based in Little Rock, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
But such profits carry a cost for consumers. Federal authorities say current laws may not be equipped to handle the rapid expansion of an industry whose players often collect and sell sensitive financial and health information yet are nearly invisible to the public. In essence, it’s as if the ore of our data-driven lives were being mined, refined and sold to the highest bidder, usually without our knowledge — by companies that most people rarely even know exist.
Julie Brill, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, says she would like data brokers in general to tell the public about the data they collect, how they collect it, whom they share it with and how it is used. “If someone is listed as diabetic or pregnant, what is happening with this information? Where is the information going?” she asks. “We need to figure out what the rules should be as a society.”
Although Acxiom employs a chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, she and other executives declined requests to be interviewed for this article, said Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, director of corporate communications.
In March, however, Ms. Barrett Glasgow endorsed increased industry openness. “It’s not an unreasonable request to have more transparency among data brokers,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. In marketing materials, Acxiom promotes itself as “a global thought leader in addressing consumer privacy issues and earning the public trust.”
But, in interviews, security experts and consumer advocates paint a portrait of a company with practices that privilege corporate clients’ interests over those of consumers and contradict the company’s stance on transparency. Acxiom’s marketing materials, for example, promote a special security system for clients and associates to encrypt the data they send. Yet cybersecurity experts who examined Acxiom’s Web site for The Times found basic security lapses on an online form for consumers seeking access to their own profiles. (Acxiom says it has fixed the broken link that caused the problem.)
In a fast-changing digital economy, Acxiom is developing even more advanced techniques to mine and refine data. It has recruited talent from Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com and Myspace and is using a powerful, multiplatform approach to predicting consumer behavior that could raise its standing among investors and clients.
Of course, digital marketers already customize pitches to users, based on their past activities. Just think of “cookies,” bits of computer code placed on browsers to keep track of online activity. But Acxiom, analysts say, is pursuing far more comprehensive techniques in an effort to influence consumer decisions. It is integrating what it knows about our offline, online and even mobile selves, creating in-depth behavior portraits in pixilated detail. Its executives have called this approach a “360-degree view” on consumers.
“There’s a lot of players in the digital space trying the same thing,” says Mark Zgutowicz, a Piper Jaffray analyst. “But Acxiom’s advantage is they have a database of offline information that they have been collecting for 40 years and can leverage that expertise in the digital world.”
Yet some prominent privacy advocates worry that such techniques could lead to a new era of consumer profiling.
Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington, says: “It is Big Brother in Arkansas.”
SCOTT HUGHES, an up-and-coming small-business owner and Facebook denizen, is Acxiom’s ideal consumer. Indeed, it created him.
Mr. Hughes is a fictional character who appeared in an Acxiom investor presentation in 2010. A frequent shopper, he was designed to show the power of Acxiom’s multichannel approach.
In the presentation, he logs on to Facebook and sees that his friend Ella has just become a fan of Bryce Computers, an imaginary electronics retailer and Acxiom client. Ella’s update prompts Mr. Hughes to check out Bryce’s fan page and do some digital window-shopping for a fast inkjet printer.
Such browsing seems innocuous — hardly data mining. But it cues an Acxiom system designed to recognize consumers, remember their actions, classify their behaviors and influence them with tailored marketing.
When Mr. Hughes follows a link to Bryce’s retail site, for example, the system recognizes him from his Facebook activity and shows him a printer to match his interest. He registers on the site, but doesn’t buy the printer right away, so the system tracks him online. Lo and behold, the next morning, while he scans baseball news on ESPN.com, an ad for the printer pops up again.
That evening, he returns to the Bryce site where, the presentation says, “he is instantly recognized” as having registered. It then offers a sweeter deal: a $10 rebate and free shipping.
It’s not a random offer. Acxiom has its own classification system, PersonicX, which assigns consumers to one of 70 detailed socioeconomic clusters and markets to them accordingly. In this situation, it pegs Mr. Hughes as a “savvy single” — meaning he’s in a cluster of mobile, upper-middle-class people who do their banking online, attend pro sports events, are sensitive to prices — and respond to free-shipping offers.
Correctly typecast, Mr. Hughes buys the printer.
But the multichannel system of Acxiom and its online partners is just revving up. Later, it sends him coupons for ink and paper, to be redeemed via his cellphone, and a personalized snail-mail postcard suggesting that he donate his old printer to a nearby school.
Analysts say companies design these sophisticated ecosystems to prompt consumers to volunteer enough personal data — like their names, e-mail addresses and mobile numbers — so that marketers can offer them customized appeals any time, anywhere.
Still, there is a fine line between customization and stalking. While many people welcome the convenience of personalized offers, others may see the surveillance engines behind them as intrusive or even manipulative.
“If you look at it in cold terms, it seems like they are really out to trick the customer,” says Dave Frankland, the research director for customer intelligence at Forrester Research. “But they are actually in the business of helping marketers make sure that the right people are getting offers they are interested in and therefore establish a relationship with the company.”
DECADES before the Internet as we know it, a businessman named Charles Ward planted the seeds of Acxiom. It was 1969, and Mr. Ward started a data processing company in Conway called Demographics Inc., in part to help the Democratic Party reach voters. In a time when Madison Avenue was deploying one-size-fits-all national ad campaigns, Demographics and its lone computer used public phone books to compile lists for direct mailing of campaign material.
Today, Acxiom maintains its own database on about 190 million individuals and 126 million households in the United States. Separately, it manages customer databases for or works with 47 of the Fortune 100 companies. It also worked with the government after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, providing information about 11 of the 19 hijackers.
To beef up its digital services, Acxiom recently mounted an aggressive hiring campaign. Last July, it named Scott E. Howe, a former corporate vice president for Microsoft’s advertising business group, as C.E.O. Last month, it hired Phil Mui, formerly group product manager for Google Analytics, as its chief product and engineering officer.
In interviews, Mr. Howe has laid out a vision of Acxiom as a new-millennium “data refinery” rather than a data miner. That description posits Acxiom as a nimble provider of customer analytics services, able to compete with Facebook and Google, rather than as a stealth engine of consumer espionage.
Still, the more that information brokers mine powerful consumer data, the more they become attractive targets for hackers — and draw scrutiny from consumer advocates.
This year, Advertising Age ranked Epsilon, another database marketing firm, as the biggest advertising agency in the United States, with Acxiom second. Most people know Epsilon, if they know it at all, because it experienced a major security breach last year, exposing the e-mail addresses of millions of customers of Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Target, Walgreens and others. In 2003, Acxiom had its own security breaches.
But privacy advocates say they are more troubled by data brokers’ ranking systems, which classify some people as high-value prospects, to be offered marketing deals and discounts regularly, while dismissing others as low-value — known in industry slang as “waste.”
Exclusion from a vacation offer may not matter much, says Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in San Diego, but if marketing algorithms judge certain people as not worthy of receiving promotions for higher education or health services, they could have a serious impact.
“Over time, that can really turn into a mountain of pathways not offered, not seen and not known about,” Ms. Dixon says.
Until now, database marketers operated largely out of the public eye. Unlike consumer reporting agencies that sell sensitive financial information about people for credit or employment purposes, database marketers aren’t required by law to show consumers their own reports and allow them to correct errors. That may be about to change. This year, the F.T.C. published a report calling for greater transparency among data brokers and asking Congress to give consumers the right to access information these firms hold about them.
ACXIOM’S Consumer Data Products Catalog offers hundreds of details — called “elements” — that corporate clients can buy about individuals or households, to augment their own marketing databases. Companies can buy data to pinpoint households that are concerned, say, about allergies, diabetes or “senior needs.” Also for sale is information on sizes of home loans and household incomes.
Clients generally buy this data because they want to hold on to their best customers or find new ones — or both.
A bank that wants to sell its best customers additional services, for example, might buy details about those customers’ social media, Web and mobile habits to identify more efficient ways to market to them. Or, says Mr. Frankland at Forrester, a sporting goods chain whose best customers are 25- to 34-year-old men living near mountains or beaches could buy a list of a million other people with the same characteristics. The retailer could hire Acxiom, he says, to manage a campaign aimed at that new group, testing how factors like consumers’ locations or sports preferences affect responses.
But the catalog also offers delicate information that has set off alarm bells among some privacy advocates, who worry about the potential for misuse by third parties that could take aim at vulnerable groups. Such information includes consumers’ interests — derived, the catalog says, “from actual purchases and self-reported surveys” — like “Christian families,” “Dieting/Weight Loss,” “Gaming-Casino,” “Money Seekers” and “Smoking/Tobacco.” Acxiom also sells data about an individual’s race, ethnicity and country of origin. “Our Race model,” the catalog says, “provides information on the major racial category: Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, or Asians.” Competing companies sell similar data.
Acxiom’s data about race or ethnicity is “used for engaging those communities for marketing purposes,” said Ms. Barrett Glasgow, the privacy officer, in an e-mail response to questions.
There may be a legitimate commercial need for some businesses, like ethnic restaurants, to know the race or ethnicity of consumers, says Joel R. Reidenberg, a privacy expert and a professor at the Fordham Law School.
“At the same time, this is ethnic profiling,” he says. “The people on this list, they are being sold based on their ethnic stereotypes. There is a very strong citizen’s right to have a veto over the commodification of their profile.”
He says the sale of such data is troubling because race coding may be incorrect. And even if a data broker has correct information, a person may not want to be marketed to based on race.
“DO you really know your customers?” Acxiom asks in marketing materials for its shopper recognition system, a program that uses ZIP codes to help retailers confirm consumers’ identities — without asking their permission.
“Simply asking for name and address information poses many challenges: transcription errors, increased checkout time and, worse yet, losing customers who feel that you’re invading their privacy,” Acxiom’s fact sheet explains. In its system, a store clerk need only “capture the shopper’s name from a check or third-party credit card at the point of sale and then ask for the shopper’s ZIP code or telephone number.” With that data Acxiom can identify shoppers within a 10 percent margin of error, it says, enabling stores to reward their best customers with special offers. Other companies offer similar services.
“This is a direct way of circumventing people’s concerns about privacy,” says Mr. Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.
Ms. Barrett Glasgow of Acxiom says that its program is a “standard practice” among retailers, but that the company encourages its clients to report consumers who wish to opt out.
Acxiom has positioned itself as an industry leader in data privacy, but some of its practices seem to undermine that image. It created the position of chief privacy officer in 1991, well ahead of its rivals. It even offers an online request form, promoted as an easy way for consumers to access information Acxiom collects about them.
But the process turned out to be not so user-friendly for a reporter for The Times.
In early May, the reporter decided to request her record from Acxiom, as any consumer might. Before submitting a Social Securitynumber and other personal information, however, she asked for advice from a cybersecurity expert at The Times. The expert examined Acxiom’s Web site and immediately noticed that the online form did not employ a standard encryption protocol — called https — used by sites like Amazon and American Express. When the expert tested the form, using software that captures data sent over the Web, he could clearly see that the sample Social Security number he had submitted had not been encrypted. At that point, the reporter was advised not to request her file, given the risk that the process might expose her personal information.
Later in May, Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher and former technologist in identity protection at the F.T.C., also examined Acxiom’s site and came to the same conclusion. “Parts of the site for corporate clients are encrypted,” he says. “But for consumers, who this information is about and who stand the most to lose from data collection, they don’t provide security.”
Ms. Barrett Glasgow says that the form has always been encrypted with https but that on May 11, its security monitoring system detected a “broken redirect link” that allowed unencrypted access. Since then, she says, Acxiom has fixed the link and determined that no unauthorized person had gained access to information sent using the form.
On May 25, the reporter submitted an online request to Acxiom for her file, along with a personal check, sent by Express Mail, for the $5 processing fee. Three weeks later, no response had arrived.
Regulators at the F.T.C. declined to comment on the practices of individual companies. But Jon Leibowitz, the commission chairman, said consumers should have the right to see and correct personal details about them collected and sold by data aggregators. .
After all, he said, “they are the unseen cyberazzi who collect information on all of us.”
__________________________________________
June 17, 2012
The New York Times
Business, page 1
You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
By NATASHA SINGERIT knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do.
It peers deeper into American life than the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., north of Little Rock, more than 23,000 computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley’s marquee names, rarely makes headlines. It’s called the Acxiom Corporation, and it’s the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has amassed the world’s largest commercial database on consumers — and that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than 50 trillion data “transactions” a year. Company executives have said its database contains information about 500 million active consumers worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics — based on information available in public records, consumer surveys and the like — are perfectly legal. Acxiom’s customers have included big banks like Wells Fargo and HSBC, investment services like E*Trade, automakers like Toyota and Ford, department stores like Macy’s — just about any major company looking for insight into its customers.
For Acxiom, based in Little Rock, the setup is lucrative. It posted profit of $77.26 million in its latest fiscal year, on sales of $1.13 billion.
But such profits carry a cost for consumers. Federal authorities say current laws may not be equipped to handle the rapid expansion of an industry whose players often collect and sell sensitive financial and health information yet are nearly invisible to the public. In essence, it’s as if the ore of our data-driven lives were being mined, refined and sold to the highest bidder, usually without our knowledge — by companies that most people rarely even know exist.
Julie Brill, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, says she would like data brokers in general to tell the public about the data they collect, how they collect it, whom they share it with and how it is used. “If someone is listed as diabetic or pregnant, what is happening with this information? Where is the information going?” she asks. “We need to figure out what the rules should be as a society.”
Although Acxiom employs a chief privacy officer, Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, she and other executives declined requests to be interviewed for this article, said Ines Rodriguez Gutzmer, director of corporate communications.
In March, however, Ms. Barrett Glasgow endorsed increased industry openness. “It’s not an unreasonable request to have more transparency among data brokers,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. In marketing materials, Acxiom promotes itself as “a global thought leader in addressing consumer privacy issues and earning the public trust.”
But, in interviews, security experts and consumer advocates paint a portrait of a company with practices that privilege corporate clients’ interests over those of consumers and contradict the company’s stance on transparency. Acxiom’s marketing materials, for example, promote a special security system for clients and associates to encrypt the data they send. Yet cybersecurity experts who examined Acxiom’s Web site for The Times found basic security lapses on an online form for consumers seeking access to their own profiles. (Acxiom says it has fixed the broken link that caused the problem.)
In a fast-changing digital economy, Acxiom is developing even more advanced techniques to mine and refine data. It has recruited talent from Microsoft, Google, Amazon.com and Myspace and is using a powerful, multiplatform approach to predicting consumer behavior that could raise its standing among investors and clients.
Of course, digital marketers already customize pitches to users, based on their past activities. Just think of “cookies,” bits of computer code placed on browsers to keep track of online activity. But Acxiom, analysts say, is pursuing far more comprehensive techniques in an effort to influence consumer decisions. It is integrating what it knows about our offline, online and even mobile selves, creating in-depth behavior portraits in pixilated detail. Its executives have called this approach a “360-degree view” on consumers.
“There’s a lot of players in the digital space trying the same thing,” says Mark Zgutowicz, a Piper Jaffray analyst. “But Acxiom’s advantage is they have a database of offline information that they have been collecting for 40 years and can leverage that expertise in the digital world.”
Yet some prominent privacy advocates worry that such techniques could lead to a new era of consumer profiling.
Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a nonprofit group in Washington, says: “It is Big Brother in Arkansas.”
SCOTT HUGHES, an up-and-coming small-business owner and Facebook denizen, is Acxiom’s ideal consumer. Indeed, it created him.
Mr. Hughes is a fictional character who appeared in an Acxiom investor presentation in 2010. A frequent shopper, he was designed to show the power of Acxiom’s multichannel approach.
In the presentation, he logs on to Facebook and sees that his friend Ella has just become a fan of Bryce Computers, an imaginary electronics retailer and Acxiom client. Ella’s update prompts Mr. Hughes to check out Bryce’s fan page and do some digital window-shopping for a fast inkjet printer.
Such browsing seems innocuous — hardly data mining. But it cues an Acxiom system designed to recognize consumers, remember their actions, classify their behaviors and influence them with tailored marketing.
When Mr. Hughes follows a link to Bryce’s retail site, for example, the system recognizes him from his Facebook activity and shows him a printer to match his interest. He registers on the site, but doesn’t buy the printer right away, so the system tracks him online. Lo and behold, the next morning, while he scans baseball news on ESPN.com, an ad for the printer pops up again.
That evening, he returns to the Bryce site where, the presentation says, “he is instantly recognized” as having registered. It then offers a sweeter deal: a $10 rebate and free shipping.
It’s not a random offer. Acxiom has its own classification system, PersonicX, which assigns consumers to one of 70 detailed socioeconomic clusters and markets to them accordingly. In this situation, it pegs Mr. Hughes as a “savvy single” — meaning he’s in a cluster of mobile, upper-middle-class people who do their banking online, attend pro sports events, are sensitive to prices — and respond to free-shipping offers.
Correctly typecast, Mr. Hughes buys the printer.
But the multichannel system of Acxiom and its online partners is just revving up. Later, it sends him coupons for ink and paper, to be redeemed via his cellphone, and a personalized snail-mail postcard suggesting that he donate his old printer to a nearby school.
Analysts say companies design these sophisticated ecosystems to prompt consumers to volunteer enough personal data — like their names, e-mail addresses and mobile numbers — so that marketers can offer them customized appeals any time, anywhere.
Still, there is a fine line between customization and stalking. While many people welcome the convenience of personalized offers, others may see the surveillance engines behind them as intrusive or even manipulative.
“If you look at it in cold terms, it seems like they are really out to trick the customer,” says Dave Frankland, the research director for customer intelligence at Forrester Research. “But they are actually in the business of helping marketers make sure that the right people are getting offers they are interested in and therefore establish a relationship with the company.”
DECADES before the Internet as we know it, a businessman named Charles Ward planted the seeds of Acxiom. It was 1969, and Mr. Ward started a data processing company in Conway called Demographics Inc., in part to help the Democratic Party reach voters. In a time when Madison Avenue was deploying one-size-fits-all national ad campaigns, Demographics and its lone computer used public phone books to compile lists for direct mailing of campaign material.
Today, Acxiom maintains its own database on about 190 million individuals and 126 million households in the United States. Separately, it manages customer databases for or works with 47 of the Fortune 100 companies. It also worked with the government after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, providing information about 11 of the 19 hijackers.
To beef up its digital services, Acxiom recently mounted an aggressive hiring campaign. Last July, it named Scott E. Howe, a former corporate vice president for Microsoft’s advertising business group, as C.E.O. Last month, it hired Phil Mui, formerly group product manager for Google Analytics, as its chief product and engineering officer.
In interviews, Mr. Howe has laid out a vision of Acxiom as a new-millennium “data refinery” rather than a data miner. That description posits Acxiom as a nimble provider of customer analytics services, able to compete with Facebook and Google, rather than as a stealth engine of consumer espionage.
Still, the more that information brokers mine powerful consumer data, the more they become attractive targets for hackers — and draw scrutiny from consumer advocates.
This year, Advertising Age ranked Epsilon, another database marketing firm, as the biggest advertising agency in the United States, with Acxiom second. Most people know Epsilon, if they know it at all, because it experienced a major security breach last year, exposing the e-mail addresses of millions of customers of Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Target, Walgreens and others. In 2003, Acxiom had its own security breaches.
But privacy advocates say they are more troubled by data brokers’ ranking systems, which classify some people as high-value prospects, to be offered marketing deals and discounts regularly, while dismissing others as low-value — known in industry slang as “waste.”
Exclusion from a vacation offer may not matter much, says Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in San Diego, but if marketing algorithms judge certain people as not worthy of receiving promotions for higher education or health services, they could have a serious impact.
“Over time, that can really turn into a mountain of pathways not offered, not seen and not known about,” Ms. Dixon says.
Until now, database marketers operated largely out of the public eye. Unlike consumer reporting agencies that sell sensitive financial information about people for credit or employment purposes, database marketers aren’t required by law to show consumers their own reports and allow them to correct errors. That may be about to change. This year, the F.T.C. published a report calling for greater transparency among data brokers and asking Congress to give consumers the right to access information these firms hold about them.
ACXIOM’S Consumer Data Products Catalog offers hundreds of details — called “elements” — that corporate clients can buy about individuals or households, to augment their own marketing databases. Companies can buy data to pinpoint households that are concerned, say, about allergies, diabetes or “senior needs.” Also for sale is information on sizes of home loans and household incomes.
Clients generally buy this data because they want to hold on to their best customers or find new ones — or both.
A bank that wants to sell its best customers additional services, for example, might buy details about those customers’ social media, Web and mobile habits to identify more efficient ways to market to them. Or, says Mr. Frankland at Forrester, a sporting goods chain whose best customers are 25- to 34-year-old men living near mountains or beaches could buy a list of a million other people with the same characteristics. The retailer could hire Acxiom, he says, to manage a campaign aimed at that new group, testing how factors like consumers’ locations or sports preferences affect responses.
But the catalog also offers delicate information that has set off alarm bells among some privacy advocates, who worry about the potential for misuse by third parties that could take aim at vulnerable groups. Such information includes consumers’ interests — derived, the catalog says, “from actual purchases and self-reported surveys” — like “Christian families,” “Dieting/Weight Loss,” “Gaming-Casino,” “Money Seekers” and “Smoking/Tobacco.” Acxiom also sells data about an individual’s race, ethnicity and country of origin. “Our Race model,” the catalog says, “provides information on the major racial category: Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, or Asians.” Competing companies sell similar data.
Acxiom’s data about race or ethnicity is “used for engaging those communities for marketing purposes,” said Ms. Barrett Glasgow, the privacy officer, in an e-mail response to questions.
There may be a legitimate commercial need for some businesses, like ethnic restaurants, to know the race or ethnicity of consumers, says Joel R. Reidenberg, a privacy expert and a professor at the Fordham Law School.
“At the same time, this is ethnic profiling,” he says. “The people on this list, they are being sold based on their ethnic stereotypes. There is a very strong citizen’s right to have a veto over the commodification of their profile.”
He says the sale of such data is troubling because race coding may be incorrect. And even if a data broker has correct information, a person may not want to be marketed to based on race.
“DO you really know your customers?” Acxiom asks in marketing materials for its shopper recognition system, a program that uses ZIP codes to help retailers confirm consumers’ identities — without asking their permission.
“Simply asking for name and address information poses many challenges: transcription errors, increased checkout time and, worse yet, losing customers who feel that you’re invading their privacy,” Acxiom’s fact sheet explains. In its system, a store clerk need only “capture the shopper’s name from a check or third-party credit card at the point of sale and then ask for the shopper’s ZIP code or telephone number.” With that data Acxiom can identify shoppers within a 10 percent margin of error, it says, enabling stores to reward their best customers with special offers. Other companies offer similar services.
“This is a direct way of circumventing people’s concerns about privacy,” says Mr. Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy.
Ms. Barrett Glasgow of Acxiom says that its program is a “standard practice” among retailers, but that the company encourages its clients to report consumers who wish to opt out.
Acxiom has positioned itself as an industry leader in data privacy, but some of its practices seem to undermine that image. It created the position of chief privacy officer in 1991, well ahead of its rivals. It even offers an online request form, promoted as an easy way for consumers to access information Acxiom collects about them.
But the process turned out to be not so user-friendly for a reporter for The Times.
In early May, the reporter decided to request her record from Acxiom, as any consumer might. Before submitting a Social Securitynumber and other personal information, however, she asked for advice from a cybersecurity expert at The Times. The expert examined Acxiom’s Web site and immediately noticed that the online form did not employ a standard encryption protocol — called https — used by sites like Amazon and American Express. When the expert tested the form, using software that captures data sent over the Web, he could clearly see that the sample Social Security number he had submitted had not been encrypted. At that point, the reporter was advised not to request her file, given the risk that the process might expose her personal information.
Later in May, Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher and former technologist in identity protection at the F.T.C., also examined Acxiom’s site and came to the same conclusion. “Parts of the site for corporate clients are encrypted,” he says. “But for consumers, who this information is about and who stand the most to lose from data collection, they don’t provide security.”
Ms. Barrett Glasgow says that the form has always been encrypted with https but that on May 11, its security monitoring system detected a “broken redirect link” that allowed unencrypted access. Since then, she says, Acxiom has fixed the link and determined that no unauthorized person had gained access to information sent using the form.
On May 25, the reporter submitted an online request to Acxiom for her file, along with a personal check, sent by Express Mail, for the $5 processing fee. Three weeks later, no response had arrived.
Regulators at the F.T.C. declined to comment on the practices of individual companies. But Jon Leibowitz, the commission chairman, said consumers should have the right to see and correct personal details about them collected and sold by data aggregators. .
After all, he said, “they are the unseen cyberazzi who collect information on all of us.”
__________________________________________
Family Tree of Languages Has Roots in Anatolia, Biologists Say
Biologists using tools developed for drawing evolutionary family trees say that they have solved a longstanding problem in archaeology: the origin of the Indo-European family of languages.
The family includes English and most other European languages, as well as Persian, Hindi and many others. Despite the importance of the languages, specialists have long disagreed about their origin.
Linguists believe that the first speakers of the mother tongue, known as proto-Indo-European, were chariot-driving pastoralists who burst out of their homeland on the steppes above the Black Sea about 4,000 years ago and conquered Europe and Asia. A rival theory holds that, to the contrary, the first Indo-European speakers were peaceable farmers in Anatolia, now Turkey, about 9,000 years ago, who disseminated their language by the hoe, not the sword.
The new entrant to the debate is an evolutionary biologist, Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He and colleagues have taken the existing vocabulary and geographical range of 103 Indo-European languages and computationally walked them back in time and place to their statistically most likely origin.
The result, they announced in Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, is that “we found decisive support for an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin.” Both the timing and the root of the tree of Indo-European languages “fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8,000 to 9,500 years ago,” they report.
But despite its advanced statistical methods, their study may not convince everyone.
The researchers started with a menu of vocabulary items that are known to be resistant to linguistic change, like pronouns, parts of the body and family relations, and compared them with the inferred ancestral word in proto-Indo-European. Words that have a clear line of descent from the same ancestral word are known as cognates. Thus “mother,” “mutter” (German), “mat’ ” (Russian), “madar” (Persian), “matka” (Polish) and “mater” (Latin) are all cognates derived from the proto-Indo-European word “mehter.”
Dr. Atkinson and his colleagues then scored each set of words on the vocabulary menu for the 103 languages. In languages where the word was a cognate, the researchers assigned it a score of 1; in those where the cognate had been replaced with an unrelated word, it was scored 0. Each language could thus be represented by a string of 1’s and 0’s, and the researchers could compute the most likely family tree showing the relationships among the 103 languages.
A computer was then supplied with known dates of language splits. Romanian and other Romance languages, for instance, started to diverge from Latin after A.D. 270, when Roman troops pulled back from the Roman province of Dacia. Applying those dates to a few branches in its tree, the computer was able to estimate dates for all the rest.
The computer was also given geographical information about the present range of each language and told to work out the likeliest pathways of distribution from an origin, given the probable family tree of descent. The calculation pointed to Anatolia, particularly a lozenge-shaped area in what is now southern Turkey, as the most plausible origin — a region that had also been proposed as the origin of Indo-European by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew, in 1987, because it was the source from which agriculture spread to Europe.
Dr. Atkinson’s work has integrated a large amount of information with a computational method that has proved successful in evolutionary studies. But his results may not sway supporters of the rival theory, who believe the Indo-European languages were spread some 5,000 years later by warlike pastoralists who conquered Europe and India from the Black Sea steppe.
A key piece of their evidence is that proto-Indo-European had a vocabulary for chariots and wagons that included words for “wheel,” “axle,” “harness-pole” and “to go or convey in a vehicle.” These words have numerous descendants in the Indo-European daughter languages. So Indo-European itself cannot have fragmented into those daughter languages, historical linguists argue, before the invention of chariots and wagons, the earliest known examples of which date to 3500 B.C. This would rule out any connection between Indo-European and the spread of agriculture from Anatolia, which occurred much earlier.
“I see the wheeled-vehicle evidence as a trump card over any evolutionary tree,” said David Anthony, an archaeologist at Hartwick College who studies Indo-European origins.
Historical linguists see other evidence in that the first Indo-European speakers had words for “horse” and “bee,” and lent many basic words to proto-Uralic, the mother tongue of Finnish and Hungarian. The best place to have found wild horses and bees and be close to speakers of proto-Uralic is the steppe region above the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Kurgan people who occupied this area from around 5000 to 3000 B.C. have long been candidates for the first Indo-European speakers.
In a recent book, “The Horse, the Wheel and Language,” Dr. Anthony describes how the steppe people developed a mobile society and social system that enabled them to push out of their homeland in several directions and spread their language east, west and south.
Dr. Anthony said he found Dr. Atkinson’s language tree of Indo-European implausible in several details. Tocharian, for instance, is a group of Indo-European languages spoken in northwest China. It is hard to see how Tocharians could have migrated there from southern Turkey, he said, whereas there is a well-known migration from the Kurgan region to the Altai Mountains of eastern Central Asia, which could be the precursor of the Tocharian-speakers who lived along the Silk Road.
Dr. Atkinson said that this was a “hand-wavy argument” and that such conjectures should be judged in a quantitative way.
Dr. Anthony, noting that neither he nor Dr. Atkinson is a linguist, said that cognates were only one ingredient for reconstructing language trees, and that grammar and sound changes should also be used. Dr. Atkinson’s reconstruction is “a one-legged stool, so it’s not surprising that the tree it produces contains language groupings that would not survive if you included morphology and sound changes,” Dr. Anthony said.
Dr. Atkinson responded that he did indeed run his computer simulation on a grammar-based tree constructed by Don Ringe, an expert on Indo-European at the University of Pennsylvania, but that the resulting origin was, again, Anatolia, not the Pontic steppe.
This is for your private use, only
Source: NYT
August 24, 2012
By NICHOLAS WADE
Biologists using tools developed for drawing evolutionary family trees say that they have solved a longstanding problem in archaeology: the origin of the Indo-European family of languages.
The family includes English and most other European languages, as well as Persian, Hindi and many others. Despite the importance of the languages, specialists have long disagreed about their origin.
Linguists believe that the first speakers of the mother tongue, known as proto-Indo-European, were chariot-driving pastoralists who burst out of their homeland on the steppes above the Black Sea about 4,000 years ago and conquered Europe and Asia. A rival theory holds that, to the contrary, the first Indo-European speakers were peaceable farmers in Anatolia, now Turkey, about 9,000 years ago, who disseminated their language by the hoe, not the sword.
The new entrant to the debate is an evolutionary biologist, Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He and colleagues have taken the existing vocabulary and geographical range of 103 Indo-European languages and computationally walked them back in time and place to their statistically most likely origin.
The result, they announced in Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, is that “we found decisive support for an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin.” Both the timing and the root of the tree of Indo-European languages “fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8,000 to 9,500 years ago,” they report.
But despite its advanced statistical methods, their study may not convince everyone.
The researchers started with a menu of vocabulary items that are known to be resistant to linguistic change, like pronouns, parts of the body and family relations, and compared them with the inferred ancestral word in proto-Indo-European. Words that have a clear line of descent from the same ancestral word are known as cognates. Thus “mother,” “mutter” (German), “mat’ ” (Russian), “madar” (Persian), “matka” (Polish) and “mater” (Latin) are all cognates derived from the proto-Indo-European word “mehter.”
Dr. Atkinson and his colleagues then scored each set of words on the vocabulary menu for the 103 languages. In languages where the word was a cognate, the researchers assigned it a score of 1; in those where the cognate had been replaced with an unrelated word, it was scored 0. Each language could thus be represented by a string of 1’s and 0’s, and the researchers could compute the most likely family tree showing the relationships among the 103 languages.
A computer was then supplied with known dates of language splits. Romanian and other Romance languages, for instance, started to diverge from Latin after A.D. 270, when Roman troops pulled back from the Roman province of Dacia. Applying those dates to a few branches in its tree, the computer was able to estimate dates for all the rest.
The computer was also given geographical information about the present range of each language and told to work out the likeliest pathways of distribution from an origin, given the probable family tree of descent. The calculation pointed to Anatolia, particularly a lozenge-shaped area in what is now southern Turkey, as the most plausible origin — a region that had also been proposed as the origin of Indo-European by the archaeologist Colin Renfrew, in 1987, because it was the source from which agriculture spread to Europe.
Dr. Atkinson’s work has integrated a large amount of information with a computational method that has proved successful in evolutionary studies. But his results may not sway supporters of the rival theory, who believe the Indo-European languages were spread some 5,000 years later by warlike pastoralists who conquered Europe and India from the Black Sea steppe.
A key piece of their evidence is that proto-Indo-European had a vocabulary for chariots and wagons that included words for “wheel,” “axle,” “harness-pole” and “to go or convey in a vehicle.” These words have numerous descendants in the Indo-European daughter languages. So Indo-European itself cannot have fragmented into those daughter languages, historical linguists argue, before the invention of chariots and wagons, the earliest known examples of which date to 3500 B.C. This would rule out any connection between Indo-European and the spread of agriculture from Anatolia, which occurred much earlier.
“I see the wheeled-vehicle evidence as a trump card over any evolutionary tree,” said David Anthony, an archaeologist at Hartwick College who studies Indo-European origins.
Historical linguists see other evidence in that the first Indo-European speakers had words for “horse” and “bee,” and lent many basic words to proto-Uralic, the mother tongue of Finnish and Hungarian. The best place to have found wild horses and bees and be close to speakers of proto-Uralic is the steppe region above the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Kurgan people who occupied this area from around 5000 to 3000 B.C. have long been candidates for the first Indo-European speakers.
In a recent book, “The Horse, the Wheel and Language,” Dr. Anthony describes how the steppe people developed a mobile society and social system that enabled them to push out of their homeland in several directions and spread their language east, west and south.
Dr. Anthony said he found Dr. Atkinson’s language tree of Indo-European implausible in several details. Tocharian, for instance, is a group of Indo-European languages spoken in northwest China. It is hard to see how Tocharians could have migrated there from southern Turkey, he said, whereas there is a well-known migration from the Kurgan region to the Altai Mountains of eastern Central Asia, which could be the precursor of the Tocharian-speakers who lived along the Silk Road.
Dr. Atkinson said that this was a “hand-wavy argument” and that such conjectures should be judged in a quantitative way.
Dr. Anthony, noting that neither he nor Dr. Atkinson is a linguist, said that cognates were only one ingredient for reconstructing language trees, and that grammar and sound changes should also be used. Dr. Atkinson’s reconstruction is “a one-legged stool, so it’s not surprising that the tree it produces contains language groupings that would not survive if you included morphology and sound changes,” Dr. Anthony said.
Dr. Atkinson responded that he did indeed run his computer simulation on a grammar-based tree constructed by Don Ringe, an expert on Indo-European at the University of Pennsylvania, but that the resulting origin was, again, Anatolia, not the Pontic steppe.
This is for your private use, only
Source: NYT
August 24, 2012
By NICHOLAS WADE
With Footwear Scanners Failing in Airport Tests, the Shoes Still Have to Come Off
WASHINGTON — After spending millions of dollars testing four different scanning devices that would allow airline passengers to keep their shoes on at security checkpoints, the United States government has decided for now that travelers must continue to remove their footwear, by far the leading source of frustration and delays at the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration said it had rejected all four devices because they failed to adequately detect explosives and metal weapons during tests at various airports. One of the scanners is now used in airports in 18 countries.
Last September, Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Homeland Security Department raised hopes when she said that research and development on scanning machines was progressing and that air travelers would eventually be able to keep their shoes on.
But nearly a year later, the T.S.A., which is overseen by Homeland Security, said it was not any closer to finding a solution. Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the agency, would not address why it had rejected the devices.
“But over all, the machines we tested didn’t detect all the materials we were looking for,” she said.
Over the years, the government has tried to streamline airport security and cut down on long lines and complaints. Elderly passengers and children may go through security screenings without taking off any clothing. And a prescreening program at 20 airports allows approved passengers to keep on their shoes, belt or jackets and does not require laptops and toiletries to be removed from carry-on baggage. The growing use of full-body scanners also allows travelers to go through security lines faster, the government said.
But no part of airport security has drawn more criticism from passengers than removing their shoes, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group in Washington. Passengers say they hate taking off their shoes more than pat-downs and full body scans, the association said.
“It’s had enough of an impact that it has pushed people toward other forms of transportation,” said Robert Bobo, a spokesman for the association.
T.S.A. officials acknowledge the shoe headaches and say the procedure contributes to longer lines at the checkpoints. “The removal of footwear takes time, reduces the efficiency of the checkpoint, creates safety concerns with footwear removal and contributes to passenger dissatisfaction,” the agency said in a blog post last year.
Shoes were ordered off after Richard C. Reid tried unsuccessfully to detonate explosives in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001. Since then, the government says it has found a host of dangerous items in passengers’ footwear and says it will not reconsider the requirement until it is satisfied with a scanning technology.
In 2007, the agency tested a General Electric shoe scanner at Orlando International Airport. The next year, it tested two scanning machines made by L3 Communications at Los Angeles International Airport. But none of them passed agency muster.
It also tested a device called Magshoe, which is intended to detect metal and is made by IDO Security, an Israeli firm, that deploys the scanner in hundreds of airports and cruise ships around the world, including in China, Italy and Israel.
Michael Goldberg, the company’s president, said the machine can detect explosives containing metal, but not plastic explosives.
Mr. Goldberg said the machine performed flawlessly in tests with the T.S.A. But the agency did not think so.
He said no current technology can detect all of the various chemical compounds used as explosives. Current X-ray machines used to scan shoes can detect metal but are not much help in finding liquids or gels that can be used as explosives.
The government has a $1.4 million contract with Morpho Detection, a subsidiary of the French defense giant Safran, to develop a shoe-scanning machine.
Morpho’s scanner can detect chemical compounds and metal objects, said Brad Buswell, the president of Morpho and a former Homeland Security official. “Our device can detect items to see if there is an explosive in a shoe or simply a pair of Dr. Scholl’s inserts,” Mr. Buswell said.
He said the company will be testing a prototype with the T.S.A. this year.
Many security experts say the security agency is too focused on technologies for intercepting things — guns, knives, explosives — instead of focusing on stopping people.
Rafi Ron, the former chief of security for Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the agency should abandon its shoe-removal policy. “They need a more passenger-based approach instead of looking for items,” Mr. Ron said.
The Israeli model is based on interviews and profiles of passengers. Screeners quickly try to decide whether a passenger poses a threat based on reactions to a set of questions.
Critics said the Israeli approach would be unworkable in the United States and cause longer lines. Some 803 million passengers passed through airports last year in the United States. Israel, by contrast, screened about 12 million passengers. Critics also say such techniques can turn into racial profiling and other forms of discrimination.
The T.S.A. said its security measures focus on the risks that passengers pose, and that the vast majority of travelers in the United States would continue to take off their shoes. “It’s going to be a part of air travel for the foreseeable future,” Ms. Farbstein said.
This is for your personal use, only
Source: NYT
August 24, 2012
By RON NIXON
_________________________________________
WASHINGTON — After spending millions of dollars testing four different scanning devices that would allow airline passengers to keep their shoes on at security checkpoints, the United States government has decided for now that travelers must continue to remove their footwear, by far the leading source of frustration and delays at the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration said it had rejected all four devices because they failed to adequately detect explosives and metal weapons during tests at various airports. One of the scanners is now used in airports in 18 countries.
Last September, Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Homeland Security Department raised hopes when she said that research and development on scanning machines was progressing and that air travelers would eventually be able to keep their shoes on.
But nearly a year later, the T.S.A., which is overseen by Homeland Security, said it was not any closer to finding a solution. Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the agency, would not address why it had rejected the devices.
“But over all, the machines we tested didn’t detect all the materials we were looking for,” she said.
Over the years, the government has tried to streamline airport security and cut down on long lines and complaints. Elderly passengers and children may go through security screenings without taking off any clothing. And a prescreening program at 20 airports allows approved passengers to keep on their shoes, belt or jackets and does not require laptops and toiletries to be removed from carry-on baggage. The growing use of full-body scanners also allows travelers to go through security lines faster, the government said.
But no part of airport security has drawn more criticism from passengers than removing their shoes, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group in Washington. Passengers say they hate taking off their shoes more than pat-downs and full body scans, the association said.
“It’s had enough of an impact that it has pushed people toward other forms of transportation,” said Robert Bobo, a spokesman for the association.
T.S.A. officials acknowledge the shoe headaches and say the procedure contributes to longer lines at the checkpoints. “The removal of footwear takes time, reduces the efficiency of the checkpoint, creates safety concerns with footwear removal and contributes to passenger dissatisfaction,” the agency said in a blog post last year.
Shoes were ordered off after Richard C. Reid tried unsuccessfully to detonate explosives in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001. Since then, the government says it has found a host of dangerous items in passengers’ footwear and says it will not reconsider the requirement until it is satisfied with a scanning technology.
In 2007, the agency tested a General Electric shoe scanner at Orlando International Airport. The next year, it tested two scanning machines made by L3 Communications at Los Angeles International Airport. But none of them passed agency muster.
It also tested a device called Magshoe, which is intended to detect metal and is made by IDO Security, an Israeli firm, that deploys the scanner in hundreds of airports and cruise ships around the world, including in China, Italy and Israel.
Michael Goldberg, the company’s president, said the machine can detect explosives containing metal, but not plastic explosives.
Mr. Goldberg said the machine performed flawlessly in tests with the T.S.A. But the agency did not think so.
He said no current technology can detect all of the various chemical compounds used as explosives. Current X-ray machines used to scan shoes can detect metal but are not much help in finding liquids or gels that can be used as explosives.
The government has a $1.4 million contract with Morpho Detection, a subsidiary of the French defense giant Safran, to develop a shoe-scanning machine.
Morpho’s scanner can detect chemical compounds and metal objects, said Brad Buswell, the president of Morpho and a former Homeland Security official. “Our device can detect items to see if there is an explosive in a shoe or simply a pair of Dr. Scholl’s inserts,” Mr. Buswell said.
He said the company will be testing a prototype with the T.S.A. this year.
Many security experts say the security agency is too focused on technologies for intercepting things — guns, knives, explosives — instead of focusing on stopping people.
Rafi Ron, the former chief of security for Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the agency should abandon its shoe-removal policy. “They need a more passenger-based approach instead of looking for items,” Mr. Ron said.
The Israeli model is based on interviews and profiles of passengers. Screeners quickly try to decide whether a passenger poses a threat based on reactions to a set of questions.
Critics said the Israeli approach would be unworkable in the United States and cause longer lines. Some 803 million passengers passed through airports last year in the United States. Israel, by contrast, screened about 12 million passengers. Critics also say such techniques can turn into racial profiling and other forms of discrimination.
The T.S.A. said its security measures focus on the risks that passengers pose, and that the vast majority of travelers in the United States would continue to take off their shoes. “It’s going to be a part of air travel for the foreseeable future,” Ms. Farbstein said.
This is for your personal use, only
Source: NYT
August 24, 2012
By RON NIXON
_________________________________________
The Radio Show DrDrCanYouHelpMe list of topics:
This list is started on 6/20/12
(1) Wednesday, 6/20/12: Length: 29.14 min
(1) New Yorkers staying alive longer than the rest of the nation. The City's average life expectancy rose by eight (8) years to 80.6 years between 1987 and 2009. The National average only rose 1.7 years during the same period, to an expectancy of roughly 78 years. Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's health improving actions. Mr. Bloomberg has done great things for the city - he may be the best Mayor ever. He should be the Mayor as long as he himself would want to. A report in the British-based medical journal "The Lancet", published June 2, 2012,
(2) Inappropriate teachers, guilty of misconduct and having sexual relationships with students should not be allowed to return to class.
(3) STAF, Inc.'s Healthy Lifestyle & Correct Nutritional program discussed.
____________________________________
This list is started on 6/20/12
(1) Wednesday, 6/20/12: Length: 29.14 min
(1) New Yorkers staying alive longer than the rest of the nation. The City's average life expectancy rose by eight (8) years to 80.6 years between 1987 and 2009. The National average only rose 1.7 years during the same period, to an expectancy of roughly 78 years. Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's health improving actions. Mr. Bloomberg has done great things for the city - he may be the best Mayor ever. He should be the Mayor as long as he himself would want to. A report in the British-based medical journal "The Lancet", published June 2, 2012,
(2) Inappropriate teachers, guilty of misconduct and having sexual relationships with students should not be allowed to return to class.
(3) STAF, Inc.'s Healthy Lifestyle & Correct Nutritional program discussed.
____________________________________
June 24, 2012
Lesley Brown, Mother of World’s First ‘Test-Tube Baby,’ Dies at 64
By DENISE GRADY
Also in this article the Doctors who developed the In Vitro Techniques - The Nobel Prize in 2010 in Physiology or Medicine
Lesley Brown, the mother of the world’s first “test-tube baby” — Louise Brown, born July 25, 1978 — died on June 6 in Bristol, England. She was 64.
Her death, at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, was caused by complications of a gallbladder infection, said Michael Macnamee, executive director of the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, where the in vitro fertilization technique that produced Louise was developed by Robert G. Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe. Her death was not widely reported at first.
Louise’s birth was an instant global sensation and a turning point in the treatment of infertility, offering hope to millions of couples who had been unable to have children. Since then, more than four million babies worldwide have been born through in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and eggs are mixed outside the body and the resulting embryos are transferred into the womb.
In some developed countries, those methods now lead to about 3 percent of all live births, Dr. Macnamee said. In 2010, about 59,000 births in the United States resulted from in vitro procedures, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.
In vitro fertilization is an established treatment now, but it had a long, slow and rocky start. The research by Dr. Edwards, a biologist, and Dr. Steptoe, a gynecologist, had gone on for 10 years, and the treatment had failed in about 60 couples by the mid-1970s. It had produced only one pregnancy, and that one was ectopic — growing in a fallopian tube instead of the uterus — and had to be aborted.
Then Mrs. Brown and her husband, John, came along. She was a homemaker, he a railroad employee. They had been trying for nine years to conceive a child. In vitro fertilization was “an incredible leap into the unknown,” Dr. Macnamee said. Even if a pregnancy did result, would the baby be healthy? Critics of the research had predicted that the treatment could lead to terrible abnormalities. But Mrs. Brown was determined.
“Every breakthrough in medical science requires somebody to put themselves forward with the passion and commitment she had,” Dr. Macnamee said.
Mrs. Brown became pregnant in the first try. Once the news got out, public fascination with her case was unrelenting. She was a quiet woman, Dr. Macnamee said, and the attention stunned her.
After Louise’s birth, the Browns went home from the hospital to find reporters camped out on their street. For months Mrs. Brown could not leave the house without being chased, so the family moved to another house with a backyard, allowing her to take Louise outside in peace. Four years later they had another daughter, Natalie, also conceived by in vitro fertilization, also on the first try.
Mr. Brown died in 2007 at 64. Mrs. Brown is survived by her two daughters and three grandchildren.
It took time for in vitro fertilization to gain acceptance. Fears that it could harm mothers and children lingered. Early success rates were low, and there were moral objections from some religious groups that viewed the creation of human life in a laboratory as a violation of the sacred order. But over all the techniques have proved safe, and success rates have climbed to rival those of natural conception. Some religious objections remain, however. The Roman Catholic Church, for instance, continues to condemn in vitro fertilization.
In 2010, at 85, Dr. Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But he had declined mentally and was not “in a position to understand the honor,” Dr. Macnamee told The New York Times when the prize was announced. Dr. Steptoe did not share the award because he had died in 1988, and Nobel Prizes are not given posthumously.
Sandy Macaskill contributed reporting from London.
Source: The New York Times, 6/24/12 - Obituaries, p. 20
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
Lesley Brown, Mother of World’s First ‘Test-Tube Baby,’ Dies at 64
By DENISE GRADY
Also in this article the Doctors who developed the In Vitro Techniques - The Nobel Prize in 2010 in Physiology or Medicine
Lesley Brown, the mother of the world’s first “test-tube baby” — Louise Brown, born July 25, 1978 — died on June 6 in Bristol, England. She was 64.
Her death, at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, was caused by complications of a gallbladder infection, said Michael Macnamee, executive director of the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, where the in vitro fertilization technique that produced Louise was developed by Robert G. Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe. Her death was not widely reported at first.
Louise’s birth was an instant global sensation and a turning point in the treatment of infertility, offering hope to millions of couples who had been unable to have children. Since then, more than four million babies worldwide have been born through in vitro fertilization, in which sperm and eggs are mixed outside the body and the resulting embryos are transferred into the womb.
In some developed countries, those methods now lead to about 3 percent of all live births, Dr. Macnamee said. In 2010, about 59,000 births in the United States resulted from in vitro procedures, according to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology.
In vitro fertilization is an established treatment now, but it had a long, slow and rocky start. The research by Dr. Edwards, a biologist, and Dr. Steptoe, a gynecologist, had gone on for 10 years, and the treatment had failed in about 60 couples by the mid-1970s. It had produced only one pregnancy, and that one was ectopic — growing in a fallopian tube instead of the uterus — and had to be aborted.
Then Mrs. Brown and her husband, John, came along. She was a homemaker, he a railroad employee. They had been trying for nine years to conceive a child. In vitro fertilization was “an incredible leap into the unknown,” Dr. Macnamee said. Even if a pregnancy did result, would the baby be healthy? Critics of the research had predicted that the treatment could lead to terrible abnormalities. But Mrs. Brown was determined.
“Every breakthrough in medical science requires somebody to put themselves forward with the passion and commitment she had,” Dr. Macnamee said.
Mrs. Brown became pregnant in the first try. Once the news got out, public fascination with her case was unrelenting. She was a quiet woman, Dr. Macnamee said, and the attention stunned her.
After Louise’s birth, the Browns went home from the hospital to find reporters camped out on their street. For months Mrs. Brown could not leave the house without being chased, so the family moved to another house with a backyard, allowing her to take Louise outside in peace. Four years later they had another daughter, Natalie, also conceived by in vitro fertilization, also on the first try.
Mr. Brown died in 2007 at 64. Mrs. Brown is survived by her two daughters and three grandchildren.
It took time for in vitro fertilization to gain acceptance. Fears that it could harm mothers and children lingered. Early success rates were low, and there were moral objections from some religious groups that viewed the creation of human life in a laboratory as a violation of the sacred order. But over all the techniques have proved safe, and success rates have climbed to rival those of natural conception. Some religious objections remain, however. The Roman Catholic Church, for instance, continues to condemn in vitro fertilization.
In 2010, at 85, Dr. Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But he had declined mentally and was not “in a position to understand the honor,” Dr. Macnamee told The New York Times when the prize was announced. Dr. Steptoe did not share the award because he had died in 1988, and Nobel Prizes are not given posthumously.
Sandy Macaskill contributed reporting from London.
Source: The New York Times, 6/24/12 - Obituaries, p. 20
For private, non-commercial use, only
________________________________
Deadly shooting near the Empire State Building
8/24/12
A gunman shot multiple people near the Empire State Building in the Midtown area of Manhattan on Friday morning, according to several news reports.
New York City's ABC 7 reported that the shooting occurred at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street around 9 a.m. ET. The New York Post reported that 8 people were wounded, and two people—the shooter and a bystander—died. The incident, the Post said, was the result of a co-worker dispute.
The Associated Press and others reported that police shot and killed the gunman near the tourist entrance of the Empire State Building.
Word of the shooting spread rapidly on social media networks.
"On 5th avenue surrounded by helicopters and police," @CeciliaHalling wrote on Twitter. "I'm very glad I wasn't 20 blocks further down half an hour ago."
The number of fatalities has not been made official.
Police cordoned off a one block perimeter around the Empire State Building after the shooting. Around 10 a.m., a lone tourist bus headed down Fifth Avenue, and a guide could be heard over the bus's mic explaining they were nearing the landmark. As police waved the bus to detour down 36th street, the guide was openly mystified. "I don't know what's going on, folks," he said, as the bus turned. By then the bus's passengers were looking up at the sky at a news helicopter floating overhead. Some stood, clutching their cameras.
Along 35th street, hundreds of people stood photographing the scene with iPhones and iPads. Officers could be seen standing in the middle of 34th street around a scene surrounded by police tape. Television producers roamed the crowd looking for guests. "Was anybody here when this happened? Was anybody here when this happened?" one NBC producer yelled.
Eyewitnesses told CNN that the gunman was using a rifle or shotgun.
We'll update this story as more details are known. - See the next article below
________________________
8/24/12
A gunman shot multiple people near the Empire State Building in the Midtown area of Manhattan on Friday morning, according to several news reports.
New York City's ABC 7 reported that the shooting occurred at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street around 9 a.m. ET. The New York Post reported that 8 people were wounded, and two people—the shooter and a bystander—died. The incident, the Post said, was the result of a co-worker dispute.
The Associated Press and others reported that police shot and killed the gunman near the tourist entrance of the Empire State Building.
Word of the shooting spread rapidly on social media networks.
"On 5th avenue surrounded by helicopters and police," @CeciliaHalling wrote on Twitter. "I'm very glad I wasn't 20 blocks further down half an hour ago."
The number of fatalities has not been made official.
Police cordoned off a one block perimeter around the Empire State Building after the shooting. Around 10 a.m., a lone tourist bus headed down Fifth Avenue, and a guide could be heard over the bus's mic explaining they were nearing the landmark. As police waved the bus to detour down 36th street, the guide was openly mystified. "I don't know what's going on, folks," he said, as the bus turned. By then the bus's passengers were looking up at the sky at a news helicopter floating overhead. Some stood, clutching their cameras.
Along 35th street, hundreds of people stood photographing the scene with iPhones and iPads. Officers could be seen standing in the middle of 34th street around a scene surrounded by police tape. Television producers roamed the crowd looking for guests. "Was anybody here when this happened? Was anybody here when this happened?" one NBC producer yelled.
Eyewitnesses told CNN that the gunman was using a rifle or shotgun.
We'll update this story as more details are known. - See the next article below
________________________
Empire State Building Shooting: Police Release Surveillance Video
8/24/12
The New York Police Department released surveillance video showing the moment two officers opened fire on a man who had justgunned down a former work acquaintance in front of the Empire State Building.
Police said Jeffrey Johnson shot Steven Ercolino, a former co-worker on Friday and then stood over his prone body, pumping more bullets into him.
With his weapon in a black bag, Johnson made his way up Fifth Avenue, where his dramatic and deadly confrontation with officers was captured on surveillance tape.
The 58-year-old former fashion designer turned his gun on the officers who were standing 8-feet away from him, however it appeared to have jammed, police said.
Johnson was killed by a hail of police gunfire as bystanders ran through the streets, trying to escape the shooting.
At least nine people were wounded, likely by police bullets or flying shards from planters that were hit, police said.
Witness George King told ABC News he watched several people around him struck by bullets.
"I heard multiple gunshots, I'd say about 12 of them," he said. "I thought they were firecrackers, at first. I didn't know what was going on. Everyone started running for cover along with me. The girl that was running next to me fell down to the pavement and, when I looked at her, I could see she had been hit in the leg. She was bleeding from the leg.
"I noticed about five people who had been struck on the sidewalk or the street," he said.
The saga unfolded shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday in New York's bustling midtown area.
Johnson was lurking outside a building adjacent to the Empire State Building, ABC News station WABC in New York reported.
The building housed Hazan Imports Corp., which had once contracted with Johnson to design T-shirts, police told WABC.
Johnson's relationship with the company ended bitterly a year ago in a dispute with the company's account executive, Steven Ercolino, 41, police said.
A friend of Ercolino's who witnessed the shooting told police that she noticed Johnson, who was wearing a suit and carrying a black bag, outside the building. She saw him walk up to Ercolino and without saying a word, fire five times at the victim and keep firing as Ercolino slumped to the ground, police told WABC. Ercolino's father was heartbroken.
"Steven was a wonderful son. He was very good son and person," Frank Ercolino of Warwick, N.Y., told ABC News.
Johnson calmly walked away from the shooting, the witness told police, but New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he was followed by a construction worker.
The worker alerted two New York Police Department officers who confronted Johnson.
Police told WABC that Johnson legally bought his gun in Sarasota, Fla., in 1991. He illegally brought it to New York City, which has strict gun laws.
Source:
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MARK CRUDELE, RUSSELL GOLDMAN, CANDACE SMITH and LEE FERRAN | ABC News
This is for your private use, only
_______________________________
8/24/12
The New York Police Department released surveillance video showing the moment two officers opened fire on a man who had justgunned down a former work acquaintance in front of the Empire State Building.
Police said Jeffrey Johnson shot Steven Ercolino, a former co-worker on Friday and then stood over his prone body, pumping more bullets into him.
With his weapon in a black bag, Johnson made his way up Fifth Avenue, where his dramatic and deadly confrontation with officers was captured on surveillance tape.
The 58-year-old former fashion designer turned his gun on the officers who were standing 8-feet away from him, however it appeared to have jammed, police said.
Johnson was killed by a hail of police gunfire as bystanders ran through the streets, trying to escape the shooting.
At least nine people were wounded, likely by police bullets or flying shards from planters that were hit, police said.
Witness George King told ABC News he watched several people around him struck by bullets.
"I heard multiple gunshots, I'd say about 12 of them," he said. "I thought they were firecrackers, at first. I didn't know what was going on. Everyone started running for cover along with me. The girl that was running next to me fell down to the pavement and, when I looked at her, I could see she had been hit in the leg. She was bleeding from the leg.
"I noticed about five people who had been struck on the sidewalk or the street," he said.
The saga unfolded shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday in New York's bustling midtown area.
Johnson was lurking outside a building adjacent to the Empire State Building, ABC News station WABC in New York reported.
The building housed Hazan Imports Corp., which had once contracted with Johnson to design T-shirts, police told WABC.
Johnson's relationship with the company ended bitterly a year ago in a dispute with the company's account executive, Steven Ercolino, 41, police said.
A friend of Ercolino's who witnessed the shooting told police that she noticed Johnson, who was wearing a suit and carrying a black bag, outside the building. She saw him walk up to Ercolino and without saying a word, fire five times at the victim and keep firing as Ercolino slumped to the ground, police told WABC. Ercolino's father was heartbroken.
"Steven was a wonderful son. He was very good son and person," Frank Ercolino of Warwick, N.Y., told ABC News.
Johnson calmly walked away from the shooting, the witness told police, but New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he was followed by a construction worker.
The worker alerted two New York Police Department officers who confronted Johnson.
Police told WABC that Johnson legally bought his gun in Sarasota, Fla., in 1991. He illegally brought it to New York City, which has strict gun laws.
Source:
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, MARK CRUDELE, RUSSELL GOLDMAN, CANDACE SMITH and LEE FERRAN | ABC News
This is for your private use, only
_______________________________
Putin Lives Large: Yachts and Planes
To paraphrase the comedian Mel Brooks: it's good to be the President of Russia.
According to a report released today by a pair of Russian opposition leaders, President Vladimir Putin enjoys the use of 20 official villas and residences around the country, a billion-dollar fleet of government jets, and a mini-armada of state-owned luxury yachts.
The authors, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov and opposition activist Leonid Martynyuk, say these perks allows Putin to live like a "Gulf King" or an oligarch, all while ordinary Russians struggle to make ends meet. They claim the budget for the Office of Presidential Affairs is over $2.7 billion, which they say is about the same as the budget for the entire city of Nizhny Novgorod, which is home to 3.3 million people.
Most of the assets listed in the report are owned by the state, not Putin, but they dwarf his relatively modest official salary of about $120,000.
At that salary, the opposition leaders point out, Putin would have to refrain from eating, drinking, or doing anything for about six years just to pay for his luxury watch collection, which is said to be worth about $700,000.
The report says the number of palaces, villas, and residences available to President Putin has doubled since he took office in 2000, including several that were built on Putin's orders. Others are old palaces that belonged to Russian czars. Some are appointed with pools, tennis courts, helipads, bowling allies, and movie theaters.
When Putin has to fly anywhere, he has his choice of 43 airplanes. The report says a toilet on one of them cost $75,000. He also has 15 helicopters at his disposal.
Putin also has use of four luxury yachts, including one that the report claims is among the world's top 100 mega-yachts. The 187-foot boat reportedly boasts mahogany finishes, a Jacuzzi, and is alone worth $50 million. Another of Putin's yachts, valued at $37 million, was acquired in 2011 and has its own wine cellar and a spa complete with a waterfall.
Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that he hadn't read the report, but said the government resources available to President Putin are no state secret.
"Information on the residences and transportation of the president is absolutely open," he said.
Nemtsov was quoted as telling the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that no publishing house would agree to publish the report, which he said was a sign of the "level of fear there is of the authorities."
Source:
By Kirit Radia | ABC News
This is for your personal use, only
________________________________
To paraphrase the comedian Mel Brooks: it's good to be the President of Russia.
According to a report released today by a pair of Russian opposition leaders, President Vladimir Putin enjoys the use of 20 official villas and residences around the country, a billion-dollar fleet of government jets, and a mini-armada of state-owned luxury yachts.
The authors, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov and opposition activist Leonid Martynyuk, say these perks allows Putin to live like a "Gulf King" or an oligarch, all while ordinary Russians struggle to make ends meet. They claim the budget for the Office of Presidential Affairs is over $2.7 billion, which they say is about the same as the budget for the entire city of Nizhny Novgorod, which is home to 3.3 million people.
Most of the assets listed in the report are owned by the state, not Putin, but they dwarf his relatively modest official salary of about $120,000.
At that salary, the opposition leaders point out, Putin would have to refrain from eating, drinking, or doing anything for about six years just to pay for his luxury watch collection, which is said to be worth about $700,000.
The report says the number of palaces, villas, and residences available to President Putin has doubled since he took office in 2000, including several that were built on Putin's orders. Others are old palaces that belonged to Russian czars. Some are appointed with pools, tennis courts, helipads, bowling allies, and movie theaters.
When Putin has to fly anywhere, he has his choice of 43 airplanes. The report says a toilet on one of them cost $75,000. He also has 15 helicopters at his disposal.
Putin also has use of four luxury yachts, including one that the report claims is among the world's top 100 mega-yachts. The 187-foot boat reportedly boasts mahogany finishes, a Jacuzzi, and is alone worth $50 million. Another of Putin's yachts, valued at $37 million, was acquired in 2011 and has its own wine cellar and a spa complete with a waterfall.
Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that he hadn't read the report, but said the government resources available to President Putin are no state secret.
"Information on the residences and transportation of the president is absolutely open," he said.
Nemtsov was quoted as telling the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that no publishing house would agree to publish the report, which he said was a sign of the "level of fear there is of the authorities."
Source:
By Kirit Radia | ABC News
This is for your personal use, only
________________________________
Comments Removed: Prominent Priest
Defended Child Sex Abusers, Later Apologizes
Priest Puts Blame on Some Victims of Sexual Abuse (click)
The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, who has spent years counseling wayward priests for the Archdiocese of New York, said in an interview that the young victim is often the "seducer."
STAF, Inc.'s comment - by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D., N.D., D.D.
Some of the priest's arguments may be correct, BUT: an adult abuser, who is healthy in his/her mind, is always wrong if child/teenage sexual abuse is happening. A healthy-minded adult knows what is sexual abuse.
8/31/12
Click the green for further information
A well-known Catholic priest who hosts a weekly religious television show said in an interview this week that child sex abusers are often seduced by teenage boys and should not go to jail on a first offense. But the comments were removed by the website that published them and replaced by an apology from the priest and the site's editors.
The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, 79, who hosts a weekly show on the Catholic television network EWTN, originally made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. He also referred to convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky as a "poor guy."
"People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to -- a psychopath. But that's not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster -- 14, 16, 18 -- is the seducer," Groeschel was quoted as saying in the interview, which is no longer available on the paper's website.
The interview has now been replaced by a statement from Fr. Benedict:
"I apologize for my comments," it said. "I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone."
Jeanette R. De Melo, the site's editor in chief, included her own apology for posting the interview.
"Child sexual abuse is never excusable," she wrote. "The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The interview, billed as a reflection on the 25 years since Groeschel founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal order, covered many topics, but Groeschel's comments on child sexual abuse brought it national attention.
"Well, it's not so hard to see. A kid looking for a father and didn't have his own -- and they won't be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping, but not having intercourse or anything like that. I's an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers," Groeschel was quoted as saying.
Quotes from the interview remained posted on websites including the National Catholic Reporter, the Huffington Post, and the Catholic blog Renew America, all of which criticized Groeschel for the remarks.
Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter called the comments "particularly disturbing" because of Groeschel's background in psychology. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University.
"(The comments) cannot stand unchallenged," Roberts wrote.
Groeschel could not be reached for comment. Representatives for the National Catholic Register and EWTN did not immediately return calls for comment.
Groeschel had also commented on recently-convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State coach convicted of abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
"Here's this poor guy -- Sandusky -- it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn't anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn't break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn't think of it in terms of legal things," Groeschel said.
He also said that he did not think priests or lay people should go to jail based on a first offense of sexual behavior with young children.
"At this point, (when) any priest, any clergyman, any social worker, any teacher, any responsible person in society would become involved in a single sexual act -- not necessarily intercourse -- they're done. And I'm inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime."
By COLLEEN CURRY
This is for your private use, only
_____________________________
Defended Child Sex Abusers, Later Apologizes
Priest Puts Blame on Some Victims of Sexual Abuse (click)
The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, who has spent years counseling wayward priests for the Archdiocese of New York, said in an interview that the young victim is often the "seducer."
STAF, Inc.'s comment - by Dr. Christian von Christophers, Ph.D., N.D., D.D.
Some of the priest's arguments may be correct, BUT: an adult abuser, who is healthy in his/her mind, is always wrong if child/teenage sexual abuse is happening. A healthy-minded adult knows what is sexual abuse.
8/31/12
Click the green for further information
A well-known Catholic priest who hosts a weekly religious television show said in an interview this week that child sex abusers are often seduced by teenage boys and should not go to jail on a first offense. But the comments were removed by the website that published them and replaced by an apology from the priest and the site's editors.
The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, 79, who hosts a weekly show on the Catholic television network EWTN, originally made the comments in an interview with the National Catholic Register. He also referred to convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky as a "poor guy."
"People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to -- a psychopath. But that's not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster -- 14, 16, 18 -- is the seducer," Groeschel was quoted as saying in the interview, which is no longer available on the paper's website.
The interview has now been replaced by a statement from Fr. Benedict:
"I apologize for my comments," it said. "I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone."
Jeanette R. De Melo, the site's editor in chief, included her own apology for posting the interview.
"Child sexual abuse is never excusable," she wrote. "The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The interview, billed as a reflection on the 25 years since Groeschel founded the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal order, covered many topics, but Groeschel's comments on child sexual abuse brought it national attention.
"Well, it's not so hard to see. A kid looking for a father and didn't have his own -- and they won't be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping, but not having intercourse or anything like that. I's an understandable thing, and you know where you find it, among other clergy or important people; you look at teachers, attorneys, judges, social workers," Groeschel was quoted as saying.
Quotes from the interview remained posted on websites including the National Catholic Reporter, the Huffington Post, and the Catholic blog Renew America, all of which criticized Groeschel for the remarks.
Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter called the comments "particularly disturbing" because of Groeschel's background in psychology. He received a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University.
"(The comments) cannot stand unchallenged," Roberts wrote.
Groeschel could not be reached for comment. Representatives for the National Catholic Register and EWTN did not immediately return calls for comment.
Groeschel had also commented on recently-convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State coach convicted of abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
"Here's this poor guy -- Sandusky -- it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn't anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn't break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn't think of it in terms of legal things," Groeschel said.
He also said that he did not think priests or lay people should go to jail based on a first offense of sexual behavior with young children.
"At this point, (when) any priest, any clergyman, any social worker, any teacher, any responsible person in society would become involved in a single sexual act -- not necessarily intercourse -- they're done. And I'm inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime."
By COLLEEN CURRY
This is for your private use, only
_____________________________
Do you believe you must be in an infected area to get Lyme disease?
This Fall Think About Lyme Disease
If you do, think again. A 10-year study reports that you can catch this malady in your own backyard.
Since spring and fall are prime times for this disease, being forewarned is forearmed, particularly since a bite of the deer tick can have far-reaching health consequences.
Lyme disease was first suspected in North America in 1975. In Lyme, Conn., an unusual number of children were developing what was initially thought to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
A team of scientists from Yale University was sent to study this cluster of patients. These children all exhibited a bull’s-eye rash. In addition, they also suffered from muscular, heart, and neurological problems. The final diagnosis? Lyme disease.
The first case occurred in Canada in 1977 when a 13-year-old girl in southwestern Ontario was diagnosed with the disease.
Lyme disease is due to a bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, which resides in deer, mice, squirrels, and other small animals. The blacklegged tick (deer tick) becomes infected when feeding on these animals, and its bite then transmits the disease to humans.
Ticks are not insects. They are arthropods, closely related to spiders and mites. They usually have a two-year life cycle during which time they feed three times.
Studies show that there may be 2,000 infected ticks per acre of forested land. They stay at the end of tall grass or on other vegetation waiting for unsuspecting people to walk by. They must remain attached to the skin for several hours to transmit Lyme disease.
The 10-year study revealed that the blacklegged tick is present as far north as the 50th parallel. Researchers studied 591 blacklegged ticks collected from dogs, cats, horses, and people who had not traveled out of Ontario or who had not been to a Lyme-disease-infected area. They found that 12 percent of ticks, usually females, were infected with B. burgdorferi.
The widespread distribution is believed due to songbirds dispersing immature blacklegged ticks during their northward spring migration.
The message for doctors and the public is that people and domestic animals are at risk of contracting Lyme disease in their own communities.
Lyme disease has been labeled The Great Imitator. Like syphilis, it can mimic many different diseases and has a multitude of clinical symptoms. The result is that doctors often miss the diagnosis.
The first sign is usually a rash that erupts within a month after the initial bite of an infected tick. The rash is often found at the site of the bite, is red and circular with a clear center that resembles a bull’s-eye. But a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that only three out of ten people get a bull’s-eye rash.
The rash may be painless or painful, itchy, and hot. Patients normally complain of flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, headache, aching muscles, and low-grade fever. There may be pain in the joints and enlargement of lymph nodes.
If untreated, three to five months later the disease strikes again. About one in ten patients develops cardiac abnormalities, such as irregular heartbeat or heart block. The majority of people recover after a short time.
Neurological complications occur in about 10 percent of patients. Peripheral nerves may be involved, or patients may suffer from encephalitis, meningitis, or Bell’s palsy.
Bell's palsy is a paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of your face. Damage to the facial nerve that controls muscles on one side of the face causes that side of your face to droop . The nerve damage may also affect your sense of taste and how you make tears and saliva. This condition comes on suddenly, often overnight, and usually gets better on its own within a few weeks.
The last stage of Lyme disease occurs five months to five years after the initial infection. Patients complain of pain primarily in large joints such as the knees. A few cases have been reported in which symptoms were similar to multiple sclerosis.
The best treatment for Lyme disease is prevention.
Wear long-sleeve shirts and pants tucked into socks while walking in wooded areas. Light-colored clothing is also preferable, as ticks can be more easily spotted.
Use an insect repellent. Check clothes for ticks, and examine your body, including hair and scalp. It’s also prudent to check pets and brush them off outdoors.
Dr. Gifford-Jones is a medical journalist with a private medical practice in Toronto. His website isDocGiff.com. He may be contacted at [email protected].
8/31/12
Source:
The Epoc Times
This is for your personal use, only
___________________________
This Fall Think About Lyme Disease
If you do, think again. A 10-year study reports that you can catch this malady in your own backyard.
Since spring and fall are prime times for this disease, being forewarned is forearmed, particularly since a bite of the deer tick can have far-reaching health consequences.
Lyme disease was first suspected in North America in 1975. In Lyme, Conn., an unusual number of children were developing what was initially thought to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
A team of scientists from Yale University was sent to study this cluster of patients. These children all exhibited a bull’s-eye rash. In addition, they also suffered from muscular, heart, and neurological problems. The final diagnosis? Lyme disease.
The first case occurred in Canada in 1977 when a 13-year-old girl in southwestern Ontario was diagnosed with the disease.
Lyme disease is due to a bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, which resides in deer, mice, squirrels, and other small animals. The blacklegged tick (deer tick) becomes infected when feeding on these animals, and its bite then transmits the disease to humans.
Ticks are not insects. They are arthropods, closely related to spiders and mites. They usually have a two-year life cycle during which time they feed three times.
Studies show that there may be 2,000 infected ticks per acre of forested land. They stay at the end of tall grass or on other vegetation waiting for unsuspecting people to walk by. They must remain attached to the skin for several hours to transmit Lyme disease.
The 10-year study revealed that the blacklegged tick is present as far north as the 50th parallel. Researchers studied 591 blacklegged ticks collected from dogs, cats, horses, and people who had not traveled out of Ontario or who had not been to a Lyme-disease-infected area. They found that 12 percent of ticks, usually females, were infected with B. burgdorferi.
The widespread distribution is believed due to songbirds dispersing immature blacklegged ticks during their northward spring migration.
The message for doctors and the public is that people and domestic animals are at risk of contracting Lyme disease in their own communities.
Lyme disease has been labeled The Great Imitator. Like syphilis, it can mimic many different diseases and has a multitude of clinical symptoms. The result is that doctors often miss the diagnosis.
The first sign is usually a rash that erupts within a month after the initial bite of an infected tick. The rash is often found at the site of the bite, is red and circular with a clear center that resembles a bull’s-eye. But a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says that only three out of ten people get a bull’s-eye rash.
The rash may be painless or painful, itchy, and hot. Patients normally complain of flu-like symptoms such as fatigue, headache, aching muscles, and low-grade fever. There may be pain in the joints and enlargement of lymph nodes.
If untreated, three to five months later the disease strikes again. About one in ten patients develops cardiac abnormalities, such as irregular heartbeat or heart block. The majority of people recover after a short time.
Neurological complications occur in about 10 percent of patients. Peripheral nerves may be involved, or patients may suffer from encephalitis, meningitis, or Bell’s palsy.
Bell's palsy is a paralysis or weakness of the muscles on one side of your face. Damage to the facial nerve that controls muscles on one side of the face causes that side of your face to droop . The nerve damage may also affect your sense of taste and how you make tears and saliva. This condition comes on suddenly, often overnight, and usually gets better on its own within a few weeks.
The last stage of Lyme disease occurs five months to five years after the initial infection. Patients complain of pain primarily in large joints such as the knees. A few cases have been reported in which symptoms were similar to multiple sclerosis.
The best treatment for Lyme disease is prevention.
Wear long-sleeve shirts and pants tucked into socks while walking in wooded areas. Light-colored clothing is also preferable, as ticks can be more easily spotted.
Use an insect repellent. Check clothes for ticks, and examine your body, including hair and scalp. It’s also prudent to check pets and brush them off outdoors.
Dr. Gifford-Jones is a medical journalist with a private medical practice in Toronto. His website isDocGiff.com. He may be contacted at [email protected].
8/31/12
Source:
The Epoc Times
This is for your personal use, only
___________________________
An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism
Click green areas for further information
IN recent years, scientists have made extraordinary advances in understanding the causes of autism, now estimated to
afflict 1 in 88 children. But remarkably little of this understanding has percolated into popular awareness, which often remains fixated on vaccines.
So here’s the short of it: At least a subset of autism — perhaps one-third, and very likely more — looks like a type of inflammatory disease. And it begins in the womb.
It starts with what scientists call immune dysregulation. Ideally, your immune system should operate like an enlightened action hero, meting out inflammation precisely, accurately and with deadly force when necessary, but then quickly returning to a Zen-like calm. Doing so requires an optimal balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory muscle.
In autistic individuals, the immune system fails at this balancing act. Inflammatory signals dominate. Anti-inflammatory ones are inadequate. A state of chronic activation prevails. And the more skewed toward inflammation, the more acute the autistic symptoms.
Nowhere are the consequences of this dysregulation more evident than in the autistic brain. Spidery cells that help maintain neurons — called astroglia and microglia — are enlarged from chronic activation. Pro-inflammatory signaling molecules abound. Genes involved ininflammation are switched on.
These findings are important for many reasons, but perhaps the most noteworthy is that they provide evidence of an abnormal, continuing biological process. That means that there is finally a therapeutic target for a disorder defined by behavioral criteria like social impairments, difficulty communicating and repetitive behaviors.
But how to address it, and where to begin? That question has led scientists to the womb. A population-wide study from Denmark spanning two decades of births indicates that infection during pregnancy increases the risk of autism in the child. Hospitalization for a viral infection, like the flu, during the first trimester of pregnancy triples the odds. Bacterial infection, including of the urinary tract, during the second trimester increases chances by 40 percent.
The lesson here isn’t necessarily that viruses and bacteria directly damage the fetus. Rather, the mother’s attempt to repel invaders — herinflammatory response — seems at fault. Research by Paul Patterson, an expert in neuroimmunity at Caltech, demonstrates this important principle. Inflaming pregnant mice artificially — without a living infective agent — prompts behavioral problems in the young. In this model, autism results from collateral damage. It’s an unintended consequence of self-defense during pregnancy.
Yet to blame infections for the autism epidemic is folly. First, in the broadest sense, the epidemiology doesn’t jibe. Leo Kanner first described infantile autism in 1943. Diagnoses have increased tenfold, although a careful assessment suggests that the true increase in incidences is less than half that. But in that same period, viral and bacterial infections have generally declined. By many measures, we’re more infection-free than ever before in human history.
Better clues to the causes of the autism phenomenon come from parallel “epidemics.” The prevalence of inflammatory diseases in general has increased significantly in the past 60 years. As a group, they include asthma, now estimated to affect 1 in 10 children — at least double the prevalence of 1980 — and autoimmune disorders, which afflict 1 in 20.
Both are linked to autism, especially in the mother. One large Danish study, which included nearly 700,000 births over a decade, found that a mother’s rheumatoid arthritis, a degenerative disease of the joints, elevated a child’s risk of autism by 80 percent. Her celiac disease, an inflammatory disease prompted by proteins in wheat and other grains, increased it 350 percent. Genetic studies tell a similar tale. Gene variants associated with autoimmune disease — genes of the immune system — also increase the risk of autism, especially when they occur in the mother.
In some cases, scientists even see a misguided immune response in action. Mothers of autistic children often have unique antibodies that bind to fetal brain proteins. A few years back, scientists at the MIND Institute, a research center for neurodevelopmental disorders at the University of California, Davis, injected these antibodies into pregnant macaques. (Control animals got antibodies from mothers of typical children.) Animals whose mothers received “autistic” antibodies displayed repetitive behavior. They had trouble socializing with others in the troop. In this model, autism results from an attack on the developing fetus.
But there are still other paths to the disorder. A mother’s diagnosis of asthma or allergies during the second trimester of pregnancy increases her child’s risk of autism.
So does metabolic syndrome, a disorder associated with insulin resistance, obesity and, crucially, low-grade inflammation. The theme here is maternal immune dysregulation. Earlier this year, scientists presented direct evidence of this prenatal imbalance. Amniotic fluid collected from Danish newborns who later developed autism looked mildly inflamed.
Debate swirls around the reality of the autism phenomenon, and rightly so. Diagnostic criteria have changed repeatedly, and awareness has increased. How much — if any — of the “autism epidemic” is real, how much artifact?
YET when you consider that, as a whole, diseases of immune dysregulation have increased in the past 60 years — and that these disorders are linked to autism — the question seems a little moot. The better question is: Why are we so prone to inflammatory disorders? What has happened to the modern immune system?
There’s a good evolutionary answer to that query, it turns out. Scientists have repeatedly observed that people living in environments that resemble our evolutionary past, full of microbes and parasites, don’t suffer from inflammatory diseases as frequently as we do.
Generally speaking, autism also follows this pattern. It seems to be less prevalent in the developing world. Usually, epidemiologists fault lack of diagnosis for the apparent absence. A dearth of expertise in the disorder, the argument goes, gives a false impression of scarcity. Yet at least one Western doctor who specializes in autism has explicitly noted that, in a Cambodian population rife with parasites and acute infections, autism was nearly nonexistent.
For autoimmune and allergic diseases linked to autism, meanwhile, the evidence is compelling. In environments that resemble the world of yore, the immune system is much less prone to diseases of dysregulation.
Generally, the scientists working on autism and inflammation aren’t aware of this — or if they are, they don’t let on. But Kevin Becker, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health, has pointed out that asthma and autism follow similar epidemiological patterns. They’re both more common in urban areas than rural; firstborns seem to be at greater risk; they disproportionately afflict young boys.
In the context of allergic disease, the hygiene hypothesis — that we suffer from microbial deprivation — has long been invoked to explain these patterns. Dr. Becker argues that it should apply to autism as well. (Why the male bias? Male fetuses, it turns out, are more sensitive to Mom’s inflammation than females.)
More recently, William Parker at Duke University has chimed in. He’s not, by training, an autism expert. But his work focuses on the immune system and its role in biology and disease, so he’s particularly qualified to point out the following: the immune system we consider normal is actually an evolutionary aberration.
Some years back, he began comparing wild sewer rats with clean lab rats. They were, in his words, “completely different organisms.” Wild rats tightly controlled inflammation. Not so the lab rats. Why? The wild rodents were rife with parasites. Parasites are famous for limiting inflammation.
Humans also evolved with plenty of parasites. Dr. Parker and many others think that we’re biologically dependent on the immune suppression provided by these hangers-on and that their removal has left us prone to inflammation. “We were willing to put up with hay fever, even some autoimmune disease,” he told me recently. “But autism? That’s it! You’ve got to stop this insanity.”
What does stopping the insanity entail? Fix the maternal dysregulation, and you’ve most likely prevented autism. That’s the lesson from rodent experiments. In one, Swiss scientists created a lineage of mice with a genetically reinforced anti-inflammatory signal. Then the scientists inflamed the pregnant mice. The babies emerged fine — no behavioral problems. The take-away: Control inflammation during pregnancy, and it won’t interfere with fetal brain development.
For people, a drug that’s safe for use during pregnancy may help. A probiotic, many of which have anti-inflammatory properties, may also be of benefit. Not coincidentally, asthma researchers are arriving at similar conclusions; prevention of the lung disease will begin with the pregnant woman. Dr. Parker has more radical ideas: pre-emptive restoration of “domesticated” parasites in everybody — worms developed solely for the purpose of correcting the wayward, postmodern immune system.
Practically speaking, this seems beyond improbable. And yet, a trial is under way at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine testing a medicalized parasite called Trichuris suis in autistic adults.
First used medically to treat inflammatory bowel disease, the whipworm, which is native to pigs, has anecdotally shown benefit in autistic children.
And really, if you spend enough time wading through the science, Dr. Parker’s idea — an ecosystem restoration project, essentially — not only fails to seem outrageous, but also seems inevitable.
Since time immemorial, a very specific community of organisms — microbes, parasites, some viruses — has aggregated to form the human superorganism. Mounds of evidence suggest that our immune system anticipates these inputs and that, when they go missing, the organism comes unhinged.
Future doctors will need to correct the postmodern tendency toward immune dysregulation. Evolution has provided us with a road map: the original accretion pattern of the superorganism. Preventive medicine will need, by strange necessity, to emulate the patterns from deep in our past.
Moises Velasquez-Manoff is the author of “An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases.”
Source:
By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF
NYT 8/26/12
This is for your private use, only
_______________________________
Click green areas for further information
IN recent years, scientists have made extraordinary advances in understanding the causes of autism, now estimated to
afflict 1 in 88 children. But remarkably little of this understanding has percolated into popular awareness, which often remains fixated on vaccines.
So here’s the short of it: At least a subset of autism — perhaps one-third, and very likely more — looks like a type of inflammatory disease. And it begins in the womb.
It starts with what scientists call immune dysregulation. Ideally, your immune system should operate like an enlightened action hero, meting out inflammation precisely, accurately and with deadly force when necessary, but then quickly returning to a Zen-like calm. Doing so requires an optimal balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory muscle.
In autistic individuals, the immune system fails at this balancing act. Inflammatory signals dominate. Anti-inflammatory ones are inadequate. A state of chronic activation prevails. And the more skewed toward inflammation, the more acute the autistic symptoms.
Nowhere are the consequences of this dysregulation more evident than in the autistic brain. Spidery cells that help maintain neurons — called astroglia and microglia — are enlarged from chronic activation. Pro-inflammatory signaling molecules abound. Genes involved ininflammation are switched on.
These findings are important for many reasons, but perhaps the most noteworthy is that they provide evidence of an abnormal, continuing biological process. That means that there is finally a therapeutic target for a disorder defined by behavioral criteria like social impairments, difficulty communicating and repetitive behaviors.
But how to address it, and where to begin? That question has led scientists to the womb. A population-wide study from Denmark spanning two decades of births indicates that infection during pregnancy increases the risk of autism in the child. Hospitalization for a viral infection, like the flu, during the first trimester of pregnancy triples the odds. Bacterial infection, including of the urinary tract, during the second trimester increases chances by 40 percent.
The lesson here isn’t necessarily that viruses and bacteria directly damage the fetus. Rather, the mother’s attempt to repel invaders — herinflammatory response — seems at fault. Research by Paul Patterson, an expert in neuroimmunity at Caltech, demonstrates this important principle. Inflaming pregnant mice artificially — without a living infective agent — prompts behavioral problems in the young. In this model, autism results from collateral damage. It’s an unintended consequence of self-defense during pregnancy.
Yet to blame infections for the autism epidemic is folly. First, in the broadest sense, the epidemiology doesn’t jibe. Leo Kanner first described infantile autism in 1943. Diagnoses have increased tenfold, although a careful assessment suggests that the true increase in incidences is less than half that. But in that same period, viral and bacterial infections have generally declined. By many measures, we’re more infection-free than ever before in human history.
Better clues to the causes of the autism phenomenon come from parallel “epidemics.” The prevalence of inflammatory diseases in general has increased significantly in the past 60 years. As a group, they include asthma, now estimated to affect 1 in 10 children — at least double the prevalence of 1980 — and autoimmune disorders, which afflict 1 in 20.
Both are linked to autism, especially in the mother. One large Danish study, which included nearly 700,000 births over a decade, found that a mother’s rheumatoid arthritis, a degenerative disease of the joints, elevated a child’s risk of autism by 80 percent. Her celiac disease, an inflammatory disease prompted by proteins in wheat and other grains, increased it 350 percent. Genetic studies tell a similar tale. Gene variants associated with autoimmune disease — genes of the immune system — also increase the risk of autism, especially when they occur in the mother.
In some cases, scientists even see a misguided immune response in action. Mothers of autistic children often have unique antibodies that bind to fetal brain proteins. A few years back, scientists at the MIND Institute, a research center for neurodevelopmental disorders at the University of California, Davis, injected these antibodies into pregnant macaques. (Control animals got antibodies from mothers of typical children.) Animals whose mothers received “autistic” antibodies displayed repetitive behavior. They had trouble socializing with others in the troop. In this model, autism results from an attack on the developing fetus.
But there are still other paths to the disorder. A mother’s diagnosis of asthma or allergies during the second trimester of pregnancy increases her child’s risk of autism.
So does metabolic syndrome, a disorder associated with insulin resistance, obesity and, crucially, low-grade inflammation. The theme here is maternal immune dysregulation. Earlier this year, scientists presented direct evidence of this prenatal imbalance. Amniotic fluid collected from Danish newborns who later developed autism looked mildly inflamed.
Debate swirls around the reality of the autism phenomenon, and rightly so. Diagnostic criteria have changed repeatedly, and awareness has increased. How much — if any — of the “autism epidemic” is real, how much artifact?
YET when you consider that, as a whole, diseases of immune dysregulation have increased in the past 60 years — and that these disorders are linked to autism — the question seems a little moot. The better question is: Why are we so prone to inflammatory disorders? What has happened to the modern immune system?
There’s a good evolutionary answer to that query, it turns out. Scientists have repeatedly observed that people living in environments that resemble our evolutionary past, full of microbes and parasites, don’t suffer from inflammatory diseases as frequently as we do.
Generally speaking, autism also follows this pattern. It seems to be less prevalent in the developing world. Usually, epidemiologists fault lack of diagnosis for the apparent absence. A dearth of expertise in the disorder, the argument goes, gives a false impression of scarcity. Yet at least one Western doctor who specializes in autism has explicitly noted that, in a Cambodian population rife with parasites and acute infections, autism was nearly nonexistent.
For autoimmune and allergic diseases linked to autism, meanwhile, the evidence is compelling. In environments that resemble the world of yore, the immune system is much less prone to diseases of dysregulation.
Generally, the scientists working on autism and inflammation aren’t aware of this — or if they are, they don’t let on. But Kevin Becker, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health, has pointed out that asthma and autism follow similar epidemiological patterns. They’re both more common in urban areas than rural; firstborns seem to be at greater risk; they disproportionately afflict young boys.
In the context of allergic disease, the hygiene hypothesis — that we suffer from microbial deprivation — has long been invoked to explain these patterns. Dr. Becker argues that it should apply to autism as well. (Why the male bias? Male fetuses, it turns out, are more sensitive to Mom’s inflammation than females.)
More recently, William Parker at Duke University has chimed in. He’s not, by training, an autism expert. But his work focuses on the immune system and its role in biology and disease, so he’s particularly qualified to point out the following: the immune system we consider normal is actually an evolutionary aberration.
Some years back, he began comparing wild sewer rats with clean lab rats. They were, in his words, “completely different organisms.” Wild rats tightly controlled inflammation. Not so the lab rats. Why? The wild rodents were rife with parasites. Parasites are famous for limiting inflammation.
Humans also evolved with plenty of parasites. Dr. Parker and many others think that we’re biologically dependent on the immune suppression provided by these hangers-on and that their removal has left us prone to inflammation. “We were willing to put up with hay fever, even some autoimmune disease,” he told me recently. “But autism? That’s it! You’ve got to stop this insanity.”
What does stopping the insanity entail? Fix the maternal dysregulation, and you’ve most likely prevented autism. That’s the lesson from rodent experiments. In one, Swiss scientists created a lineage of mice with a genetically reinforced anti-inflammatory signal. Then the scientists inflamed the pregnant mice. The babies emerged fine — no behavioral problems. The take-away: Control inflammation during pregnancy, and it won’t interfere with fetal brain development.
For people, a drug that’s safe for use during pregnancy may help. A probiotic, many of which have anti-inflammatory properties, may also be of benefit. Not coincidentally, asthma researchers are arriving at similar conclusions; prevention of the lung disease will begin with the pregnant woman. Dr. Parker has more radical ideas: pre-emptive restoration of “domesticated” parasites in everybody — worms developed solely for the purpose of correcting the wayward, postmodern immune system.
Practically speaking, this seems beyond improbable. And yet, a trial is under way at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine testing a medicalized parasite called Trichuris suis in autistic adults.
First used medically to treat inflammatory bowel disease, the whipworm, which is native to pigs, has anecdotally shown benefit in autistic children.
And really, if you spend enough time wading through the science, Dr. Parker’s idea — an ecosystem restoration project, essentially — not only fails to seem outrageous, but also seems inevitable.
Since time immemorial, a very specific community of organisms — microbes, parasites, some viruses — has aggregated to form the human superorganism. Mounds of evidence suggest that our immune system anticipates these inputs and that, when they go missing, the organism comes unhinged.
Future doctors will need to correct the postmodern tendency toward immune dysregulation. Evolution has provided us with a road map: the original accretion pattern of the superorganism. Preventive medicine will need, by strange necessity, to emulate the patterns from deep in our past.
Moises Velasquez-Manoff is the author of “An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases.”
Source:
By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF
NYT 8/26/12
This is for your private use, only
_______________________________
Chocolate, Cream, and Peanut Butter Ingredients Disperse Oil Spills
Using edible ingredients, U.S. scientists have invented a new type of oil dispersant that not only breaks up spills, but also causes the oil to roll right off birds’ feathers.
“Other scientists are working on new oil dispersants and absorbents, but nothing that’s quite like ours,” said researcher Lisa K. Kemp at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in a press release.
“It not only breaks up oil but prevents the deposition of oil on birds and other objects, like the ingredients in laundry detergent keep grease from redepositing on clothing in the rinse cycle.”
The new product is made of non-toxic ingredients that don’t cost much and can be purchased in large amounts.
“Each of the ingredients in our dispersant is used in common food products like peanut butter, chocolate, and whipped cream,” Kemp said.
When oil sticks to birds’ feathers, the birds can get poisoned trying to clean themselves. Detergents can clean the oil off animals, but this method damages their feathers and fur so that they’re no longer waterproof.
With the new dispersant, this problem could be prevented. “Birds can sit in slicks of the dispersed oil, they can dive through it and take off and flap their wings, and the oil will fall off,” said Kemp.
The idea was developed by a USM research team while screening many possible formulas for the dispersant. They now have a prototype that can be tested on real oil spills.
In the future, Kemp hopes that the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies can store small amounts of the dispersant for emergencies. Then, if more is needed, it can be made quickly since the ingredients are easy to obtain.
The research was presented at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society
in Philadelphia on Aug. 20.
Related Articles
Epoch Times
By Sally Appert Epoch Times Staff
This is for your personal use, only
__________________________________
Using edible ingredients, U.S. scientists have invented a new type of oil dispersant that not only breaks up spills, but also causes the oil to roll right off birds’ feathers.
“Other scientists are working on new oil dispersants and absorbents, but nothing that’s quite like ours,” said researcher Lisa K. Kemp at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in a press release.
“It not only breaks up oil but prevents the deposition of oil on birds and other objects, like the ingredients in laundry detergent keep grease from redepositing on clothing in the rinse cycle.”
The new product is made of non-toxic ingredients that don’t cost much and can be purchased in large amounts.
“Each of the ingredients in our dispersant is used in common food products like peanut butter, chocolate, and whipped cream,” Kemp said.
When oil sticks to birds’ feathers, the birds can get poisoned trying to clean themselves. Detergents can clean the oil off animals, but this method damages their feathers and fur so that they’re no longer waterproof.
With the new dispersant, this problem could be prevented. “Birds can sit in slicks of the dispersed oil, they can dive through it and take off and flap their wings, and the oil will fall off,” said Kemp.
The idea was developed by a USM research team while screening many possible formulas for the dispersant. They now have a prototype that can be tested on real oil spills.
In the future, Kemp hopes that the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies can store small amounts of the dispersant for emergencies. Then, if more is needed, it can be made quickly since the ingredients are easy to obtain.
The research was presented at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society
in Philadelphia on Aug. 20.
Related Articles
- Water Can Float on Oil (Video) (click)
Epoch Times
By Sally Appert Epoch Times Staff
This is for your personal use, only
__________________________________
August 25, 2012
Carbon Tax Silence, Overtaken by Events
DON’T expect to hear much about climate change at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Yes, there will be plenty of speeches about unemployment, budget deficits and other immediate problems. But the threats posed by global warming are decades away — or so we have been told repeatedly in recent years.
Many climate scientists, however, are now pointing to evidence linking rising global temperatures to the extreme weather we’re seeing around the planet. The United States has just endured its hottest 12-month period on record. The worst drought in a generation has parched the nation’s crop belt. Floods that happened once a century now occur every few years.
With distressing images of weather-related disasters saturating the news media, climate change no longer seems such a distant and abstract worry — except, perhaps, in Washington. In 2009, President Obama persuaded House Democrats, then in the majority, to pass a bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Facing a Republican filibuster in the Senate, however, the legislation died. And its prospects dimmed further when Republicans took control of the House in 2010. Mr. Obama has remained relatively silent on the issue since then.
Mitt Romney, for his part, has been equivocal about whether rising temperatures are caused by human action. But he has been adamant that uncertainty about climate change rules out policy intervention. “What I’m not willing to do,” he told an audience in New Hampshire last summer, “is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.”
Climatologists are the first to acknowledge that theirs is a highly uncertain science. The future might be better than they think. Then again, it might be much worse. Given that risk, policy makers must weigh the potential cost of action against the potential cost of inaction. And even a cursory look at the numbers makes a compelling case for action.
According to the respected M.I.T. global climate simulation model, there is a 10 percent chance that average surface temperatures will rise by more than 12 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Warming on that scale could end life as we know it. Smaller increases would be less catastrophic, but even the most optimistic projections imply enormous costs.
The good news is that we could insulate ourselves from catastrophic risk at relatively modest cost by enacting a steep carbon tax. Early studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that a carbon tax of up to $80 per metric ton of emissions — a tax that might raise gasoline prices by 70 cents a gallon — would eventually result in climate stability. But because recent estimates about global warming have become more pessimistic, stabilization may require a much higher tax. How hard would it be to live with a tax of, say, $300 a ton?
If such a tax were phased in, the prices of goods would rise gradually in proportion to the amount of carbon dioxide their production or use entailed. The price of gasoline, for example, would slowly rise by somewhat less than $3 a gallon. Motorists in many countries already pay that much more than Americans do, and they seem to have adapted by driving substantially more efficient vehicles.
A carbon tax would also serve two other goals. First, it would help balance future budgets. Tens of millions of Americans are set to retire in the next decades, and, as a result, many budget experts agree that federal budgets simply can’t be balanced with spending cuts alone. We’ll also need substantial additional revenue, most of which could be generated by a carbon tax.
If new taxes are unavoidable, why not adopt ones that not only help balance the budget but also help make the economy more efficient? By reducing harmful emissions, a carbon tax fits that description.
A second benefit would occur if a carbon tax were approved today but phased in gradually, only after the economy had returned to full employment. High unemployment persists in part because businesses, sitting on mountains of cash, aren’t investing it because their current capacity already lets them produce more than people want to buy. News that a carbon tax was coming would create a stampede to develop energy-saving technologies. Hundreds of billions of dollars of private investment might be unleashed without adding a cent to the budget deficit.
SOME people argue that a carbon tax would do little good unless it were also adopted by China and other big polluters. It’s a fair point. But access to the American market is a potent bargaining chip. The United States could seek approval to tax imported goods in proportion to their carbon dioxide emissions if exporting countries failed to enact carbon taxes at home.
In short, global warming has a fairly simple and cheap technical solution. Extreme weather is already creating enormous human suffering. If it continues, politicians will have a hard time ignoring the problem when the 2016 conventions roll around. If the recent meteorological chaos drives home the threat of climate change and prompts action, it may ultimately be a blessing in disguise.
Source:
The New York Times
By ROBERT H. FRANK
Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
This is for your private use, only
_____________________________
Carbon Tax Silence, Overtaken by Events
DON’T expect to hear much about climate change at the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Yes, there will be plenty of speeches about unemployment, budget deficits and other immediate problems. But the threats posed by global warming are decades away — or so we have been told repeatedly in recent years.
Many climate scientists, however, are now pointing to evidence linking rising global temperatures to the extreme weather we’re seeing around the planet. The United States has just endured its hottest 12-month period on record. The worst drought in a generation has parched the nation’s crop belt. Floods that happened once a century now occur every few years.
With distressing images of weather-related disasters saturating the news media, climate change no longer seems such a distant and abstract worry — except, perhaps, in Washington. In 2009, President Obama persuaded House Democrats, then in the majority, to pass a bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Facing a Republican filibuster in the Senate, however, the legislation died. And its prospects dimmed further when Republicans took control of the House in 2010. Mr. Obama has remained relatively silent on the issue since then.
Mitt Romney, for his part, has been equivocal about whether rising temperatures are caused by human action. But he has been adamant that uncertainty about climate change rules out policy intervention. “What I’m not willing to do,” he told an audience in New Hampshire last summer, “is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to.”
Climatologists are the first to acknowledge that theirs is a highly uncertain science. The future might be better than they think. Then again, it might be much worse. Given that risk, policy makers must weigh the potential cost of action against the potential cost of inaction. And even a cursory look at the numbers makes a compelling case for action.
According to the respected M.I.T. global climate simulation model, there is a 10 percent chance that average surface temperatures will rise by more than 12 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Warming on that scale could end life as we know it. Smaller increases would be less catastrophic, but even the most optimistic projections imply enormous costs.
The good news is that we could insulate ourselves from catastrophic risk at relatively modest cost by enacting a steep carbon tax. Early studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that a carbon tax of up to $80 per metric ton of emissions — a tax that might raise gasoline prices by 70 cents a gallon — would eventually result in climate stability. But because recent estimates about global warming have become more pessimistic, stabilization may require a much higher tax. How hard would it be to live with a tax of, say, $300 a ton?
If such a tax were phased in, the prices of goods would rise gradually in proportion to the amount of carbon dioxide their production or use entailed. The price of gasoline, for example, would slowly rise by somewhat less than $3 a gallon. Motorists in many countries already pay that much more than Americans do, and they seem to have adapted by driving substantially more efficient vehicles.
A carbon tax would also serve two other goals. First, it would help balance future budgets. Tens of millions of Americans are set to retire in the next decades, and, as a result, many budget experts agree that federal budgets simply can’t be balanced with spending cuts alone. We’ll also need substantial additional revenue, most of which could be generated by a carbon tax.
If new taxes are unavoidable, why not adopt ones that not only help balance the budget but also help make the economy more efficient? By reducing harmful emissions, a carbon tax fits that description.
A second benefit would occur if a carbon tax were approved today but phased in gradually, only after the economy had returned to full employment. High unemployment persists in part because businesses, sitting on mountains of cash, aren’t investing it because their current capacity already lets them produce more than people want to buy. News that a carbon tax was coming would create a stampede to develop energy-saving technologies. Hundreds of billions of dollars of private investment might be unleashed without adding a cent to the budget deficit.
SOME people argue that a carbon tax would do little good unless it were also adopted by China and other big polluters. It’s a fair point. But access to the American market is a potent bargaining chip. The United States could seek approval to tax imported goods in proportion to their carbon dioxide emissions if exporting countries failed to enact carbon taxes at home.
In short, global warming has a fairly simple and cheap technical solution. Extreme weather is already creating enormous human suffering. If it continues, politicians will have a hard time ignoring the problem when the 2016 conventions roll around. If the recent meteorological chaos drives home the threat of climate change and prompts action, it may ultimately be a blessing in disguise.
Source:
The New York Times
By ROBERT H. FRANK
Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.
This is for your private use, only
_____________________________
Below two articles relating to the same topic: election vote count
Article 1
Why there is an Electoral College and how it works
September 29/2012
Presidents are elected not by national popular vote but by an 18th century constitutional compromise called the Electoral College.
HOW IT FORMED
When framers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, there were two competing ideas on how to elect the president. One group said Congress should do it; the other said it should be a national vote of eligible citizens. There also were disputes over how much slaves should count in representation in Congress and over how power would be distributed between small and large states. The compromise became part of the second article of the Constitution, although the words "Electoral College" are not included. The electors pick the president and vice president.
VOTE TOTALS
Each state gets one electoral vote for each of its representatives in the House and Senate. The District of Columbia gets three votes. All told, there are 538 votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must have at least 270 to win. Except for Maine and Nebraska, states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state. In Maine and Nebraska, votes are apportioned by congressional districts. So in 2008, even though John McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, Barack Obama won the 2nd Congressional District and earned one of the state's five electoral votes.
HOW IT WORKS
Each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6, 2013, to conduct an official tally of the electoral votes.Vice President Joe Biden will preside and declare the winner.
PROBLEM AREAS
If no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the newly elected House of Representatives. Each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected president. This happened in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but four candidates split the electoral votes and no one received a majority. The race went to the House and John Quincy Adams, who came in second, was chosen as president. Three other times, candidates won the Electoral College even though they lost the popular vote — in 1876, 1888 and 2000.
9/29/12
By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press
Click green for further info
This article is for your personal use, only
_______________________________
Above article 1 relating to the same topic: election vote count
____________
Article 2 (article 1 is next above)
Electoral College math: Not all votes are equal
September 29/2012
Click green for further info
WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to electing the president, not all votes are created equal. And chances are yours will count less than those of a select few.
For example, the vote of Dave Smith in Sheridan, Wyo., counts almost 3 1/2 times as much mathematically as those of his wife's aunts in northeastern Ohio.
Why? Electoral College math.
A statistical analysis of the state-by-state voting-eligible population by The Associated Press shows that Wyoming has 139,000 eligible voters — those 18 and over, U.S. citizens and non-felons — for every presidential elector chosen in the state. In Ohio, it's almost 476,000 per elector, and it's nearly 478,000 in neighboring Pennsylvania.
But there's mathematical weight and then there's the reality of political power in a system where the president is decided not by the national popular vote but by an 18th century political compromise: the Electoral College.
Smith figures his vote in solid Republican Wyoming really doesn't count that much because it's a sure Mitt Romney state. The same could be said for ballots cast in solid Democratic states like New York or Vermont. In Ohio, one of the biggest battleground states, Smith's relatives are bombarded with political ads. In Wyoming, Smith says, "the candidates don't care about my vote because we only see election commercials from out-of-state TV stations."
The nine battleground states where Romney and Barack Obama are spending a lot of time and money — Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin — have 44.1 million people eligible to vote. That's only 20.7 percent of the nation's 212.6 million eligible voters. So nearly 4 of 5 eligible voters are pretty much being ignored by the two campaigns.
When you combine voter-to-elector comparisons and battleground state populations, there are clear winners and losers in the upcoming election.
More than half the nation's eligible voters live in states that are losers in both categories. Their states are not closely contested and have above-average ratios of voters to electors. This is true for people in 14 states with 51 percent of the nation's eligible voters: California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana and Kentucky. Their votes count the least.
The biggest winners in the system, those whose votes count the most, live in just four states: Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada. They have low voter-to-elector ratios and are in battleground states. Only 4 percent of the nation's eligible voters — 1 in 25 — live in those states.
It's all dictated by the U.S. Constitution, which set up the Electoral College. The number of electors each state gets depends on the size of its congressional delegation. Even the least populated states — like Wyoming — get a minimum of three, meaning more crowded states get less proportionally.
If the nation's Electoral College votes were apportioned in a strict one-person, one-vote manner, each state would get one elector for every 395,000 eligible voters. Some 156 million voters live in the 20 states that have a larger ratio than that average: That's 73 percent — nearly 3 out of 4.
And for most people, it's even more unrepresentative. About 58 percent of the nation's eligible voting population lives in states with voter-to-elector ratios three times as large as Wyoming's. In other words, Dave Smith's voting power is about equal to three of his wife's aunts and uncles in Ohio, and most people in the nation are on the aunt-and-uncle side of that unbalanced equation.
"It's a terrible system; it's the most undemocratic way of electing a chief executive in the world, " said Paul Finkelman, a law professor at Albany Law School who teaches this year at Duke University. "There's no other electoral system in the world where the person with the most votes doesn't win."
The statistical analysis uses voter eligibility figures for 2010 calculated by political science professor Michael McDonald at George Mason University. McDonald is a leader in the field of voter turnout.
Former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming defends the Electoral College system for protecting small states in elections, which otherwise might be overrun by big city campaigning: "Once you get rid of the Electoral College, the election will be conducted in New York and San Francisco."
Sure it gives small states more power, but at what price? asks Douglas Amy, a political science professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts: "This clearly violates that basic democratic principle of one person, one vote. Indeed, many constitutional scholars point out that this unfair arrangement would almost certainly be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on those grounds if it were not actually in the Constitution."
Article 2 of the Constitution says presidents are voted on by electors (it doesn't mention the word college) with each state having a number equal to its U.S. senators and representatives. While representatives are allocated among the states proportional by population, senators are not. Every state gets two. So Wyoming has 0.2 percent of the nation's voting-eligible population but almost 0.6 percent of the Electoral College. And since the number of electors is limited to 538, some states get less proportionately.
Adding to this, most states have an all-or-nothing approach to the Electoral College. A candidate can win a state by just a handful of votes but get all the electors. That happened in 2000, when George W. Bush, after much dispute, won Florida by 537 votes out of about 6 million and got all 27 electoral votes. He won the presidential election but lost the national popular vote that year.
That election led some states to sign a compact promising to give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner. But that compact would go into effect only if and when states with the 270 majority of electoral votes signed on. So far nine states with 132 electoral votes have signed, all predominantly Democratic states.
Because of the 2000 election, conservatives and Republicans tend to feel that changing the Electoral College would hurt them, George Mason's McDonald said, and after their big victories in 2010, the popular vote compact movement stalled. But that analysis may not necessarily be true, he added. McDonald said before recent opinion polls started to break for Obama there seemed to be a possibility that he could win the electoral vote and lose the popular vote because of weak turnout — but still enough to win — in traditionally Democratic states like New York and California.
Former Stanford University computer scientist John Koza, who heads National Popular Vote, which is behind the electoral reform compact, said Democrat John Kerry would have won the Electoral College in 2004 while Republican Bush won the popular vote, if only 60,000 Bush votes in Ohio had changed to Kerry votes.
History shows that candidates have won the presidency but not the popular vote four times, and in each case it was the Democrat who got the most votes but lost the presidency: 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000.
The Associated Press analysis suggests that in this year's election, the current system seems to benefit Romney. The AP re-apportioned electoral votes based on voting-eligible population and not congressional delegations, so that, for example, Wyoming and the District of Columbia would have only one elector instead of three, and California would have 58 instead of 55.
Based on polling, states strongly in the Romney camp have 191 electoral votes in the current system but would have only 178 if the electoral votes were allocated based on voting-eligible population. Based on similar polling, Obama would benefit by about five electoral votes if electors were apportioned by that population. The nine battleground states would gain even more sway, jumping from 110 electoral votes to 118.
That would compound the perceived problem of a shrinking number of battleground states being all that mattered in the election, leaving the overwhelming majority of states standing around as "spectator states," Koza said.
John McGinnis, a professor of constitutional law at Northwestern University, defends the currentElectoral College, arguing that while the mathematics of electoral proportionate calculations is correct, the conclusion that it over-represents small states is not. Larger states still have more sway because they have more electoral votes, he said.
Further, the historical agreement to give each state two senators regardless of their population and to base electoral votes on congressional delegation rather than population "was an essential compromise" when framers were drafting the Constitution, McGinnis said. Without that compromise, there might not have been a Constitution or nation, he said.
But Finkelman said his reading of history is that the compromise wasn't about power between small and large states as much as it was about power of slave-holding states. He said James Madison wanted direct popular election of the president, but because African-American slaves wouldn't count, that would give more power to the North. So the framers came up with a compromise to count each slave as three-fifths of a person for representation in Congress and presidential elections, he said.
Electoral College supporter McGinnis said the emphasis on battleground states is actually good because they are representative of the country. But he acknowledges as an Illinois resident, "I realize when I vote here it's completely irrelevant."
9/29/12
By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press
Click green for further info
This article is for your personal use, only
__________________
For example, the vote of Dave Smith in Sheridan, Wyo., counts almost 3 1/2 times as much mathematically as those of his wife's aunts in northeastern Ohio.
Why? Electoral College math.
A statistical analysis of the state-by-state voting-eligible population by The Associated Press shows that Wyoming has 139,000 eligible voters — those 18 and over, U.S. citizens and non-felons — for every presidential elector chosen in the state. In Ohio, it's almost 476,000 per elector, and it's nearly 478,000 in neighboring Pennsylvania.
But there's mathematical weight and then there's the reality of political power in a system where the president is decided not by the national popular vote but by an 18th century political compromise: the Electoral College.
Smith figures his vote in solid Republican Wyoming really doesn't count that much because it's a sure Mitt Romney state. The same could be said for ballots cast in solid Democratic states like New York or Vermont. In Ohio, one of the biggest battleground states, Smith's relatives are bombarded with political ads. In Wyoming, Smith says, "the candidates don't care about my vote because we only see election commercials from out-of-state TV stations."
The nine battleground states where Romney and Barack Obama are spending a lot of time and money — Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin — have 44.1 million people eligible to vote. That's only 20.7 percent of the nation's 212.6 million eligible voters. So nearly 4 of 5 eligible voters are pretty much being ignored by the two campaigns.
When you combine voter-to-elector comparisons and battleground state populations, there are clear winners and losers in the upcoming election.
More than half the nation's eligible voters live in states that are losers in both categories. Their states are not closely contested and have above-average ratios of voters to electors. This is true for people in 14 states with 51 percent of the nation's eligible voters: California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, Louisiana and Kentucky. Their votes count the least.
The biggest winners in the system, those whose votes count the most, live in just four states: Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada. They have low voter-to-elector ratios and are in battleground states. Only 4 percent of the nation's eligible voters — 1 in 25 — live in those states.
It's all dictated by the U.S. Constitution, which set up the Electoral College. The number of electors each state gets depends on the size of its congressional delegation. Even the least populated states — like Wyoming — get a minimum of three, meaning more crowded states get less proportionally.
If the nation's Electoral College votes were apportioned in a strict one-person, one-vote manner, each state would get one elector for every 395,000 eligible voters. Some 156 million voters live in the 20 states that have a larger ratio than that average: That's 73 percent — nearly 3 out of 4.
And for most people, it's even more unrepresentative. About 58 percent of the nation's eligible voting population lives in states with voter-to-elector ratios three times as large as Wyoming's. In other words, Dave Smith's voting power is about equal to three of his wife's aunts and uncles in Ohio, and most people in the nation are on the aunt-and-uncle side of that unbalanced equation.
"It's a terrible system; it's the most undemocratic way of electing a chief executive in the world, " said Paul Finkelman, a law professor at Albany Law School who teaches this year at Duke University. "There's no other electoral system in the world where the person with the most votes doesn't win."
The statistical analysis uses voter eligibility figures for 2010 calculated by political science professor Michael McDonald at George Mason University. McDonald is a leader in the field of voter turnout.
Former Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming defends the Electoral College system for protecting small states in elections, which otherwise might be overrun by big city campaigning: "Once you get rid of the Electoral College, the election will be conducted in New York and San Francisco."
Sure it gives small states more power, but at what price? asks Douglas Amy, a political science professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts: "This clearly violates that basic democratic principle of one person, one vote. Indeed, many constitutional scholars point out that this unfair arrangement would almost certainly be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on those grounds if it were not actually in the Constitution."
Article 2 of the Constitution says presidents are voted on by electors (it doesn't mention the word college) with each state having a number equal to its U.S. senators and representatives. While representatives are allocated among the states proportional by population, senators are not. Every state gets two. So Wyoming has 0.2 percent of the nation's voting-eligible population but almost 0.6 percent of the Electoral College. And since the number of electors is limited to 538, some states get less proportionately.
Adding to this, most states have an all-or-nothing approach to the Electoral College. A candidate can win a state by just a handful of votes but get all the electors. That happened in 2000, when George W. Bush, after much dispute, won Florida by 537 votes out of about 6 million and got all 27 electoral votes. He won the presidential election but lost the national popular vote that year.
That election led some states to sign a compact promising to give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner. But that compact would go into effect only if and when states with the 270 majority of electoral votes signed on. So far nine states with 132 electoral votes have signed, all predominantly Democratic states.
Because of the 2000 election, conservatives and Republicans tend to feel that changing the Electoral College would hurt them, George Mason's McDonald said, and after their big victories in 2010, the popular vote compact movement stalled. But that analysis may not necessarily be true, he added. McDonald said before recent opinion polls started to break for Obama there seemed to be a possibility that he could win the electoral vote and lose the popular vote because of weak turnout — but still enough to win — in traditionally Democratic states like New York and California.
Former Stanford University computer scientist John Koza, who heads National Popular Vote, which is behind the electoral reform compact, said Democrat John Kerry would have won the Electoral College in 2004 while Republican Bush won the popular vote, if only 60,000 Bush votes in Ohio had changed to Kerry votes.
History shows that candidates have won the presidency but not the popular vote four times, and in each case it was the Democrat who got the most votes but lost the presidency: 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000.
The Associated Press analysis suggests that in this year's election, the current system seems to benefit Romney. The AP re-apportioned electoral votes based on voting-eligible population and not congressional delegations, so that, for example, Wyoming and the District of Columbia would have only one elector instead of three, and California would have 58 instead of 55.
Based on polling, states strongly in the Romney camp have 191 electoral votes in the current system but would have only 178 if the electoral votes were allocated based on voting-eligible population. Based on similar polling, Obama would benefit by about five electoral votes if electors were apportioned by that population. The nine battleground states would gain even more sway, jumping from 110 electoral votes to 118.
That would compound the perceived problem of a shrinking number of battleground states being all that mattered in the election, leaving the overwhelming majority of states standing around as "spectator states," Koza said.
John McGinnis, a professor of constitutional law at Northwestern University, defends the currentElectoral College, arguing that while the mathematics of electoral proportionate calculations is correct, the conclusion that it over-represents small states is not. Larger states still have more sway because they have more electoral votes, he said.
Further, the historical agreement to give each state two senators regardless of their population and to base electoral votes on congressional delegation rather than population "was an essential compromise" when framers were drafting the Constitution, McGinnis said. Without that compromise, there might not have been a Constitution or nation, he said.
But Finkelman said his reading of history is that the compromise wasn't about power between small and large states as much as it was about power of slave-holding states. He said James Madison wanted direct popular election of the president, but because African-American slaves wouldn't count, that would give more power to the North. So the framers came up with a compromise to count each slave as three-fifths of a person for representation in Congress and presidential elections, he said.
Electoral College supporter McGinnis said the emphasis on battleground states is actually good because they are representative of the country. But he acknowledges as an Illinois resident, "I realize when I vote here it's completely irrelevant."
9/29/12
By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press
Click green for further info
This article is for your personal use, only
__________________
Learning Wine Culture
For added information, click the green areas
Until five years ago, I assumed that wine fanatics were crazy. Sure, I enjoyed wine.
But it was simply a drink—a beverage to enjoy with dinner from time to time.
And then I put my nose in a glass of Syrah from Failla, a boutique winery in Napa Valley, and something clicked. How could such a simple beverage—fermented grape juice—have such a seductive bouquet? And how could it taste so good?
I knew nothing of tasting notes at the time, but when I learned that a well-known wine critic had described the wine as “explosive and wild” and complimented its “aromas of raspberry, game, truffle, smoke and leather, with notes of pepper and beefsteak tomato,” it all made sense.
So I dove into the world of wine: taking classes, reading books, and tasting as much as I could.
Taste and Learn
These days, I’m frequently asked how one should learn about wine. While every approach is helpful, tasting is the most valuable. Even simple questions, like your go-to varietal on an average weeknight, are impossible to answer until you’ve tasted several different wines.
If you prefer white wine, for example, do you seek out ones that are crisp and light, like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc?
Or do you prefer wines that are buttery and ripe, like California Chardonnay?
If you prefer red, do you seek out big, “jammy” wines, like Australian Shiraz, or the more restrained profile of French Pinot Noir?
Once wine becomes a passion, those hard-to-pronounce regions in Europe become much easier to remember—so long as you’ve tasted the wines. Those flaws that sommeliers can spot become obvious to you as well—so long as you’ve tasted enough wine to encounter them.
Tasting can be as simple as heading to your local wine shop when several bottles are open. Getting together with friends and asking each person to bring something different is another way to taste several wines in one sitting.
My favorite tasting for those who are just getting into wine is a bit more formal. I select four varietals—generally Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah—and open two bottles of each; one from the New World and one from the Old World.
The stereotype tells us that New World wines are fruitier than their Old World counterparts. While one can find wines that debunk this stereotype, it’s based in truth. So I purposefully seek out wines that fit the stereotype.
I serve everything blind, pouring the wines from paper bags to mask where they’re from.
Recognizing the differences should be obvious, even to novices.
Intimations of Flavor
The aromatics of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc are extremely intense, typically offering fresh-cut grass, gooseberries, and grapefruit. French Sauvignon Blanc, especially from Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, presents more subtle aromatics, like chalk and white flowers.
Chardonnay provides a similar contrast. While California Chardonnays are characterized by tropical fruits and butter, French Chardonnays are marked by tart fruits, like green apples and lime.
When Pinot Noir comes from warmer regions of California, like Napa Valley and Carneros, it presents aromatics of sweet fruits, such as black cherries. In the French region of Burgundy, Pinot Noir generally offers aromas of tart cherries and earth.
The differences between Syrah can be stunning.
In Australia, winemakers usually produce fruit bombs (think gobs of ripe blackberries and licorice). French Syrah is more restrained, typically marked by blueberries, meat, and pepper.
Neither Old World nor New World is “better” (my preference shifts all the time, depending on my mood), but looking for these differences is extremely educational. And when the paper bag comes off each bottle, it’s fun to see whether or not you correctly guessed the origin of each wine.
Related ArticlesThis is just one concept for a formal tasting. One can just as easily host a “wine on a budget” tasting, selecting several bottles under $10, or a “horizontal” tasting—focusing on one varietal, from one region, from one year, or selecting wines from several producers.
Just remember to keep it fun.
By David White, a wine writer, is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com.
His columns are housed at Wines.com, the fastest growing wine portal on the Internet.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
This is for your private use, only
For added information, click the green areas
Until five years ago, I assumed that wine fanatics were crazy. Sure, I enjoyed wine.
But it was simply a drink—a beverage to enjoy with dinner from time to time.
And then I put my nose in a glass of Syrah from Failla, a boutique winery in Napa Valley, and something clicked. How could such a simple beverage—fermented grape juice—have such a seductive bouquet? And how could it taste so good?
I knew nothing of tasting notes at the time, but when I learned that a well-known wine critic had described the wine as “explosive and wild” and complimented its “aromas of raspberry, game, truffle, smoke and leather, with notes of pepper and beefsteak tomato,” it all made sense.
So I dove into the world of wine: taking classes, reading books, and tasting as much as I could.
Taste and Learn
These days, I’m frequently asked how one should learn about wine. While every approach is helpful, tasting is the most valuable. Even simple questions, like your go-to varietal on an average weeknight, are impossible to answer until you’ve tasted several different wines.
If you prefer white wine, for example, do you seek out ones that are crisp and light, like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc?
Or do you prefer wines that are buttery and ripe, like California Chardonnay?
If you prefer red, do you seek out big, “jammy” wines, like Australian Shiraz, or the more restrained profile of French Pinot Noir?
Once wine becomes a passion, those hard-to-pronounce regions in Europe become much easier to remember—so long as you’ve tasted the wines. Those flaws that sommeliers can spot become obvious to you as well—so long as you’ve tasted enough wine to encounter them.
Tasting can be as simple as heading to your local wine shop when several bottles are open. Getting together with friends and asking each person to bring something different is another way to taste several wines in one sitting.
My favorite tasting for those who are just getting into wine is a bit more formal. I select four varietals—generally Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah—and open two bottles of each; one from the New World and one from the Old World.
The stereotype tells us that New World wines are fruitier than their Old World counterparts. While one can find wines that debunk this stereotype, it’s based in truth. So I purposefully seek out wines that fit the stereotype.
I serve everything blind, pouring the wines from paper bags to mask where they’re from.
Recognizing the differences should be obvious, even to novices.
Intimations of Flavor
The aromatics of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc are extremely intense, typically offering fresh-cut grass, gooseberries, and grapefruit. French Sauvignon Blanc, especially from Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, presents more subtle aromatics, like chalk and white flowers.
Chardonnay provides a similar contrast. While California Chardonnays are characterized by tropical fruits and butter, French Chardonnays are marked by tart fruits, like green apples and lime.
When Pinot Noir comes from warmer regions of California, like Napa Valley and Carneros, it presents aromatics of sweet fruits, such as black cherries. In the French region of Burgundy, Pinot Noir generally offers aromas of tart cherries and earth.
The differences between Syrah can be stunning.
In Australia, winemakers usually produce fruit bombs (think gobs of ripe blackberries and licorice). French Syrah is more restrained, typically marked by blueberries, meat, and pepper.
Neither Old World nor New World is “better” (my preference shifts all the time, depending on my mood), but looking for these differences is extremely educational. And when the paper bag comes off each bottle, it’s fun to see whether or not you correctly guessed the origin of each wine.
Related ArticlesThis is just one concept for a formal tasting. One can just as easily host a “wine on a budget” tasting, selecting several bottles under $10, or a “horizontal” tasting—focusing on one varietal, from one region, from one year, or selecting wines from several producers.
Just remember to keep it fun.
By David White, a wine writer, is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com.
His columns are housed at Wines.com, the fastest growing wine portal on the Internet.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
This is for your private use, only
See the next article below: another example of a sea animal guarding the earth's healthy ecology
_________________________________
Why Is It Illegal To Ride a Manatee?
Riding a dolphin also violates federal law
Click green for further info
What is a manatee? See the link below at the end of this article for detailed info and a picture
Anyone looking for cheap thrills and a quick brush with nature should reconsider thoughts of riding a manatee. As a Florida woman is learning, multiple federal and state laws can be swiftly wielded in defense of the vulnerable sea cow.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, accused of riding a manatee in a waterway in Pinellas County over the weekend, turned herself in after authorities on her trail released photos that appear to show her mid-ride.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act outlaws riding or touching the slow-moving marine mammals. And while Gutierrez wasn't immediately charged, her alleged crime is punishable by a $500 fine or a jail term of up to 60 days, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
There was no immediate indication that federal charges would be pressed, but Gutierrez's alleged offense also would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, under which she could be subject to thousands of dollars in additional fines for harassing a protected species.
Such penalties may seem outsized for a joy ride on a thick-skinned manatee, which was not thought to have been physically injured in the encounter. But authorities' refusal to regard Gutierrez's alleged crime as harmless whimsy is perhaps acknowledgement that human interactions with manatees are precisely what threaten to end the endangered animal's existence.
The same easygoing and curious nature that would likely predispose a manatee to taking on a human passenger seems to contribute to the species' vulnerability to being mowed down by passing speed boats. [Manatee Mystery: Why Can't They Avoid Speedboats?]
About 87 Florida manatees are killed by humans every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, most of them dying in boat collisions. And with an estimated Florida population of 3,800 manatees, 87 is a grave number.
Coastal development, which has altered and destroyed manatee habitat, also threatens the species.
Swimmers seeking a visceral interaction with a non-manatee marine mammal, take note: Riding a dolphin — the gazelle to the manatee's cow — also violates federal law.
Click green for further info
Source: Yahoo Science News
Click the green for manatee info
Manatee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three ...
Dugong - West Indian manatee - Amazonian manatee - Dwarf manatee
This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Why Is It Illegal To Ride a Manatee?
Riding a dolphin also violates federal law
Click green for further info
What is a manatee? See the link below at the end of this article for detailed info and a picture
Anyone looking for cheap thrills and a quick brush with nature should reconsider thoughts of riding a manatee. As a Florida woman is learning, multiple federal and state laws can be swiftly wielded in defense of the vulnerable sea cow.
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, accused of riding a manatee in a waterway in Pinellas County over the weekend, turned herself in after authorities on her trail released photos that appear to show her mid-ride.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act outlaws riding or touching the slow-moving marine mammals. And while Gutierrez wasn't immediately charged, her alleged crime is punishable by a $500 fine or a jail term of up to 60 days, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
There was no immediate indication that federal charges would be pressed, but Gutierrez's alleged offense also would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, under which she could be subject to thousands of dollars in additional fines for harassing a protected species.
Such penalties may seem outsized for a joy ride on a thick-skinned manatee, which was not thought to have been physically injured in the encounter. But authorities' refusal to regard Gutierrez's alleged crime as harmless whimsy is perhaps acknowledgement that human interactions with manatees are precisely what threaten to end the endangered animal's existence.
The same easygoing and curious nature that would likely predispose a manatee to taking on a human passenger seems to contribute to the species' vulnerability to being mowed down by passing speed boats. [Manatee Mystery: Why Can't They Avoid Speedboats?]
About 87 Florida manatees are killed by humans every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, most of them dying in boat collisions. And with an estimated Florida population of 3,800 manatees, 87 is a grave number.
Coastal development, which has altered and destroyed manatee habitat, also threatens the species.
Swimmers seeking a visceral interaction with a non-manatee marine mammal, take note: Riding a dolphin — the gazelle to the manatee's cow — also violates federal law.
Click green for further info
Source: Yahoo Science News
- Marine Marvels: Spectacular Photos of Sea Creatures
- Humans' Taste for Dolphins & Manatees on the Rise
- Lumbering Sea Cows Were Once Plentiful and Diverse
Click the green for manatee info
Manatee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee
Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three ...
Dugong - West Indian manatee - Amazonian manatee - Dwarf manatee
This article is for your private use, only
_________________________________________________________
Dolphin Caught in Fishing Line
Approaches Divers for Help
Dolphins are known for being highly intelligent mammals.
So intelligent, in fact, that they can communicate with humans
even when they have not been trained to do so.
Click green for further info
That's what happened to a group of divers on an observation trip off the coast of Hawaii, known as the Big Island.
While the divers were observing manta rays, they were approached by a bottlenose dolphin. Luckily for all of us, they captured the encounter on video and uploaded it to YouTube. Keller Laros, one of the divers, heard an unusual squeal from the dolphin. Laros realized the dolphin was in distress; a fishing line was wrapped around its pectoral fin. He described how he tried to remove the fishing line: "I was trying to unwrap it, I got the fishing hook out of the pectoral fin. ... I was worried if I tugged on it, it might hurt him more."
The amazing part of the video is how cooperative and gentle the dolphin is as the divers help him. Laros was able to get the hook out and snip the fishing line near the dolphin's mouth.
"The way he came right up and pushed himself into me, there was no question this dolphin was there for help," Laros said. Several YouTube commenters have praised Laros and his team for their effort.
It should also be noted that at the beginning of the video, there is a disclaimer that reads, in part: "We do not advocate attempts by laypersons to rescue marine life. The assistance provided to this dolphin was given by professional divers with thousands of hours of experience at this dive site. It was an unusual event. The compassion extended to this animal by the divers is something we should aspire to do, not criticize."
So far, the rescue has been viewed more than 466,000 times on YouTube. People are in awe of what the divers captured on film and what they were able to do.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
_____________________________________________
Approaches Divers for Help
Dolphins are known for being highly intelligent mammals.
So intelligent, in fact, that they can communicate with humans
even when they have not been trained to do so.
Click green for further info
That's what happened to a group of divers on an observation trip off the coast of Hawaii, known as the Big Island.
While the divers were observing manta rays, they were approached by a bottlenose dolphin. Luckily for all of us, they captured the encounter on video and uploaded it to YouTube. Keller Laros, one of the divers, heard an unusual squeal from the dolphin. Laros realized the dolphin was in distress; a fishing line was wrapped around its pectoral fin. He described how he tried to remove the fishing line: "I was trying to unwrap it, I got the fishing hook out of the pectoral fin. ... I was worried if I tugged on it, it might hurt him more."
The amazing part of the video is how cooperative and gentle the dolphin is as the divers help him. Laros was able to get the hook out and snip the fishing line near the dolphin's mouth.
"The way he came right up and pushed himself into me, there was no question this dolphin was there for help," Laros said. Several YouTube commenters have praised Laros and his team for their effort.
It should also be noted that at the beginning of the video, there is a disclaimer that reads, in part: "We do not advocate attempts by laypersons to rescue marine life. The assistance provided to this dolphin was given by professional divers with thousands of hours of experience at this dive site. It was an unusual event. The compassion extended to this animal by the divers is something we should aspire to do, not criticize."
So far, the rescue has been viewed more than 466,000 times on YouTube. People are in awe of what the divers captured on film and what they were able to do.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
_____________________________________________
U.S. Unprepared for Electromagnetic Storm
Important information
- at the STAF, Inc.'s scale 0 - 10 of importance this is 9-1/2 -
Power Failure: An Attack US Unprepared for
U.S. Unprepared for Electromagnetic
Storm
Click green for further info
October 4, 2012
Abbreviations and their meaning used in this article:
(1) (EMP) electromagnetic pulse , (2) (HEMP) high-altitude EMP, (3) (DHS) The Department of Homeland Security ,
(4) (CME) coronal mass ejection, (5) the Carrington Event, The solar storm of 1859, also known as the 1859 Solar Superstorm, or the Carrington Event, was a powerful solar storm in 1859 during solar cycle 10. It produced the largest known solar flare, which was observed and recorded by Richard C. Carrington.
Additional info: Solar storm of 1859 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen. wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
____________
A single electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack could affect the entire United States. Power would go out, financial infrastructure would be lost, electronics would be fried. Cars, trains, and airplanes would be useless hunks of metal. If energy, pumps, and transportation were knocked out, food and water would become a dwindling commodity.
An EMP capable of causing damage of this magnitude could come from either a nuclear weapon detonated 15 miles above the earth’s surface or from solar weather as the sun approaches its solar maximum.
Despite the risk, the United States remains unprepared. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working with other government departments to raise awareness about the threat, according to Brandon Wales, director of the DHS Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center, who testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Sept. 12.
A nuclear weapon detonated above the earth’s surface, also known as a high-altitude EMP (HEMP), could “blanket the entire continental United States,” and “A concern is the growing number of nation-states that in the past have sponsored terrorism and are now developing capabilities that could be used in a HEMP attack,” Wales said, according to a transcript.
He added that a coronal mass ejection (CME) plasma hurricane, which can come from solar activity, “could create low-frequency EMP similar to a megaton-class nuclear HEMP detonation over the United States, which could disrupt or damage the power grid, undersea cables, and other critical infrastructures.”
Solar storms that could have caused significant EMP damage have occurred in the past, but unlike today, reliance on technology was not widespread enough to cause much harm.
The largest known solar storm took place during a solar maximum in 1859, known as the Carrington Event. The sun is again entering its solar maximum of around that same size, National Geographic reported, citing NASA. Similar solar activity is expected within the next two years.
“In 1859, such reports were mostly curiosities. But if something similar happened today, the world’s high-tech infrastructure could grind to a halt,” states the March 2, 2011, National Geographic report.
According to Wales, the DHS is working closely with information provided by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack. The commission has released three comprehensive reports since 2002, which look at the vulnerabilities of the United States to an EMP.
The commission’s last report was released in April 2008, and states, “Because of the ubiquitous dependence of U.S. society on the electrical power system, its vulnerability to an EMP attack, coupled with the EMP’s particular damage mechanisms, creates the possibility of long-term, catastrophic consequences.”
It states that an EMP attack could “leave significant parts of the electrical infrastructure out of service for periods measured in months to a year or more.”
The loss of the electrical infrastructure is more serious than just losing computers and cellphones. The most fundamental threat would be to water and food supplies.
Related Articles
(click green)
Food infrastructure in the United States is heavily dependent upon modern technology. Farming requires technology, as do transportation and refrigeration. The commission states, “It is highly possible that the recovery time would be very slow and the amount of human suffering great, including loss of life.”
The water infrastructure faces a similar threat, since it is reliant on treatment plants, pumps, and other systems. The commission said that, “Faced with the failure of the water infrastructure in a single large city, [federal, state, and local emergency services] would be hard-pressed to provide the population with the minimum water requirements necessary to sustain life over a time frame longer than a few days.”
___________________
Click the green for further info
Source:
Epoch Times, 10/4/12
By Joshua Philipp
This article is for your private use, only
Study further through the web links below:
- Earthbound Solar Flares (x 2) Strongest of 2012 ~ (UPDATED 3*9 ...newearthdaily.com/earthbound-solar-flares-x-2-strongest-of-2012/
The first big solar storm was also the most powerful one, ranking as an X5.4-class flare... Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, who prepared the CME's ... quiettime as these solar incidents can certainly affect all facets of our lives ~ from ...Crowning, Birth & Maturation: The Dawn of a New Epoch & the 'Evoluminous ...
Streamlining Solar Storm - New Earth Dailynewearthdaily.com/streamlining-solar-storm/
We shared about the incoming earth facing solar CME a couple of days ago ~ here is the ... to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab. ...Crowning, Birth & Maturation: The Dawn of a New Epoch & the 'Evoluminous ... the exact Full Moon will take place on Friday early morning EST time ______________________________________
Article 1 (Article 2 next below)
Meteorite - not the end of the world -
strikes Russia's Siberia
Date: Friday, 2/15/13
Hundreds hurt as meteorite hits Russia
Fireballs crash to Earth, smashing windows, setting off car alarms
and injuring nearly 1,000. See the video
Related links
Two beneficial quiz tests at the end - one with 20 Q/A, one with 50 Q/A
A bus-sized meteor exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains, sparking speculation
about everything from a missile attack to the end of the world
The shock waves smashed windows and damaged buildings
Click green for further info
A meteor the size of a bus exploded in the atmosphere over the Russian Urals city of Chelyabinsk Friday, 2/15/13, terrifying thousands with blinding light flashes and powerful sonic booms that shattered windows, damaged buildings, and injuries may be heading toward 1,000, mainly due to flying glass and debris.
Thanks to the proliferation of new technologies like CCTV and dashboard cameras in cars, the dazzling meteor shower that hit the far-western Siberian region may be the first event of its kind in history to be filmed from almost every angle.
Dozens of videos have cropped up on YouTube and other social media, and they offer an astounding glimpse of what happens when a huge hunk of rock, estimated at about 10 tons, plows into the atmosphere at a speed of 30,000 miles per hour. It disintegrated in a series of bright flashes while still several miles above the Earth's surface.
According to eyewitnesses quoted by the Ekho Moskvi radio station, the event began around 9 a.m. local time, when it was not yet full daylight. The station said that thousands of people rushed into the frigid streets, looking up at the fiery contrails in the sky, with many wondering if it was an air disaster, a missile attack, or the end of the world.
RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.
"My ears popped, the windows in our building are smashed, everyone says an airplane exploded. My cellphone stopped working for awhile," said one witness from Chelyabinsk.
"I was driving to work and suddenly there was this flash that lit everything up like bright sunlight," said another. "The shock wave nearly drove me off the road."
Close to 1,000 people were reported injured, but only three seriously enough to be hospitalized, according to the official RIA-Novosti agency. Windows were blown out across a wide area, and several buildings were reported damaged, including a Chelyabinsk factory, whose roof caved in.
Pieces of the meteor have been reported coming down across several regions in western Siberia and even nearby Kazakhstan. Russia's Defense Ministry reported that soldiers have located a 20-ft.-wide crater near a lake in Chelyabinsk region.
Russia's military may have known of the impending meteor strike several days in advance, but did not issue any special public warnings, according to the independent Rosbalt news agency (link in Russian).
"The preliminary data about its size and composition suggested it would break up in the atmosphere. There was no cause for alarm," the agency quoted an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying.
Experts say that such meteor showers are not uncommon, but this one was much bigger than usual, and it occurred over a major population center in the early morning, where huge numbers of people could watch it. Chelyabinsk is an industrial city of about 1 million.
"Judging by the intensity of the shock waves, this was a body at least 30 ft. in diameter and weighing around 10 tons. That's a big one," says Nikolai Chugai, a department head at the official Institute of Astronomy in Moscow.
"It came in very fast, at a shallow angle, and disintegrated in an arc across the sky. That accounts for the amazing sound-and-light show.... If it had come in vertically, it would have been way more destructive, but over a smaller area," he adds.
The European Space Agency reported Friday that there is no connection between the meteor that hit Russia and the huge 165-ft. diameter asteroid known as DA14, which is due to pass within 17,000 miles of Earth – less distance than satellites in geosynchronous orbit – within the next day or so.
"It did a lot of damage, but what do you expect?" asks Nikolai Zheleznov, an expert with the Institute of Applied Astronomy in St. Petersburg. "A meteorite is a large projectile, like a bomb, that enters the atmosphere at high speed. Imagine the kinetic energy in a rock 30 ft. across. When it comes roaring into the atmosphere, the air density is like a solid wall that it slams into. Kinetic energy turns to heat, and then there is percussion....
"We live in a solar system that's full of asteroids and meteorites. There's no avoiding them. Thousands of tons of meteorites fall onto the Earth every year, far more than we can even keep track of. So, try not to worry too much."
RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz - 20 questions & answers
Source: Christian Monitor
Click green for further info
Related stories
- Are you scientifically literate? Take our quiz - 50 questions & answers
- Meteor explodes over Russia, injuring hundreds (+video)
- Related links
Article 1 next above
Article 2 - Meteorites
METEORITES; An asteroid half the size of a football field will buzz Earth
on Feb. 15, 2013,
in a big way, coming closer to the planet than many satellites,
and you can watch the cosmic encounter live online
At its closest approach at 2:24 p.m. EST (1924 GMT) today, the 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 will cruise within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth. The encounter marks the closest flyby by such a big asteroid that's ever been known about in advance, but there's no chance that the space rock will hit us, experts stress.
"No one on Earth is in danger, nor will any of our satellites be hurt or damaged," Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said in a video released by the space agency Thursday (Feb. 14).
You can watch the asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby on SPACE.com today during a series of free webcasts. NASA will provide two webcast views of the asteroid, with several other professional and amateur groups joining in with other broadcasts.
Scientists are excited about the flyby, for it gives them a rare chance to get an up-close look at a decent-size asteroid. Photos of the asteroid captured on Thursday show it as a growing pinpoint moving across a star-filled background. [Asteroid 2012 DA14's Flyby: Complete Coverage]
"We're going to use our radars to bounce radio waves off this asteroid, watch it spin, look at the reflections and understand its size, its shape and perhaps even a little bit about what it's made of," Green said.
See an asteroid in the sky
The flyby of 2012 DA14 will be a treat for some well-placed skywatchers, too. While the close approach occurs during daylight hours in the Western Hemisphere, shutting out observers there, stargazers in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia have a shot at seeing the asteroid today.
Even if geography favors you, you'll still need binoculars or a small telescope to spot 2012 DA14. Through such optical aids, the asteroid will appear as a point of light streaking across the sky at a rate of 0.8 degrees per minute. (For reference, the apparent diameter of the full moon as seen from Earth is about 0.5 degrees.)
And wherever you may be, you can watch the flyby live on your computer. In addition to NASA's main webcast and evening broadcast by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, the online Slooh Space Camera will provide views from observatories in Africa and Arizona. The Virtual Telescope Project will provide images from Italy, and the Bareket Observatory in Israel also plans to host a webcast.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Planetary Society will air footage that includes NASA's telescope views and a live tour of the La Sagra Observatory in Spain where amateur astronomers first discovered asteroid 2012 DA14 in February 2012.
[Full asteroid flyby webcast shows and schedule]
The webcasts will come in handy, particularly because of the challenge presented by observing asteroid 2012 DA14, stargazing experts said. The asteroid will be extremely faint and will be moving very rapidly across the sky, making it hard to track in telescopes.
"Being about half the size of a football field, this asteroid will be slightly too small to appear to the unaided eye," said astronomer Bob Berman, who will participate in the Slooh Space Camera webcast. "And although simple binoculars could theoretically see it, its rapid motion will make locating this asteroid a major challenge for all but a small coterie of dedicated, serious astronomers with good star charts and a clock providing the absolutely correct time."
Cosmic shooting gallery
Today's close approach serves as a reminder that Earth sits in the middle of a cosmic shooting gallery. Our planet has been pummeled by asteroids many times over its history — perhaps most famously 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide (10 km) behemoth of an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs — and it will continue to be struck in the future.
We probably don't have to worry about a potential civilization-ending strike anytime soon. NASA researchers have mapped out the orbits of 90 percent of the biggest and most dangerous near-Earth asteroids, and none of them seem to be on a collision course with Earth in the foreseeable future.
But there are a lot of smaller space rocks waiting to be discovered and mapped. Researchers have identified just 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, but they think a million or more are out there, whizzing silently through the darkness of deep space.
Astronomers estimate that asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 buzz Earth this closely every 40 years and hit our planet once every 1,200 years or so.
If 2012 DA14 did hit us, it would probably cause severe destruction on a local scale. In 1908, a space rock thought to be of similar size exploded over Siberia, flattening about 825 square miles (2,137 square km) of forest.
Editor's note: If you snap a photo of asteroid 2012 DA14, or any other amazing night sky object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at [email protected].
Article 2 - Meteorites
METEORITES; An asteroid half the size of a football field will buzz Earth
on Feb. 15, 2013,
in a big way, coming closer to the planet than many satellites,
and you can watch the cosmic encounter live online
At its closest approach at 2:24 p.m. EST (1924 GMT) today, the 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 will cruise within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth. The encounter marks the closest flyby by such a big asteroid that's ever been known about in advance, but there's no chance that the space rock will hit us, experts stress.
"No one on Earth is in danger, nor will any of our satellites be hurt or damaged," Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, said in a video released by the space agency Thursday (Feb. 14).
You can watch the asteroid 2012 DA14 flyby on SPACE.com today during a series of free webcasts. NASA will provide two webcast views of the asteroid, with several other professional and amateur groups joining in with other broadcasts.
Scientists are excited about the flyby, for it gives them a rare chance to get an up-close look at a decent-size asteroid. Photos of the asteroid captured on Thursday show it as a growing pinpoint moving across a star-filled background. [Asteroid 2012 DA14's Flyby: Complete Coverage]
"We're going to use our radars to bounce radio waves off this asteroid, watch it spin, look at the reflections and understand its size, its shape and perhaps even a little bit about what it's made of," Green said.
See an asteroid in the sky
The flyby of 2012 DA14 will be a treat for some well-placed skywatchers, too. While the close approach occurs during daylight hours in the Western Hemisphere, shutting out observers there, stargazers in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia have a shot at seeing the asteroid today.
Even if geography favors you, you'll still need binoculars or a small telescope to spot 2012 DA14. Through such optical aids, the asteroid will appear as a point of light streaking across the sky at a rate of 0.8 degrees per minute. (For reference, the apparent diameter of the full moon as seen from Earth is about 0.5 degrees.)
And wherever you may be, you can watch the flyby live on your computer. In addition to NASA's main webcast and evening broadcast by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center, the online Slooh Space Camera will provide views from observatories in Africa and Arizona. The Virtual Telescope Project will provide images from Italy, and the Bareket Observatory in Israel also plans to host a webcast.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Planetary Society will air footage that includes NASA's telescope views and a live tour of the La Sagra Observatory in Spain where amateur astronomers first discovered asteroid 2012 DA14 in February 2012.
[Full asteroid flyby webcast shows and schedule]
The webcasts will come in handy, particularly because of the challenge presented by observing asteroid 2012 DA14, stargazing experts said. The asteroid will be extremely faint and will be moving very rapidly across the sky, making it hard to track in telescopes.
"Being about half the size of a football field, this asteroid will be slightly too small to appear to the unaided eye," said astronomer Bob Berman, who will participate in the Slooh Space Camera webcast. "And although simple binoculars could theoretically see it, its rapid motion will make locating this asteroid a major challenge for all but a small coterie of dedicated, serious astronomers with good star charts and a clock providing the absolutely correct time."
Cosmic shooting gallery
Today's close approach serves as a reminder that Earth sits in the middle of a cosmic shooting gallery. Our planet has been pummeled by asteroids many times over its history — perhaps most famously 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide (10 km) behemoth of an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs — and it will continue to be struck in the future.
We probably don't have to worry about a potential civilization-ending strike anytime soon. NASA researchers have mapped out the orbits of 90 percent of the biggest and most dangerous near-Earth asteroids, and none of them seem to be on a collision course with Earth in the foreseeable future.
But there are a lot of smaller space rocks waiting to be discovered and mapped. Researchers have identified just 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, but they think a million or more are out there, whizzing silently through the darkness of deep space.
Astronomers estimate that asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 buzz Earth this closely every 40 years and hit our planet once every 1,200 years or so.
If 2012 DA14 did hit us, it would probably cause severe destruction on a local scale. In 1908, a space rock thought to be of similar size exploded over Siberia, flattening about 825 square miles (2,137 square km) of forest.
Editor's note: If you snap a photo of asteroid 2012 DA14, or any other amazing night sky object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at [email protected].
- How Asteroid 2012 DA14 Will Give Earth Close Shave (Infographic)
- Asteroid 2012 DA14 Misses Satellites (and Earth) - Fortunately! | New Animation
- 5 Reasons to Care About Friday's Asteroid Flyby _________________________________________________________
New Archbishop of Canterbury
Who is Rev Justin Welby? Church colleague of Dr Welby tells: "He has the skills to succeed as leader of the Church.
When the the Right Reverend Justin Welby is confirmed as the next Archbishop of Canterbury on 11/9/12, it will be an announcement which has been months in the making.
The current Bishop of Durham has been the favoured candidate to succeed Dr Rowan Williams for some time, despite the Church of England drawing out the decision making process since March.
While clergymen may have delayed in reaching their verdict, for many of those who have worked closely with Dr Welby, he is a natural choice as the leader of the Church of England.
As well as fronting the Church of England in Britain, Dr Welby's role will also see him leading more than 80 million Christians in 160 countries as head of the Anglican Communion.
The 56-year-old has a fascinating background and family, having turned his back on a successful career in the oil industry 20 years ago to become a priest.
Yahoo! News UK takes a look at the self-deprecating former oil executive hoping to bring his business brain into the role as the Church's most senior bishop.
The Rt Rev Justin Welby looks set to be appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury
Born in London in 1956, Just Portal Welby was educated at Eton and read law at Trinity College Cambridge during formative years in a colourful family.
His father, Gavin Welby, made a living as a whisky bootlegger in 1920s Prohibition America, before at one stage dating Vanessa Redgrave.
Meanwhile his mother, Jane Gillian (nee Portal), had once been a private secretary to none other than Winston Churchill.
Dr Welby's early career gave no clue as to his anticipated position as the head of the Church of England.
He worked as a financial director in the oil business and was group treasurer for FTSE 100 oil exploration group Enterprise Oil Plc before his drastic career change.
After 11 years working in the oil business, Dr Welby quit the industry in 1992 to pursue a career as an Anglican priest.
The father-of-five, himself happily married for 30 years, took a degree in theology, later explaining that he was
"unable to get away from a sense of God calling".
His decision to join the church was also made in part due to personal tragedy.
In 1983, a car crash claimed the life of his seven-month old daughter Johanna - a tragedy which said was a "very dark time for Caroline (his wife) and myself", but one which "bought us closer to God".
Recalling the moment Dr Welby turned his back on the oil industry, his former boss at Enterprise Oil, Sir Graham Hearne, told the Guardian: "I said to him, 'Oh, Justin, that's very bad news. Why would you leave us? Which company has stolen you?'
"And he said, 'Don't worry about it. It's the Lord!' And he explained. And I of course was not happy to see him go but I understood fully the reasons.
"I think I knew he had faith, but he didn't push it in your face at all."
Dr Welby was rector at St James Church in Southam, Warwickshire from 1995 until 2002, before moving on to roles at Coventry Cathedral and as the Dean of Liverpool in 2007.
Dr Welby was consecrated as Bishop of Durham - the fifth most senior Church of England bishop - last October, in what has been a rapid ascent through the CofE heirachy.
Dr Rown Williams announced his decision to resign as Archbishop in March (PA)
But Rev John Armstrong, who took over when Dr Welby left one of his earliest church posts in Southam, believes his predecessor has the required skills to be a success as the new Archbishop.
Rev Armstrong told : "His faith made him the sort of person he is today, but he had gifts which were applicable both in the oil industry and working in the Church.
"He is good at communicating with people and getting them to communicate with each other, and that will work in his favour in his new role.
"He certainly did a good job here and was instrumental in bringing this Church a lot more alive than it was before."
Although said to be an opponent of same sex marriage and the appointment of gay bishops, Dr Welby is not said to be aggressive in his beliefs.
His more understated approach, as well as his business expertise, are likely to endear him to Church leaders more than the conservative thinking of other frontrunners such as the Archbishop of York, the Right Reverend John Sentamu.
Dr Welby's ability to listen to opponents' point of view will also be key in his new role.
Last summer as Bishop of Durham, he was called on to defuse tensions over a vote on women bishops.
Even on homosexuality, where he was defended the Church's right to oppose same sex marriage, he was keen to accommodate opposing views.
Other former colleagues of Dr Welby have described him as an "enthusiastic, hands-on vicar" who is also "very, very likeable".
Perhaps it is his ability to engage with the ethics of the City that is the clincher, however.
His work on the parliamentary commission on banking standards was an obvious extension to his previous published works, most of which have been about the rights and wrongs of finance and management.
Welby promises to be a chief executive with a conscience, to boot. But it is his political brain that matters most.
He is a healer of wounds, not an aggravator — a skill he will have need of during his time in Lambeth Palace.
From there he will take charge not just of the Church of England but also the schism-hit worldwide Anglican communion.
A tough job for a man whose working life once confined him to whizzing through slides in corporate boardroom presentations.
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Home amid Chinese highway a symbol of resistance
CLICK green FOR A PHOTO: Enlarge Photo Associated Press
By DIDI TANG
- CLICK FOR A PHOTO: Enlarge Photo Associated Press - Luo Baogen holds his land certificate as he stands next to his house in the middle of a newly built road in Wenling city in east China's Zhejiang province Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. Luo, the …more
- CLICK FOR A PHOTO: Enlarge Photo People stand near a house which …
Luo Baogen and his wife are the lone holdouts from a neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the main thoroughfare heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province.
Dramatic images of Luo's home have circulated widely online inChina this week, becoming the latest symbol of resistance in the frequent standoffs between Chinese homeowners and local officials accused of offering too little compensation to vacate neighborhoods for major redevelopment projects.
There's even a name for the buildings that remain standing as their owners resist development. They are called "nail houses" because the homeowners refuse to be hammered down.
Nail house families occasionally have resorted to violence. Some homeowners have even set themselves on fire in protests. Often, they keep 24-hour vigils because developers will shy away from bulldozing homes when people are inside.
Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai said in a telephone interview Friday that city planners decided that Luo's village of 1,600 had to be moved for a new business district anchored by the train station. Chen said most families agreed to government-offered compensation in 2007.
Luo, 67, and a handful of neighbors in other parts of the new district are holding out for more.
"We want a new house on a two-unit lot with simple interior decoration," Luo told local reporters Thursday in video footage forwarded to The Associated Press.
Luo had just completed his house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan ($95,000) when the government first approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 ($35,000) to move out — which he refused, Chen said. The offer has since gone up to 260,000 yuan ($41,000).
"The Luo family is not rich," Chen said, acknowledging that they can ill afford such a big loss on their home. "But the policy is what it is."
The new road to the railroad station was completed in recent weeks, and has not yet been opened for traffic.
What is unusual in Luo's case is that his house has been allowed to stand for so long. It is common for local authorities in China to take extreme measures, such as cutting off utilities or moving in to demolish when residents are out for the day.
Luo told local reporters his electricity and water are still flowing, and that he and his wife sleep in separate parts of the home to deter any partial demolition.
Deputy village chief Luo Xuehua — a cousin to the duck farmer — said he didn't expect the dispute to go on much longer. He said he expects Luo Baogen to reach an agreement with the government soon, though he said the homeowner's demands are unrealistic.
"We cannot just give whatever he demands," Luo Xuehua said. "That's impossible."
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Sex, drugs and rock and roll: Australia's other boom
Reuters, 12/30/12
CANBERRA*) - See end for Canberra info - (Reuters) - Forget Australia's mining boom. The nation's strong economy, high currency and wages have made it a magnet for sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Foreign sex workers, drug smugglers and global rock acts are all targeting Australia to cash in on an economy growing at 3.1 percent when other developed nations are struggling to expand at all.
The alternative boom has emerged as Australian average full-time wages hit $72,500 a year, and with the Australian dollar trading stubbornly above parity with the U.S. dollar for the past two years.
That has made Australia even more profitable for fly-in and fly-out rock acts and prostitutes, and especially for drug traffickers who are taking bigger risks with the hope of windfall profits.
"Offshore organised crime syndicates perceive Australia to have a robust economy and to have been less affected by the global financial crisis than other jurisdictions," said Paul Jevtovic, the Australian Crime Commission's executive director of intervention and prevention.
DRUG PROFITS
Australian police made 69,500 illicit drug busts in the year to June 30, 2012, the highest in a decade, and have made record arrests in the first six months of this financial year.
In recent months, police have intercepted drugs hidden in a 20-tonne steamroller and heavy machinery, in a large wooden altar, and they have broken up a drug ring involving smugglers in Australia, Japan and Vietnam.
One of the biggest smuggling operations was a failed bid to bring in more than 200 kg (440 lb) of cocaine across the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador on a 13-metre (40-foot) yacht, found grounded on a small atoll in Tonga with a dead crewman aboard.
Australian police, who work closely with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and authorities throughout Asia and the South Pacific, said the high prices paid in Australia and the strong dollar all helped make the country attractive for smugglers.
Crime statistics show why some are willing to risk up to 20 years in prison.
The Australian Crime Commission, which examines trends and works closely with police agencies, said heroin and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, sell for about eight times more in Australia than in Britain and the United States, though Australia is a much smaller market.
Crime Commission data given to Reuters shows a kilogram of cocaine is worth about $2,400 in Colombia, $12,500 in Mexico, and $33,000 in the United States.
The same kilogram of cocaine is worth $220,000 in Australia.
ROCK REVIVAL
Once a remote destination for big rock acts, Australia has been flooded with talent over the past year and faces a steady stream of musicians, including heritage acts, in 2013.
The strong dollar has made Australia the ideal place to perform for musicians wanting to make money at a time when touring rather than album sales is the main driver of income, with many acts charging a premium in a cashed-up economy.
In the first half of 2013, Australia will see tours by Bruce Springsteen, Pink, Guns N'Roses, Ringo Starr, ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy, the Steve Miller Band, Deep Purple, Santana, Status Quo, Robert Plant, Neil Young, Carole King, Paul Simon and Kiss.
The high ticket prices have upset some fans, who question why an artist like Springsteen charges $220 for a premium ticket in Australia, when the same ticket to the same show in Connecticut in October cost $90.
"You can't tell me it costs more than double per head to stage a concert here in Australia," said music fan Robin Pash, who has just returned from the United States, where he saw Springsteen and a series of acts for what would be considered bargain prices.
Entertainment journalist Jonathon Moran, however, said the higher prices reflected the higher cost in Australia, although Australia's strong dollar did make it more attractive to perform downunder.
"More people want to come here, and Australian audiences are comparatively well off and can afford the tickets," Moran, from Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, told Reuters.
SEX AND THE BOOM
Sex workers are also cashing in on the boom, particularly in remote mining towns, where the world's oldest profession is the latest to adopt fly-in, fly-out work practices. And more overseas sex workers are heading for Australia.
A 2012 report for the government in the most populous state, New South Wales, found a marked rise in the number of female sex workers from Thailand, Korea and China since 2006, with 53 percent of sex workers from Asia and a further 13.5 percent from other non-English-speaking countries.
The report, by the University of New South Wales, found a median hourly rate of A$150 for sex services in Australia's largest city of Sydney, although sex workers can charge double that in remote mining towns full of cashed up men.
In the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in the Western Australia state, the Red House brothel, which has operated since 1934, advertises services starting at A$300 an hour.
Proprietor Bruna Meyers said women in her establishment earned up to A$4,000 a week at a busy time, or about three times the average full-time Australian wage.
"The girls who come here are mainly from over east (eastern Australian states). They come in, sometimes for two or three weeks at a time. Some are just girls who are travelling around the world," Meyers told Reuters.
CANBERRA*)
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of 367,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. Click: Wikipedia
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Source: Reuters News
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#1 Wednesday, 11/28/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
(1) Seeing Things? Hearing Things? Many of Us Do, (2) The Science and Art of Listening;
Topic (1): Seeing Things? Hearing Things? Many of Us Do - The latest science info that perhaps all of us can have or have hallucinations of different types - all can be fully normal; Charles Bonnet syndrome introduced. Suggested book reading: will be published 2012/2013 "Hallucinations" by Oliver Sacks; Professor of neurology at the N.Y.U.*) School of Medicine and the author, most recently, of the above ref. book. Information for this radio show is based on his book and on an interview. The book "Hallucinations" is suitable reading for every person worldwide - it's a real eye-opener.
*) N.Y.U. = New York University, a famed Ivy League*) University headquartered in New York City
*) Ivy League - link to definition: (click) Ivy League etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/ivy_league.html
Ivy League is the name generally applied to eight leading U.S. universities (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale) that over the ...
Topic (2): The Science and Art of Listening; Related material to the topic (1) above by Seth S. Horowitz, an auditory neuroscientist at another Ivy League University, Brown University, in Providence, R.I. (= Rhode Island) and the author of "The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind" - Beneficial information for life success on a daily level.
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#1 Seeing Things? Hearing Things? Many of Us Do
Topic (1):
By OLIVER SACKS - A professor of neurology at the Ivy League University of N.Y.U. School of Medicine and the author, most recently, of the forthcoming book "Hallucinations".
STAF, Inc.'s opinion is that his book "Hallucinations fits for everyone nationwide & worldwide to read" - order it now e.g. from Amazon. Important information to avoid failures in life.
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HALLUCINATIONS are very startling and frightening: you suddenly see, or hear or smell something — something that is not there. Your immediate, bewildered feeling is, what is going on? Where is this coming from? The hallucination is convincingly real, produced by the same neural pathways as actual perception, and yet no one else seems to see it. And then you are forced to the conclusion that something — something unprecedented — is happening in your own brain or mind. Are you going insane, getting dementia, having a stroke?
In other cultures, hallucinations have been regarded as gifts from the gods or the Muses, but in modern times they seem to carry an ominous significance in the public (and also the medical) mind, as portents of severe mental or neurological disorders. Having hallucinations is a fearful secret for many people — millions of people — never to be mentioned, hardly to be acknowledged to oneself, and yet far from uncommon. The vast majority are benign — and, indeed, in many circumstances, perfectly normal. Most of us have experienced them from time to time, during a fever or with the sensory monotony of a desert or empty road, or sometimes, seemingly, out of the blue.
Many of us, as we lie in bed with closed eyes, awaiting sleep, have so-called hypnagogic hallucinations — geometric patterns, or faces, sometimes landscapes. Such patterns or scenes may be almost too faint to notice, or they may be very elaborate, brilliantly colored and rapidly changing — people used to compare them to slide shows.
At the other end of sleep are hypnopompic hallucinations, seen with open eyes, upon first waking. These may be ordinary (an intensification of color perhaps, or someone calling your name) or terrifying (especially if combined with sleep paralysis) — a vast spider, a pterodactyl above the bed, poised to strike.
Hallucinations (of sight, sound, smell or other sensations) can be associated with migraine or seizures, with fever or delirium. In chronic disease hospitals, nursing homes, and I.C.U.’s, hallucinations are often a result of too many medications and interactions between them, compounded by illness, anxiety and unfamiliar surroundings.
But hallucinations can have a positive and comforting role, too — this is especially true with bereavement hallucinations, seeing the face or hearing the voice of one’s deceased spouse, siblings, parents or child — and may play an important part in the mourning process. Such bereavement hallucinations frequently occur in the first year or two of bereavement, when they are most “needed.”
Working in old-age homes for many years, I have been struck by how many elderly people with impaired hearing are prone to auditory and, even more commonly, musical hallucinations — involuntary music in their minds that seems so real that at first they may think it is a neighbor’s stereo.
People with impaired sight, similarly, may start to have strange, visual hallucinations, sometimes just of patterns but often more elaborate visions of complex scenes or ranks of people in exotic dress. Perhaps 20 percent of those losing their vision or hearing may have such hallucinations.
I was called in to see one patient, Rosalie, a blind lady in her 90s, when she started to have visual hallucinations; the staff psychiatrist was also summoned. Rosalie was concerned that she might be having a stroke or getting Alzheimer’s or reacting to some medication. But I was able to reassure her that nothing was amiss neurologically. I explained to her that if the visual parts of the brain are deprived of actual input, they are hungry for stimulation and may concoct images of their own. Rosalie was greatly relieved by this, and delighted to know that there was even a name for her condition: Charles Bonnet syndrome. “Tell the nurses,” she said, drawing herself up in her chair, “that I have Charles Bonnet syndrome!”
Rosalie asked me how many people had C.B.S., and I told her hundreds of thousands, perhaps, in the United States alone. I told her that many people were afraid to mention their hallucinations. I described a recent study of elderly blind patients in the Netherlands which found that only a quarter of people with C.B.S. mentioned it to their doctors — the others were too afraid or too ashamed. It is only when physicians gently inquire (often avoiding the word “hallucination”) that people feel free to admit seeing things that are not there — despite their blindness.
Rosalie was indignant at this, and said, “You must write about it — tell my story!” I do tell her story, at length, in my book on hallucinations, along with the stories of many others. Most of these people have been reluctant to admit to their hallucinations. Often, when they do, they are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed — told that it’s nothing, or that their condition has no explanation.
Misdiagnosis is especially common if people admit to “hearing voices.” In a famous 1973 study by the Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan, eight “pseudopatients” presented themselves at various hospitals across the country, saying that they “heard voices.” All behaved normally otherwise, but were nonetheless determined to be (and treated as) schizophrenic (apart from one, who was given the diagnosis of “manic-depressive psychosis”). In this and follow-up studies, Professor Rosenhan demonstrated convincingly that auditory hallucinations and schizophrenia were synonymous in the medical mind.
WHILE many people with schizophrenia do hear voices at certain times in their lives, the inverse is not true: most people who hear voices (as much as 10 percent of the population) are not mentally ill. For them, hearing voices is a normal mode of experience.
My patients tell me about their hallucinations because I am open to hearing about them, because they know me and trust that I can usually run down the cause of their hallucinations. For the most part, these experiences are unthreatening and, once accommodated, even mildly diverting.
David Stewart, a Charles Bonnet syndrome patient with whom I corresponded, writes of his hallucinations as being “altogether friendly,” and imagines his eyes saying: “Sorry to have let you down. We recognize that blindness is no fun, so we’ve organized this small syndrome, a sort of coda to your sighted life. It’s not much, but it’s the best we can manage.”
Mr. Stewart has been able to take his hallucinations in good humor, since he knows they are not a sign of mental decline or madness. For too many patients, though, the shame, the secrecy, the stigma, persists.
Oliver Sacks is a professor of neurology at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine and the author, most recently, of the forthcoming book “Hallucinations.”
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#1 The Science and Art of Listening
Topic 2
HERE’S a trick question. What do you hear right now?
If your home is like mine, you hear the humming sound of a printer, the low throbbing of traffic from the nearby highway and the clatter of plastic followed by the muffled impact of paws landing on linoleum — meaning that the cat has once again tried to open the catnip container atop the fridge and succeeded only in knocking it to the kitchen floor.
The slight trick in the question is that, by asking you what you were hearing, I prompted your brain to take control of the sensory experience — and made you listen rather than just hear. That, in effect, is what happens when an event jumps out of the background enough to be perceived consciously rather than just being part of your auditory surroundings. The difference between the sense of hearing and the skill of listening is attention.
Hearing is a vastly underrated sense. We tend to think of the world as a place that we see, interacting with things and people based on how they look. Studies have shown that conscious thought takes place at about the same rate as visual recognition, requiring a significant fraction of a second per event. But hearing is a quantitatively faster sense. While it might take you a full second to notice something out of the corner of your eye, turn your head toward it, recognize it and respond to it, the same reaction to a new or sudden sound happens at least 10 times as fast.
This is because hearing has evolved as our alarm system — it operates out of line of sight and works even while you are asleep. And because there is no place in the universe that is totally silent, your auditory system has evolved a complex and automatic “volume control,” fine-tuned by development and experience, to keep most sounds off your cognitive radar unless they might be of use as a signal that something dangerous or wonderful is somewhere within the kilometer or so that your ears can detect.
This is where attention kicks in.
Attention is not some monolithic brain process. There are different types of attention, and they use different parts of the brain. The sudden loud noise that makes you jump activates the simplest type: the startle. A chain of five neurons from your ears to your spine takes that noise and converts it into a defensive response in a mere tenth of a second — elevating your heart rate, hunching your shoulders and making you cast around to see if whatever you heard is going to pounce and eat you. This simplest form of attention requires almost no brains at all and has been observed in every studied vertebrate.
More complex attention kicks in when you hear your name called from across a room or hear an unexpected birdcall from inside a subway station. This stimulus-directed attention is controlled by pathways through the temporoparietal and inferior frontal cortex regions, mostly in the right hemisphere — areas that process the raw, sensory input, but don’t concern themselves with what you should make of that sound. (Neuroscientists call this a “bottom-up” response.)
But when you actually pay attention to something you’re listening to, whether it is your favorite song or the cat meowing at dinnertime, a separate “top-down” pathway comes into play. Here, the signals are conveyed through a dorsal pathway in your cortex, part of the brain that does more computation, which lets you actively focus on what you’re hearing and tune out sights and sounds that aren’t as immediately important.
In this case, your brain works like a set of noise-suppressing headphones, with the bottom-up pathways acting as a switch to interrupt if something more urgent — say, an airplane engine dropping through your bathroom ceiling — grabs your attention.
Hearing, in short, is easy. You and every other vertebrate that hasn’t suffered some genetic, developmental or environmental accident have been doing it for hundreds of millions of years. It’s your life line, your alarm system, your way to escape danger and pass on your genes. But listening, really listening, is hard when potential distractions are leaping into your ears every fifty-thousandth of a second — and pathways in your brain are just waiting to interrupt your focus to warn you of any potential dangers.
Listening is a skill that we’re in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information overload.
And yet we dare not lose it. Because listening tunes our brain to the patterns of our environment faster than any other sense, and paying attention to the nonvisual parts of our world feeds into everything from our intellectual sharpness to our dance skills.
Luckily, we can train our listening just as with any other skill. Listen to new music when jogging rather than familiar tunes. Listen to your dog’s whines and barks: he is trying to tell you something isn’t right. Listen to your significant other’s voice — not only to the words, which after a few years may repeat, but to the sounds under them, the emotions carried in the harmonics. You may save yourself a couple of fights.
“You never listen” is not just the complaint of a problematic relationship, it has also become an epidemic in a world that is exchanging convenience for content, speed for meaning. The richness of life doesn’t lie in the loudness and the beat, but in the timbres and the variations that you can discern if you simply pay attention.
Seth S. Horowitz is an auditory neuroscientist at Brown University and the author of “The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind.”
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# 2 Wednesday, 12/5/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
(1) The Schools and all families should jump on a cheap and easy method of cavity protection
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# 2 Your Assignment for Today:
Chew Gum
Approximately 17 million children in this country do not get basic dental care. More than 50 million hours of school are missed every year because of dental problems, not to mention those lost because of ear infections. There is an easy, cost effective solution.
Information by
EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL
An oncologist*),
vice-provost and professor
at the University of Pennsylvania
*) oncologist 1. the branch of medical science dealing with tumors, including the origin, development, diagnosis, and treatment of malignant neoplasms. 2. the study of cancer.
WHEN I was growing up, you would be sent down to the principal's office for chewing gum in school. We were told chewing gum was bad; it caused cavities.
Like chocolate and coffee, gum is now being rehabilitated. It turns out that sugar-free gum can actually prevent cavities in children. Instead of banning it, we should require children to chew it in school to promote their oral health.
The human mouth is host to many bacteria. The one that is primarily responsible for cavities is called streptococcus mutans (it's related to the bacteria that causes strep throat). When the bacteria encounters sugar, it produces acids. Saliva neutralizes acid, so teeth can handle some exposure. But large amounts of sugar - as found in candy or sugary beverages - overwhelm saliva. Prolonged exposure to that acid will damage the protective enamel on teeth - a process called "demineralization" - and eventually cause cavities.
Chewing gum of any kind increases saliva production, and therefore helps neutralize more acid. But many gums are sweetened with sugar, which of course increases the acid levels, effectively canceling out the positive benefits. Replacing sugar in gum with xylitol, a naturally occurring sweetener found in fruits and vegetables that has fewer calories than regular sugar, fixes this problem.
More saliva and less acid seems to cause the teeth to remineralize - that is, it actually reverses some cavities. But most important, chewing xylitol gum inhibits the growth of the strep bacteria, which are not able to metabolize the sweetener. Less virulent strains of bacteria slip off the teeth, and this positive xylitol effect lasts years. The gum seems to work best when it's chewed routinely just before children's adult teeth come in, at about ages 5 and 6.
We have known about all this for a surprisingly long time. In the 1980s, a high-quality, randomized trial in Finland found that children who chewed xylitol-sweetened gum had as much as 60 percent fewer cavities compared with children who didn't. A 1989-93 randomized study of children around age 10 in Belize showed an even greater benefit; chewing xylitol-sweetened gum decreased the risk of cavities by up to 70 percent, and a follow-up study showed that the benefit lasted for up to five years.
Other less definitive studies suggest more positive effects that are worth mentioning. Because the strep bacteria is passed from mothers to newborns, mothers who chew xylitol gum are less likely to transmit these bacteria to their children, and cavities among these children are reduced by up to 70 percent. Studies conducted in Finnish day care centers indicate that xylitol chewing gum may also reduce ear infections in children by up to 40 percent.
So why haven't we acted on this information? The United States Army's Public Health Command recommends that soldiers and their families chew xylitol-sweetened gum. But only schools have the power to make this recommendation a reality, when it really matters in the development of teeth. Perhaps school administrators do not know the data. Certainly, after a century of blown bubbles and gum stuck to the bottoms of desks, it must be difficult for them to begin to see chewing gum as a virtue instead of a vice. But they need to come around.
Approximately 17 million children in this country do not get basic dental care. More than 50 million hours of school are missed every year because of dental problems, not to mention those lost because of ear infections. This is an easy, cost effective solution.
Gums with significant amounts of xylitol include Xylichew, Xyloburst and
Hershey's Ice Breakers Ice Cube gum - which can usually can be found in any deli or drugstore.
But the best way to ensure that all children take advantage of xylitol gum is to have them chew it in school, in kindergarten and beyond. Ideally, they would chew gum three to five times a day for five minutes each time. Not only will it improve their health and school attendance; but they might actually enjoy it.
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# 3 Wednesday, 12/12/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 Wednesday, 12/12/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Liar, Liar - Back's on Fire - You untruths may be contributing to your pain,mental & physical: back pain, headache, insomnia, sickness; AARP Magazine in October/November 2012 issue
Find the article, click green: Article - AARP The Magazine - October/November .
AARP The Magazine is the worlds largest circulation magazine and the definitive ...AARP The Magazine offers in-depth celebrity interviews, moving profiles, ... STAF, Inc. endorses: become a member or AARP - $11 per year (for a couple - yes: 2 people for $11 yearly) - one must be over 50 years of age (you do NOT have to be retired). You'll save hundreds or more $ yearly in discounts in traveling, hotels, insurance, shopping, etc., endless list of benefits. You'll get a free access to a 45 min, phone or office consultation by a licensed lawyer in any state, you'll get free 2 leading publications delivered to your address - high quality article every human being needs, and much more. Visit AARP website and call their membership department toll free number - you will be happy you did. It is the most valuable membership you can find and at a very low fee. Tell your friends to do the same.
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 12/12/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
STAF, Inc. urges you to read this article and apply the info for your, your family's, and your pet's health & safety The original Radio Show recording 24/7 on the web; link at the top of this same tab
Dangerous Driving Distraction - many new for most of us
Click green for further info
By now, almost everyone knows the dangers of texting or talking on a cellphone while driving. But phones aren’t the only distractions drivers should be aware of. Experts say that anything that draws your attention away from the road can be a potential cause of an accident. That includes actions and situations as innocuous as snacking behind the wheel or postponing a bathroom break.
Most adults who drive regularly admit to engaging in distracting behaviors while behind the wheel, according to a Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll. Eighty-six percent eat or drink while driving, 59 percent use a hand-held cellphone, 41 percent fiddle with their GPS device, 37 percent text and 14 percent apply makeup, according to the poll.
“Distracted driving can be deadly driving,” says Julie Lee, vice president and national director of AARP Driver Safety. “Researchers are finding that any type of distraction is risky, not just the ones we typically think of as dangerous, like texting or talking on the phone.”
In fact, a study led by Dr. Peter Snyder, vice president of research for Lifespan, a Rhode Island-based health system, found that a strong urge to urinate can impair your functioning as effectively as drinking alcohol or being sleep deprived. And the effects of hunger, thirst and tiredness on attention spans and reflex times have been well known for years.
Here are three other potentially distracting behaviors and situations that you might not view as risky:
Eating and/or drinking – We all do it, especially when we’re in a hurry to make an appointment, have skipped a meal or just can’t make it through the rest of the drive without a cup of joe. But eating or drinking while driving involves taking at least one hand – and part of your attention – off the wheel. Consider the 2011 case of a woman in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. Police said she hit a guardrail and flipped her Subaru when she spilled hot coffee during her morning drive. Fortunately, she sustained only minor injuries.
Unrestrained pets – Many pet owners think of their dogs as their children. But while they’re diligent about buckling up the kids and grandkids, they don’t always secure their dogs while in the car. Allowing your pet to ride unrestrained – in your lap, beside you or in the backseat – is dangerous for you and him. A survey by AAA and Kurgo Pet Products found that 65 percent of respondents had participated in at least one dog-related distracting behavior while driving, such as petting (52 percent) or allowing the dog to sit in their lap (17 percent). Restraining your pet can help minimize driver distractions, restrict the pet’s movement in case of a crash, and protect pets from potentially being harmed by inflating airbags.
Rubbernecking – Slowing down or pulling over to get a better look at an accident not only displays a lack of tact, it could also cause another accident. If your eyes are on the crash you’re approaching – or passing – they’re not on the road ahead of you. As recently as August 2012, police in Greenbelt, Md., cited rubbernecking as the probable cause of a double accident that shut down a major highway during morning rush hour. A Maryland State Police spokesperson told the Greenbelt Patch that police see rubbernecking accidents “all the time.”
“Although drivers age 50 and older are less likely to engage in distracting behaviors like texting or using a hand-held cellphone behind the wheel, they may face other challenges, such as natural changes in vision, hearing and reaction times,” says Lee.
Source: Los Angeles Times
This article is for your private use, only
except can be used freely for education
& promoting safety & health
_______________________________________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 12/12/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Liar, Liar - Back's on Fire - You untruths may be contributing to your pain,mental & physical: back pain, headache, insomnia, sickness; AARP Magazine in October/November 2012 issue
Find the article, click green: Article - AARP The Magazine - October/November .
AARP The Magazine is the worlds largest circulation magazine and the definitive ...AARP The Magazine offers in-depth celebrity interviews, moving profiles, ... STAF, Inc. endorses: become a member or AARP - $11 per year (for a couple - yes: 2 people for $11 yearly) - one must be over 50 years of age (you do NOT have to be retired). You'll save hundreds or more $ yearly in discounts in traveling, hotels, insurance, shopping, etc., endless list of benefits. You'll get a free access to a 45 min, phone or office consultation by a licensed lawyer in any state, you'll get free 2 leading publications delivered to your address - high quality article every human being needs, and much more. Visit AARP website and call their membership department toll free number - you will be happy you did. It is the most valuable membership you can find and at a very low fee. Tell your friends to do the same.
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 12/12/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
STAF, Inc. urges you to read this article and apply the info for your, your family's, and your pet's health & safety The original Radio Show recording 24/7 on the web; link at the top of this same tab
Dangerous Driving Distraction - many new for most of us
Click green for further info
By now, almost everyone knows the dangers of texting or talking on a cellphone while driving. But phones aren’t the only distractions drivers should be aware of. Experts say that anything that draws your attention away from the road can be a potential cause of an accident. That includes actions and situations as innocuous as snacking behind the wheel or postponing a bathroom break.
Most adults who drive regularly admit to engaging in distracting behaviors while behind the wheel, according to a Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll. Eighty-six percent eat or drink while driving, 59 percent use a hand-held cellphone, 41 percent fiddle with their GPS device, 37 percent text and 14 percent apply makeup, according to the poll.
“Distracted driving can be deadly driving,” says Julie Lee, vice president and national director of AARP Driver Safety. “Researchers are finding that any type of distraction is risky, not just the ones we typically think of as dangerous, like texting or talking on the phone.”
In fact, a study led by Dr. Peter Snyder, vice president of research for Lifespan, a Rhode Island-based health system, found that a strong urge to urinate can impair your functioning as effectively as drinking alcohol or being sleep deprived. And the effects of hunger, thirst and tiredness on attention spans and reflex times have been well known for years.
Here are three other potentially distracting behaviors and situations that you might not view as risky:
Eating and/or drinking – We all do it, especially when we’re in a hurry to make an appointment, have skipped a meal or just can’t make it through the rest of the drive without a cup of joe. But eating or drinking while driving involves taking at least one hand – and part of your attention – off the wheel. Consider the 2011 case of a woman in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. Police said she hit a guardrail and flipped her Subaru when she spilled hot coffee during her morning drive. Fortunately, she sustained only minor injuries.
Unrestrained pets – Many pet owners think of their dogs as their children. But while they’re diligent about buckling up the kids and grandkids, they don’t always secure their dogs while in the car. Allowing your pet to ride unrestrained – in your lap, beside you or in the backseat – is dangerous for you and him. A survey by AAA and Kurgo Pet Products found that 65 percent of respondents had participated in at least one dog-related distracting behavior while driving, such as petting (52 percent) or allowing the dog to sit in their lap (17 percent). Restraining your pet can help minimize driver distractions, restrict the pet’s movement in case of a crash, and protect pets from potentially being harmed by inflating airbags.
Rubbernecking – Slowing down or pulling over to get a better look at an accident not only displays a lack of tact, it could also cause another accident. If your eyes are on the crash you’re approaching – or passing – they’re not on the road ahead of you. As recently as August 2012, police in Greenbelt, Md., cited rubbernecking as the probable cause of a double accident that shut down a major highway during morning rush hour. A Maryland State Police spokesperson told the Greenbelt Patch that police see rubbernecking accidents “all the time.”
“Although drivers age 50 and older are less likely to engage in distracting behaviors like texting or using a hand-held cellphone behind the wheel, they may face other challenges, such as natural changes in vision, hearing and reaction times,” says Lee.
Source: Los Angeles Times
This article is for your private use, only
except can be used freely for education
& promoting safety & health
_______________________________________________________________
# 4 Wednesday, 12/19/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 12/19/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 12/19/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
___________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 12/19/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 12/19/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
___________________
# 5 Wednesday, 12/26/12 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
_______________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
_______________________________________
# 7 Wednesday, 1/9/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/9/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/9/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
___________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/9/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/9/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
___________________________________
# 8 Wednesday, 1/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
California Horror Stories and the 3-Strikes Law
Californians brought in 2012 a close to a shameful period in the state’s history when they voted this month to soften the infamous “three strikes” sentencing law. The original law was approved by ballot initiative in 1994, not long after a parolee kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl. It was sold to voters as a way of getting killers, rapists and child molesters off the streets for good.
As it turned out, three strikes created a cruel, Kafkaesque criminal justice system that lost all sense of proportion, doling out life sentences disproportionately to black defendants. Under the statute, the third offense that could result in a life sentence could be any number of low-level felony convictions, like stealing a jack from the back of a tow truck, shoplifting a pair of work gloves from a department store, pilfering small change from a parked car or passing a bad check. In addition to being unfairly punitive, the law drove up prison costs.
The revised law preserves the three-strikes concept, but it imposes a life sentence only when the third felony offense is serious or violent, as defined in state law. It also authorizes the courts to resentence thousands of people who were sent away for low-level third offenses and who present no danger to the public.
The resentencing process is shaping up as a kind of referendum on the state’s barbaric treatment of mentally ill defendants, who make up a substantial number of those with life sentences under the three-strikes rule. It is likely that many were too mentally impaired to assist their lawyers at the time of trial.
Mentally ill inmates are nearly always jailed for behaviors related to their illness. Nationally, they account for about one-sixth of the prison population. The ratio appears to be higher among three-strike lifers in California. According to a 2011 analysis of state data by Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project, nearly 40 percent of these inmates qualify as mentally ill and are receiving psychiatric services behind bars.
Even before the recent ballot initiative, the clinic’s law students had overturned the life sentences of 26 people, based on newly discovered evidence or inadequate assistance of counsel, as when defense lawyers failed to present evidence of a client’s mental illness.
Asked about the relationship of mental illness and three-strikes prosecutions, Michael Romano, director of the Stanford project, responded, “In my experience, every person who has been sentenced to life in prison for a nonserious, nonviolent crime like petty theft suffers from some kind of mental illness or impairment — from organic brain disorders, to schizophrenia, to mental retardation, to severe P.T.S.D.,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nearly all had been abused as children, he pointed out. All had been homeless for extended periods, and many were illiterate. None had graduated from high school.
In other words, these were discarded people who could be made to bear the brunt of this brutal law without risk of public backlash. Among the more horrifying cases investigated by the Three Strikes Project is that of 55-year-old Dale Curtis Gaines, who suffers from both mental retardation and mental illness. He has never committed a violent crime, but is serving a life sentence for receiving stolen property. His first two strikes, daytime burglaries of empty homes during which he was unarmed, appear to have involved thefts valued at little more than pocket change.
According to court documents, Mr. Gaines’s early childhood was a nightmare, filled with the most savage forms of abuse. His grandmother, a primary care giver, is said to have beaten him when he urinated or defecated in bed — and forced him to eat his feces as punishment. Later, as often happens with mentally impaired adolescents, he began to skip school because he was ashamed that he could not keep up with his classmates. He was often homeless. While serving time for his second crime, he was diagnosed by the prison system itself as both mentally disabled and schizophrenic.
He was clearly too impaired to help with his defense, and at one point simply put a blanket over his head and declined to speak to a doctor who was questioning him. His ability to read is comparable to that of a kindergartner.
At the time of his third strike, for receiving stolen computer equipment, Mr. Gaines was getting Social Security and disability benefits because of mental illness and retardation. His mental health history, readily available in the prison record, would probably have been recognized as a mitigating factor and prevented him from being so harshly sentenced. But, according to court documents, his public defender presented no evidence about his disability.
In 2010, 12 years after Mr. Gaines was convicted, the prosecutor who handled the case but by then had left the district attorney’s office wrote to him in prison, expressing regret and offering help if he wished to appeal. The Stanford students also noticed his case and are now trying to free him.
Mr. Gaines’s story is not unique. And as more cases unfold in court, judges, lawyers and Californians should look back with shame at the injustice the state inflicted on a vulnerable population that often presented little or no danger to the public.
Source: NYT, November, 2012
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Only one topic above for today
___________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
California Horror Stories and the 3-Strikes Law
Californians brought in 2012 a close to a shameful period in the state’s history when they voted this month to soften the infamous “three strikes” sentencing law. The original law was approved by ballot initiative in 1994, not long after a parolee kidnapped and murdered a 12-year-old girl. It was sold to voters as a way of getting killers, rapists and child molesters off the streets for good.
As it turned out, three strikes created a cruel, Kafkaesque criminal justice system that lost all sense of proportion, doling out life sentences disproportionately to black defendants. Under the statute, the third offense that could result in a life sentence could be any number of low-level felony convictions, like stealing a jack from the back of a tow truck, shoplifting a pair of work gloves from a department store, pilfering small change from a parked car or passing a bad check. In addition to being unfairly punitive, the law drove up prison costs.
The revised law preserves the three-strikes concept, but it imposes a life sentence only when the third felony offense is serious or violent, as defined in state law. It also authorizes the courts to resentence thousands of people who were sent away for low-level third offenses and who present no danger to the public.
The resentencing process is shaping up as a kind of referendum on the state’s barbaric treatment of mentally ill defendants, who make up a substantial number of those with life sentences under the three-strikes rule. It is likely that many were too mentally impaired to assist their lawyers at the time of trial.
Mentally ill inmates are nearly always jailed for behaviors related to their illness. Nationally, they account for about one-sixth of the prison population. The ratio appears to be higher among three-strike lifers in California. According to a 2011 analysis of state data by Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project, nearly 40 percent of these inmates qualify as mentally ill and are receiving psychiatric services behind bars.
Even before the recent ballot initiative, the clinic’s law students had overturned the life sentences of 26 people, based on newly discovered evidence or inadequate assistance of counsel, as when defense lawyers failed to present evidence of a client’s mental illness.
Asked about the relationship of mental illness and three-strikes prosecutions, Michael Romano, director of the Stanford project, responded, “In my experience, every person who has been sentenced to life in prison for a nonserious, nonviolent crime like petty theft suffers from some kind of mental illness or impairment — from organic brain disorders, to schizophrenia, to mental retardation, to severe P.T.S.D.,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nearly all had been abused as children, he pointed out. All had been homeless for extended periods, and many were illiterate. None had graduated from high school.
In other words, these were discarded people who could be made to bear the brunt of this brutal law without risk of public backlash. Among the more horrifying cases investigated by the Three Strikes Project is that of 55-year-old Dale Curtis Gaines, who suffers from both mental retardation and mental illness. He has never committed a violent crime, but is serving a life sentence for receiving stolen property. His first two strikes, daytime burglaries of empty homes during which he was unarmed, appear to have involved thefts valued at little more than pocket change.
According to court documents, Mr. Gaines’s early childhood was a nightmare, filled with the most savage forms of abuse. His grandmother, a primary care giver, is said to have beaten him when he urinated or defecated in bed — and forced him to eat his feces as punishment. Later, as often happens with mentally impaired adolescents, he began to skip school because he was ashamed that he could not keep up with his classmates. He was often homeless. While serving time for his second crime, he was diagnosed by the prison system itself as both mentally disabled and schizophrenic.
He was clearly too impaired to help with his defense, and at one point simply put a blanket over his head and declined to speak to a doctor who was questioning him. His ability to read is comparable to that of a kindergartner.
At the time of his third strike, for receiving stolen computer equipment, Mr. Gaines was getting Social Security and disability benefits because of mental illness and retardation. His mental health history, readily available in the prison record, would probably have been recognized as a mitigating factor and prevented him from being so harshly sentenced. But, according to court documents, his public defender presented no evidence about his disability.
In 2010, 12 years after Mr. Gaines was convicted, the prosecutor who handled the case but by then had left the district attorney’s office wrote to him in prison, expressing regret and offering help if he wished to appeal. The Stanford students also noticed his case and are now trying to free him.
Mr. Gaines’s story is not unique. And as more cases unfold in court, judges, lawyers and Californians should look back with shame at the injustice the state inflicted on a vulnerable population that often presented little or no danger to the public.
Source: NYT, November, 2012
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Only one topic above for today
___________________________________
# 9 Wednesday, 1/23/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/23/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/23/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
# 10 Wednesday, 1/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Universe’s Structure Similar to Human Brain and Internet
The universe may develop according to similar as yet unknown laws that control the growth of other complex networks like the human brain and the Internet.
Using a supercomputer and other calculations, an international research team found that the causal network representing space-time is a graph that looks like other systems, such as social or biological networks.
“By no means do we claim that the universe is a global brain or a computer,” said study co-author Dmitri Krioukov at the University of California-San Diego in a press release.
“But the discovered equivalence between the growth of the universe and complex networks strongly suggests that unexpectedly similar laws govern the dynamics of these very different complex systems.”
Krioukov believes this pattern is not a coincidence.
“Of course it could be, but the probability of such a coincidence is extremely low,” he said. “Coincidences in physics are extremely rare, and almost never happen.”
“There is always an explanation, which may be not immediately obvious.”
he results are important for cosmology and network science.
“Such an explanation could one day lead to a discovery of common fundamental laws whose two different consequences or limiting regimes are the laws of gravity (Einstein’s equations in general relativity) describing the dynamics of the universe, and some yet-unknown equations describing the dynamics of complex networks,” said study co-author Marián Boguñá at Spain’s Universitat de Barcelona in the release.
Source: The findings were published in Nature’s Scientific Reports on Nov. 16, 2012
__________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Stretching Trucks’ Mileage
PERHAPS you’ve recently been surprised to drive up behind an 18-wheeler on the Interstate whose trailer doors appeared to be ajar. No need to be alarmed: what you saw was probably one of several attempts at improving the fuel economy of long-haul trucks.
One such effort, the TrailerTail developed by ATDynamics, was designed to reduce the aerodynamic drag generated at the rear of trailers.
Devices to help cut the amount of energy needed to push large trucks through the air are already in wide use. Cowls and fairings designed to round off the front end, and filler panels that bridge the gaps between a truck’s cabin and the trailer behind, are already common, as are side skirts that close off the lower portion of the trailer.
But no less important is the drag created by the turbulent wake behind a trailer’s squared-off rear end, according to a report prepared by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As air rushes into the low-pressure immediately behind the trailer — an aerodynamic effect that can be felt as a distinct pull in a closely following car — the swirling flow generates considerable drag.
Reducing this drag can raise fuel economy. Indeed, more than half of the energy needed to keep a truck moving at highway speeds is expended just to overcome aerodynamic drag, the laboratory’s report says.
Coming up with a solution to reduce drag at the rear of the trailer faces some challenges, however. Trailers often serve as shipping containers, not only on the road but also on trains and container ships. Simply changing the shape of a trailer could have implications throughout the cargo-hauling industry.
ATDynamics’ TrailerTail sidesteps this problem with a bolt-on set of collapsible panels that extend about four feet behind the trailer, tapering inward to the rear. The panels can be folded flat or opened easily by a driver without obstructing access to the cargo doors, said Andrew Smith, chief executive of the company.
The tail alone can improve fuel economy by up to 6.6 percent at 65 m.p.h., Mr. Smith said. That number agrees with the upper end of the range of theoretical results projected in the national laboratory’s report.
“There’s no doubt that they work,” said Steve Phillips, senior vice president for operations at Werner Enterprises, a transportation and shipping company based in Omaha. Mr. Phillips said his company was still in the testing stage, however, with about 134 of the company’s 23,000 trailers outfitted with TrailerTails. He estimated that the tails, which cost about $2,200 each, would pay for themselves in fuel savings within a year.
There are roughly two million tractor-trailers on American highways, says ATDynamics. Based on Energy Department figures, a 6 percent reduction in diesel fuel use would amount to savings of 1.6 billion gallons a year, a reduction of about 14 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions — and save about $6.6 billion.
Source: NYT
____________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 1/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Universe’s Structure Similar to Human Brain and Internet
The universe may develop according to similar as yet unknown laws that control the growth of other complex networks like the human brain and the Internet.
Using a supercomputer and other calculations, an international research team found that the causal network representing space-time is a graph that looks like other systems, such as social or biological networks.
“By no means do we claim that the universe is a global brain or a computer,” said study co-author Dmitri Krioukov at the University of California-San Diego in a press release.
“But the discovered equivalence between the growth of the universe and complex networks strongly suggests that unexpectedly similar laws govern the dynamics of these very different complex systems.”
Krioukov believes this pattern is not a coincidence.
“Of course it could be, but the probability of such a coincidence is extremely low,” he said. “Coincidences in physics are extremely rare, and almost never happen.”
“There is always an explanation, which may be not immediately obvious.”
he results are important for cosmology and network science.
“Such an explanation could one day lead to a discovery of common fundamental laws whose two different consequences or limiting regimes are the laws of gravity (Einstein’s equations in general relativity) describing the dynamics of the universe, and some yet-unknown equations describing the dynamics of complex networks,” said study co-author Marián Boguñá at Spain’s Universitat de Barcelona in the release.
Source: The findings were published in Nature’s Scientific Reports on Nov. 16, 2012
__________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 1/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Stretching Trucks’ Mileage
PERHAPS you’ve recently been surprised to drive up behind an 18-wheeler on the Interstate whose trailer doors appeared to be ajar. No need to be alarmed: what you saw was probably one of several attempts at improving the fuel economy of long-haul trucks.
One such effort, the TrailerTail developed by ATDynamics, was designed to reduce the aerodynamic drag generated at the rear of trailers.
Devices to help cut the amount of energy needed to push large trucks through the air are already in wide use. Cowls and fairings designed to round off the front end, and filler panels that bridge the gaps between a truck’s cabin and the trailer behind, are already common, as are side skirts that close off the lower portion of the trailer.
But no less important is the drag created by the turbulent wake behind a trailer’s squared-off rear end, according to a report prepared by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As air rushes into the low-pressure immediately behind the trailer — an aerodynamic effect that can be felt as a distinct pull in a closely following car — the swirling flow generates considerable drag.
Reducing this drag can raise fuel economy. Indeed, more than half of the energy needed to keep a truck moving at highway speeds is expended just to overcome aerodynamic drag, the laboratory’s report says.
Coming up with a solution to reduce drag at the rear of the trailer faces some challenges, however. Trailers often serve as shipping containers, not only on the road but also on trains and container ships. Simply changing the shape of a trailer could have implications throughout the cargo-hauling industry.
ATDynamics’ TrailerTail sidesteps this problem with a bolt-on set of collapsible panels that extend about four feet behind the trailer, tapering inward to the rear. The panels can be folded flat or opened easily by a driver without obstructing access to the cargo doors, said Andrew Smith, chief executive of the company.
The tail alone can improve fuel economy by up to 6.6 percent at 65 m.p.h., Mr. Smith said. That number agrees with the upper end of the range of theoretical results projected in the national laboratory’s report.
“There’s no doubt that they work,” said Steve Phillips, senior vice president for operations at Werner Enterprises, a transportation and shipping company based in Omaha. Mr. Phillips said his company was still in the testing stage, however, with about 134 of the company’s 23,000 trailers outfitted with TrailerTails. He estimated that the tails, which cost about $2,200 each, would pay for themselves in fuel savings within a year.
There are roughly two million tractor-trailers on American highways, says ATDynamics. Based on Energy Department figures, a 6 percent reduction in diesel fuel use would amount to savings of 1.6 billion gallons a year, a reduction of about 14 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions — and save about $6.6 billion.
Source: NYT
____________________
# 11 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Important information
Why Police Lie Under Oath
THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury’s believing their word over a police officer’s are slim to none. As a juror, whom are you likely to believe: the alleged criminal in an orange jumpsuit or two well-groomed police officers in uniforms who just swore to God they’re telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? As one of my colleagues recently put it, “Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying.”
But are police officers necessarily more trustworthy than alleged criminals? I think not. Not just because the police have a special inclination toward confabulation, but because, disturbingly, they have an incentive to lie. In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn’t be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.
That may sound harsh, but numerous law enforcement officials have put the matter more bluntly. Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police commissioner, wrote an article in The San Francisco Chronicle decrying a police culture that treats lying as the norm: “Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.”
The New York City Police Department is not exempt from this critique. In 2011, hundreds of drug cases were dismissed after several police officers were accused of mishandling evidence. That year, Justice Gustin L. Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn condemned a widespread culture of lying and corruption in the department’s drug enforcement units. “I thought I was not naïve,” he said when announcing a guilty verdict involving a police detective who had planted crack cocaine on a pair of suspects. “But even this court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of misconduct but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed.”
Remarkably, New York City officers have been found to engage in patterns of deceit in cases involving charges as minor as trespass. In September it was reported that the Bronx district attorney’s office was so alarmed by police lying that it decided to stop prosecuting people who were stopped and arrested for trespassing at public housing projects, unless prosecutors first interviewed the arresting officer to ensure the arrest was actually warranted. Jeannette Rucker, the chief of arraignments for the Bronx district attorney, explained in a letter that it had become apparent that the police were arresting people even when there was convincing evidence that they were innocent. To justify the arrests, Ms. Rucker claimed, police officers provided false written statements, and in depositions, the arresting officers gave false testimony.
Mr. Keane, in his Chronicle article, offered two major reasons the police lie so much. First, because they can. Police officers “know that in a swearing match between a drug defendant and a police officer, the judge always rules in favor of the officer.” At worst, the case will be dismissed, but the officer is free to continue business as usual. Second, criminal defendants are typically poor and uneducated, often belong to a racial minority, and often have a criminal record. “Police know that no one cares about these people,” Mr. Keane explained.
All true, but there is more to the story than that.
Police departments have been rewarded in recent years for the sheer numbers of stops, searches and arrests. In the war on drugs, federal grant programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program have encouraged state and local law enforcement agencies to boost drug arrests in order to compete for millions of dollars in funding. Agencies receive cash rewards for arresting high numbers of people for drug offenses, no matter how minor the offenses or how weak the evidence. Law enforcement has increasingly become a numbers game. And as it has, police officers’ tendency to regard procedural rules as optional and to lie and distort the facts has grown as well. Numerous scandals involving police officers lying or planting drugs — in Tulia, Tex. and Oakland, Calif., for example — have been linked to federally funded drug task forces eager to keep the cash rolling in.
THE pressure to boost arrest numbers is not limited to drug law enforcement. Even where no clear financial incentives exist, the “get tough” movement has warped police culture to such a degree that police chiefs and individual officers feel pressured to meet stop-and-frisk or arrest quotas in order to prove their “productivity.”
For the record, the New York City police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, denies that his department has arrest quotas. Such denials are mandatory, given that quotas are illegal under state law. But as the Urban Justice Center’s Police Reform Organizing Project has documented, numerous officers have contradicted Mr. Kelly.
In 2010, a New York City police officer named Adil Polanco told a local ABC News reporter that “our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them.” He continued: “At the end of the night you have to come back with something. You have to write somebody, you have to arrest somebody, even if the crime is not committed, the number’s there. So our choice is to come up with the number.”
Exposing police lying is difficult largely because it is rare for the police to admit their own lies or to acknowledge the lies of other officers. This reluctance derives partly from the code of silence that governs police practice and from the ways in which the system of mass incarceration is structured to reward dishonesty. But it’s also because police officers are human.
Research shows that ordinary human beings lie a lot — multiple times a day — even when there’s no clear benefit to lying. Generally, humans lie about relatively minor things like “I lost your phone number; that’s why I didn’t call” or “No, really, you don’t look fat.” But humans can also be persuaded to lie about far more important matters, especially if the lie will enhance or protect their reputation or standing in a group.
The natural tendency to lie makes quota systems and financial incentives that reward the police for the sheer numbers of people stopped, frisked or arrested especially dangerous. One lie can destroy a life, resulting in the loss of employment, a prison term and relegation to permanent second-class status. The fact that our legal system has become so tolerant of police lying indicates how corrupted our criminal justice system has become by declarations of war, “get tough” mantras, and a seemingly insatiable appetite for locking up and locking out the poorest and darkest among us.
And, no, I’m not crazy for thinking so.
Michelle Alexander is the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Source: NYT
By MICHELLE ALEXANDER
__________________________________________________________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
(1) 45 % of domestic violence done by women to men - 65 % of all child abuse dome by women
(2) On the U.S. courts' wall is a big sign hanging "Was he violent today?" - Where is the sign "Was she violent today" - Wrong information is fed to the public. Shame - Shame - Shame
Topic # 3 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Best apps for students & businessmen traveling aboard - avoid extra fees - communicate free, no roaming charger
See in this website tab: technology the same title with all information
Topic # 4 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Energy drinks: Red Bull, etc. what's the wings, what's in them: POISON, deadly chemicals. Drink only clean water daily minimum half of your healthy weight (not overweight ounces) or maximum your healthy weight in ounces. Drink water when your stomach is empty to avoid diluting the stomach digestive "juices". The same: when you eat, drink liquids sparely to give your stomach "juices" a good chance to digest your food in a natural manner. See the same title with all information in this website tab: services, in sub-tab: Natural Health loss.
_________________________________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Important information
Why Police Lie Under Oath
THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury’s believing their word over a police officer’s are slim to none. As a juror, whom are you likely to believe: the alleged criminal in an orange jumpsuit or two well-groomed police officers in uniforms who just swore to God they’re telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? As one of my colleagues recently put it, “Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying.”
But are police officers necessarily more trustworthy than alleged criminals? I think not. Not just because the police have a special inclination toward confabulation, but because, disturbingly, they have an incentive to lie. In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn’t be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.
That may sound harsh, but numerous law enforcement officials have put the matter more bluntly. Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police commissioner, wrote an article in The San Francisco Chronicle decrying a police culture that treats lying as the norm: “Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.”
The New York City Police Department is not exempt from this critique. In 2011, hundreds of drug cases were dismissed after several police officers were accused of mishandling evidence. That year, Justice Gustin L. Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn condemned a widespread culture of lying and corruption in the department’s drug enforcement units. “I thought I was not naïve,” he said when announcing a guilty verdict involving a police detective who had planted crack cocaine on a pair of suspects. “But even this court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of misconduct but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed.”
Remarkably, New York City officers have been found to engage in patterns of deceit in cases involving charges as minor as trespass. In September it was reported that the Bronx district attorney’s office was so alarmed by police lying that it decided to stop prosecuting people who were stopped and arrested for trespassing at public housing projects, unless prosecutors first interviewed the arresting officer to ensure the arrest was actually warranted. Jeannette Rucker, the chief of arraignments for the Bronx district attorney, explained in a letter that it had become apparent that the police were arresting people even when there was convincing evidence that they were innocent. To justify the arrests, Ms. Rucker claimed, police officers provided false written statements, and in depositions, the arresting officers gave false testimony.
Mr. Keane, in his Chronicle article, offered two major reasons the police lie so much. First, because they can. Police officers “know that in a swearing match between a drug defendant and a police officer, the judge always rules in favor of the officer.” At worst, the case will be dismissed, but the officer is free to continue business as usual. Second, criminal defendants are typically poor and uneducated, often belong to a racial minority, and often have a criminal record. “Police know that no one cares about these people,” Mr. Keane explained.
All true, but there is more to the story than that.
Police departments have been rewarded in recent years for the sheer numbers of stops, searches and arrests. In the war on drugs, federal grant programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program have encouraged state and local law enforcement agencies to boost drug arrests in order to compete for millions of dollars in funding. Agencies receive cash rewards for arresting high numbers of people for drug offenses, no matter how minor the offenses or how weak the evidence. Law enforcement has increasingly become a numbers game. And as it has, police officers’ tendency to regard procedural rules as optional and to lie and distort the facts has grown as well. Numerous scandals involving police officers lying or planting drugs — in Tulia, Tex. and Oakland, Calif., for example — have been linked to federally funded drug task forces eager to keep the cash rolling in.
THE pressure to boost arrest numbers is not limited to drug law enforcement. Even where no clear financial incentives exist, the “get tough” movement has warped police culture to such a degree that police chiefs and individual officers feel pressured to meet stop-and-frisk or arrest quotas in order to prove their “productivity.”
For the record, the New York City police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, denies that his department has arrest quotas. Such denials are mandatory, given that quotas are illegal under state law. But as the Urban Justice Center’s Police Reform Organizing Project has documented, numerous officers have contradicted Mr. Kelly.
In 2010, a New York City police officer named Adil Polanco told a local ABC News reporter that “our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them.” He continued: “At the end of the night you have to come back with something. You have to write somebody, you have to arrest somebody, even if the crime is not committed, the number’s there. So our choice is to come up with the number.”
Exposing police lying is difficult largely because it is rare for the police to admit their own lies or to acknowledge the lies of other officers. This reluctance derives partly from the code of silence that governs police practice and from the ways in which the system of mass incarceration is structured to reward dishonesty. But it’s also because police officers are human.
Research shows that ordinary human beings lie a lot — multiple times a day — even when there’s no clear benefit to lying. Generally, humans lie about relatively minor things like “I lost your phone number; that’s why I didn’t call” or “No, really, you don’t look fat.” But humans can also be persuaded to lie about far more important matters, especially if the lie will enhance or protect their reputation or standing in a group.
The natural tendency to lie makes quota systems and financial incentives that reward the police for the sheer numbers of people stopped, frisked or arrested especially dangerous. One lie can destroy a life, resulting in the loss of employment, a prison term and relegation to permanent second-class status. The fact that our legal system has become so tolerant of police lying indicates how corrupted our criminal justice system has become by declarations of war, “get tough” mantras, and a seemingly insatiable appetite for locking up and locking out the poorest and darkest among us.
And, no, I’m not crazy for thinking so.
Michelle Alexander is the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Source: NYT
By MICHELLE ALEXANDER
__________________________________________________________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
(1) 45 % of domestic violence done by women to men - 65 % of all child abuse dome by women
(2) On the U.S. courts' wall is a big sign hanging "Was he violent today?" - Where is the sign "Was she violent today" - Wrong information is fed to the public. Shame - Shame - Shame
Topic # 3 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Best apps for students & businessmen traveling aboard - avoid extra fees - communicate free, no roaming charger
See in this website tab: technology the same title with all information
Topic # 4 Wednesday, 2/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Energy drinks: Red Bull, etc. what's the wings, what's in them: POISON, deadly chemicals. Drink only clean water daily minimum half of your healthy weight (not overweight ounces) or maximum your healthy weight in ounces. Drink water when your stomach is empty to avoid diluting the stomach digestive "juices". The same: when you eat, drink liquids sparely to give your stomach "juices" a good chance to digest your food in a natural manner. See the same title with all information in this website tab: services, in sub-tab: Natural Health loss.
_________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 2/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A way To Be Happier - No text available. Important information to hear.
In the Show recording referred to the Tetris effect - further info:
Click: Tetris effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect
The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris Syndrome) occurs when people devote sufficient time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their ...
Topic # 2 Spending Time in Nature Enhances Creativity (relates to topic # 1)
If you want to improve your creative thinking, it might be good advice to take a hike.
Researchers from the University of Utah and the University of Kansas discovered that people scored 50 percent better on a creativity test after hiking in the wilderness for four days without cell phones or other electronics.
“This is a way of showing that interacting with nature has real, measurable benefits to creative problem-solving that really hadn’t been formally demonstrated before,” said study co-author David Strayer in a press release.
“It provides a rationale for trying to understand what is a healthy way to interact in the world, and that burying yourself in front of a computer 24/7 may have costs that can be remediated by taking a hike in nature.”
The 56 study participants went on hiking trips during which no electronics were allowed. Twenty-four of them took the creativity test before starting the trip, and 32 were tested during the trip after four days of backpacking.
The creativity test involved answering word association questions. On average, those who took the test after hiking answered 6.08 of the 10 questions correctly, while the ones who hadn’t hiked yet only answered 4.14 of the 10 correctly.
The results didn’t make it clear whether the hikers benefited from exposure to nature, a break from technology, or both. Many studies have shown the benefits of being in nature, and it could be that the outdoor environment had a beneficial effect.
“It’s equally plausible that it is not multitasking to wits’ end that is associated with the benefits,” said Strayer.
The part of the brain thought to be used for creative thinking gets tired from constantly multitasking with technology. A vacation from computers and phones may have been just what the participants needed.
“Our modern society is filled with sudden events (sirens, horns, ringing phones, alarms, television, etc.) that hijack attention,” explained the researchers. “By contrast, natural environments are associated with gentle, soft fascination, allowing the executive attentional system to replenish.”
The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE on Dec. 12.
Topic # 3 Type 1 diabetes rising in kids: new study
AN ORIGINAL TEXT WITH SIMILAR PRINTED INFO AVAILABLE BELOW - the Show version is shorter and not following the text below. Listen to the show an study the text below. Apply the information.
Dangerous trend: kids under 5 start getting diabetes because the food (it is not food, it is poisoned, processed stuff imitating food). Show recording has needed information for every family for prevention and for healing.
Type 1 diabetes rising in kids under 5 - study
Stop feeding your child with processed and fast food - all bad with health danger
Type 1 Diabetes can be fatal - it kills
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cases of insulin-requiring type 1 diabetes rose sharply in children under the age of five in Philadelphia over a two-decade span - similar to increases seen across the U.S. and Europe, according to new research.
"Why are we seeing this large increase in type 1 diabetes in very young children? Unfortunately, the answer is we don't know," said lead study author Terri Lipman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
In research published in Diabetes Care, Lipman and her colleagues updated a registry started in 1985 of Philadelphia children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
By 2004, cases in children under the age of five increased by 70 percent as the number of diagnosed cases among all kids up to age 14 rose by 29 percent.
In 1985, 13.4 out of every 100,000 children in Philadelphia was newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and in 2004, the rate was 17.2 cases per 100,000.
Hispanic children had the highest diabetes rates across all ages whereas cases in black children aged 4 and under, which had historically been very low, rose by 200 percent over the past two decades. Cases among white kids under 4 rose by 48 percent in 2000-2004, however, making theirs the fastest recent increase.
Of the two most common forms of diabetes, type 2 typically affects adults who can still produce insulin, but whose bodies cannot use the hormone to regulate blood sugar. Type 1, previously known as juvenile diabetes, typically strikes children whose immune systems have killed off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The disease is usually fatal if left untreated.
Type 1 diabetics must take insulin but many type 2 diabetics can control the disease with medications, diet and exercise.
Type 1 diabetes tends to start in adolescence, but especially in light of the rising number of cases in very young children, experts said parents need to be aware that toddlers and preschoolers are also susceptible.
Children from Chicago to Colorado to Finland have similarly increased rates of type 1 diabetes, though the cause eludes researchers.
"This younger group is a mystery," said Dr. Carol Levy, a type 1 diabetes specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who was not involved in the new study. "Make sure your child has a healthy lifestyle and maintains normal body weight; whether that's a guarantee we're going to reduce risk, we don't know at this point."
Several theories vie to explain the recent rise in diabetes among youth, including vitamin D deficiencies, lack of breastfeeding and overly-hygienic environments that might cause the immune system to backfire.
"The data is controversial so that's why I'm certainly very reluctant to propose a theory when nothing has been proven," Lipman told Reuters Health.
"The take home message is not to be alarmist. These data confirm what has been reported worldwide and in other parts of the United States," said Dr. Lori Laffel, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, who was not involved in the study.
"It is important to be aware of the symptoms of diabetes," Laffel told Reuters Health. Symptoms can include extreme thirst, bed wetting or accidents in toilet-trained children or excessively wet diapers in babies, she said.
By the time the disease gets diagnosed, many infants and toddlers are very sick and the degree of illness tends to be more severe the younger the patient, experts noted.
"The young child isn't able to talk about symptoms," Laffel said. "A young child may be in diapers, you may not notice because diapers are often wet."
________________________________________
Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Prescription Painkillers: Recreational Drug for a New Generation
New research from the Journal of Adolescent Health (JAH) found that young people are abusing prescription painkillers far more than any other age group and more than any other youth in history.
An all-too-common remedy found in America’s medicine cabinets is quickly becoming the drug of choice for today’s young people.
Closing in fast on cannabis as the most frequently consumed illegal drugs among today’s teenagers are prescription opioids. Recreational use of prescription opioids by youth between the ages of 12 and 17 has increased tenfold since the 1960s.
Lead author of the JAH study, Richard Miech, Ph.D., with the University of Colorado–Denver, evaluated data on several drugs and the generations that favor them. Miech began his age cohort analysis with marijuana and found, as you might expect, that this drug was most popular among the baby boomers.
“That message came out loud and clear through my data analysis,” said Miech. “So I decided to extend the research. I started looking at prescription drugs use because it turns out that’s the number one growing cause of death in the United States.”
Given the enormous rise in U.S. painkiller prescriptions over the last two decades, Miech assumed that baby boomers would have the biggest appetite for these drugs, too. However, after examining data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 1985 to 2009, he found that today’s youth consume prescription analgesics for nonmedical use 40 percent more than any other age group.
“Especially since I live in Colorado where they just legalized marijuana in the last election, there’s a lot of worry about what’s going to happen with today’s youth and marijuana use,” said Miech.
“But as it turns out, the youth are really turning away from that,” he said. “For some reason they seem to be heading toward prescription drugs instead.”
“For some reason, prescription opioids aren’t being redefined as potentially dangerous and lethal, and in large part I suppose it’s because they have this pharmaceutical backing,”—Dr. Richard Miech, Ph.D., University of Colorado Denver
Other studies have shown that a U.S. teen is now more likely to abuse prescription drugs than street drugs. One of the biggest reasons for the switch is easy availability.
With effects similar to heroin or morphine, prescription opioid drugs, mostly hydrocodone and oxycodone, are now the most prescribed class of drugs in America, according to an April 2011 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“These drugs are just everywhere now,” said Miech.
With over 80 percent of the world’s opioid medications consumed in the United States, all age groups have naturally shown a rise in use. However, researchers have observed that use among young people is still much higher than expected in proportion to other age cohorts.
One issue that may explain teen preference is the perception of safety. One survey showed that one-third of teens believes that there is “nothing wrong” with using prescription medications nonmedically “once in a while.”
Miech believes that while many parents may be inadvertently adding to the problem by modeling drug behavior through their own use, he notes that—because they are made by a pharmaceutical company and prescribed by a doctor—prescription drugs carry a greater cultural legitimacy.
“For some reason, prescription opioids aren’t being redefined as potentially dangerous and lethal, and in large part I suppose it’s because they have this pharmaceutical backing,” said Miech.
History has shown that people’s perception of drugs can change drastically over time. Not too long ago, many believed that recreational cocaine use was not a serious concern. National surveys from the early 1980s show that as much as 20 percent of adults admitted to trying cocaine.
“It’s hard to believe now, but at that time cocaine use was considered safe—and glamorous,” Miech said.
In an article from a 1982 Scientific American magazine, Yale University psychiatrists argued that U.S. drug enforcement efforts to keep cocaine out of America “may not be justified” because death from recreational use was rare, and the drug was no more addictive than “peanuts or potato chips.”
“All that changed when a couple celebrities died from cocaine overdose,” said Meich.
Related Articles to Study
Click green title:
“Within just a few short years, cocaine changed its definition as glamorous to dangerous and unsavory,” he said. “And I think it was in large part because of the media exposure that cocaine got.”
According to Miech, unlike cocaine, media exposure highlighting the dangers of prescription drugs has so far not been enough. While prescription drug overdose has killed some celebrities in the past few years, and fostered many more addictions, cultural attitudes have changed little.
“I don’t know if it’s going to take another death of another couple of celebrities or what,” Miech said. “But hopefully getting the word out there will change people’s attitudes and behaviors about prescription drugs.”
Source: the Journal of Adolescent Health (JAH)
=============================================================================
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Why tobacco plants might be the panacea for the flu
(click green to connect: Metro New York Newspaper issue date: Monday, January 14, 2013
.... How did the scientist discover that tobacco plants could be used to create flu vaccines?
Topic # 3 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Horse meat scandal in Europe - N.Y.Must limit use of drugs on racehorses
See additional info in the web - plenty of them - Ikea involved - several countries involved.
______________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
______________________________________________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A way To Be Happier - No text available. Important information to hear.
In the Show recording referred to the Tetris effect - further info:
Click: Tetris effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect
The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris Syndrome) occurs when people devote sufficient time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their ...
Topic # 2 Spending Time in Nature Enhances Creativity (relates to topic # 1)
If you want to improve your creative thinking, it might be good advice to take a hike.
Researchers from the University of Utah and the University of Kansas discovered that people scored 50 percent better on a creativity test after hiking in the wilderness for four days without cell phones or other electronics.
“This is a way of showing that interacting with nature has real, measurable benefits to creative problem-solving that really hadn’t been formally demonstrated before,” said study co-author David Strayer in a press release.
“It provides a rationale for trying to understand what is a healthy way to interact in the world, and that burying yourself in front of a computer 24/7 may have costs that can be remediated by taking a hike in nature.”
The 56 study participants went on hiking trips during which no electronics were allowed. Twenty-four of them took the creativity test before starting the trip, and 32 were tested during the trip after four days of backpacking.
The creativity test involved answering word association questions. On average, those who took the test after hiking answered 6.08 of the 10 questions correctly, while the ones who hadn’t hiked yet only answered 4.14 of the 10 correctly.
The results didn’t make it clear whether the hikers benefited from exposure to nature, a break from technology, or both. Many studies have shown the benefits of being in nature, and it could be that the outdoor environment had a beneficial effect.
“It’s equally plausible that it is not multitasking to wits’ end that is associated with the benefits,” said Strayer.
The part of the brain thought to be used for creative thinking gets tired from constantly multitasking with technology. A vacation from computers and phones may have been just what the participants needed.
“Our modern society is filled with sudden events (sirens, horns, ringing phones, alarms, television, etc.) that hijack attention,” explained the researchers. “By contrast, natural environments are associated with gentle, soft fascination, allowing the executive attentional system to replenish.”
The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE on Dec. 12.
Topic # 3 Type 1 diabetes rising in kids: new study
AN ORIGINAL TEXT WITH SIMILAR PRINTED INFO AVAILABLE BELOW - the Show version is shorter and not following the text below. Listen to the show an study the text below. Apply the information.
Dangerous trend: kids under 5 start getting diabetes because the food (it is not food, it is poisoned, processed stuff imitating food). Show recording has needed information for every family for prevention and for healing.
Type 1 diabetes rising in kids under 5 - study
Stop feeding your child with processed and fast food - all bad with health danger
Type 1 Diabetes can be fatal - it kills
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cases of insulin-requiring type 1 diabetes rose sharply in children under the age of five in Philadelphia over a two-decade span - similar to increases seen across the U.S. and Europe, according to new research.
"Why are we seeing this large increase in type 1 diabetes in very young children? Unfortunately, the answer is we don't know," said lead study author Terri Lipman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
In research published in Diabetes Care, Lipman and her colleagues updated a registry started in 1985 of Philadelphia children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
By 2004, cases in children under the age of five increased by 70 percent as the number of diagnosed cases among all kids up to age 14 rose by 29 percent.
In 1985, 13.4 out of every 100,000 children in Philadelphia was newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and in 2004, the rate was 17.2 cases per 100,000.
Hispanic children had the highest diabetes rates across all ages whereas cases in black children aged 4 and under, which had historically been very low, rose by 200 percent over the past two decades. Cases among white kids under 4 rose by 48 percent in 2000-2004, however, making theirs the fastest recent increase.
Of the two most common forms of diabetes, type 2 typically affects adults who can still produce insulin, but whose bodies cannot use the hormone to regulate blood sugar. Type 1, previously known as juvenile diabetes, typically strikes children whose immune systems have killed off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The disease is usually fatal if left untreated.
Type 1 diabetics must take insulin but many type 2 diabetics can control the disease with medications, diet and exercise.
Type 1 diabetes tends to start in adolescence, but especially in light of the rising number of cases in very young children, experts said parents need to be aware that toddlers and preschoolers are also susceptible.
Children from Chicago to Colorado to Finland have similarly increased rates of type 1 diabetes, though the cause eludes researchers.
"This younger group is a mystery," said Dr. Carol Levy, a type 1 diabetes specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who was not involved in the new study. "Make sure your child has a healthy lifestyle and maintains normal body weight; whether that's a guarantee we're going to reduce risk, we don't know at this point."
Several theories vie to explain the recent rise in diabetes among youth, including vitamin D deficiencies, lack of breastfeeding and overly-hygienic environments that might cause the immune system to backfire.
"The data is controversial so that's why I'm certainly very reluctant to propose a theory when nothing has been proven," Lipman told Reuters Health.
"The take home message is not to be alarmist. These data confirm what has been reported worldwide and in other parts of the United States," said Dr. Lori Laffel, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, who was not involved in the study.
"It is important to be aware of the symptoms of diabetes," Laffel told Reuters Health. Symptoms can include extreme thirst, bed wetting or accidents in toilet-trained children or excessively wet diapers in babies, she said.
By the time the disease gets diagnosed, many infants and toddlers are very sick and the degree of illness tends to be more severe the younger the patient, experts noted.
"The young child isn't able to talk about symptoms," Laffel said. "A young child may be in diapers, you may not notice because diapers are often wet."
________________________________________
Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Prescription Painkillers: Recreational Drug for a New Generation
New research from the Journal of Adolescent Health (JAH) found that young people are abusing prescription painkillers far more than any other age group and more than any other youth in history.
An all-too-common remedy found in America’s medicine cabinets is quickly becoming the drug of choice for today’s young people.
Closing in fast on cannabis as the most frequently consumed illegal drugs among today’s teenagers are prescription opioids. Recreational use of prescription opioids by youth between the ages of 12 and 17 has increased tenfold since the 1960s.
Lead author of the JAH study, Richard Miech, Ph.D., with the University of Colorado–Denver, evaluated data on several drugs and the generations that favor them. Miech began his age cohort analysis with marijuana and found, as you might expect, that this drug was most popular among the baby boomers.
“That message came out loud and clear through my data analysis,” said Miech. “So I decided to extend the research. I started looking at prescription drugs use because it turns out that’s the number one growing cause of death in the United States.”
Given the enormous rise in U.S. painkiller prescriptions over the last two decades, Miech assumed that baby boomers would have the biggest appetite for these drugs, too. However, after examining data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 1985 to 2009, he found that today’s youth consume prescription analgesics for nonmedical use 40 percent more than any other age group.
“Especially since I live in Colorado where they just legalized marijuana in the last election, there’s a lot of worry about what’s going to happen with today’s youth and marijuana use,” said Miech.
“But as it turns out, the youth are really turning away from that,” he said. “For some reason they seem to be heading toward prescription drugs instead.”
“For some reason, prescription opioids aren’t being redefined as potentially dangerous and lethal, and in large part I suppose it’s because they have this pharmaceutical backing,”—Dr. Richard Miech, Ph.D., University of Colorado Denver
Other studies have shown that a U.S. teen is now more likely to abuse prescription drugs than street drugs. One of the biggest reasons for the switch is easy availability.
With effects similar to heroin or morphine, prescription opioid drugs, mostly hydrocodone and oxycodone, are now the most prescribed class of drugs in America, according to an April 2011 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“These drugs are just everywhere now,” said Miech.
With over 80 percent of the world’s opioid medications consumed in the United States, all age groups have naturally shown a rise in use. However, researchers have observed that use among young people is still much higher than expected in proportion to other age cohorts.
One issue that may explain teen preference is the perception of safety. One survey showed that one-third of teens believes that there is “nothing wrong” with using prescription medications nonmedically “once in a while.”
Miech believes that while many parents may be inadvertently adding to the problem by modeling drug behavior through their own use, he notes that—because they are made by a pharmaceutical company and prescribed by a doctor—prescription drugs carry a greater cultural legitimacy.
“For some reason, prescription opioids aren’t being redefined as potentially dangerous and lethal, and in large part I suppose it’s because they have this pharmaceutical backing,” said Miech.
History has shown that people’s perception of drugs can change drastically over time. Not too long ago, many believed that recreational cocaine use was not a serious concern. National surveys from the early 1980s show that as much as 20 percent of adults admitted to trying cocaine.
“It’s hard to believe now, but at that time cocaine use was considered safe—and glamorous,” Miech said.
In an article from a 1982 Scientific American magazine, Yale University psychiatrists argued that U.S. drug enforcement efforts to keep cocaine out of America “may not be justified” because death from recreational use was rare, and the drug was no more addictive than “peanuts or potato chips.”
“All that changed when a couple celebrities died from cocaine overdose,” said Meich.
Related Articles to Study
Click green title:
- Prescription Drug Addiction a Major Public Health Crisis in Canada
- New Rules Aim to Curb Oxycodone Abuse
“Within just a few short years, cocaine changed its definition as glamorous to dangerous and unsavory,” he said. “And I think it was in large part because of the media exposure that cocaine got.”
According to Miech, unlike cocaine, media exposure highlighting the dangers of prescription drugs has so far not been enough. While prescription drug overdose has killed some celebrities in the past few years, and fostered many more addictions, cultural attitudes have changed little.
“I don’t know if it’s going to take another death of another couple of celebrities or what,” Miech said. “But hopefully getting the word out there will change people’s attitudes and behaviors about prescription drugs.”
Source: the Journal of Adolescent Health (JAH)
=============================================================================
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Why tobacco plants might be the panacea for the flu
(click green to connect: Metro New York Newspaper issue date: Monday, January 14, 2013
.... How did the scientist discover that tobacco plants could be used to create flu vaccines?
Topic # 3 Wednesday, 2/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Horse meat scandal in Europe - N.Y.Must limit use of drugs on racehorses
See additional info in the web - plenty of them - Ikea involved - several countries involved.
______________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
______________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Article 1 of 2
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Article 1 of 2
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Article 1 of 2 How Safe Is Your Seafood
“You should eat more fish” is a remark I often make to patients. But I find that recently more patients reply, “But are fish safe to eat?”
They worry about the amount of mercury and PCBs that may be in fish. So today when it appears that everything has a touch of contamination, how safe are fish to eat?
A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, published in Environmental Science and Technology, analyzed seafood inspection data from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.
It states that today 85 percent of seafood used in North America is imported, and much of it is farm-raised (a practice called aquaculture) in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world.
One negative is that other nations have varying standards for aquaculture. For instance, they may use drugs that are banned in North America. But the big negative is that North American officials do not inspect most overseas farms. This means that only a fraction of imported seafood is tested for drug residues, microbes, and heavy metals.
In fact, on the world stage, U.S. inspection leaves much to be desired. For example, the Hopkins report says the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the United States checks only a mere 2 percent for these contaminants. This compares with 20 to 50 percent in Europe, 18 percent in Japan, and 15 percent in Canada. Moreover, Europe tests for the presence of 34 drugs, but the United States tests for only 13.
There was more bad news for me. I love shrimp, but according to Hopkins’ researchers, shrimp and prawns were the seafood that most often exceeded drug- residue limits. Crab, basa (a kind of catfish), eel, and tilapia were other problem fish—many of which are farmed.
Vietnam was the country that had the most drug violations, followed by China, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
The question is, how much of a problem are drugs that are used to control diseases when fish are so crowded in farm operations? The greatest hazard is for farm workers. For the rest of us, no one knows how much chronic low-level exposure harms us. There’s also concern that bacteria may develop resistance to antibiotics.
So, if like me, you enjoy fish, how can you eat it without becoming depressed? Dr. David Lowe, author of the Hopkins study, suggests trying to locate domestic farmed seafood, which has a greater chance of being inspected. And if you’re lucky to live in Canada, there is no history of export violations.
The Seafood Watch Program in the United States lists the following fish that are high in omega-3 fats, low in mercury, PCBs, and pesticides: oysters (farmed), Pacific sardines (wild caught), rainbow trout (farmed), salmon (wild caught from Alaska), freshwater Coho salmon (farmed in tanks in the United States), albacore tuna from the United States or British Columbia, and arctic char (farmed).
It’s best to select small fish, which are less likely to contain contaminants and have higher amounts of omega-3 fats. But since larger fish eat these smaller fish, they have a higher concentration of contaminants. Wild and canned salmon are always a good choice.
Remember too that all fish are not created equal. A three-ounce serving of farmed salmon contains over 2,000 milligrams (mgs) of omega-3 fats. Shrimp have only 250 mg.
If you’re looking for fish with high amounts of magnesium, which protects against fatal cardiac arrhythmias, order tuna or crawfish. If you’re concerned about blood cholesterol, boiled or steamed lobster has only 72 mgs per 100 grams compared to 75 for skinless chicken and 2 poached eggs.
Looking at the total picture, the health benefits of fish far outweigh the risks. In fact, while I write this column, researchers report that people who eat fish regularly were 12 percent less likely to develop colon and rectal cancer.
Related Articles
Click green for further info
Why You Can Eat Meat (click) - Meat is a complete protein containing all the essential amino acids required for maintaining body tissues
Clean (= free from major contaminants) meat & clean chicken, eaten in amounts of 2 - 5 oz. are safe
Do not eat processed meat or chicken: processed sausages, patties, frankfurters and similar they cause heart attacts, asthma, skin rashes, cancer, etc.
click: Nature’s ‘Immunologic Scalpel’ for Our Toxic World
Today, there are many risky contaminants in our air and water that are worrying. But I’m not losing any sleep over those in fish.
Source: The Epoch Times
_______________________________________
“You should eat more fish” is a remark I often make to patients. But I find that recently more patients reply, “But are fish safe to eat?”
They worry about the amount of mercury and PCBs that may be in fish. So today when it appears that everything has a touch of contamination, how safe are fish to eat?
A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, published in Environmental Science and Technology, analyzed seafood inspection data from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan.
It states that today 85 percent of seafood used in North America is imported, and much of it is farm-raised (a practice called aquaculture) in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world.
One negative is that other nations have varying standards for aquaculture. For instance, they may use drugs that are banned in North America. But the big negative is that North American officials do not inspect most overseas farms. This means that only a fraction of imported seafood is tested for drug residues, microbes, and heavy metals.
In fact, on the world stage, U.S. inspection leaves much to be desired. For example, the Hopkins report says the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the United States checks only a mere 2 percent for these contaminants. This compares with 20 to 50 percent in Europe, 18 percent in Japan, and 15 percent in Canada. Moreover, Europe tests for the presence of 34 drugs, but the United States tests for only 13.
There was more bad news for me. I love shrimp, but according to Hopkins’ researchers, shrimp and prawns were the seafood that most often exceeded drug- residue limits. Crab, basa (a kind of catfish), eel, and tilapia were other problem fish—many of which are farmed.
Vietnam was the country that had the most drug violations, followed by China, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
The question is, how much of a problem are drugs that are used to control diseases when fish are so crowded in farm operations? The greatest hazard is for farm workers. For the rest of us, no one knows how much chronic low-level exposure harms us. There’s also concern that bacteria may develop resistance to antibiotics.
So, if like me, you enjoy fish, how can you eat it without becoming depressed? Dr. David Lowe, author of the Hopkins study, suggests trying to locate domestic farmed seafood, which has a greater chance of being inspected. And if you’re lucky to live in Canada, there is no history of export violations.
The Seafood Watch Program in the United States lists the following fish that are high in omega-3 fats, low in mercury, PCBs, and pesticides: oysters (farmed), Pacific sardines (wild caught), rainbow trout (farmed), salmon (wild caught from Alaska), freshwater Coho salmon (farmed in tanks in the United States), albacore tuna from the United States or British Columbia, and arctic char (farmed).
It’s best to select small fish, which are less likely to contain contaminants and have higher amounts of omega-3 fats. But since larger fish eat these smaller fish, they have a higher concentration of contaminants. Wild and canned salmon are always a good choice.
Remember too that all fish are not created equal. A three-ounce serving of farmed salmon contains over 2,000 milligrams (mgs) of omega-3 fats. Shrimp have only 250 mg.
If you’re looking for fish with high amounts of magnesium, which protects against fatal cardiac arrhythmias, order tuna or crawfish. If you’re concerned about blood cholesterol, boiled or steamed lobster has only 72 mgs per 100 grams compared to 75 for skinless chicken and 2 poached eggs.
Looking at the total picture, the health benefits of fish far outweigh the risks. In fact, while I write this column, researchers report that people who eat fish regularly were 12 percent less likely to develop colon and rectal cancer.
Related Articles
Click green for further info
Why You Can Eat Meat (click) - Meat is a complete protein containing all the essential amino acids required for maintaining body tissues
Clean (= free from major contaminants) meat & clean chicken, eaten in amounts of 2 - 5 oz. are safe
Do not eat processed meat or chicken: processed sausages, patties, frankfurters and similar they cause heart attacts, asthma, skin rashes, cancer, etc.
click: Nature’s ‘Immunologic Scalpel’ for Our Toxic World
Today, there are many risky contaminants in our air and water that are worrying. But I’m not losing any sleep over those in fish.
Source: The Epoch Times
_______________________________________
Article 2 of 2 Additional related information
More related articles in tab: College/University (close to the end)
How to know what fish
to eat and what not?
Seafood Watch gives the answers
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program
helps consumers and businesses make choices for healthy oceans
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click green for further info
Seafood Watch is one of the best known sustainable seafood advisory lists , and has influenced similar programs around the world. It is a program designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. It is best known for publishing consumer guides for responsible seafood purchasing in the United States, including making them available on mobile devices, such as the iPhone and Android.
Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and is a partner of Sea Web's Seafood Choices Alliance. It has roots in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Fishing for Solutions exhibit which ran from 1997 to 1999 and produced a list of sustainable seafood. It was one of the first resources for sustainable seafood information together with the Audubon Society's What is a fish lover to eat? which also came out in the late 1990s.
There is currently a seafood watch app for the iPhone and the Android. One of its features, "Project FishMap", allows people to mark places they find that serve sustainable food, with this information in turn shared with the public.
The group gives somewhat US-centric lists of recommendations – the best seafood choices, fish to avoid, as well as "good alternatives". The "avoid" category is for seafood which is overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. Health alerts for fish with high levels of contaminants, e.g. mercury, dioxins - the most dangerous chemical known to science & PCBs are also noted, although they may appear in any category.
click: (1) Mercury (element), (2) Dioxin & (3) Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
The Seafood Watch website includes both regional and country-wide guides for the United States. Pocket guides are available from the aquarium and further information is on the web site. Several of the regional guides are also available in Spanish. The guides are updated twice annually, while the website is updated more often. Recommended seafood includes Sardines, US-farmed Sturgeon(but not wild caught), Atlantic Croaker, Pacific Halibut, Wreckfish, White Seabass and Dungeness Crab. Restaurants and retailers are also targeted with an educational program developed by Seafood Watch.
In 2010 Seafood Watch added its “Super Green” list, which features seafood that it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The Super Green list highlights products that are currently on the Seafood Watch "Best Choices" (green) list, are low in environmental contaminants and are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.
Recommendations are updated regularly; to view the latest, visit SeafoodWatch.org.
The fast-growing and resilient (click: Atlantic croaker, currently on the "best" choice list
Industry organizations have pushed back against Seafood Watch's efforts. After publication of a sustainable sushi guide, the National Fisheries Institute, a seafood industry trade group, wrote on its blog that the guides were "confusing and contradictory," adding that they didn't fully take into account the economic, environmental and social aspects of seafood sustainability.
Below are some fish currently rated Avoid by Seafood Watch
To see the below list below as a chart, click next line: Seafood Watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafood_Watch
Seafood Watch is one of the best known sustainable seafood advisory lists, and has influenced similar programs around the world. It is a program designed to ...
Common name Latin name Source Comment
Chilean Seabass/Toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides - Limit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsAtlantic CodGadidaeAtlanticKing CrabimportedSome imported king crab is poached. Seafood Watch recommends domestic king crab from Alaska and California, whose fishing is better controlled.AtlanticFlounders, SolesAtlanticGroupersLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsAtlantic HalibutAtlanticSpiny lobsterCaribbean importedMahi mahi/Dolphinfish(imported)MonkfishOrange RoughyHoplostethus atlanticusHabitat destruction, bycatch of non-target organisms, and overfishing. There are also health concerns about mercury or other contaminants.RockfishPacificSalmonfarmed, including AtlanticLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsScallops: SeaMid-AtlanticSharksLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsShrimpimported farmed or wildRed SnapperSturgeon Caviarimported wildLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsSwordfishimportedLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsTuna: Albacore, Bigeye, YellowfinlonglineLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsBluefin TunaLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants[edit]Industry criticism
To see the above list as a chart, click: Seafood Watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafood_Watch
Click green for further info
Click: What seafood to eat & buy
See also:
Click the green title below for the article
More related articles in tab: College/University (close to the end)
How to know what fish
to eat and what not?
Seafood Watch gives the answers
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program
helps consumers and businesses make choices for healthy oceans
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click green for further info
Seafood Watch is one of the best known sustainable seafood advisory lists , and has influenced similar programs around the world. It is a program designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. It is best known for publishing consumer guides for responsible seafood purchasing in the United States, including making them available on mobile devices, such as the iPhone and Android.
Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and is a partner of Sea Web's Seafood Choices Alliance. It has roots in the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Fishing for Solutions exhibit which ran from 1997 to 1999 and produced a list of sustainable seafood. It was one of the first resources for sustainable seafood information together with the Audubon Society's What is a fish lover to eat? which also came out in the late 1990s.
There is currently a seafood watch app for the iPhone and the Android. One of its features, "Project FishMap", allows people to mark places they find that serve sustainable food, with this information in turn shared with the public.
The group gives somewhat US-centric lists of recommendations – the best seafood choices, fish to avoid, as well as "good alternatives". The "avoid" category is for seafood which is overfished and/or fished or farmed in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. Health alerts for fish with high levels of contaminants, e.g. mercury, dioxins - the most dangerous chemical known to science & PCBs are also noted, although they may appear in any category.
click: (1) Mercury (element), (2) Dioxin & (3) Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
The Seafood Watch website includes both regional and country-wide guides for the United States. Pocket guides are available from the aquarium and further information is on the web site. Several of the regional guides are also available in Spanish. The guides are updated twice annually, while the website is updated more often. Recommended seafood includes Sardines, US-farmed Sturgeon(but not wild caught), Atlantic Croaker, Pacific Halibut, Wreckfish, White Seabass and Dungeness Crab. Restaurants and retailers are also targeted with an educational program developed by Seafood Watch.
In 2010 Seafood Watch added its “Super Green” list, which features seafood that it is good for human health and does not harm the oceans. The Super Green list highlights products that are currently on the Seafood Watch "Best Choices" (green) list, are low in environmental contaminants and are good sources of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.
Recommendations are updated regularly; to view the latest, visit SeafoodWatch.org.
The fast-growing and resilient (click: Atlantic croaker, currently on the "best" choice list
Industry organizations have pushed back against Seafood Watch's efforts. After publication of a sustainable sushi guide, the National Fisheries Institute, a seafood industry trade group, wrote on its blog that the guides were "confusing and contradictory," adding that they didn't fully take into account the economic, environmental and social aspects of seafood sustainability.
Below are some fish currently rated Avoid by Seafood Watch
To see the below list below as a chart, click next line: Seafood Watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafood_Watch
Seafood Watch is one of the best known sustainable seafood advisory lists, and has influenced similar programs around the world. It is a program designed to ...
Common name Latin name Source Comment
Chilean Seabass/Toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides - Limit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsAtlantic CodGadidaeAtlanticKing CrabimportedSome imported king crab is poached. Seafood Watch recommends domestic king crab from Alaska and California, whose fishing is better controlled.AtlanticFlounders, SolesAtlanticGroupersLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsAtlantic HalibutAtlanticSpiny lobsterCaribbean importedMahi mahi/Dolphinfish(imported)MonkfishOrange RoughyHoplostethus atlanticusHabitat destruction, bycatch of non-target organisms, and overfishing. There are also health concerns about mercury or other contaminants.RockfishPacificSalmonfarmed, including AtlanticLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsScallops: SeaMid-AtlanticSharksLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsShrimpimported farmed or wildRed SnapperSturgeon Caviarimported wildLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsSwordfishimportedLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsTuna: Albacore, Bigeye, YellowfinlonglineLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminantsBluefin TunaLimit consumption due to concerns about mercury or other contaminants[edit]Industry criticism
To see the above list as a chart, click: Seafood Watch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafood_Watch
Click green for further info
- Seafood Watch - Be a Responsible Seafood
- Lover.www.montereybayaquarium.org/
- Download a Pocket Guide or App Now
- Seafood Watch - Ocean & Climate - Take Action - Research & Conservation
Click: What seafood to eat & buy
See also:
Click the green title below for the article
- Conservation status
- Overfishing
- Sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification
- Seafood Choices Alliance
- Mercury in fish ________________________________________
Wednesday, 3/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
This article is much more important than it looks at its topic
Why We Love Beautiful Things
* Golden Rectangle*
GREAT design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that the sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out for attractive things; beauty literally moves us.
Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as Mr. Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why.
This is starting to change. A revolution in the science of design is already under way, and most people, including designers, aren’t even aware of it.
Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. It’s not hard to guess why: we associate verdant colors with food-bearing vegetation — hues that promise nourishment.
This could partly explain why window views of landscapes, research shows, can speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning in classrooms and spur productivity in the workplace. In studies of call centers, for example, workers who could see the outdoors completed tasks 6 to 7 percent more efficiently than those who couldn’t, generating an annual savings of nearly $3,000 per employee.
In some cases the same effect can happen with a photographic or even painted mural, whether or not it looks like an actual view of the outdoors. Corporations invest heavily to understand what incentivizes employees, and it turns out that a little color and a mural could do the trick.
Simple geometry is leading to similar revelations. For more than 2,000 years, philosophers, mathematicians and artists have marveled at the unique properties of the golden rectangle: subtract a square from a golden rectangle, and what remains is another golden rectangle, and so on and so on — an infinite spiral. These so-called magical proportions (about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of books, television sets and credit cards, and they provide the underlying structure for some of the most beloved designs in history: the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame, the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius violin and the original iPod.
Pictures of golden rectangle search the internet. here one link: Golden rectangle - Wikipedia,
Experiments going back to the 19th century repeatedly show that people invariably prefer images in these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle. For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph of text, the one most conducive to reading and retention. This simple shape speeds up our ability to perceive the world, and without realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.
LIFE magazine named Jackson Pollock “the greatest living painter in the United States” in 1949, when he was creating canvases now known to conform to the optimal fractal density (about 1.3 on a scale of 1 to 2 from void to solid). Could Pollock’s late paintings result from his lifelong effort to excavate an image buried in all of our brains?
We respond so dramatically to this pattern that it can reduce stress levels by as much as 60 percent — just by being in our field of vision. One researcher has calculated that since Americans spend $300 billion a year dealing with stress-related illness, the economic benefits of these shapes, widely applied, could be in the billions.
It should come as no surprise that good design, often in very subtle ways, can have such dramatic effects. After all, bad design works the other way: poorly designed computers can injure your wrists, awkward chairs can strain your back and over-bright lighting and computer screens can fatigue your eyes.
We think of great design as art, not science, a mysterious gift from the gods, not something that results just from diligent and informed study. But if every designer understood more about the mathematics of attraction, the mechanics of affection, all design — from houses to cellphones to offices and cars — could both look good and be good for you.
Source: NYT
Book by
Lance Hosey, the chief sustainability officer at the architecture firm RTKL, is the author of “The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design.”
______________________________________________________________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 3/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
What Do Fish Thoughts Look Like?
With new technology, scientists in Japan have detected the thought that went through a baby zebrafish’s brain when it spotted some delicious food.
“Our work is the first to show brain activities in real time in an intact animal during that animal’s natural behavior,” study co-author Koichi Kawakami said in a press release.
“We can make the invisible visible; that’s what is most important.”
The researchers read the fish’s brain signals with a sensitive fluorescent probe, which they inserted into the fish’s neurons using its genes.
“We developed an original method by which foreign DNA can jump into the fish genome,” Kawakami told in an email interview.The researchers allowed a paramecium, a single-celled organism, to swim past the larval zebrafish. They were able to see the activity in the fish’s brain when it saw the prey.
“In the future, we can interpret an animal’s behavior, including learning and memory, fear, joy, or anger, based on the activity of particular combinations of neurons,” Kawakami said in the release.
Fish and human brains function in much the same way, according to the scientists. Although it wouldn’t be possible to use this technology on humans, it could help us understand brain circuits better, and also develop psychiatric medications.
“This has the potential to shorten the long processes for the development of new psychiatric medications,” Kawakami explained in the release.
“You can screen thousands of chemicals for monitoring brain activity using the fish,” he added in the email interview.
Source: The paper was published in the journal Current Biology on Jan. 31, 2013
Related Articles __________________________________________________________________________________
Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Tips for Maintaining a Clean, Healthy Bathroom
An additional link for home health at the end
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
When was the last time you cleaned your bathroom? Always remember that excellent bathroom hygiene is essential to maintaining a clean and hazard free bathroom.
If you’ve been slacking lately, it’s highly likely that bacteria and germs have already begun to spread illness from one family member to another. What many people don’t realize, however, is that the key to a clean bathroom is, well, a clean you.
Factors such as how you shower, how you dry yourself off after a shower and even how you flush the toilet can make all the difference.
Drying Off
If you’ve gotten into the bad habit of sharing your bath towels with family members or roommates—snap out of it, and quickly. Sure, you’re probably saving a few dollars here and there by not having to do the laundry, or by not having to go to the laundromat as often, but you’re probably going to end up having to fork out even more money for medication and health insurance. Trust us when we say that it’s a much healthier (and cheaper in the long run!) alternative for everyone to have their personal bath towel.
Why, you ask? Sharing towels can help spread illness and disease. In fact, it’s one of the most common health hazards in American bathrooms. Health hazards such as bacteria, fungus and viruses love the warmth and moisture of bath towels. They thrive in these kinds of conditions. Did your son or daughter catch that nasty cold that’s going around school? If your kids are sharing towels, it won’t be long before the entire household is cold and flu infested.
The Throne
Kings and queens… Do you flush with your toilet lid down? Or do you flush with your toilet lid up? You’ve probably never given it a second thought. Or you probably never knew there was a right or wrong way to flush to begin with! We don’t blame you. And we certainly won’t dethrone you. We get that it’s not a decision you’d think could be potentially hazardous to your well-being.
The truth of the matter is that if you’re an upper (you flush with the lid up) you’re essentially allowing thousands of teeny tiny droplets of water to soar up above the rim and into your bathroom’s atmosphere. Why is that such a bad thing? Hold your stomach. These miniscule droplets are home to hazardous bacteria such as the e-coli from your urine or poop that you released into the toilet bowl.
If you have a small bathroom, chances are that your countertop is filled with toiletries such as soap bars, toothbrushes, and other items that you make direct contact with on a daily basis, and will unfortunately be covered in e-coli. So, if you don’t feel like a side of e-coli for breakfast, get yourself and your family into the good habit of flushing with the toilet lid down to stop the bacteria filled droplets from flying into the air and to contain the e-coli in the bowl itself.
Singing in the Shower
Are you so eager to show off your vocals in the shower that you just can’t wait to hop in and get under that shower head and warm water? Think again, America’s next Idol. If you don’t clean your shower head on a regular basis, you really should let the water run for a couple of minutes before using your shower head as a microphone.
Honestly, when was the last time you cleaned your shower head (if you’ve even cleaned it at all)? It’s an all too easily forgotten hazard, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s all kinds of gross hiding inside a shower head.
According to studies conducted by the University of Colorado, high levels of microorganisms and bacteria live in the water that comes out of unclean shower heads. It’s even filthier than the water going in!
Microorganisms, viruses, fungus, bacteria, and all kinds of pathogens thrive in such dark, wet and warm conditions. So, the next time you’re a little too eager to sing in the shower, we hope you’ll remember our advice.
To Vent or Not to Vent
Do you have enough ventilation in your bathroom? If not, it’s time to invest in an exhaust fan. A lack of ventilation combined with the often moist, warm and dark conditions of a bathroom, can, and often does, make mold happy and plentiful.
Matter of fact, give mold approximately 24–28 hours to get happy. And you bet they will. The kind of mold that grows in bathrooms come in a wide variety of colors and can grow on any given surface, but it may not be visible to the naked eye.
Mold spores are particularly hazardous to individuals who suffer from asthma or other respiratory health problems, and can even trigger asthma in young children. So, as a rule of thumb, turn on your exhaust fan while you shower, and let it run for an additional 20 minutes when you’re drying off and moisturizing.
What if you don’t have an exhaust fan? All you need to do is crack the door open slightly and it will make all the difference between a clean bathroom and hazardous environment.
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
Source:
1st Class Cleaning specializes in green cleaning in the New York Metro area.
Visit www.1stclasscleaningnyc.com for more information.
For more click: HEALTH NEWS, HOME
___________________________________________________
________________________________
ADDITIONAL RELATED ARTICLES NOT HANDLED
IN THE RADIO SHOW
_________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
This article is much more important than it looks at its topic
Why We Love Beautiful Things
* Golden Rectangle*
GREAT design, the management expert Gary Hamel once said, is like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous definition of pornography — you know it when you see it. You want it, too: brain scan studies reveal that the sight of an attractive product can trigger the part of the motor cerebellum that governs hand movement. Instinctively, we reach out for attractive things; beauty literally moves us.
Yet, while we are drawn to good design, as Mr. Hamel points out, we’re not quite sure why.
This is starting to change. A revolution in the science of design is already under way, and most people, including designers, aren’t even aware of it.
Take color. Last year, German researchers found that just glancing at shades of green can boost creativity and motivation. It’s not hard to guess why: we associate verdant colors with food-bearing vegetation — hues that promise nourishment.
This could partly explain why window views of landscapes, research shows, can speed patient recovery in hospitals, aid learning in classrooms and spur productivity in the workplace. In studies of call centers, for example, workers who could see the outdoors completed tasks 6 to 7 percent more efficiently than those who couldn’t, generating an annual savings of nearly $3,000 per employee.
In some cases the same effect can happen with a photographic or even painted mural, whether or not it looks like an actual view of the outdoors. Corporations invest heavily to understand what incentivizes employees, and it turns out that a little color and a mural could do the trick.
Simple geometry is leading to similar revelations. For more than 2,000 years, philosophers, mathematicians and artists have marveled at the unique properties of the golden rectangle: subtract a square from a golden rectangle, and what remains is another golden rectangle, and so on and so on — an infinite spiral. These so-called magical proportions (about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of books, television sets and credit cards, and they provide the underlying structure for some of the most beloved designs in history: the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame, the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius violin and the original iPod.
Pictures of golden rectangle search the internet. here one link: Golden rectangle - Wikipedia,
Experiments going back to the 19th century repeatedly show that people invariably prefer images in these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle. For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph of text, the one most conducive to reading and retention. This simple shape speeds up our ability to perceive the world, and without realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.
LIFE magazine named Jackson Pollock “the greatest living painter in the United States” in 1949, when he was creating canvases now known to conform to the optimal fractal density (about 1.3 on a scale of 1 to 2 from void to solid). Could Pollock’s late paintings result from his lifelong effort to excavate an image buried in all of our brains?
We respond so dramatically to this pattern that it can reduce stress levels by as much as 60 percent — just by being in our field of vision. One researcher has calculated that since Americans spend $300 billion a year dealing with stress-related illness, the economic benefits of these shapes, widely applied, could be in the billions.
It should come as no surprise that good design, often in very subtle ways, can have such dramatic effects. After all, bad design works the other way: poorly designed computers can injure your wrists, awkward chairs can strain your back and over-bright lighting and computer screens can fatigue your eyes.
We think of great design as art, not science, a mysterious gift from the gods, not something that results just from diligent and informed study. But if every designer understood more about the mathematics of attraction, the mechanics of affection, all design — from houses to cellphones to offices and cars — could both look good and be good for you.
Source: NYT
Book by
Lance Hosey, the chief sustainability officer at the architecture firm RTKL, is the author of “The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design.”
______________________________________________________________________
Topic # 2 Wednesday, 3/13/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
What Do Fish Thoughts Look Like?
With new technology, scientists in Japan have detected the thought that went through a baby zebrafish’s brain when it spotted some delicious food.
“Our work is the first to show brain activities in real time in an intact animal during that animal’s natural behavior,” study co-author Koichi Kawakami said in a press release.
“We can make the invisible visible; that’s what is most important.”
The researchers read the fish’s brain signals with a sensitive fluorescent probe, which they inserted into the fish’s neurons using its genes.
“We developed an original method by which foreign DNA can jump into the fish genome,” Kawakami told in an email interview.The researchers allowed a paramecium, a single-celled organism, to swim past the larval zebrafish. They were able to see the activity in the fish’s brain when it saw the prey.
“In the future, we can interpret an animal’s behavior, including learning and memory, fear, joy, or anger, based on the activity of particular combinations of neurons,” Kawakami said in the release.
Fish and human brains function in much the same way, according to the scientists. Although it wouldn’t be possible to use this technology on humans, it could help us understand brain circuits better, and also develop psychiatric medications.
“This has the potential to shorten the long processes for the development of new psychiatric medications,” Kawakami explained in the release.
“You can screen thousands of chemicals for monitoring brain activity using the fish,” he added in the email interview.
Source: The paper was published in the journal Current Biology on Jan. 31, 2013
Related Articles __________________________________________________________________________________
Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Tips for Maintaining a Clean, Healthy Bathroom
An additional link for home health at the end
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
When was the last time you cleaned your bathroom? Always remember that excellent bathroom hygiene is essential to maintaining a clean and hazard free bathroom.
If you’ve been slacking lately, it’s highly likely that bacteria and germs have already begun to spread illness from one family member to another. What many people don’t realize, however, is that the key to a clean bathroom is, well, a clean you.
Factors such as how you shower, how you dry yourself off after a shower and even how you flush the toilet can make all the difference.
Drying Off
If you’ve gotten into the bad habit of sharing your bath towels with family members or roommates—snap out of it, and quickly. Sure, you’re probably saving a few dollars here and there by not having to do the laundry, or by not having to go to the laundromat as often, but you’re probably going to end up having to fork out even more money for medication and health insurance. Trust us when we say that it’s a much healthier (and cheaper in the long run!) alternative for everyone to have their personal bath towel.
Why, you ask? Sharing towels can help spread illness and disease. In fact, it’s one of the most common health hazards in American bathrooms. Health hazards such as bacteria, fungus and viruses love the warmth and moisture of bath towels. They thrive in these kinds of conditions. Did your son or daughter catch that nasty cold that’s going around school? If your kids are sharing towels, it won’t be long before the entire household is cold and flu infested.
The Throne
Kings and queens… Do you flush with your toilet lid down? Or do you flush with your toilet lid up? You’ve probably never given it a second thought. Or you probably never knew there was a right or wrong way to flush to begin with! We don’t blame you. And we certainly won’t dethrone you. We get that it’s not a decision you’d think could be potentially hazardous to your well-being.
The truth of the matter is that if you’re an upper (you flush with the lid up) you’re essentially allowing thousands of teeny tiny droplets of water to soar up above the rim and into your bathroom’s atmosphere. Why is that such a bad thing? Hold your stomach. These miniscule droplets are home to hazardous bacteria such as the e-coli from your urine or poop that you released into the toilet bowl.
If you have a small bathroom, chances are that your countertop is filled with toiletries such as soap bars, toothbrushes, and other items that you make direct contact with on a daily basis, and will unfortunately be covered in e-coli. So, if you don’t feel like a side of e-coli for breakfast, get yourself and your family into the good habit of flushing with the toilet lid down to stop the bacteria filled droplets from flying into the air and to contain the e-coli in the bowl itself.
Singing in the Shower
Are you so eager to show off your vocals in the shower that you just can’t wait to hop in and get under that shower head and warm water? Think again, America’s next Idol. If you don’t clean your shower head on a regular basis, you really should let the water run for a couple of minutes before using your shower head as a microphone.
Honestly, when was the last time you cleaned your shower head (if you’ve even cleaned it at all)? It’s an all too easily forgotten hazard, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s all kinds of gross hiding inside a shower head.
According to studies conducted by the University of Colorado, high levels of microorganisms and bacteria live in the water that comes out of unclean shower heads. It’s even filthier than the water going in!
Microorganisms, viruses, fungus, bacteria, and all kinds of pathogens thrive in such dark, wet and warm conditions. So, the next time you’re a little too eager to sing in the shower, we hope you’ll remember our advice.
To Vent or Not to Vent
Do you have enough ventilation in your bathroom? If not, it’s time to invest in an exhaust fan. A lack of ventilation combined with the often moist, warm and dark conditions of a bathroom, can, and often does, make mold happy and plentiful.
Matter of fact, give mold approximately 24–28 hours to get happy. And you bet they will. The kind of mold that grows in bathrooms come in a wide variety of colors and can grow on any given surface, but it may not be visible to the naked eye.
Mold spores are particularly hazardous to individuals who suffer from asthma or other respiratory health problems, and can even trigger asthma in young children. So, as a rule of thumb, turn on your exhaust fan while you shower, and let it run for an additional 20 minutes when you’re drying off and moisturizing.
What if you don’t have an exhaust fan? All you need to do is crack the door open slightly and it will make all the difference between a clean bathroom and hazardous environment.
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
Source:
1st Class Cleaning specializes in green cleaning in the New York Metro area.
Visit www.1stclasscleaningnyc.com for more information.
For more click: HEALTH NEWS, HOME
___________________________________________________
________________________________
ADDITIONAL RELATED ARTICLES NOT HANDLED
IN THE RADIO SHOW
_________________________
Blind Fish Sees With the Pineal Gland
The freshwater Mexican tetra fish has two conspecific forms: a form with eyes that lives near the surface and an eyeless form that lives in caves.
The eyeless Mexican tetra develops an optic primordium—the precursor to the eye—as an embryo, but it degenerates and becomes covered by an overgrowth of skin during the larval stage. It had been thought that this fish cannot sense light, but a study published in 2008 in The Journal of Experimental Biology by scientists from the University of Maryland found otherwise.
While the fish’s eyes are not functional, the researchers found that the fish can detect light with its pineal gland, a pinecone-shaped endocrine gland near the center of the brain. Despite being buried deeper in the flesh than the eyes and thus less likely to receive light, this sensory organ is known as the pineal or “third” eye in some vertebrates.
Cavefish from two populations, Pachón cavefish and Tinaja cavefish, and surface fish were used in the experiment. During the experiment, both surface and cavefish larvae were exposed to light in a plastic chamber for three minutes. Then the researchers shaded the chambers and counted the number of fish that swam upward toward the surface. This shadow response is a behavior that can help young larvae avoid predators by hiding under objects floating on the surface.
Interestingly, at 1.5 days after fertilization, 60–70 percent of both types of cavefish showed the shadow response, while only about 50 percent of surface fish did so. The experiment was repeated once a day for seven days. Tinaja cavefish continued to exhibit more shadow response than surface fish in all but two trials. This result shows that the ability to sense light was present in both surface fish and cavefish.
Related Articles
Click article title:
To determine what the larvae relied on to sense the shadow, the researchers removed the fish’s pineal gland or one or both bilateral eyes and repeated the experiment. Both surface fish and cavefish that had their bilateral eyes removed exhibited similar behavior as before, but among the fish with their pineal glands removed, only about 10 percent retained the shadow response.
The researchers concluded that the pineal gland is critical to the shadow response behavior, and that not only is the pineal gland able to sense light, but also there is a neural connection between the pineal gland and the motor system.
Source: The Journal of Experimental Biology by scientists from the University of Maryland, USA
__________________________________________
The freshwater Mexican tetra fish has two conspecific forms: a form with eyes that lives near the surface and an eyeless form that lives in caves.
The eyeless Mexican tetra develops an optic primordium—the precursor to the eye—as an embryo, but it degenerates and becomes covered by an overgrowth of skin during the larval stage. It had been thought that this fish cannot sense light, but a study published in 2008 in The Journal of Experimental Biology by scientists from the University of Maryland found otherwise.
While the fish’s eyes are not functional, the researchers found that the fish can detect light with its pineal gland, a pinecone-shaped endocrine gland near the center of the brain. Despite being buried deeper in the flesh than the eyes and thus less likely to receive light, this sensory organ is known as the pineal or “third” eye in some vertebrates.
Cavefish from two populations, Pachón cavefish and Tinaja cavefish, and surface fish were used in the experiment. During the experiment, both surface and cavefish larvae were exposed to light in a plastic chamber for three minutes. Then the researchers shaded the chambers and counted the number of fish that swam upward toward the surface. This shadow response is a behavior that can help young larvae avoid predators by hiding under objects floating on the surface.
Interestingly, at 1.5 days after fertilization, 60–70 percent of both types of cavefish showed the shadow response, while only about 50 percent of surface fish did so. The experiment was repeated once a day for seven days. Tinaja cavefish continued to exhibit more shadow response than surface fish in all but two trials. This result shows that the ability to sense light was present in both surface fish and cavefish.
Related Articles
Click article title:
To determine what the larvae relied on to sense the shadow, the researchers removed the fish’s pineal gland or one or both bilateral eyes and repeated the experiment. Both surface fish and cavefish that had their bilateral eyes removed exhibited similar behavior as before, but among the fish with their pineal glands removed, only about 10 percent retained the shadow response.
The researchers concluded that the pineal gland is critical to the shadow response behavior, and that not only is the pineal gland able to sense light, but also there is a neural connection between the pineal gland and the motor system.
Source: The Journal of Experimental Biology by scientists from the University of Maryland, USA
__________________________________________
Sugar From Injured Fish Signals Danger to Shoal
Scientists identify component in Schreckstoff
When one fish gets injured, the rest of the school takes off in fear, tipped off by a
mysterious substance known as “Schreckstoff” (meaning “alarm substance” in German)
Some schooling fish have an unusual way of warning others of predation—when they are injured, they release something that elicits a fear response in nearby fish, causing them to flee.
That “something” has been referred to by scientists as “Schreckstoff,” or the alarm substance.
Now, studying zebrafish, a team of scientists have found that it is actually a mixture of substances, one of which has been identified as chondroitin, a type of sugar commonly found in fish skin.
“Chondroitin has extremely diverse and broad functions across all vertebrates and even invertebrates,” Dr. Suresh Jesuthasan, co-author of the study and researcher at the National University of Singapore told via email.
“In fish, chondroitin is a part of the mucus which itself is multifunctional, ranging from regulating respiration to disease resistance and osmoregulation.”
The researchers tested zebrafish’s response to a variety of chemicals, and found that chondroitin is sensed by a special type of neuron called crypt cells, triggering fear responses such as darting and shifting towards the bottom of the fish tank.
Although chondroitin alone can elicit a significant fear response, the team found that it only activates one region of the olfactory bulb in the zebrafish’s brain, while crude skin extract stimulated multiple regions of the olfactory bulb, suggesting that more substances are needed to trigger a full fear response.
The researchers also observed a stronger response when chondroitin polymers are broken down into smaller fragments by enzymes, and propose that there is a simultaneous release of enzymes during injury to break down chondroitin.
According to Jesuthasan, club cells, which contain chondroitin, have been found in virtually all fish that produce Schreckstoff. Hence these cells may be the source of the components that make up Schreckstoff, including enzymes.
“Further research will be required to identify all the components that make the mixture and to assess if each of them is just as potent in eliciting fear responses,” Jesuthasan concluded.
Source: The findings will be published in the journal Current Biology in March 2013
Related Articles - Click title: ________________________________________
Scientists identify component in Schreckstoff
When one fish gets injured, the rest of the school takes off in fear, tipped off by a
mysterious substance known as “Schreckstoff” (meaning “alarm substance” in German)
Some schooling fish have an unusual way of warning others of predation—when they are injured, they release something that elicits a fear response in nearby fish, causing them to flee.
That “something” has been referred to by scientists as “Schreckstoff,” or the alarm substance.
Now, studying zebrafish, a team of scientists have found that it is actually a mixture of substances, one of which has been identified as chondroitin, a type of sugar commonly found in fish skin.
“Chondroitin has extremely diverse and broad functions across all vertebrates and even invertebrates,” Dr. Suresh Jesuthasan, co-author of the study and researcher at the National University of Singapore told via email.
“In fish, chondroitin is a part of the mucus which itself is multifunctional, ranging from regulating respiration to disease resistance and osmoregulation.”
The researchers tested zebrafish’s response to a variety of chemicals, and found that chondroitin is sensed by a special type of neuron called crypt cells, triggering fear responses such as darting and shifting towards the bottom of the fish tank.
Although chondroitin alone can elicit a significant fear response, the team found that it only activates one region of the olfactory bulb in the zebrafish’s brain, while crude skin extract stimulated multiple regions of the olfactory bulb, suggesting that more substances are needed to trigger a full fear response.
The researchers also observed a stronger response when chondroitin polymers are broken down into smaller fragments by enzymes, and propose that there is a simultaneous release of enzymes during injury to break down chondroitin.
According to Jesuthasan, club cells, which contain chondroitin, have been found in virtually all fish that produce Schreckstoff. Hence these cells may be the source of the components that make up Schreckstoff, including enzymes.
“Further research will be required to identify all the components that make the mixture and to assess if each of them is just as potent in eliciting fear responses,” Jesuthasan concluded.
Source: The findings will be published in the journal Current Biology in March 2013
Related Articles - Click title: ________________________________________
Can Fish Really Fly?
Flying fish belong to the family Exocoetidae and are recognizable for their large pectoral fins, which enable them to avoid predators, such as dolphins, tuna, and birds, by leaping out of the water.
Etymology
The term "Exocoetidae" is not only the present scientific name for a genus of flying fish in this family, but also the general name in Latin for a flying fish. The suffix -idae, common for indicating a family, follows the root of the Latin word exocoetus, a transliteration of theAncient Greek name ἐξώκοιτος.
This means literally "sleeping outside", from ἔξω "outside" and κοῖτος "bed", "resting place" so named as flying fish were believed to leave the water to sleep on the shore.
Distribution and description
Flying fish live in all of the oceans, particularly in tropical and warm subtropical waters. Their most striking feature is their pectoral fins, which are unusually large, and enable the fish to hide and escape from predators by leaping out of the water and flying through air a few feet above the water's surface.
Their flights are typically around 50 meters (160 ft).
The longest-known “flight” attained by a flying fish was filmed off the coast of Japan and lasted 45 seconds. You can watch the video here. (video links may expire)
The fish are actually gliding, rather than flying. Powerful tail strokes beneath the water allow them to reach up to 20 miles per hour before they break the surface and then glide with their wing-like fins.
At first the tail retains contact with the water, beating up to 70 times per second, which allows the fish to accelerate to around 40 miles per hour before becoming airborne.
Due to the lower resistance of air, the fish is able to launch itself like a rocket away from the reach of predators.
Related Articles
Flying time can be increased by pushing the tail against the water again to enter another glide, and by catching updrafts from air and ocean currents.
When it is ready to re-enter the water, the fish simply folds its pectorals*).
*) pectoral = 1. A muscle or organ of the chest.2. A pectoral fin.
Source: Related articles: Science » Earth & Environment
_____________________
Flying fish belong to the family Exocoetidae and are recognizable for their large pectoral fins, which enable them to avoid predators, such as dolphins, tuna, and birds, by leaping out of the water.
Etymology
The term "Exocoetidae" is not only the present scientific name for a genus of flying fish in this family, but also the general name in Latin for a flying fish. The suffix -idae, common for indicating a family, follows the root of the Latin word exocoetus, a transliteration of theAncient Greek name ἐξώκοιτος.
This means literally "sleeping outside", from ἔξω "outside" and κοῖτος "bed", "resting place" so named as flying fish were believed to leave the water to sleep on the shore.
Distribution and description
Flying fish live in all of the oceans, particularly in tropical and warm subtropical waters. Their most striking feature is their pectoral fins, which are unusually large, and enable the fish to hide and escape from predators by leaping out of the water and flying through air a few feet above the water's surface.
Their flights are typically around 50 meters (160 ft).
The longest-known “flight” attained by a flying fish was filmed off the coast of Japan and lasted 45 seconds. You can watch the video here. (video links may expire)
The fish are actually gliding, rather than flying. Powerful tail strokes beneath the water allow them to reach up to 20 miles per hour before they break the surface and then glide with their wing-like fins.
At first the tail retains contact with the water, beating up to 70 times per second, which allows the fish to accelerate to around 40 miles per hour before becoming airborne.
Due to the lower resistance of air, the fish is able to launch itself like a rocket away from the reach of predators.
Related Articles
Flying time can be increased by pushing the tail against the water again to enter another glide, and by catching updrafts from air and ocean currents.
When it is ready to re-enter the water, the fish simply folds its pectorals*).
*) pectoral = 1. A muscle or organ of the chest.2. A pectoral fin.
Source: Related articles: Science » Earth & Environment
_____________________
Wednesday, 3/20/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/20/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
How to Stop a Home Invasion When the Intruder Has Four Legs
A FEW weeks ago, around 3 a.m., we heard some glass knocked over downstairs. In a daze — and not wanting to get out of bed — I thought it was our cats fooling around. But my older son, who was closer to the action, raced upstairs shouting that a raccoon was sitting on the mantle.
It’s no mystery how the raccoon got in. We have a cat door leading to our basement, and the cats can go out the garage door during the day. At night, we close the garage door. The raccoon, being nocturnal, must have been sleeping in the basement and then found itself unable to get out of the garage. It opted for another exit — through the cat door and into our house.
Besides breaking some vases and candles, the raccoon also managed to turn on a burner on our stove.
Once we (O.K., my husband) went downstairs and turned on the lights, the creature ran into the basement and eventually outside.
But unable to sleep, my husband and I started researching ways to keep raccoons away. Ammonia. Mothballs. Cayenne pepper. Irish Spring soap. Motion-detection lights and loud music.
But as I later found out from Jim Horton, owner of QualityPro Pest and Wildlife Services in Tarrytown, N.Y., those options, if they work at all, are usually temporary.
“Raccoons will just kick the mothballs to the side,” he said. And if too much of some those homemade remedies are used — like the ammonia or mothballs — they can become toxic.
Wildlife experts say that how you address the problem depends on the extent of the invasion. If you have one scared animal running through the house, open the doors and hope it runs out, Mr. Horton said, adding that it can also help to close your blinds or curtains so the animal sees the light from the door and goes toward that.
Don’t try to pick it up. There’s a possibility of rabies, and also being attacked by a frightened animal.
“The worst thing you can do is chase it,” said Tina Toti, an animal lover in New Rochelle, N.Y. She will help anyone — friend or stranger — remove these types of animals from a house and take them away. She doesn’t charge, but asks that a donation be made to a local animal shelter.
(Full disclosure: I’ve used Ms. Toti to capture another errant raccoon in our basement. She discovered its paw was trapped in a broken glass jar and got it to a veterinarian. It is now happily recovering at a rehabilitation center.)
Ms. Toti has a few tips: “In my experience, skunks have a huge weakness for sweets. Marshmallows or jelly gumdrops do the trick. I have used a very long stick with one of those treats at the end of it and tapped them on the nose and slowly walked them out of the door.”
Squirrels and raccoons are trickier to get out. The best bet, said Ms. Toti, who told me she was vaccinated against rabies, is to call a professional. The longer the animal is in your house, the more damage it can cause, and the greater the potential that it can leave behind fleas, ticks and mites, she said. And don’t even mention feces.
If you don’t want the animal killed, and there is no reason to unless it is rabid, be sure to inquire what the trapper plans to do with it once it is caught.
But once the animal is gone, you need to figure out how it got into your house. My friend Veronica told me how, a few Christmases ago, she heard little nails on her downstairs floor.
Like me, she bravely sent her husband down to investigate. Things had been knocked askew, but there was no animal in sight. The next day, though, when they went to decorate the Christmas tree, a squirrel came racing down the branches.
It had come, as is common, through the chimney. So make sure that you have chimney caps and that they’re adequately protecting against wildlife.
And here’s some other advice from experts to keep out wayward animals:
¶ Don’t leave pet food and water outside.
¶ Use metal or durable plastic trash containers and secure lids with elastic cords.
¶ Stack firewood on a frame that keeps logs at least two feet above the ground.
¶ Trim branches that extend over your roof.
¶ Check exhaust fan openings, kitchen and bathroom vents and above gutters to see if they’re providing an opening for animals.
A lone raccoon or squirrel that takes a wrong turn into your living room is one thing. But too often, the problem is a family that’s nesting in the attic or eaves. And that’s a lot more troublesome.
“You need to understand the animal and how it uses the structure, how it can climb and when it is breeding,” said John Griffin, director of Humane Wildlife Services, which is part of the Humane Society of the United States. He works in the Washington area.
For example, he said, a raccoon can get in holes four inches across or even smaller — as long as it can squeeze its head through.
And it can cause enormous damage. “I’ve had people with summer homes, and the raccoons just tore the places apart in the winter,” Mr. Horton said.
Last year, he said he saw a big increase in flying squirrels — perhaps, he said, because of an acorn abundance. Flying squirrels are nocturnal; regular squirrels, the ones we see climbing trees outside, are not.
So if you hear scrambling above your head starting around 10 p.m., there’s a good bet it’s flying squirrels making a home in your attic, he said.
If this is happening, bring in a professional who can help figure out where the opening is and ensure that all the animals are evicted. You want to make sure that a mother isn’t separated from her babies (squirrel nesting season runs February to May and August to October) because the mother will do anything to get back in.
“A lot of damage comes from people who think they’ve solved the problem,” Mr. Griffin said.
For instance, if you have a bat invasion, you may think it’s resolved if you don’t hear them after awhile. But if the weather is getting colder, they might just be hibernating.
“You need to know the season and species,” he said.
Hiring a professional won’t be cheap. Mr. Horton said his services might run from $185 to $650, depending on the size of the job. It can get more expensive if he needs to seal up many holes.
“I’ve done bat work that can run in the thousands,” he said. “A bat only needs the size of a dime to get into.”
He traps the animals in cages and relocates them about five miles away.
For about $350, Mr. Griffin uses a different method known as evict and exclude. He finds out how the animal is getting in, then puts a one-way trap up against the hole. Once the animal is in the trap, it can only go out — not back in. He will also make sure to remove any babies or other family members inside.
While that may seem expensive, it’s cheaper than having the animals as long-term guests.
As for us, we haven’t seen a rogue raccoon around lately. No doubt they’ve been dissuaded by the fancy new cat door we put in. It can be opened only by a radio frequency signal emitted by tags on the cats’ collars.
There’s only one problem. The new door scares our cats. But that’s another column.
Source: NYT _________________________________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/20/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
How to Stop a Home Invasion When the Intruder Has Four Legs
A FEW weeks ago, around 3 a.m., we heard some glass knocked over downstairs. In a daze — and not wanting to get out of bed — I thought it was our cats fooling around. But my older son, who was closer to the action, raced upstairs shouting that a raccoon was sitting on the mantle.
It’s no mystery how the raccoon got in. We have a cat door leading to our basement, and the cats can go out the garage door during the day. At night, we close the garage door. The raccoon, being nocturnal, must have been sleeping in the basement and then found itself unable to get out of the garage. It opted for another exit — through the cat door and into our house.
Besides breaking some vases and candles, the raccoon also managed to turn on a burner on our stove.
Once we (O.K., my husband) went downstairs and turned on the lights, the creature ran into the basement and eventually outside.
But unable to sleep, my husband and I started researching ways to keep raccoons away. Ammonia. Mothballs. Cayenne pepper. Irish Spring soap. Motion-detection lights and loud music.
But as I later found out from Jim Horton, owner of QualityPro Pest and Wildlife Services in Tarrytown, N.Y., those options, if they work at all, are usually temporary.
“Raccoons will just kick the mothballs to the side,” he said. And if too much of some those homemade remedies are used — like the ammonia or mothballs — they can become toxic.
Wildlife experts say that how you address the problem depends on the extent of the invasion. If you have one scared animal running through the house, open the doors and hope it runs out, Mr. Horton said, adding that it can also help to close your blinds or curtains so the animal sees the light from the door and goes toward that.
Don’t try to pick it up. There’s a possibility of rabies, and also being attacked by a frightened animal.
“The worst thing you can do is chase it,” said Tina Toti, an animal lover in New Rochelle, N.Y. She will help anyone — friend or stranger — remove these types of animals from a house and take them away. She doesn’t charge, but asks that a donation be made to a local animal shelter.
(Full disclosure: I’ve used Ms. Toti to capture another errant raccoon in our basement. She discovered its paw was trapped in a broken glass jar and got it to a veterinarian. It is now happily recovering at a rehabilitation center.)
Ms. Toti has a few tips: “In my experience, skunks have a huge weakness for sweets. Marshmallows or jelly gumdrops do the trick. I have used a very long stick with one of those treats at the end of it and tapped them on the nose and slowly walked them out of the door.”
Squirrels and raccoons are trickier to get out. The best bet, said Ms. Toti, who told me she was vaccinated against rabies, is to call a professional. The longer the animal is in your house, the more damage it can cause, and the greater the potential that it can leave behind fleas, ticks and mites, she said. And don’t even mention feces.
If you don’t want the animal killed, and there is no reason to unless it is rabid, be sure to inquire what the trapper plans to do with it once it is caught.
But once the animal is gone, you need to figure out how it got into your house. My friend Veronica told me how, a few Christmases ago, she heard little nails on her downstairs floor.
Like me, she bravely sent her husband down to investigate. Things had been knocked askew, but there was no animal in sight. The next day, though, when they went to decorate the Christmas tree, a squirrel came racing down the branches.
It had come, as is common, through the chimney. So make sure that you have chimney caps and that they’re adequately protecting against wildlife.
And here’s some other advice from experts to keep out wayward animals:
¶ Don’t leave pet food and water outside.
¶ Use metal or durable plastic trash containers and secure lids with elastic cords.
¶ Stack firewood on a frame that keeps logs at least two feet above the ground.
¶ Trim branches that extend over your roof.
¶ Check exhaust fan openings, kitchen and bathroom vents and above gutters to see if they’re providing an opening for animals.
A lone raccoon or squirrel that takes a wrong turn into your living room is one thing. But too often, the problem is a family that’s nesting in the attic or eaves. And that’s a lot more troublesome.
“You need to understand the animal and how it uses the structure, how it can climb and when it is breeding,” said John Griffin, director of Humane Wildlife Services, which is part of the Humane Society of the United States. He works in the Washington area.
For example, he said, a raccoon can get in holes four inches across or even smaller — as long as it can squeeze its head through.
And it can cause enormous damage. “I’ve had people with summer homes, and the raccoons just tore the places apart in the winter,” Mr. Horton said.
Last year, he said he saw a big increase in flying squirrels — perhaps, he said, because of an acorn abundance. Flying squirrels are nocturnal; regular squirrels, the ones we see climbing trees outside, are not.
So if you hear scrambling above your head starting around 10 p.m., there’s a good bet it’s flying squirrels making a home in your attic, he said.
If this is happening, bring in a professional who can help figure out where the opening is and ensure that all the animals are evicted. You want to make sure that a mother isn’t separated from her babies (squirrel nesting season runs February to May and August to October) because the mother will do anything to get back in.
“A lot of damage comes from people who think they’ve solved the problem,” Mr. Griffin said.
For instance, if you have a bat invasion, you may think it’s resolved if you don’t hear them after awhile. But if the weather is getting colder, they might just be hibernating.
“You need to know the season and species,” he said.
Hiring a professional won’t be cheap. Mr. Horton said his services might run from $185 to $650, depending on the size of the job. It can get more expensive if he needs to seal up many holes.
“I’ve done bat work that can run in the thousands,” he said. “A bat only needs the size of a dime to get into.”
He traps the animals in cages and relocates them about five miles away.
For about $350, Mr. Griffin uses a different method known as evict and exclude. He finds out how the animal is getting in, then puts a one-way trap up against the hole. Once the animal is in the trap, it can only go out — not back in. He will also make sure to remove any babies or other family members inside.
While that may seem expensive, it’s cheaper than having the animals as long-term guests.
As for us, we haven’t seen a rogue raccoon around lately. No doubt they’ve been dissuaded by the fancy new cat door we put in. It can be opened only by a radio frequency signal emitted by tags on the cats’ collars.
There’s only one problem. The new door scares our cats. But that’s another column.
Source: NYT _________________________________________________
Wednesday, 3/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 3/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Celebrities may impact how much your kids eat
* This text version is longer than the Radio Show information - the same facts
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Celebrities who endorse specific foods in TV commercials are a powerful influence on
children, and that effect may extend beyond the advertisement itself, according to a new study from the UK.
Based on observations of 181 children, researchers found the kids ate more potato chips after seeing ads featuring a popular UK sports figure - and after seeing him as the host of a TV show - than kids who watched commercials for toys and nuts.
"Obviously when they saw Gary Lineker in the advertisement, they ate a lot more crisps ... but what was surprising was when we showed him presenting his show we found that it had the same effect as the advertisement," said Jason C.G. Halford, from the University of Liverpool who worked on the study.
Past research has shown that kids are more likely to pick foods endorsed by celebrities, even when it's fruit. For example, a 2012 study found kids who were offered both cookies and apples were more likely to choose the apple if it had an Elmo sticker on it.
That phenomenon is worrisome, researchers say, since most foods advertised on TV are unhealthy, and could affect a child's future weight and health.
To test the extent of celebrity influence on kids' eating habits, Halford and his colleagues recruited 181 children between the ages of eight and 11 years old. Each child watched one of four commercials or TV show clips that were embedded in a 20-minute cartoon.
One of the commercials featured Lineker, a former soccer player who has been endorsing the potato chip brand Walker's Crisps since 1995. Another clip was from Lineker's popular TV sports show without any mention of the chips. The two other commercials were for salted nuts and a toy.
After watching the cartoon and commercials, the children were allowed to eat from two bowls of chips. One bowl was marked as Walker's Crisps. The other was marked as "supermarket brand." The researchers then measured how much the children ate from each bowl.
They report in the Journal of Pediatrics that the children ate about the same amount of the supermarket chips regardless of which commercials or clip they watched - about 15 grams.
But kids who watched Lineker's potato chip commercial or his TV show ate significantly more of the Walker's Crisps branded potato chips - about 35g, compared to the kids who watched the nut or toy commercials, who ate between 20g and 25g of Walker's Crisps.
"Our findings that the celebrity endorser influence extends beyond the celebrity's involvement in commercials and does not affect intake of nonendorsed brands of the same item speak to the strength of the associations that children develop between celebrity and branded products," the researchers write.
The authors acknowledge some of their study's limitations, for example, they did not know the children's favorite foods, which could have an impact on how much of the snacks provided they chose to eat.
Still, Halford's team points out that UK law currently prohibits "celebrities popular with children" from advertising foods high in fat, sugar and salt.
The American Academy of Pediatrics lists celebrity endorsements among the advertising "techniques to which children and adolescents are more susceptible."
The study's results show that Lineker's endorsement didn't just get kids to eat a specific brand, it may have influenced them to eat more overall, Halford told Reuters Health.
"You're not just going to get that swapping, you're going to get a general increase in consumption," he said.
"I'm not saying food advertisements are the cause of childhood obesity," said Halford, but a combination of solutions to the problem should be considered, he added.
___________________
Topic 2 Wednesday, 3/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Nettle: A World Citizen
Cooked nettle is not only
safe to eat, but also a very
high dietary source of iron,
phosphorous, calcium, silicon,
and potassium
_____
Nettle is another one of those hardy herbs that
can be called a world citizen. It has followed
human migrations, springing up wherever
farming practices have disrupted the natural
environment.
The two varieties used in Western herbal medicine today are Urtica dioica (stinging nettle) and
Urtica urens (small nettle). The generic name
Urtica comes from the Latin word “uro,” meaning “I burn.”
Anyone who has had the misfortune of brushing past a nettle without the protective garb
(long pants and Wellington boots) worn by most
farmers will certainly remember the burning
and stinging pain dealt by the common nettle.
The Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera) was introduced to England by Roman soldiers who would
flog their limbs with stinging nettles to improve
circulation and thus keep themselves warm--
tough men indeed.
The sting shared by all varieties of nettle is due
to an alkaline compound, ammonium bicarbonate, which is found in the small hollow spines
or hairs that cover the extremities of the leaves.
The juice found in the rest of the plant contains
formic acid, which when liberated by cooking,
quickly cancels out the sting produced by the
strong base.
Nutritional and Medicinal Uses
Cooked nettle is not only safe to eat, but also
a very high dietary source of iron, phosphorous, calcium, silicon, and potassium, with a
good amount of vitamin C for proper absorption of the iron.
The young leaves, cut in spring, midsummer,
and autumn, have been used as a vegetable by
people all over the world. Make sure you use
gloves and shears when harvesting, and then
briefly blanch or steam the leaves.
Fresh nettle is quite useful as an herbal tea. It
can be very helpful to those who suffer from
anemia, chronic low blood pressure, and associated symptoms. For these people, it can be prescribed every few days.
The improved transport of oxygen to the vital
organs, head, brain, and major blood vessels can
provide a much needed pick-me-up. It can also
have a very positive effect on skin color, hair
quality, memory, and concentration.
A classically trained herbalist will use iridology to diagnose a patient’s individual blood
pressure patterns and rates of flow to determine whether nettle in medicinal doses would
be an appropriate treatment. An herbalist can
also prescribe other herbs in differing portions
to ensure a balanced increase in blood pressure.
If you are the type of person who tends more
toward hypertension, then you should avoid
taking nettle in large quantities. See a trained
professional before taking nettle in more than
culinary amounts.
Use in Textiles
Nettle fibers have long been used throughout
history to make all sorts of textiles, with the Germanic and Scandinavian cultures using it for sail
making, rope, all sorts of clothing, household
linen, fishing nets, and sewing thread.
The modern word “nettle” comes from the
Anglo-Saxon “netel,” which is derived from the
old Scandinavian word “noedl,” meaning “needle.” Whether this is a reference to its needlelike hairs or its use as a textile is unknown, but
both seem apt.
Nettle fiber was used in central and northern European cultures until the introduction of flax and hemp in more modern times. Nettle was,
however, considered to be stronger than flax
and not so coarse as hemp and superior to cotton in the making of velvet and plush materials.
During World War I, the German army considered nettle to be the only efficient substitute to
cotton, as it could be bleached and dyed, and the
fiber lengths are equal to that of the finest Egyptian cotton. German army uniforms of that time
were found to be made of 85 percent common
stinging nettle, with the fiber also used as a silk
substitute for gas lantern burners and gas masks.
Large plantations were undertaken in both
Germany and Austria; however, cultivation
proved more difficult than expected, and wild
nettle could not meet the large demand.
Gardening and Composting
Adding to the many and varied uses of this plant
is its great usefulness to organic gardeners. Nettle is also counted among the five main herbs
considered to be essential to the preparation
of good compost. Nettle acts as a compost activator, attracting beneficial molds as it breaks
down, and adding valuable minerals that have
been leached out of the topsoil over thousands
of years. Most important of these minerals is
iron, essential for soil fertility and necessary for
all plant growth, especially the fine hair roots
of plants.
Planted as a companion to herbs, nettle has
also been found to double the essential oil production of the plant, as well as increasing the
vigor and perfume of other flowering plants
in the garden.
If the idea of growing nettle in your garden or
as a pot herb doesn’t appeal to you, dried nettle leaves are readily available at most healthfood stores.
Source: Luke Hughes is a classical Western herbalist and horticulturalist based in Sydney, Australia.
__________________________________
* This text version is longer than the Radio Show information - the same facts
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Celebrities who endorse specific foods in TV commercials are a powerful influence on
children, and that effect may extend beyond the advertisement itself, according to a new study from the UK.
Based on observations of 181 children, researchers found the kids ate more potato chips after seeing ads featuring a popular UK sports figure - and after seeing him as the host of a TV show - than kids who watched commercials for toys and nuts.
"Obviously when they saw Gary Lineker in the advertisement, they ate a lot more crisps ... but what was surprising was when we showed him presenting his show we found that it had the same effect as the advertisement," said Jason C.G. Halford, from the University of Liverpool who worked on the study.
Past research has shown that kids are more likely to pick foods endorsed by celebrities, even when it's fruit. For example, a 2012 study found kids who were offered both cookies and apples were more likely to choose the apple if it had an Elmo sticker on it.
That phenomenon is worrisome, researchers say, since most foods advertised on TV are unhealthy, and could affect a child's future weight and health.
To test the extent of celebrity influence on kids' eating habits, Halford and his colleagues recruited 181 children between the ages of eight and 11 years old. Each child watched one of four commercials or TV show clips that were embedded in a 20-minute cartoon.
One of the commercials featured Lineker, a former soccer player who has been endorsing the potato chip brand Walker's Crisps since 1995. Another clip was from Lineker's popular TV sports show without any mention of the chips. The two other commercials were for salted nuts and a toy.
After watching the cartoon and commercials, the children were allowed to eat from two bowls of chips. One bowl was marked as Walker's Crisps. The other was marked as "supermarket brand." The researchers then measured how much the children ate from each bowl.
They report in the Journal of Pediatrics that the children ate about the same amount of the supermarket chips regardless of which commercials or clip they watched - about 15 grams.
But kids who watched Lineker's potato chip commercial or his TV show ate significantly more of the Walker's Crisps branded potato chips - about 35g, compared to the kids who watched the nut or toy commercials, who ate between 20g and 25g of Walker's Crisps.
"Our findings that the celebrity endorser influence extends beyond the celebrity's involvement in commercials and does not affect intake of nonendorsed brands of the same item speak to the strength of the associations that children develop between celebrity and branded products," the researchers write.
The authors acknowledge some of their study's limitations, for example, they did not know the children's favorite foods, which could have an impact on how much of the snacks provided they chose to eat.
Still, Halford's team points out that UK law currently prohibits "celebrities popular with children" from advertising foods high in fat, sugar and salt.
The American Academy of Pediatrics lists celebrity endorsements among the advertising "techniques to which children and adolescents are more susceptible."
The study's results show that Lineker's endorsement didn't just get kids to eat a specific brand, it may have influenced them to eat more overall, Halford told Reuters Health.
"You're not just going to get that swapping, you're going to get a general increase in consumption," he said.
"I'm not saying food advertisements are the cause of childhood obesity," said Halford, but a combination of solutions to the problem should be considered, he added.
___________________
Topic 2 Wednesday, 3/27/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Nettle: A World Citizen
Cooked nettle is not only
safe to eat, but also a very
high dietary source of iron,
phosphorous, calcium, silicon,
and potassium
_____
Nettle is another one of those hardy herbs that
can be called a world citizen. It has followed
human migrations, springing up wherever
farming practices have disrupted the natural
environment.
The two varieties used in Western herbal medicine today are Urtica dioica (stinging nettle) and
Urtica urens (small nettle). The generic name
Urtica comes from the Latin word “uro,” meaning “I burn.”
Anyone who has had the misfortune of brushing past a nettle without the protective garb
(long pants and Wellington boots) worn by most
farmers will certainly remember the burning
and stinging pain dealt by the common nettle.
The Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera) was introduced to England by Roman soldiers who would
flog their limbs with stinging nettles to improve
circulation and thus keep themselves warm--
tough men indeed.
The sting shared by all varieties of nettle is due
to an alkaline compound, ammonium bicarbonate, which is found in the small hollow spines
or hairs that cover the extremities of the leaves.
The juice found in the rest of the plant contains
formic acid, which when liberated by cooking,
quickly cancels out the sting produced by the
strong base.
Nutritional and Medicinal Uses
Cooked nettle is not only safe to eat, but also
a very high dietary source of iron, phosphorous, calcium, silicon, and potassium, with a
good amount of vitamin C for proper absorption of the iron.
The young leaves, cut in spring, midsummer,
and autumn, have been used as a vegetable by
people all over the world. Make sure you use
gloves and shears when harvesting, and then
briefly blanch or steam the leaves.
Fresh nettle is quite useful as an herbal tea. It
can be very helpful to those who suffer from
anemia, chronic low blood pressure, and associated symptoms. For these people, it can be prescribed every few days.
The improved transport of oxygen to the vital
organs, head, brain, and major blood vessels can
provide a much needed pick-me-up. It can also
have a very positive effect on skin color, hair
quality, memory, and concentration.
A classically trained herbalist will use iridology to diagnose a patient’s individual blood
pressure patterns and rates of flow to determine whether nettle in medicinal doses would
be an appropriate treatment. An herbalist can
also prescribe other herbs in differing portions
to ensure a balanced increase in blood pressure.
If you are the type of person who tends more
toward hypertension, then you should avoid
taking nettle in large quantities. See a trained
professional before taking nettle in more than
culinary amounts.
Use in Textiles
Nettle fibers have long been used throughout
history to make all sorts of textiles, with the Germanic and Scandinavian cultures using it for sail
making, rope, all sorts of clothing, household
linen, fishing nets, and sewing thread.
The modern word “nettle” comes from the
Anglo-Saxon “netel,” which is derived from the
old Scandinavian word “noedl,” meaning “needle.” Whether this is a reference to its needlelike hairs or its use as a textile is unknown, but
both seem apt.
Nettle fiber was used in central and northern European cultures until the introduction of flax and hemp in more modern times. Nettle was,
however, considered to be stronger than flax
and not so coarse as hemp and superior to cotton in the making of velvet and plush materials.
During World War I, the German army considered nettle to be the only efficient substitute to
cotton, as it could be bleached and dyed, and the
fiber lengths are equal to that of the finest Egyptian cotton. German army uniforms of that time
were found to be made of 85 percent common
stinging nettle, with the fiber also used as a silk
substitute for gas lantern burners and gas masks.
Large plantations were undertaken in both
Germany and Austria; however, cultivation
proved more difficult than expected, and wild
nettle could not meet the large demand.
Gardening and Composting
Adding to the many and varied uses of this plant
is its great usefulness to organic gardeners. Nettle is also counted among the five main herbs
considered to be essential to the preparation
of good compost. Nettle acts as a compost activator, attracting beneficial molds as it breaks
down, and adding valuable minerals that have
been leached out of the topsoil over thousands
of years. Most important of these minerals is
iron, essential for soil fertility and necessary for
all plant growth, especially the fine hair roots
of plants.
Planted as a companion to herbs, nettle has
also been found to double the essential oil production of the plant, as well as increasing the
vigor and perfume of other flowering plants
in the garden.
If the idea of growing nettle in your garden or
as a pot herb doesn’t appeal to you, dried nettle leaves are readily available at most healthfood stores.
Source: Luke Hughes is a classical Western herbalist and horticulturalist based in Sydney, Australia.
__________________________________
Wednesday, 4/3/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/3/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Crops Irrigated With Industrial Wastewater in China
Motive: Safer NOT to buy any food items in any form originating from China.
Safer NOT to buy any Chinese products as long as the pollution is all over - as it is
Farmers in several areas of China’s Henan Province have been forced to irrigate their fields with industrial wastewater, because groundwater sources have dried up or been polluted by industry, according to state media.
The crops harvested from the polluted fields are all sold, because none of the farmers dare to eat their own produce, according to locals.
A report by Chinese state-run media Dahe described the wastewater discharged by Dongfeng Papermaking Co. in Dakuai Township, Fengquan District of Xinxiang City, as “gray and sticky.” A 200-meter-long open trench takes the water directly into nearby farmlands for irrigation without prior treatment, and a thick layer of pulp has settled on the surface of fields, it said.
Pan Kangping, manager of the Dongfeng paper mill, was quoted as saying that the village committee had signed an agreement with them, allowing the use of papermaking wastewater for agricultural irrigation.
Mr. Zhang, a local villager, told Dahe that the farmlands used to be irrigated by water taken from a well about 20 to 30 meters deep. After the papermaking mill was built, it drilled four wells up to 100 meters deep to pump groundwater for manufacturing. The farmers, however, were deprived of irrigation water as the previous wells were drained.
Villagers then approached the village committee and the paper mill to reach a settlement, Zhang said. The paper mill said that villagers could either buy groundwater pumped from the deep wells or use the post-treatment wastewater from the paper mill.
Villagers felt their interests had been violated, and they refused to buy water from the mill.
But they couldn’t wait and let the wheat seedlings dry up, Zhang said, and without a better alternative, all that they could do was to use the wastewater, as it came without a charge.
“We sold all of the harvest to the market. We don’t dare to keep any of it for our own consumption,” Zhang admitted.
Similar situations exist across Henan province, according to the article. There are a number of wig making factories in Wocheng Township of Linying County, which is under the jurisdiction of Tahe City. The manufacturing process of wigs involves acid and alkaline treatments, and this generates a lot of wastewater that is supposed to be treated before being discharged from the plant.
Qianyao Enterprise Co. is one of the wig plants. Its manufacturing facilities sit among villager’s residences. Behind the facilities, adjacent to vast wheat fields, is a big pit used for temporary wastewater storage. Mounds of scrapped wigs pile up around the pit, emitting putrid odors.
Villagers said that Qianyao has been in operation for many years. The local well water for drinking and the underground water for irrigation are all polluted, and farmers dare not eat the crops they grow.
Related Articles (click green below - if the link has expired search the web with the topic)
Growing environmental awareness and the willingness of people to voice their concern, have led the communist party to worry about more protests and social instability.
Recently, Chinese netizens, state media, and even delegates at the National Congress, expressed their outrage when China’s environmental ministry told attorney Dong Zhengwei he couldn’t have access to two-year old data about soil pollution because it was a “state secret,” Click green: Reuters said in a March 10 report.
Click green: Read the original Chinese article
________________________
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/3/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Crops Irrigated With Industrial Wastewater in China
Motive: Safer NOT to buy any food items in any form originating from China.
Safer NOT to buy any Chinese products as long as the pollution is all over - as it is
Farmers in several areas of China’s Henan Province have been forced to irrigate their fields with industrial wastewater, because groundwater sources have dried up or been polluted by industry, according to state media.
The crops harvested from the polluted fields are all sold, because none of the farmers dare to eat their own produce, according to locals.
A report by Chinese state-run media Dahe described the wastewater discharged by Dongfeng Papermaking Co. in Dakuai Township, Fengquan District of Xinxiang City, as “gray and sticky.” A 200-meter-long open trench takes the water directly into nearby farmlands for irrigation without prior treatment, and a thick layer of pulp has settled on the surface of fields, it said.
Pan Kangping, manager of the Dongfeng paper mill, was quoted as saying that the village committee had signed an agreement with them, allowing the use of papermaking wastewater for agricultural irrigation.
Mr. Zhang, a local villager, told Dahe that the farmlands used to be irrigated by water taken from a well about 20 to 30 meters deep. After the papermaking mill was built, it drilled four wells up to 100 meters deep to pump groundwater for manufacturing. The farmers, however, were deprived of irrigation water as the previous wells were drained.
Villagers then approached the village committee and the paper mill to reach a settlement, Zhang said. The paper mill said that villagers could either buy groundwater pumped from the deep wells or use the post-treatment wastewater from the paper mill.
Villagers felt their interests had been violated, and they refused to buy water from the mill.
But they couldn’t wait and let the wheat seedlings dry up, Zhang said, and without a better alternative, all that they could do was to use the wastewater, as it came without a charge.
“We sold all of the harvest to the market. We don’t dare to keep any of it for our own consumption,” Zhang admitted.
Similar situations exist across Henan province, according to the article. There are a number of wig making factories in Wocheng Township of Linying County, which is under the jurisdiction of Tahe City. The manufacturing process of wigs involves acid and alkaline treatments, and this generates a lot of wastewater that is supposed to be treated before being discharged from the plant.
Qianyao Enterprise Co. is one of the wig plants. Its manufacturing facilities sit among villager’s residences. Behind the facilities, adjacent to vast wheat fields, is a big pit used for temporary wastewater storage. Mounds of scrapped wigs pile up around the pit, emitting putrid odors.
Villagers said that Qianyao has been in operation for many years. The local well water for drinking and the underground water for irrigation are all polluted, and farmers dare not eat the crops they grow.
Related Articles (click green below - if the link has expired search the web with the topic)
Growing environmental awareness and the willingness of people to voice their concern, have led the communist party to worry about more protests and social instability.
Recently, Chinese netizens, state media, and even delegates at the National Congress, expressed their outrage when China’s environmental ministry told attorney Dong Zhengwei he couldn’t have access to two-year old data about soil pollution because it was a “state secret,” Click green: Reuters said in a March 10 report.
Click green: Read the original Chinese article
________________________
Wednesday, 4/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Chinese Parents Protest New Baby Milk Scandal
Several hundred angry parents gathered in front of Nantong’s city hall on April 1, 2013, to protest communist authorities’ inaction over yet another Chinese infant formula scandal exposed by Chinese media.
West China Metropolis Daily recently reported that a milk distributor in Suzhou is suspected of mixing expired formula from an unknown source with imported Nutradefense formula, made by Swiss dairy company Hero Group. The mixture was reportedly repackaged and sold as Nutradefense formula to unsuspecting parents, who now fear it has harmed their children.
Since China’s 2008 melamine milk powder tragedy, in which six babies died and many thousands were poisoned, Chinese consumers’ trust in domestic infant formula has never been restored. Parents who can afford to buy only foreign brands, and are often willing to pay more than double the price of Chinese brands, believing them to be safer for their children.
At the demonstration, the parents held banners that read: “Who fed our babies poison?” and “Unscrupulous merchants should pay for our babies’ health.” The crowd asked for an explanation, but were aggressively dispersed by a large number of police officers.
“The incident was exposed several days ago, and the government promised to respond in three days, but five days have passed and we heard nothing,” Nantong resident Ms. Lu told The Epoch Times:
Netizens reacted angrily to the latest scandal and the regime’s handling of it.
“Don’t these people have children too?” said one Internet user.
Another posted: “My son is 6 months old and has been drinking this phony product since birth. My wife and I have fertility problems. It took us nine years and hundreds of thousands of yuan to finally have our baby. We want to give him the best, but despite careful selection, we picked the fake product!”
Some larger foreign manufacturers of infant formula, like Nutrillon, have opened official online shops in China to prevent counterfeiting. Other foreign brands are sold by vendors through Taobao Marketplace, a Chinese language website for online shopping, akin to eBay.
Translation by Quincy Yu. Research by Hsin-Yi Lin. Written in English by Peter Valk. Source: The Epoch Times
Read the original Chinese article.
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Topic # 2 Chinese Mother Buys $6 Million Manhattan Apartment for Toddler
A cashed-up Chinese family forked out a princely sum for a Manhattan apartment—for their 2-year-old child.
A real estate agent in New York, asked the woman why she was buying.
“And she said, well, her daughter was going to go to Columbia, or
NYU or maybe Harvard and so she needed to be in the center of
the city...” he said to CCTV. “So I said: ‘Oh, how old is your daughter?’
and she said: ‘Well she’s two.’ And I was just shocked, says the RE agent.”
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Topic # 3
‘Study Drugs’ Unsafe and Unethical, Say Neurologists
Some young and older people with comparably normal brains use them
as study drugs to sharpen their academic focus
The practice is neither ethical nor safe, according to experts
Doctors call this off-label drug use neuroenhancement
Methylphenidate (better known as Ritalin) was approved for child hyperactivity in 1961, but starting in the 1990s, prescriptions for Ritalin and other amphetamines soared. While they are intended to treat severe attention deficit, many children use them as study drugs.
Drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall are intended to treat severe attention deficit, but some young people with comparably normal brains use them as study drugs to sharpen their academic focus. The practice is neither ethical nor safe, according to experts. Doctors call this off-label drug use neuroenhancement.
A position paper from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) weighs in on the ethical concerns of neuroenhancement, and explicitly warns doctors that prescribing study drugs for children and adolescents is “not justifiable,” as it exposes the developing brain to prescription stimulants for no medical reason.
“It’s not a good idea at all to be giving healthy kids drugs,” said lead author, and neurologic pediatrician Dr. William Graf. “It’s just common sense.”
There are alternatives available to neuroenhancements, including maintaining good sleep, nutrition, study habits, and exercise regimens, Graf added.
While many physicians already refuse to grant prescriptions to children who do not have ADHD, others praise the practice. Atlanta pediatrician Dr. Michael Anderson, for example, advocates systematic neuroenhancement programs to help struggling students in poor schools make better grades.
Graf says the allure of study drugs has become so great that many believe the trend is unstoppable, as more and more people will turn to neuroenhancement to stay competitive.
“This is nothing new,” said Graf, a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Yale University, in a phone interview. “People have been abusing drugs for a long time. We have a history where people will justify their drug, whether it’s the marijuana crowd, alcohol, or heroin, LSD, anything.”
The AAN statement is important because it is backed by three neurological organizations, representing 25,000 physicians. It does not make any recommendations in regard to policy, but it does serve as a wake-up call to doctors still unclear on the proper use of prescription stimulants. The position paper had no industry financing, according to Dr. Graf, who took pride in his efforts to keep drug industry interests at an appropriate distance.
Getting this consensus was not easy. Outside the neuroenhancement controversy, the growing number of presumably legitimate ADHD cases has also given cause for concern. A recent study finds that ADHD diagnoses have jumped 25 percent in the last decade.
However, most child neurologists agree that prescription stimulants do provide profound benefits to children who actually suffer from a disorder—extreme cases where the need for treatment outweighs negative effects and risk.
“There are kids out there who are dysfunctional. They have what they call functional impairment, and they can’t get through their day, and people worry about an attack on ADHD because some kids have been helped,” said Graf. “What we’re talking about in this [position paper] is a different population.”
Allure of Stimulants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved methylphenidate (better known as Ritalin) for child hyperactivity in 1961. But starting in the 1990s, prescriptions skyrocketed, and similar drugs have since seen a meteoric rise in sales.
Amphetamines used to treat ADHD are categorized as Schedule 2 drugs, due to their potential for addiction and abuse. But Graf says despite the health risks, legal restrictions, and a U.S. history of amphetamine abuse in the 1960s, authorities are often inclined to look the other way.
“Did you hear about anyone ever being caught or getting arrested and doing time for selling methylphenidate in a library?” asked Graf. “I haven’t. And yet through word of mouth, anecdotal reports, and questionnaires people say that this is just all over the place. So it’s not regulated.”
According to German neuroethicist and AAN statement co-author, Dr. Saskia Nagel, stimulants carry an aura of virtue that other drugs do not possess. She says that because these drugs offer culturally desirable traits (improved productivity and heightened focus), it is easy to miss the down side.
In the most tragic examples, neuroenhancement has resulted in suicide. But in every case, the short-term cognitive benefits always come at a price.
“These [drugs] surely always have to work at the cost of a different capacity,” Nagel said. “So for example, if you could selectively enhance your short term memory for being better at tests and so on, you will most likely influence your long term memory to the worse. So already on the physiological level this is something that causes harm.”
Nagel and Graf add that similar risks are associated with energy drinks—strong, sweet-tasting stimulants available without a prescription. These beverages are clearly marketed to young people and have been linked to many emergency room visits, but manufacturers have so far managed to avoid warning labels or regulation.
“These are potent caffeine drinks,” said Graf. “If there is some potential for bad side effects and this is being sold on supermarket shelves the public should probably know about this, but the manufacturer doesn’t want to hear it.”
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Wednesday, 4/17/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/17/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Important info
Is Your Kitchen a Health Hazard?
OUR kitchens may be killing us — slowly
Not so much with radon or gas leaks, but with kindness and proximity
By Neil Izenberg
Neil Izenberg is the founder of KidsHealth.org and a pediatrician at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
When my 1840 Philadelphia row house was built for its seafaring owners, the kitchen was in the basement — like every other home on the block. If the family wanted a hot meal, someone had to tramp downstairs and stoke up the fire.
Fire and smoke inhalation were chief among the many health hazards the 19th-century kitchen presented. In an era without refrigeration, food poisoning was a constant danger. Home-preserved foods filled in dietary gaps, but if stored improperly botulism became a real — and deadly — risk.
The widespread introduction of the icebox, around the time my house was built, led to big changes. Insulated iceboxes — some of them fashionable furniture — greatly extended the shelf lives of fresh foods. The electric refrigerator, with small but handy freezers, appeared in houses in the first decades of the 20th century. Ice block delivery by horse-drawn cart was no longer needed.
When safer natural gas and electricity entered our lives, kitchens moved from basement exile into the main area of homes. As part of an ambitious 1934 modernization, the previous owner of my Philadelphia house moved the huge gas stove upstairs and into its own small kitchen at the back of the house.
Similarly, the kitchen of my childhood home in Metuchen, N.J., was its own single-purpose dedicated room. Back then, when my family’s evening meal was over (in our case, usually after 20 minutes of near-silent eating), our kitchen was declared “closed,” its function complete.
But now our kitchens, like our girths, have grown substantially, in terms of size and of function. They’ve become part of expansive entertainment complexes in our homes. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders reports that three out of four new-home buyers want their kitchen and family room to be a combined space.
That makes sense. People like to hang out and socialize in their kitchens. Now great spaces are full of wonderful, convenient devices — with super-size refrigerators, stoves that could service a restaurant and large enough cabinets to store provisions for a small army. Even our dinner plates are bigger than they used to be. Comfy chairs, computer stations and a large-screen TV — virtual necessities — round out the picture.
Sure, not everyone can afford these gastronomic wonderlands — but a glance at shows like “House Hunters” and “My First Place” on HGTV give you a pretty good idea of what the ruling cultural ideal looks like.
Almost 80 years after its last major upgrade, my old home deserves its own entertainment-eating zone, too. So I’m expanding my new kitchen complex into my garden — with all the gizmos I could want. I didn’t order some of the now-common kitchen options: second refrigerators, separate free-standing freezers, pasta faucets, bread makers, warming drawers, cappuccino bars, home pizza ovens or a built-in deep fryer and beer tap. So I guess, by some standards, I’m roughing it.
Soon I’ll be able to amble (or, more likely, roll) a mere five feet from my kitchen counter stool to my couch to watch “Chopped,” “Top Chef” or “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” The refrigerator, pantry and containers of food will remain alluringly in sight (and all beautifully lighted, I might add). I won’t even have to leave the room during a commercial. And why would I leave at all? The kitchen has Wi-Fi.
Many of the safety issues of yesterday’s kitchens are gone. No one in my family is likely to tumble into an open hearth. But new kitchens pose a more subtle danger to our health by doubling as a comfortable social, entertainment and eating hub. Retail marketers have long known that when tempting food is within close range of our eyes or nose, we tend to eat more of it. In our new kitchens, it’s just too darn easy to get to addictive snacks and calorie-rich drinks.
My newly expanded kitchen should be done in a few weeks. Despite its increased storage capacity, I plan to stock fewer carbohydrate-laden products and tempting treats. An extra handful or two of easily accessible daily snacks can make the difference between maintaining my weight and adding a few pounds each year.
There are, of course, many reasons for the nation’s obesity epidemic, with its staggering health implications. But surely modern home design plays an important and underappreciated role.
Perhaps there is one more kitchen option I should get: a neon sign that says “Kitchen Closed.” After dinner, I’ll turn it on.
Source: NYT
By Neil Izenberg is the founder of KidsHealth.org and a pediatrician at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
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Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Tips for Maintaining a Clean, Healthy Bathroom
An additional link for home health at the end
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
When was the last time you cleaned your bathroom? Always remember that excellent bathroom hygiene is essential to maintaining a clean and hazard free bathroom.
If you’ve been slacking lately, it’s highly likely that bacteria and germs have already begun to spread illness from one family member to another. What many people don’t realize, however, is that the key to a clean bathroom is, well, a clean you.
Factors such as how you shower, how you dry yourself off after a shower and even how you flush the toilet can make all the difference.
Drying Off
If you’ve gotten into the bad habit of sharing your bath towels with family members or roommates—snap out of it, and quickly. Sure, you’re probably saving a few dollars here and there by not having to do the laundry, or by not having to go to the laundromat as often, but you’re probably going to end up having to fork out even more money for medication and health insurance. Trust us when we say that it’s a much healthier (and cheaper in the long run!) alternative for everyone to have their personal bath towel.
Why, you ask? Sharing towels can help spread illness and disease. In fact, it’s one of the most common health hazards in American bathrooms. Health hazards such as bacteria, fungus and viruses love the warmth and moisture of bath towels. They thrive in these kinds of conditions. Did your son or daughter catch that nasty cold that’s going around school? If your kids are sharing towels, it won’t be long before the entire household is cold and flu infested.
The Throne
Kings and queens… Do you flush with your toilet lid down? Or do you flush with your toilet lid up? You’ve probably never given it a second thought. Or you probably never knew there was a right or wrong way to flush to begin with! We don’t blame you. And we certainly won’t dethrone you. We get that it’s not a decision you’d think could be potentially hazardous to your well-being.
The truth of the matter is that if you’re an upper (you flush with the lid up) you’re essentially allowing thousands of teeny tiny droplets of water to soar up above the rim and into your bathroom’s atmosphere. Why is that such a bad thing? Hold your stomach. These miniscule droplets are home to hazardous bacteria such as the e-coli from your urine or poop that you released into the toilet bowl.
If you have a small bathroom, chances are that your countertop is filled with toiletries such as soap bars, toothbrushes, and other items that you make direct contact with on a daily basis, and will unfortunately be covered in e-coli. So, if you don’t feel like a side of e-coli for breakfast, get yourself and your family into the good habit of flushing with the toilet lid down to stop the bacteria filled droplets from flying into the air and to contain the e-coli in the bowl itself.
Singing in the Shower
Are you so eager to show off your vocals in the shower that you just can’t wait to hop in and get under that shower head and warm water? Think again, America’s next Idol. If you don’t clean your shower head on a regular basis, you really should let the water run for a couple of minutes before using your shower head as a microphone.
Honestly, when was the last time you cleaned your shower head (if you’ve even cleaned it at all)? It’s an all too easily forgotten hazard, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s all kinds of gross hiding inside a shower head.
According to studies conducted by the University of Colorado, high levels of microorganisms and bacteria live in the water that comes out of unclean shower heads. It’s even filthier than the water going in!
Microorganisms, viruses, fungus, bacteria, and all kinds of pathogens thrive in such dark, wet and warm conditions. So, the next time you’re a little too eager to sing in the shower, we hope you’ll remember our advice.
To Vent or Not to Vent
Do you have enough ventilation in your bathroom? If not, it’s time to invest in an exhaust fan. A lack of ventilation combined with the often moist, warm and dark conditions of a bathroom, can, and often does, make mold happy and plentiful.
Matter of fact, give mold approximately 24–28 hours to get happy. And you bet they will. The kind of mold that grows in bathrooms come in a wide variety of colors and can grow on any given surface, but it may not be visible to the naked eye.
Mold spores are particularly hazardous to individuals who suffer from asthma or other respiratory health problems, and can even trigger asthma in young children. So, as a rule of thumb, turn on your exhaust fan while you shower, and let it run for an additional 20 minutes when you’re drying off and moisturizing.
What if you don’t have an exhaust fan? All you need to do is crack the door open slightly and it will make all the difference between a clean bathroom and hazardous environment.
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
Source:
1st Class Cleaning specializes in green cleaning in the New York Metro area.
Visit www.1stclasscleaningnyc.com for more information.
For more click: HEALTH NEWS, HOME
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Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/24/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Clear scientific, working, tested, results-bringing advice for longer life
without sickness, without mental & physical challenges
Quotation: "Knowledge is no power - only applied knowledge is power"
(Dr. Christian)
______________________________
Information for a better life
Does learning new things slow our internal sense of time?
Fast Time and the Aging Mind
Radio Show date: Wednesday, July, 24 2013
Click green for further info
By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN
Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psycho-pharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College
AH, the languorous, dreamy days of endless summer! Who among us doesn’t remember those days and wonder wistfully where they’ve gone? Why does time seem to speed up as we age? Even the summer solstice — the longest, sunniest day of the year — seems to have passed in a flash.
No less than the great William James opined on the matter, thinking that the apparent speed of time’s passage was a result of adults’ experiencing fewer memorable events:
“Each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units, and the years grow hollow and collapse.”
Don’t despair. I am happy to tell you that the apparent velocity of time is a big fat cognitive illusion and happy to say there may be a way to slow the velocity of our later lives.
Although the sense that we perceive time as accelerating as we age is very common, it is hard to prove experimentally. In one of the largest studies to date, Dr. Marc Wittmann of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, in Germany, interviewed 499 German and Austrian subjects ranging in age from 14 to 94 years; he asked each subject how quickly time seemed to pass during the previous week, month, year and decade. Surprisingly, there were few differences related to age. With one exception: when researchers asked the subjects about the 10-year interval, older subjects were far more likely than the younger subjects to report that the last decade had passed quickly.
Other, non-age-related factors influence our perception of time. Recent research shows that emotions affect our perception of time. For example, Dr. Sylvie Droit-Volet, a psychology professor at Blaise Pascal University, in France, manipulated subjects’ emotional state by showing them movies that excited fear or sadness and then asked them to estimate the duration of the visual stimulus. She found that time appears to pass more slowly when we are afraid.
Attention and memory play a part in our perception of time. To accurately gauge the passage of time required to accomplish a given task, you have to be able to focus and remember a sequence of information. That’s partly why someone with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder has trouble judging time intervals and grows impatient with what seems like the slow passage of time.
The neurotransmitter dopamine*) - link at the end) is critically important to our ability to process time. Stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, which increase dopamine function in the brain, have the effect of speeding up time perception; antipsychotic drugs, which block dopamine receptors, have the opposite effect.
On the whole, most of us perceive short intervals of time similarly, regardless of age. Why, then, do older people look back at long stretches of their lives and feel it’s a race to the finish?
Here’s a possible answer: think about what it’s like when you learn something for the first time — for example how, when you are young, you learn to ride a bike or navigate your way home from school. It takes time to learn new tasks and to encode them in your memory. And when you are learning about the world for the first time, you are forming a fairly steady stream of new memories of events, places and people.
When, as an adult, you look back at your childhood experiences, they appear to unfold in slow motion probably because the sheer number of them gives you the impression that they must have taken forever to acquire. So when you recall the summer vacation when you first learned to swim or row a boat, it feels endless.
But this is merely an illusion, the way adults understand the past when they look through the telescope of lost time. This, though, is not an illusion: almost all of us faced far steeper learning curves when we were young. Most adults do not explore and learn about the world the way they did when they were young; adult life lacks the constant discovery and endless novelty of childhood.
Studies have shown that the greater the cognitive demands of a task, the longer its duration is perceived to be.
Dr. David Eagleman at Baylor College of Medicine found that repeated stimuli appear briefer in duration than novel stimuli of equal duration. Is it possible that learning new things might slow down our internal sense of time?
The question and the possibility it presents put me in mind of my father, who died a few years ago at age 86. An engineer by training, he read constantly after he retired. His range was enormous; he read about everything from astronomy to natural history, travel and gardening. I remember once discovering dozens of magazines and journals in the house and was convinced that my parents had become the victims of a mail-order scam.
Thinking I’d help with the clutter, I began to bundle up the magazines for recycling when my father angrily confronted me, demanding to know what the hell I was doing. “I read all of these,” he said.
And then it dawned on me. I cannot recall his ever having remarked on how fast or slow his life seemed to be going. He was constantly learning, always alive to new ideas and experience. Maybe that’s why he never seemed to notice that time was passing.
So what, you might say, if we have an illusion about time speeding up? But it matters, I think, because the distortion signals that we might squeeze more out of life.
It’s simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again. Learn something that requires sustained effort; do something novel. Put down the thriller when you’re sitting on the beach and break out a book on evolutionary theory or Spanish for beginners or a how-to book on something you’ve always wanted to do. Take a new route to work; vacation at an unknown spot. And take your sweet time about it.
Click green below for further info
Source: NYT & Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psycho-pharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
*) Click: Dopamine | Psychology Today
www.psychologytoday.com/basics/dopamine - Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, ...
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See below additional links for the same topic "Fast Time & the Aging Mind"- click the colored area
If the link has expired, search in The New York Times' website using the article title
Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/31/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
An extra article next below relating to the same topic (not presented in the Radio Show today)
Learn the Language of Labelese » (= Food labels)
The U.S. regulations may change any time - check for possible changed details
The language of labels can be quite tricky, but reading the ingredient panel before you buy a product is a must.
There are over 14,000 additives used in commercially prepared foods today. Some are far more complicated and potentially dangerous than others, and manufacturers, restaurateurs and those who make our food are not required to disclose the hazards.
Read the labels on packaged foods and avoid artificial chemicals, colors, chemical preservatives (MSG, BHA, BHT, nitrates), bleached white flour, hydrogenated fats, and eight-syllable words.
If you can’t pronounce it, does it belong on your plate?
The Steer Clear List
This is a list of foods that you should under no circumstances put in that precious body of yours or anyone else you care about:
1. Artificial colors:
Food colorings are used to make food look more appealing or to replace colors lost in processing. However, don’t let these colors deceive you. Artificial colorings are synthetic dyes that are often coal-tar derivatives. They are suspected to cause allergies, asthma, hyperactivity, and are potentially carcinogenic.
Chief culprits: Candy, beverages, soda, gelatin desserts, pastries, sausage, baked goods, even fruits like green oranges sprayed with red dye to make them look ripe.
Tip: Keep it real with a rainbow of fresh fruit and veggies, natural juices, and additive-free snacks.
2. Artificial preservatives
(BHA, BHT, EDTA, Sodium Benzoate, etc): You may see these ingredients in chips, fried snack foods, baked goods, carbonated drinks, cheese spreads, hummus, salsa, chewing gum, ice cream, breakfast cereals, and even cosmetics.
These preservatives are actually synthetic petroleum-based and fat soluble antioxidants, used by manufacturers to prevent oxidation and retard rancidity. They can cause cancer, allergic reactions, and hyperactivity, and BHT may be toxic to the nervous system and the liver.
Tip: Choose food and drinks labeled with “no artificial antioxidants.” Avoid poor quality vegetable oils. Look for cold-pressed virgin oil, which contains natural antioxidants such as Vitamin E. Eat fresh produce that doesn’t contain these preservatives.
3. Nitrites and Nitrates:
Love your bacon in the morning and salami at lunch time? Cured, preserved, and smoked meats are often saturated with nitrites and nitrates to preserve shelf life and give it a “healthy” pink hue. These two preservatives may prevent the growth of bacteria but can also transform into cancer-causing agents called nitrosamines in the stomach. They may also produce noticeable side effects like headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.
Tip: Look for nitrite and nitrate-free processed meats and opt for meat-free alternatives to mix it up.
4. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG):
You may be happy that you’re dining in restaurants that say “No MSG”, but did you know that MSG lurks in all kinds of sauces used to prepare the foods that you thought were MSG-free? There are also significant amounts in all kinds of snacks, seasonings, candy, even infant formula, over-the-counter medications, and nutritional supplements.
Tip: Buy MSG-free snacks and read labels so you can make healthier choices.
Practice this for 31 days and before you know it, you’ll become a label queen or king, knowing how to decipher ingredients like a polyglot (= a person who knows several languages, multilingual)
Mareya Ibrahim is The Fit Foody, an award-winning chef on ABC’s Emmy-nominated show “Recipe Rehab,” and author and founder of EatCleaner.com. Her book “The Clean Eating Handbook,” a guide on how to eat cleaner and get leaner, was released in May 2013.
Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch times - search the internet
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Article 2 of 2 (not in today's Radio Show) - extra info
Food Labels: What Those Words, Words, Words Mean
The U.S. regulations may change any time - check for possible changed details
Anyone who has tried reading food labels in an effort to become more informed has made a giant leap of faith. In fact, although food labels may provide facts, your level of understanding may not increase at all when you read them, and you may become even more confused.
As our food supply has become increasingly diversified and highly processed, more and more substances have found their way into what we eat. As a result, nutrients either have been lost altogether or appear in different proportions. As public interest in nutrition grew during the '50s and '60s, consumers began to ask questions about what was in the food they were eating and whether it was safe and nutritious.
No fewer than four government agencies oversee aspects of food labeling and safety. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for labeling and safety of all foods and additives except for meat and poultry, which are handled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to make sure that your food is not contaminated by environmental pollutants, and the Federal Trade Commission is charged with protecting us from false advertising claims.
Conscientious reading of food labels should provide enough information to help you cut down on the nutritional "bad guys" in your diet, but first you have to understand the language we'll call "labelese."
RDA. The recommended dietary allowance
is an estimate of how much of a given nutrient we need to stay healthy. These figures were calculated for whole populations and therefore were set quite high to take everybody into account. This means that eating slightly more or less than the RDA will probably not hurt you. The USRDA*), which appears on food labels, is the ''legal" version of the RDA and is the minimum recommended daily intake of a specific nutrient for everyone 4 years and older.
*) U.s. rda | U.s. rda at Dictionary.comdictionary.reference.com/browse/u.s.+rda United States recommended daily allowance: the daily amount of a protein, vitamin, or mineral that the FDA has established as sufficient to maintain the ...
ENRICHED OR FORTIFIED
Enriched means that vitamins, minerals or protein have been added, often after having been taken out of the original food. Fortified means that something that was not originally removed or reduced has been added as a supplement.
Most products that say they are enriched or fortified must go one step further and provide complete nutritional information on the package label. Flour, however, is an exception to this rule. It can be called enriched with replacement iron, niacin, thiamine and riboflavin; the zinc, fiber, copper and other vitamins and trace minerals that were reduced in the milling are not replaced.
IMITATION
As you would expect, a product labeled "imitation" is not the real thing and/or is nutritionally inferior to the real thing. If it is not the real thing but is nutritionally equal, it can be called "substitute."
DIETETIC
Foods with the terms dietetic, diet, low-calorie and reduced- calorie on their labels must have either one-third fewer calories than the standard version or fewer than 40 calories per 100-gram (3 1/2-ounce) serving.
Yet some foods labeled "dietetic" can have reduced sodium while maintaining the same calorie count. The calories listed on the label are only required to be within 20 percent of the real calorie count, which means that a serving of something claiming to have 300 calories may have as few as 240 or as many as 360.
SUGAR-FREE OR SUGARLESS
These terms mean that no ordinary table sugar (sucrose) is in the product. However, it can contain honey, dextrose (corn sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), mannose, glucose, sorbitol or other sweeteners that contain just as many calories as sucrose. If you are trying to cut down on sugar in your diet, be sure to read the whole label and take all the various sugars into account.
CHOLESTEROL-FREE
This means either that the food is a vegetable product that doesn't contain cholesterol under any circumstances (only animal products contain cholesterol) or that the product has less than 2 milligrams of cholesterol per serving. Other terms that recently have started appearing include low-cholesterol (fewer than 20 mg per serving), cholesterol-reduced (product has been altered so that it contains at least 75 percent less cholesterol than the original) and less cholestrol or lower-cholesterol (the cholesterol content has been lowered, but by less than 75 percent).
NATURAL
Natural doesn't really mean anything. A food labeled "all- natural" can contain preservatives such as BHA and BHT and other additives such as flavor enhancers, thickeners and emulsifiers.
There are a few rules about labels that are worth noting:
* Nutrition labeling is largely voluntary. However, if any specific nutritional claims are made, such as "low in sodium," "sugar-free" or ''high in calcium," then full nutritional information must be presented on the label.
* Standardized foods such as ice cream, mayonnaise, ketchup or peanut butter must meet very specific FDA guidelines before calling themselves by those names. If the only ingredients in a jar of mayonnaise, for example, are the ones allowed in the FDA standards (vegetable oil, vinegar and/or lemon juice, egg yolk and some others), the jar does not need any further labeling. However, if anything else is added, such as spices, preservatives or sugar, all the ingredients must be listed.
* A label listing the amount of fat in grams per serving does not have to specify how much of the fat is saturated, unsaturated or polyunsaturated, or list how much cholesterol there is unless claims are made about fat content on the package.
Current guidelines urge that no more than 30 percent of our calories come
from fat, and these should be evenly divided among saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
It also is impossible to know what percentage of the calories in a food come from fat without doing some fancy calculations on your own. Since this is the only really meaningful number for someone trying to reduce fat intake, it might be worth the effort.
To calculate the percent of calories from fat:
If a food contains 150 calories per serving and 6 grams of fat, you must multiply the 6 grams by 9 (the number of calories in 1 gram of fat). So in this case, 54 calories would come from fat. Then divide the total calories
from fat by the total calories in the serving: 54 divided by 150 equals 0.36, or 36 percent of calories from fat. That's pretty high, indeed
Source: By Sheldon Margen, M.D. and Dale A. Ogar, Special to The Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA, newspaper; Philly.com) click: philly.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homeswww.philly.com/
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Wednesday,8/28/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
If It’s Not Organic, Don’t Panic
Not all conscientious farms, or growers can afford to go certified organic, but that doesn’t mean they’re less healthy. Here’s what I know about the Big O (organic companies):
Organic farms require a USDA certification that they receive after a period of about three years. During that time, they’re considered ‘transitional.’ For a small farm, the expense can come at a prohibitive price tag, and while they may not be certified organic they are still considered “sustainable” in that they are grown locally and uphold similar growing practices. Often these small farms have a reduced carbon footprint because they sell close to home.
Because of the consumer surge in demand for organic foods, large agribusiness corporations have pulled up to the table in an effort to reap the benefits, threatening the existence of these small sustainable farmers and making it harder for them to compete.
Organic meat farmers are required to use feed grown organically and are prohibited from administering antibiotics or hormones to their livestock. Yet when it comes to animal welfare, they are only required to give the animals “access” to outdoors with as little as an open door leading to a cement patio.
On the flip side, sustainably raised meats, such as venison from New Zealand, are grass fed outdoors year-round on free-range ranches without the use of hormones, steroids, or growth promoters. Rainwater and sunshine nourish the pasture the animals graze on without environmentally expensive irrigation, waste disposal, or water-table impact. They’re just not “organic” by label, but they are truly sustainable.
There’s no denying that certified organic foods come from a good philosophical place, offering consumers alternatives to products loaded with artificial chemicals, added hormones, and pesticides. When it comes to food choices, there’s always more than meets the eye. We have to look deeper than the surface of the label.
If you can’t afford all organic produce, opt for sustainable, biodynamic, and locally grown produce where they don’t use harsh chemical pesticides. Prioritize organic animal products, especially dairy, and organic soybeans to avoid GMOs (genetically modified food). The main point, however, is to eat a variety of fresh fruit and veggies daily.
Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Topic # 2 of 2 Show topic # 1 next above
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show Wednesday 8/28/13
Hollywood’s New Stars: Pedestrians
How to learn to walk
and reap the good health & happiness benefits from walking
- walking - one of the best exercises for every person with healthy legs -
For your leaner body & health, longer, happier life, walk min. 25K and up to 50K steps a day - use a pedometer
click: Pedometer
Walk the stair steps up and down - walk on the ocean, on the river, in the park, in the pure nature
Running on a hard surface can cause joint damage: every time your foot hits the ground, your knee joints take a 400 lbs hit
Walking is safer and brings good health results
If you run (for the speed fun of it), use suitable shoes and run on a soft surface in the nature - what shoes? Ask your foot doctor.
What shoes for walking longer for exercise - ask your foot doctor
It is important to ask your foot doctor what shoes to use AND then USE those shoes - wrong shoes can ruin your foots & legs
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Click green for further info
Everyone in Los Angeles has a ridiculous story about driving somewhere when two feet would have worked just as well. Mine features a celebrity. I once interviewed John Travolta at Paramount Pictures for an entertainment magazine, and when it came time for us to move from his trailer to the shooting location, a limo was summoned. Estimated distance of our chauffeured, temperature-controlled, Evian-sipping road trip: less than 25 yards.
This always sounds absurd, but many Angelenos would sooner have their mug shots appear on TMZ than go a few steps without a motor vehicle. Here, we drive ourselves to jog, to bike, to attend spin class and to hike, and it’s not unusual for a dinner gathering of three couples to involve five or six cars. All of which contributes to how much we sit. When we are not sitting on the freeways, we are sitting at our computers, in meetings, at restaurants or in front of the TV. And by we, in this case I mean me, at least until recently.
At this year’s TED*) conference (link: 5 lines below) , the author and the Silicon Valley corporate executive Nilofer Merchant delivered a three-minute talk that scared the life out of me about how sitting has become the smoking of our generation. It arrived on the heels of a Harvard Business Review article she wrote that said Americans average 9.3 hours of sitting a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. So elemental is sitting to our daily routine, we don’t even think about it, and yet it’s killing us.
*) click: TED Conference - TED.com www.ted.com › TED Conferences › Attend
TED conference = Held annually on the West Coast of North America, the TED Conference is at the heart of TED. More than a thousand people attend this five-day conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design -- as well as science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. More than 70 speakers appear on the main stage to give 18-minute talks and shorter presentations, including music, performance and comedy.
Just one hour of sitting slows production of fat-burning enzymes by as much as 90 percent, she said, and a longer term habit (you might want to sit down for this) negatively affects good cholesterol levels and increases the risk of heart disease,
Type 2 diabetes and certain kinds of cancer.
The detail that catapulted me out of my chair was the conclusion of an Australian study that found that for each additional hour of TV a person sits and watches each day, the chance of dying rises by 11 percent. Even the recommended 30 minutes of vigorous exercise cannot make up for the problems of hunching over your laptop the rest of the day.
Ms. Merchant’s prescription is to just keep moving. Walk with friends instead of stuffing your faces at meals. Walk to any destination within a mile radius of your home or business. Consider a standing desk (Ikea sells components to hack one for under $150) or even a treadmill desk, a kind of turbo work station that allows you to waste time on Facebook, but at an invigorating 2 m.p.h.
Naturally, Hollywood is all over it. “The actor Jerry O’Connell was in here the other day and said, ‘You’re the fittest screenwriter I’ve ever seen,’ “ said Janet Tamaro, who created “Rizzoli & Isles” and sometimes spends 10 straight hours walking through rewrites (many days her pedometer registers 50,000 steps). “I said, ‘Well, thanks, but that bar is pretty low.’ “
Ms. Merchant’s bolder solution is to “walk the talk” by scheduling walking meetings, a suggestion I took as a personal challenge. Every time a friend or colleague wanted to meet, I invited them to walk instead. The writing students I teach were more than happy to skip the gym and stroll out their editing and pitching woes with me. I walked my side of dozens of cellphone conversations, walked a friend around a state park on her birthday, walked on Ms. Tamaro’s treadmill as I interviewed her and even walked a fence contractor through his bid. (“A walk? Now?” he asked as we hit the sidewalk.)
These conversations were different somehow, with fewer awkward silences, more energy and a certain daydreamy quality (well, not with the fence guy). It helps explain, too, why “walk therapy” is an actual thing in Los Angeles.
I thought I was alone in using that term with freelancers looking to improve their careers, but Laurel Lippert Fox, a psychologist in Santa Monica, Calif., has been walking her private practice patients for years. “It’s so much more dynamic than sitting in your Eames chair,” she said. “Plus, moms can push a stroller if they can’t get a baby sitter.”
When I reached Ms. Merchant by phone at her office in Los Gatos, Calif., she had just returned from her fifth walk meeting of the week. (“I’m around 21 miles since Monday,” she said.) Both of us walked as we talked.
“What I love is that you’re literally facing your problem or situation together when you walk side by side with someone,” she said. “I love that people can’t be checking e-mail or Twitter during walking meetings. You’re awake to what’s happening around you, your senses are heightened and you walk away with something office meetings rarely give you — a sense of joy.”
Few in Los Angeles get more joy from walking than the walking activist Alissa Walker (I kid you not). A journalist by trade, she has lived car-free by choice since 2007 and is on the steering committee of Los Angeles Walks, a volunteer organization dedicated to repairing the city’s image as a walker’s wasteland. “The basic goal is to make people realize you can walk in L.A.,” she said. Better sidewalks, signage and city policies are all part of their mission.
I’ve known Ms. Walker for years through the writing community but the jubilant images she posts to Instagram (@awalkerinLA) and her blog (AWalkerinLA.com) — mostly of her glamorously adorned feet on some oddly alluring stairway or crosswalk — made me want to get out there with her.
I met her one warm, clear day in the Silver Lake neighborhood, and from her two-story royal blue house with white trim we walked along some of her favorite routes. She was wearing a billowy pink dress and neon coral sandals, and she had teal toenails that matched her sunglasses. At the bottom of her hill are the Music Box Steps, made famous in Laurel and Hardy’s 1932 Academy Award-winning short film, “The Music Box,” and now one of more than 100 vintage stairways hidden around the city.
Ms. Walker showed me the nearly completed bike lanes under construction as part of a “road diet” that’s turning four lanes of car traffic to one on Rowena Avenue. And we walked around the Silver Lake Reservoir and on up Swan’s Way, one of the city’s steepest staircases, with views to the lake, downtown and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond. “If you squint*) you can imagine women in petticoats walking here a hundred years ago,” Ms. Walker said. “But you can also see the near future, when you’ll be able to walk Los Angeles without people asking ‘What are you walking for?’ “
*) click green: squint = Crossed eyes; Esotropia; Exotropia; Hypotropia; Hypertropia; Squint; Walleye; Misalignment of the eyes
I went home excited to keep walking as part of a conscious act of being a resident in Los Angeles, and to feel healthier and more connected to my friends, neighborhood and city. But first I sat down to get a better look at the blister bubbling up on my right toe.
More about TED Click green below or search the web with a similar titleAbout TED - TED.comwww.ted.com/pages/about
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three science worlds: Technology, ... (see further on TED's website)
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
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Wednesday,9/4/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
Please notice: the show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Below, click the green topic title to see of the 256-year-old man - if the link has expired search the web with the title
and click there the link connecting to The Epoch Times - Click: Lessons About Longevity From a 256-Year-Old |www.theepochtimes.com Mr. Li Qing Yun (1677–1933) was a Chinese medicine physician. He was said to have lived through nine emperors.
The article 1 of 1
Lessons About Longevity from a 256-Year Old
Please notice: the show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
According to legend, Mr. Li Qing Yun (1677–1933) was a Chinese medicine physician, herbal expert, qigong master, and tactical consultant. He was said to have lived through nine emperors in the Qing Dynasty to be 256 years old.
His May 1933 obituary in Time Magazine, titled “Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog,” revealed Li’s secrets of longevity: “Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.”
Mr. Li is said to have had quite unusual habits in his daily living. He did not drink hard liquor or smoke and ate his meals at regular times. He was a vegetarian and frequently drank wolfberry (also known as goji berry) tea.
He slept early and got up early. When he had time, he sat up straight with his eyes closed and hands in his lap, at times not moving at all for a few hours.
In his spare time, Li played cards, managing to lose enough money every time for his opponent’s meals for that day. Because of his generosity and levelheaded demeanor, everyone liked to be with him.
Mr. Li spent his whole life studying Chinese herbs and discovering the secrets of longevity, traveling through provinces of China and as far as Thailand to gather herbs and treat illnesses.
His life advice:
Keep a quiet heart (= do not worry)
sit like a tortoise (= meditate)
walk sprightly like a pigeon (= walk lively, full of energy)
and sleep like a dog (= sleep 8 - 9 hours)
While it is unclear whether Li actually lived as long as is believed, what little we know of his habits fit with modern science’s findings about longevity.
Research
Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” researches the science of longevity. In his book and in a 2009 TED talk, he examined the lifestyle habits of four geographically distinct populations around the world.
All of these groups—Californian Adventists, Okinawans, Sardinians, and Costa Ricans—live to be over 100 years of age at a far greater rate than most people, or they live a dozen years longer than average. He calls the places where these groups live “blue zones.”
According to Buettner’s research, all blue-zone groups eat a vegetable-based diet. The group of Adventists in Loma Linda, California, eat plenty of legumes and greens as mentioned in the Bible. Herders living the in the highlands of Sardinia eat an unleavened whole grain bread, cheese from grass-fed animals, and a special wine.
Buettner found that low-calorie diets help in extending life, as demonstrated by a group of healthy elderly Okinawans who practice a Confucian rule of stopping eating when one is 80 percent full.
Perhaps Li’s wolfberry tea played a crucial part in his health. After hearing Li’s story, medical researchers from Britain and France conducted an in-depth study of wolfberry and found that it contains an unknown vitamin called “Vitamin X,” also known as the “beauty vitamin.” Their experiments confirmed that wolfberry inhibits the accumulation of fat and promotes new liver cells, lowers blood glucose and cholesterol, and so on.
Wolfberry performs a role of rejuvenation: It activates the brain cells and endocrine glands; enhances the secretion of hormones; and removes toxins accumulated in the blood, which can help maintain a normal function of body tissues and organs.
Meditation
Researchers have found numerous benefits to regular meditation. Neuroscientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School asked two groups of stressed-out high-tech employees to either meditate over eight weeks or live as they normally do.
They found that the meditators “showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe,” reads a 2003 Psychology Today article. “This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression, and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.”
Meditation also click: reduces brain shrinkage due to aging and click: enhances mood.
click green above
Aside from meditation, Buettner found that regularly scheduled downtime undoes inflammation, which is a reaction to stress. The Adventists in California strictly adhere to their 24-hour Sabbath and spend the time reflecting, praying, and enjoying their social circles.
Community
Buettner also found that community is a huge factor in the longevity of blue-zone groups. Typical Okinawans have many close friends, with whom they share everything. Sardinian highlanders have a reverence for the elderly not found in modern Western societies. The Adventists put family first.
A sense of belonging and having healthy friends and family encourage the individual to live healthily as well.
In “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell examined a group of Italians called the Rosetans, who migrated to an area west of Bangor, Pennsylvania. Across the board, they had lower incidents of heart disease and generally lived long, healthy lives. After experiments, it was determined that their secret was not genetics or even diet (41 percent of their diet came from fat).
“The Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world,” Gladwell wrote. “The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills.”
Purposeful Living
In his travels, Buettner came across a common theme among blue-zone groups: None of them had the concept of retirement. As it turns out, to keep going makes it easier to keep going.
Related Articles Click green or search with the title (if the link has expired search with the title & click to conect to The Epoch Times
Purposeful living into the sunset years is a mantra to the Okinawans and Sardinians. In those groups, Buettner met centenarian men and women who continued to climb hills, build fences, fish, and care for great-great-great-great grandchildren.
Interestingly, none of these centenarians exercise purposely as we Westerners who go to the gym do. “They simply live active lives that warrant physical activity,” Buettner said. They all walk, cook, and do chores manually, and many of them garden.
Based on an article about Li Qing Yun from Kan Zhong Guo (Secret China).
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
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The Epoch Times is an independent voice in print and on the web. We report news responsibly and truthfully so that readers can improve their own lives and ...China - About Us - New York - World
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AN EXTRA Article - not in the radio show
Study on Yogi Prahlad Jani’s Fasting Miracles Concludes
click the green title below for the article and to see a picture of the Yogi - if the link has expired, search with the title and click the link connecting to The Epoch Times _______________________
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Wednesday,9/11/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
Please notice: the show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
China Faces Big Water Crisis
This topic is
(1) to remind us that if we do not give proper attention to pollution this same challenge, the water crisis followed by proper, clean food crisis and other challenges are in front of us round the world in every country and
(2) to remind us NOT TO buy anything from China, especially any food items as they are all more or less polluted, even fatal
Below, as article 2 of 2 (not handled in the Radio Show) additional information of food buying from China
Article 1 of 3 - handled in the Radio Show on 9/11/13 - the anniversary day of the attack of The World Trade Center in New York City (9/11/2001)
Click green for further info
China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization along with over exploitation and abuse of natural resources has led to serious water pollution and water scarcity that is approaching crisis proportions.
A recently released annual environmental bulletin by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) reveals that over 30 percent of the country’s rivers and over 50 percent of groundwater are below national water quality standards. The continuing deterioration of water quality affecting people’s lives and health has become one of the most urgent existential crises for China.
Severity
In the first half of 2013, 12 state-controlled surface water monitoring stations revealed that heavy metal content at these sites surpassed national water quality standards by 22 times. Water samples taken from the Yangtze River and the Yellow River showed that mercury exceeded safe levels by 50 percent, followed by arsenic at 36.4 percent, according to a semiannual report, released on Aug. 2, 2013 by the MEP(link info in Chinese) (MEP = China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection).
Wastewater discharged nationwide in 2012 totaled 68.46 billion tons, according to the bulletin. Of the 1,200 rivers being monitored, 850 are contaminated, and over 90 percent of watersheds were contaminated.
State-controlled sections of the top 10 watersheds, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, 20.9 percent had “mild” pollution and 10.2 percent “medium-level” pollution, according to the statistical data in the bulletin.
Of the 4,929 groundwater-quality monitoring points in 198 cities, 57.3 percent reported “poor” or “very poor” water quality.
Groundwater quality has been degraded from massive dumping of untreated or partially treated wastewater. In addition, increased urbanization and industrial development in recent years have led to a growing overdraft of groundwater in some regions, which has significantly lowered the water level, Chinacitywater.org cited Zhang Hongtao, chief engineer of China’s Ministry of Land and Resources as saying.
“Residential sewage, municipal wastewater, industrial effluents, and agricultural chemicals are dumped into rivers, which has inevitably contaminated the groundwater and threatened groundwater sources. Water pollution problems have become grim,” Zhang said.
Causes
According to the Economic Information Daily, pollutants from industrial, agricultural, and residential sources are the major causes of water pollution in China. Industrial pollution is caused by directly discharging untreated industrial effluents into nearby streams, lakes, rivers, or oceans.
Agricultural pollution refers to contamination of bodies of water through agricultural wastewater, fertilizers, and pesticides in rural regions. Excessive pesticide use can cause water pollution when the chemicals remain in the soil after irrigation and are absorbed into the groundwater by rain.
Extensive use of fertilizers also results in significant concentrations of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural runoffs that can contribute to harmful algae growth, another major form of water pollution.
Residential pollution from household activities, including untreated residential wastewater and improper disposal of chemicals, also contribute to water pollution.
Despite its national 450 billion yuan (roughly US$74 billion) wastewater treatment budget for the 12th five-year economic plan (2011–2015), China’s present sewage treatment capacity is only at 20 percent, while about 80 percent of wastewater is discharged, often untreated, directly into bodies of water, according to Chachaba.com, a Shenzhen-based three dimensional map service website.
According to Chachaba, 54 out of 78 main rivers in China are polluted, and half of the top seven watersheds are contaminated. Up to 86 percent of rivers running through cities are considered polluted as contamination exceeds national standards.
Contaminants
Over 2,000 contaminants have been identified in water tests, mainly organic pollutants, carbon compounds, and heavy metals—765 of them are contained in tap water, including 190 hazardous substances and 20 carcinogens—according to Chachaba.com.
Water pollution poses an alarming threat to China’s drinking water. Approximately 82 percent of the Chinese population draws its drinking water primarily from shallow wells and freshwater lakes, but 75 percent of these water sources are seriously contaminated with bacterial concentrations exceeding hygienic water quality standards. Nearly half of China’s major cities and towns do not meet state drinking-water quality standards.
Less than 11 percent of the Chinese population has water supplies that meet state standards for drinking-water quality. As much as 65 percent of the population uses drinking water from unsafe sources. The most common water quality problems they encounter are muddy appearance, abnormal taste, inorganic contaminants such as fluoride and arsenic, industrial chemicals, and disease-causing organisms, according to Chachaba.com.
Arsenic poisoning has been identified as one of the country’s “most important endemic diseases.” Nearly 20 million Chinese live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to an international five-year research project spearheaded by Dr. Guifan Sun of China Medical University that was released on Aug. 22.
Scarcity On top of pollution, China also lacks sufficient freshwater resources to begin with. With a population of over 1.3 billion and 2,300 cubic meters of water per capita annually, this amounts to only a quarter of the world’s average use level, ranking 121st in the world. CNN quoted United Nations as saying that China is 1 of 13 countries with extreme water shortages.
Population growth, economic development, urbanization, and pollution have all exacerbated existing shortages of freshwater resources. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, out of the country’s 663 cities, more than 400 suffer from water deficiencies, with 110 categorized as “severe.”
Reportedly 232 million people face severe water shortages in an annual average per capita of water resources.
Netizens’ Concerns
The critical water pollution situation has sparked concern among Chinese bloggers.
Netizen “Green As Ever” wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging services: “The death of a starved polar bear serves as a warning to mankind, that endless exploitation of natural environments brings nothing but destruction. If today we do not pay attention to ecological sustainability, we will be engulfed by deteriorating environments in the not too distant future. If we demolish windbreaks and greenbelts, and pollute mountains and rivers, the day will come when water costs more than gasoline, and food more than gold; and then we may want to cry, yet have no tears.”
“Iron Blood Tender Feeling” posted a blog on Tencent Weibo, one of China’s leading microblogging platforms: “Facts have proven that China has the most short-sighted economic development in the world. Our ancient civilization, with a history of thousands of years, has been completely distorted after only decades of development. Can all those [formerly] pure rivers and green mountains ever be restored?”
Click green for further info Source: The Epoch times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times See a related article next below - it was not handled in the Radio Show
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Article 2 of 3 This article was not handled in the Radio Show on Wednesday 9/11/13
Senator Schumer (D-NY) Calls for Strict Oversight
of Chinese Chicken And Other Food Item Import
NEW YORK—Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for strict oversight and inspections of chicken processed in Chinese plants, which could soon find its way to store shelves in the United States.
On Aug. 30, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved four Chinese facilities to ship processed chicken to the United States.
Under current rules, the chicken products will not be labeled to show their country of origin, and the plants will not have a USDA inspector on site to oversee food safety.
The chickens eligible for export would need to have been raised and slaughtered in the United States and then shipped to China for processing. Schumer believes that with no inspectors on site in the Chinese plants, and given China’s poor track record on food safety, hazardous chicken products could potentially enter the U.S. market.
The senator cited cases of arsenic in Chinese calamari and rice, maggots in pasta, glass chips in pumpkin seeds, and deadly dog food. He also recalled a recent incident in which 63 people were arrested for selling rat, fox, and mink meat and passing it off as mutton.
“The list of disturbing incidents of food that comes from China is huge,” Schumer said outside Associated Supermarkets on East 14th Street near First Avenue in Manhattan on Sept. 15.
“We all know that China has an appallingly poor record when it comes to food safety,” he added.
Schumer believes that the August announcement from the USDA “is probably some kind of quid pro quo*).”*) quid pro quo - Latin = What for what or Something for something; In common usage, quid pro quo refers to the giving of one valuable thing for another
“Somebody wants China to do something, and China says, ‘In return, let us import these chickens.’ And then the USDA is forced to do it, even though they don’t have the inspections,” Schumer said.
“It is just outrageous. This is the health of Americans—kids, adults, elderly—and you can’t make trades on the back of people’s health,” he added.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Schumer called for annual inspections to be conducted at the Chinese plants. He also asked that the imports be rigorously and frequently retested before being sold to consumers in the United States.
“If they don’t cooperate with the United States’ foreign policy, why would they cooperate with the chicken exports?” said Bob Amand, a New York resident. “On the major issues, they are not with us, so why would you trust their label if it’s not USDA-inspected?”
Current USDA rules say that processed meat products do not have to be labeled to identify their country of origin. The rules apply to the chicken that may come from the four USDA-approved plants in China, leaving consumers with no way to discern the food’s origin.
Schumer held up a box of chicken nuggets and a package of raw chicken breasts to demonstrate his point.
Source: The Epoch Times STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Article 3 of 3 This article was not handled in the Radio Show on Wednesday 9/11/13
US Pork Maker Smithfield - All Clear for Chinese Takeover
STAF, Inc.'s editors will place the most recent article here when it becomes available.
Sharholders of Smithfield Foods, Inc., Va. based U.S. company, approved on Tuesday, 9/24/13, a plan to sell the world's largest pork producer to a Chinese company. The deal is expected to close on Thursday, 9/26/13.
The sale raised many questions in the U.S, including the impact on food safety and security because the bad reputation the Chinese companies have.
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Please notice:
Only those show dates will appear on this list when the show topic has a printed article available here
Wednesday, 10/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Preventing Arthritis
Millions of North Americans are suffering from osteoarthritis, the wear and tear type of arthritis that is associated with aging. Why does this happen and why does one remedy never hit the headlines?
A French professor started his class by saying, “This has been said before but must be said again because no one listened.” So it must be said again about osteoarthritis because not enough people listened!
An aphorism states, “If you keep going to hell, you’ll eventually get there.” Millions of people eventually get to an arthritic hell because they’re obese.
How can anyone not expect to develop painful hips and knees when they are subjected day after day to 50 or more extra pounds of stress? Remember what happens when you keep adding weight to the camel’s back.
If you don’t use it, you lose it. How many times must doctors stress the value of exercise? But you don’t need an expensive health club to keep joints healthy. After all, lions don’t need Nike running shoes to stay in shape. Neither do you.
President Abraham Lincoln gave sound advice when he said, “You have the best two doctors in your own body: your left leg and your right leg.” Walking pumps nutrients into cartilage and is the safest way to exercise and burn calories.
Eat a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, which are high in antioxidants. They help to keep joints healthy. Take vitamin D to push calcium into bones. All this has been said before.
So what haven’t you heard before? It’s the vital role of large doses of vitamin C. Vitamin C protects cartilage, the shock absorber between bones. You may think this is a wild idea. But let’s look at the best way to evaluate problems by using some irrefutable scientific facts.
Linus Pauling, the only two-time solo Nobel Prize winner, told me years ago what I never learned at Harvard Medical School: Animals make their own vitamin C while humans do not.
For instance, guinea pigs produce 13,000 milligrams of C daily and increase it to 100,000 milligrams a day if they develop an infection. The recommended daily amount for humans is 60 to 95 milligrams!
The next indisputable fact is that vitamin C is needed to manufacture collagen, the main ingredient of cartilage, which prevents bones from grinding together. I practice what I preach and take at least 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily.
Vitamin C is also a great antioxidant. It helps to rid the joints of free radicals, the end products of metabolism, believed to be associated with aging.
Will this remedy stop everyone from suffering the pain of arthritis? The quick answer is no. After all, regardless of how well we care for our car, it gets older and eventually wears out. But by taking large doses of vitamin C, chances are better that arthritis will occur in the 80s rather than at 50 years of age.
You may argue that all this doesn’t apply to you because you drink orange juice. Sorry, it’s not so. Pauling believed this small amount does prevent developing scurvy that used to kill sailors on long sea voyages. Sailors didn’t get orange juice and neither did the ship’s cat, but the cat had the last laugh. It didn’t die of scurvy because it produced its own vitamin C.
Can I or anyone else prove that vitamin C is a cheap way to decrease the risk of osteoarthritis? Unfortunately, it’s not possible. A large scientific study is unlikely because no money can be made from doing it. Vitamin C cannot be patented.
Remember, I’m not your doctor. But I believe a huge amount of arthritis (and coronary attacks) could be eliminated by large doses of vitamin C along with a sound lifestyle.
Remember, in previous radio shows we have told you all this before! And we keep doing to have as many more listeners to hear it.
Article source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - click: The Epoch Times
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The Following two articles were NOT handled in today's radio show - these are additional with related information
Hypoascorbemia
Americans have less (click: plasma vitamin C than is needed for their optimal health. Yet there is a constant barrage of negative comment about vitamin C. It differs from (click: serum in that it contains (click: fibrin
and other soluble clotting elements
STAF, Inc. is NOT endorsing this article - this article has much good - STAF, Inc.'s advice:eat a variety of fruits & vegetables daily to get enough vitamin C - talk to your local nutritionist and your doctor who has training in the modern nutritional sciences. (Most MD's do not)
The RDA (= Recommend daily allowance) for vitamin C is just enough to prevent scurvy, or about 60 milligrams, but as Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Nobel laureate who discovered vitamin C said, “Scurvy is a premortal syndrome, and we need much more than the minimum to prevent scurvy to stay in the best of health.”
(STAF, Inc.: yes, but take vitamin C from variety of daily fruit & vegetables)
Unlike fish, amphibians, and reptiles, which produce ascorbic acid in the kidneys, higher vertebrates and mammals produce this life-essential substance from glucose in the liver. However, man lacks the enzyme that enables all creatures except the guinea pig and fruit-eating bat to manufacture their own ascorbic acid internally.
Fortunately, man needs a relatively low amount of ascorbic acid to survive, and as long as he inhabited tropical and semi-tropical regions where the food supply was abundant and contained ample external sources of ascorbic acid, he was able to overcome his enzyme deficiency.
But when human civilization spread throughout the world, man was much more susceptible to diseases and epidemics, notably outbreaks of scurvy that contributed to the Black Death in the Middle Ages and decimated much of Europe’s navies in succeeding centuries.
Not until the mid-18th century was it discovered that citrus fruit is valuable in the prevention and cure of scurvy, and not until 1933 was ascorbic acid or vitamin C isolated and identified.
An outstanding attribute of ascorbic acid is its lack of toxicity even in large doses. In some hypersensitive individuals such side effects as diarrhea or rashes may occur, but they will clear up when the dosage is lowered. One can avoid these reactions altogether by building up gradually to the desired dosage. It is best to take ascorbic acid with food.
There are no large storage depots for ascorbic acid in the body, and any excess is rapidly excreted. When saturated, the whole body may contain up to 5 grams, which dictates the necessity for a continuous fresh supply to replenish the losses.
One of the most important functions of ascorbic acid is the formation and maintenance of a protein-like substance called collagen. As the body’s most important structural substance, collagen acts as a cement to hold the tissues and organs together. Collagen cannot be formed without ascorbic acid.
The reader should consult a physician for all medical advice.
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DO NOT START USING ANY VITAMIN C BEFORE YOU CONSULT YOUR OWN DOCTOR FOR MEDICAL ADVICE and/or talk to your nutritionist
ALSO: talk to several of your local nutritionists
Heart Attack Prevention That Works!
This article is NOT endorsed by STAF, Inc. but it has much good in it:
DO NOT START USING ANY VITAMIN C BEFORE YOU CONSULT YOUR OWN DOCTOR FOR MEDICAL ADVICE
ALSO: talk to several of your local nutritionists
Noted research Cardiologist Dr. Matthias Rath has shown by ultrafast computed X-ray angiography that blocked coronary heart arteries can be unblocked. He has published photographs in “Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks But People Do.”
It seems totally absurd that official medicine will continue denying that vitamin C cures arterial disease. In some people, other antioxidants speed cure. Dr. Rath says, “Any therapy that stops coronary heart disease in its early stages prevents heart attacks later on.”
The following is from page 40 of his book: “These pictures document a milestone in medicine—the complete natural disappearance of coronary heart disease.”
Related Articles - click
Dr. Rath’s book was published in 2003. I was demonstrating this in 1999 in retinal arterial photographs, showing in much greater detail—and in color—how the blockages dissolve, often in three months.
When Hull University student Paul Francis worked with me to write his thesis “Analysis of Retinal Images for Healthcare,” we found that his arteries were suffering, showing the considerable stress of the study, and that the growth of his arterial blockages was reversed with extra vitamin C as he describes in the paper.
In his thesis, confirming my observations, Francis states: “This finding is in line with the theory suggested by Dr. Bush that over a period of time and with an increased daily intake of vitamin C, the brighter deposits of cholesterol are seen to gradually disappear.”
He knew that he could only ascribe the increase of his own heart disease (corresponding precisely with the retinal arteries) to his own stress and the disease’s subsequent reduction to his vitamin C. This occurred exactly the same way in 200 patients who signed testimonials to having witnessed the decrease of their own arterial disease.
So impressed was W. Gifford-Jones, M.D., that he, perhaps unwisely, stated several times that my “historic discovery is worthy of the Nobel Prize.”
Now we have a problem. Seven hundred new U.K. cancers are started annually by ordinary X-ray angiography. Ultrafast angiography uses even more radiation. It cannot be repeated often. However, even daily retinal photography carries no risk. It is cheaper, much faster, safer, and it more easily allows microscopic changes to be measured.
Optometrists should be falling over themselves to offer the public this lifesaving service, but they aren’t.
To shake them into action, I wrote the book innocently titled “700 Vitamin C Secrets (and 1,000 Not So Secret For Doctors!)” because conventional medicine has contributed to heart disease by deterring people from taking vitamin C.
When offering a new professional doctorate in CardioRetinometry in the U.K., I met with opposition from the Association of Optometrists and colleagues.
This can only be overcome by your insisting on optometrists taking proper care of your heart and sending your images to the World Institute of Optometry and CardioRetinometry (CardiOptometry.org) for evaluation!
In 1979, the BBC reported on my work that resulted in U.K. optometrists being compelled to perform eye-pressure testing. Today, the BBC refuses to interview me.
Consult physicians for medical advice.
Dr. Bush practices optometry in the U.K. His website is click: LifeExtensionOptometry.org
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Wednesday, 10/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Important info for your and your family's success
Actions Super Successful Individuals Take Before 8 AM
Teach your children from early on to learn these same principles and same daily activities = do as many of these activities daily with your whole family - with your spouse and with your children. You will give one of the best gifts to your children - your family ties get better - you & your spouse succeed better, your children succeed better in school and later in their whole life.
At the end of this article, see another note how to handle this important success-bringing material in your family
Click green for further info
Rise and shine! Morning time just became your new best friend. Love it or hate it, utilizing the morning hours before work may be the key to successful and healthy lifestyle. That’s right, early rising is a common trait found in many CEOs, government officials, and other influential people. Margaret Thatcher was up every day at 5 a.m.; Frank Lloyd Wright at 4 am and Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney wakes at 4:30 am, The CEO of STAF, Inc. Christian von Christophers gets up at
4 a.m., just to name a few.
I know what you’re may be thinking - you do your best work at night. Not so fast.
According to Inc. Magazine, morning people have been found to be more proactive and more productive.
In addition, the health benefits for those with a life before work go on and on.
Let’s explore some of the things successful people do before 8 am.
1. Exercise. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Most people that work out daily, work out in the morning. Whether it’s a morning yoga session or a trip to the gym, exercising before work gives you a boost of energy for the day and that deserved sense of accomplishment. Anyone can tackle a pile of paperwork after 200 ab reps! Morning workouts also eliminate the possibility of flaking out on your cardio after a long day at work. Even if you aren’t bright eyed and bushy tailed at the thought of a 5 am jog, try waking up 15 minutes early for a quick bedside set of pushups or stretching.
It’ll help wake up your body, and prep you for your day.
If possible, walk or run in a park, close to the ocean/river/woods/nature - breathe healthier air, see the colors in the nature, hear the birds singing, see the sunrise/sunset - they all affect positively your brains and improve your success.
If possible, do all these morning routines together with your spouse and your whole family - it will strengthen your family ties & will guide your children to success leading activities. In the evening, before the bedtime, walk as a whole family 10 -1 5 minutes as close to the nature as possible or at least round 2 - 3 blocks. Then go to bed all at the same time (if just possible). No TV, no technology, no computer, no cell phones (on) in anyone's bedroom - dangerous, unhealthy radiation. No TV watching, no radio listening, no newspaper reading, no "hard-rock" music during the last 1 - 2 hours before bedtime (the negative news & noise affect the sleep quality). In the evening play classical music, esp. baroque music; see link a few lines down.*) Eat dinner 3 hours before bedtime, no snacks after that except perhaps soft fruit and caffeine free herbal teas. Sleep 6 -8 hours (adults), children up to ten years 9 - 11 hours, teenagers 8- 11 hours. Teach your children also the same morning routines.
*) Baroque music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era follows the Renaissance, and was followed in turn by the
Baroque-Music.combaroque-music.com/ Baroque-Music.com - Baroque Music, Baroque Composers, Baroque Instruments.
2. Map Out Your Day. (Teach this also to your children)
Maximize your potential by mapping out your schedule for the day, as well as your goals and to dos. The morning is a good time for this as it is often one of the only quiet times a person gets throughout the day. The early hours foster easier reflection that helps when prioritizing your activities. They also allow for uninterrupted problem solving when trying to fit everything into your timetable. While scheduling, don’t forget about your mental health. Plan a 10 minute break after that stressful meeting for a quick walk around the block or a moment of meditation at your desk. Trying to eat healthy? Schedule a small window in the evening to pack a few nutritious snacks to bring to work the next day.
3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. (Teach this also to your children)
We all know that rush out the door with a cup of coffee and an empty stomach feeling. You sit down at your desk, and you’re already wondering how early that taco truck sets up camp outside your office. No good. Take that extra time in the morning to fuel your body for the tasks ahead of it. It will help keep you mind on what’s at hand and not your growling stomach. Not only is breakfast good for your physical health, it is also a good time to connect socially. Even five minutes of talking with your kids or spouse while eating a quick bowl of oatmeal can boost your spirits before heading out the door.
4. Meditation / Visualization. (Teach this also to your children)
These days we talk about our physical health ad nauseam (= referring to something that has been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome = to a disgusting or ridiculous degree; to the point of nausea; nausea = (LAT.) sickness), but sometimes our mental health gets overlooked. The morning is the perfect time to spend some quiet time inside your mind (1) meditating or (2) visualizing. Take a moment to visualize your day ahead of you, focusing on the successes you will have. Even just a minute of visualization and positive thinking can help improve your mood and outlook on your work load for the day.
5. Make Your Day Top Heavy. (Teach this also to your children)
We all have that one item on our to do list that we dread. It looms over you all day
(or week) until you finally suck it up and do it after much procrastination. Here’s an easy tip to save yourself the stress - do that least desirable task on your list first in the morning. Instead of anticipating the unpleasantness of it from first coffee through your lunch break, get it out of the way. The morning is the time when you are (generally) more well rested and your energy level is up. Therefore, you are more well equipped to handle more difficult projects. And look at it this way, your day will get progressively easier, not the other way around. By the time your work day is ending, you’re winding down with easier to dos and heading into your free time more relaxed. Success!
Click green title & study - if the link has expired search the web with the title
16 Things You Should Do At The Start Of Every Work Day
The Top 25 Small Companies In America
The 20 Best Non-Tech Small Companies In America
Source: Forbes
Important note:
Teach all these principles to your children (as will fit their schedule - they have to sleep longer than you).
Practice the above principles together as a family (with your children) - give a copy of this text to everyone in your family, including to your children. Have a weekly family meeting about these and other success & health principles, discuss - have your children involved in the meetings. Every meeting has a group leader (rotating weekly), including your children as a group leader.
You all will succeed better. _______________________________________
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Show Wed. 10 23/13
Surviving and Thriving with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis—an autoimmune disease currently has no cure–but there are more options for managing symptoms and achieving a state of remission than when I was diagnosed in 1988.
The summer of ’88 was certainly one to remember! I woke one Saturday morning and could hardly put any weight on my elbows and knees’, getting out of bed was difficult, and walking was a painful challenge. Within two weeks I was experiencing a full-blown RA flare up—but at that point didn’t know it. My knees and ankles had disappeared and the swelling was so severe I resembled the Pillsbury doughboy! I went to see a local doctor who thought it looked like RA and he referred me to The Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. There my six-month nightmare began. I cannot describe the pain; I prefer to lock it in a little box in the back of my mind.
The specialists I was seeing at the Arthritis Clinic were wonderful individuals, very concerned for their patients, but offering only drug options and basic physical therapy to reduce the symptoms. At the time my resources were very limited. I had only been in the US a short while and had not discovered alternative (integrated) medicine. So, I did what my doctors advised. The most frightening part of the diagnosis was the list of things I would not be able to do, in the foreseeable future, or possibly ever again, they included: wearing high heels, dancing and even working full time. Worse case scenario, I might end up in wheel chair—permanently, plus, the drugs had some pretty serious side effects and in order to suppress my symptoms I would have to take these drugs for extended periods of time throughout my life. Not exactly what I wanted to hear.
About three months into the process, going to the hospital three days a week, I came to the conclusion there had to be another way. While the cortisone was bringing the pain level down from a 10 to a barely manageable 7, I was only existing, not living. I remember that they used smiley faces and frowning faces to pinpoint the pain level, there should have been a screaming face! I was experiencing inflammation in virtually all my joints, ankles, knees, fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Shuffling around in shoes 2 sizes larger than normal and moving at the pace of a 90 year old, when I was only 38, I was utterly miserable, depressed and hopeless.
At that time the idea that diet and nutrition could play a role in managing RA was not even on the radar screen and you couldn’t go online and do your own research like you can today. However, I caught a lucky break. I had just started a marketing and advertising company in New York and had the great fortune to meet a man who ran a botanical ingredient company. At our first business meeting as I made my way, very slowly into their conference room, he noticed my discomfort and asked what was wrong. I told him and the next two hours he dispensed his herbal knowledge and for the first time since my diagnosis I felt a glimmer of hope. Everything he said made perfect sense.
I was able, with a combination of herbal extracts which included Devil’s Claw and Cat’s Claw, dietary supplements like Evening Primrose Oil and Royal Jelly and dietary changes which included cutting out dairy and red meat, to reduce the inflammation. In six months I had the pain under control, was off all drugs and was in remission.
Since then, there have been great strides in treatment options. But, I choose not to take drugs on a long-term basis. I adjust my diet and supplement regimen as I need to, I know my body and take notice of the warning signs—fatigue is the big one. When I’m over-worked and over-stressed, fatigue kicks in and I ignore it at my peril! I have managed RA for almost twenty-five years, I wear high heels, I dance and I work more hours than anyone in my company. I credit this to one man, Frank D’Amelio Sr, a positive attitude and the natural product industry.
Tags: Arthritis, Arthritis clinic, arthritis disease, arthritis fatigue, autoimmune disease, Cat's Claw, Devil's Claw, diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, diet,Evening Primrose Oil, Frank D'Amelio Sr, Green living, healthy lfiestyle, herbal extracts for arthritis, Pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Royal Jelly, supplements,surviving arthritis, symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
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Wednesday, 10/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Factory Farms Fueling Antibiotic Resistance,
CDC Report
“We are approaching a cliff. If we don’t take steps to slow or stop drug resistance, we will fall back to a time when simple infections killed people,” said Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director of CDC’s Healthcare Quality Promotion
According to FDA figures, 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on animals grown for food
Citing decades of antibiotics overuse, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) paint a grim future.
“We are approaching a cliff. If we don’t take steps to slow or stop drug resistance, we will fall back to a time when simple infections killed people,” said Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director of CDC’s Healthcare Quality Promotion in a statement.
According to a CDC report released in September 2013, more than two million Americans a year get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 die as a result. While excessive prescriptions in human medicine play a large role, CDC says modern farming practices significantly fuel the crisis.
“Much of antibiotic use in animals is unnecessary and inappropriate and makes everyone less safe,” CDC stated.
In the 1950s, scientists discovered that small, persistent doses of antibiotics made animals grow faster and bigger. Later, more antibiotics were added to the regimen to guard against the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the factory farm. Today, federal regulators estimate that U.S. livestock consume nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics a year.
Scientists have seen trouble brewing for decades, but little has been done to address the problem. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed withdrawing penicillin and tetracycline for use in farm animals, but the strongest action taken thus far has been voluntary recommendations issued in 2012.
For those who believe FDA guidelines fall short, CDC’s warning is rousing support for PAMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act). Drafted by Congresswoman and microbiologist Louise Slaughter (D-NY), PAMTA would stop routine use of antibiotics in food animals, preserve eight classes of antibiotics for human use only, and bring more transparency to drug use on the farm.
“It is time to put a stop to big agribusinesses doling out pharmaceuticals to healthy animals just because it is better for their bottom line. Antibiotic use in food-animals must be limited to prevent the inadvertent creation of superbugs that are too powerful for our own medicine,” said Slaughter in a press release.
PAMTA is backed by 450 organizations, including World Health Organization, American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences. For years, several groups have been petitioning FDA to enact the same measures, but the agency has resisted. FDA lost two lawsuits in 2012 from petitioners calling for reforms, and has filed appeals for both.
Former FDA commissioner David Kessler said that industry won’t allow reforms. In a March 2013 New York Times editorial, Kessler wrote that there is “more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock, yet the food and drug industries are not only fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices, they also oppose collecting the data. Unfortunately, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as the FDA, are aiding and abetting them.”
According to figures Slaughter has confirmed with the FDA, 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on animals grown for food. But the Animal Health Institute (AHI), a trade group for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture antibiotics for livestock, says Slaughter makes her case with inflated and misleading statistics.
While Slaughter says that most of the antibiotics are not used to treat sick animals, according to an AHI survey, companies report that only about five percent of antibiotics sold are used to promote animal growth, and most of these drugs are not used in human medicine.
A true picture of drug use is hard to see because many details on farm pharmaceuticals remain an industry secret. However, evidence of drug resistance has emerged at the supermarket.
In February 2013, the federal government reported that more than 81 percent of ground turkey, 70 percent of pork chops, 55 percent of ground beef, and 39 percent of chicken may contain antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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Wednesday, 11/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Unlocking the Potential in ADHD Adults
Well-known successful adults who have ADHD:
NEW YORK—Dr. Edward “Ned” Hallowell has built his career around helping people recognize and embrace their unique mental strengths and to work in ways that suit their cognitive style.
Click: Dr Hallowellwww.drhallowell.com/ Dr.Hallowell.com is an ADHD ADD resource center and the homepage for Dr. Edward(Ned) Hallowell and the New York and Sudbury Hallowell Centers.
Whether he’s appearing on national television or jetting around the three treatment centers he founded, Hallowell is trying to spread one message: That ADD and ADHD are not disabilities, just traits with up- and down-sides.
The ADD/ADHD traits can be hurtful or helpful depending on how they are managed.
Hallowell has ADHD and dyslexia himself, yet he graduated from Harvard with a degree in English before entering medical school and starting his own practice. He tells his young patients they are lucky to have “Ferrari engines” for brains, but are unfortunate to only have “bicycle brakes.” He teaches both adults and children ways to strengthen their brakes and focus their attention.
All Grown Up and Fidgety (= restless or uneasy)
In the two decades since ADD first hit public awareness, and especially in the wake of the federal program, No Child Left Behind, there has been a lot of concern about children who struggle with attention problems. But what the public is less aware of is that many adults suffer with ADD/ADHD too, in ways that are easy to miss.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that just over 4 percent of American adults have ADHD, and have exhibited it since an average age of 7.
Click: NIMH · Homewww.nimh.nih.gov/ The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, ...
About 60 percent of children with ADHD in the United States continue to struggle with it in their adulthood, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
The school environment makes childhood ADD/ADHD easy to spot. It’s structured and students are expected to sit still, pay attention, and complete assignments according to teacher specification. The ones who resist this structure stick out, either for their unusual and creative ways of looking at issues, or for their slow academic progress.
But for adults, the signs can be a bit more subtle.
“For adults with ADD the leading symptom is chronic, unexplained underachievement,” Hallowell said.
That underachievement could manifest itself as tuning out in business meetings, lack of drive, or having trouble finishing projects, all of which add up to passed-over promotions and generally feeling unfulfilled.
A Hopeful Message
Hallowell’s seemingly boundless drive spurred him to open three treatment centers—in New York, San Francisco, and Sudbury, Mass. He has also published over 10 popular books on adult and childhood psychology. His latest book, “Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People,” (2011) is a business book for managers who want to help employees—with or without ADD/ADHD—manifest their full potential.
Hallowell himself, and many other entrepreneurs in various fields, are living proof that “learning disabilities” don’t have to kill ambition.
“You name the profession and I can find someone at the top of it who has this trait,” he said. “Calling it a disability weighs it entirely on the downside and ignores the upside.”
What’s the upside of having ADD? Creativity, a unique way of solving problems, and an entrepreneurial spirit, Hallowell said, the same spirit that founded this country.
Help for the Stagnating Professional
The key to success as an adult with ADD or ADHD is two-fold: find the right profession, and develop the right habits.
“The [attention] ‘deficit’ is misleading—ADHD people can focus. They can super-focus when the subject happens to interest them,” Hallowell said. “It’s when it doesn’t that they can’t control their wandering minds that [it] is problematic.”
That’s why it’s crucial to get a job that fits the individual.
“Your career ought to be the overlap of three circles: What you’re really good at doing, what you like to do, and what someone will pay you to do. That’s the sweet spot,” he said.
“A lot of times people with ADD spend their lives trying to get good at what they’re bad at because they got the message in school that’s what they should do.”
The second part of the equation is to manage yourself.
This includes taking control of your time. Don’t let people pull your attention away. Manage “screensucking,” or letting the Internet drain away productive hours.
“The ADD mind is like a toddler at a picnic. It goes wherever it wants to go with no regard for danger or authority,” Hallowell said. “It’s forever going off following curiosity.”
To make this thirst for novelty a force for good, one must learn to direct one’s energy.
“It begins with education, making them aware of what they’re doing, how much time is being wasted, and that their mental energy is finite,” Hallowell said. “There are ways to conserve your energy, to deploy your time and attention so you don’t lose your edge, feel frazzled, and underachieve because of it.”
Education First, Medication Last
In Hallowell Center’s five-step process, education follows diagnosis, and medication is the last resort.
The center adopts a team approach to treating patients, employing MDs, psychologists, psychiatrists, coaches, and tutors, who work together to monitor patients’ progress and make sure that lifestyle and counseling recommendations are met with follow-through.
The first step in treatment is to understand how a patient’s thought process works. Staff at the center start with a series of neuropsychological tests that measure problem solving, planning and organizing styles, attention, memory and learning, language and perceptual processes. These take the form of puzzles, games, and mazes. The tests generate the patient’s cognitive profile and serve as a starting point for improvement.
Once the strengths and weak spots are determined, a course of treatment is found which can include tutors who meet with children multiple times per week to work on time management, planning, organizing, prioritizing, and decision-making systems for effective daily living. In cases where medication is needed, psychiatrists work with the patient and the team to manage medication and side effects.
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Wednesday, 11/ 20 /13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Scientists found that when mice sleep, their brains clean out the substance, beta-amyloid
that builds up when people have Alzheimer’s Beta amyloid
Good Night’s Sleep Cleans Out Gunk in Brain
LOS ANGELES—When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we’re awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders. This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there’s reason to think it happens in people too. If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, “sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage,” Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email.
Kushida did not participate in the study, which appears in a recent issue of the journal。
When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree
People who don’t get enough shut-eye have trouble learning and making decisions, and are slower to react. But despite
decades of research, scientists can’t agree on the basic purpose of sleep. Reasons range from processing memory, saving energy to regulating the body. The latest work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds fresh
evidence to a long-standing view: When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree.
The team previously found a plumbing network in mouse brains that flushes out cellular waste. For the new study,
the scientists injected the brains of mice with beta amyloid, a substance that builds up in Alzheimer’s disease, and followed its movement. They determined that it was removed faster from the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.
The team also noticed that brain cells tend to shrink during sleep, which widens the space between the cells. This
allows waste to pass through that space more easily. Though the work involved mouse brains, lead researcher
Dr. Maiken Nedergaard said this plumbing system also exists in dogs and baboons, and it’s logical to think that the
human brain also clears away toxic substances. Nedergaard said the next step is to look for the process in human brains.
In an accompanying editorial, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
said scientists have recently taken a heightened interest in the spaces between brain cells, where junk is flushed out.
It’s becoming clearer that “sleep is likely to be a brain state in which several important housekeeping functions
take place,” she said in an email.The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In a statement, program director Jim Koenig said the finding could lead to new approaches for treating a range of brain diseases.
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Additional article (there a 2nd additional article next below this first additional article) relating to the Radio Show article next above "Good Night Sleep Cleans out Gunk in Brain". Additional articles relate to the show topic and give additional information but are not handled in today's show (11/20/13).
Scientists reveal how beta-amyloid may cause Alzheimer's -
See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/alzheimers.html#sthash.GZMXzBoG.dpuf
Click green for further info
Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown how a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid, strongly implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, begins destroying synapses before it clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death.
Key features of Alzheimer’s, which affects about 5 million Americans, are wholesale loss of synapses — contact points via which nerve cells relay signals to one another — and a parallel deterioration in brain function, notably in the ability to remember.
“Our discovery suggests that Alzheimer’s disease starts to manifest long before plaque formation becomes evident,” said Carla Shatz, PhD, professor of neurobiology and of biology and senior author of the study, published Sept. 20 in Science.
Investigators at Harvard University also contributed to the study. The research, conducted in mice and in human brain tissue, may help to explain the failures in recent years of large-scale clinical trials attempting to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s by pharmacologically ridding the brain of amyloid plaques. It may also point the way to better treatments at earlier stages of the disease.
Beta-amyloid begins life as a solitary molecule but tends to bunch up — initially into small clusters that are still soluble and can travel freely in the brain, and finally into the plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. The study showed for the first time that in this clustered form, beta-amyloid can bind strongly to a receptor on nerve cells, setting in motion an intercellular process that erodes their synapses with other nerve cells.
Related News
Synapses are the connections between nerve cells. They are essential to storing memories, processing thoughts and emotions, and planning and ordering how we move our bodies. The relative strength of these connections, moreover, can change in response to new experiences.
Using an experimental mouse strain that is highly susceptible to the synaptic and cognitive impairments of Alzheimer’s disease, Shatz and her colleagues showed that if these mice lacked a surface protein ordinarily situated very close to synapses, they were resistant to the memory breakdown and synapse loss associated with the disorder. The study demonstrated for the first time that this protein, called PirB, is a high-affinity receptor for beta-amyloid in its “soluble cluster” form, meaning that soluble beta-amyloid clusters stick to PirB quite powerfully. That trips off a cascade of biochemical activities culminating in the destruction of synapses.
Shatz is the Sapp Family Provostial Professor, as well as the director of Bio-X, a large Stanford interdisciplinary consortium drawing on medical, engineering and biology faculty. She has been studying PirB for many years, but in a different context. In earlier work, Shatz explored the role of PirB in the brain using genetically engineered mice that lacked it. She discovered that PirB, previously thought to be used only by cells in the immune system, is also found on nerve cells in the brain, where it impedes the ability of synapses to strengthen as they typically do when they are engaged, and actually promotes their weakening. Such brakes are desirable in the brain because too-easy synaptic strength-shifting could trigger untoward consequences like epilepsy.
In the new study, Shatz’s team employed a different genetically engineered mouse strain whose genome contained mutant copies of two separate human genes. Each of these mutations is known to predispose individuals to Alzheimer’s disease. When both mutations are present in mice, which ordinarily never develop amyloid plaques, the result is abundant amyloid plaque deposition with advancing age, as well as an eventual decline in performance on various tests of memory.
“I’ve always found it strange that these mice — and, in fact, all the mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease that we and other people study — seem not to have any problems with memory until they get old,” Shatz said. “These mice’s brains have high levels of beta-amyloid at a very early age.”
Shatz found herself wondering if there might be a more sensitive measure of beta-amyloid’s early effects on young brains. A study she co-authored in 2012 demonstrated that a particular mouse brain region, whose constituent synapses are normally quite nimble at shifting their relative strengths in response to early-life experiences, showed no such flexibility in young Alzheimer’s-prone mice. This suggested that subtle Alzheimer’s-related effects might appear far earlier than plaques or memory loss do.
Now, Shatz wondered whether eliminating PirB from the Alzheimer’s mouse strain could restore that flexibility. So her team bred the Alzheimer’s-genes-carrying strain with the PirB-lacking strain to create hybrids. Experimentation showed that the brains of young “Alzheimer’s mice” in which PirB was absent retained as much synaptic-strength-shifting flexibility as those of normal mice. PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice also performed as well in adulthood as normal mice did on well-established tests of memory, while their otherwise identical PirB-expressing peers suffered substantial synapse and memory loss.
“The PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice were protected from the beta-amyloid-generating consequences of their mutations,” Shatz said. The question now was, why?
Taeho Kim, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Shatz’s lab and the lead author of the new study, advanced a hypothesis he had cooked up in 2011 while describing his research to a captive audience of one — his then-4-year-old son, whom he was driving to the Monterey Bay Aquarium: Maybe PirB and beta-amyloid were binding. This might cause PirB to stomp on the brakes even more than it usually does, weakening synapses so much they could disappear altogether, taking memories with them.
Further experiments showed that, indeed, beta-amyloid binds strongly to PirB. While PirB is specifically a mouse protein, Kim also identified for the first time an analogous beta-amyloid receptor in the human brain: a protein called LilrB2.
In another experiment, Kim compared proteins in the brains of PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice to those in the brains of PirB-expressing Alzheimer’s mice. The latter showed significantly increased activity on the part of a few workhorse proteins, notably an enzyme called cofilin. Subsequent studies also found that cofilin activity in the brains of autopsied Alzheimer’s patients is substantially higher than in the brains of people without the disorder.
Here the plot thickens: Cofilin works by breaking down actin, a building-block protein essential to maintaining synaptic structure. And, as the new study also showed, beta-amyloid’s binding to PirB results in biochemical changes to cofilin that revs up its actin-busting, synapse-disassembling activity.
“No actin, no synapse,” Shatz said.
Kim’s hypothesis appears to have been correct. Beta-amyloid binds to PirB (and, the researchers proved, to its human analog, LilrB2), boosting cofilin activity and busting synapses’ structural integrity.
Although there may be other avenues of destruction along which synapses are forced to walk, Shatz doubts there are very many. She said she thinks the direct participation of beta-amyloid — as well as cofilin, so clearly implicated in synaptic breakdown — suggests that this pathway is important. “We looked at human brains in this study, too, and we found that a similar derangement of cofilin activity is present in Alzheimer’s brains but not healthy brains,” she said.
Shatz suggested that drugs that block beta-amyloid’s binding to PirB on nerve-cell surfaces — for example, soluble PirB fragments containing portions of the molecule that could act as decoy — might be able to exert a therapeutic effect. “I hope this finding will be enticing enough to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that someone will try pushing this idea forward,” she said.
The study was funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (grants EY02958 and 5T32EY020485) and the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation. Other Stanford co-authors were Christopher Garcia, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and of structural biology; research associate Maja Djurisic, PhD; and graduate students George Vidal and Michael Birnbaum.
Information about the medical school’s Department of Neurology, which also supported this work, is available at http://neurobiology.stanford.edu.
- See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/alzheimers.html#sthash.GZMXzBoG.dpuf
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Topic 2 in today's Radio Show is below this next article - the next article below is an additional text relating to the above (today's topic # 1) - this additional text was not handled in the Radio Show.
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Additional article # 2 relating to the Radio Show article above "Good Night Sleep Cleans out Gunk in Brain". Additional articles relate to the show topic and give additional information but are not handled in today's show (11/20/13).
Sleep Therapy Seen as an Aid for Depression
Depression is the most common mental disorder, affecting some 18 million Americans in any given year, according to government figures, and more than half of them also have insomnia.
Click green for further info
Curing insomnia in people with depression could double their chance of a full recovery, scientists are reporting. The findings, based on an insomnia treatment that uses talk therapy rather than drugs, are the first to emerge from a series of closely watched studies of sleep and depression to be released in the coming year.
The new report affirms the results of a smaller pilot study, giving scientists confidence that the effects of the insomnia treatment are real. If the figures continue to hold up, the advance will be the most significant in the treatment of depression since the introduction of Prozac in 1987.Click: Prozac (Fluoxetine Hcl) Drug Information
Depression is the most common mental disorder, affecting some 18 million Americans in any given year, according to government figures, and more than half of them also have insomnia.
Experts familiar with the new report said that the results were plausible and that if supported by other studies, they should lead to major changes in treatment.
“It would be an absolute boon to the field,” said Dr. Nada L. Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago, who was not connected with the latest research.
“It makes good common sense clinically,” she continued. “If you have a depression, you’re often awake all night, it’s extremely lonely, it’s dark, you’re aware every moment that the world around you is sleeping, every concern you have is magnified.”
The study is the first of four on sleep and depression nearing completion, all financed by the National Institute of Mental Health. They are evaluating a type of talk therapy for insomnia that is cheap, relatively brief and usually effective, but not currently a part of standard treatment.
The new report, from a team at Ryerson University in Toronto, found that 87 percent of patients who resolved their insomnia in four biweekly talk therapy sessions also saw their depression symptoms dissolve after eight weeks of treatment, either with an antidepressant drug or a placebo pill — almost twice the rate of those who could not shake their insomnia. Those numbers are in line with a previous pilot study of insomnia treatment at Stanford.
In an interview, the report’s lead author, Colleen E. Carney, said, “The way this story is unfolding, I think we need to start augmenting standard depression treatment with therapy focused on insomnia.”
Dr. Carney acknowledged that the study was small — just 66 patients — and said a clearer picture should emerge as the other teams of scientists released their results. Those studies are being done at Stanford, Duke and the University of Pittsburgh and include about 70 subjects each. Dr. Carney will present her data on Saturday at a convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, in Nashville.
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
Doctors have known for years that sleep problems are intertwined with mood disorders. But only recently have they begun to investigate the effects of treating both at the same time. Antidepressant drugs like Prozac help many people, as does talk therapy, but in rigorous studies the treatments, administered individually, only slightly outperform placebo pills. Used together the treatments produce a cure rate — full recovery — for about 40 percent of patients.
Adding insomnia therapy, however, to an antidepressant would sharply lift the cure rate, Dr. Carney’s data suggests, as do the findings from the Stanford pilot study, which included 30 people.
Doctors have long considered poor sleep to be a symptom of depression that would clear up with treatments, said Rachel Manber, a professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Stanford, whose 2008 pilot trial of insomnia therapy provided the rationale for larger studies. “But we now know that’s not the case,” she said. “The relationship is bidirectional — that insomnia can precede the depression.”
Full-blown insomnia is more serious than the sleep problems most people occasionally have. To qualify for a diagnosis, people must have endured at least a month of chronic sleep loss that has caused problems at work, at home or in important relationships. Several studies now suggest that developing insomnia doubles a person’s risk of later becoming depressed — the sleep problem preceding the mood disorder, rather than the other way around.
The therapy that Dr. Manber, Dr. Carney and the other researchers are using is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I for short. The therapist teaches people to establish a regular wake-up time and stick to it; get out of bed during waking periods; avoid eating, reading, watching TV or similar activities in bed; and eliminate daytime napping.Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
The aim is to reserve time in bed for only sleeping and — at least as important — to “curb this idea that sleeping requires effort, that it’s something you have to fix,” Dr. Carney said. “That’s when people get in trouble, when they begin to think they have to do something to get to sleep.”
This kind of therapy is distinct from what is commonly known as sleep hygiene: exercising regularly, but not too close to bedtime, and avoiding coffee and too much alcohol in the evening. These healthful habits do not amount to an effective treatment for insomnia.
In her 2008 pilot study testing CBT-I *) in people with depression, Dr. Manber of Stanford used sleep hygiene as part of her control treatment. She found that 60 percent of patients who received seven sessions of the talk therapy and an antidepressant fully recovered from their depression, compared with 33 percent who got the same drug and the sleep hygiene therapy.
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
In the four larger trials expected to be published in 2014, researchers had participants keep sleep journals to track the effect of the CBT-I therapy, writing down what time they went to bed every night, what time they tried to fall asleep, how long it took, how many awakenings they had and what time they woke up.
When the diaries show consistent, seldom-interrupted, good-quality slumber, the therapist conducts an interview to determine if there are any lingering issues. If there are none, the person has recovered. The therapy results in sharp reductions in nighttime wakefulness for most people who follow through.
In interviews, several researchers noted that the National Institute of Mental Health had sharply curtailed funding for work in sleep treatment. Aleksandra Vicentic, the acting chief of the agency’s behavioral and integrative neuroscience research branch, said that in 2009 the funding strategy changed for sleep projects.
In an effort to illuminate the biology of sleep’s impact on behavior, the agency is now focusing on how sleep affects the functioning of neural circuits. But Dr. Vicentic added that the agency continued to fund clinical work like the depression trials.
Dr. Andrew Krystal, who is running the CBT-I study at Duke, called sleep “this huge, still unexplored frontier of psychiatry.”
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
“The body has complex circadian cycles, and mostly in psychiatry we’ve ignored them,” he said. “Our treatments are driven by convenience. We treat during the day and make little effort to find out what’s happening at night.”
Click: Circadian rhythm - Wikipedia
Click: The Circadian Cycle of Sleep and Wakefulness - Neuroscience ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › NCBI › Literature › Bookshelf by D Purves - 2001 - Related articles
Human sleep occurs with circadian (circa = about, and dia = day) periodicity*), and biologists interested in circadian rhythms have explored a number of questions ...
*) periodicity = the quality or character of being periodic; the tendency to recur at intervals.
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
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Topic # 2 of 2 Wednesday, 11/ 20 /13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Water with Meals. . . Good or Bad?
Important detailed information for every person worldwide
Have your whole family applying the information
Drinking the correct amount of plain, clean water daily can actually slow the aging process
What is the correct amount? What is clean water? - All clear answers below -
Teach the facts to your children - Apply the information as a whole family.
Quotation "Knowledge is no power - only applied knowledge is power"
(Dr Christian, STAF, Inc.)
The facts are here to support the dictate:
Tap water? (Good enough especially when filtered) - Bottled Water? (Not worth its price) - Distilled Water? (No - too many nutrients gone)
Research shows that even the bottled water is not clean - then: waste not your money
Research shows that tab water is good enough to drink especially if you boil it first 2 -3 minutes (kills most bacteria) or at least run the water through an effective, modern filter - no complicated, expensive systems needed. Unfiltered tab water could not be fully clean - how could old pipes (often 50 years old) give pure water? Filtering can make a difference and if you in addition boil it 2 -3 minutes. Boil at least when you prepare fresh lemon (1/2) + lime (1/2) + 16 + ounces water every morning = boil only the water, blend well the lemon/lime and mix with boiled water. Lemon & lime are excellent cleaners of your system and refreshingly delicious.
DAILY drink water at least that liquid oz. amount that is the same as your healthy weight (not overweight) in lbs.
If your country uses liters and kilograms, use the internet calculator to find your system.Kilograms to Pounds conversion - kg to lbs - Metric Conversion
Liquid Volume Converter - The Calculator Site
(Find your own favorite calculators from the internet - the 2 above are to start with)
There is a "clear" test to know if you are drinking enough water daily - teach this to your children also.
Don't panic for the cost: it's a free test, you can do it anywhere many times a day and you must do it every time you urinate. - Don't panic: doing the test is only "seeing" - if you are blind (serious) or you do not see well, YOU MUST ask someone else (you trust and who can see well) to help you. This is not a joke this is one of the most serious things in our life when it comes to your health and your longevity (or non-longevity - your choice).
The "CLEAR" test
When your urine (or your children's or any of your family member's urine) is clear by its color- you have been drinking enough water. When the urine is orange, strong yellow, or yellow you have not put enough clear H2O in our system. Do not play with your health - drink clean water daily the amount that your urine stays clear. The clearer the color the healthier you will be and the longer you will live. The darker it is the shorter your life and the more sickness suffering you will have. What is your choice? Stupidity or wisdom and intelligent behavior of how you treat your body.
Quotation "You respect you keep, you don't, you lose" (Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc.)
The above quotation refers to your respect for your life, to your health, and to how long you will live.
What you respect you will keep. That rule applies to everything in life.
Do you handle your body & mind with respect by applying the natural laws your body & mind needs. If and when you do, then you will stay healthy and have a long life. If you do not treat your body with respect and do what your body needs to stay alive, you lose your body= you'll lose you life much earlier than if you had respected your body and its needs you have showed disrespect, meaning here: you lose your body & mind (= die earlier than you otherwise would)
Water is one of the most significant factors that affect health. It’s one of those topics I find best to think about incrementally. If I consider the safety of our drinking water, the water I just used to fill the tub for my son, the container from which I drink my water when I workout, and how much water I’m drinking through the day all at the same time, it’s daunting. So I’ve approached my relationship to water over time, addressing the how, the why, and the what as I am ready. Today, I’m ready to consider the when.
When should we drink water and how does that timing affect our digestion?
This past weekend I taught a class focused on cleansing the liver. In the winter you naturally consume heavier foods and remain more sedentary. Toxins accumulate in your fat cells. This makes it difficult for your liver to do its job. Right now, your liver is working extra hard to process the excessive toxic exposures of our times.
At the end of the class one student asked about drinking water away from meals. That got me thinking: what is the science behind drinking and eating? Is drinking water with meals good or is it bad for my digestion? Truth be told, I naturally have no desire to drink when I eat. So much so that I often forget to serve my family water with meals. I’m only reminded that others want water with their food by their intermittent leaps up from the table to visit the filter in the kitchen.
I had always assumed that my distaste for drinking and eating at the same time came from an instinct that the two were misaligned. And while this may be true for my digestive system, it holds no credence. Legend is that drinking water with a meal will dilute stomach acidity. The dilution of stomach acidity then inhibits our ability to breakdown foods, particularly proteins. It turns out that water won’t significantly affect the digestive juices and therefore will not interfere with digestion.
In fact, the opposite may be true. Water consumed before meals stimulates the gastrointestinal tract and peristalsis, the involuntary contraction and relaxation of muscles that moves food through the GI tract. Some research shows that drinking water boosts metabolism for up to an hour after being consumed. And consider this: drinking water will help balance weight! Your body’s signals for satiety are based on many factors. One of the most simple anatomical factors is the expansion of the stomach. That can be achieved with both food and water.
You may be surprised how many other health conditions can virtually disappear with the introduction of more water into the diet. These include heartburn, arthritis, chronic pain (back and otherwise), irritable bowel issues, high blood pressure and more. Its surprising, but ultimately it makes perfect sense! Look at the importance of water in your body:
Eater’s Digest Homework - Drink more water!
Click: Coffee - Wikipedia
Click: Types of Teas and Their Health Benefits - WebMD - From green tea to hibiscus, from white tea to chamomile, teas are chock full of flavonoids and other healthy goodies.
Source: (1) The Epoch Times & (2) STAF, Inc.s' archives
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - click: The Epoch Times
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An additional article
Coffee as medicine? Japanese scientists show how it helps the heart
Date: November 20. 2013
Source:A study presented November 20, 2013. at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions meeting
Five ounces of caffeinated coffee improves blood flow in small blood vessels, Japanese researchers report
The next time you take a coffee break, you might want to consider a triple espresso. The extra caffeine may reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
A study presented November 20, 2013. at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions meeting offers new evidence that coffee boosts the function of small blood vessels in people who are already healthy.
Click: American Heart Association - Building healthier lives
Researchers in Japan recruited 27 young adults in their 20s to participate in the study. None of them were regular coffee drinkers, but they agreed to consume two 5-ounce cups of joe for the sake of science.
On one of the days, the coffee was caffeinated. On the other day, they drank decaf. They weren’t told which was which. Neither were the researchers, who measured the volunteers’ blood pressure and blood flow after they finished their beverages.
The researchers placed a probe on the tip of each volunteer’s left index finger or thumb and used a technique called laser Doppler flowmetry to measure blood flow to the digit. It works by shining a laser beam through the blood and measuring how much it is scattered by the movement of red blood cells.
For the study, the researchers interrupted blood flow to the hand for one minute, Dr. Masato Tsutsui, the cardiologist who led the study, said in an email to The Times. When the minute was up, they monitored how quickly the normal blood returned to the finger or thumb.
It turned out that blood flow measured in the finger or thumb was 30% higher on the day they had regular coffee than on the day they had decaf. This was significant because the measurements are a proxy for how well the small blood vessels in the body are working.
That wasn’t the only change. Blood pressure rose “significantly” as well on the days the volunteers drank regular coffee, according to the study abstract. But the caffeine didn’t cause the volunteers’ hearts to beat more quickly.
The researchers also measured levels of the neurotransmitters epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and norepinephrine in the volunteers’ blood plasma. The levels were essentially the same after drinking both types of coffee.
“This gives us a clue about how coffee may help improve cardiovascular health,” Tsutsui said in a statement from the American Heart Assn. Tsutsui is a professor of pharmacology at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.
Click: University of the Ryukyus
If scientists can figure out how caffeinated coffee helps small blood vessels work better, “it could lead to a new treatment strategy for cardiovascular disease in the future,” he said.
But this is probably not the only reason why many studies have linked coffee consumption with better cardiovascular health, he said via email. Instead, he said, it’s “just one of many.”
An earlier version of this story said that extra caffeine from coffee could help get your blood flowing. In the experiment, that only occurred after researchers impeded blood flow in test subjects, not under normal conditions.
ALSO:
Humans can sniff out 10 basic odors, scientists say
Starbucks in space? Scientists help astronauts drink coffee
Ig Nobel Prizes: Why onions make you cry and Enya is bad in the O.R.
ignoble = not honorable, not noble
The name "Ig Nobel Prizes" is a play-combination of the words (1) ignoble and (2) Nobe;
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then makes them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Every September, in a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1100 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel Laureates.
The 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happened on Thursday, September 12, 2013, introducing the 2013 Ig Nobel Prize winners. The ceremony was webcast on www.improbable.com and about 20 major news and science sites.
- See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/#sthash.LHZNoRuY.dpuf
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Wednesday, 1/15/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Good Night! - Sleep Clean
SLEEP seems like a perfectly fine waste of time. Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting? Something that would, as an added bonus, be less likely to get us killed back when we were sleeping on the savanna?
“Sleep is such a dangerous thing to do, when you’re out in the wild,” Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish biologist who has been leading research into sleep function at the University of Rochester’s medical school, told me. “It has to have a basic evolutional function. Otherwise it would have been eliminated.”
We’ve known for some time that sleep is essential for forming and consolidating memories and that it plays a central role in the formation of new neuronal connections and the pruning of old ones. But that hardly seems enough to risk death-by-leopard-in-the-night. “If sleep was just to remember what you did yesterday, that wouldn’t be important enough,” Dr. Nedergaard explains.
In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking.
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Eiko OjalaRecall what happens to your body during exercise. You start off full of energy, but soon enough your breathing turns uneven, your muscles tire, and your stamina runs its course. What’s happening internally is that your body isn’t able to deliver oxygen quickly enough to each muscle that needs it and instead creates needed energy anaerobically. And while that process allows you to keep on going, a side effect is the accumulation of toxic byproducts in your muscle cells. Those byproducts are cleared out by the body’s lymphatic system, allowing you to resume normal function without any permanent damage.
The lymphatic system serves as the body’s custodian: Whenever waste is formed, it sweeps it clean. The brain, however, is outside its reach — despite the fact that your brain uses up about 20 percent of your body’s energy. How, then, does its waste — like beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease — get cleared? What happens to all the wrappers and leftovers that litter the room after any mental workout?
“Think about a fish tank,” says Dr. Nedergaard. “If you have a tank and no filter, the fish will eventually die. So, how do the brain cells get rid of their waste? Where is their filter?”
UNTIL a few years ago, the prevailing model was based on recycling: The brain got rid of its own waste, not only beta-amyloid but other metabolites, by breaking it down and recycling it at an individual cell level. When that process eventually failed, the buildup would result in age-related cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s. That “didn’t make sense” to Dr. Nedergaard, who says that “the brain is too busy to recycle” all of its energy. Instead, she proposed a brain equivalent of the lymphatic system, a network of channels that cleared out toxins with watery cerebrospinal fluid. She called it the glymphatic system, a nod to its dependence on glial cells (the supportive cells in the brain that work largely to maintain homeostasis and protect neurons) and its function as a sort of parallel lymphatic system.
She was hardly the first to think in those terms. “It had been proposed about one hundred years ago, but they didn’t have the tools to study it properly,” she says. Now, however, with advanced microscopes and dyeing techniques, her team discovered that the brain’s interstitial space — the fluid-filled area between tissue cells that takes up about 20 percent of the brain’s total volume — was mainly dedicated to physically removing the cells’ daily waste.
When members of Dr. Nedergaard’s team injected small fluorescent tracers into the cerebrospinal fluid of anesthetized mice, they found that the tracers quickly entered the brain — and, eventually, exited it — via specific, predictable routes.
The next step was to see how and when, exactly, the glymphatic system did its work. “We thought this cleaning process would require tremendous energy,” Dr. Nedergaard says. “And so we asked, maybe this is something we do when we’re sleeping, when the brain is really not processing information.”
In a series of new studies on mice, her team discovered exactly that: When the mouse brain is sleeping or under anesthesia, it’s busy cleaning out the waste that accumulated while it was awake.
In a mouse brain, the interstitial space takes up less room than it does in ours, approximately 14 percent of the total volume. Dr. Nedergaard found that when the mice slept, it swelled to over 20 percent. As a result, the cerebrospinal fluid could not only flow more freely but it could also reach further into the brain. In an awake brain, it would flow only along the brain’s surface. Indeed, the awake flow was a mere 5 percent of the sleep flow. In a sleeping brain, waste was being cleared two times faster. “We saw almost no inflow of cerebrospinal fluid into the brain when the mice were awake, but then when we anesthetized them, it started flowing. It’s such a big difference I kept being afraid something was wrong,” says Dr. Nedergaard.
Similar work in humans is still in the future. Dr. Nedergaard is currently awaiting board approval to begin the equivalent study in adult brains in collaboration with the anesthesiologist Helene Benveniste at Stony Brook University.
So far the glymphatic system has been identified as the neural housekeeper in baboons, dogs and goats. “If anything,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “it’s more needed in a bigger brain.”
MODERN society is increasingly ill equipped to provide our brains with the requisite cleaning time. The figures are stark. Some 80 percent of working adults suffer to some extent from sleep deprivation. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults should sleep seven to nine hours. On average, we’re getting one to two hours less sleep a night than we did 50 to 100 years ago and 38 minutes less on weeknights than we did as little as 10 years ago. Between 50 and 70 million people in the United States suffer from some form of chronic sleep disorder. When our sleep is disturbed, whatever the cause, our cleaning system breaks down. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, Sigrid Veasey has been focusing on precisely how restless nights disturb the brain’s normal metabolism. What happens to our cognitive function when the trash piles up?
At the extreme end, the result could be the acceleration of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. While we don’t know whether sleep loss causes the disease, or the disease itself leads to sleep loss — what Dr. Veasey calls a “classic chicken-and-egg” problem — we do know that the two are closely connected. Along with the sleep disturbances that characterize neurodegenerative diseases, there is a buildup of the types of proteins that the glymphatic system normally clears out during regular sleep, like beta-amyloids and tau**= added info at the end), both associated with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
“To me,” says Dr. Veasey, “that’s the most compelling part of the Nedergaard research. That the clearance for these is dramatically reduced from prolonged wakefulness.” If we don’t sleep well, we may be allowing the very things that cause neural degeneration to pile up unchecked.
Even at the relatively more benign end — the all-nighter or the extra-stressful week when you caught only a few hours a night — sleep deprivation, as everyone who has experienced it knows, impedes our ability to concentrate, to pay attention to our environment and to analyze information creatively. “When we’re sleep-deprived, we can’t integrate or put together facts,” as Dr. Veasey puts it.
But there is a difference between the kind of fleeting sleep loss we sometimes experience and the chronic deprivation that comes from shift work, insomnia and the like. In one set of studies, soon to be published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the Veasey lab found that while our brains can recover quite readily from short-term sleep loss, chronic prolonged wakefulness and sleep disruption stresses the brain’s metabolism. The result is the degeneration of key neurons involved in alertness and proper cortical function and a buildup of proteins associated with aging and neural degeneration.
It’s like the difference between a snowstorm’s disrupting a single day of trash pickup and a prolonged strike. No longer quite as easy to fix, and even when the strike is over, there’s likely to be some stray debris floating around for quite some time yet. “Recovery from sleep loss is slower than we’d thought,” Dr. Veasey notes. “We used to think that after a bit of recovery sleep, you should be fine. But this work shows you’re not.”
If you put her own research together with the findings from the Nedergaard lab, Dr. Veasey says, it “very clearly shows that there’s impaired clearance in the awake brain. We’re really starting to realize that when we skip sleep, we may be doing irreparable damage to the brain, prematurely aging it or setting it up for heightened vulnerability to other insults.”
In a society that is not only chronically sleep-deprived but also rapidly aging, that’s bad news. “It’s unlikely that poor sleep as a child would actually cause Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” says Dr. Veasey, “but it’s more likely that you may shift one of those diseases by a decade or so. That has profound health and economic implications.”
It’s a pernicious cycle. We work longer hours, become more stressed, sleep less, impair our brain’s ability to clean up after all that hard work, and become even less able to sleep soundly. And if we reach for a sleeping pill to help us along? While work on the effects of sleeping aids on the glymphatic system remains to be done, the sleep researchers I spoke with agree that there’s no evidence that aided sleep is as effective as natural sleep.
There is, however, reason to hope. If the main function of sleep is to take out our neural trash, that insight could eventually enable a new understanding of both neurodegenerative diseases and regular, age-related cognitive decline. By developing a diagnostic test to measure how well the glymphatic system functions, we could move one step closer to predicting someone’s risk of developing conditions like Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia: The faster the fluids clear the decks, the more effectively the brain’s metabolism is functioning.
“Such a test could also be used in the emergency room after traumatic brain injury,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “to see who is at risk of developing decline in cognitive function.”
We can also focus on developing earlier, more effective interventions to prevent cognitive decline. One approach would be to enable individuals who suffer from sleep loss to sleep more soundly — but how? Dr. Nedergaard’s mice were able to clear their brain’s waste almost as effectively under anesthesia as under normal sleeping conditions. “That’s really fascinating,” says Dr. Veasey. Though current sleeping aids may not quite do the trick, and anesthetics are too dangerous for daily use, the results suggest that there may be better ways of improving sleep pharmacologically.
Now that we have a better understanding of why sleep is so important, a new generation of drug makers can work to create the best possible environment for the trash pickup to occur in the first place — to make certain that our brain’s sleeping metabolism is as efficient as it can possibly be.
A second approach would take the opposite tack, by seeking to mimic the cleanup-promoting actions of sleep in the awake brain, which could make a full night of sound sleep less necessary. To date, the brain’s metabolic process hasn’t been targeted as such by the pharmaceutical industry. There simply wasn’t enough evidence of its importance. In response to the evolving data, however, future drug interventions could focus directly on the glymphatic system, to promote the enhanced cleaning power of the sleeping brain in a brain that is fully awake. One day, scientists might be able to successfully mimic the expansion of the interstitial space that does the mental janitorial work so that we can achieve maximally efficient round-the-clock brain trash pickup.
If that day comes, they would be on their way to discovering that all-time miracle drug: one that, in Dr. Veasey’s joking words, “could mean we never have to sleep at all.”
Added information **)
Amyloid-β and tau in Alzheimer's disease Frank M. LaFerla
Article bodyAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with a relentless progression. AD pathogenesis is believed to be triggered by the accumulation of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), which is due to overproduction of Aβ and/or the failure of clearance mechanisms. Aβ self-aggregates into oligomers, which can be of various sizes, and forms diffuse and neuritic plaques in the parenchyma and blood vessels. Aβ oligomers and plaques are potent synaptotoxins, block proteasome function, inhibit mitochondrial activity, alter intracellular Ca2+ levels and stimulate inflammatory processes. Loss of the normal physiological functions of Aβ is also thought to contribute to neuronal dysfunction. Aβ interacts with the signalling pathways that regulate the phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau. Hyperphosphorylation of tau disrupts its normal function in regulating axonal transport and leads to the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and toxic species of soluble tau. Furthermore, degradation of hyperphosphorylated tau by the proteasome is inhibited by the actions of Aβ. These two proteins and their associated signalling pathway
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Sunday, 2/2/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Important info for every person to study & apply
The Surprising Role of Sleep
in Your Health & in Your Success in Life,
Including in Your Financial Success
Avoid disease, have better brain functioning & succeed well financially
Sleep was once thought to be a relatively passive process of decreased brain activity. More-recent data indicates that sleep, like consciousness, is an active process characterized by a myriad of complex electrical and neuroendocrine brain activities.
The benefits of healthy sleep are profound as are the drawbacks of deprivation. Every system of the body is affected by sleep, including physical, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Sleep promotes healing and recovery from illness, improved stamina, and the ability to learn and remember new skills.
Healthy sleep usually includes dreaming (even when it isn’t remembered), which also appears to play a powerful role in psychological and emotional health, well-being, memory, and the ability to learn new tasks.
Healthy sleep is still somewhat of a mystery since it is only partially understood and has never been artificially duplicated. While medications mimic the appearance of sleep, they do not reproduce the quality or restorative, integrative functions of sleep.
In most cases, medications used to promote sleep eventually backfire and erode it, making the condition dependent on escalating doses of drugs and more resistant to treatment.
Deep sleep has anti-inflammatory benefits. It helps restore hormonal balances, provides rest, and clears the mind like rebooting a computer.
Sleep deprivation causes significant physical and emotional effects, including changes in cardiovascular function, glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, and elevations of blood pressure, blood sugar, and cortisol.
Long-term effects of deprivation are linked to increased risk of developing many chronic diseases, including cancer, premature aging, depression, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Sleep deprivation is an effective method of persuasion, with a history of use in times of war and in indoctrination programs, including military and medical- residency training. Deprivation affects sanity, impairs vigilance, and erodes physical endurance.
Deprivation makes for more-compliant subjects who think less, concentrate poorly, and rely on automatic behaviors. Deprivation alters brain chemistry and interferes with a sense of reality, eventually disturbing mental and emotional stability.
Passage into sleep requires a gentle lapse of consciousness and awareness, coinciding with internal and external environmental supports to sustain it. In cases of chronic insomnia, the body actually looses its innate ability to relax, lapse into and sustain healthy sleep.
Sleep is an unconscious process that relies on an elegant network of biologic, chemical, hormonal, and neuroendocrine pathways collectively working together as biorhythms or circadian rhythms. When these circadian rhythms are allowed to function unhindered, they reproduce the same biochemical patterns on a daily basis.
The body relies on this system like an internal clock to efficiently manage the sleep-wake cycle. Unless it is tampered or interfered with, these internal rhythms help maintain a healthy mental, physical, and emotional balance through sleep.
When the circadian pattern is regular and uninterrupted, day after day, week after week, and year after year, the physical and emotional body learns to anticipate and depend on the pattern, preparing for these cycles many hours in advance.
Breaking the biorhythm in an irregular or unpredictable manner disrupts the intricate chemical network of hormones and neurotransmitters and forces the body to readapt, sometimes in midstream.
The body adjusts readily enough in youth, but as it ages, it is less able to change as quickly. Sometimes even simple changes in routine can lead to large disruptions of sleep and wakefulness. This is one reason why advancing age is associated with a greater number of sleep disturbances.
Source: The Epoch Times STAF, Inc. endorses the Epoch Times Click: The Epoch Times
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Topic # 2 of 2
Important info for every person to study & apply
Avoid disease, have better brain functioning & succeed well financially
Fragmented sleep
accelerates cancer growth
Date: January 27, 2014
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate
that about 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems
Click: Centers for Disease Control and Preventionwww.cdc.gov/
United States Centers for...
The CDC maintains several departments concerned with occupational safety and health, such as the Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and the National ...
Source:
University of Chicago Medical Center
click: University of Chicago Medical Centerwww.uchospitals.edu/ The University of Chicago Medicine is both a world-class research institute and a neighborhood health care provider.
Poor-quality sleep marked by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth, increase tumor aggressiveness and dampen the immune system's ability to control or eradicate early cancers, according to a new study published online January 21, 2014, in the journal Cancer Research
The study is the first to demonstrate, in an animal model, the direct effects of fragmented sleep on tumor growth and invasiveness (= marked by the tendency to spread, especially into healthy tissue), and it points to a biological mechanism that could serve as a potential target for therapy.
"It's not the tumor, it's the immune system," said study director David Gozal, MD, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. "Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive."
"Fortunately, our study also points to a potential drug target," he said. "Toll-like receptor 4, a biological messenger, helps control activation of the innate immune system. It appears to be a lynchpin for the cancer-promoting effects of sleep loss. The effects of fragmented sleep that we focused on were not seen in mice that lacked this protein."
Gozal, an authority on the consequences of sleep apnea click: Sleep apnea , was struck by two recent studies linking apnea to increased cancer mortality. So he and colleagues from the University of Chicago and the University of Louisville devised a series of experiments to measure the effects of disrupted sleep on cancer.
They used mice, housed in small groups. During the day -- when mice normally sleep -- a quiet, motorized brush moved through half of the cages every two minutes, forcing those mice to wake up and then go back to sleep. The rest of the mice were not disturbed.
After seven days in this setting, both groups of mice were injected with cells from one of two tumor types (TC-1 or 3LLC). All mice developed palpable tumors within 9 to 12 days. Four weeks after inoculation the researchers evaluated the tumors.
They found that tumors from mice with fragmented sleep were twice as large, for both tumor types, as those from mice that had slept normally. A follow-up experiment found that when tumor cells were implanted in the thigh muscle, which should help contain growth, the tumors were much more aggressive and invaded surrounding tissues in mice with disrupted sleep.
"In that setting, tumors are usually encased by a capsule of surrounding tissue, like a scar," Gozal said. "They form little spheres, with nice demarcation between cancerous and normal tissue. But in the fragmented-sleep mice, the tumors were much more invasive. They pushed through the capsule. They went into the muscle, into the bone. It was a mess."
The difference appeared to be driven by cells from the immune system, called tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), which cluster at the site of tumors. TAMs are a hallmark of the immune system's response to cancer, but they can respond in a variety of ways, depending on chemical signals they receive. Some, labelled M1, promote a strong immune response and can eliminate tumors cells. Others, known as M2, suppress the immune response and instead promote the growth of new blood vessels -- which encourages tumor growth.
Well-rested mice had primarily M1-type TAMs, concentrated in the core of the tumors. Sleep-fragmented mice had primarily M2-type TAMs. These were abundant, especially around the periphery of the tumors. The sleep-disrupted mice also had high levels of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4).
Three key molecules are part of the signaling pathway that appeared to be tilting macrophages toward M2: TLR4 and two downstream signals called MYD88 and TRIF. So the researchers injected tumor cells into a series of mice that were unable to produce one of these three proteins and subjected them to fragmented sleep. Tumor growth was slightly reduced in mice lacking MYD88 or TRIF, but in mice lacking TLR4, tumor growth was no greater than in mice with undisturbed sleep.
Taking TLR4 out of the picture resulted in major curtailment of tumor growth. "When we injected tumor cells into mice that lacked TLR4," Gozal said, "the differences between undisturbed and sleep-fragmented mice disappeared."
"This study offers biological plausibility to the epidemiological associations between perturbed sleep and cancer outcomes," Gozal said. "The take home message is to take care of your sleep quality and quantity like you take care of your bank account."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems. "Considering the high prevalence of both sleep disorders and cancer in middle age or older populations," the authors wrote, "there are far-reaching implications." Their next step is to determine whether sleep affects metastasis or resistance to cancer chemotherapy.
Source:
The above article is based on click: materials provided by click: University of Chicago Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
First Published in Journal click: Cancer Researchcancerres.aacrjournals.org
The most highly cited cancer journal in the world. Cancer Research is the top venue for articles of the broadest significance in the field .Impact Factor - (The) Journal of Cancer ... - Table of Contents - OnlineFirst
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Sunday, 2/9 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Sugar linked to heart disease deaths in national study;
most eat too much & soda's a culprit
E.g.: One 12-ounce can of non-diet soda contains has about 9 teaspoons of sugar or about 140 calories; cinnamon rolls have about 13 teaspoons of sugar; one scoop of chocolate ice cream has about 5 teaspoons
Some more examples of the sugar content in these websites:
(1) Click: How Sweet Is It? | The Nutrition Source | Harvard School of Public
(2) Click: How much sugar is in your food? - Medical News Today
(3) Click: Sugar is 'the new tobacco': Health chiefs tell food giants to slash ...CHICAGO (AP) -- Could too much sugar be deadly? The biggest study of its kind suggests the answer is yes, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems. The #3 has additional info relating to this title article
CHICAGO (AP) -- Could too much sugar be deadly? The biggest study of its kind suggests the answer is yes, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems.
It doesn't take all that much extra sugar, hidden in many processed foods, to substantially raise the risk, the researchers found, and most Americans eat more than the safest amount.
Having a cinnamon roll with your morning coffee, a super-sized sugary soda at lunch and a scoop of ice cream after dinner would put you in the highest risk category in the study. That means your chance of dying prematurely from heart problems is nearly three times greater than for people who eat only foods with little added sugar.
For someone who normally eats 2,000 calories daily, even consuming two 12-ounce cans of soda substantially increases the risk. For most American adults, sodas and other sugary drinks are the main source of added sugar.
Lead author Quanhe Yang of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention called the results sobering and said it's the first nationally representative study to examine the issue.
Scientists aren't certain exactly how sugar may contribute to deadly heart problems, but it has been shown to increase blood pressure and levels of unhealthy cholesterol and triglycerides; and also may increase signs of inflammation linked with heart disease, said Rachel Johnson, head of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee and a University of Vermont nutrition professor.
Yang and colleagues analyzed national health surveys between 1988 and 2010 that included questions about people's diets. The authors used national death data to calculate risks of dying during 15 years of follow-up.
Overall, more than 30,000 American adults aged 44 on average were involved.
Previous studies have linked diets high in sugar with increased risks for non-fatal heart problems, and with obesity, which can also lead to heart trouble. But in the new study, obesity didn't explain the link between sugary diets and death. That link was found even in normal-weight people who ate lots of added sugar.
"Too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick," said Laura Schmidt, a health policy specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She wrote an editorial accompanying the study in Monday's JAMA Internal Medicine.
The researchers focused on sugar added to processed foods or drinks, or sprinkled in coffee or cereal. Even foods that don't taste sweet have added sugar, including many brands of packaged bread, tomato sauce and salad dressing. Naturally occurring sugar, in fruit and some other foods, wasn't counted.
Most health experts agree that too much sugar isn't healthy, but there is no universal consensus on how much is too much.
U.S government dietary guidelines issued in 2010 say "empty" calories including those from added sugars should account for no more than 15 percent of total daily calories.
The average number of daily calories from added sugar among U.S. adults was about 15 percent toward the end of the study, slightly lower than in previous years.
The authors divided participants into five categories based on sugar intake, from less than 10 percent of daily calories — the safest amount — to more than 25 percent.
Most adults exceed the safest level; and for 1 in 10 adults, added sugar accounts for at least 25 percent of daily calories, the researchers said.
The researchers had death data on almost 12,000 adults, including 831 who died from heart disease during the 15-year follow-up. They took into account other factors known to contribute to heart problems, including smoking, inactivity and excess weight, and still found risks for sugar.
As sugar intake increased, risks climbed steeply.
Adults who got at least 25 percent of their calories from added sugar were almost three times more likely to die of heart problems than those who consumed the least — less than 10 percent.
For those who got more than 15 percent — or the equivalent of about two cans of sugary soda out of 2,000 calories daily — the risk was almost 20 percent higher than the safest level.
Sugar calories quickly add up: One teaspoon has about 16 calories; one 12-ounce can of non-diet soda contains has about 9 teaspoons of sugar or about 140 calories; many cinnamon rolls have about 13 teaspoons of sugar; one scoop of chocolate ice cream has about 5 teaspoons of sugar.
Dr. Jonathan Purnell, a professor - Click: Contact Wellness | Jonathan Q. Purnell, MD
at Oregon Health & Science University's Knight Cardiovascular Institute
Click: OHSU Knight Cardiology - ohsu.eduwww.ohsu.edu/heart-care - 1 (503) 494 1775 Oregon's Leading Cardiovascular Institute. ,
said while the research doesn't prove "sugar can cause you to die of a heart attack", it adds to a growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting that limiting sugar intake can lead to healthier, longer lives.
Source: (1) AP News, (2) STAF, Inc., (3) Internet
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Sunday, 2/16/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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At Private Schools, Another Way to Say 'Financial Aid'
Some independent schools have adopted indexed tuition as both a financial aid strategy and a way to attract more talented students from financially struggled families
What is Indexed Tuition?
Index Tuition is the same as paying based on a Sliding Scale (see below)
Investopedia explains 'Sliding Scale Fees'
Click: Investopedia - Educating the world about finance
Sliding scales fees are used to require those who have the ability to pay more to actually pay more. For example, a hospital may not charge a poor or uninsured patient the market value of the medicine that he receives for an ailment, but may charge a wealthy or insured patient the market value. Companies and organizations may make up for a revenue short fall from providing below-market price services to the less fortunate through grant funding or donations.
SHANNON LUBIANO never dreamed she could send her children to the Duke School, an independent elementary school in Durham, N.C., where the tuition is $15,000 for prekindergarten, rising to nearly $18,000 for eighth grade.
But then a friend told her about the school’s indexed tuition plan — essentially a pay-what-you-can model for a private education — and that made all the difference for her.
“When I tell other people about it, they are shocked,” said Ms. Lubiano, whose husband, a chef, owns a restaurant in town. “They had looked at the Duke School in the past and got run off by the cost.”
Duke is part of a small group of independent schools, mostly in the Southeast and West, that have adopted indexed tuition as both a financial aid strategy and a way to attract people who would not otherwise apply to private school.
“We got to indexed tuition as a philosophical journey,” said Dave Michelman, head of school at Duke. “We’re committed to socioeconomic diversity. If you’re committed to that it seems a little off-putting to say if you come here we’ll give you charity. That’s what financial aid sounds like.”
Instead, he added, the school said: “We’re going to charge the right amount of tuition for you.” That range, he said, runs from $3,000 to full tuition.
Of course, as any behavioral economist would tell you, the two approaches to assistance are exactly the same: Whether a school discounts its $30,000 tuition with $20,000 in financial aid or says a family’s indexed tuition is $10,000, the family is paying the same amount.
But that difference in presentation matters: The indexed tuition rate seems to make applying to an expensive school possible for some and accepting a discount palatable to others. It is also a great way for a school to compete with other independent schools that may have larger financial aid budgets. It is an approach smaller colleges and universities have taken for years.
With acceptance letters for independent schools going out now, this is the time of year when many families who applied to the one of the 1,400 independent schools in the United States are waiting to see whether they qualify for the financial aid, which might be the only way they can send a child to private school.
The number of families receiving financial aid of some kind has grown to nearly 23 percent, from 15 percent in 2007, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, but only a handful of schools currently use indexed tuition.
While the expectation is that college students can work or get loans to pay for their education, that is not the case with elementary and secondary school students whose families are asked to stretch to pay for a private education. After all, there is public school.
For many independent schools, the process of giving out financial aid has become intertwined with the broader issue of income inequality, albeit with a twist. Wealthier families can pay full tuition. And schools have long sought out gifted and talented children from poor families.
Yet this approach has, in some cases, created a barbell affect, with the wealthy and the poor on the ends and the middle class — families that make too much for financial aid but too little to pay all the associated costs — left out.
“We were taking money from high-income families and giving it to low-income families and feeling really good about that,” said Jeff Escabar, head of Marin Preparatory School and the former director of admissions at Marin Country Day School, which has been outspoken about its use of indexed tuition. “Then we realized we were losing the families in the middle.”
He said Marin Country Day made it a policy that every family received information on indexed tuition in their application packet, not just the ones who expressed interest in financial aid.
Putting the range — as low, today, as $750 a year — on the school’s website, Mr. Escabar said, softened the sticker shock for some families. It also served as a good marketing tool.
Other schools, particularly faith-based schools with a more limited pool to draw from, have used indexed tuition as a way to fill seats. Rick Newberry, a consultant and president of Enrollment Catalyst, said he proposed this method to Indian Rocks Christian School in Largo, Fla., when it needed to increase its enrollment. “It was an innovative approach to market accessibility and a way to stand apart from the competition,” he said.
Indexed tuition is a different approach to making independent school more affordable, but parents still have to go through a rigorous process of revealing information to the school and then waiting and hoping that the school has money to subsidize students.
Ms. Lubiano, who now has two daughters, 6 and 3, in school, said Duke asked her for her tax returns, assets, debt and any other sources of support. In their case, her mother-in-law would pay some of the tuition.
The school then asked the family what it thought it could pay.
“They allowed us to be more personal with the explanation of certain things,” she said. “We were able to submit an explanation of our life, instead of just turning in numbers.”
Not every school has the resources to take this approach. Mark Stanek, head of Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., said his school contemplated going to an indexed model but decided against it.
“We’d have needed to raise tuition to $44,000 to make the model work and provide the range of tuition,” he said. Top tuition is currently $34,000. “That would have put us as an outlier in the independent school market here.”
Regardless of the approach, most parents will find themselves in a trust-but-verify system.
Reed Sumida, managing director of The Independent School Performance Group, says his organization works with independent schools to make sure what a family says on its financial aid form meshes with their lifestyle. “If they drive in in their BMW with a Kelley blue book value of $30,000, there’s a red flag,” he said. “We get two more red flags, you want to go back and reduce the award or cancel it.”
One exception to trust but verify is Manhattan Country School, a small school founded in the midst of the civil rights movement.
Parents there are simply asked what their gross income is and asked to pay a percentage of it, up to $38,000, as they have since 1970 when the school went to what it calls a sliding-scale model. No one checks the number. Those who can pay more are encouraged to do so, for a tax deduction.
“You can’t think of the price of your one kid’s education,” said Frank Roosevelt, an economist and grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who developed the model. “You have to think of the parents of all of the kids in that classroom paying for the whole process of education, of which your kid is benefiting as one child in that setting.”
That it hasn’t been widely adopted has not surprised him. “The motivation for parents to send their kids to private schools is very individualistic: I want my kids to be in a special environment and away from kids who might distract from them,” he said. “It’s an elite thing.”
Of course, what is perceived as elite for one person is another’s excellent educational opportunity.
For Ms. Lubiano, she said she understood that as her husband’s restaurant did better their family would pay more of their girls’ tuition, up to the full amount. “I don’t see it getting to the point where we don’t qualify anymore,” she said. “But if it does happen, that would be awesome, and I’d still want to keep my kids there.”
Source: (1) NYT, (2) STAF, Inc.
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Sunday, 2/23 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
Keys to Mental Toughness
Learn how to handle stressful situations with confidence and skill
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Some people associate the concept of mental toughness with aggression, violence, or anger. Mental toughness is the ability to stand firm in the positive and proactive thoughts that you have created for yourself and remain determined to follow through into creating positive feelings and actions.
It is a commitment to doing what is right because you know it will make your life better. The truest and toughest battles most people will ever fight are the battles that start and finish in their minds.
The best method for improving mental toughness and maintaining it is to apply these basic yet simple principles. If you practice these simple suggestions and boost your motivation to discipline your mind because you truly want to see positive change in your life, then you will be able to handle stressful situations with confidence and skill.
1. Don’t blow things out of proportion. Try to keep things in perspective; don’t magnify them into being worse than they are or have to be.
When things go bad repeatedly over a period of time, we may start to stereotype every bad thing that happens as “Murphy’s law.” Everything bad or unfortunate that can happen will happen. Do you know why? You are continually using the same negative magnifying glass to look at them.
Some individuals take minute situations and blow them into catastrophes. Always ask yourself this simple question, “What difference will this make a year from now?”
2. Try to avoid all-or-nothing thinking. When you think in terms of extremes, you set ourselves up for failure. Basically, you will always need to be perfect to avoid failure.
For example, you want to do well, but when something doesn’t turn out the way you expected, you view the outcome as bad. As a result, you extrapolate the performance into who you are—making yourself a “bad” person because your performance was bad.
In order not to “be bad” you try too hard to be good, leading yourself to make further mistakes because of the added pressure you’ve placed on yourself. Perfectionism makes it hard to be perfect!
3. You can’t please everyone all of the time. If you try to keep everyone happy, thinking everyone will like you, then you are in for a major shock. When you try to be a people-pleaser, you submit to others and become passive, deviating from your main goal—being assertive, which helps you accomplish your goals.
As soon as you become passive, you are more inclined to dislike certain people and situations because you have compromised yourself and no longer feel comfortable.
Catering to the needs and whims of others will get you quickly on your way to becoming a procrastinator—not only to their demands, but also for what you would like to achieve.
I heard a statistic that asserts that 10 percent of the people you meet will never like or accept you no matter who you are, what you do for them, and so on. So focus on the other 90 percent, but be sure to never have your rights or needs taken away or compromised.
4. Don’t bog yourself down with “uncertainty questions” such as, “Why me?” “When will things change?” “Will any good breaks ever come my way?” Oftentimes, when things go bad, you seek answers of an absolute nature. Let’s face it, not all questions have answers you can understand.
When you question yourself, you sometimes analyze things to death, causing stress. Did you know that when you ask questions of a negative nature, you tend to focus on negative experiences and create corresponding visual experiences? If you believe in the law of attraction and affirmations, this theory will hold true when you are asking yourself a question.
If you are placing your focus on something negative, since “like attracts like,” you will be bringing more negativity your way.
Did you know some experts claim that your memory file cabinets get compromised when you dwell on negative experiences? It takes twice as much energy to dwell on the negative than on the positive. Perhaps that is why you are so tired.
5. Take one day at a time. Enjoy the present moment and be in the moment. There are always enough worries in today, so why spend energy on thoughts of tomorrow?
Too many people want instant change. In fact, we are all changing instantly, because our bodies (cells) and the situations around us are always changing and evolving. People want to see tangible results instantly. But that is not how it works.
The exercise in mental toughness is to develop moment-to-moment awareness. Focus on your thoughts. Hit the delete button whenever a negative one comes on the screen and replace it with a positive one immediately. How does one do this? Keep your thoughts focused on the present. It will take practice, but you will succeed at it with time, but not months or years.
Disclaimer: This is in no way designed to diagnose, classify, or treat mental health problems or addictions. You should always consult with a licensed or trained professional when seeking an actual diagnosis or assessment.
Dr. Peter Sacco has been working with individuals in private practice and support groups since 1995. He specializes in anger-management classes, overcoming addictions, individual coaching, and counseling. He teaches courses in addiction studies, police studies, criminal psychology, and education at universities and colleges in the United States and Canada. Petersacco.com
Topic # 2 of 3
The Allergy Epidemic? What's the Cure?
Click green for further info
WILL the cure for allergies come from the cowshed?
cowshed = a farm building in which cattle are kept when not in a pasture, or in which they are milked.
shed = a simple roofed structure, typically made of wood or metal, used as a storage space, a shelter for animals, or a workshop.
Allergies are often seen as an accident. Your immune system misinterprets a harmless protein like dust or peanuts as a threat, and when you encounter it, you pay the price with sneezing, wheezing, and in the worst cases, death.
What prompts some immune systems to err like this, while others never do? Some of the vulnerability is surely genetic. But comparative studies highlight the importance of environment, beginning, it seems, in the womb. Microbes are one intriguing protective factor. Certain ones seem to stimulate a mother’s immune system during pregnancy, preventing allergic disease in children.
By emulating this naturally occurring phenomenon, scientists may one day devise a way to prevent allergies.
This task, though still in its infancy, has some urgency. Depending on the study and population, the prevalence of allergic disease and asthma increased between two- and threefold in the late 20th century, a mysterious trend often called the “allergy epidemic.”
These days, one in five American children have a respiratory allergy like hay fever, and nearly one in 10 have asthma.
Nine people die daily from asthma attacks. While the increase in respiratory allergies shows some signs of leveling off, the prevalence of food and skin allergies continues to rise. Five percent of children are allergic to peanuts, milk and other foods, half again as many as 15 years ago. And each new generation seems to have more severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reactions than the last.
Some time ago, I visited a place where seemingly protective microbes occurred spontaneously. It wasn’t a spotless laboratory in some university somewhere. It was a manure-spattered cowshed in Indiana’s Amish country.
My guide was Mark Holbreich, an allergist in Indianapolis. He’d recently discovered that the Amish people who lived in the northern part of the state were remarkably free of allergies and asthma.
About half of Americans have evidence of allergic sensitization, which increases the risk of allergic disease. But judging from skin-prick tests, just 7.2 percent of the 138 Amish children who Dr. Holbreich tested were sensitized to tree pollens and other allergens. That yawning difference positions the Indiana Amish among the least allergic populations ever described in the developed world.
This invulnerability isn’t likely to be genetic. The Amish originally came to the United States from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and these days Swiss children, a genetically similar population, are about as allergic as Americans.
Ninety-two percent of the Amish children Dr. Holbreich tested either lived on farms or visited one frequently. Farming, Dr. Holbreich thinks, is the Amish secret. This idea has some history. Since the late 1990s, European scientists have investigated what they call the “farm effect.”
The working hypothesis is that innocuous cowshed microbes, plant material and raw milk protect farming children by favorably stimulating their immune systems throughout life, particularly early on. That spring morning, Dr. Holbreich gave me a tour of the bonanza of immune stimuli under consideration.
We found our hosts, Andrew Mast and his wife, Laura, hard at work milking cows in the predawn chill.
Dr. Holbreich, slight and bespectacled, peppered them with questions. At what age did Mr. Mast begin working in the cowshed? “My first memory is of milking,” he said, at about the age of 5. What about his children, two straw-haired girls, then ages 2 and 3; did they spend time in the cowshed? The elder girl came to the barn at 3 months of age, he said. “People learn to walk in here.” Do expectant mothers work in the barn? “Yes,” Laura said. “We work.”
Dr. Holbreich had made his point: whatever forces were acting here, they were chronic, and they began before birth. As the sun rose, Dr. Holbreich and I sniffed the damp, fermented feed (slightly malty); shoveled fresh cow manure (“Liquid gold,” Dr. Holbreich said only half-jokingly, “the best medicine you could think of”); and marveled at the detritus floating in the air. Extrapolating from previous research, with each breath we were inhaling perhaps 1,000 times more microbes than usual. By breakfast time, grime had collected under our nails, hay clung to our clothes, and muck to our boots. “There’s got to be bacteria, mold and plant material,” Dr. Holbreich said. “You do this every day for 30 years, 365 days a year, you can see there are so many exposures.”
The challenge of identifying the important exposures — and getting them into a bottle — is a pressing one. In parts of the developing world, where allergic disease was once considered rare, scientists have noted an uptick, especially in urban areas. China offers a dramatic case in point. A 2009 study found a more than threefold difference in allergic sensitization (as judged by skin-prick tests) between schoolchildren in rural areas around Beijing and children in the city proper. Doctor-diagnosed asthma differed sixfold. Maybe not coincidentally, 40 percent of the rural children had lived on farms their whole lives.
Immigrants from the developing world to the developed tend to be less allergic than average. But the longer they reside in their adopted countries, the more allergic they become. And their native-born children seem to gain the vulnerability to asthma, sometimes surpassing it. All of which highlights a longstanding question in the allergy field. As Dr. Holbreich puts it, “What is it about westernization that makes people allergic?”
When hay fever first emerged as a common complaint among the upper classes of Britain in the 19th century — and became a badge of refinement — farmers, who were exposed to more pollen than probably anyone else, seemed relatively invulnerable to the new affliction. In the 1990s, European scientists rediscovered the phenomenon in the small alpine farms of Switzerland. A bevy of studies followed, comprising thousands of subjects across Switzerland, Germany, Austria and elsewhere. Critically, by comparing children living in the same rural areas, scientists could discount urban pollution. Everyone was breathing the same country air.
And earlier this year, some of Dr. Holbreich’s collaborators, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, made a strong case that physical activity couldn’t explain the disparity either. They had rural children wear devices that measured movement for a week. There was little difference in physical activity between farming and nonfarming children.
What matters then? Erika von Mutius, a doctor and epidemiologist at Munich University in Germany who has led much of this research, suspects diversity is important. Farms with the greatest array of microbes, including fungi, appear to be the most protective against asthma. At the Mast farm, the cowshed wasn’t more than 60 feet from the house. In Europe, scientists found that microbes waft from cowsheds into homes.
In one study, they showed that an infant’s risk of eczema was inverse to the microbial load in her mother’s mattress.
Timing seems to matter tremendously. The earlier exposure begins, it seems, the greater the protection — and that includes during pregnancy. Children born to mothers who work with livestock while pregnant, and who lug their newborns along during chores, seem the most invulnerable to allergic disease later.
Here, the farm effect dovetails with the burgeoning science on the prenatal origins of disease generally. What happens to your mother during the nine months before your birth may affect your vulnerability to many diseases decades later, from heart disease and obesity to schizophrenia.
Allergies and asthma seem to follow the rule as well.
Susan Prescott, a doctor and researcher at the University of Western Australia in Perth, has noted differences in the placentas of children who later develop allergies. A critical subset of white blood cells — called regulatory T-cells — seems relatively scarce at birth. Rather than enabling aggression, these cells help the immune system restrain itself when facing substances that are not true threats. A healthy population of these and other “suppressor” cells is important, scientists now suspect, in preventing allergies and asthma. So it seems significant that European farming children are born with a comparative surfeit of these cells. Bianca Schaub, a doctor and researcher at Munich University,has found that farming newborns have more regulatory T-cells in cord blood than babies of nonfarmers. In test tubes, these cells more effectively quash allergic-type reactions. And that suppressive ability increases with the number of different types of animals the mother tended while pregnant. The more cows, pigs and chickens a mother encounters, essentially, the more easily her offspring may tolerate dust mites and tree pollens.
Animal studies demonstrate how this might work. Some years back, scientists at Philipps University of Marburg in Germany sprayed pregnant mice with microbes originally isolated from Bavarian cowsheds. The exposure induced favorable changes in gene expression at the placenta. The pups born to these mice were protected against asthma.
This research suggests that farming mothers might benefit from a naturally occurring immunotherapy, one that preprograms the developing fetus against allergic disease. Yet how to apply that therapy deliberately remains unclear. Is “microbial pressure” what matters — a stiff microbial wind in our sails? Or do certain cowshed microbes actually colonize farmers, and favorably calibrate their immune function?
There’s evidence to support both explanations, which aren’t mutually exclusive anyway.
Before you rush to the nearest farm, however, a word of caution. Some studies indicate that if you grow up in an urban environment, occasional visits to the farm may exacerbate allergic propensities. If you haven’t matured with abundant microbial stimulation, the thinking goes, encountering it intermittently may push you into overdrive, prompting the misery you seek to avoid.
And yet, a prospective study from Denmark published this month suggests that it’s never too late. Young adults who began farming (with livestock) were less likely to develop new allergic sensitivities than rural peers who chose other professions. Existing allergies didn’t disappear. Rather, the farming environment seemed to prevent new sensitizations.
Which brings us to farm milk. In Europe, the consumption of unpasteurized milk has repeatedly correlated with protection against allergic disease. In America, 80 percent of the Amish studied by Dr. Holbreich consume raw milk. In a study published earlier this year, Dr. Schaub’s group showed that European children who consumed farm milk had more of those regulatory T-cells, irrespective of whether they lived on farms. The higher the quantity of those cells, the less likely these children were to be given diagnoses of asthma. Here, finally, is something concrete to take off the farm.
None of these scientists recommend that people consume raw milk; it can carry deadly pathogens. Rather, they hope to identify what’s protective in the milk and either extract it or preserve the ingredients during processing. Microbes may not be the key ingredient in this case. Instead, farm milk may act as a prebiotic — selectively feeding good microbes within. Another possibility is that as with human breast milk, antibodies and immune-signaling proteins in cow’s milk influence the human immune system, steering it toward tolerance.
As a whole, this research reframes the question of what prompted the late 20th-century allergy epidemic. Is the problem one of exposure to allergens, many of which aren’t exactly new to human experience? Or is the problem one of increasing sensitivity to whatever allergens are present?
The science suggests the latter. The Mast cowshed, with its rich array of microbial stimuli, probably resembles the world in which the human immune system evolved more than, say, an apartment high above Manhattan. The Amish in Indiana, who for reasons of religious faith have maintained a 19th-century-like lifestyle, may not be less allergic. Rather, during the dramatic reordering of human existence that began with the Industrial Revolution, everyone else may have become more allergic. Immunologically speaking, the farming Amish and farmers generally may more closely resemble an evolutionary norm for our species.
Source: (1) NYT, (2) Moises Velasquez-Manoff is a science writer and the author of “An Epidemic of Absence.”
(4) STAF, Inc.
Topic # 3 of 3
Skip the Supplements
The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate dietary supplements as drugs — they aren’t tested for safety and efficacy before they’re sold click: U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page www.fda.gov/
PARENTS whose children are admitted to our hospital occasionally bring along something extra to help with their care: dietary supplements, like St. John’s wort to ameliorate mild depression or probiotics for better health.
click: Probiotics
Here’s the problem: The Joint Commission, which is responsible for hospital accreditation in the United States, requires that dietary supplements be treated like drugs. It makes sense: Vitamins, amino acids, herbs, minerals and other botanicals have pharmacological effects. So they are drugs.
But the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate dietary supplements as drugs — they aren’t tested for safety and efficacy before they’re sold. Many aren’t made according to minimal standards of manufacturing (the F.D.A. has even found some of the facilities where supplements are made to be contaminated with rodent feces and urine). And many are mislabeled, accidentally or intentionally. They often aren’t what they say they are. For example:
In 2003, researchers tested “ayurvedic” remedies from health food stores throughout Boston. They found that 20 percent contained potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury or arsenic. click: Ayurveda - Wikipedia
In 2008, two products were pulled off the market because they were found to contain around 200 times more selenium (an element that some believe can help prevent cancer) than their labels said. People who ingested these products developed hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea, joint pain, fatigue and blisters.
Last summer, vitamins and minerals made by Purity First Health Products in Farmingdale, N.Y., were found to contain two powerful anabolic steroids. Some of the women who took them developed masculinizing symptoms like lower voices and fewer menstrual periods.
Last month, researchers in Ontario found that popular herbal products like those labeled St. John’s wort and ginkgo biloba often contained completely different herbs or contaminants, some of which could be quite dangerous.
The F.D.A. estimates that approximately 50,000 adverse reactions to dietary supplements occur every year. And yet few consumers know this.
Parents of children admitted to our hospital often request that we continue treating their child with dietary supplements because they believe in them, even if that belief isn’t supported by evidence. More disturbing were the times when children were taking these supplements without our knowledge. Doctors always ask parents if their children are taking any medicines. Unfortunately, because most parents don’t consider dietary supplements to be drugs, we often never knew about their use, let alone whether they might react dangerously with the child’s other treatments.
The F.D.A. has the mandate, but not the manpower, to oversee the labeling and manufacture of these supplements. In the meantime, doctors — and consumers — are on their own.
Our hospital has acted to protect the safety of our patients. No longer will we administer dietary supplements unless the manufacturer provides a third-party written guarantee that the product is made under the F.D.A.’s “good manufacturing practice” (G.M.P.) conditions, as well as a Certificate of Analysis (C.O.A.) assuring that what is written on the label is what’s in the bottle.
The good news is that we’ve been able to find some vitamins, amino acids, minerals and a handful of other supplements that meet this standard. For example, melatonin has been shown to affect sleep cycles and has a record of safety, and we identified a product that met manufacturing and labeling standards.
The bad news is that this was a vanishingly small percentage of the total group. Around 90 percent of the companies we reached out to for verification never responded. They didn’t call us back, or their email or manufacturing addresses changed overnight. Of the remainder, many manufacturers refused to provide us with either a statement of G.M.P. or a C.O.A.; in other words, they refused to guarantee that their products were what they said they were. Others lied; they said they met G.M.P. standards, but a call to the F.D.A. revealed they had been fined for violations multiple times. Perhaps most surprising, some manufacturers willingly furnished information that their product didn’t meet standards — like one company that provided a C.O.A. showing that its product contained 47,000 International Units of beta-carotene, when the label stated 25,000.
Now, when parents in our hospital still want to use products whose quality can’t be assured, we ask them to sign a waiver stating that the supplement may be dangerous, and that most have not been studied for their effectiveness. “Use of an agent for which there are no reliable data on toxicity and drug interactions,” the waiver reads, “makes it impossible to adequately monitor the patient’s acute condition or safely administer medications.”
What can other individuals who are concerned about supplement safety do? They can look for “U.S.P. Verified” on the label — this proves the supplement has been inspected and approved under the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. Unfortunately, fewer than 1 percent of the 55,000 or so supplements on the market bear this label. The real answer is that, until the day comes when medical studies prove that these supplements have legitimate benefits, and until the F.D.A. has the political backing and resources to regulate them like drugs, individuals should simply steer clear.
For too long, too many people have believed that dietary supplements can only help and never hurt. Increasingly, it’s clear that this belief is a false one.
Paul A. Offit is chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where Sarah Erush is the clinical manager in the pharmacy department.
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Sunday, 2/23 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
As World's Kids Get Fatter, Doctors Turn to the Knife
Because of the Western Style Fast-Food (read: "bad-food" or "no-food")
is marketed all over this is the result: children and adult are suffering and die young
Obesity rates are soaring in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states,
and all over the world leading to a boom in bariatric surgery on children
click: Bariatric surgery
Click to see the pictures or search with the title - pubished in WSJ (The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2014
As World's Kids Get Fatter, Doctors Turn to the Knife
Wall Street Journal - by Shirley Wang
Obesity rates are soaring in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states, leading to a boom in bariatric surgery on children.
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia— Daifailluh al-Bugami was just a year old when his parents noticed that his lips turned blue as he slept at night. It was his weight, doctors said, putting pressure on his delicate airways.
Now Daifailluh is 3, and at 61 pounds he is nearly double the typical weight of a child his age. So the Bugamis are planning the once unthinkable: To have their toddler undergo bariatric surgery to permanently remove part of his stomach in hopes of reducing his appetite and staving off a lifetime of health problems.
That such a young child would be considered for weight-loss surgery—something U.S. surgeons generally won't do—underscores the growing health crisis here and elsewhere in the Middle East. Widespread access to unhealthy foods, coupled with sedentary behavior brought on by wealth and the absence of a dieting and exercise culture, have caused obesity levels in Saudi Arabia and many other Gulf states to approach or even exceed those in Western countries.
Previous Coverage Click green title (if the link has expired, search with the title & date)
While solid national data are hard to come by, some experts say that obesity has turned into a serious health problem for Saudi children, with an estimated 9.3% of school-age youths meeting the World Health Organization's body-mass-index criteria for obesity, according to research published in 2013 in the Saudi Journal of Obesity. About 18% of school-age children in the U.S. were considered obese in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Daifailluh's doctor, Aayed Alqahtani, is a leading advocate of a radical approach to the problem. Patients travel to him from across the country and the Gulf region. Over the past seven years, he has performed bariatric surgery on nearly 100 children under the age of 14, which experts on the procedure believe is the largest number performed by one doctor on young children.
Dr. Alqahtani's work is being watched amid a global debate about the appropriate age for bariatric surgery. In the U.S., the minimum is generally considered 14. The World Health Organization, in a 2012 report on pediatric bariatric surgery, concluded that there is a dearth of data available on the long-term outcomes of the procedure in children and that a "conservative approach" is necessary until long-term studies are conducted.
Bariatric surgery has been embraced as an effective and relatively safe procedure for morbidly obese adults. The concern with children revolves mostly around nonsurgical risks, such as how the abrupt change in nutrition could affect long-term brain development and sexual maturation.
Dr. Alqahtani says the decision to operate on Daifailluh is a difficult one because of his age. But after nearly two years of consultation with the clinic, Daifailluh's obesity-related medical problems haven't gotten any better. "We should not deprive our patients from bariatric surgery based on their age alone," the surgeon says. "If they have [medical] conditions that threaten their lives, then we should not deny the bariatric surgery."
The worsening obesity problem here also is manifesting itself in other ways. Some 20% of the Saudi adult population has Type 2 diabetes, a condition linked to obesity, according to the International Diabetes Federation, compared with 8.3% in the U.S., according to the CDC. The cost of diabetes treatment in Saudi Arabia is expected to rise to $2.4 billion in 2015, more than triple that spent in 2010, according to a recent study in the Journal of Family and Community Medicine.
Obesity, particularly among women, has become rampant across much of the Middle East, particularly in oil-rich Gulf nations. In Kuwait, almost half of adult women are considered obese, while 44% of Saudi women and 45% of Qatari women meet the criteria, according to the International Association of the Study of Obesity. Experts says Saudis, in particular, are more likely to carry certain genes linked to obesity.
Saudi lifestyle and parenting practices may exacerbate the problem, according to doctors at weight-loss clinics. Nannies or cooks are often employed, so parents may not know what their children are eating. Saudis often are coaxed to eat large quantities of food when visiting relatives and friends.
In Riyadh, physical activity is limited, particularly for girls, and high temperatures and few green spaces make walking difficult. School gym classes generally take place just once a week. Western-style fast food is abundant, particularly at the air-conditioned malls frequented by children and families.
Bariatric surgery has become an accepted treatment among obese Saudi adults and is paid for by the government. An estimated 11,000 bariatric surgeries were performed on Saudis in 2012, according to Dr. Alqahtani.
The surgery, of which there are several types, generally reduces the size of the stomach and, with some techniques, rearranges the digestive path to bypass much of the intestines. Some types are reversible but generally considered less effective. After the surgery, patients must eat very small meals—ideally for the rest of their lives. Many studies have shown that adults, on average, lose over 50% of their body weight after surgery.
Increasingly, youngsters are heading to the operating room here, where parents see no other options. These days, Dr. Alqahtani performs surgery on three to four youths a week.
'We should not deprive our patients from bariatric surgery based on their age alone,' says surgeon Aayed Alqahtani, center. Shirley Wang/The Wall Street Journal
"I have seen in my clinic patients who cannot sleep lying down—they sleep sitting—because of sleep apnea, and their age is 10 years, sometimes 5 years," says Dr. Alqahtani, a professor in the college of medicine and an obesity specialist at King Saud University.
Pediatric surgeons in the U.S. say they also are facing demands from families to operate on younger patients. Thomas Inge, surgical director of the Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, says he will be operating on a 12-year-old later this month. He says that as younger and younger children are referred for consideration of surgery, care teams will need to carefully weigh the pros and cons.
Evan Nadler, a pediatric surgeon at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is considering doing the operation on two young children. He and the family of a 7-year-old D.C. boy have agreed that surgery likely is the best option, he says. The family of an 8-year-old from the Middle East has decided to wait until their daughter is older and can better understand the surgery, he says.
Many doctors say they aren't ready to follow Dr. Alqahtani yet. Kirk Reichard, chairman of the pediatric-surgery committee for the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, notes that there are no data to show that surgery doesn't affect young children's long-term sexual maturation or cognitive functioning. The brain, particularly in growing children, is sensitive to nutrition and needs enough energy to mature properly. Nutrition also has the potential to affect hormones linked to sexual maturation.
Dr. Alqahtani says he has seen evidence of normal growth following the procedure in his under-14 patients, many of whom are now four years postsurgery.
"We will certainly use his experience to inform us in some ways, but [Dr. Alqahtani's work] won't take the place of trials," says Dr. Reichard.
One of the main criticisms from some weight-loss experts about performing the surgery on those under 14 is that changes in diet and exercise can prevent further weight gain. In addition, says Dr. Reichard, "there are a lot of other therapies short of surgery that can be helpful in managing" related medical conditions.
Saudi Arabia's Dr. Alqahtani says he requires his child patients to enroll in a weight-loss program for at least six months because patients able to lose even a bit tend to have better outcomes after surgery. But he says that by the time families come to him, their children have such substantial health problems it is generally too late for diet and exercise alone.
Dr. Alqahtani was trained as a surgeon at McGill University in Montreal and at a minimally invasive surgery center in Denver. When he returned home to Riyadh in 2002, he says, he was inundated with pediatric patients so obese they were suffering from advanced stages fatty liver disease, diabetes and sleep apnea, a disorder in which patients repeatedly stop breathing for short periods during sleep—all diseases typically not seen until middle age.
Om Abdullah Asiri says she tried to help her 11-year-old son lose weight by restricting his eating at home. But he would eat fast food while out with his friends and plays videogames for hours on end, she says. "I can't control him outside the home," she says.
He grew to 250 pounds. His body-mass index—a calculation that uses weight and height to estimate percentage of body fat—was 61. A BMI of 40 or above is the most severe obesity category, according to the World Health Organization.
Ms. Asiri traveled with her son, Abdullah, from their home in Abha, more than 600 miles south of Riyadh, to see Dr. Alqahtani for the operation. Lying on a hospital bed the day before his surgery, Abdullah said he is "happy and ready" for the surgery.
His mother says surgery is the best solution for Abdullah, who has high blood pressure, fatty liver, hip pain and severe sleep apnea. Afterward, he won't have a choice but to eat better, she says. "The surgery will make him change." She says he dreams of playing soccer with his friends.
The procedure Dr. Alqahtani performs is called the gastric sleeve, which slices off a portion of the stomach but leaves the rest of the digestive tract intact. It is gaining in popularity because of its good weight-loss results and minimal side effects. The operation, conducted through tiny incisions in the abdomen, takes him just 30 minutes.
“"When he starts crying, it's hard not to give him any of the food, to make the crying stop," says Daifailluh's mother.”
One recent morning, he operated on a 20-year-old, two 17-year-olds, a 12-year-old, then Abdullah, who was then 10.
Complications can include bleeding in about 10% of cases, and leaking and blood clots in 1% to 2%. Dr. Alqahtani says he has had only two leaks in 1,700 cases, neither in children.
Dr. Alqahtani says each of his pediatric patients has lost at least some weight, and nearly three-quarters have lost more than 50% of their initial body weight. Abdullah has lost close to 50 pounds since his surgery about two months ago, according to his 29-year-old brother, Ahmad.
Dr. Alqahtani says about 90% of his patients have seen medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension clear up, according to a paper scheduled for publication in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. He published outcomes on 108 children in the peer-reviewed Annals of Surgery journal in 2012.
Recovery involves a six-week transition diet starting with clear liquids and puréed food. Patients eventually can resume solid foods at much-reduced quantities. At first, patients feel full after just 1 to 2 spoonfuls of food, though they gradually can eat more as their stomachs stretch.
Some bariatric-surgery experts have raised questions about whether children are capable of maintaining the restrictive lifetime diet after surgery or whether they will sabotage the procedure when they become teenagers and have a greater autonomy to eat what they want. Some experts question whether parents should make such a drastic and permanent decision for a child.
The decision has been excruciating for the family of Daifailluh, the toddler from Ta'if. Daifailluh was referred to Dr. Alqahtani's clinic about two years ago after difficulty breathing sent him to the intensive-care unit at a hospital in his hometown. Doctors there determined the toddler was seriously overweight. His mother, Hessa Salem al-Bugami, says she tried to improve his diet but didn't have good guidance until she came to Dr. Alqahtani's clinic, a trip of nearly 500 miles from Ta'if. "I feel like I failed," she says.
At first, the family wanted Daifailluh to lose weight without the operation. Ms. Bugami says her son has always had an "open appetite" and never refuses food. She says she feeds him brown bread and boiled chicken and rice, and limits his portions, hiding the rest of the food. But his obesity hasn't improved, she says.
Daifailluh will cry and sometimes throw temper tantrums when he wants food, she says. She has tried distracting him with toys, locking the two of them in a room to play for so long she ended up missing her own meal.
"When he starts crying, it's hard not to give him any of the food, to make the crying stop," she says. "I feel like I work really hard, but it's just too much on me."
Daifailluh, who was hospitalized again for pulmonary problems, is waiting for a surgery date, which will come if he gets final medical clearance from Dr. Alqahtani.
The entire family is worried about the surgery, particularly the effects of anesthesia and whether the surgery will reduce his appetite too much. Ms. Bugami also worries that her son will regain the weight when he leaves the house eventually and is no longer under her watch.
But that is a concern for another day. "Right now is the most scary situation," she says.
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Sunday, 3/2 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
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Treatment Options for Pets With Cancer
The fast-food(= bad-food) for or pets are the pellets almost every pet in the developed country eat.
In the same manner as the fast-food (= bad-food) is bad for us human, so are the pellets bad and make our pets sick in a similar manner as we humans get sick when eating bad food.
Cats and dogs need natural food to stay healthy. Natural their needs.
THE DOGS:
The digestive system of domesticated dogs is not designed to eat processed or cooked food. Obviously wild animals do not cook their food. Cooked food or commercial dog food takes longer for dogs to digest than raw diets. In addition, the heat used to actually cook the food destroys enzymes and anti-oxidants.
click and read this article:
All-Natural Diet for Dogs If You're Not Doing It, You Should!
click:
Leerburg | All-Natural Diet for Dogs
Treatment Options for Pets With Cancer
Estimates are that one in two dogs or cats over age 10 will succumb to cancer, but therapies can extend a quality life for pets for months or even years.
FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Mackenzie is ready to play in the snow after one of many cancer treatments.
It’s the morning of Dec. 24, and Pete and Peggy Yarger have brought their 5-year-old Alaskan malamute Mackenzie for treatment at the Northeast Indiana Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Hospital in Fort Wayne.
The dog has cancer. And while a few years ago, that would have been a sad way indeed to spend the morning of Christmas Eve, today they have reason for hope.
Lying on his side on a blanket, Mackenzie is getting his next-to-last chemotherapy treatment through an intravenous line in his back leg.
In about 15 minutes, the session is done, and the dog, wearing a little melon-colored bandage, bounds to his feet and smothers his attendants with canine kisses.
“His heart and lungs sound good. His belly seems good,” said Dr. Amy Totten, a board-certified veterinary internist supervising the silver-furred canine’s care. “He’s doing excellent.”
Pete Yarger said that only goes to show how far things have come in just a few years.
“This isn’t our first go-round with cancer,” he told Fort Wayne Ind.-based The Journal Gazette, adding that a previous malamute named Buddy died of the disease. “That was awful,” he said.
These days, a cancer diagnosis doesn’t automatically mean a pet must suffer or be immediately euthanized, Totten said.
Although not all canine or feline cancers can be cured or treated, she said, for some pets, options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunological and nutritional support, and advanced pain management.
Many times, the therapies can extend a quality life for pets for months or even years.
The services are in demand. Estimates are that one in four dogs, and one in two dogs over age 10, will succumb to cancer.
Although it may seem as if the cancer incidence is going up, that’s partly because pets are living longer because of more committed owners and better veterinary care, said Dr. William Chastaine of Aboite Animal Hospital in Fort Wayne. Vets also have more diagnostic means at their disposal to detect cancer, Chastaine said.
“We, unfortunately, do see a lot (of cancer) in our senior pet population,” he said. “One of the dreaded things about veterinary medicine is doing a routine exam and finding something that turns out to be cancer. It’s not fun.
“It’s scary for pet owners,” he adds. “It’s an emotional time for them, depending on the prognosis, because pets are so much a part of people’s families. I just try to be compassionate and honest and not withhold the truth from them.”
Pet CancersTotten said pets get cancer for reasons that are unclear. But they include genetics, hormonal and environmental factors including exposure to sun and toxins, and viruses. Vaccines, food additives, unintended drug exposure and drug interactions, and even stress are also being investigated.
Pets can get cancer at any site where people can get it, although some spots are more common than others, Totten said.
“Probably the most common cancer we see is dogs who have cancer in their spleen,” she said. “We probably see at least one a week – there’s definitely an increased frequency in that problem.”
Lymphoma is another common cancer in dogs and cats, with the latter prone to intestinal manifestations. Lung and liver cancers, brain cancer, bone cancer, mast cell cancer and melanoma (skin cancer) are also found in pets. Pets also can develop breast cancer, though less commonly than humans; it’s been linked to late neutering.
One problem for pet guardians and their doctors, Totten said, is that the diagnosis often sneaks up on them. After all, pets can’t talk – and they often don’t otherwise complain or show signs they’re sick.
When they’re ill or in pain, Totten said, “animals are good at hiding it.” In the wild, a sick animal may be abandoned by its pack or quickly end up as prey. “Their instinct is to act as if they’re just fine,” she said.
But pets with cancer do show general signs, she said—lethargy, weakness and tiredness. They may vomit or stop eating, or have unusual bodily discharges.
Some cancers have specific signs. A lymphoma or mast cell cancer can show up as a lump or series of lumps. And if a dog has cancer of the spleen, it may rupture and bleed and fill the abdomen with fluid, making it tender and swollen.
Such signs shouldn’t be ignored, because, as with humans, earlier diagnosis often foretells longer survival, Totten said.
Mackenzie’s TreatmentFor the Yargers, the first sign was blood in Mackenzie’s stool. He was diagnosed with a colorectal tumor, which turned out to be B cell lymphoma.
The tumor was surgically removed, and the dog underwent a chemotherapy regimen known as the CHOP protocol developed by the University of Wisconsin veterinary school.
Totten calls the treatment, which is given once a week for eight weeks and then once every other week for eight more treatments, “probably the most well-known lymphoma protocol that there is.”
It uses three drugs—vincristine, cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin—and is generally well tolerated, Totten said.
The Yargers, residents of Hamilton, say their dog, adopted from a rescue organization, tends to be a little tired after treatment, but he bounces back.
Peggy Yarger said Mackenzie’s chemo is being augmented at home with medication and nutritional supplements designed to boost the dog’s immune system, which is depressed by the treatment.
The dog also gets a special diet of organic foods prepared by Peggy, who said she’s not above making the pet poached-egg snacks.
“The idea is to help his own body fight the cancer,” she said.
Not every owner of a pet with cancer chooses to treat it, Totten said.
“The most common reason is people don’t want to put their pet through that, or the pet is already elderly. But budget definitely comes into play,” she said, adding that lymphoma testing and treatment on the CHOP protocol averages about $5,000.
Most owners do not have pet insurance, she said, and while she knows of some national organizations that help with pet cancer costs, she’s not aware of any local group with that mission.
Still, lymphoma is one of the canine cancers considered most responsive to chemotherapy, Totten said.
About 80 percent of dogs with B cell lymphoma treated with the CHOP regimen go into remission.
Typically, survival time ranges upward from 12 months, including the time the dog spends in receiving chemo, she said.
Chastaine said he’s seen cases where a dog with lymphoma lived between two and three years longer because of treatment.
“That may not seem like a long time, but when you consider a dog’s normal lifespan, and considering those are dog years, that’s pretty good,” he said.
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Topic # 2 of 2
Cash for Kidneys:
The Case for a Legal Market for Organs
There is a clear remedy for the growing shortage of organ donors, say Gary S. Becker and Julio J. Elias
(1) Mr. Becker is a Nobel prize-winning professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
(2) Mr. Elias is an economics professor at the Universidad del CEMA in Argentina. _____________________
(1) The past year, 95,000 American men, women and children were on the waiting list for new kidneys, the most commonly transplanted organ.
(2) Yet only about 16,500 kidney transplant operations were performed that year
(3) Taking into account the number of people who die while waiting for a transplant, this implies
an average wait of 4.5 years for a kidney transplant in the U.S.
The situation is far worse than it was just a decade ago, when nearly 54,000 people were on the waiting list, with an average wait of 2.9 years. For all the recent attention devoted to the health-care overhaul, the long and growing waiting times for tens of thousands of individuals who badly need organ transplants hasn't been addressed.
Finding a way to increase the supply of organs would reduce wait times and deaths, and it would greatly ease the suffering that many sick individuals now endure while they hope for a transplant. The most effective change, we believe, would be to provide compensation to people who give their organs—that is, we recommend establishing a market for organs.
Organ transplants are one of the extraordinary developments of modern science. They began in 1954 with a kidney transplant performed at Brigham & Women's hospital in Boston. But the practice only took off in the 1970s with the development of immunosuppressive drugs that could prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. Since then, the number of kidney and other organ transplants has grown rapidly, but not nearly as rapidly as the growth in the number of people with defective organs who need transplants. The result has been longer and longer delays to receive organs.
Many of those waiting for kidneys are on dialysis, and life expectancy while on dialysis isn't long. For example, people age 45 to 49 live, on average, eight additional years if they remain on dialysis, but they live an additional 23 years if they get a kidney transplant. That is why in 2012, almost 4,500 persons died while waiting for kidney transplants. Although some of those waiting would have died anyway, the great majority died because they were unable to replace their defective kidneys quickly enough.
The toll on those waiting for kidneys and on their families is enormous, from both greatly reduced life expectancy and the many hardships of being on dialysis. Most of those on dialysis cannot work, and the annual cost of dialysis averages about $80,000. The total cost over the average 4.5-year waiting period before receiving a kidney transplant is $350,000, which is much larger than the $150,000 cost of the transplant itself.
Individuals can live a normal life with only one kidney, so about 34% of all kidneys used in transplants come from live donors. The majority of transplant kidneys come from parents, children, siblings and other relatives of those who need transplants. The rest come from individuals who want to help those in need of transplants.
In recent years, kidney exchanges—in which pairs of living would-be donors and recipients who prove incompatible look for another pair or pairs of donors and recipients who would be compatible for transplants, cutting their wait time—have become more widespread. Although these exchanges have grown rapidly in the U.S. since 2005, they still account for only 9% of live donations and just 3% of all kidney donations, including after-death donations. The relatively minor role of exchanges in total donations isn't an accident, because exchanges are really a form of barter, and barter is always an inefficient way to arrange transactions.
Exhortations and other efforts to encourage more organ donations have failed to significantly close the large gap between supply and demand. For example, some countries use an implied consent approach, in which organs from cadavers are assumed to be available for transplant unless, before death, individuals indicate that they don't want their organs to be used.
(The U.S. continues to use informed consent, requiring people to make an active declaration of their wish to donate.) In our own highly preliminary study of a few countries—Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile and Denmark—that have made the shift to implied consent from informed consent or vice versa, we found that the switch didn't lead to consistent changes in the number of transplant surgeries
The average cost of a kidney transplant is $150,000. Annual cost of dialysis: $80,000.
Other studies have found more positive effects from switching to implied consent, but none of the effects would be large enough to eliminate the sizable shortfall in the supply of organs in the U.S. That shortfall isn't just an American problem. It exists in most other countries as well, even when they use different methods to procure organs and have different cultures and traditions.
Paying donors for their organs would finally eliminate the supply-demand gap. In particular, sufficient payment to kidney donors would increase the supply of kidneys by a large percentage, without greatly increasing the total cost of a kidney transplant.
We have estimated how much individuals would need to be paid for kidneys to be willing to sell them for transplants. These estimates take account of the slight risk to donors from transplant surgery, the number of weeks of work lost during the surgery and recovery periods, and the small risk of reduction in the quality of life.
Our conclusion is that a very large number of both live and cadaveric kidney donations would be available by paying about $15,000 for each kidney. That estimate isn't exact, and the true cost could be as high as $25,000 or as low as $5,000—but even the high estimate wouldn't increase the total cost of kidney transplants by a large percentage.
Few countries have ever allowed the open purchase and sale of organs, but Iran permits the sale of kidneys by living donors. Scattered and incomplete evidence from Iran indicates that the price of kidneys there is about $4,000 and that waiting times to get kidneys have been largely eliminated. Since Iran's per capita income is one-quarter of that of the U.S., this evidence supports our $15,000 estimate. Other countries are also starting to think along these lines: Singapore and Australia have recently introduced limited payments to live donors that compensate mainly for time lost from work.
Since the number of kidneys available at a reasonable price would be far more than needed to close the gap between the demand and supply of kidneys, there would no longer be any significant waiting time to get a kidney transplant. The number of people on dialysis would decline dramatically, and deaths due to long waits for a transplant would essentially disappear.
Today, finding a compatible kidney isn't easy. There are four basic blood types, and tissue matching is complex and involves the combination of six proteins. Blood and tissue type determine the chance that a kidney will help a recipient in the long run. But the sale of organs would result in a large supply of most kidney types, and with large numbers of kidneys available, transplant surgeries could be arranged to suit the health of recipients (and donors) because surgeons would be confident that compatible kidneys would be available.
The system that we're proposing would include payment to individuals who agree that their organs can be used after they die. This is important because transplants for heart and lungs and most liver transplants only use organs from the deceased. Under a new system, individuals would sell their organs "forward" (that is, for future use), with payment going to their heirs after their organs are harvested. Relatives sometimes refuse to have organs used even when a deceased family member has explicitly requested it, and they would be more inclined to honor such wishes if they received substantial compensation for their assent.
The idea of paying organ donors has met with strong opposition from some (but not all) transplant surgeons and other doctors, as well as various academics, political leaders and others. Critics have claimed that paying for organs would be ineffective, that payment would be immoral because it involves the sale of body parts and that the main donors would be the desperate poor, who could come to regret their decision. In short, critics believe that monetary payments for organs would be repugnant.
But the claim that payments would be ineffective in eliminating the shortage of organs isn't consistent with what we know about the supply of other parts of the body for medical use. For example, the U.S. allows market-determined payments to surrogate mothers—and surrogacy takes time, involves great discomfort and is somewhat risky. Yet in the U.S., the average payment to a surrogate mother is only about $20,000.
Another illuminating example is the all-volunteer U.S. military. Critics once asserted that it wouldn't be possible to get enough capable volunteers by offering them only reasonable pay, especially in wartime. But the all-volunteer force has worked well in the U.S., even during wars, and the cost of these recruits hasn't been excessive.
Whether paying donors is immoral because it involves the sale of organs is a much more subjective matter, but we question this assertion, given the very serious problems with the present system. Any claim about the supposed immorality of organ sales should be weighed against the morality of preventing thousands of deaths each year and improving the quality of life of those waiting for organs. How can paying for organs to increase their supply be more immoral than the injustice of the present system?
Under the type of system we propose, safeguards could be created against impulsive behavior or exploitation. For example, to reduce the likelihood of rash donations, a period of three months or longer could be required before someone would be allowed to donate their kidneys or other organs. This would give donors a chance to re-evaluate their decisions, and they could change their minds at any time before the surgery. They could also receive guidance from counselors on the wisdom of these decisions.
Though the poor would be more likely to sell their kidneys and other organs, they also suffer more than others from the current scarcity. Today, the rich often don't wait as long as others for organs since some of them go to countries such as India, where they can arrange for transplants in the underground medical sector, and others (such as the lateSteve Jobs ) manage to jump the queue by having residence in several states or other means. The sale of organs would make them more available to the poor, and Medicaid could help pay for the added cost of transplant surgery.
The altruistic giving of organs might decline with an open market, since the incentive to give organs to a relative, friend or anyone else would be weaker when organs are readily available to buy. On the other hand, the altruistic giving of money to those in need of organs could increase to help them pay for the cost of organ transplants.
Paying for organs would lead to more transplants—and thereby, perhaps, to a large increase in the overall medical costs of transplantation. But it would save the cost of dialysis for people waiting for kidney transplants and other costs to individuals waiting for other organs. More important, it would prevent thousands of deaths and improve the quality of life among those who now must wait years before getting the organs they need.
Initially, a market in the purchase and sale of organs would seem strange, and many might continue to consider that market "repugnant." Over time, however, the sale of organs would grow to be accepted, just as the voluntary military now has widespread support.
Eventually, the advantages of allowing payment for organs would become obvious. At that point, people will wonder why it took so long to adopt such an obvious and sensible solution to the shortage of organs for transplant.
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Sunday, 3/9 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Radio Show
Topic # 1 of 3
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Sunday, 3/16 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
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The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
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Sunday, 4/6 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show Topic # 1 of 2 Civilization’s Starter Kit By LEWIS DARTNELL MARCH 29, 2014
I’M an astrobiologist*) — I study the essential building blocks of life, on this planet and others. But I don’t know how to fix a dripping tap, or what to do when the washing machine goes on the blink. I don’t know how to bake bread, let alone grow wheat. I’m utterly useless with my hands. My father-in-law used to joke that I had three degrees, but didn’t know anything about anything, whereas he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Life.
*) Click: Astrobiology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe: extraterrestrial life and life on Earth. This interdisciplinary field ...
Overview - Methodology - Life in the Solar System - Rare Earth hypothesis
It’s not just me. Many purchases today no longer even come with an instruction manual. If something breaks it’s easier to chuck it and buy a new model than to reach for the screwdriver. Over the past generation or two we’ve gone from being producers and tinkerers to consumers. As a result, I think we feel a sense of disconnect between our modern existence and the underlying processes that support our lives. Who has any real understanding of where their last meal came from or how the objects in their pockets were dug out of the earth and transformed into useful materials? What would we do if, in some science-fiction scenario, a global catastrophe collapsed civilization and we were members of a small society of survivors?
My research has to do with what factors planets need to support life. Recently, I’ve been wondering what factors are needed to support our modern civilization. What key principles of science and technology would be necessary to rebuild our world from scratch?
The great physicist Richard Feynman once posed a similar question: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.”
That certainly does encapsulate a huge amount of understanding, but it also wouldn’t be particularly useful, in a practical sense. So, allowing myself to be a little more expansive than a single sentence, I have some suggestions for what someone scrabbling around the ruins of civilization would need to know about basic necessities.
You would need to start with germ theory — the notion that contagious diseases are not caused by whimsical gods but by invisibly small organisms invading your body. Drinking water can be disinfected with diluted household bleach or even swimming pool chlorine. Soap for washing hands can be made from any animal fat or plant oil stirred with lye, which is soda from the ashes of burned seaweed combined with quicklime from roasted chalk or limestone. When settling down, ensure that your excrement isn’t allowed to contaminate your water source — this may sound obvious, but wasn’t understood even as late as the mid-19th century.
In the longer term, you’ll need to remaster the principles of agriculture and the ability to stockpile a food reserve and support dense cities away from the fields. The cereal crops that have sustained civilizations throughout history — wheat, rice and maize — are fast growing, perfect as fodder for livestock or, after processing, for human sustenance.
The millstone grinding grain into flour is a technological extension of our molar teeth. And when we bake bread or boil rice or pasta, we wield the transformative power of heat to help break down the complex molecules and release more easily absorbed nourishment. So in a sense, the pots and pans we use in the kitchen today are a pre-digestive system, processing what we consume so that it doesn’t poison us and maximizing the nutrition our body can extract.
Then there are the many materials society requires: How do you transform base substances like clay and iron into brick or concrete or steel, and then shape that material into a useful tool? To learn a small piece of this, I spent a day in a traditional, 18th-century iron forge, learning the essentials of the craft of the blacksmith. Sweating over an open coke-fired hearth, I managed to beat a lump of steel into a knife. Once shaped, I got it cherry-red hot and then quenched it with a satisfying squeal into a water trough, before reheating the blade slightly to temper it for extra toughness.
The first thing I did when I got home was to use the knife to slice some Cheddar and bread and make myself a grilled cheese. Unfortunately, the blade immediately developed a ruinous crack, and I’ve not had the nerve to use it again. But I made something real with my own hands and I’ve got a good idea of how to do it better next time.
Of course, it needn’t take a catastrophic collapse of civilization to make you appreciate the importance of understanding the basics of how devices around you work. Localized disasters can disrupt normal services, making a reasonable reserve of clean water, canned food and backup technologies like kerosene lamps a prudent precaution. And becoming a little more self-reliant is immensely rewarding in its own right. Thought experiments like these can help us to explore how our modern world actually came to be, and to appreciate all that we take for granted.
Take, for example, plain old glass — a wonder material that is somehow relatively strong and yet perfectly transparent. The recipe to create it is simple enough and uses some of the same ingredients as soap: a handful of silica (pure white sand, quartz or flint), some potash or soda ash (extracted by soaking wood or seaweed ash in water, straining the water and then boiling it down) and quicklime (roasted chalk or limestone); mix them together and bake in a kiln. Once the substance is fluid and bubble-free, you can form it into jars or bottles or window panes.
Glass also happens to be a crucial material for understanding the world, in the form of thermometers and test tubes, and even for manipulating light itself, when shaped into lenses for microscopes and telescopes — tools that are indispensable for science, including my own field of astrobiology. I may never have to practice the alchemy that transforms sand, soda and quicklime into this miraculous transparent membrane, but the world outside my window feels closer and more in focus for the knowing.
Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiology research fellow at the University of Leicester and the author of the forthcoming book “The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch.”
_____________ Topic # 2 of 2 Sunday, 4/6 /14 The Christian Penumbra Penumbra = a surrounding or adjoining region in which something exists in a lesser degree : fringe HERE is a seeming paradox of American life. One the one hand, there is a broad social-science correlation between religious faith and various social goods -- health and happiness, upward mobility, social trust, charitable work and civic participation.Yet at the same time, some of the most religious areas of the country — the Bible Belt, the deepest South — struggle mightily with poverty, poor health, political corruption and social disarray.
Part of this paradox can be resolved by looking at nonreligious variables like race. But part of it reflects an important fact about religion in America: The social goods associated with faith flow almost exclusively from religious participation, not from affiliation or nominal belief. And where practice ceases or diminishes, in what you might call America’s “Christian penumbra,” the remaining residue of religion can be socially damaging instead.
Consider, as a case study, the data on divorce. Earlier this year, a pair of demographers released a study showing that regions with heavy populations of conservative Protestants had higher-than-average divorce rates, even when controlling for poverty and race.
Their finding was correct, but incomplete. As the sociologist Charles Stokes pointed out, practicing conservative Protestants have much lower divorce rates, and practicing believers generally divorce less frequently than the secular and unaffiliated.
But the lukewarmly religious are a different matter. What Stokes calls “nominal” conservative Protestants, who attend church less than twice a month, have higher divorce rates even than the nonreligious. And you can find similar patterns with other indicators — out-of-wedlock births, for instance, are rarer among religious-engaged evangelical Christians, but nominal evangelicals are a very different story.
It isn’t hard to see why this might be. In the Christian penumbra, certain religious expectations could endure (a bias toward early marriage, for instance) without support networks for people struggling to live up to them. Or specific moral ideas could still have purchase without being embedded in a plausible life script. (For instance, residual pro-life sentiment could increase out-of-wedlock births.) Or religious impulses could survive in dark forms rather than positive ones — leaving structures of hypocrisy intact and ratifying social hierarchies, without inculcating virtue, charity or responsibility.
And it isn’t hard to see places in American life where these patterns could be at work. Among those working-class whites whose identification with Christianity is mostly a form of identity politics, for instance. Or among second-generation Hispanic immigrants who have drifted from their ancestral Catholicism. Or in African-American communities where the church is respected as an institution without attracting many young men on Sunday morning.
Seeing some of the problems in our culture through this lens might be useful for the religious and secular alike. For nonbelievers inclined to look down on the alleged backwardness of the Bible Belt, it would be helpful to recognize that at least some the problems they see at work reflect traditional religion’s growing weakness rather than its potency.
For believers, meanwhile, the Christian penumbra’s pathologies could just be seen as a kind of theological vindication — proof, perhaps, of the New Testament admonition that it’s much worse to be lukewarm than hot or cold.
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Sunday, 4/13 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 2
Article A (Article B next below)
China’s Poisonous Waterways BEIJING — Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been clouded by news of deaths — deaths of people I knew well. Some were still young, only in their 30s or 40s. When I returned to the village early last year, two people had just died, and a few others were dying.My father conducted an informal survey last year of deaths in our village, which has about 1,000 people, to learn why they died and the ages of the deceased. After visiting every household over the course of two weeks, he and two village elders came up with these numbers: Over 10 years, there were 86 cases of cancer. Of these, 65 resulted in death; the rest are terminally ill. Most of their cancers are of the digestive system. In addition, there were 261 cases of snail fever, a parasitic disease, that led to two deaths.
The Lanxi is lined with factories, from mineral processing plants to cement and chemical manufacturers. For years, industrial and agricultural waste has been dumped into the water untreated. I have learned that the grim situation along our river is far from uncommon in China.
The nation has more than 200 “cancer villages,” small towns like mine blanketed with factories where cancer rates have risen far above the national average. (Some researchers say there are more than 400 such villages.) Last year the Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged the problem of “cancer villages” for the first time, but this is of little comfort to my parents’ neighbors and millions like them around the country.
More than 50 percent of China’s rivers have disappeared altogether, and few of the surviving waterways are not completely polluted. Some 280 million Chinese people drink unsafe water, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Nearly half of the country’s rivers and lakes carry water that is unfit even for human contact.
And China’s cancer mortality rate has soared, climbing 80 percent in the last 30 years. About 3.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year, 2.5 million of whom die. Rural residents are more likely than urban residents to die of stomach and intestinal cancers, presumably because of polluted water. State media reported on one government inquiry that found 110 million people across the country reside less than a mile from a hazardous industrial site.
I have lived away from my hometown for years and only return for brief visits, usually during the Chinese New Year. I am becoming more and more a stranger there. And yet my journey as a fiction writer started from this humble place. It has been a literary gold mine for me, giving me endless inspiration. The once sweet and sparkling water of the Lanxi frequently appears in my work.
People used to bathe in the river, wash their clothes beside it, and cook with water from it. People would celebrate the dragon-boat festival and the lantern festival on its banks. The generations who’ve lived by the Lanxi have all experienced their own heartaches and moments of happiness, yet in the past, no matter how poor our village was, people were healthy and the river was pristine. ___________
ARTICLE B (Article A next above)
China's Rivers: Frontlines for Chemical Wastes Three months after a chemical plant explosion contaminated northeastern China's Songhua River, a second large spill occurred on the upper reaches of the Yuexi River in southeastern Sichuan province, releasing toxins into a 100-kilometer stretch near the city of Yibin and disrupting the water supply to area people.
China’s water pollution will be more difficult to fix than its dirty air
Although China’s air pollution keeps making headlines, its water pollution is just as urgent a problem. One-fifth of the country’s rivers are toxic, while two-fifths are classified as seriously polluted. In 2012 more than half of China’s cities had water that was “poor” or “very poor”. Last week China’s ministry of environmental protection announced a trillion-yuan (US$320 billion) plan to start dealing with this urgent issue.
The action plan, which is currently being drafted, will focus on curbing water pollution in the worst affected areas and preventing future pollution of the better conserved waters, deputy minister of environmental protection Zhai Qing said at a press conference.
Proposed measures reportedly include cutting industrial waste water discharge, improving sewage management in cities and introducing better treatment for polluted water in rural areas.
“The situation of China’s water environment is still very grim,” the deputy minister said, quoting the figures of China’s annual volume of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen emissions, common indicators of water quality. The current annual volumes of the two is 24 million tonnes and 2.45 million tonnes respectively, Zhai said.
According to China Business News, China will have to reduce its annual volumes of COD and ammonia nitrogen emissions by 30-50% before there’s any significant improvement of its water.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based green NGO, told chinadialogue that China’s waste water discharge has far exceeded the nation’s environmental bearing capacity and hence the incoming action plan is “very necessary”.
“Tackling water pollution is as serious and worthy a challenge for the authority as combating air pollution...water pollution poses a bigger health threat to about 300 million people living in rural areas, and many of them are vulnerable and disadvantaged,” Ma Jun said.
In June 2013, China’s national disease control authority confirmed that water pollution was responsible for the high cancer rates along the Huai River and its tributaries. Later in September, state news agency Xinhuareported that water pollution may be linked to the increase in cancer cases in more than 247 villages nationwide.
The worsening water pollution is fueling social discontent. On the same day that top environmental officials announced the action plan, the Associated Press reported that villagers in south-western Yunnan province had clashed with local police over a factory that was discharging waste water.
Though the action plan on water pollution aims to address public concerns over China’s deteriorating environment, it is not likely to see quick effects, experts have said.
“China’s water pollution is the byproduct of three decades’ rapid economic development. There is no doubt that the action plan will speed up the improvement of water quality, but it will take a very long time before any fundamental improvement occurs,” said Fu Tao, a water governance expert at Tsinghua University, in an interview with China Business Radio.
Ma Jun echoed Fu’s opinion by saying that water is more difficult to clean up than air. “The cleaning process will take longer and cost more, especially when the polluted water has entered the underground water circle,” he said.
“But we can borrow experience from the anti-air pollution campaign. Disclosing information, encouraging public participation, identifying pollution sources and reducing waste water discharges are all good places to start.”
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Article 2 of 2 The Smart Way to Do Fracking Plug leaks, run more tests and build better wells
New York state has a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. So do Los Angeles, Quebec and France. Polls show rising opposition to this controversial oil field technique, which cracks open rocks to free oil and natural gas, and some critics want it banned unless it can be proven safe.
Meanwhile, U.S. energy companies are drilling and fracking about 100 wells every day across much of the country. Whether you think that it is an economic godsend or fear that it is an environmental disaster, whether you spell it fracking or fraccing (as the energy industry prefers), that is a lot of holes in the ground.
Fracking is a fairly straightforward process. You drill a well straight down for a few thousand feet and gradually turn the shaft until it runs horizontally through the shale. Then you isolate a section of the rock and inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure. This makes the rock fracture—hence the name. The sand stays behind to prop open the new network of fractures, and oil and gas flow out.
Like it or not, fracking will continue. It is big business for giants such as Exxon MobilCorp. XOM +0.77% to smaller firms such as Range Resources Corp. RRC +1.62%From railroads to petrochemicals, many sectors of the economy are reliant on the business of the energy boom, creating a broad coalition to support it. Fracking generates middle-class jobs and pays checks to mineral-rights owners. It can help U.S. national security by making the country less reliant on foreign oil, and it provides plenty of relatively low-carbon, affordable energy that makes North America the envy of the world.
But fracking is an industrial process, and its many critics have some real and legitimate concerns about its impact on the environment and the communities near the wells.
Since we're fracking so much, what can we do to make it safer for people and the planet? I've asked this question, in one form or another, to hundreds of engineers, executives, academics and environmentalists since touring my first frack site more than a decade ago. I've heard many answers. Here are three that seem eminently reasonable.
Fix the leaks.
Natural gas is an efficient fuel, and burning it emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than burning coal. But natural gas is mostly methane, a very potent contributor to climate change. If too much methane leaks, natural gas stops being part of a climate solution and becomes part of the problem.
We don't really know how much methane is leaking from wells and pipelines. A recent article in the journal Science suggested that leakage rates are well above current federal estimates.
"If you want to argue that gas is part of the climate solution, you have to deal with methane leakage," says Hal Harvey, chief executive of Energy Innovations LLC, a policy and technology consultant. The good news, he adds: "It's a plumbing problem. It's not thermodynamics." Making a power plant twice as efficient is difficult engineering; cutting methane leakage in half isn't. You just find the leaks and plug them.
Some companies are ready to comply. "When you keep methane in the pipe, not only is it the right thing to do, but you capture it for sale," says Ted Brown, senior vice president of Noble Energy Inc. NBL +1.29% The Houston company is the largest oil and gas producer in Colorado, which recently proposed new air-emission rules. Noble plans to hire 16 full-time employees to use infrared cameras to find leaks around its wells and pipelines.
Methane also contributes to smog, and Denver's air quality is deteriorating. Tackling smog would create a visible sign of the industry's efforts to run a tighter ship.
Get better data.
Fights over whether fracking contaminates groundwater are bitter and divisive. Many people who live near fracking sites worry that their health is at risk. The only way to take these concerns off the table—or fix problems as they arise—is to require more testing, especially before drilling starts.
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a joint effort of major operators, environmental groups and foundations, says that it is critical to test groundwater before drilling begins and then for at least a year afterward.
"We want to say, 'Here's the data, it speaks for itself,' " says Susan Packard LeGros, executive director of the group, which counts Chevron Corp. CVX +1.54% , the Environmental Defense Fund and the William Penn Foundation among its partners.
Requiring independent tests of water before drilling begins makes sense, says Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas. "It would be good for companies because it protects them from abusive false claims," he says. "It would also give the local community peace of mind and evidence to take action if they need to take action."
Testing should go further, he says. Before-and-after air sampling could identify locations that release toxic compounds. Surveys of community-health metrics could help identify ways in which concentrated drilling activity harms nearby residents—or dispel misconceptions and worries.
Mr. Webber says that requiring this kind of testing would also create valuable data on water resources and environmental quality across the country, something that doesn't now exist. "We have big data in everything in life except for our natural resources and the environment," he says.
Build better wells.
In 2012, Claude Cooke called me after an article I wrote about poorly built gas wells. He is one of nine men whom the Society of Petroleum Engineers has honored as a "Legend of Hydraulic Fracturing."
He said that people worried that the cracks in the rock caused by fracking would cause environmental problems. This fear was misplaced, he said: Fracking takes place miles below the surface of the earth or any potable aquifer.
"If there is a problem, the issue is well integrity," he said, and most likely a problem with the cement placed around wells to prevent any fluid or gas from migrating upward. Faulty cement doomed the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico and led to the death of 11 men and the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
California has set an interesting example in ensuring that wells are built well. Last year, when the state published interim regulations on fracking, chief among them were steps to ensure a well's integrity, including testing its cement.
Mr. Cooke says that more can be done to make sure that a well is safe and secure—and built to last for decades. After all, the U.S. is drilling 100 new wells a day. It would be a colossal problem if they were unsound.
The industry figured out how to extract abundant energy from the densest rocks imaginable. Now it has a chance to do something even more audacious: to show that it can provide that energy in a safe, clean way.
—Mr. Gold covers the energy industry for The Wall Street Journal and is the author of "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World," to be published by Simon & Schuster on April 8,2014
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Sunday, 4/20 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 3
BUSINESS
Fish Farming Explores Deeper, Cleaner Waters Norwegian Salmon Producer SalMar Is Exploring the Use of Offshore Platforms - "The day when the oil and gas production is over, fishing is an industry that will remain for eternity."
SalMar ASA is a Norwegian fish farm company. It holds 52 licenses for atlantic salmon in Norway, located in Trøndelag, Nordmøre and, through the subsidiary Senja Sjøfarm AS, Troms. Click: Wikipedia
Click Salmar (the Norwegian language text can be translated to any major language just by clicking the translate sign)
Norwegian fish farmer SalMar has been working two years on creating oil-rig-like structures that can harvest salmon in more free-flowing waters, reducing disease and pollution concerns.
FRØYA, Norway—Salmon farmers, swimming in profits, are looking for better ways to raise their fish.
Amid growing global demand for food, aquaculture companies aim to be bigger players by investing in new feeding processes and betting on elaborate new farming techniques. By 2016, for instance, SalMar — one of the world's largest salmon producers—will launch a pricey and largely untested offshore fishing platform designed by a longtime oil executive.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, has grown faster than the wild-catch industry in recent decades, and Norway's fish farmers benefited as the nation has become the second-largest exporter of farmed fish behind China. Global output of aquaculture expanded 12-fold between 1980 and 2010 to 60 million tons, while captured fish intake stabilized at 90 million tons, according to the latest data available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks fish production.
Total fish trade, including both fish farming and wild catch, grew to $217.5 billion in 2010 from $71.5 billion in 2004, the organization said.
At last count, fish farming accounted for 47% of global fish production, compared to 9% of the stock in 1980, with salmon farmers representing the fastest-growing segment of the industry as their product has grown well beyond being a luxury item.
But current farming techniques might be limiting the industry's ability to keep up with demand. Government farming quotas—largely aimed at limiting fish disease and pollution from fish farms—cap the output of companies such as SalMar, a Norwegian competitor that ranks as the biggest farmer in the world.
Supply constraints have boosted prices at a time when salmon is becoming a common source of protein world-wide. Global salmon consumption is now three times higher than it was in 1980, according to the World Wildlife Fund. That leads to big paydays for farmers, but there is concern the good times may come to an end.
Gunnar Myrebøe, SalMar's platform designer, spent much of his career overseeing development at Norwegian oil giant before turning to aquaculture after learning of the idea of a fish-farming platform. "We had to do something like this, otherwise the industry would never be able to grow," he said
Conventional fish farms essentially consist of a floating ring onto which a net is fastened. These constructions are placed in fjords or close to the ocean shore, with each net holding hundreds of thousands of fish. Water flow is more limited in these farms than in the open sea, which can lead to problems such as disease and pollution.
SalMar's farming platform is one of the few "quantum leaps" on the horizon for addressing these issues, Mr. Myrebøe said.
The offshore farm will resemble a modern-day oil platform. Weighing 5,600 metric tons and standing 220 feet tall, the farming platform would be anchored half submerged far offshore so that water can flow freshly through the community of growing fish. They would also be equipped with the same type of nets used to repel sharks.
According to SalMar, the oil-rig-inspired anchoring technology allows the net to stand almost still in waves that are up to nine meters, or about 30 feet, high, and the fish "simply can't escape."
One of the biggest environmental challenges in salmon farming is the risk of escapes. The fish that escape can potentially mate with wild species, which can lead to genetic changes and the possible extinction of certain populations.
The costly platform proposal is only in the initial phase of testing. While a platform could theoretically hold seven times as many fish as a conventional net, about 1.6 million, there is no guarantee that salmon lice—a parasite that is one of the main concerns for farmers—will be reduced.
SalMar co-founder Gustav Witzøe estimates the first platform could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and is currently in talks with shipyards in an effort to secure a builder. One key consideration for the project, said Mr. Myrebøe, is whether the new project qualifies for so-called green concessions that Norway hands out for sustainable projects.
Norwegian officials have expressed a desire to expand the salmon farming industry, and researchers claim the country's production could be sixfold by 2050.
Marine Harvest, SalMar's bigger rival, recently announced a plan to purify all salmon feed—a practice not yet widely employed—to help boost salmon consumption in certain groups, such as pregnant women. The Bergen, Norway-based company is also working on extending the time smolt, or newborn fish, live in indoor pools, to reduce exposure to diseases.
As Norwegian companies work on new farming techniques, Denmark's Atlantic Sapphire A/S last year started selling salmon nurtured entirely indoors. Thue Holm, a biologist who co-founded the company, said indoor farming—using pools where temperature and water flow are regulated—"might do a better job than the sea."
At the same time, indoor fish are likely to be higher price and smaller in size.
Bendik Fyhn Terjesen, a researcher at the Norwegian food research institute Nofima, said the future of fish farming is "a combination of different approaches, including partly onshore farming, offshore farming, and breeding of special types of fish that eat salmon lice."
Mr. Holm agrees: "It will be like tomatoes—which are grown in [both] greenhouses and on open land."
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has called on producers to boost output while addressing concerns about disease, pollution and escapes.
"If we do not initiate a concerted effort to increase aquaculture sector growth, and do it more sustainably than ever, the per capita fish consumption will decrease," said Arni Mathiesen, an administrator with the FAO. "This, I believe, would be disastrous as well as unacceptable."
To get governmental permits to expand, however, Norwegian fish farming has to become more environmentally sound.
During a recent trip in the Arctic, Norway's fisheries minister, Elisabeth Aspaker, said the nation—rich in oil and gas resources—needs to give more attention to an industry that will clearly outlast fossil fuels.
"The day when the oil and gas production is over, fishing is an industry that will remain for eternity."
Topic # 2 of 3
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show/4/20/13
Lucy Brown on the Neuroscience of Love To Dr. Lucy Brown, dopamine cells are the most beautiful sight in the world. When she looks under the microscope she sees a universe of stars. The dopamine cells are like florescent green stars, she said, stars with little oblong arms. More important, dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the sensation of falling in love.
Brown, 68, is a neuroscientist and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She lives on City Island, a quiet, maritime community filled with fresh seafood restaurants and yacht clubs. Although a New Yorker for 48 years, Brown still finds a stroll through Times Square one of her most joyous things to do in Manhattan. The flashing lights remind her of neurons dashing along axons.
Brown once majored in philosophy. She views scientific inquiry through contemplative eyes, brightened by black cat-rimmed glasses. She broke ground as one of the first neuroscientists to study the brain in love. She conducted the research with her best friend, Helen Fisher, whom she met at a menopause conference some years ago.
Fisher teaches Biological Anthropology at Rutgers University and also serves as chief scientific adviser to Match.com. The two scientists posted their 15 years of findings on their website, The Anatomy of Love. Clinics have used their studies to better understand types of drug addiction and depression that find their source in heartbreak.
At her age, Brown feels that she has something important to tell the world: it is okay to feel heartbreak. In fact, it only happens because you need it to happen. Brown said there is a physiological explanation for everything, and if more people understood the physiology of their emotions, perhaps the world would be more at peace.
That is the premise of her current project—a virtual, giant, walk-through brain.
Virtual BrainShe doesn’t just want to disclose her findings to academics who read scientific journals. Brown and Fisher are currently working on The Virtual Giant Walk-Through Brain, which will be a website that allows visitors to take a virtual tour through the human brain in a series of 3-D animated games.
It will take a user through the brain’s many pathways, factories, and circuits that create our memories, vision, and feelings.
Part One, with a planned launch in September, will tour the limbic system—the part of the brain that controls our emotions, motivation, and long-term memory.
In the next five years, a series of games on the visual system, memory system, and clinical issues will follow. “It’s a never-before-attempted way to teach about the brain,” Brown said. “You can teach difficult anatomy in the context of romantic love, which is something everyone is interested in.”
The brain scans from years of research on romantic love, rejection, and long-term attachment show that the act of falling in love is controlled by the same part of the brain that controls when to breath and swallow. “Love is in the most basic part of our system, the same system that controls our swallowing. It’s that basic,” she said. “Nature built it as a part of our survival mechanism.”
Idyllic Childhood
She knows something about surviving depression. In some respects, Brown enjoyed a bucolic childhood on a farm in Cambridge, Mass. It was a childhood filled with the warm smell of buttery milk, fresh and slightly frothy, collected in stainless steel buckets. It was a childhood spent playing with the soft ears of furry animals.
Then, when she was 7, her mother passed away from breast cancer. Her father fell into depression, and she had to spend a part of her childhood with a guardian, a Harvard professor and friend of the family. Every evening at 6 p.m., she and her guardian would discuss what books they were reading. It greatly influenced her intellectual pursuits.
She had the best of both worlds, intellectual rigor and the freedom of rural life. Despite this, Brown felt no one really told her about one important aspect of a full and satisfying life: love and relationships. “People say generation X and Y need courses on relationships because of all the technology,” Brown said. “But I wish I would have taken a course on relationships; I wish I would have gotten truly wise advice.”
A Second Chance Profound grief befell Brown when her husband of 33 years passed away eight years ago. A mutual friend also lost his wife around the same time. They often met to talk about what it was like to lose a long-term spouse.
“Suddenly, we were in love with each other,” she said. When she realized she had feelings for him, she had her brain scanned. “My brain showed that I was very much in love.” They’ll be married four years in August.
“It’s part of nature’s imperative for us,” she said. “You can fall in love again if you need to.”
Topic # 3 of 3
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show/4/20/13
Walmart Will Enter Cash Wiring Business
Walmart announced on Thursday,4/17/14 that it would allow customers to make store-to-store money transfers within the United States.
In a move that threatens to upend another piece of the financial services industry, Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, announced on Thursday that it would allow customers to make store-to-store money transfers within the United States at cut-rate fees.
This latest offer, aimed largely at lower-income shoppers who often rely on places like check-cashing stores for simple transactions, represents another effort by the giant retailer to carve out a space in territory that once belonged exclusively to traditional banks.
In this instance, competitors like longtime wire-transfer companies were the immediate target: MoneyGram’s stock fell more than 17 percent on the news; Western Union’s went down about 5 percent.
Walmart has become a big player in alternative financial products, especially those that cater to people with little or no access to banks, like prepaid debit cards, check cashing and now, the new cash transfer program, called “Walmart-2-Walmart.”
Lower-income consumers have been a core demographic for Walmart, but in recent quarters those shoppers have turned increasingly to dollar stores.
“Walmart-2-Walmart leverages our existing footprint and the large-scale systems that our company can bring to bear to enable a low-cost service such as this,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart United States.
More than 29 percent of households in the United States did not have a savings account in 2011, and about 10 percent of households did not have a checking account, according to a study sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. And while alternative financial products give consumers access to services they might otherwise be denied, people who are shut out of the traditional banking system sometimes find themselves paying high fees for transactions as basic as cashing a check.
Alternatives to banks have sprung up in many unlikely places in recent years. Costco offers mortgages, for example, and Home Depot provides loans to help customers finance improvement projects. Walmart actually sought a banking charter for years before abandoning the effort in 2007.
“In many cases, these services crop up in response to demand, but it’s also a space that’s less regulated,” said Suzanne Martindale, a staff lawyer at Consumers Union, an advocacy group. “There may be weak protections or a patchwork of protections.”
Walmart said that its new service, especially for larger money transfers, will be cheaper than the alternatives. Transfers of up to $50 will cost $4.50 and transfers of up to $900 — the maximum amount customers can send in a day — will cost $9.50.
According to a fee estimator on Western Union’s website, sending $900 within the United States could cost as much as $76 when done in person. MoneyGram’s website estimated that the same transaction would cost $73.
Walmart already offered customers a way to transfer money in its stores, through a partnership with MoneyGram. Unlike Walmart-2-Walmart, MoneyGram does not have a $900 limit and it allows for transfers to other countries.
Mr. Eckert said using MoneyGram would remain an option for Walmart customers. In its annual report, MoneyGram said that Walmart accounted for 27 percent of its total fee and investment revenue last year.
Financial services make up a relatively small portion of Walmart’s overall revenue, and some analysts said the wire transfer program could ultimately be more consequential for other wire-transfer companies like MoneyGram and Western Union than the retailer.
Michelle Buckalew, a spokeswoman at MoneyGram, said in a statement that the company would not change its own prices in response to Walmart’s announcement.
In a statement, Western Union said that domestic money transfers accounted for only about 8 percent of the company’s revenue in 2013. Both Western Union and MoneyGram pointed out that they had hundreds of thousands of affiliated locations globally. Walmart has more than 4,000 stores in the United States.
Ria Money Transfer, a subsidiary of the payment company Euronet Worldwide, will be Walmart’s partner for this program.
Last week, Walmart said it would begin selling organic pantry items, like tomato paste and apple sauce, for the same price as comparable nonorganic items, undercutting organic competitors. Given Walmart’s size and the quantities of its orders, that initiative is likely to have far-reaching effects on the price of organic ingredients for years to come.
All of Walmart’s U.S. stores, including its smaller, neighborhood market stores, will begin offering the in-house money transfer service on April 24.
Faye Landes, an analyst at the Cowen Group, said that since customers on both the sending and the receiving end of these payments would have to be physically in Walmart’s stores, they might do a little shopping while there.
“This and the organic initiative are large-scale efforts both to drive traffic and to make a statement that they have very, very low prices on things people care about,” Ms. Landes said. “They’ve had five straight quarters of negative traffic in the U.S., so every little bit helps.”
Mr. Eckert of Walmart said that the program was not aimed at increasing traffic in stores, but acknowledged that it was a possibility.
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Sunday, 4/27/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 1
Wildlife Gives a Wake Up Call
for Our Survival
Click the green title above to see the pictures. If the link has expired search with the title.
Wildlife photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson give a wake up call about climate change, talking about their travels to remote parts of the world
Lessons from conservation photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
His voice carries a palpable sense of urgency, “We are in the eleventh hour!” he says. His passion for life undeniable, “Honoring life, is more important than any interpretation of life,” Cyril Christo continues as he shares snippets of his life story, his raison d’être.
The poet, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, wildlife photographer, and son of the renowned artist-couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude does not care for fame (he grew up with it) or even for the permanence of his work, he explains. “If we could stop the ivory trade, I would burn every [photo] negative tomorrow,” he says. Representations of wildlife essentially do not matter. He would rather see those animals thriving in their natural habitat. He writes, photographs, and films to inspire others in a call to action.
“We have to have a Marshall Plan immediately for how we treat the earth, for utter respect and survival.” About 40,000 African elephants are killed every year—that is, one every 15 minutes—at the hands of poachers. At that rate, elephants could become extinct within just 10 years.
If only time could be extended so as to fully grasp the rich tapestry of all the stories Christo begins to tell, but are left trailing. Time spent in nature in all its plethora of wonder and beauty can leave you tranquil and amazed. It’s incredibly challenging to be able to communicate that experience. Christo tries to convey how intricately interconnected nature is.
Each line of thought could turn into a lengthy poem with a powerful purpose. Each leads to the same conclusion: respect life. Christo recounts a lucid dream with words that left a profound impression, “Hold on to the waters of life.”
Animals signal and warn us of climate change because “they form part of the immune system of our planet,” he says. Melting arctic ice leaves polar bears starving to death in their shrinking habitat. With forests dwindling, some tigers have gone rogue, hunting people instead of calves, like the so-called man-eating tiger in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states in recent months.
There are only about 3,200 tigers left, compared to 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. Only about 15,000 wild lions are left in Africa, compared to 200,000 just 30 years ago.
Africa’s forest elephant plays a key role in maintaining the second largest rainforest in the world in the Congo Basin. Those rainforests are the lungs of earth. The seeds of forest trees can only germinate after passing through an elephant’s digestive tract. “So we have all sorts of climactic ramifications with the loss of 80 to 90 percent of the forest elephant,” Christo says.
What has concerned Christo and conservationists for years is starting to get through to some world leaders. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a U.N. report on March 31 warning that the state of the environment is reaching a tipping point. The Obama administration says it is taking this new report as a call for action, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying, “The costs of inaction are catastrophic.”
That message echoes what Christo learned from Hopi, Navaho, and Apache elders, who told him that the next five years are crucial. The year 2020 could be the point of no return. For Christo, that means a climate bill.
Conservation Power CoupleChristo generates all of his projects with his wife, Marie Wilkinson, an architect who started taking photographs as a hobby. Their sideline soon developed into books, films, and campaigns. They vigorously opposed the ivory trade and protested bad environmental bills put forward in the Legislature of New Mexico where the couple lives.
They have traveled twice around the world, especially where there are no electric lights, where more stars can be seen, where the thunderous roar of lions wakes up your soul, and where indigenous elders have profound lessons to teach us.
“Slowly we started to entwine,” Wilkinson says. That is evident in the way they converse with each other—synergistic and full of energy. “How we got into elephants is because of looking at indigenous people, how we got into indigenous people is how we were looking at culture and place. … It became quite clear that different cultures had different stories that showed an incredible understanding and respect and connection to the places that they lived,” Wilkinson explains.
Christo elaborates, “Native people have a near mystical understanding and appreciation of animals. And we have made them, since the French enlightenment, into almost robotic beings to be dissected and things to be manipulated.”
Nanfang Daily, a local newspaper in Zhanjian, in China’s Guangdong Province, recently published a shocking report. A party of local officials and well-heeled folks had a “fun day” by electrocuting at least 10 tigers. They called it “visual feast” entertainment. The tigers’ body parts were then given away as expensive gifts or sold on the black market.
In sharp contrast, Christo and Wilkinson strive to reverse that depravity, the popular trend of dominating the forces of nature. As artists and conservationists, they encourage us to understand and “incorporate those forces” instead.
In Predatory LightReading Christo and Wilkinson’s third and latest book, “In Predatory Light: Lions, Tigers and Polar Bears” (review)— one of Amazon’s Top 10 nature and photography titles of 2013—becomes a visceral, cinematic experience, taking the reader to a place and time when humans and predators cohabited peaceably. Christo and Wilkinson call it a truce.
“The lions would go to the water hole at night and the Bushmen would go drink during the day when it was warm and there would never be antagonism,” Christo wrote. There is the tale of a tiger in the Gir forest of India that would regularly hunker down by a sadhu’s temple to listen to the bell being rung every evening.
Christo and Wilkinson take black and white photographs, they do not alter them, and they develop their images from celluloid negatives. The images have a raw beauty to them.
The couple might wait for days or even weeks to photograph a tiger. “The thing about the tiger is: you can go looking for a tiger, but you are not going to find a tiger. The tiger is going to choose to reveal itself,” Wilkinson says. The couple would drive through the woods for hours and hours through Bandhavgarh National Park in India. Then at the most unexpected moment a huge, vibrant, tiger would suddenly appear. In seconds Wilkinson would barely get her camera ready before the tiger would disappear into the forest—just as quickly as it had appeared.
Describing her encounter, she conveys how predators command respect. “They look straight at you. It’s like they look into your soul. They are both knowing and menacing. You don’t mess with them, even if you want to scratch them behind the ear,” Wilkinson says.
In their natural environment predators are not prone to killing humans in the way that some humans are prone to killing them for sheer entertainment or blood money. “We understand now the disorder that we are living throughout the entire world, that kids are undergoing, is because we don’t have that millennial relationship with the organic world,” Christo says.
Traveling ChildhoodChristo encountered that organic world at a young age. He grew up shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic between France, Tunisia, and New York.
In Paris his family lived near the Guimet Museum, which was full of Asian artifacts; he lived in a small castle with lots of books in northern France; in New York City, he lived in a loft with rats running around and where he played with his father’s paintbrushes; he saw Bedouins in southern Tunisia, ate couscous, and swam with his favorite uncle. He called these and other temporary residences “a little bit of the best of the New World and the Old World.”
When he turned 15, Christo tired of New York City and trekked to Africa to climb Mount Kenya with other students in an international exchange program. They started at 10,000 feet and climbed up to 13,000 feet the first day. Christo carried a 40-pound backpack in a downpour for nine hours through what he calls a “miasma of pure mud and hell.” The next day they went up to 17,000 feet and survived the first of many, in his words, “amazing trials.”
He contemplated the volcanic Chyulu hills overlooking Kilimanjaro, and a parade of elephants going right by his tent. He heard lions roaring at night. “It’s an acoustic blast summoning you to the beginning of time,” he recalls. He says that whole experience “moves in your spirit for the rest of your life.” That experience, bigger than himself, strengthened Christo’s character, and instilled in him a sense of purpose.
Despite, or maybe because of, his extraordinary background and journey growing up, Christo has a humble demeanor. “I wasn’t trained to do anything, but wanted to verbalize concerns, to try to remind people how extraordinary the world is,” he says. In some ways he has learned more from traveling than from his studies at Columbia University where he felt “a bit discombobulated.”
Lessons From the Elders Christo and Wilkinson have developed an immense appreciation for nature in its stark contrast to a world where people think they would be at a loss without their smartphones and other gadgets, where obesity is on the rise, and where children spend more time playing video games than playing outdoors.
They discovered that the Maasai, the semi-nomadic people in Kenya and Tanzania, do not even have a term for nature because the Maasai don’t see a separation. They know how to farm in the deserts and scrublands. Their invaluable survival skills may finally be recognized as a way to cope with climate change.
Like the Maasai, the Inuit in the Arctic regions understand that everything is reciprocal. “The life force for the Inuit is also part of the mind. If you don’t respect the weather, it affects your mind. If you don’t respect the polar bear, your spirit is upset,” Christo says.
A San Bushman baby of southern Africa receives the name of the first star seen at the baby’s birth, he says. This close connection to the cosmos gets lost in an urban environment. In the big city, city lights wipe out the starlight.
Today, people are unable to see the whole picture. Christo says we only see bits and pieces of what’s important. “The Samburu elders, who have their totem called the elephant, said that we [in the modern world] are interested in body parts.”
People kill tigers for their fur, or claws, teeth, bones, whiskers, and whatever else to make medicines. Poachers kill elephants for one relatively small body part: their tusks. The illegal ivory trade fuels half a billion dollars in annual profit (video: God’s Ivory).
“What we lost is the association with life. The modern world does not honor truly anything, to be quite frank. It honors profit and that is something that is costing the life force itself. We will not be able to survive without the other beings,” Christo says.
Humans as well as other living beings depend on a survivable environment. “There’s no amount of money that can supplant a species, an ecosystem, a river, what the Amazon gives us, the phytoplankton.” It seems we are stuck in an ethos of scarcity with the false assumption that profit can only be gained through destruction.
Although the IPCC report, put together by 1,250 experts, gives a grim assessment, it assures that a climate change catastrophe can be prevented without sacrificing living standards. If we have the willpower, we have the capacity and the green technology to turn the tide. It could even be profitable—in a sustainable way. Secretary of State Kerry contends that the global energy market represents a $6 trillion opportunity and that investment in the energy sector could reach nearly $17 trillion by 2035.
But to turn that tide requires concerted action, and that action can only stem from a broader understanding of nature and ourselves. Christo recalls, “The Native American elders say, ‘Do not fight against yourselves, you will have enough to deal with Mother Nature.’”
Climate change will contribute to escalating global security problems, like strife and fights over resources, like water, the Nobel Peace Prize-winningIPCC reports.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What kind of relationship do we want?’ because we are creating a society that destroys relationships. … The alienation is also with those other beings that are not human but that have an immense amount of things to teach us about who we are,” Christo says.
Those predators keep us in check. If we eliminate the last predators on earth, Christo argues humans will be in danger of self-cannibalizing. “We’ve got to honor existence again or otherwise we won’t even be in survival mode. We will be in a mode we have to make sure we don’t strangle each other. We are not thriving,” he adds.
Overcoming Obstacles, Creating for the FutureThe immediacy conveyed in Christo’s voice also shows a hint of anxiety and frustration with the obstacles he’s confronted with. He calls it an “incredible parochialism of the mass lack of imagination” of those who are not concerned about climate change. He wants to make sure the earth will be sustainable for his own son and for the future of all children.
Christo and Wilkinson are now looking to fund a feature film, titled “Walking Thunder: The Last Stand of the African Elephant.” They are dedicating it to their 8-year-old son, Lysander, who learned to walk in Africa. It will be a personal vision based on their encounters with the native people of East Africa and the importance of the elephant to the human condition.
Christo and Wilkinson say, “We are going to go a lot further with this next film. What does the future of the elephant have to do with the future of childhood? The answer is: absolutely everything! Civilization will stand or fall on the back of the African elephant.”
For more information about Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson: http://www.christoandwilkinsonphotography.com/
Read more: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/629074-wildlife-gives-a-wake-up-call-for-our-survival/?photo=2#ixzz306BR9Jt3
Follow us: @EpochTimes on Twitter | epochtimes on Facebook
Click to see the pictures if the link has expired search with the title+ The Epoch Times Wildlife Gives a Wake Up Call for Our Survival - Epoch Timeswww.theepochtimes.com/.../629074-wildlife-gives-a-wake-up-call-for-o...
Apr 19, 2014 - Wildlife photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson give a wake up call about climate change, talking about their travels to remote parts of
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Sunday, 5/4 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 2
Raising a Moral Child
Click green web links for further info
What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example click: research suggests*) that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and become more motivated.
*) Abstract from the research study: Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) - Look fur further info click: research suggests
Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority for most parents. We’re much more concerned about our children becoming kind, compassionate and helpful. Surveys reveal that in the United States, parents from European, Asian, Hispanic and African ethnic groups all place far greater importance on caring than achievement. These patterns hold around the world: When people in 50 countries were asked to report their guiding principles in life, the value that mattered most was not achievement, but caring.
Despite the significance that it holds in our lives, teaching children to care about others is no simple task. In an Israeli study of nearly 600 families, parents who valued kindness and compassion frequently failed to raise children who shared those values.
Are some children simply good-natured — or not? For the past decade, I’ve been studying the surprising success of people who frequently help others without any strings attached. As the father of two daughters and a son, I’ve become increasingly curious about how these generous tendencies develop.
Genetic twin studies suggest that anywhere from a quarter to more than half of our propensity to be giving and caring is inherited. That leaves a lot of room for nurture, and the evidence on how parents raise kind and compassionate children flies in the face of what many of even the most well-intentioned parents do in praising good behavior, responding to bad behavior, and communicating their values.
By age 2, children experience some moral emotions — feelings triggered by right and wrong. To reinforce caring as the right behavior, research indicates, praise is more effective than rewards. Rewards run the risk of leading children to be kind only when a carrot is offered, whereas praise communicates that sharing is intrinsically worthwhile for its own sake. But what kind of praise should we give when our children show early signs of generosity?
Many parents believe it’s important to compliment the behavior, not the child — that way, the child learns to repeat the behavior. Indeed, I know one couple who are careful to say, “That was such a helpful thing to do,” instead of, “You’re a helpful person.”
But is that the right approach? In a clever experiment, the researchers Joan E. Grusec and Erica Redler set out to investigate what happens when we commend generous behavior versus generous character. After 7- and 8-year-olds won marbles and donated some to poor children, the experimenter remarked, “Gee, you shared quite a bit.”
The researchers randomly assigned the children to receive different types of praise. For some of the children, they praised the action: “It was good that you gave some of your marbles to those poor children. Yes, that was a nice and helpful thing to do.” For others, they praised the character behind the action: “I guess you’re the kind of person who likes to help others whenever you can. Yes, you are a very nice and helpful person.”
A couple of weeks later, when faced with more opportunities to give and share, the children were much more generous after their character had been praised than after their actions had been. Praising their character helped them internalize it as part of their identities. The children learned who they were from observing their own actions: I am a helpful person. This dovetails with new research led by the psychologist Christopher J. Bryan, who finds that for moral behaviors, nouns work better than verbs. To get 3- to 6-year-olds to help with a task, rather than inviting them “to help,” it was 22 to 29 percent more effective to encourage them to “be a helper.” Cheating was cut in half when instead of, “Please don’t cheat,” participants were told, “Please don’t be a cheater.” When our actions become a reflection of our character, we lean more heavily toward the moral and generous choices. Over time it can become part of us.
When our actions become a reflection of our character, we lean more heavily toward the moral and generous choices. Over time it can become part of us.
Praise appears to be particularly influential in the critical periods when children develop a stronger sense of identity. When the researchers Joan E. Grusec and Erica Redler praised the character of 5-year-olds, any benefits that may have emerged didn’t have a lasting impact: They may have been too young to internalize moral character as part of a stable sense of self. And by the time children turned 10, the differences between praising character and praising actions vanished: Both were effective. Tying generosity to character appears to matter most around age 8, when children may be starting to crystallize notions of identity.
Praise in response to good behavior may be half the battle, but our responses to bad behavior have consequences, too. When children cause harm, they typically feel one of two moral emotions: shame or guilt. Despite the common belief that these emotions are interchangeable, research led by the psychologist June Price Tangney reveals that they have very different causes and consequences.
Shame is the feeling that I am a bad person, whereas guilt is the feeling that I have done a bad thing. Shame is a negative judgment about the core self, which is devastating: Shame makes children feel small and worthless, and they respond either by lashing out at the target or escaping the situation altogether. In contrast, guilt is a negative judgment about an action, which can be repaired by good behavior. When children feel guilt, they tend to experience remorse and regret, empathize with the person they have harmed, and aim to make it right.
In one study spearheaded by the psychologist Karen Caplovitz Barrett, parents rated their toddlers’ tendencies to experience shame and guilt at home. The toddlers received a rag doll, and the leg fell off while they were playing with it alone. The shame-prone toddlers avoided the researcher and did not volunteer that they broke the doll. The guilt-prone toddlers were more likely to fix the doll, approach the experimenter, and explain what happened. The ashamed toddlers were avoiders; the guilty toddlers were amenders.
If we want our children to care about others, we need to teach them to feel guilt rather than shame when they misbehave. In a review of research on emotions and moral development, the psychologist Nancy Eisenberg suggests that shame emerges when parents express anger, withdraw their love, or try to assert their power through threats of punishment: Children may begin to believe that they are bad people. Fearing this effect, some parents fail to exercise discipline at all, which can hinder the development of strong moral standards.
The most effective response to bad behavior is to express disappointment. According to independent reviews by Professor Eisenberg and David R. Shaffer, parents raise caring children by expressing disappointment and explaining why the behavior was wrong, how it affected others, and how they can rectify the situation. This enables children to develop standards for judging their actions, feelings of empathy and responsibility for others, and a sense of moral identity , which are conducive to becoming a helpful person. The beauty of expressing disappointment is that it communicates disapproval of the bad behavior, coupled with high expectations and the potential for improvement: “You’re a good person, even if you did a bad thing, and I know you can do better.”
As powerful as it is to criticize bad behavior and praise good character, raising a generous child involves more than waiting for opportunities to react to the actions of our children. As parents, we want to be proactive in communicating our values to our children. Yet many of us do this the wrong way.
In a classic experiment, the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton gave 140 elementary- and middle-school-age children tokens for winning a game, which they could keep entirely or donate some to a child in poverty. They first watched a teacher figure play the game either selfishly or generously, and then preach to them the value of taking, giving or neither. The adult’s influence was significant: Actions spoke louder than words. When the adult behaved selfishly, children followed suit. The words didn’t make much difference — children gave fewer tokens after observing the adult’s selfish actions, regardless of whether the adult verbally advocated selfishness or generosity. When the adult acted generously, students gave the same amount whether generosity was preached or not — they donated 85 percent more than the norm in both cases. When the adult preached selfishness, even after the adult acted generously, the students still gave 49 percent more than the norm. Children learn generosity not by listening to what their role models say, but by observing what they do.
To test whether these role-modeling effects persisted over time, two months later researchers observed the children playing the game again. Would the modeling or the preaching influence whether the children gave — and would they even remember it from two months earlier?
The most generous children were those who watched the teacher give but not say anything. Two months later, these children were 31 percent more generous than those who observed the same behavior but also heard it preached. The message from this research is loud and clear: If you don’t model generosity, preaching it may not help in the short run, and in the long run, preaching is less effective than giving while saying nothing at all.
People often believe that character causes action, but when it comes to producing moral children, we need to remember that action also shapes character. As the psychologist Karl Weick is fond of asking, “How can I know who I am until I see what I do? How can I know what I value until I see where I walk?”
Source: Adam Grant is a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.”
Source: NYT
Click to see the pictures: Raising a Moral Child
Click: What makes a life good?
Research study
Pages 156-165
King, Laura A.; Napa, Christie K
Abstract:
Two studies examined folk concepts of the good life. Samples of college students (N = 104) and community adults
(N = 264) were shown a career survey ostensibly completed by a person rating his or her occupation. After reading the survey, participants judged the desirability and moral goodness of the respondent's life, as a function of the amount of happiness, meaning in life, and wealth experienced. Results revealed significant effects of happiness and meaning on ratings of desirability and moral goodness. In the college sample, individuals high on all 3 independent variables were judged as likely to go to heaven. In the adult sample, wealth was also related to higher desirability. Results suggest a general perception that meaning in life and happiness are essential to the folk concept of the good life, whereas money is relatively unimportant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA)
Topic # 2 of 2
Parental Involvement Is Overrated
Most people, asked whether parental involvement benefits children academically, would say, “of course it does.” But evidence from our research suggests otherwise. In fact, most forms of parental involvement, like observing a child’s class, contacting a school about a child’s behavior, helping to decide a child’s high school courses, or helping a child with homework, do not improve student achievement. In some cases, they actually hinder it.
Over the past few years, we conducted an extensive study of whether the depth of parental engagement in children’s academic lives improved their test scores and grades. We pursued this question because we noticed that while policy makers were convinced that parental involvement positively affected children’s schooling outcomes, academic studies were much more inconclusive.
Despite this, increasing parental involvement has been one of the focal points of both President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act and President Obama’s Race to the Top. Both programs promote parental engagement as one remedy for persistent socioeconomic and racial achievement gaps.
We analyzed longitudinal surveys of American families that spanned three decades (from the 1980s to the 2000s) and obtained demographic information on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, the academic outcomes of children in elementary, middle and high school, as well as information about the level of parental engagement in 63 different forms.
What did we find? One group of parents, including blacks and Hispanics, as well as some Asians (like Cambodians, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders), appeared quite similar to a second group, made up of white parents and other Asians (like Chinese, Koreans and Indians) in the frequency of their involvement. A common reason given for why the children of the first group performed worse academically on average was that their parents did not value education to the same extent. But our research shows that these parents tried to help their children in school just as much as the parents in the second group.
Even the notion that kids do better in school when their parents are involved does not stack up. After comparing the average achievement of children whose parents regularly engage in each form of parental involvement to that of their counterparts whose parents do not, we found that most forms of parental involvement yielded no benefit to children’s test scores or grades, regardless of racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic standing.
In fact, there were more instances in which children had higher levels of achievement when their parents were less involved than there were among those whose parents were more involved. Even more counterintuitively: When involvement does seem to matter, the consequences for children’s achievement are more often negative than positive.
When involvement did benefit kids academically, it depended on which behavior parents were engaging in, which academic outcome was examined, the grade level of the child, the racial and ethnic background of the family and its socioeconomic standing. For example, regularly discussing school experiences with your child seems to positively affect the reading and math test scores of Hispanic children, to negatively affect test scores in reading for black children, and to negatively affect test scores in both reading and math for white children (but only during elementary school). Regularly reading to elementary school children appears to benefit reading achievement for white and Hispanic children but it is associated with lower reading achievement for black children. Policy makers should not advocate a one-size-fits-all model of parental involvement.
What about when parents work directly with their children on learning activities at home? When we examined whether regular help with homework had a positive impact on children’s academic performance, we were quite startled by what we found. Regardless of a family’s social class, racial or ethnic background, or a child’s grade level, consistent homework help almost never improved test scores or grades. Most parents appear to be ineffective at helping their children with homework. Even more surprising to us was that when parents regularly helped with homework, kids usually performed worse. One interesting exception: The group of Asians that included Chinese, Korean and Indian children appeared to benefit from regular help with homework, but this benefit was limited to the grades they got during adolescence; it did not affect their test scores.
Our findings also suggest that the idea that parental involvement will address one of the most salient and intractable issues in education, racial and ethnic achievement gaps, is not supported by the evidence. This is because our analyses show that most parental behavior has no benefit on academic performance. While there are some forms of parental involvement that do appear to have a positive impact on children academically, we find at least as many instances in which more frequent involvement is related to lower academic performance.
As it turns out, the list of what generally works is short: expecting your child to go to college, discussing activities children engage in at school (despite the complications we mentioned above), and requesting a particular teacher for your child.
Do our findings suggest that parents are not important for children’s academic success? Our answer is no. We believe that parents are critical for how well children perform in school, just not in the conventional ways that our society has been promoting. The essential ingredient is for parents to communicate the value of schooling, a message that parents should be sending early in their children’s lives and that needs to be reinforced over time. But this message does not need to be communicated through conventional behavior, like attending PTA meetings or checking in with teachers.
When the federal government issues mandates on the implementation of programs that increase parental involvement, schools often encourage parents to spend more time volunteering, to attend school events, to help their children with homework and so forth. There is a strong sentiment in this country that parents matter in every respect relating to their children’s academic success, but we need to let go of this sentiment and begin to pay attention to what the evidence is telling us.
Conventional wisdom holds that since there is no harm in having an involved parent, why shouldn’t we suggest as many ways as possible for parents to participate in school? This conventional wisdom is flawed. Schools should move away from giving the blanket message to parents that they need to be more involved and begin to focus instead on helping parents find specific, creative ways to communicate the value of schooling, tailored to a child’s age. Future research should investigate how parental involvement can be made more effective, but until then, parents who have been less involved or who feel uncertain about how they should be involved should not be stigmatized.
What should parents do? They should set the stage and then leave it.
Source:
Keith Robinson, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, and Angel L. Harris, a professor of sociology and African and African-American studies at Duke, are the authors of “The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement With Children’s Education.”
Published also in the NYT
Click: Duke University
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Sunday, 5/11/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Natural ways to fight Allergies
Think of this as your organic seasonal allergy survival guide
Allergies occur when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance such as pollen, bee venom or pet dander.
Venom (synonyms: poison, toxin) is a poisonous substance secreted by animals such as bees, snakes, spiders, and scorpions and typically injected into prey or aggressors by biting or stinging.
Dander is loose scales formed on the skin and shed from the coat or feathers of various animals, often causing allergic reactions.
Our immune system produces substances known as antibodies clicks: Antibody. Some of these antibodies protect us from unwanted invaders that could make us sick or cause an infection. When we have allergies, our immune system makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as something harmful, even though it isn't. When we come into contact with the allergen, our immune system's reaction can inflame our skin, sinuses, airways or digestive system.
The severity of allergies varies from person to person and can range from minor irritation to anaphylaxis — a potentially life-threatening emergency click: Anaphylaxis
While most allergies have no known full cure, a number of treatments can help relieve the allergy symptoms. click: Symptoms - click: Causes - click: Risk factors - click: Complications - click: Treatments & drugs
click: Lifestyle and home remedies - click: Alternative medicine - click: Prevention
When you're looking for relief for tree pollen, grass pollen and mold seasons, here five natural strategies to have in your arsenal that go beyond pills or shots.
Take the organic route to fighting allergies. When you follow these rules and eat well, you will be able to self-heal your seasonal allergies a bit and they won't be as severe.
Of course, everyone's different, and you have to consult with a doctor for certain things. But take a chance and try to fight an ailment through a natural source.
When you're looking for relief for tree pollen, grass pollen and mold seasons,
here 5 natural strategies to have in your arsenal that go beyond pills or shots.
(1) Yogurt
The probiotics*) in yogurt are believed to help balance bacteria levels in your gut, which can boost your immune system. When your immunity is way up, you can really help to fight allergies naturally and decrease the chances of having allergy attack. It's helpful to have a diet that is high in probiotic foods to keep inflammation down.
Avoid yogurts that are high in sugar, use unsweetened Greek yogurt that has around 10 grams of sugar or less.
Click: Yogurt Benefits
*) The World Health Organization's 2001 definition of probiotics is: "live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host". Following this definition, a working group convened by the FAO**)/WHO in May 2002 issued the “Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food”. This first global effort was further developed in 2010, two expert groups of academic scientists and industry representatives made recommendations for the evaluation and validation of probiotic health claim.[9][10] The same principles emerged from those groups as the ones expressed in the Guidelines of FAO/WHO in 2002. This definition, although widely adopted, is not acceptable to the European Food Safety Authority because it embeds a health claim which is not measurable.
**) FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationswww.fao.org/ - FAO urges further protection of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems for sustainability, food security, livelihoods and culture.
*) click: Health benefits of taking probiotics www.health.harvard.edu...Harvard University
To find out more
for basic information and research news about probiotics: click: www.usprobiotics.org
(2) Walnuts
are high in antioxidants and omega-3s, which can "help reduce inflammation and relieve seasonal allergies," said the author. Oily fish like salmon are packed with those nutrients too.
click: Walnuts - The World's Healthiest Foods
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The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Chinese Parents Protest New Baby Milk Scandal
Several hundred angry parents gathered in front of Nantong’s city hall on April 1, 2013, to protest communist authorities’ inaction over yet another Chinese infant formula scandal exposed by Chinese media.
West China Metropolis Daily recently reported that a milk distributor in Suzhou is suspected of mixing expired formula from an unknown source with imported Nutradefense formula, made by Swiss dairy company Hero Group. The mixture was reportedly repackaged and sold as Nutradefense formula to unsuspecting parents, who now fear it has harmed their children.
Since China’s 2008 melamine milk powder tragedy, in which six babies died and many thousands were poisoned, Chinese consumers’ trust in domestic infant formula has never been restored. Parents who can afford to buy only foreign brands, and are often willing to pay more than double the price of Chinese brands, believing them to be safer for their children.
At the demonstration, the parents held banners that read: “Who fed our babies poison?” and “Unscrupulous merchants should pay for our babies’ health.” The crowd asked for an explanation, but were aggressively dispersed by a large number of police officers.
“The incident was exposed several days ago, and the government promised to respond in three days, but five days have passed and we heard nothing,” Nantong resident Ms. Lu told The Epoch Times:
Netizens reacted angrily to the latest scandal and the regime’s handling of it.
“Don’t these people have children too?” said one Internet user.
Another posted: “My son is 6 months old and has been drinking this phony product since birth. My wife and I have fertility problems. It took us nine years and hundreds of thousands of yuan to finally have our baby. We want to give him the best, but despite careful selection, we picked the fake product!”
Some larger foreign manufacturers of infant formula, like Nutrillon, have opened official online shops in China to prevent counterfeiting. Other foreign brands are sold by vendors through Taobao Marketplace, a Chinese language website for online shopping, akin to eBay.
Translation by Quincy Yu. Research by Hsin-Yi Lin. Written in English by Peter Valk. Source: The Epoch Times
Read the original Chinese article.
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Topic # 2 Chinese Mother Buys $6 Million Manhattan Apartment for Toddler
A cashed-up Chinese family forked out a princely sum for a Manhattan apartment—for their 2-year-old child.
A real estate agent in New York, asked the woman why she was buying.
“And she said, well, her daughter was going to go to Columbia, or
NYU or maybe Harvard and so she needed to be in the center of
the city...” he said to CCTV. “So I said: ‘Oh, how old is your daughter?’
and she said: ‘Well she’s two.’ And I was just shocked, says the RE agent.”
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Topic # 3
‘Study Drugs’ Unsafe and Unethical, Say Neurologists
Some young and older people with comparably normal brains use them
as study drugs to sharpen their academic focus
The practice is neither ethical nor safe, according to experts
Doctors call this off-label drug use neuroenhancement
Methylphenidate (better known as Ritalin) was approved for child hyperactivity in 1961, but starting in the 1990s, prescriptions for Ritalin and other amphetamines soared. While they are intended to treat severe attention deficit, many children use them as study drugs.
Drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall are intended to treat severe attention deficit, but some young people with comparably normal brains use them as study drugs to sharpen their academic focus. The practice is neither ethical nor safe, according to experts. Doctors call this off-label drug use neuroenhancement.
A position paper from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) weighs in on the ethical concerns of neuroenhancement, and explicitly warns doctors that prescribing study drugs for children and adolescents is “not justifiable,” as it exposes the developing brain to prescription stimulants for no medical reason.
“It’s not a good idea at all to be giving healthy kids drugs,” said lead author, and neurologic pediatrician Dr. William Graf. “It’s just common sense.”
There are alternatives available to neuroenhancements, including maintaining good sleep, nutrition, study habits, and exercise regimens, Graf added.
While many physicians already refuse to grant prescriptions to children who do not have ADHD, others praise the practice. Atlanta pediatrician Dr. Michael Anderson, for example, advocates systematic neuroenhancement programs to help struggling students in poor schools make better grades.
Graf says the allure of study drugs has become so great that many believe the trend is unstoppable, as more and more people will turn to neuroenhancement to stay competitive.
“This is nothing new,” said Graf, a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Yale University, in a phone interview. “People have been abusing drugs for a long time. We have a history where people will justify their drug, whether it’s the marijuana crowd, alcohol, or heroin, LSD, anything.”
The AAN statement is important because it is backed by three neurological organizations, representing 25,000 physicians. It does not make any recommendations in regard to policy, but it does serve as a wake-up call to doctors still unclear on the proper use of prescription stimulants. The position paper had no industry financing, according to Dr. Graf, who took pride in his efforts to keep drug industry interests at an appropriate distance.
Getting this consensus was not easy. Outside the neuroenhancement controversy, the growing number of presumably legitimate ADHD cases has also given cause for concern. A recent study finds that ADHD diagnoses have jumped 25 percent in the last decade.
However, most child neurologists agree that prescription stimulants do provide profound benefits to children who actually suffer from a disorder—extreme cases where the need for treatment outweighs negative effects and risk.
“There are kids out there who are dysfunctional. They have what they call functional impairment, and they can’t get through their day, and people worry about an attack on ADHD because some kids have been helped,” said Graf. “What we’re talking about in this [position paper] is a different population.”
Allure of Stimulants
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved methylphenidate (better known as Ritalin) for child hyperactivity in 1961. But starting in the 1990s, prescriptions skyrocketed, and similar drugs have since seen a meteoric rise in sales.
Amphetamines used to treat ADHD are categorized as Schedule 2 drugs, due to their potential for addiction and abuse. But Graf says despite the health risks, legal restrictions, and a U.S. history of amphetamine abuse in the 1960s, authorities are often inclined to look the other way.
“Did you hear about anyone ever being caught or getting arrested and doing time for selling methylphenidate in a library?” asked Graf. “I haven’t. And yet through word of mouth, anecdotal reports, and questionnaires people say that this is just all over the place. So it’s not regulated.”
According to German neuroethicist and AAN statement co-author, Dr. Saskia Nagel, stimulants carry an aura of virtue that other drugs do not possess. She says that because these drugs offer culturally desirable traits (improved productivity and heightened focus), it is easy to miss the down side.
In the most tragic examples, neuroenhancement has resulted in suicide. But in every case, the short-term cognitive benefits always come at a price.
“These [drugs] surely always have to work at the cost of a different capacity,” Nagel said. “So for example, if you could selectively enhance your short term memory for being better at tests and so on, you will most likely influence your long term memory to the worse. So already on the physiological level this is something that causes harm.”
Nagel and Graf add that similar risks are associated with energy drinks—strong, sweet-tasting stimulants available without a prescription. These beverages are clearly marketed to young people and have been linked to many emergency room visits, but manufacturers have so far managed to avoid warning labels or regulation.
“These are potent caffeine drinks,” said Graf. “If there is some potential for bad side effects and this is being sold on supermarket shelves the public should probably know about this, but the manufacturer doesn’t want to hear it.”
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Wednesday, 4/17/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Radio Shows - Original Texts
The text is the starting point and handled in the show while details, comments & analysis are added during the airing.
If English is not your first language the show recording is easier to follow when you see the basic text in print also.
To see the basic text while listening to the recording gives a deeper view to the topic.
Topic # 1 Wednesday, 4/17/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Important info
Is Your Kitchen a Health Hazard?
OUR kitchens may be killing us — slowly
Not so much with radon or gas leaks, but with kindness and proximity
By Neil Izenberg
Neil Izenberg is the founder of KidsHealth.org and a pediatrician at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
When my 1840 Philadelphia row house was built for its seafaring owners, the kitchen was in the basement — like every other home on the block. If the family wanted a hot meal, someone had to tramp downstairs and stoke up the fire.
Fire and smoke inhalation were chief among the many health hazards the 19th-century kitchen presented. In an era without refrigeration, food poisoning was a constant danger. Home-preserved foods filled in dietary gaps, but if stored improperly botulism became a real — and deadly — risk.
The widespread introduction of the icebox, around the time my house was built, led to big changes. Insulated iceboxes — some of them fashionable furniture — greatly extended the shelf lives of fresh foods. The electric refrigerator, with small but handy freezers, appeared in houses in the first decades of the 20th century. Ice block delivery by horse-drawn cart was no longer needed.
When safer natural gas and electricity entered our lives, kitchens moved from basement exile into the main area of homes. As part of an ambitious 1934 modernization, the previous owner of my Philadelphia house moved the huge gas stove upstairs and into its own small kitchen at the back of the house.
Similarly, the kitchen of my childhood home in Metuchen, N.J., was its own single-purpose dedicated room. Back then, when my family’s evening meal was over (in our case, usually after 20 minutes of near-silent eating), our kitchen was declared “closed,” its function complete.
But now our kitchens, like our girths, have grown substantially, in terms of size and of function. They’ve become part of expansive entertainment complexes in our homes. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders reports that three out of four new-home buyers want their kitchen and family room to be a combined space.
That makes sense. People like to hang out and socialize in their kitchens. Now great spaces are full of wonderful, convenient devices — with super-size refrigerators, stoves that could service a restaurant and large enough cabinets to store provisions for a small army. Even our dinner plates are bigger than they used to be. Comfy chairs, computer stations and a large-screen TV — virtual necessities — round out the picture.
Sure, not everyone can afford these gastronomic wonderlands — but a glance at shows like “House Hunters” and “My First Place” on HGTV give you a pretty good idea of what the ruling cultural ideal looks like.
Almost 80 years after its last major upgrade, my old home deserves its own entertainment-eating zone, too. So I’m expanding my new kitchen complex into my garden — with all the gizmos I could want. I didn’t order some of the now-common kitchen options: second refrigerators, separate free-standing freezers, pasta faucets, bread makers, warming drawers, cappuccino bars, home pizza ovens or a built-in deep fryer and beer tap. So I guess, by some standards, I’m roughing it.
Soon I’ll be able to amble (or, more likely, roll) a mere five feet from my kitchen counter stool to my couch to watch “Chopped,” “Top Chef” or “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” The refrigerator, pantry and containers of food will remain alluringly in sight (and all beautifully lighted, I might add). I won’t even have to leave the room during a commercial. And why would I leave at all? The kitchen has Wi-Fi.
Many of the safety issues of yesterday’s kitchens are gone. No one in my family is likely to tumble into an open hearth. But new kitchens pose a more subtle danger to our health by doubling as a comfortable social, entertainment and eating hub. Retail marketers have long known that when tempting food is within close range of our eyes or nose, we tend to eat more of it. In our new kitchens, it’s just too darn easy to get to addictive snacks and calorie-rich drinks.
My newly expanded kitchen should be done in a few weeks. Despite its increased storage capacity, I plan to stock fewer carbohydrate-laden products and tempting treats. An extra handful or two of easily accessible daily snacks can make the difference between maintaining my weight and adding a few pounds each year.
There are, of course, many reasons for the nation’s obesity epidemic, with its staggering health implications. But surely modern home design plays an important and underappreciated role.
Perhaps there is one more kitchen option I should get: a neon sign that says “Kitchen Closed.” After dinner, I’ll turn it on.
Source: NYT
By Neil Izenberg is the founder of KidsHealth.org and a pediatrician at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
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Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/10/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Tips for Maintaining a Clean, Healthy Bathroom
An additional link for home health at the end
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
When was the last time you cleaned your bathroom? Always remember that excellent bathroom hygiene is essential to maintaining a clean and hazard free bathroom.
If you’ve been slacking lately, it’s highly likely that bacteria and germs have already begun to spread illness from one family member to another. What many people don’t realize, however, is that the key to a clean bathroom is, well, a clean you.
Factors such as how you shower, how you dry yourself off after a shower and even how you flush the toilet can make all the difference.
Drying Off
If you’ve gotten into the bad habit of sharing your bath towels with family members or roommates—snap out of it, and quickly. Sure, you’re probably saving a few dollars here and there by not having to do the laundry, or by not having to go to the laundromat as often, but you’re probably going to end up having to fork out even more money for medication and health insurance. Trust us when we say that it’s a much healthier (and cheaper in the long run!) alternative for everyone to have their personal bath towel.
Why, you ask? Sharing towels can help spread illness and disease. In fact, it’s one of the most common health hazards in American bathrooms. Health hazards such as bacteria, fungus and viruses love the warmth and moisture of bath towels. They thrive in these kinds of conditions. Did your son or daughter catch that nasty cold that’s going around school? If your kids are sharing towels, it won’t be long before the entire household is cold and flu infested.
The Throne
Kings and queens… Do you flush with your toilet lid down? Or do you flush with your toilet lid up? You’ve probably never given it a second thought. Or you probably never knew there was a right or wrong way to flush to begin with! We don’t blame you. And we certainly won’t dethrone you. We get that it’s not a decision you’d think could be potentially hazardous to your well-being.
The truth of the matter is that if you’re an upper (you flush with the lid up) you’re essentially allowing thousands of teeny tiny droplets of water to soar up above the rim and into your bathroom’s atmosphere. Why is that such a bad thing? Hold your stomach. These miniscule droplets are home to hazardous bacteria such as the e-coli from your urine or poop that you released into the toilet bowl.
If you have a small bathroom, chances are that your countertop is filled with toiletries such as soap bars, toothbrushes, and other items that you make direct contact with on a daily basis, and will unfortunately be covered in e-coli. So, if you don’t feel like a side of e-coli for breakfast, get yourself and your family into the good habit of flushing with the toilet lid down to stop the bacteria filled droplets from flying into the air and to contain the e-coli in the bowl itself.
Singing in the Shower
Are you so eager to show off your vocals in the shower that you just can’t wait to hop in and get under that shower head and warm water? Think again, America’s next Idol. If you don’t clean your shower head on a regular basis, you really should let the water run for a couple of minutes before using your shower head as a microphone.
Honestly, when was the last time you cleaned your shower head (if you’ve even cleaned it at all)? It’s an all too easily forgotten hazard, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s all kinds of gross hiding inside a shower head.
According to studies conducted by the University of Colorado, high levels of microorganisms and bacteria live in the water that comes out of unclean shower heads. It’s even filthier than the water going in!
Microorganisms, viruses, fungus, bacteria, and all kinds of pathogens thrive in such dark, wet and warm conditions. So, the next time you’re a little too eager to sing in the shower, we hope you’ll remember our advice.
To Vent or Not to Vent
Do you have enough ventilation in your bathroom? If not, it’s time to invest in an exhaust fan. A lack of ventilation combined with the often moist, warm and dark conditions of a bathroom, can, and often does, make mold happy and plentiful.
Matter of fact, give mold approximately 24–28 hours to get happy. And you bet they will. The kind of mold that grows in bathrooms come in a wide variety of colors and can grow on any given surface, but it may not be visible to the naked eye.
Mold spores are particularly hazardous to individuals who suffer from asthma or other respiratory health problems, and can even trigger asthma in young children. So, as a rule of thumb, turn on your exhaust fan while you shower, and let it run for an additional 20 minutes when you’re drying off and moisturizing.
What if you don’t have an exhaust fan? All you need to do is crack the door open slightly and it will make all the difference between a clean bathroom and hazardous environment.
American families and the families worldwide are increasingly willing to lead healthier lifestyles
through diet and exercise
It’s time we also pave the pathway to a healthier future for our families
by preventing health hazards in our bathrooms
Source:
1st Class Cleaning specializes in green cleaning in the New York Metro area.
Visit www.1stclasscleaningnyc.com for more information.
For more click: HEALTH NEWS, HOME
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Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/24/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
A more important topic than most people realize
Clear scientific, working, tested, results-bringing advice for longer life
without sickness, without mental & physical challenges
Quotation: "Knowledge is no power - only applied knowledge is power"
(Dr. Christian)
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Information for a better life
Does learning new things slow our internal sense of time?
Fast Time and the Aging Mind
Radio Show date: Wednesday, July, 24 2013
Click green for further info
By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN
Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psycho-pharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College
AH, the languorous, dreamy days of endless summer! Who among us doesn’t remember those days and wonder wistfully where they’ve gone? Why does time seem to speed up as we age? Even the summer solstice — the longest, sunniest day of the year — seems to have passed in a flash.
No less than the great William James opined on the matter, thinking that the apparent speed of time’s passage was a result of adults’ experiencing fewer memorable events:
“Each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units, and the years grow hollow and collapse.”
Don’t despair. I am happy to tell you that the apparent velocity of time is a big fat cognitive illusion and happy to say there may be a way to slow the velocity of our later lives.
Although the sense that we perceive time as accelerating as we age is very common, it is hard to prove experimentally. In one of the largest studies to date, Dr. Marc Wittmann of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, in Germany, interviewed 499 German and Austrian subjects ranging in age from 14 to 94 years; he asked each subject how quickly time seemed to pass during the previous week, month, year and decade. Surprisingly, there were few differences related to age. With one exception: when researchers asked the subjects about the 10-year interval, older subjects were far more likely than the younger subjects to report that the last decade had passed quickly.
Other, non-age-related factors influence our perception of time. Recent research shows that emotions affect our perception of time. For example, Dr. Sylvie Droit-Volet, a psychology professor at Blaise Pascal University, in France, manipulated subjects’ emotional state by showing them movies that excited fear or sadness and then asked them to estimate the duration of the visual stimulus. She found that time appears to pass more slowly when we are afraid.
Attention and memory play a part in our perception of time. To accurately gauge the passage of time required to accomplish a given task, you have to be able to focus and remember a sequence of information. That’s partly why someone with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder has trouble judging time intervals and grows impatient with what seems like the slow passage of time.
The neurotransmitter dopamine*) - link at the end) is critically important to our ability to process time. Stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, which increase dopamine function in the brain, have the effect of speeding up time perception; antipsychotic drugs, which block dopamine receptors, have the opposite effect.
On the whole, most of us perceive short intervals of time similarly, regardless of age. Why, then, do older people look back at long stretches of their lives and feel it’s a race to the finish?
Here’s a possible answer: think about what it’s like when you learn something for the first time — for example how, when you are young, you learn to ride a bike or navigate your way home from school. It takes time to learn new tasks and to encode them in your memory. And when you are learning about the world for the first time, you are forming a fairly steady stream of new memories of events, places and people.
When, as an adult, you look back at your childhood experiences, they appear to unfold in slow motion probably because the sheer number of them gives you the impression that they must have taken forever to acquire. So when you recall the summer vacation when you first learned to swim or row a boat, it feels endless.
But this is merely an illusion, the way adults understand the past when they look through the telescope of lost time. This, though, is not an illusion: almost all of us faced far steeper learning curves when we were young. Most adults do not explore and learn about the world the way they did when they were young; adult life lacks the constant discovery and endless novelty of childhood.
Studies have shown that the greater the cognitive demands of a task, the longer its duration is perceived to be.
Dr. David Eagleman at Baylor College of Medicine found that repeated stimuli appear briefer in duration than novel stimuli of equal duration. Is it possible that learning new things might slow down our internal sense of time?
The question and the possibility it presents put me in mind of my father, who died a few years ago at age 86. An engineer by training, he read constantly after he retired. His range was enormous; he read about everything from astronomy to natural history, travel and gardening. I remember once discovering dozens of magazines and journals in the house and was convinced that my parents had become the victims of a mail-order scam.
Thinking I’d help with the clutter, I began to bundle up the magazines for recycling when my father angrily confronted me, demanding to know what the hell I was doing. “I read all of these,” he said.
And then it dawned on me. I cannot recall his ever having remarked on how fast or slow his life seemed to be going. He was constantly learning, always alive to new ideas and experience. Maybe that’s why he never seemed to notice that time was passing.
So what, you might say, if we have an illusion about time speeding up? But it matters, I think, because the distortion signals that we might squeeze more out of life.
It’s simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again. Learn something that requires sustained effort; do something novel. Put down the thriller when you’re sitting on the beach and break out a book on evolutionary theory or Spanish for beginners or a how-to book on something you’ve always wanted to do. Take a new route to work; vacation at an unknown spot. And take your sweet time about it.
Click green below for further info
Source: NYT & Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psycho-pharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
*) Click: Dopamine | Psychology Today
www.psychologytoday.com/basics/dopamine - Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, ...
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See below additional links for the same topic "Fast Time & the Aging Mind"- click the colored area
If the link has expired, search in The New York Times' website using the article title
- Fast Time and the Aging Mind - Is it possible that learning new things might slow our internal sense of time? July 20, 2013 - By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN - Opinion / Sunday Review - Article - Print Headline: "Fast Time and the Aging Mind"
- Adult Learning - Neuroscience - How to Train the Aging Brain ... To keep a middle-aged mind sharp, shake up what you already know. ...times when you know something but can't quite call it to mind. ...“As adults we may not always learn quite as fast, but we are set up for this next ...
- January 3, 2010 - By BARBARA STRAUCH - Education / Education Life - Article - Print Headline: "How to Train the Aging Brain"
- Running Late? Researchers Blame Aging Brain - New York Times Moreover, a brain chemical called dopamine regulates this clock. Add dopamine and the clock runs faster; take it away, and the clock slows ...
March 24, 1998 - Science - Article __________________________________________________________________________________
Topic # 1 of 1 Wednesday, 7/31/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
An extra article next below relating to the same topic (not presented in the Radio Show today)
Learn the Language of Labelese » (= Food labels)
The U.S. regulations may change any time - check for possible changed details
The language of labels can be quite tricky, but reading the ingredient panel before you buy a product is a must.
There are over 14,000 additives used in commercially prepared foods today. Some are far more complicated and potentially dangerous than others, and manufacturers, restaurateurs and those who make our food are not required to disclose the hazards.
Read the labels on packaged foods and avoid artificial chemicals, colors, chemical preservatives (MSG, BHA, BHT, nitrates), bleached white flour, hydrogenated fats, and eight-syllable words.
If you can’t pronounce it, does it belong on your plate?
The Steer Clear List
This is a list of foods that you should under no circumstances put in that precious body of yours or anyone else you care about:
1. Artificial colors:
Food colorings are used to make food look more appealing or to replace colors lost in processing. However, don’t let these colors deceive you. Artificial colorings are synthetic dyes that are often coal-tar derivatives. They are suspected to cause allergies, asthma, hyperactivity, and are potentially carcinogenic.
Chief culprits: Candy, beverages, soda, gelatin desserts, pastries, sausage, baked goods, even fruits like green oranges sprayed with red dye to make them look ripe.
Tip: Keep it real with a rainbow of fresh fruit and veggies, natural juices, and additive-free snacks.
2. Artificial preservatives
(BHA, BHT, EDTA, Sodium Benzoate, etc): You may see these ingredients in chips, fried snack foods, baked goods, carbonated drinks, cheese spreads, hummus, salsa, chewing gum, ice cream, breakfast cereals, and even cosmetics.
These preservatives are actually synthetic petroleum-based and fat soluble antioxidants, used by manufacturers to prevent oxidation and retard rancidity. They can cause cancer, allergic reactions, and hyperactivity, and BHT may be toxic to the nervous system and the liver.
Tip: Choose food and drinks labeled with “no artificial antioxidants.” Avoid poor quality vegetable oils. Look for cold-pressed virgin oil, which contains natural antioxidants such as Vitamin E. Eat fresh produce that doesn’t contain these preservatives.
3. Nitrites and Nitrates:
Love your bacon in the morning and salami at lunch time? Cured, preserved, and smoked meats are often saturated with nitrites and nitrates to preserve shelf life and give it a “healthy” pink hue. These two preservatives may prevent the growth of bacteria but can also transform into cancer-causing agents called nitrosamines in the stomach. They may also produce noticeable side effects like headaches, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.
Tip: Look for nitrite and nitrate-free processed meats and opt for meat-free alternatives to mix it up.
4. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG):
You may be happy that you’re dining in restaurants that say “No MSG”, but did you know that MSG lurks in all kinds of sauces used to prepare the foods that you thought were MSG-free? There are also significant amounts in all kinds of snacks, seasonings, candy, even infant formula, over-the-counter medications, and nutritional supplements.
Tip: Buy MSG-free snacks and read labels so you can make healthier choices.
Practice this for 31 days and before you know it, you’ll become a label queen or king, knowing how to decipher ingredients like a polyglot (= a person who knows several languages, multilingual)
Mareya Ibrahim is The Fit Foody, an award-winning chef on ABC’s Emmy-nominated show “Recipe Rehab,” and author and founder of EatCleaner.com. Her book “The Clean Eating Handbook,” a guide on how to eat cleaner and get leaner, was released in May 2013.
Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch times - search the internet
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Article 2 of 2 (not in today's Radio Show) - extra info
Food Labels: What Those Words, Words, Words Mean
The U.S. regulations may change any time - check for possible changed details
Anyone who has tried reading food labels in an effort to become more informed has made a giant leap of faith. In fact, although food labels may provide facts, your level of understanding may not increase at all when you read them, and you may become even more confused.
As our food supply has become increasingly diversified and highly processed, more and more substances have found their way into what we eat. As a result, nutrients either have been lost altogether or appear in different proportions. As public interest in nutrition grew during the '50s and '60s, consumers began to ask questions about what was in the food they were eating and whether it was safe and nutritious.
No fewer than four government agencies oversee aspects of food labeling and safety. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for labeling and safety of all foods and additives except for meat and poultry, which are handled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to make sure that your food is not contaminated by environmental pollutants, and the Federal Trade Commission is charged with protecting us from false advertising claims.
Conscientious reading of food labels should provide enough information to help you cut down on the nutritional "bad guys" in your diet, but first you have to understand the language we'll call "labelese."
RDA. The recommended dietary allowance
is an estimate of how much of a given nutrient we need to stay healthy. These figures were calculated for whole populations and therefore were set quite high to take everybody into account. This means that eating slightly more or less than the RDA will probably not hurt you. The USRDA*), which appears on food labels, is the ''legal" version of the RDA and is the minimum recommended daily intake of a specific nutrient for everyone 4 years and older.
*) U.s. rda | U.s. rda at Dictionary.comdictionary.reference.com/browse/u.s.+rda United States recommended daily allowance: the daily amount of a protein, vitamin, or mineral that the FDA has established as sufficient to maintain the ...
ENRICHED OR FORTIFIED
Enriched means that vitamins, minerals or protein have been added, often after having been taken out of the original food. Fortified means that something that was not originally removed or reduced has been added as a supplement.
Most products that say they are enriched or fortified must go one step further and provide complete nutritional information on the package label. Flour, however, is an exception to this rule. It can be called enriched with replacement iron, niacin, thiamine and riboflavin; the zinc, fiber, copper and other vitamins and trace minerals that were reduced in the milling are not replaced.
IMITATION
As you would expect, a product labeled "imitation" is not the real thing and/or is nutritionally inferior to the real thing. If it is not the real thing but is nutritionally equal, it can be called "substitute."
DIETETIC
Foods with the terms dietetic, diet, low-calorie and reduced- calorie on their labels must have either one-third fewer calories than the standard version or fewer than 40 calories per 100-gram (3 1/2-ounce) serving.
Yet some foods labeled "dietetic" can have reduced sodium while maintaining the same calorie count. The calories listed on the label are only required to be within 20 percent of the real calorie count, which means that a serving of something claiming to have 300 calories may have as few as 240 or as many as 360.
SUGAR-FREE OR SUGARLESS
These terms mean that no ordinary table sugar (sucrose) is in the product. However, it can contain honey, dextrose (corn sugar), fructose (fruit sugar), mannose, glucose, sorbitol or other sweeteners that contain just as many calories as sucrose. If you are trying to cut down on sugar in your diet, be sure to read the whole label and take all the various sugars into account.
CHOLESTEROL-FREE
This means either that the food is a vegetable product that doesn't contain cholesterol under any circumstances (only animal products contain cholesterol) or that the product has less than 2 milligrams of cholesterol per serving. Other terms that recently have started appearing include low-cholesterol (fewer than 20 mg per serving), cholesterol-reduced (product has been altered so that it contains at least 75 percent less cholesterol than the original) and less cholestrol or lower-cholesterol (the cholesterol content has been lowered, but by less than 75 percent).
NATURAL
Natural doesn't really mean anything. A food labeled "all- natural" can contain preservatives such as BHA and BHT and other additives such as flavor enhancers, thickeners and emulsifiers.
There are a few rules about labels that are worth noting:
* Nutrition labeling is largely voluntary. However, if any specific nutritional claims are made, such as "low in sodium," "sugar-free" or ''high in calcium," then full nutritional information must be presented on the label.
* Standardized foods such as ice cream, mayonnaise, ketchup or peanut butter must meet very specific FDA guidelines before calling themselves by those names. If the only ingredients in a jar of mayonnaise, for example, are the ones allowed in the FDA standards (vegetable oil, vinegar and/or lemon juice, egg yolk and some others), the jar does not need any further labeling. However, if anything else is added, such as spices, preservatives or sugar, all the ingredients must be listed.
* A label listing the amount of fat in grams per serving does not have to specify how much of the fat is saturated, unsaturated or polyunsaturated, or list how much cholesterol there is unless claims are made about fat content on the package.
Current guidelines urge that no more than 30 percent of our calories come
from fat, and these should be evenly divided among saturated, unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
It also is impossible to know what percentage of the calories in a food come from fat without doing some fancy calculations on your own. Since this is the only really meaningful number for someone trying to reduce fat intake, it might be worth the effort.
To calculate the percent of calories from fat:
If a food contains 150 calories per serving and 6 grams of fat, you must multiply the 6 grams by 9 (the number of calories in 1 gram of fat). So in this case, 54 calories would come from fat. Then divide the total calories
from fat by the total calories in the serving: 54 divided by 150 equals 0.36, or 36 percent of calories from fat. That's pretty high, indeed
Source: By Sheldon Margen, M.D. and Dale A. Ogar, Special to The Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA, newspaper; Philly.com) click: philly.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homeswww.philly.com/
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Please notice: Only those show dates will appear on this list when the show topic has a printed article available here
Wednesday,8/28/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
If It’s Not Organic, Don’t Panic
Not all conscientious farms, or growers can afford to go certified organic, but that doesn’t mean they’re less healthy. Here’s what I know about the Big O (organic companies):
Organic farms require a USDA certification that they receive after a period of about three years. During that time, they’re considered ‘transitional.’ For a small farm, the expense can come at a prohibitive price tag, and while they may not be certified organic they are still considered “sustainable” in that they are grown locally and uphold similar growing practices. Often these small farms have a reduced carbon footprint because they sell close to home.
Because of the consumer surge in demand for organic foods, large agribusiness corporations have pulled up to the table in an effort to reap the benefits, threatening the existence of these small sustainable farmers and making it harder for them to compete.
Organic meat farmers are required to use feed grown organically and are prohibited from administering antibiotics or hormones to their livestock. Yet when it comes to animal welfare, they are only required to give the animals “access” to outdoors with as little as an open door leading to a cement patio.
On the flip side, sustainably raised meats, such as venison from New Zealand, are grass fed outdoors year-round on free-range ranches without the use of hormones, steroids, or growth promoters. Rainwater and sunshine nourish the pasture the animals graze on without environmentally expensive irrigation, waste disposal, or water-table impact. They’re just not “organic” by label, but they are truly sustainable.
There’s no denying that certified organic foods come from a good philosophical place, offering consumers alternatives to products loaded with artificial chemicals, added hormones, and pesticides. When it comes to food choices, there’s always more than meets the eye. We have to look deeper than the surface of the label.
If you can’t afford all organic produce, opt for sustainable, biodynamic, and locally grown produce where they don’t use harsh chemical pesticides. Prioritize organic animal products, especially dairy, and organic soybeans to avoid GMOs (genetically modified food). The main point, however, is to eat a variety of fresh fruit and veggies daily.
Source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Topic # 2 of 2 Show topic # 1 next above
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show Wednesday 8/28/13
Hollywood’s New Stars: Pedestrians
How to learn to walk
and reap the good health & happiness benefits from walking
- walking - one of the best exercises for every person with healthy legs -
For your leaner body & health, longer, happier life, walk min. 25K and up to 50K steps a day - use a pedometer
click: Pedometer
Walk the stair steps up and down - walk on the ocean, on the river, in the park, in the pure nature
Running on a hard surface can cause joint damage: every time your foot hits the ground, your knee joints take a 400 lbs hit
Walking is safer and brings good health results
If you run (for the speed fun of it), use suitable shoes and run on a soft surface in the nature - what shoes? Ask your foot doctor.
What shoes for walking longer for exercise - ask your foot doctor
It is important to ask your foot doctor what shoes to use AND then USE those shoes - wrong shoes can ruin your foots & legs
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Click green for further info
Everyone in Los Angeles has a ridiculous story about driving somewhere when two feet would have worked just as well. Mine features a celebrity. I once interviewed John Travolta at Paramount Pictures for an entertainment magazine, and when it came time for us to move from his trailer to the shooting location, a limo was summoned. Estimated distance of our chauffeured, temperature-controlled, Evian-sipping road trip: less than 25 yards.
This always sounds absurd, but many Angelenos would sooner have their mug shots appear on TMZ than go a few steps without a motor vehicle. Here, we drive ourselves to jog, to bike, to attend spin class and to hike, and it’s not unusual for a dinner gathering of three couples to involve five or six cars. All of which contributes to how much we sit. When we are not sitting on the freeways, we are sitting at our computers, in meetings, at restaurants or in front of the TV. And by we, in this case I mean me, at least until recently.
At this year’s TED*) conference (link: 5 lines below) , the author and the Silicon Valley corporate executive Nilofer Merchant delivered a three-minute talk that scared the life out of me about how sitting has become the smoking of our generation. It arrived on the heels of a Harvard Business Review article she wrote that said Americans average 9.3 hours of sitting a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. So elemental is sitting to our daily routine, we don’t even think about it, and yet it’s killing us.
*) click: TED Conference - TED.com www.ted.com › TED Conferences › Attend
TED conference = Held annually on the West Coast of North America, the TED Conference is at the heart of TED. More than a thousand people attend this five-day conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design -- as well as science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. More than 70 speakers appear on the main stage to give 18-minute talks and shorter presentations, including music, performance and comedy.
Just one hour of sitting slows production of fat-burning enzymes by as much as 90 percent, she said, and a longer term habit (you might want to sit down for this) negatively affects good cholesterol levels and increases the risk of heart disease,
Type 2 diabetes and certain kinds of cancer.
The detail that catapulted me out of my chair was the conclusion of an Australian study that found that for each additional hour of TV a person sits and watches each day, the chance of dying rises by 11 percent. Even the recommended 30 minutes of vigorous exercise cannot make up for the problems of hunching over your laptop the rest of the day.
Ms. Merchant’s prescription is to just keep moving. Walk with friends instead of stuffing your faces at meals. Walk to any destination within a mile radius of your home or business. Consider a standing desk (Ikea sells components to hack one for under $150) or even a treadmill desk, a kind of turbo work station that allows you to waste time on Facebook, but at an invigorating 2 m.p.h.
Naturally, Hollywood is all over it. “The actor Jerry O’Connell was in here the other day and said, ‘You’re the fittest screenwriter I’ve ever seen,’ “ said Janet Tamaro, who created “Rizzoli & Isles” and sometimes spends 10 straight hours walking through rewrites (many days her pedometer registers 50,000 steps). “I said, ‘Well, thanks, but that bar is pretty low.’ “
Ms. Merchant’s bolder solution is to “walk the talk” by scheduling walking meetings, a suggestion I took as a personal challenge. Every time a friend or colleague wanted to meet, I invited them to walk instead. The writing students I teach were more than happy to skip the gym and stroll out their editing and pitching woes with me. I walked my side of dozens of cellphone conversations, walked a friend around a state park on her birthday, walked on Ms. Tamaro’s treadmill as I interviewed her and even walked a fence contractor through his bid. (“A walk? Now?” he asked as we hit the sidewalk.)
These conversations were different somehow, with fewer awkward silences, more energy and a certain daydreamy quality (well, not with the fence guy). It helps explain, too, why “walk therapy” is an actual thing in Los Angeles.
I thought I was alone in using that term with freelancers looking to improve their careers, but Laurel Lippert Fox, a psychologist in Santa Monica, Calif., has been walking her private practice patients for years. “It’s so much more dynamic than sitting in your Eames chair,” she said. “Plus, moms can push a stroller if they can’t get a baby sitter.”
When I reached Ms. Merchant by phone at her office in Los Gatos, Calif., she had just returned from her fifth walk meeting of the week. (“I’m around 21 miles since Monday,” she said.) Both of us walked as we talked.
“What I love is that you’re literally facing your problem or situation together when you walk side by side with someone,” she said. “I love that people can’t be checking e-mail or Twitter during walking meetings. You’re awake to what’s happening around you, your senses are heightened and you walk away with something office meetings rarely give you — a sense of joy.”
Few in Los Angeles get more joy from walking than the walking activist Alissa Walker (I kid you not). A journalist by trade, she has lived car-free by choice since 2007 and is on the steering committee of Los Angeles Walks, a volunteer organization dedicated to repairing the city’s image as a walker’s wasteland. “The basic goal is to make people realize you can walk in L.A.,” she said. Better sidewalks, signage and city policies are all part of their mission.
I’ve known Ms. Walker for years through the writing community but the jubilant images she posts to Instagram (@awalkerinLA) and her blog (AWalkerinLA.com) — mostly of her glamorously adorned feet on some oddly alluring stairway or crosswalk — made me want to get out there with her.
I met her one warm, clear day in the Silver Lake neighborhood, and from her two-story royal blue house with white trim we walked along some of her favorite routes. She was wearing a billowy pink dress and neon coral sandals, and she had teal toenails that matched her sunglasses. At the bottom of her hill are the Music Box Steps, made famous in Laurel and Hardy’s 1932 Academy Award-winning short film, “The Music Box,” and now one of more than 100 vintage stairways hidden around the city.
Ms. Walker showed me the nearly completed bike lanes under construction as part of a “road diet” that’s turning four lanes of car traffic to one on Rowena Avenue. And we walked around the Silver Lake Reservoir and on up Swan’s Way, one of the city’s steepest staircases, with views to the lake, downtown and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond. “If you squint*) you can imagine women in petticoats walking here a hundred years ago,” Ms. Walker said. “But you can also see the near future, when you’ll be able to walk Los Angeles without people asking ‘What are you walking for?’ “
*) click green: squint = Crossed eyes; Esotropia; Exotropia; Hypotropia; Hypertropia; Squint; Walleye; Misalignment of the eyes
I went home excited to keep walking as part of a conscious act of being a resident in Los Angeles, and to feel healthier and more connected to my friends, neighborhood and city. But first I sat down to get a better look at the blister bubbling up on my right toe.
More about TED Click green below or search the web with a similar titleAbout TED - TED.comwww.ted.com/pages/about
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three science worlds: Technology, ... (see further on TED's website)
Click green for further info
Source: NYT
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Wednesday,9/4/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Below, click the green topic title to see of the 256-year-old man - if the link has expired search the web with the title
and click there the link connecting to The Epoch Times - Click: Lessons About Longevity From a 256-Year-Old |www.theepochtimes.com Mr. Li Qing Yun (1677–1933) was a Chinese medicine physician. He was said to have lived through nine emperors.
The article 1 of 1
Lessons About Longevity from a 256-Year Old
Please notice: the show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
According to legend, Mr. Li Qing Yun (1677–1933) was a Chinese medicine physician, herbal expert, qigong master, and tactical consultant. He was said to have lived through nine emperors in the Qing Dynasty to be 256 years old.
His May 1933 obituary in Time Magazine, titled “Tortoise-Pigeon-Dog,” revealed Li’s secrets of longevity: “Keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon and sleep like a dog.”
Mr. Li is said to have had quite unusual habits in his daily living. He did not drink hard liquor or smoke and ate his meals at regular times. He was a vegetarian and frequently drank wolfberry (also known as goji berry) tea.
- Goji - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goji
Goji, goji berry or wolfberry is the fruit of Lycium barbarum (Chinese: 寧夏枸杞 pinyin: Níngxià gǒuqǐ) and Lycium chinense (Chinese: 枸杞 pinyin: gǒuqǐ), two ...Description - Etymology - Significance - Cultivation
He slept early and got up early. When he had time, he sat up straight with his eyes closed and hands in his lap, at times not moving at all for a few hours.
In his spare time, Li played cards, managing to lose enough money every time for his opponent’s meals for that day. Because of his generosity and levelheaded demeanor, everyone liked to be with him.
Mr. Li spent his whole life studying Chinese herbs and discovering the secrets of longevity, traveling through provinces of China and as far as Thailand to gather herbs and treat illnesses.
His life advice:
Keep a quiet heart (= do not worry)
sit like a tortoise (= meditate)
walk sprightly like a pigeon (= walk lively, full of energy)
and sleep like a dog (= sleep 8 - 9 hours)
While it is unclear whether Li actually lived as long as is believed, what little we know of his habits fit with modern science’s findings about longevity.
Research
Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” researches the science of longevity. In his book and in a 2009 TED talk, he examined the lifestyle habits of four geographically distinct populations around the world.
- Dan Buettner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Buettner
Dan Buettner (born 1960 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American explorer, educator,... Buettner reported his interest in "blue zones" in his cover story for National ...Biography - References - Select bibliography - External links
All of these groups—Californian Adventists, Okinawans, Sardinians, and Costa Ricans—live to be over 100 years of age at a far greater rate than most people, or they live a dozen years longer than average. He calls the places where these groups live “blue zones.”
According to Buettner’s research, all blue-zone groups eat a vegetable-based diet. The group of Adventists in Loma Linda, California, eat plenty of legumes and greens as mentioned in the Bible. Herders living the in the highlands of Sardinia eat an unleavened whole grain bread, cheese from grass-fed animals, and a special wine.
Buettner found that low-calorie diets help in extending life, as demonstrated by a group of healthy elderly Okinawans who practice a Confucian rule of stopping eating when one is 80 percent full.
Perhaps Li’s wolfberry tea played a crucial part in his health. After hearing Li’s story, medical researchers from Britain and France conducted an in-depth study of wolfberry and found that it contains an unknown vitamin called “Vitamin X,” also known as the “beauty vitamin.” Their experiments confirmed that wolfberry inhibits the accumulation of fat and promotes new liver cells, lowers blood glucose and cholesterol, and so on.
Wolfberry performs a role of rejuvenation: It activates the brain cells and endocrine glands; enhances the secretion of hormones; and removes toxins accumulated in the blood, which can help maintain a normal function of body tissues and organs.
Meditation
Researchers have found numerous benefits to regular meditation. Neuroscientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School asked two groups of stressed-out high-tech employees to either meditate over eight weeks or live as they normally do.
They found that the meditators “showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe,” reads a 2003 Psychology Today article. “This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression, and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.”
Meditation also click: reduces brain shrinkage due to aging and click: enhances mood.
click green above
Aside from meditation, Buettner found that regularly scheduled downtime undoes inflammation, which is a reaction to stress. The Adventists in California strictly adhere to their 24-hour Sabbath and spend the time reflecting, praying, and enjoying their social circles.
Community
Buettner also found that community is a huge factor in the longevity of blue-zone groups. Typical Okinawans have many close friends, with whom they share everything. Sardinian highlanders have a reverence for the elderly not found in modern Western societies. The Adventists put family first.
A sense of belonging and having healthy friends and family encourage the individual to live healthily as well.
In “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell examined a group of Italians called the Rosetans, who migrated to an area west of Bangor, Pennsylvania. Across the board, they had lower incidents of heart disease and generally lived long, healthy lives. After experiments, it was determined that their secret was not genetics or even diet (41 percent of their diet came from fat).
“The Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world,” Gladwell wrote. “The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills.”
Purposeful Living
In his travels, Buettner came across a common theme among blue-zone groups: None of them had the concept of retirement. As it turns out, to keep going makes it easier to keep going.
Related Articles Click green or search with the title (if the link has expired search with the title & click to conect to The Epoch Times
- Meditation May Prevent Psychiatric Disorders, Study Suggests
- Study on Yogi Prahlad Jani’s Fasting Miracles Concludes
Purposeful living into the sunset years is a mantra to the Okinawans and Sardinians. In those groups, Buettner met centenarian men and women who continued to climb hills, build fences, fish, and care for great-great-great-great grandchildren.
Interestingly, none of these centenarians exercise purposely as we Westerners who go to the gym do. “They simply live active lives that warrant physical activity,” Buettner said. They all walk, cook, and do chores manually, and many of them garden.
Based on an article about Li Qing Yun from Kan Zhong Guo (Secret China).
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
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The Epoch Times » The Epoch Times is an independent voice in ...www.theepochtimes.com/
The Epoch Times is an independent voice in print and on the web. We report news responsibly and truthfully so that readers can improve their own lives and ...China - About Us - New York - World
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AN EXTRA Article - not in the radio show
Study on Yogi Prahlad Jani’s Fasting Miracles Concludes
click the green title below for the article and to see a picture of the Yogi - if the link has expired, search with the title and click the link connecting to The Epoch Times _______________________
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Wednesday,9/11/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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China Faces Big Water Crisis
This topic is
(1) to remind us that if we do not give proper attention to pollution this same challenge, the water crisis followed by proper, clean food crisis and other challenges are in front of us round the world in every country and
(2) to remind us NOT TO buy anything from China, especially any food items as they are all more or less polluted, even fatal
Below, as article 2 of 2 (not handled in the Radio Show) additional information of food buying from China
Article 1 of 3 - handled in the Radio Show on 9/11/13 - the anniversary day of the attack of The World Trade Center in New York City (9/11/2001)
Click green for further info
China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization along with over exploitation and abuse of natural resources has led to serious water pollution and water scarcity that is approaching crisis proportions.
A recently released annual environmental bulletin by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) reveals that over 30 percent of the country’s rivers and over 50 percent of groundwater are below national water quality standards. The continuing deterioration of water quality affecting people’s lives and health has become one of the most urgent existential crises for China.
Severity
In the first half of 2013, 12 state-controlled surface water monitoring stations revealed that heavy metal content at these sites surpassed national water quality standards by 22 times. Water samples taken from the Yangtze River and the Yellow River showed that mercury exceeded safe levels by 50 percent, followed by arsenic at 36.4 percent, according to a semiannual report, released on Aug. 2, 2013 by the MEP(link info in Chinese) (MEP = China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection).
Wastewater discharged nationwide in 2012 totaled 68.46 billion tons, according to the bulletin. Of the 1,200 rivers being monitored, 850 are contaminated, and over 90 percent of watersheds were contaminated.
State-controlled sections of the top 10 watersheds, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, 20.9 percent had “mild” pollution and 10.2 percent “medium-level” pollution, according to the statistical data in the bulletin.
Of the 4,929 groundwater-quality monitoring points in 198 cities, 57.3 percent reported “poor” or “very poor” water quality.
Groundwater quality has been degraded from massive dumping of untreated or partially treated wastewater. In addition, increased urbanization and industrial development in recent years have led to a growing overdraft of groundwater in some regions, which has significantly lowered the water level, Chinacitywater.org cited Zhang Hongtao, chief engineer of China’s Ministry of Land and Resources as saying.
“Residential sewage, municipal wastewater, industrial effluents, and agricultural chemicals are dumped into rivers, which has inevitably contaminated the groundwater and threatened groundwater sources. Water pollution problems have become grim,” Zhang said.
Causes
According to the Economic Information Daily, pollutants from industrial, agricultural, and residential sources are the major causes of water pollution in China. Industrial pollution is caused by directly discharging untreated industrial effluents into nearby streams, lakes, rivers, or oceans.
Agricultural pollution refers to contamination of bodies of water through agricultural wastewater, fertilizers, and pesticides in rural regions. Excessive pesticide use can cause water pollution when the chemicals remain in the soil after irrigation and are absorbed into the groundwater by rain.
Extensive use of fertilizers also results in significant concentrations of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural runoffs that can contribute to harmful algae growth, another major form of water pollution.
Residential pollution from household activities, including untreated residential wastewater and improper disposal of chemicals, also contribute to water pollution.
Despite its national 450 billion yuan (roughly US$74 billion) wastewater treatment budget for the 12th five-year economic plan (2011–2015), China’s present sewage treatment capacity is only at 20 percent, while about 80 percent of wastewater is discharged, often untreated, directly into bodies of water, according to Chachaba.com, a Shenzhen-based three dimensional map service website.
According to Chachaba, 54 out of 78 main rivers in China are polluted, and half of the top seven watersheds are contaminated. Up to 86 percent of rivers running through cities are considered polluted as contamination exceeds national standards.
Contaminants
Over 2,000 contaminants have been identified in water tests, mainly organic pollutants, carbon compounds, and heavy metals—765 of them are contained in tap water, including 190 hazardous substances and 20 carcinogens—according to Chachaba.com.
Water pollution poses an alarming threat to China’s drinking water. Approximately 82 percent of the Chinese population draws its drinking water primarily from shallow wells and freshwater lakes, but 75 percent of these water sources are seriously contaminated with bacterial concentrations exceeding hygienic water quality standards. Nearly half of China’s major cities and towns do not meet state drinking-water quality standards.
Less than 11 percent of the Chinese population has water supplies that meet state standards for drinking-water quality. As much as 65 percent of the population uses drinking water from unsafe sources. The most common water quality problems they encounter are muddy appearance, abnormal taste, inorganic contaminants such as fluoride and arsenic, industrial chemicals, and disease-causing organisms, according to Chachaba.com.
Arsenic poisoning has been identified as one of the country’s “most important endemic diseases.” Nearly 20 million Chinese live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to an international five-year research project spearheaded by Dr. Guifan Sun of China Medical University that was released on Aug. 22.
Scarcity On top of pollution, China also lacks sufficient freshwater resources to begin with. With a population of over 1.3 billion and 2,300 cubic meters of water per capita annually, this amounts to only a quarter of the world’s average use level, ranking 121st in the world. CNN quoted United Nations as saying that China is 1 of 13 countries with extreme water shortages.
Population growth, economic development, urbanization, and pollution have all exacerbated existing shortages of freshwater resources. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, out of the country’s 663 cities, more than 400 suffer from water deficiencies, with 110 categorized as “severe.”
Reportedly 232 million people face severe water shortages in an annual average per capita of water resources.
Netizens’ Concerns
The critical water pollution situation has sparked concern among Chinese bloggers.
Netizen “Green As Ever” wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging services: “The death of a starved polar bear serves as a warning to mankind, that endless exploitation of natural environments brings nothing but destruction. If today we do not pay attention to ecological sustainability, we will be engulfed by deteriorating environments in the not too distant future. If we demolish windbreaks and greenbelts, and pollute mountains and rivers, the day will come when water costs more than gasoline, and food more than gold; and then we may want to cry, yet have no tears.”
“Iron Blood Tender Feeling” posted a blog on Tencent Weibo, one of China’s leading microblogging platforms: “Facts have proven that China has the most short-sighted economic development in the world. Our ancient civilization, with a history of thousands of years, has been completely distorted after only decades of development. Can all those [formerly] pure rivers and green mountains ever be restored?”
Click green for further info Source: The Epoch times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times See a related article next below - it was not handled in the Radio Show
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Article 2 of 3 This article was not handled in the Radio Show on Wednesday 9/11/13
Senator Schumer (D-NY) Calls for Strict Oversight
of Chinese Chicken And Other Food Item Import
NEW YORK—Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for strict oversight and inspections of chicken processed in Chinese plants, which could soon find its way to store shelves in the United States.
On Aug. 30, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved four Chinese facilities to ship processed chicken to the United States.
Under current rules, the chicken products will not be labeled to show their country of origin, and the plants will not have a USDA inspector on site to oversee food safety.
The chickens eligible for export would need to have been raised and slaughtered in the United States and then shipped to China for processing. Schumer believes that with no inspectors on site in the Chinese plants, and given China’s poor track record on food safety, hazardous chicken products could potentially enter the U.S. market.
The senator cited cases of arsenic in Chinese calamari and rice, maggots in pasta, glass chips in pumpkin seeds, and deadly dog food. He also recalled a recent incident in which 63 people were arrested for selling rat, fox, and mink meat and passing it off as mutton.
“The list of disturbing incidents of food that comes from China is huge,” Schumer said outside Associated Supermarkets on East 14th Street near First Avenue in Manhattan on Sept. 15.
“We all know that China has an appallingly poor record when it comes to food safety,” he added.
Schumer believes that the August announcement from the USDA “is probably some kind of quid pro quo*).”*) quid pro quo - Latin = What for what or Something for something; In common usage, quid pro quo refers to the giving of one valuable thing for another
“Somebody wants China to do something, and China says, ‘In return, let us import these chickens.’ And then the USDA is forced to do it, even though they don’t have the inspections,” Schumer said.
“It is just outrageous. This is the health of Americans—kids, adults, elderly—and you can’t make trades on the back of people’s health,” he added.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Schumer called for annual inspections to be conducted at the Chinese plants. He also asked that the imports be rigorously and frequently retested before being sold to consumers in the United States.
“If they don’t cooperate with the United States’ foreign policy, why would they cooperate with the chicken exports?” said Bob Amand, a New York resident. “On the major issues, they are not with us, so why would you trust their label if it’s not USDA-inspected?”
Current USDA rules say that processed meat products do not have to be labeled to identify their country of origin. The rules apply to the chicken that may come from the four USDA-approved plants in China, leaving consumers with no way to discern the food’s origin.
Schumer held up a box of chicken nuggets and a package of raw chicken breasts to demonstrate his point.
Source: The Epoch Times STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times
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Article 3 of 3 This article was not handled in the Radio Show on Wednesday 9/11/13
US Pork Maker Smithfield - All Clear for Chinese Takeover
STAF, Inc.'s editors will place the most recent article here when it becomes available.
Sharholders of Smithfield Foods, Inc., Va. based U.S. company, approved on Tuesday, 9/24/13, a plan to sell the world's largest pork producer to a Chinese company. The deal is expected to close on Thursday, 9/26/13.
The sale raised many questions in the U.S, including the impact on food safety and security because the bad reputation the Chinese companies have.
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Wednesday, 10/2/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Preventing Arthritis
Millions of North Americans are suffering from osteoarthritis, the wear and tear type of arthritis that is associated with aging. Why does this happen and why does one remedy never hit the headlines?
A French professor started his class by saying, “This has been said before but must be said again because no one listened.” So it must be said again about osteoarthritis because not enough people listened!
An aphorism states, “If you keep going to hell, you’ll eventually get there.” Millions of people eventually get to an arthritic hell because they’re obese.
How can anyone not expect to develop painful hips and knees when they are subjected day after day to 50 or more extra pounds of stress? Remember what happens when you keep adding weight to the camel’s back.
If you don’t use it, you lose it. How many times must doctors stress the value of exercise? But you don’t need an expensive health club to keep joints healthy. After all, lions don’t need Nike running shoes to stay in shape. Neither do you.
President Abraham Lincoln gave sound advice when he said, “You have the best two doctors in your own body: your left leg and your right leg.” Walking pumps nutrients into cartilage and is the safest way to exercise and burn calories.
Eat a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, which are high in antioxidants. They help to keep joints healthy. Take vitamin D to push calcium into bones. All this has been said before.
So what haven’t you heard before? It’s the vital role of large doses of vitamin C. Vitamin C protects cartilage, the shock absorber between bones. You may think this is a wild idea. But let’s look at the best way to evaluate problems by using some irrefutable scientific facts.
Linus Pauling, the only two-time solo Nobel Prize winner, told me years ago what I never learned at Harvard Medical School: Animals make their own vitamin C while humans do not.
For instance, guinea pigs produce 13,000 milligrams of C daily and increase it to 100,000 milligrams a day if they develop an infection. The recommended daily amount for humans is 60 to 95 milligrams!
The next indisputable fact is that vitamin C is needed to manufacture collagen, the main ingredient of cartilage, which prevents bones from grinding together. I practice what I preach and take at least 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily.
Vitamin C is also a great antioxidant. It helps to rid the joints of free radicals, the end products of metabolism, believed to be associated with aging.
Will this remedy stop everyone from suffering the pain of arthritis? The quick answer is no. After all, regardless of how well we care for our car, it gets older and eventually wears out. But by taking large doses of vitamin C, chances are better that arthritis will occur in the 80s rather than at 50 years of age.
You may argue that all this doesn’t apply to you because you drink orange juice. Sorry, it’s not so. Pauling believed this small amount does prevent developing scurvy that used to kill sailors on long sea voyages. Sailors didn’t get orange juice and neither did the ship’s cat, but the cat had the last laugh. It didn’t die of scurvy because it produced its own vitamin C.
Can I or anyone else prove that vitamin C is a cheap way to decrease the risk of osteoarthritis? Unfortunately, it’s not possible. A large scientific study is unlikely because no money can be made from doing it. Vitamin C cannot be patented.
Remember, I’m not your doctor. But I believe a huge amount of arthritis (and coronary attacks) could be eliminated by large doses of vitamin C along with a sound lifestyle.
Remember, in previous radio shows we have told you all this before! And we keep doing to have as many more listeners to hear it.
Article source: The Epoch Times - STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - click: The Epoch Times
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The Following two articles were NOT handled in today's radio show - these are additional with related information
- Hypoascorbemia - hypo = a prefix meaning “under, below” Vitamin C is ascorbic acid - hypoascorbemia means: need more Vitamin C - yes we do BUT in a natural manner (eat daily a variety fruit and vegetables for temporary use of more Vitamin C see below). Animals produce their own Vitamin C and add its production when needed. We humans take it by eating fruit & vegetables - temporary high-quality Vitamin C tablets
- Irwin Stone (1907–1984) was an American biochemist, chemical engineer, and author. He was the first to use ascorbic acid in the food processing industry as a preservative, and originated and published the hypothesis that humans require much larger amounts of Vitamin C for optimal health than ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoascorbemia Much of Irwin Stone's and Linus Pauling's theories are outdated but good to know for further learning, for Linus Pauling click: Linus Pauling - Wikipedia
- STAF, Inc.'s opinion is: DO NOT start using DAILY any low-quality, cheap Vitamin C - it can be dangerous - HOWEVER, at the beginning of feeling flu signs - take in 3 days each about 10 - 30 grams VITAMIN C and you may be lucky to stop the flu - this is only for a temporary use.
- Linius Pauling, the only 2 x solo Nober Prize Winner taught to use it daily - later studies have found that it can be harmful. INSTEAD: EAT DAILY SEVERAL ORANGES, SEVERAL APPLES, AND VARIETY OF OTHER FRUIT & VEGETABLES - Opinion by Dr. Christian, Ph.D., N.D., D.D., STAF, Inc.'s CEO
- Talk to your local, competent nutritionists (perhaps to several of them) _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hypoascorbemia
Americans have less (click: plasma vitamin C than is needed for their optimal health. Yet there is a constant barrage of negative comment about vitamin C. It differs from (click: serum in that it contains (click: fibrin
and other soluble clotting elements
STAF, Inc. is NOT endorsing this article - this article has much good - STAF, Inc.'s advice:eat a variety of fruits & vegetables daily to get enough vitamin C - talk to your local nutritionist and your doctor who has training in the modern nutritional sciences. (Most MD's do not)
The RDA (= Recommend daily allowance) for vitamin C is just enough to prevent scurvy, or about 60 milligrams, but as Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Nobel laureate who discovered vitamin C said, “Scurvy is a premortal syndrome, and we need much more than the minimum to prevent scurvy to stay in the best of health.”
(STAF, Inc.: yes, but take vitamin C from variety of daily fruit & vegetables)
Unlike fish, amphibians, and reptiles, which produce ascorbic acid in the kidneys, higher vertebrates and mammals produce this life-essential substance from glucose in the liver. However, man lacks the enzyme that enables all creatures except the guinea pig and fruit-eating bat to manufacture their own ascorbic acid internally.
Fortunately, man needs a relatively low amount of ascorbic acid to survive, and as long as he inhabited tropical and semi-tropical regions where the food supply was abundant and contained ample external sources of ascorbic acid, he was able to overcome his enzyme deficiency.
But when human civilization spread throughout the world, man was much more susceptible to diseases and epidemics, notably outbreaks of scurvy that contributed to the Black Death in the Middle Ages and decimated much of Europe’s navies in succeeding centuries.
Not until the mid-18th century was it discovered that citrus fruit is valuable in the prevention and cure of scurvy, and not until 1933 was ascorbic acid or vitamin C isolated and identified.
An outstanding attribute of ascorbic acid is its lack of toxicity even in large doses. In some hypersensitive individuals such side effects as diarrhea or rashes may occur, but they will clear up when the dosage is lowered. One can avoid these reactions altogether by building up gradually to the desired dosage. It is best to take ascorbic acid with food.
There are no large storage depots for ascorbic acid in the body, and any excess is rapidly excreted. When saturated, the whole body may contain up to 5 grams, which dictates the necessity for a continuous fresh supply to replenish the losses.
One of the most important functions of ascorbic acid is the formation and maintenance of a protein-like substance called collagen. As the body’s most important structural substance, collagen acts as a cement to hold the tissues and organs together. Collagen cannot be formed without ascorbic acid.
The reader should consult a physician for all medical advice.
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DO NOT START USING ANY VITAMIN C BEFORE YOU CONSULT YOUR OWN DOCTOR FOR MEDICAL ADVICE and/or talk to your nutritionist
ALSO: talk to several of your local nutritionists
Heart Attack Prevention That Works!
This article is NOT endorsed by STAF, Inc. but it has much good in it:
DO NOT START USING ANY VITAMIN C BEFORE YOU CONSULT YOUR OWN DOCTOR FOR MEDICAL ADVICE
ALSO: talk to several of your local nutritionists
Noted research Cardiologist Dr. Matthias Rath has shown by ultrafast computed X-ray angiography that blocked coronary heart arteries can be unblocked. He has published photographs in “Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks But People Do.”
It seems totally absurd that official medicine will continue denying that vitamin C cures arterial disease. In some people, other antioxidants speed cure. Dr. Rath says, “Any therapy that stops coronary heart disease in its early stages prevents heart attacks later on.”
The following is from page 40 of his book: “These pictures document a milestone in medicine—the complete natural disappearance of coronary heart disease.”
Related Articles - click
- New Report: Risks of Cholesterol Drugs
- BBC Interviews Dr. Sydney Bush = the author of this article
Dr. Rath’s book was published in 2003. I was demonstrating this in 1999 in retinal arterial photographs, showing in much greater detail—and in color—how the blockages dissolve, often in three months.
When Hull University student Paul Francis worked with me to write his thesis “Analysis of Retinal Images for Healthcare,” we found that his arteries were suffering, showing the considerable stress of the study, and that the growth of his arterial blockages was reversed with extra vitamin C as he describes in the paper.
In his thesis, confirming my observations, Francis states: “This finding is in line with the theory suggested by Dr. Bush that over a period of time and with an increased daily intake of vitamin C, the brighter deposits of cholesterol are seen to gradually disappear.”
He knew that he could only ascribe the increase of his own heart disease (corresponding precisely with the retinal arteries) to his own stress and the disease’s subsequent reduction to his vitamin C. This occurred exactly the same way in 200 patients who signed testimonials to having witnessed the decrease of their own arterial disease.
So impressed was W. Gifford-Jones, M.D., that he, perhaps unwisely, stated several times that my “historic discovery is worthy of the Nobel Prize.”
Now we have a problem. Seven hundred new U.K. cancers are started annually by ordinary X-ray angiography. Ultrafast angiography uses even more radiation. It cannot be repeated often. However, even daily retinal photography carries no risk. It is cheaper, much faster, safer, and it more easily allows microscopic changes to be measured.
Optometrists should be falling over themselves to offer the public this lifesaving service, but they aren’t.
To shake them into action, I wrote the book innocently titled “700 Vitamin C Secrets (and 1,000 Not So Secret For Doctors!)” because conventional medicine has contributed to heart disease by deterring people from taking vitamin C.
When offering a new professional doctorate in CardioRetinometry in the U.K., I met with opposition from the Association of Optometrists and colleagues.
This can only be overcome by your insisting on optometrists taking proper care of your heart and sending your images to the World Institute of Optometry and CardioRetinometry (CardiOptometry.org) for evaluation!
In 1979, the BBC reported on my work that resulted in U.K. optometrists being compelled to perform eye-pressure testing. Today, the BBC refuses to interview me.
Consult physicians for medical advice.
Dr. Bush practices optometry in the U.K. His website is click: LifeExtensionOptometry.org
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Wednesday, 10/16/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Important info for your and your family's success
Actions Super Successful Individuals Take Before 8 AM
Teach your children from early on to learn these same principles and same daily activities = do as many of these activities daily with your whole family - with your spouse and with your children. You will give one of the best gifts to your children - your family ties get better - you & your spouse succeed better, your children succeed better in school and later in their whole life.
At the end of this article, see another note how to handle this important success-bringing material in your family
Click green for further info
Rise and shine! Morning time just became your new best friend. Love it or hate it, utilizing the morning hours before work may be the key to successful and healthy lifestyle. That’s right, early rising is a common trait found in many CEOs, government officials, and other influential people. Margaret Thatcher was up every day at 5 a.m.; Frank Lloyd Wright at 4 am and Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney wakes at 4:30 am, The CEO of STAF, Inc. Christian von Christophers gets up at
4 a.m., just to name a few.
I know what you’re may be thinking - you do your best work at night. Not so fast.
According to Inc. Magazine, morning people have been found to be more proactive and more productive.
In addition, the health benefits for those with a life before work go on and on.
Let’s explore some of the things successful people do before 8 am.
1. Exercise. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Most people that work out daily, work out in the morning. Whether it’s a morning yoga session or a trip to the gym, exercising before work gives you a boost of energy for the day and that deserved sense of accomplishment. Anyone can tackle a pile of paperwork after 200 ab reps! Morning workouts also eliminate the possibility of flaking out on your cardio after a long day at work. Even if you aren’t bright eyed and bushy tailed at the thought of a 5 am jog, try waking up 15 minutes early for a quick bedside set of pushups or stretching.
It’ll help wake up your body, and prep you for your day.
If possible, walk or run in a park, close to the ocean/river/woods/nature - breathe healthier air, see the colors in the nature, hear the birds singing, see the sunrise/sunset - they all affect positively your brains and improve your success.
If possible, do all these morning routines together with your spouse and your whole family - it will strengthen your family ties & will guide your children to success leading activities. In the evening, before the bedtime, walk as a whole family 10 -1 5 minutes as close to the nature as possible or at least round 2 - 3 blocks. Then go to bed all at the same time (if just possible). No TV, no technology, no computer, no cell phones (on) in anyone's bedroom - dangerous, unhealthy radiation. No TV watching, no radio listening, no newspaper reading, no "hard-rock" music during the last 1 - 2 hours before bedtime (the negative news & noise affect the sleep quality). In the evening play classical music, esp. baroque music; see link a few lines down.*) Eat dinner 3 hours before bedtime, no snacks after that except perhaps soft fruit and caffeine free herbal teas. Sleep 6 -8 hours (adults), children up to ten years 9 - 11 hours, teenagers 8- 11 hours. Teach your children also the same morning routines.
*) Baroque music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era follows the Renaissance, and was followed in turn by the
Baroque-Music.combaroque-music.com/ Baroque-Music.com - Baroque Music, Baroque Composers, Baroque Instruments.
2. Map Out Your Day. (Teach this also to your children)
Maximize your potential by mapping out your schedule for the day, as well as your goals and to dos. The morning is a good time for this as it is often one of the only quiet times a person gets throughout the day. The early hours foster easier reflection that helps when prioritizing your activities. They also allow for uninterrupted problem solving when trying to fit everything into your timetable. While scheduling, don’t forget about your mental health. Plan a 10 minute break after that stressful meeting for a quick walk around the block or a moment of meditation at your desk. Trying to eat healthy? Schedule a small window in the evening to pack a few nutritious snacks to bring to work the next day.
3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. (Teach this also to your children)
We all know that rush out the door with a cup of coffee and an empty stomach feeling. You sit down at your desk, and you’re already wondering how early that taco truck sets up camp outside your office. No good. Take that extra time in the morning to fuel your body for the tasks ahead of it. It will help keep you mind on what’s at hand and not your growling stomach. Not only is breakfast good for your physical health, it is also a good time to connect socially. Even five minutes of talking with your kids or spouse while eating a quick bowl of oatmeal can boost your spirits before heading out the door.
4. Meditation / Visualization. (Teach this also to your children)
These days we talk about our physical health ad nauseam (= referring to something that has been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome = to a disgusting or ridiculous degree; to the point of nausea; nausea = (LAT.) sickness), but sometimes our mental health gets overlooked. The morning is the perfect time to spend some quiet time inside your mind (1) meditating or (2) visualizing. Take a moment to visualize your day ahead of you, focusing on the successes you will have. Even just a minute of visualization and positive thinking can help improve your mood and outlook on your work load for the day.
5. Make Your Day Top Heavy. (Teach this also to your children)
We all have that one item on our to do list that we dread. It looms over you all day
(or week) until you finally suck it up and do it after much procrastination. Here’s an easy tip to save yourself the stress - do that least desirable task on your list first in the morning. Instead of anticipating the unpleasantness of it from first coffee through your lunch break, get it out of the way. The morning is the time when you are (generally) more well rested and your energy level is up. Therefore, you are more well equipped to handle more difficult projects. And look at it this way, your day will get progressively easier, not the other way around. By the time your work day is ending, you’re winding down with easier to dos and heading into your free time more relaxed. Success!
Click green title & study - if the link has expired search the web with the title
16 Things You Should Do At The Start Of Every Work Day
The Top 25 Small Companies In America
The 20 Best Non-Tech Small Companies In America
Source: Forbes
Important note:
Teach all these principles to your children (as will fit their schedule - they have to sleep longer than you).
Practice the above principles together as a family (with your children) - give a copy of this text to everyone in your family, including to your children. Have a weekly family meeting about these and other success & health principles, discuss - have your children involved in the meetings. Every meeting has a group leader (rotating weekly), including your children as a group leader.
You all will succeed better. _______________________________________
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Show Wed. 10 23/13
Surviving and Thriving with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid Arthritis—an autoimmune disease currently has no cure–but there are more options for managing symptoms and achieving a state of remission than when I was diagnosed in 1988.
The summer of ’88 was certainly one to remember! I woke one Saturday morning and could hardly put any weight on my elbows and knees’, getting out of bed was difficult, and walking was a painful challenge. Within two weeks I was experiencing a full-blown RA flare up—but at that point didn’t know it. My knees and ankles had disappeared and the swelling was so severe I resembled the Pillsbury doughboy! I went to see a local doctor who thought it looked like RA and he referred me to The Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. There my six-month nightmare began. I cannot describe the pain; I prefer to lock it in a little box in the back of my mind.
The specialists I was seeing at the Arthritis Clinic were wonderful individuals, very concerned for their patients, but offering only drug options and basic physical therapy to reduce the symptoms. At the time my resources were very limited. I had only been in the US a short while and had not discovered alternative (integrated) medicine. So, I did what my doctors advised. The most frightening part of the diagnosis was the list of things I would not be able to do, in the foreseeable future, or possibly ever again, they included: wearing high heels, dancing and even working full time. Worse case scenario, I might end up in wheel chair—permanently, plus, the drugs had some pretty serious side effects and in order to suppress my symptoms I would have to take these drugs for extended periods of time throughout my life. Not exactly what I wanted to hear.
About three months into the process, going to the hospital three days a week, I came to the conclusion there had to be another way. While the cortisone was bringing the pain level down from a 10 to a barely manageable 7, I was only existing, not living. I remember that they used smiley faces and frowning faces to pinpoint the pain level, there should have been a screaming face! I was experiencing inflammation in virtually all my joints, ankles, knees, fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders. Shuffling around in shoes 2 sizes larger than normal and moving at the pace of a 90 year old, when I was only 38, I was utterly miserable, depressed and hopeless.
At that time the idea that diet and nutrition could play a role in managing RA was not even on the radar screen and you couldn’t go online and do your own research like you can today. However, I caught a lucky break. I had just started a marketing and advertising company in New York and had the great fortune to meet a man who ran a botanical ingredient company. At our first business meeting as I made my way, very slowly into their conference room, he noticed my discomfort and asked what was wrong. I told him and the next two hours he dispensed his herbal knowledge and for the first time since my diagnosis I felt a glimmer of hope. Everything he said made perfect sense.
I was able, with a combination of herbal extracts which included Devil’s Claw and Cat’s Claw, dietary supplements like Evening Primrose Oil and Royal Jelly and dietary changes which included cutting out dairy and red meat, to reduce the inflammation. In six months I had the pain under control, was off all drugs and was in remission.
Since then, there have been great strides in treatment options. But, I choose not to take drugs on a long-term basis. I adjust my diet and supplement regimen as I need to, I know my body and take notice of the warning signs—fatigue is the big one. When I’m over-worked and over-stressed, fatigue kicks in and I ignore it at my peril! I have managed RA for almost twenty-five years, I wear high heels, I dance and I work more hours than anyone in my company. I credit this to one man, Frank D’Amelio Sr, a positive attitude and the natural product industry.
Tags: Arthritis, Arthritis clinic, arthritis disease, arthritis fatigue, autoimmune disease, Cat's Claw, Devil's Claw, diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, diet,Evening Primrose Oil, Frank D'Amelio Sr, Green living, healthy lfiestyle, herbal extracts for arthritis, Pain, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Royal Jelly, supplements,surviving arthritis, symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
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Wednesday, 10/30/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Factory Farms Fueling Antibiotic Resistance,
CDC Report
“We are approaching a cliff. If we don’t take steps to slow or stop drug resistance, we will fall back to a time when simple infections killed people,” said Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director of CDC’s Healthcare Quality Promotion
According to FDA figures, 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on animals grown for food
Citing decades of antibiotics overuse, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) paint a grim future.
“We are approaching a cliff. If we don’t take steps to slow or stop drug resistance, we will fall back to a time when simple infections killed people,” said Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director of CDC’s Healthcare Quality Promotion in a statement.
According to a CDC report released in September 2013, more than two million Americans a year get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 die as a result. While excessive prescriptions in human medicine play a large role, CDC says modern farming practices significantly fuel the crisis.
“Much of antibiotic use in animals is unnecessary and inappropriate and makes everyone less safe,” CDC stated.
In the 1950s, scientists discovered that small, persistent doses of antibiotics made animals grow faster and bigger. Later, more antibiotics were added to the regimen to guard against the crowded, unsanitary conditions of the factory farm. Today, federal regulators estimate that U.S. livestock consume nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics a year.
Scientists have seen trouble brewing for decades, but little has been done to address the problem. In 1977, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed withdrawing penicillin and tetracycline for use in farm animals, but the strongest action taken thus far has been voluntary recommendations issued in 2012.
For those who believe FDA guidelines fall short, CDC’s warning is rousing support for PAMTA (Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act). Drafted by Congresswoman and microbiologist Louise Slaughter (D-NY), PAMTA would stop routine use of antibiotics in food animals, preserve eight classes of antibiotics for human use only, and bring more transparency to drug use on the farm.
“It is time to put a stop to big agribusinesses doling out pharmaceuticals to healthy animals just because it is better for their bottom line. Antibiotic use in food-animals must be limited to prevent the inadvertent creation of superbugs that are too powerful for our own medicine,” said Slaughter in a press release.
PAMTA is backed by 450 organizations, including World Health Organization, American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences. For years, several groups have been petitioning FDA to enact the same measures, but the agency has resisted. FDA lost two lawsuits in 2012 from petitioners calling for reforms, and has filed appeals for both.
Former FDA commissioner David Kessler said that industry won’t allow reforms. In a March 2013 New York Times editorial, Kessler wrote that there is “more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock, yet the food and drug industries are not only fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices, they also oppose collecting the data. Unfortunately, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as the FDA, are aiding and abetting them.”
According to figures Slaughter has confirmed with the FDA, 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on animals grown for food. But the Animal Health Institute (AHI), a trade group for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture antibiotics for livestock, says Slaughter makes her case with inflated and misleading statistics.
While Slaughter says that most of the antibiotics are not used to treat sick animals, according to an AHI survey, companies report that only about five percent of antibiotics sold are used to promote animal growth, and most of these drugs are not used in human medicine.
A true picture of drug use is hard to see because many details on farm pharmaceuticals remain an industry secret. However, evidence of drug resistance has emerged at the supermarket.
In February 2013, the federal government reported that more than 81 percent of ground turkey, 70 percent of pork chops, 55 percent of ground beef, and 39 percent of chicken may contain antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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Wednesday, 11/6/13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Unlocking the Potential in ADHD Adults
Well-known successful adults who have ADHD:
NEW YORK—Dr. Edward “Ned” Hallowell has built his career around helping people recognize and embrace their unique mental strengths and to work in ways that suit their cognitive style.
Click: Dr Hallowellwww.drhallowell.com/ Dr.Hallowell.com is an ADHD ADD resource center and the homepage for Dr. Edward(Ned) Hallowell and the New York and Sudbury Hallowell Centers.
Whether he’s appearing on national television or jetting around the three treatment centers he founded, Hallowell is trying to spread one message: That ADD and ADHD are not disabilities, just traits with up- and down-sides.
The ADD/ADHD traits can be hurtful or helpful depending on how they are managed.
Hallowell has ADHD and dyslexia himself, yet he graduated from Harvard with a degree in English before entering medical school and starting his own practice. He tells his young patients they are lucky to have “Ferrari engines” for brains, but are unfortunate to only have “bicycle brakes.” He teaches both adults and children ways to strengthen their brakes and focus their attention.
All Grown Up and Fidgety (= restless or uneasy)
In the two decades since ADD first hit public awareness, and especially in the wake of the federal program, No Child Left Behind, there has been a lot of concern about children who struggle with attention problems. But what the public is less aware of is that many adults suffer with ADD/ADHD too, in ways that are easy to miss.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that just over 4 percent of American adults have ADHD, and have exhibited it since an average age of 7.
Click: NIMH · Homewww.nimh.nih.gov/ The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, ...
About 60 percent of children with ADHD in the United States continue to struggle with it in their adulthood, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
The school environment makes childhood ADD/ADHD easy to spot. It’s structured and students are expected to sit still, pay attention, and complete assignments according to teacher specification. The ones who resist this structure stick out, either for their unusual and creative ways of looking at issues, or for their slow academic progress.
But for adults, the signs can be a bit more subtle.
“For adults with ADD the leading symptom is chronic, unexplained underachievement,” Hallowell said.
That underachievement could manifest itself as tuning out in business meetings, lack of drive, or having trouble finishing projects, all of which add up to passed-over promotions and generally feeling unfulfilled.
A Hopeful Message
Hallowell’s seemingly boundless drive spurred him to open three treatment centers—in New York, San Francisco, and Sudbury, Mass. He has also published over 10 popular books on adult and childhood psychology. His latest book, “Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People,” (2011) is a business book for managers who want to help employees—with or without ADD/ADHD—manifest their full potential.
Hallowell himself, and many other entrepreneurs in various fields, are living proof that “learning disabilities” don’t have to kill ambition.
“You name the profession and I can find someone at the top of it who has this trait,” he said. “Calling it a disability weighs it entirely on the downside and ignores the upside.”
What’s the upside of having ADD? Creativity, a unique way of solving problems, and an entrepreneurial spirit, Hallowell said, the same spirit that founded this country.
Help for the Stagnating Professional
The key to success as an adult with ADD or ADHD is two-fold: find the right profession, and develop the right habits.
“The [attention] ‘deficit’ is misleading—ADHD people can focus. They can super-focus when the subject happens to interest them,” Hallowell said. “It’s when it doesn’t that they can’t control their wandering minds that [it] is problematic.”
That’s why it’s crucial to get a job that fits the individual.
“Your career ought to be the overlap of three circles: What you’re really good at doing, what you like to do, and what someone will pay you to do. That’s the sweet spot,” he said.
“A lot of times people with ADD spend their lives trying to get good at what they’re bad at because they got the message in school that’s what they should do.”
The second part of the equation is to manage yourself.
This includes taking control of your time. Don’t let people pull your attention away. Manage “screensucking,” or letting the Internet drain away productive hours.
“The ADD mind is like a toddler at a picnic. It goes wherever it wants to go with no regard for danger or authority,” Hallowell said. “It’s forever going off following curiosity.”
To make this thirst for novelty a force for good, one must learn to direct one’s energy.
“It begins with education, making them aware of what they’re doing, how much time is being wasted, and that their mental energy is finite,” Hallowell said. “There are ways to conserve your energy, to deploy your time and attention so you don’t lose your edge, feel frazzled, and underachieve because of it.”
Education First, Medication Last
In Hallowell Center’s five-step process, education follows diagnosis, and medication is the last resort.
The center adopts a team approach to treating patients, employing MDs, psychologists, psychiatrists, coaches, and tutors, who work together to monitor patients’ progress and make sure that lifestyle and counseling recommendations are met with follow-through.
The first step in treatment is to understand how a patient’s thought process works. Staff at the center start with a series of neuropsychological tests that measure problem solving, planning and organizing styles, attention, memory and learning, language and perceptual processes. These take the form of puzzles, games, and mazes. The tests generate the patient’s cognitive profile and serve as a starting point for improvement.
Once the strengths and weak spots are determined, a course of treatment is found which can include tutors who meet with children multiple times per week to work on time management, planning, organizing, prioritizing, and decision-making systems for effective daily living. In cases where medication is needed, psychiatrists work with the patient and the team to manage medication and side effects.
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Wednesday, 11/ 20 /13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
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Scientists found that when mice sleep, their brains clean out the substance, beta-amyloid
that builds up when people have Alzheimer’s Beta amyloid
Good Night’s Sleep Cleans Out Gunk in Brain
LOS ANGELES—When we sleep, our brains get rid of gunk that builds up while we’re awake, suggests a study that may provide new clues to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders. This cleaning was detected in the brains of sleeping mice, but scientists said there’s reason to think it happens in people too. If so, the finding may mean that for people with dementia and other mind disorders, “sleep would perhaps be even more important in slowing the progression of further damage,” Dr. Clete Kushida, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said in an email.
Kushida did not participate in the study, which appears in a recent issue of the journal。
When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree
People who don’t get enough shut-eye have trouble learning and making decisions, and are slower to react. But despite
decades of research, scientists can’t agree on the basic purpose of sleep. Reasons range from processing memory, saving energy to regulating the body. The latest work, led by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, adds fresh
evidence to a long-standing view: When we close our eyes, our brains go on a cleaning spree.
The team previously found a plumbing network in mouse brains that flushes out cellular waste. For the new study,
the scientists injected the brains of mice with beta amyloid, a substance that builds up in Alzheimer’s disease, and followed its movement. They determined that it was removed faster from the brains of sleeping mice than awake mice.
The team also noticed that brain cells tend to shrink during sleep, which widens the space between the cells. This
allows waste to pass through that space more easily. Though the work involved mouse brains, lead researcher
Dr. Maiken Nedergaard said this plumbing system also exists in dogs and baboons, and it’s logical to think that the
human brain also clears away toxic substances. Nedergaard said the next step is to look for the process in human brains.
In an accompanying editorial, neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
said scientists have recently taken a heightened interest in the spaces between brain cells, where junk is flushed out.
It’s becoming clearer that “sleep is likely to be a brain state in which several important housekeeping functions
take place,” she said in an email.The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
In a statement, program director Jim Koenig said the finding could lead to new approaches for treating a range of brain diseases.
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Additional article (there a 2nd additional article next below this first additional article) relating to the Radio Show article next above "Good Night Sleep Cleans out Gunk in Brain". Additional articles relate to the show topic and give additional information but are not handled in today's show (11/20/13).
Scientists reveal how beta-amyloid may cause Alzheimer's -
See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/alzheimers.html#sthash.GZMXzBoG.dpuf
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Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown how a protein fragment known as beta-amyloid, strongly implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, begins destroying synapses before it clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death.
Key features of Alzheimer’s, which affects about 5 million Americans, are wholesale loss of synapses — contact points via which nerve cells relay signals to one another — and a parallel deterioration in brain function, notably in the ability to remember.
“Our discovery suggests that Alzheimer’s disease starts to manifest long before plaque formation becomes evident,” said Carla Shatz, PhD, professor of neurobiology and of biology and senior author of the study, published Sept. 20 in Science.
Investigators at Harvard University also contributed to the study. The research, conducted in mice and in human brain tissue, may help to explain the failures in recent years of large-scale clinical trials attempting to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s by pharmacologically ridding the brain of amyloid plaques. It may also point the way to better treatments at earlier stages of the disease.
Beta-amyloid begins life as a solitary molecule but tends to bunch up — initially into small clusters that are still soluble and can travel freely in the brain, and finally into the plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. The study showed for the first time that in this clustered form, beta-amyloid can bind strongly to a receptor on nerve cells, setting in motion an intercellular process that erodes their synapses with other nerve cells.
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Synapses are the connections between nerve cells. They are essential to storing memories, processing thoughts and emotions, and planning and ordering how we move our bodies. The relative strength of these connections, moreover, can change in response to new experiences.
Using an experimental mouse strain that is highly susceptible to the synaptic and cognitive impairments of Alzheimer’s disease, Shatz and her colleagues showed that if these mice lacked a surface protein ordinarily situated very close to synapses, they were resistant to the memory breakdown and synapse loss associated with the disorder. The study demonstrated for the first time that this protein, called PirB, is a high-affinity receptor for beta-amyloid in its “soluble cluster” form, meaning that soluble beta-amyloid clusters stick to PirB quite powerfully. That trips off a cascade of biochemical activities culminating in the destruction of synapses.
Shatz is the Sapp Family Provostial Professor, as well as the director of Bio-X, a large Stanford interdisciplinary consortium drawing on medical, engineering and biology faculty. She has been studying PirB for many years, but in a different context. In earlier work, Shatz explored the role of PirB in the brain using genetically engineered mice that lacked it. She discovered that PirB, previously thought to be used only by cells in the immune system, is also found on nerve cells in the brain, where it impedes the ability of synapses to strengthen as they typically do when they are engaged, and actually promotes their weakening. Such brakes are desirable in the brain because too-easy synaptic strength-shifting could trigger untoward consequences like epilepsy.
In the new study, Shatz’s team employed a different genetically engineered mouse strain whose genome contained mutant copies of two separate human genes. Each of these mutations is known to predispose individuals to Alzheimer’s disease. When both mutations are present in mice, which ordinarily never develop amyloid plaques, the result is abundant amyloid plaque deposition with advancing age, as well as an eventual decline in performance on various tests of memory.
“I’ve always found it strange that these mice — and, in fact, all the mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease that we and other people study — seem not to have any problems with memory until they get old,” Shatz said. “These mice’s brains have high levels of beta-amyloid at a very early age.”
Shatz found herself wondering if there might be a more sensitive measure of beta-amyloid’s early effects on young brains. A study she co-authored in 2012 demonstrated that a particular mouse brain region, whose constituent synapses are normally quite nimble at shifting their relative strengths in response to early-life experiences, showed no such flexibility in young Alzheimer’s-prone mice. This suggested that subtle Alzheimer’s-related effects might appear far earlier than plaques or memory loss do.
Now, Shatz wondered whether eliminating PirB from the Alzheimer’s mouse strain could restore that flexibility. So her team bred the Alzheimer’s-genes-carrying strain with the PirB-lacking strain to create hybrids. Experimentation showed that the brains of young “Alzheimer’s mice” in which PirB was absent retained as much synaptic-strength-shifting flexibility as those of normal mice. PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice also performed as well in adulthood as normal mice did on well-established tests of memory, while their otherwise identical PirB-expressing peers suffered substantial synapse and memory loss.
“The PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice were protected from the beta-amyloid-generating consequences of their mutations,” Shatz said. The question now was, why?
Taeho Kim, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Shatz’s lab and the lead author of the new study, advanced a hypothesis he had cooked up in 2011 while describing his research to a captive audience of one — his then-4-year-old son, whom he was driving to the Monterey Bay Aquarium: Maybe PirB and beta-amyloid were binding. This might cause PirB to stomp on the brakes even more than it usually does, weakening synapses so much they could disappear altogether, taking memories with them.
Further experiments showed that, indeed, beta-amyloid binds strongly to PirB. While PirB is specifically a mouse protein, Kim also identified for the first time an analogous beta-amyloid receptor in the human brain: a protein called LilrB2.
In another experiment, Kim compared proteins in the brains of PirB-lacking Alzheimer’s mice to those in the brains of PirB-expressing Alzheimer’s mice. The latter showed significantly increased activity on the part of a few workhorse proteins, notably an enzyme called cofilin. Subsequent studies also found that cofilin activity in the brains of autopsied Alzheimer’s patients is substantially higher than in the brains of people without the disorder.
Here the plot thickens: Cofilin works by breaking down actin, a building-block protein essential to maintaining synaptic structure. And, as the new study also showed, beta-amyloid’s binding to PirB results in biochemical changes to cofilin that revs up its actin-busting, synapse-disassembling activity.
“No actin, no synapse,” Shatz said.
Kim’s hypothesis appears to have been correct. Beta-amyloid binds to PirB (and, the researchers proved, to its human analog, LilrB2), boosting cofilin activity and busting synapses’ structural integrity.
Although there may be other avenues of destruction along which synapses are forced to walk, Shatz doubts there are very many. She said she thinks the direct participation of beta-amyloid — as well as cofilin, so clearly implicated in synaptic breakdown — suggests that this pathway is important. “We looked at human brains in this study, too, and we found that a similar derangement of cofilin activity is present in Alzheimer’s brains but not healthy brains,” she said.
Shatz suggested that drugs that block beta-amyloid’s binding to PirB on nerve-cell surfaces — for example, soluble PirB fragments containing portions of the molecule that could act as decoy — might be able to exert a therapeutic effect. “I hope this finding will be enticing enough to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that someone will try pushing this idea forward,” she said.
The study was funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (grants EY02958 and 5T32EY020485) and the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation. Other Stanford co-authors were Christopher Garcia, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular physiology and of structural biology; research associate Maja Djurisic, PhD; and graduate students George Vidal and Michael Birnbaum.
Information about the medical school’s Department of Neurology, which also supported this work, is available at http://neurobiology.stanford.edu.
- See more at: http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2013/september/alzheimers.html#sthash.GZMXzBoG.dpuf
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Topic 2 in today's Radio Show is below this next article - the next article below is an additional text relating to the above (today's topic # 1) - this additional text was not handled in the Radio Show.
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Additional article # 2 relating to the Radio Show article above "Good Night Sleep Cleans out Gunk in Brain". Additional articles relate to the show topic and give additional information but are not handled in today's show (11/20/13).
Sleep Therapy Seen as an Aid for Depression
Depression is the most common mental disorder, affecting some 18 million Americans in any given year, according to government figures, and more than half of them also have insomnia.
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Curing insomnia in people with depression could double their chance of a full recovery, scientists are reporting. The findings, based on an insomnia treatment that uses talk therapy rather than drugs, are the first to emerge from a series of closely watched studies of sleep and depression to be released in the coming year.
The new report affirms the results of a smaller pilot study, giving scientists confidence that the effects of the insomnia treatment are real. If the figures continue to hold up, the advance will be the most significant in the treatment of depression since the introduction of Prozac in 1987.Click: Prozac (Fluoxetine Hcl) Drug Information
Depression is the most common mental disorder, affecting some 18 million Americans in any given year, according to government figures, and more than half of them also have insomnia.
Experts familiar with the new report said that the results were plausible and that if supported by other studies, they should lead to major changes in treatment.
“It would be an absolute boon to the field,” said Dr. Nada L. Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago, who was not connected with the latest research.
“It makes good common sense clinically,” she continued. “If you have a depression, you’re often awake all night, it’s extremely lonely, it’s dark, you’re aware every moment that the world around you is sleeping, every concern you have is magnified.”
The study is the first of four on sleep and depression nearing completion, all financed by the National Institute of Mental Health. They are evaluating a type of talk therapy for insomnia that is cheap, relatively brief and usually effective, but not currently a part of standard treatment.
The new report, from a team at Ryerson University in Toronto, found that 87 percent of patients who resolved their insomnia in four biweekly talk therapy sessions also saw their depression symptoms dissolve after eight weeks of treatment, either with an antidepressant drug or a placebo pill — almost twice the rate of those who could not shake their insomnia. Those numbers are in line with a previous pilot study of insomnia treatment at Stanford.
In an interview, the report’s lead author, Colleen E. Carney, said, “The way this story is unfolding, I think we need to start augmenting standard depression treatment with therapy focused on insomnia.”
Dr. Carney acknowledged that the study was small — just 66 patients — and said a clearer picture should emerge as the other teams of scientists released their results. Those studies are being done at Stanford, Duke and the University of Pittsburgh and include about 70 subjects each. Dr. Carney will present her data on Saturday at a convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, in Nashville.
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
Doctors have known for years that sleep problems are intertwined with mood disorders. But only recently have they begun to investigate the effects of treating both at the same time. Antidepressant drugs like Prozac help many people, as does talk therapy, but in rigorous studies the treatments, administered individually, only slightly outperform placebo pills. Used together the treatments produce a cure rate — full recovery — for about 40 percent of patients.
Adding insomnia therapy, however, to an antidepressant would sharply lift the cure rate, Dr. Carney’s data suggests, as do the findings from the Stanford pilot study, which included 30 people.
Doctors have long considered poor sleep to be a symptom of depression that would clear up with treatments, said Rachel Manber, a professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Stanford, whose 2008 pilot trial of insomnia therapy provided the rationale for larger studies. “But we now know that’s not the case,” she said. “The relationship is bidirectional — that insomnia can precede the depression.”
Full-blown insomnia is more serious than the sleep problems most people occasionally have. To qualify for a diagnosis, people must have endured at least a month of chronic sleep loss that has caused problems at work, at home or in important relationships. Several studies now suggest that developing insomnia doubles a person’s risk of later becoming depressed — the sleep problem preceding the mood disorder, rather than the other way around.
The therapy that Dr. Manber, Dr. Carney and the other researchers are using is called cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I for short. The therapist teaches people to establish a regular wake-up time and stick to it; get out of bed during waking periods; avoid eating, reading, watching TV or similar activities in bed; and eliminate daytime napping.Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
The aim is to reserve time in bed for only sleeping and — at least as important — to “curb this idea that sleeping requires effort, that it’s something you have to fix,” Dr. Carney said. “That’s when people get in trouble, when they begin to think they have to do something to get to sleep.”
This kind of therapy is distinct from what is commonly known as sleep hygiene: exercising regularly, but not too close to bedtime, and avoiding coffee and too much alcohol in the evening. These healthful habits do not amount to an effective treatment for insomnia.
In her 2008 pilot study testing CBT-I *) in people with depression, Dr. Manber of Stanford used sleep hygiene as part of her control treatment. She found that 60 percent of patients who received seven sessions of the talk therapy and an antidepressant fully recovered from their depression, compared with 33 percent who got the same drug and the sleep hygiene therapy.
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
In the four larger trials expected to be published in 2014, researchers had participants keep sleep journals to track the effect of the CBT-I therapy, writing down what time they went to bed every night, what time they tried to fall asleep, how long it took, how many awakenings they had and what time they woke up.
When the diaries show consistent, seldom-interrupted, good-quality slumber, the therapist conducts an interview to determine if there are any lingering issues. If there are none, the person has recovered. The therapy results in sharp reductions in nighttime wakefulness for most people who follow through.
In interviews, several researchers noted that the National Institute of Mental Health had sharply curtailed funding for work in sleep treatment. Aleksandra Vicentic, the acting chief of the agency’s behavioral and integrative neuroscience research branch, said that in 2009 the funding strategy changed for sleep projects.
In an effort to illuminate the biology of sleep’s impact on behavior, the agency is now focusing on how sleep affects the functioning of neural circuits. But Dr. Vicentic added that the agency continued to fund clinical work like the depression trials.
Dr. Andrew Krystal, who is running the CBT-I study at Duke, called sleep “this huge, still unexplored frontier of psychiatry.”
CBT = Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Click: Cognitive behavioral therapy - Wikipedia
“The body has complex circadian cycles, and mostly in psychiatry we’ve ignored them,” he said. “Our treatments are driven by convenience. We treat during the day and make little effort to find out what’s happening at night.”
Click: Circadian rhythm - Wikipedia
Click: The Circadian Cycle of Sleep and Wakefulness - Neuroscience ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › NCBI › Literature › Bookshelf by D Purves - 2001 - Related articles
Human sleep occurs with circadian (circa = about, and dia = day) periodicity*), and biologists interested in circadian rhythms have explored a number of questions ...
*) periodicity = the quality or character of being periodic; the tendency to recur at intervals.
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Source: NYT
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Topic # 2 of 2 Wednesday, 11/ 20 /13 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Water with Meals. . . Good or Bad?
Important detailed information for every person worldwide
Have your whole family applying the information
Drinking the correct amount of plain, clean water daily can actually slow the aging process
What is the correct amount? What is clean water? - All clear answers below -
Teach the facts to your children - Apply the information as a whole family.
Quotation "Knowledge is no power - only applied knowledge is power"
(Dr Christian, STAF, Inc.)
The facts are here to support the dictate:
- Approximately 70% of your body is water (depending on your age)
- Nearly half your brain is water - About 93 % of your blood is water
- Hunger is often a mis-signaling for thirst
- With age, water content decreases - meaning drinking more water can actually slow the aging process.
Tap water? (Good enough especially when filtered) - Bottled Water? (Not worth its price) - Distilled Water? (No - too many nutrients gone)
Research shows that even the bottled water is not clean - then: waste not your money
Research shows that tab water is good enough to drink especially if you boil it first 2 -3 minutes (kills most bacteria) or at least run the water through an effective, modern filter - no complicated, expensive systems needed. Unfiltered tab water could not be fully clean - how could old pipes (often 50 years old) give pure water? Filtering can make a difference and if you in addition boil it 2 -3 minutes. Boil at least when you prepare fresh lemon (1/2) + lime (1/2) + 16 + ounces water every morning = boil only the water, blend well the lemon/lime and mix with boiled water. Lemon & lime are excellent cleaners of your system and refreshingly delicious.
DAILY drink water at least that liquid oz. amount that is the same as your healthy weight (not overweight) in lbs.
If your country uses liters and kilograms, use the internet calculator to find your system.Kilograms to Pounds conversion - kg to lbs - Metric Conversion
Liquid Volume Converter - The Calculator Site
(Find your own favorite calculators from the internet - the 2 above are to start with)
There is a "clear" test to know if you are drinking enough water daily - teach this to your children also.
Don't panic for the cost: it's a free test, you can do it anywhere many times a day and you must do it every time you urinate. - Don't panic: doing the test is only "seeing" - if you are blind (serious) or you do not see well, YOU MUST ask someone else (you trust and who can see well) to help you. This is not a joke this is one of the most serious things in our life when it comes to your health and your longevity (or non-longevity - your choice).
The "CLEAR" test
When your urine (or your children's or any of your family member's urine) is clear by its color- you have been drinking enough water. When the urine is orange, strong yellow, or yellow you have not put enough clear H2O in our system. Do not play with your health - drink clean water daily the amount that your urine stays clear. The clearer the color the healthier you will be and the longer you will live. The darker it is the shorter your life and the more sickness suffering you will have. What is your choice? Stupidity or wisdom and intelligent behavior of how you treat your body.
Quotation "You respect you keep, you don't, you lose" (Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc.)
The above quotation refers to your respect for your life, to your health, and to how long you will live.
What you respect you will keep. That rule applies to everything in life.
Do you handle your body & mind with respect by applying the natural laws your body & mind needs. If and when you do, then you will stay healthy and have a long life. If you do not treat your body with respect and do what your body needs to stay alive, you lose your body= you'll lose you life much earlier than if you had respected your body and its needs you have showed disrespect, meaning here: you lose your body & mind (= die earlier than you otherwise would)
Water is one of the most significant factors that affect health. It’s one of those topics I find best to think about incrementally. If I consider the safety of our drinking water, the water I just used to fill the tub for my son, the container from which I drink my water when I workout, and how much water I’m drinking through the day all at the same time, it’s daunting. So I’ve approached my relationship to water over time, addressing the how, the why, and the what as I am ready. Today, I’m ready to consider the when.
When should we drink water and how does that timing affect our digestion?
This past weekend I taught a class focused on cleansing the liver. In the winter you naturally consume heavier foods and remain more sedentary. Toxins accumulate in your fat cells. This makes it difficult for your liver to do its job. Right now, your liver is working extra hard to process the excessive toxic exposures of our times.
At the end of the class one student asked about drinking water away from meals. That got me thinking: what is the science behind drinking and eating? Is drinking water with meals good or is it bad for my digestion? Truth be told, I naturally have no desire to drink when I eat. So much so that I often forget to serve my family water with meals. I’m only reminded that others want water with their food by their intermittent leaps up from the table to visit the filter in the kitchen.
I had always assumed that my distaste for drinking and eating at the same time came from an instinct that the two were misaligned. And while this may be true for my digestive system, it holds no credence. Legend is that drinking water with a meal will dilute stomach acidity. The dilution of stomach acidity then inhibits our ability to breakdown foods, particularly proteins. It turns out that water won’t significantly affect the digestive juices and therefore will not interfere with digestion.
In fact, the opposite may be true. Water consumed before meals stimulates the gastrointestinal tract and peristalsis, the involuntary contraction and relaxation of muscles that moves food through the GI tract. Some research shows that drinking water boosts metabolism for up to an hour after being consumed. And consider this: drinking water will help balance weight! Your body’s signals for satiety are based on many factors. One of the most simple anatomical factors is the expansion of the stomach. That can be achieved with both food and water.
You may be surprised how many other health conditions can virtually disappear with the introduction of more water into the diet. These include heartburn, arthritis, chronic pain (back and otherwise), irritable bowel issues, high blood pressure and more. Its surprising, but ultimately it makes perfect sense! Look at the importance of water in your body:
- Water moistens the tissues throughout the body
- Water helps to regulate body temperature
- Water assists in the protection of our body organs
- Water prevents constipation
- Water lessens the burden on the kidneys and liver, flushing toxins out of the body
- Water lubricates your joints & prevents and eases arthritis
- Water dissolves minerals and other nutrients, making them more accessible to the cells
- Water carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells
- Water helps in allergies - water cleans & opens your stuffy nose
- Water helps you think better and be wiser (your brain is about 50 % water)
Eater’s Digest Homework - Drink more water!
- Have immediately at least 8 - 16 ounces of water upon rising in the morning. Your body has been without water for many hours! - THEN: prepare another 16 ounce boiled water mixed with 1/2 fresh lemon + 1/2 fresh lime (use blender) and drink (roll in moth to mix with saliva- the digestive process starts in your mouth with the saliva) - click: Saliva
- Carry a water glass or bottle with you so that you can drink throughout the day.
- Keep a pitcher or large container at your desk during the day. Aim to drink it all before leaving your desk for the day.
- If you’re new to this game, make it interesting; add a squeeze of lemon or lime, cucumbers or goji berries
- Commit to a short period of time where you actually count how much water you’re consuming. It doesn’t take long for practice to become habit.
- Drink water about 30 minutes before meals. Sip water during meals.
- Know that sugar cravings are often a sign of dehydration. Drink a tall glass of water before giving in to the craving and see what happens!
- Do NOT drink any sugary soda - Do not drink any diet soda - both are dangerous to your health - drink plain water.
- Between coffee and bedtime leave at least 7 hours - otherwise caffeine in coffee will affect the health of your night sleep - coffee is mostly water - it counts in your daily water intake amount. Avoid decaffeineated coffee as the chemical process can be harmful for the human health. Caffeine is believed to be beneficial for us humans.
- Tea: All tea is produced from a plant called Camellia sinensis. The thousands of different varieties of teas available in the world only vary by the region it was grown, the time of year picked, and the processing method. Tea has also caffeine, half of medium strength coffee. In the evening enjoy only teas without any caffeine, meaning HERBAL teas (even some of them may have some caffeine). Different teas: white, green, black, oolong - they are all from he same tea bush - the difference is when their leaves are harvested and how they are processed. There are other types of teas. Learn to know the 4 most common ones listed above: white, green, black, oolong - taste them all - see what you enjoy best. They also may have to be brewed somewhat differently - study the internet for their brewing instructions to get the best results. To get the health-related benefits from tea and coffee you can consider mixing 50 % + 50 % tea and coffee and see how you enjoy them together. Many people do (including the editor of this information).
Click: Coffee - Wikipedia
Click: Types of Teas and Their Health Benefits - WebMD - From green tea to hibiscus, from white tea to chamomile, teas are chock full of flavonoids and other healthy goodies.
Source: (1) The Epoch Times & (2) STAF, Inc.s' archives
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - click: The Epoch Times
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An additional article
Coffee as medicine? Japanese scientists show how it helps the heart
Date: November 20. 2013
Source:A study presented November 20, 2013. at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions meeting
Five ounces of caffeinated coffee improves blood flow in small blood vessels, Japanese researchers report
The next time you take a coffee break, you might want to consider a triple espresso. The extra caffeine may reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
A study presented November 20, 2013. at the American Heart Assn.’s Scientific Sessions meeting offers new evidence that coffee boosts the function of small blood vessels in people who are already healthy.
Click: American Heart Association - Building healthier lives
Researchers in Japan recruited 27 young adults in their 20s to participate in the study. None of them were regular coffee drinkers, but they agreed to consume two 5-ounce cups of joe for the sake of science.
On one of the days, the coffee was caffeinated. On the other day, they drank decaf. They weren’t told which was which. Neither were the researchers, who measured the volunteers’ blood pressure and blood flow after they finished their beverages.
The researchers placed a probe on the tip of each volunteer’s left index finger or thumb and used a technique called laser Doppler flowmetry to measure blood flow to the digit. It works by shining a laser beam through the blood and measuring how much it is scattered by the movement of red blood cells.
For the study, the researchers interrupted blood flow to the hand for one minute, Dr. Masato Tsutsui, the cardiologist who led the study, said in an email to The Times. When the minute was up, they monitored how quickly the normal blood returned to the finger or thumb.
It turned out that blood flow measured in the finger or thumb was 30% higher on the day they had regular coffee than on the day they had decaf. This was significant because the measurements are a proxy for how well the small blood vessels in the body are working.
That wasn’t the only change. Blood pressure rose “significantly” as well on the days the volunteers drank regular coffee, according to the study abstract. But the caffeine didn’t cause the volunteers’ hearts to beat more quickly.
The researchers also measured levels of the neurotransmitters epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and norepinephrine in the volunteers’ blood plasma. The levels were essentially the same after drinking both types of coffee.
“This gives us a clue about how coffee may help improve cardiovascular health,” Tsutsui said in a statement from the American Heart Assn. Tsutsui is a professor of pharmacology at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.
Click: University of the Ryukyus
If scientists can figure out how caffeinated coffee helps small blood vessels work better, “it could lead to a new treatment strategy for cardiovascular disease in the future,” he said.
But this is probably not the only reason why many studies have linked coffee consumption with better cardiovascular health, he said via email. Instead, he said, it’s “just one of many.”
An earlier version of this story said that extra caffeine from coffee could help get your blood flowing. In the experiment, that only occurred after researchers impeded blood flow in test subjects, not under normal conditions.
ALSO:
Humans can sniff out 10 basic odors, scientists say
Starbucks in space? Scientists help astronauts drink coffee
Ig Nobel Prizes: Why onions make you cry and Enya is bad in the O.R.
ignoble = not honorable, not noble
The name "Ig Nobel Prizes" is a play-combination of the words (1) ignoble and (2) Nobe;
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then makes them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Every September, in a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1100 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel Laureates.
The 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happened on Thursday, September 12, 2013, introducing the 2013 Ig Nobel Prize winners. The ceremony was webcast on www.improbable.com and about 20 major news and science sites.
- See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/#sthash.LHZNoRuY.dpuf
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Wednesday, 1/15/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Good Night! - Sleep Clean
SLEEP seems like a perfectly fine waste of time. Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting? Something that would, as an added bonus, be less likely to get us killed back when we were sleeping on the savanna?
“Sleep is such a dangerous thing to do, when you’re out in the wild,” Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish biologist who has been leading research into sleep function at the University of Rochester’s medical school, told me. “It has to have a basic evolutional function. Otherwise it would have been eliminated.”
We’ve known for some time that sleep is essential for forming and consolidating memories and that it plays a central role in the formation of new neuronal connections and the pruning of old ones. But that hardly seems enough to risk death-by-leopard-in-the-night. “If sleep was just to remember what you did yesterday, that wouldn’t be important enough,” Dr. Nedergaard explains.
In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking.
Launch media viewer
Eiko OjalaRecall what happens to your body during exercise. You start off full of energy, but soon enough your breathing turns uneven, your muscles tire, and your stamina runs its course. What’s happening internally is that your body isn’t able to deliver oxygen quickly enough to each muscle that needs it and instead creates needed energy anaerobically. And while that process allows you to keep on going, a side effect is the accumulation of toxic byproducts in your muscle cells. Those byproducts are cleared out by the body’s lymphatic system, allowing you to resume normal function without any permanent damage.
The lymphatic system serves as the body’s custodian: Whenever waste is formed, it sweeps it clean. The brain, however, is outside its reach — despite the fact that your brain uses up about 20 percent of your body’s energy. How, then, does its waste — like beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease — get cleared? What happens to all the wrappers and leftovers that litter the room after any mental workout?
“Think about a fish tank,” says Dr. Nedergaard. “If you have a tank and no filter, the fish will eventually die. So, how do the brain cells get rid of their waste? Where is their filter?”
UNTIL a few years ago, the prevailing model was based on recycling: The brain got rid of its own waste, not only beta-amyloid but other metabolites, by breaking it down and recycling it at an individual cell level. When that process eventually failed, the buildup would result in age-related cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s. That “didn’t make sense” to Dr. Nedergaard, who says that “the brain is too busy to recycle” all of its energy. Instead, she proposed a brain equivalent of the lymphatic system, a network of channels that cleared out toxins with watery cerebrospinal fluid. She called it the glymphatic system, a nod to its dependence on glial cells (the supportive cells in the brain that work largely to maintain homeostasis and protect neurons) and its function as a sort of parallel lymphatic system.
She was hardly the first to think in those terms. “It had been proposed about one hundred years ago, but they didn’t have the tools to study it properly,” she says. Now, however, with advanced microscopes and dyeing techniques, her team discovered that the brain’s interstitial space — the fluid-filled area between tissue cells that takes up about 20 percent of the brain’s total volume — was mainly dedicated to physically removing the cells’ daily waste.
When members of Dr. Nedergaard’s team injected small fluorescent tracers into the cerebrospinal fluid of anesthetized mice, they found that the tracers quickly entered the brain — and, eventually, exited it — via specific, predictable routes.
The next step was to see how and when, exactly, the glymphatic system did its work. “We thought this cleaning process would require tremendous energy,” Dr. Nedergaard says. “And so we asked, maybe this is something we do when we’re sleeping, when the brain is really not processing information.”
In a series of new studies on mice, her team discovered exactly that: When the mouse brain is sleeping or under anesthesia, it’s busy cleaning out the waste that accumulated while it was awake.
In a mouse brain, the interstitial space takes up less room than it does in ours, approximately 14 percent of the total volume. Dr. Nedergaard found that when the mice slept, it swelled to over 20 percent. As a result, the cerebrospinal fluid could not only flow more freely but it could also reach further into the brain. In an awake brain, it would flow only along the brain’s surface. Indeed, the awake flow was a mere 5 percent of the sleep flow. In a sleeping brain, waste was being cleared two times faster. “We saw almost no inflow of cerebrospinal fluid into the brain when the mice were awake, but then when we anesthetized them, it started flowing. It’s such a big difference I kept being afraid something was wrong,” says Dr. Nedergaard.
Similar work in humans is still in the future. Dr. Nedergaard is currently awaiting board approval to begin the equivalent study in adult brains in collaboration with the anesthesiologist Helene Benveniste at Stony Brook University.
So far the glymphatic system has been identified as the neural housekeeper in baboons, dogs and goats. “If anything,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “it’s more needed in a bigger brain.”
MODERN society is increasingly ill equipped to provide our brains with the requisite cleaning time. The figures are stark. Some 80 percent of working adults suffer to some extent from sleep deprivation. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults should sleep seven to nine hours. On average, we’re getting one to two hours less sleep a night than we did 50 to 100 years ago and 38 minutes less on weeknights than we did as little as 10 years ago. Between 50 and 70 million people in the United States suffer from some form of chronic sleep disorder. When our sleep is disturbed, whatever the cause, our cleaning system breaks down. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, Sigrid Veasey has been focusing on precisely how restless nights disturb the brain’s normal metabolism. What happens to our cognitive function when the trash piles up?
At the extreme end, the result could be the acceleration of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. While we don’t know whether sleep loss causes the disease, or the disease itself leads to sleep loss — what Dr. Veasey calls a “classic chicken-and-egg” problem — we do know that the two are closely connected. Along with the sleep disturbances that characterize neurodegenerative diseases, there is a buildup of the types of proteins that the glymphatic system normally clears out during regular sleep, like beta-amyloids and tau**= added info at the end), both associated with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
“To me,” says Dr. Veasey, “that’s the most compelling part of the Nedergaard research. That the clearance for these is dramatically reduced from prolonged wakefulness.” If we don’t sleep well, we may be allowing the very things that cause neural degeneration to pile up unchecked.
Even at the relatively more benign end — the all-nighter or the extra-stressful week when you caught only a few hours a night — sleep deprivation, as everyone who has experienced it knows, impedes our ability to concentrate, to pay attention to our environment and to analyze information creatively. “When we’re sleep-deprived, we can’t integrate or put together facts,” as Dr. Veasey puts it.
But there is a difference between the kind of fleeting sleep loss we sometimes experience and the chronic deprivation that comes from shift work, insomnia and the like. In one set of studies, soon to be published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the Veasey lab found that while our brains can recover quite readily from short-term sleep loss, chronic prolonged wakefulness and sleep disruption stresses the brain’s metabolism. The result is the degeneration of key neurons involved in alertness and proper cortical function and a buildup of proteins associated with aging and neural degeneration.
It’s like the difference between a snowstorm’s disrupting a single day of trash pickup and a prolonged strike. No longer quite as easy to fix, and even when the strike is over, there’s likely to be some stray debris floating around for quite some time yet. “Recovery from sleep loss is slower than we’d thought,” Dr. Veasey notes. “We used to think that after a bit of recovery sleep, you should be fine. But this work shows you’re not.”
If you put her own research together with the findings from the Nedergaard lab, Dr. Veasey says, it “very clearly shows that there’s impaired clearance in the awake brain. We’re really starting to realize that when we skip sleep, we may be doing irreparable damage to the brain, prematurely aging it or setting it up for heightened vulnerability to other insults.”
In a society that is not only chronically sleep-deprived but also rapidly aging, that’s bad news. “It’s unlikely that poor sleep as a child would actually cause Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” says Dr. Veasey, “but it’s more likely that you may shift one of those diseases by a decade or so. That has profound health and economic implications.”
It’s a pernicious cycle. We work longer hours, become more stressed, sleep less, impair our brain’s ability to clean up after all that hard work, and become even less able to sleep soundly. And if we reach for a sleeping pill to help us along? While work on the effects of sleeping aids on the glymphatic system remains to be done, the sleep researchers I spoke with agree that there’s no evidence that aided sleep is as effective as natural sleep.
There is, however, reason to hope. If the main function of sleep is to take out our neural trash, that insight could eventually enable a new understanding of both neurodegenerative diseases and regular, age-related cognitive decline. By developing a diagnostic test to measure how well the glymphatic system functions, we could move one step closer to predicting someone’s risk of developing conditions like Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia: The faster the fluids clear the decks, the more effectively the brain’s metabolism is functioning.
“Such a test could also be used in the emergency room after traumatic brain injury,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “to see who is at risk of developing decline in cognitive function.”
We can also focus on developing earlier, more effective interventions to prevent cognitive decline. One approach would be to enable individuals who suffer from sleep loss to sleep more soundly — but how? Dr. Nedergaard’s mice were able to clear their brain’s waste almost as effectively under anesthesia as under normal sleeping conditions. “That’s really fascinating,” says Dr. Veasey. Though current sleeping aids may not quite do the trick, and anesthetics are too dangerous for daily use, the results suggest that there may be better ways of improving sleep pharmacologically.
Now that we have a better understanding of why sleep is so important, a new generation of drug makers can work to create the best possible environment for the trash pickup to occur in the first place — to make certain that our brain’s sleeping metabolism is as efficient as it can possibly be.
A second approach would take the opposite tack, by seeking to mimic the cleanup-promoting actions of sleep in the awake brain, which could make a full night of sound sleep less necessary. To date, the brain’s metabolic process hasn’t been targeted as such by the pharmaceutical industry. There simply wasn’t enough evidence of its importance. In response to the evolving data, however, future drug interventions could focus directly on the glymphatic system, to promote the enhanced cleaning power of the sleeping brain in a brain that is fully awake. One day, scientists might be able to successfully mimic the expansion of the interstitial space that does the mental janitorial work so that we can achieve maximally efficient round-the-clock brain trash pickup.
If that day comes, they would be on their way to discovering that all-time miracle drug: one that, in Dr. Veasey’s joking words, “could mean we never have to sleep at all.”
Added information **)
Amyloid-β and tau in Alzheimer's disease Frank M. LaFerla
Article bodyAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder with a relentless progression. AD pathogenesis is believed to be triggered by the accumulation of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), which is due to overproduction of Aβ and/or the failure of clearance mechanisms. Aβ self-aggregates into oligomers, which can be of various sizes, and forms diffuse and neuritic plaques in the parenchyma and blood vessels. Aβ oligomers and plaques are potent synaptotoxins, block proteasome function, inhibit mitochondrial activity, alter intracellular Ca2+ levels and stimulate inflammatory processes. Loss of the normal physiological functions of Aβ is also thought to contribute to neuronal dysfunction. Aβ interacts with the signalling pathways that regulate the phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau. Hyperphosphorylation of tau disrupts its normal function in regulating axonal transport and leads to the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and toxic species of soluble tau. Furthermore, degradation of hyperphosphorylated tau by the proteasome is inhibited by the actions of Aβ. These two proteins and their associated signalling pathway
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Sunday, 2/2/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Important info for every person to study & apply
The Surprising Role of Sleep
in Your Health & in Your Success in Life,
Including in Your Financial Success
Avoid disease, have better brain functioning & succeed well financially
Sleep was once thought to be a relatively passive process of decreased brain activity. More-recent data indicates that sleep, like consciousness, is an active process characterized by a myriad of complex electrical and neuroendocrine brain activities.
The benefits of healthy sleep are profound as are the drawbacks of deprivation. Every system of the body is affected by sleep, including physical, emotional, and cognitive functioning. Sleep promotes healing and recovery from illness, improved stamina, and the ability to learn and remember new skills.
Healthy sleep usually includes dreaming (even when it isn’t remembered), which also appears to play a powerful role in psychological and emotional health, well-being, memory, and the ability to learn new tasks.
Healthy sleep is still somewhat of a mystery since it is only partially understood and has never been artificially duplicated. While medications mimic the appearance of sleep, they do not reproduce the quality or restorative, integrative functions of sleep.
In most cases, medications used to promote sleep eventually backfire and erode it, making the condition dependent on escalating doses of drugs and more resistant to treatment.
Deep sleep has anti-inflammatory benefits. It helps restore hormonal balances, provides rest, and clears the mind like rebooting a computer.
Sleep deprivation causes significant physical and emotional effects, including changes in cardiovascular function, glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, and elevations of blood pressure, blood sugar, and cortisol.
Long-term effects of deprivation are linked to increased risk of developing many chronic diseases, including cancer, premature aging, depression, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Sleep deprivation is an effective method of persuasion, with a history of use in times of war and in indoctrination programs, including military and medical- residency training. Deprivation affects sanity, impairs vigilance, and erodes physical endurance.
Deprivation makes for more-compliant subjects who think less, concentrate poorly, and rely on automatic behaviors. Deprivation alters brain chemistry and interferes with a sense of reality, eventually disturbing mental and emotional stability.
Passage into sleep requires a gentle lapse of consciousness and awareness, coinciding with internal and external environmental supports to sustain it. In cases of chronic insomnia, the body actually looses its innate ability to relax, lapse into and sustain healthy sleep.
Sleep is an unconscious process that relies on an elegant network of biologic, chemical, hormonal, and neuroendocrine pathways collectively working together as biorhythms or circadian rhythms. When these circadian rhythms are allowed to function unhindered, they reproduce the same biochemical patterns on a daily basis.
The body relies on this system like an internal clock to efficiently manage the sleep-wake cycle. Unless it is tampered or interfered with, these internal rhythms help maintain a healthy mental, physical, and emotional balance through sleep.
When the circadian pattern is regular and uninterrupted, day after day, week after week, and year after year, the physical and emotional body learns to anticipate and depend on the pattern, preparing for these cycles many hours in advance.
Breaking the biorhythm in an irregular or unpredictable manner disrupts the intricate chemical network of hormones and neurotransmitters and forces the body to readapt, sometimes in midstream.
The body adjusts readily enough in youth, but as it ages, it is less able to change as quickly. Sometimes even simple changes in routine can lead to large disruptions of sleep and wakefulness. This is one reason why advancing age is associated with a greater number of sleep disturbances.
Source: The Epoch Times STAF, Inc. endorses the Epoch Times Click: The Epoch Times
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Topic # 2 of 2
Important info for every person to study & apply
Avoid disease, have better brain functioning & succeed well financially
Fragmented sleep
accelerates cancer growth
Date: January 27, 2014
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate
that about 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems
Click: Centers for Disease Control and Preventionwww.cdc.gov/
United States Centers for...
The CDC maintains several departments concerned with occupational safety and health, such as the Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and the National ...
Source:
University of Chicago Medical Center
click: University of Chicago Medical Centerwww.uchospitals.edu/ The University of Chicago Medicine is both a world-class research institute and a neighborhood health care provider.
Poor-quality sleep marked by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth, increase tumor aggressiveness and dampen the immune system's ability to control or eradicate early cancers, according to a new study published online January 21, 2014, in the journal Cancer Research
The study is the first to demonstrate, in an animal model, the direct effects of fragmented sleep on tumor growth and invasiveness (= marked by the tendency to spread, especially into healthy tissue), and it points to a biological mechanism that could serve as a potential target for therapy.
"It's not the tumor, it's the immune system," said study director David Gozal, MD, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. "Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive."
"Fortunately, our study also points to a potential drug target," he said. "Toll-like receptor 4, a biological messenger, helps control activation of the innate immune system. It appears to be a lynchpin for the cancer-promoting effects of sleep loss. The effects of fragmented sleep that we focused on were not seen in mice that lacked this protein."
Gozal, an authority on the consequences of sleep apnea click: Sleep apnea , was struck by two recent studies linking apnea to increased cancer mortality. So he and colleagues from the University of Chicago and the University of Louisville devised a series of experiments to measure the effects of disrupted sleep on cancer.
They used mice, housed in small groups. During the day -- when mice normally sleep -- a quiet, motorized brush moved through half of the cages every two minutes, forcing those mice to wake up and then go back to sleep. The rest of the mice were not disturbed.
After seven days in this setting, both groups of mice were injected with cells from one of two tumor types (TC-1 or 3LLC). All mice developed palpable tumors within 9 to 12 days. Four weeks after inoculation the researchers evaluated the tumors.
They found that tumors from mice with fragmented sleep were twice as large, for both tumor types, as those from mice that had slept normally. A follow-up experiment found that when tumor cells were implanted in the thigh muscle, which should help contain growth, the tumors were much more aggressive and invaded surrounding tissues in mice with disrupted sleep.
"In that setting, tumors are usually encased by a capsule of surrounding tissue, like a scar," Gozal said. "They form little spheres, with nice demarcation between cancerous and normal tissue. But in the fragmented-sleep mice, the tumors were much more invasive. They pushed through the capsule. They went into the muscle, into the bone. It was a mess."
The difference appeared to be driven by cells from the immune system, called tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), which cluster at the site of tumors. TAMs are a hallmark of the immune system's response to cancer, but they can respond in a variety of ways, depending on chemical signals they receive. Some, labelled M1, promote a strong immune response and can eliminate tumors cells. Others, known as M2, suppress the immune response and instead promote the growth of new blood vessels -- which encourages tumor growth.
Well-rested mice had primarily M1-type TAMs, concentrated in the core of the tumors. Sleep-fragmented mice had primarily M2-type TAMs. These were abundant, especially around the periphery of the tumors. The sleep-disrupted mice also had high levels of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4).
Three key molecules are part of the signaling pathway that appeared to be tilting macrophages toward M2: TLR4 and two downstream signals called MYD88 and TRIF. So the researchers injected tumor cells into a series of mice that were unable to produce one of these three proteins and subjected them to fragmented sleep. Tumor growth was slightly reduced in mice lacking MYD88 or TRIF, but in mice lacking TLR4, tumor growth was no greater than in mice with undisturbed sleep.
Taking TLR4 out of the picture resulted in major curtailment of tumor growth. "When we injected tumor cells into mice that lacked TLR4," Gozal said, "the differences between undisturbed and sleep-fragmented mice disappeared."
"This study offers biological plausibility to the epidemiological associations between perturbed sleep and cancer outcomes," Gozal said. "The take home message is to take care of your sleep quality and quantity like you take care of your bank account."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep problems. "Considering the high prevalence of both sleep disorders and cancer in middle age or older populations," the authors wrote, "there are far-reaching implications." Their next step is to determine whether sleep affects metastasis or resistance to cancer chemotherapy.
Source:
The above article is based on click: materials provided by click: University of Chicago Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
First Published in Journal click: Cancer Researchcancerres.aacrjournals.org
The most highly cited cancer journal in the world. Cancer Research is the top venue for articles of the broadest significance in the field .Impact Factor - (The) Journal of Cancer ... - Table of Contents - OnlineFirst
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Sunday, 2/9 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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Sugar linked to heart disease deaths in national study;
most eat too much & soda's a culprit
E.g.: One 12-ounce can of non-diet soda contains has about 9 teaspoons of sugar or about 140 calories; cinnamon rolls have about 13 teaspoons of sugar; one scoop of chocolate ice cream has about 5 teaspoons
Some more examples of the sugar content in these websites:
(1) Click: How Sweet Is It? | The Nutrition Source | Harvard School of Public
(2) Click: How much sugar is in your food? - Medical News Today
(3) Click: Sugar is 'the new tobacco': Health chiefs tell food giants to slash ...CHICAGO (AP) -- Could too much sugar be deadly? The biggest study of its kind suggests the answer is yes, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems. The #3 has additional info relating to this title article
CHICAGO (AP) -- Could too much sugar be deadly? The biggest study of its kind suggests the answer is yes, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems.
It doesn't take all that much extra sugar, hidden in many processed foods, to substantially raise the risk, the researchers found, and most Americans eat more than the safest amount.
Having a cinnamon roll with your morning coffee, a super-sized sugary soda at lunch and a scoop of ice cream after dinner would put you in the highest risk category in the study. That means your chance of dying prematurely from heart problems is nearly three times greater than for people who eat only foods with little added sugar.
For someone who normally eats 2,000 calories daily, even consuming two 12-ounce cans of soda substantially increases the risk. For most American adults, sodas and other sugary drinks are the main source of added sugar.
Lead author Quanhe Yang of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention called the results sobering and said it's the first nationally representative study to examine the issue.
Scientists aren't certain exactly how sugar may contribute to deadly heart problems, but it has been shown to increase blood pressure and levels of unhealthy cholesterol and triglycerides; and also may increase signs of inflammation linked with heart disease, said Rachel Johnson, head of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee and a University of Vermont nutrition professor.
Yang and colleagues analyzed national health surveys between 1988 and 2010 that included questions about people's diets. The authors used national death data to calculate risks of dying during 15 years of follow-up.
Overall, more than 30,000 American adults aged 44 on average were involved.
Previous studies have linked diets high in sugar with increased risks for non-fatal heart problems, and with obesity, which can also lead to heart trouble. But in the new study, obesity didn't explain the link between sugary diets and death. That link was found even in normal-weight people who ate lots of added sugar.
"Too much sugar does not just make us fat; it can also make us sick," said Laura Schmidt, a health policy specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She wrote an editorial accompanying the study in Monday's JAMA Internal Medicine.
The researchers focused on sugar added to processed foods or drinks, or sprinkled in coffee or cereal. Even foods that don't taste sweet have added sugar, including many brands of packaged bread, tomato sauce and salad dressing. Naturally occurring sugar, in fruit and some other foods, wasn't counted.
Most health experts agree that too much sugar isn't healthy, but there is no universal consensus on how much is too much.
U.S government dietary guidelines issued in 2010 say "empty" calories including those from added sugars should account for no more than 15 percent of total daily calories.
The average number of daily calories from added sugar among U.S. adults was about 15 percent toward the end of the study, slightly lower than in previous years.
The authors divided participants into five categories based on sugar intake, from less than 10 percent of daily calories — the safest amount — to more than 25 percent.
Most adults exceed the safest level; and for 1 in 10 adults, added sugar accounts for at least 25 percent of daily calories, the researchers said.
The researchers had death data on almost 12,000 adults, including 831 who died from heart disease during the 15-year follow-up. They took into account other factors known to contribute to heart problems, including smoking, inactivity and excess weight, and still found risks for sugar.
As sugar intake increased, risks climbed steeply.
Adults who got at least 25 percent of their calories from added sugar were almost three times more likely to die of heart problems than those who consumed the least — less than 10 percent.
For those who got more than 15 percent — or the equivalent of about two cans of sugary soda out of 2,000 calories daily — the risk was almost 20 percent higher than the safest level.
Sugar calories quickly add up: One teaspoon has about 16 calories; one 12-ounce can of non-diet soda contains has about 9 teaspoons of sugar or about 140 calories; many cinnamon rolls have about 13 teaspoons of sugar; one scoop of chocolate ice cream has about 5 teaspoons of sugar.
Dr. Jonathan Purnell, a professor - Click: Contact Wellness | Jonathan Q. Purnell, MD
at Oregon Health & Science University's Knight Cardiovascular Institute
Click: OHSU Knight Cardiology - ohsu.eduwww.ohsu.edu/heart-care - 1 (503) 494 1775 Oregon's Leading Cardiovascular Institute. ,
said while the research doesn't prove "sugar can cause you to die of a heart attack", it adds to a growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting that limiting sugar intake can lead to healthier, longer lives.
Source: (1) AP News, (2) STAF, Inc., (3) Internet
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Sunday, 2/16/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 1
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At Private Schools, Another Way to Say 'Financial Aid'
Some independent schools have adopted indexed tuition as both a financial aid strategy and a way to attract more talented students from financially struggled families
What is Indexed Tuition?
Index Tuition is the same as paying based on a Sliding Scale (see below)
Investopedia explains 'Sliding Scale Fees'
Click: Investopedia - Educating the world about finance
Sliding scales fees are used to require those who have the ability to pay more to actually pay more. For example, a hospital may not charge a poor or uninsured patient the market value of the medicine that he receives for an ailment, but may charge a wealthy or insured patient the market value. Companies and organizations may make up for a revenue short fall from providing below-market price services to the less fortunate through grant funding or donations.
SHANNON LUBIANO never dreamed she could send her children to the Duke School, an independent elementary school in Durham, N.C., where the tuition is $15,000 for prekindergarten, rising to nearly $18,000 for eighth grade.
But then a friend told her about the school’s indexed tuition plan — essentially a pay-what-you-can model for a private education — and that made all the difference for her.
“When I tell other people about it, they are shocked,” said Ms. Lubiano, whose husband, a chef, owns a restaurant in town. “They had looked at the Duke School in the past and got run off by the cost.”
Duke is part of a small group of independent schools, mostly in the Southeast and West, that have adopted indexed tuition as both a financial aid strategy and a way to attract people who would not otherwise apply to private school.
“We got to indexed tuition as a philosophical journey,” said Dave Michelman, head of school at Duke. “We’re committed to socioeconomic diversity. If you’re committed to that it seems a little off-putting to say if you come here we’ll give you charity. That’s what financial aid sounds like.”
Instead, he added, the school said: “We’re going to charge the right amount of tuition for you.” That range, he said, runs from $3,000 to full tuition.
Of course, as any behavioral economist would tell you, the two approaches to assistance are exactly the same: Whether a school discounts its $30,000 tuition with $20,000 in financial aid or says a family’s indexed tuition is $10,000, the family is paying the same amount.
But that difference in presentation matters: The indexed tuition rate seems to make applying to an expensive school possible for some and accepting a discount palatable to others. It is also a great way for a school to compete with other independent schools that may have larger financial aid budgets. It is an approach smaller colleges and universities have taken for years.
With acceptance letters for independent schools going out now, this is the time of year when many families who applied to the one of the 1,400 independent schools in the United States are waiting to see whether they qualify for the financial aid, which might be the only way they can send a child to private school.
The number of families receiving financial aid of some kind has grown to nearly 23 percent, from 15 percent in 2007, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, but only a handful of schools currently use indexed tuition.
While the expectation is that college students can work or get loans to pay for their education, that is not the case with elementary and secondary school students whose families are asked to stretch to pay for a private education. After all, there is public school.
For many independent schools, the process of giving out financial aid has become intertwined with the broader issue of income inequality, albeit with a twist. Wealthier families can pay full tuition. And schools have long sought out gifted and talented children from poor families.
Yet this approach has, in some cases, created a barbell affect, with the wealthy and the poor on the ends and the middle class — families that make too much for financial aid but too little to pay all the associated costs — left out.
“We were taking money from high-income families and giving it to low-income families and feeling really good about that,” said Jeff Escabar, head of Marin Preparatory School and the former director of admissions at Marin Country Day School, which has been outspoken about its use of indexed tuition. “Then we realized we were losing the families in the middle.”
He said Marin Country Day made it a policy that every family received information on indexed tuition in their application packet, not just the ones who expressed interest in financial aid.
Putting the range — as low, today, as $750 a year — on the school’s website, Mr. Escabar said, softened the sticker shock for some families. It also served as a good marketing tool.
Other schools, particularly faith-based schools with a more limited pool to draw from, have used indexed tuition as a way to fill seats. Rick Newberry, a consultant and president of Enrollment Catalyst, said he proposed this method to Indian Rocks Christian School in Largo, Fla., when it needed to increase its enrollment. “It was an innovative approach to market accessibility and a way to stand apart from the competition,” he said.
Indexed tuition is a different approach to making independent school more affordable, but parents still have to go through a rigorous process of revealing information to the school and then waiting and hoping that the school has money to subsidize students.
Ms. Lubiano, who now has two daughters, 6 and 3, in school, said Duke asked her for her tax returns, assets, debt and any other sources of support. In their case, her mother-in-law would pay some of the tuition.
The school then asked the family what it thought it could pay.
“They allowed us to be more personal with the explanation of certain things,” she said. “We were able to submit an explanation of our life, instead of just turning in numbers.”
Not every school has the resources to take this approach. Mark Stanek, head of Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Mass., said his school contemplated going to an indexed model but decided against it.
“We’d have needed to raise tuition to $44,000 to make the model work and provide the range of tuition,” he said. Top tuition is currently $34,000. “That would have put us as an outlier in the independent school market here.”
Regardless of the approach, most parents will find themselves in a trust-but-verify system.
Reed Sumida, managing director of The Independent School Performance Group, says his organization works with independent schools to make sure what a family says on its financial aid form meshes with their lifestyle. “If they drive in in their BMW with a Kelley blue book value of $30,000, there’s a red flag,” he said. “We get two more red flags, you want to go back and reduce the award or cancel it.”
One exception to trust but verify is Manhattan Country School, a small school founded in the midst of the civil rights movement.
Parents there are simply asked what their gross income is and asked to pay a percentage of it, up to $38,000, as they have since 1970 when the school went to what it calls a sliding-scale model. No one checks the number. Those who can pay more are encouraged to do so, for a tax deduction.
“You can’t think of the price of your one kid’s education,” said Frank Roosevelt, an economist and grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who developed the model. “You have to think of the parents of all of the kids in that classroom paying for the whole process of education, of which your kid is benefiting as one child in that setting.”
That it hasn’t been widely adopted has not surprised him. “The motivation for parents to send their kids to private schools is very individualistic: I want my kids to be in a special environment and away from kids who might distract from them,” he said. “It’s an elite thing.”
Of course, what is perceived as elite for one person is another’s excellent educational opportunity.
For Ms. Lubiano, she said she understood that as her husband’s restaurant did better their family would pay more of their girls’ tuition, up to the full amount. “I don’t see it getting to the point where we don’t qualify anymore,” she said. “But if it does happen, that would be awesome, and I’d still want to keep my kids there.”
Source: (1) NYT, (2) STAF, Inc.
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Sunday, 2/23 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
Keys to Mental Toughness
Learn how to handle stressful situations with confidence and skill
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Some people associate the concept of mental toughness with aggression, violence, or anger. Mental toughness is the ability to stand firm in the positive and proactive thoughts that you have created for yourself and remain determined to follow through into creating positive feelings and actions.
It is a commitment to doing what is right because you know it will make your life better. The truest and toughest battles most people will ever fight are the battles that start and finish in their minds.
The best method for improving mental toughness and maintaining it is to apply these basic yet simple principles. If you practice these simple suggestions and boost your motivation to discipline your mind because you truly want to see positive change in your life, then you will be able to handle stressful situations with confidence and skill.
1. Don’t blow things out of proportion. Try to keep things in perspective; don’t magnify them into being worse than they are or have to be.
When things go bad repeatedly over a period of time, we may start to stereotype every bad thing that happens as “Murphy’s law.” Everything bad or unfortunate that can happen will happen. Do you know why? You are continually using the same negative magnifying glass to look at them.
Some individuals take minute situations and blow them into catastrophes. Always ask yourself this simple question, “What difference will this make a year from now?”
2. Try to avoid all-or-nothing thinking. When you think in terms of extremes, you set ourselves up for failure. Basically, you will always need to be perfect to avoid failure.
For example, you want to do well, but when something doesn’t turn out the way you expected, you view the outcome as bad. As a result, you extrapolate the performance into who you are—making yourself a “bad” person because your performance was bad.
In order not to “be bad” you try too hard to be good, leading yourself to make further mistakes because of the added pressure you’ve placed on yourself. Perfectionism makes it hard to be perfect!
3. You can’t please everyone all of the time. If you try to keep everyone happy, thinking everyone will like you, then you are in for a major shock. When you try to be a people-pleaser, you submit to others and become passive, deviating from your main goal—being assertive, which helps you accomplish your goals.
As soon as you become passive, you are more inclined to dislike certain people and situations because you have compromised yourself and no longer feel comfortable.
Catering to the needs and whims of others will get you quickly on your way to becoming a procrastinator—not only to their demands, but also for what you would like to achieve.
I heard a statistic that asserts that 10 percent of the people you meet will never like or accept you no matter who you are, what you do for them, and so on. So focus on the other 90 percent, but be sure to never have your rights or needs taken away or compromised.
4. Don’t bog yourself down with “uncertainty questions” such as, “Why me?” “When will things change?” “Will any good breaks ever come my way?” Oftentimes, when things go bad, you seek answers of an absolute nature. Let’s face it, not all questions have answers you can understand.
When you question yourself, you sometimes analyze things to death, causing stress. Did you know that when you ask questions of a negative nature, you tend to focus on negative experiences and create corresponding visual experiences? If you believe in the law of attraction and affirmations, this theory will hold true when you are asking yourself a question.
If you are placing your focus on something negative, since “like attracts like,” you will be bringing more negativity your way.
Did you know some experts claim that your memory file cabinets get compromised when you dwell on negative experiences? It takes twice as much energy to dwell on the negative than on the positive. Perhaps that is why you are so tired.
5. Take one day at a time. Enjoy the present moment and be in the moment. There are always enough worries in today, so why spend energy on thoughts of tomorrow?
Too many people want instant change. In fact, we are all changing instantly, because our bodies (cells) and the situations around us are always changing and evolving. People want to see tangible results instantly. But that is not how it works.
The exercise in mental toughness is to develop moment-to-moment awareness. Focus on your thoughts. Hit the delete button whenever a negative one comes on the screen and replace it with a positive one immediately. How does one do this? Keep your thoughts focused on the present. It will take practice, but you will succeed at it with time, but not months or years.
Disclaimer: This is in no way designed to diagnose, classify, or treat mental health problems or addictions. You should always consult with a licensed or trained professional when seeking an actual diagnosis or assessment.
Dr. Peter Sacco has been working with individuals in private practice and support groups since 1995. He specializes in anger-management classes, overcoming addictions, individual coaching, and counseling. He teaches courses in addiction studies, police studies, criminal psychology, and education at universities and colleges in the United States and Canada. Petersacco.com
Topic # 2 of 3
The Allergy Epidemic? What's the Cure?
Click green for further info
WILL the cure for allergies come from the cowshed?
cowshed = a farm building in which cattle are kept when not in a pasture, or in which they are milked.
shed = a simple roofed structure, typically made of wood or metal, used as a storage space, a shelter for animals, or a workshop.
Allergies are often seen as an accident. Your immune system misinterprets a harmless protein like dust or peanuts as a threat, and when you encounter it, you pay the price with sneezing, wheezing, and in the worst cases, death.
What prompts some immune systems to err like this, while others never do? Some of the vulnerability is surely genetic. But comparative studies highlight the importance of environment, beginning, it seems, in the womb. Microbes are one intriguing protective factor. Certain ones seem to stimulate a mother’s immune system during pregnancy, preventing allergic disease in children.
By emulating this naturally occurring phenomenon, scientists may one day devise a way to prevent allergies.
This task, though still in its infancy, has some urgency. Depending on the study and population, the prevalence of allergic disease and asthma increased between two- and threefold in the late 20th century, a mysterious trend often called the “allergy epidemic.”
These days, one in five American children have a respiratory allergy like hay fever, and nearly one in 10 have asthma.
Nine people die daily from asthma attacks. While the increase in respiratory allergies shows some signs of leveling off, the prevalence of food and skin allergies continues to rise. Five percent of children are allergic to peanuts, milk and other foods, half again as many as 15 years ago. And each new generation seems to have more severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reactions than the last.
Some time ago, I visited a place where seemingly protective microbes occurred spontaneously. It wasn’t a spotless laboratory in some university somewhere. It was a manure-spattered cowshed in Indiana’s Amish country.
My guide was Mark Holbreich, an allergist in Indianapolis. He’d recently discovered that the Amish people who lived in the northern part of the state were remarkably free of allergies and asthma.
About half of Americans have evidence of allergic sensitization, which increases the risk of allergic disease. But judging from skin-prick tests, just 7.2 percent of the 138 Amish children who Dr. Holbreich tested were sensitized to tree pollens and other allergens. That yawning difference positions the Indiana Amish among the least allergic populations ever described in the developed world.
This invulnerability isn’t likely to be genetic. The Amish originally came to the United States from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and these days Swiss children, a genetically similar population, are about as allergic as Americans.
Ninety-two percent of the Amish children Dr. Holbreich tested either lived on farms or visited one frequently. Farming, Dr. Holbreich thinks, is the Amish secret. This idea has some history. Since the late 1990s, European scientists have investigated what they call the “farm effect.”
The working hypothesis is that innocuous cowshed microbes, plant material and raw milk protect farming children by favorably stimulating their immune systems throughout life, particularly early on. That spring morning, Dr. Holbreich gave me a tour of the bonanza of immune stimuli under consideration.
We found our hosts, Andrew Mast and his wife, Laura, hard at work milking cows in the predawn chill.
Dr. Holbreich, slight and bespectacled, peppered them with questions. At what age did Mr. Mast begin working in the cowshed? “My first memory is of milking,” he said, at about the age of 5. What about his children, two straw-haired girls, then ages 2 and 3; did they spend time in the cowshed? The elder girl came to the barn at 3 months of age, he said. “People learn to walk in here.” Do expectant mothers work in the barn? “Yes,” Laura said. “We work.”
Dr. Holbreich had made his point: whatever forces were acting here, they were chronic, and they began before birth. As the sun rose, Dr. Holbreich and I sniffed the damp, fermented feed (slightly malty); shoveled fresh cow manure (“Liquid gold,” Dr. Holbreich said only half-jokingly, “the best medicine you could think of”); and marveled at the detritus floating in the air. Extrapolating from previous research, with each breath we were inhaling perhaps 1,000 times more microbes than usual. By breakfast time, grime had collected under our nails, hay clung to our clothes, and muck to our boots. “There’s got to be bacteria, mold and plant material,” Dr. Holbreich said. “You do this every day for 30 years, 365 days a year, you can see there are so many exposures.”
The challenge of identifying the important exposures — and getting them into a bottle — is a pressing one. In parts of the developing world, where allergic disease was once considered rare, scientists have noted an uptick, especially in urban areas. China offers a dramatic case in point. A 2009 study found a more than threefold difference in allergic sensitization (as judged by skin-prick tests) between schoolchildren in rural areas around Beijing and children in the city proper. Doctor-diagnosed asthma differed sixfold. Maybe not coincidentally, 40 percent of the rural children had lived on farms their whole lives.
Immigrants from the developing world to the developed tend to be less allergic than average. But the longer they reside in their adopted countries, the more allergic they become. And their native-born children seem to gain the vulnerability to asthma, sometimes surpassing it. All of which highlights a longstanding question in the allergy field. As Dr. Holbreich puts it, “What is it about westernization that makes people allergic?”
When hay fever first emerged as a common complaint among the upper classes of Britain in the 19th century — and became a badge of refinement — farmers, who were exposed to more pollen than probably anyone else, seemed relatively invulnerable to the new affliction. In the 1990s, European scientists rediscovered the phenomenon in the small alpine farms of Switzerland. A bevy of studies followed, comprising thousands of subjects across Switzerland, Germany, Austria and elsewhere. Critically, by comparing children living in the same rural areas, scientists could discount urban pollution. Everyone was breathing the same country air.
And earlier this year, some of Dr. Holbreich’s collaborators, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, made a strong case that physical activity couldn’t explain the disparity either. They had rural children wear devices that measured movement for a week. There was little difference in physical activity between farming and nonfarming children.
What matters then? Erika von Mutius, a doctor and epidemiologist at Munich University in Germany who has led much of this research, suspects diversity is important. Farms with the greatest array of microbes, including fungi, appear to be the most protective against asthma. At the Mast farm, the cowshed wasn’t more than 60 feet from the house. In Europe, scientists found that microbes waft from cowsheds into homes.
In one study, they showed that an infant’s risk of eczema was inverse to the microbial load in her mother’s mattress.
Timing seems to matter tremendously. The earlier exposure begins, it seems, the greater the protection — and that includes during pregnancy. Children born to mothers who work with livestock while pregnant, and who lug their newborns along during chores, seem the most invulnerable to allergic disease later.
Here, the farm effect dovetails with the burgeoning science on the prenatal origins of disease generally. What happens to your mother during the nine months before your birth may affect your vulnerability to many diseases decades later, from heart disease and obesity to schizophrenia.
Allergies and asthma seem to follow the rule as well.
Susan Prescott, a doctor and researcher at the University of Western Australia in Perth, has noted differences in the placentas of children who later develop allergies. A critical subset of white blood cells — called regulatory T-cells — seems relatively scarce at birth. Rather than enabling aggression, these cells help the immune system restrain itself when facing substances that are not true threats. A healthy population of these and other “suppressor” cells is important, scientists now suspect, in preventing allergies and asthma. So it seems significant that European farming children are born with a comparative surfeit of these cells. Bianca Schaub, a doctor and researcher at Munich University,has found that farming newborns have more regulatory T-cells in cord blood than babies of nonfarmers. In test tubes, these cells more effectively quash allergic-type reactions. And that suppressive ability increases with the number of different types of animals the mother tended while pregnant. The more cows, pigs and chickens a mother encounters, essentially, the more easily her offspring may tolerate dust mites and tree pollens.
Animal studies demonstrate how this might work. Some years back, scientists at Philipps University of Marburg in Germany sprayed pregnant mice with microbes originally isolated from Bavarian cowsheds. The exposure induced favorable changes in gene expression at the placenta. The pups born to these mice were protected against asthma.
This research suggests that farming mothers might benefit from a naturally occurring immunotherapy, one that preprograms the developing fetus against allergic disease. Yet how to apply that therapy deliberately remains unclear. Is “microbial pressure” what matters — a stiff microbial wind in our sails? Or do certain cowshed microbes actually colonize farmers, and favorably calibrate their immune function?
There’s evidence to support both explanations, which aren’t mutually exclusive anyway.
Before you rush to the nearest farm, however, a word of caution. Some studies indicate that if you grow up in an urban environment, occasional visits to the farm may exacerbate allergic propensities. If you haven’t matured with abundant microbial stimulation, the thinking goes, encountering it intermittently may push you into overdrive, prompting the misery you seek to avoid.
And yet, a prospective study from Denmark published this month suggests that it’s never too late. Young adults who began farming (with livestock) were less likely to develop new allergic sensitivities than rural peers who chose other professions. Existing allergies didn’t disappear. Rather, the farming environment seemed to prevent new sensitizations.
Which brings us to farm milk. In Europe, the consumption of unpasteurized milk has repeatedly correlated with protection against allergic disease. In America, 80 percent of the Amish studied by Dr. Holbreich consume raw milk. In a study published earlier this year, Dr. Schaub’s group showed that European children who consumed farm milk had more of those regulatory T-cells, irrespective of whether they lived on farms. The higher the quantity of those cells, the less likely these children were to be given diagnoses of asthma. Here, finally, is something concrete to take off the farm.
None of these scientists recommend that people consume raw milk; it can carry deadly pathogens. Rather, they hope to identify what’s protective in the milk and either extract it or preserve the ingredients during processing. Microbes may not be the key ingredient in this case. Instead, farm milk may act as a prebiotic — selectively feeding good microbes within. Another possibility is that as with human breast milk, antibodies and immune-signaling proteins in cow’s milk influence the human immune system, steering it toward tolerance.
As a whole, this research reframes the question of what prompted the late 20th-century allergy epidemic. Is the problem one of exposure to allergens, many of which aren’t exactly new to human experience? Or is the problem one of increasing sensitivity to whatever allergens are present?
The science suggests the latter. The Mast cowshed, with its rich array of microbial stimuli, probably resembles the world in which the human immune system evolved more than, say, an apartment high above Manhattan. The Amish in Indiana, who for reasons of religious faith have maintained a 19th-century-like lifestyle, may not be less allergic. Rather, during the dramatic reordering of human existence that began with the Industrial Revolution, everyone else may have become more allergic. Immunologically speaking, the farming Amish and farmers generally may more closely resemble an evolutionary norm for our species.
Source: (1) NYT, (2) Moises Velasquez-Manoff is a science writer and the author of “An Epidemic of Absence.”
(4) STAF, Inc.
Topic # 3 of 3
Skip the Supplements
The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate dietary supplements as drugs — they aren’t tested for safety and efficacy before they’re sold click: U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page www.fda.gov/
PARENTS whose children are admitted to our hospital occasionally bring along something extra to help with their care: dietary supplements, like St. John’s wort to ameliorate mild depression or probiotics for better health.
click: Probiotics
Here’s the problem: The Joint Commission, which is responsible for hospital accreditation in the United States, requires that dietary supplements be treated like drugs. It makes sense: Vitamins, amino acids, herbs, minerals and other botanicals have pharmacological effects. So they are drugs.
But the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate dietary supplements as drugs — they aren’t tested for safety and efficacy before they’re sold. Many aren’t made according to minimal standards of manufacturing (the F.D.A. has even found some of the facilities where supplements are made to be contaminated with rodent feces and urine). And many are mislabeled, accidentally or intentionally. They often aren’t what they say they are. For example:
In 2003, researchers tested “ayurvedic” remedies from health food stores throughout Boston. They found that 20 percent contained potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury or arsenic. click: Ayurveda - Wikipedia
In 2008, two products were pulled off the market because they were found to contain around 200 times more selenium (an element that some believe can help prevent cancer) than their labels said. People who ingested these products developed hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea, joint pain, fatigue and blisters.
Last summer, vitamins and minerals made by Purity First Health Products in Farmingdale, N.Y., were found to contain two powerful anabolic steroids. Some of the women who took them developed masculinizing symptoms like lower voices and fewer menstrual periods.
Last month, researchers in Ontario found that popular herbal products like those labeled St. John’s wort and ginkgo biloba often contained completely different herbs or contaminants, some of which could be quite dangerous.
The F.D.A. estimates that approximately 50,000 adverse reactions to dietary supplements occur every year. And yet few consumers know this.
Parents of children admitted to our hospital often request that we continue treating their child with dietary supplements because they believe in them, even if that belief isn’t supported by evidence. More disturbing were the times when children were taking these supplements without our knowledge. Doctors always ask parents if their children are taking any medicines. Unfortunately, because most parents don’t consider dietary supplements to be drugs, we often never knew about their use, let alone whether they might react dangerously with the child’s other treatments.
The F.D.A. has the mandate, but not the manpower, to oversee the labeling and manufacture of these supplements. In the meantime, doctors — and consumers — are on their own.
Our hospital has acted to protect the safety of our patients. No longer will we administer dietary supplements unless the manufacturer provides a third-party written guarantee that the product is made under the F.D.A.’s “good manufacturing practice” (G.M.P.) conditions, as well as a Certificate of Analysis (C.O.A.) assuring that what is written on the label is what’s in the bottle.
The good news is that we’ve been able to find some vitamins, amino acids, minerals and a handful of other supplements that meet this standard. For example, melatonin has been shown to affect sleep cycles and has a record of safety, and we identified a product that met manufacturing and labeling standards.
The bad news is that this was a vanishingly small percentage of the total group. Around 90 percent of the companies we reached out to for verification never responded. They didn’t call us back, or their email or manufacturing addresses changed overnight. Of the remainder, many manufacturers refused to provide us with either a statement of G.M.P. or a C.O.A.; in other words, they refused to guarantee that their products were what they said they were. Others lied; they said they met G.M.P. standards, but a call to the F.D.A. revealed they had been fined for violations multiple times. Perhaps most surprising, some manufacturers willingly furnished information that their product didn’t meet standards — like one company that provided a C.O.A. showing that its product contained 47,000 International Units of beta-carotene, when the label stated 25,000.
Now, when parents in our hospital still want to use products whose quality can’t be assured, we ask them to sign a waiver stating that the supplement may be dangerous, and that most have not been studied for their effectiveness. “Use of an agent for which there are no reliable data on toxicity and drug interactions,” the waiver reads, “makes it impossible to adequately monitor the patient’s acute condition or safely administer medications.”
What can other individuals who are concerned about supplement safety do? They can look for “U.S.P. Verified” on the label — this proves the supplement has been inspected and approved under the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. Unfortunately, fewer than 1 percent of the 55,000 or so supplements on the market bear this label. The real answer is that, until the day comes when medical studies prove that these supplements have legitimate benefits, and until the F.D.A. has the political backing and resources to regulate them like drugs, individuals should simply steer clear.
For too long, too many people have believed that dietary supplements can only help and never hurt. Increasingly, it’s clear that this belief is a false one.
Paul A. Offit is chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where Sarah Erush is the clinical manager in the pharmacy department.
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Sunday, 2/23 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
As World's Kids Get Fatter, Doctors Turn to the Knife
Because of the Western Style Fast-Food (read: "bad-food" or "no-food")
is marketed all over this is the result: children and adult are suffering and die young
Obesity rates are soaring in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states,
and all over the world leading to a boom in bariatric surgery on children
click: Bariatric surgery
Click to see the pictures or search with the title - pubished in WSJ (The Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2014
As World's Kids Get Fatter, Doctors Turn to the Knife
Wall Street Journal - by Shirley Wang
Obesity rates are soaring in Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states, leading to a boom in bariatric surgery on children.
____________________
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia— Daifailluh al-Bugami was just a year old when his parents noticed that his lips turned blue as he slept at night. It was his weight, doctors said, putting pressure on his delicate airways.
Now Daifailluh is 3, and at 61 pounds he is nearly double the typical weight of a child his age. So the Bugamis are planning the once unthinkable: To have their toddler undergo bariatric surgery to permanently remove part of his stomach in hopes of reducing his appetite and staving off a lifetime of health problems.
That such a young child would be considered for weight-loss surgery—something U.S. surgeons generally won't do—underscores the growing health crisis here and elsewhere in the Middle East. Widespread access to unhealthy foods, coupled with sedentary behavior brought on by wealth and the absence of a dieting and exercise culture, have caused obesity levels in Saudi Arabia and many other Gulf states to approach or even exceed those in Western countries.
Previous Coverage Click green title (if the link has expired, search with the title & date)
- Diabetes Epidemic Hits Persian Gulf Region2/10/14
- In Dubai, Fast Food Is Big Draw at the Mall2/10/14
- Qatar Pushes Diabetes Research 2/10/14
- Drug Firms Look to Gulf Region as Next Frontier 2/10/14
- Saudis Push Gene-Sequencing Research 2/04/14
While solid national data are hard to come by, some experts say that obesity has turned into a serious health problem for Saudi children, with an estimated 9.3% of school-age youths meeting the World Health Organization's body-mass-index criteria for obesity, according to research published in 2013 in the Saudi Journal of Obesity. About 18% of school-age children in the U.S. were considered obese in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Daifailluh's doctor, Aayed Alqahtani, is a leading advocate of a radical approach to the problem. Patients travel to him from across the country and the Gulf region. Over the past seven years, he has performed bariatric surgery on nearly 100 children under the age of 14, which experts on the procedure believe is the largest number performed by one doctor on young children.
Dr. Alqahtani's work is being watched amid a global debate about the appropriate age for bariatric surgery. In the U.S., the minimum is generally considered 14. The World Health Organization, in a 2012 report on pediatric bariatric surgery, concluded that there is a dearth of data available on the long-term outcomes of the procedure in children and that a "conservative approach" is necessary until long-term studies are conducted.
Bariatric surgery has been embraced as an effective and relatively safe procedure for morbidly obese adults. The concern with children revolves mostly around nonsurgical risks, such as how the abrupt change in nutrition could affect long-term brain development and sexual maturation.
Dr. Alqahtani says the decision to operate on Daifailluh is a difficult one because of his age. But after nearly two years of consultation with the clinic, Daifailluh's obesity-related medical problems haven't gotten any better. "We should not deprive our patients from bariatric surgery based on their age alone," the surgeon says. "If they have [medical] conditions that threaten their lives, then we should not deny the bariatric surgery."
The worsening obesity problem here also is manifesting itself in other ways. Some 20% of the Saudi adult population has Type 2 diabetes, a condition linked to obesity, according to the International Diabetes Federation, compared with 8.3% in the U.S., according to the CDC. The cost of diabetes treatment in Saudi Arabia is expected to rise to $2.4 billion in 2015, more than triple that spent in 2010, according to a recent study in the Journal of Family and Community Medicine.
Obesity, particularly among women, has become rampant across much of the Middle East, particularly in oil-rich Gulf nations. In Kuwait, almost half of adult women are considered obese, while 44% of Saudi women and 45% of Qatari women meet the criteria, according to the International Association of the Study of Obesity. Experts says Saudis, in particular, are more likely to carry certain genes linked to obesity.
Saudi lifestyle and parenting practices may exacerbate the problem, according to doctors at weight-loss clinics. Nannies or cooks are often employed, so parents may not know what their children are eating. Saudis often are coaxed to eat large quantities of food when visiting relatives and friends.
In Riyadh, physical activity is limited, particularly for girls, and high temperatures and few green spaces make walking difficult. School gym classes generally take place just once a week. Western-style fast food is abundant, particularly at the air-conditioned malls frequented by children and families.
Bariatric surgery has become an accepted treatment among obese Saudi adults and is paid for by the government. An estimated 11,000 bariatric surgeries were performed on Saudis in 2012, according to Dr. Alqahtani.
The surgery, of which there are several types, generally reduces the size of the stomach and, with some techniques, rearranges the digestive path to bypass much of the intestines. Some types are reversible but generally considered less effective. After the surgery, patients must eat very small meals—ideally for the rest of their lives. Many studies have shown that adults, on average, lose over 50% of their body weight after surgery.
Increasingly, youngsters are heading to the operating room here, where parents see no other options. These days, Dr. Alqahtani performs surgery on three to four youths a week.
'We should not deprive our patients from bariatric surgery based on their age alone,' says surgeon Aayed Alqahtani, center. Shirley Wang/The Wall Street Journal
"I have seen in my clinic patients who cannot sleep lying down—they sleep sitting—because of sleep apnea, and their age is 10 years, sometimes 5 years," says Dr. Alqahtani, a professor in the college of medicine and an obesity specialist at King Saud University.
Pediatric surgeons in the U.S. say they also are facing demands from families to operate on younger patients. Thomas Inge, surgical director of the Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, says he will be operating on a 12-year-old later this month. He says that as younger and younger children are referred for consideration of surgery, care teams will need to carefully weigh the pros and cons.
Evan Nadler, a pediatric surgeon at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is considering doing the operation on two young children. He and the family of a 7-year-old D.C. boy have agreed that surgery likely is the best option, he says. The family of an 8-year-old from the Middle East has decided to wait until their daughter is older and can better understand the surgery, he says.
Many doctors say they aren't ready to follow Dr. Alqahtani yet. Kirk Reichard, chairman of the pediatric-surgery committee for the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, notes that there are no data to show that surgery doesn't affect young children's long-term sexual maturation or cognitive functioning. The brain, particularly in growing children, is sensitive to nutrition and needs enough energy to mature properly. Nutrition also has the potential to affect hormones linked to sexual maturation.
Dr. Alqahtani says he has seen evidence of normal growth following the procedure in his under-14 patients, many of whom are now four years postsurgery.
"We will certainly use his experience to inform us in some ways, but [Dr. Alqahtani's work] won't take the place of trials," says Dr. Reichard.
One of the main criticisms from some weight-loss experts about performing the surgery on those under 14 is that changes in diet and exercise can prevent further weight gain. In addition, says Dr. Reichard, "there are a lot of other therapies short of surgery that can be helpful in managing" related medical conditions.
Saudi Arabia's Dr. Alqahtani says he requires his child patients to enroll in a weight-loss program for at least six months because patients able to lose even a bit tend to have better outcomes after surgery. But he says that by the time families come to him, their children have such substantial health problems it is generally too late for diet and exercise alone.
Dr. Alqahtani was trained as a surgeon at McGill University in Montreal and at a minimally invasive surgery center in Denver. When he returned home to Riyadh in 2002, he says, he was inundated with pediatric patients so obese they were suffering from advanced stages fatty liver disease, diabetes and sleep apnea, a disorder in which patients repeatedly stop breathing for short periods during sleep—all diseases typically not seen until middle age.
Om Abdullah Asiri says she tried to help her 11-year-old son lose weight by restricting his eating at home. But he would eat fast food while out with his friends and plays videogames for hours on end, she says. "I can't control him outside the home," she says.
He grew to 250 pounds. His body-mass index—a calculation that uses weight and height to estimate percentage of body fat—was 61. A BMI of 40 or above is the most severe obesity category, according to the World Health Organization.
Ms. Asiri traveled with her son, Abdullah, from their home in Abha, more than 600 miles south of Riyadh, to see Dr. Alqahtani for the operation. Lying on a hospital bed the day before his surgery, Abdullah said he is "happy and ready" for the surgery.
His mother says surgery is the best solution for Abdullah, who has high blood pressure, fatty liver, hip pain and severe sleep apnea. Afterward, he won't have a choice but to eat better, she says. "The surgery will make him change." She says he dreams of playing soccer with his friends.
The procedure Dr. Alqahtani performs is called the gastric sleeve, which slices off a portion of the stomach but leaves the rest of the digestive tract intact. It is gaining in popularity because of its good weight-loss results and minimal side effects. The operation, conducted through tiny incisions in the abdomen, takes him just 30 minutes.
“"When he starts crying, it's hard not to give him any of the food, to make the crying stop," says Daifailluh's mother.”
One recent morning, he operated on a 20-year-old, two 17-year-olds, a 12-year-old, then Abdullah, who was then 10.
Complications can include bleeding in about 10% of cases, and leaking and blood clots in 1% to 2%. Dr. Alqahtani says he has had only two leaks in 1,700 cases, neither in children.
Dr. Alqahtani says each of his pediatric patients has lost at least some weight, and nearly three-quarters have lost more than 50% of their initial body weight. Abdullah has lost close to 50 pounds since his surgery about two months ago, according to his 29-year-old brother, Ahmad.
Dr. Alqahtani says about 90% of his patients have seen medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension clear up, according to a paper scheduled for publication in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. He published outcomes on 108 children in the peer-reviewed Annals of Surgery journal in 2012.
Recovery involves a six-week transition diet starting with clear liquids and puréed food. Patients eventually can resume solid foods at much-reduced quantities. At first, patients feel full after just 1 to 2 spoonfuls of food, though they gradually can eat more as their stomachs stretch.
Some bariatric-surgery experts have raised questions about whether children are capable of maintaining the restrictive lifetime diet after surgery or whether they will sabotage the procedure when they become teenagers and have a greater autonomy to eat what they want. Some experts question whether parents should make such a drastic and permanent decision for a child.
The decision has been excruciating for the family of Daifailluh, the toddler from Ta'if. Daifailluh was referred to Dr. Alqahtani's clinic about two years ago after difficulty breathing sent him to the intensive-care unit at a hospital in his hometown. Doctors there determined the toddler was seriously overweight. His mother, Hessa Salem al-Bugami, says she tried to improve his diet but didn't have good guidance until she came to Dr. Alqahtani's clinic, a trip of nearly 500 miles from Ta'if. "I feel like I failed," she says.
At first, the family wanted Daifailluh to lose weight without the operation. Ms. Bugami says her son has always had an "open appetite" and never refuses food. She says she feeds him brown bread and boiled chicken and rice, and limits his portions, hiding the rest of the food. But his obesity hasn't improved, she says.
Daifailluh will cry and sometimes throw temper tantrums when he wants food, she says. She has tried distracting him with toys, locking the two of them in a room to play for so long she ended up missing her own meal.
"When he starts crying, it's hard not to give him any of the food, to make the crying stop," she says. "I feel like I work really hard, but it's just too much on me."
Daifailluh, who was hospitalized again for pulmonary problems, is waiting for a surgery date, which will come if he gets final medical clearance from Dr. Alqahtani.
The entire family is worried about the surgery, particularly the effects of anesthesia and whether the surgery will reduce his appetite too much. Ms. Bugami also worries that her son will regain the weight when he leaves the house eventually and is no longer under her watch.
But that is a concern for another day. "Right now is the most scary situation," she says.
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Sunday, 3/2 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 2
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Treatment Options for Pets With Cancer
The fast-food(= bad-food) for or pets are the pellets almost every pet in the developed country eat.
In the same manner as the fast-food (= bad-food) is bad for us human, so are the pellets bad and make our pets sick in a similar manner as we humans get sick when eating bad food.
Cats and dogs need natural food to stay healthy. Natural their needs.
THE DOGS:
The digestive system of domesticated dogs is not designed to eat processed or cooked food. Obviously wild animals do not cook their food. Cooked food or commercial dog food takes longer for dogs to digest than raw diets. In addition, the heat used to actually cook the food destroys enzymes and anti-oxidants.
click and read this article:
All-Natural Diet for Dogs If You're Not Doing It, You Should!
click:
Leerburg | All-Natural Diet for Dogs
Treatment Options for Pets With Cancer
Estimates are that one in two dogs or cats over age 10 will succumb to cancer, but therapies can extend a quality life for pets for months or even years.
FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Mackenzie is ready to play in the snow after one of many cancer treatments.
It’s the morning of Dec. 24, and Pete and Peggy Yarger have brought their 5-year-old Alaskan malamute Mackenzie for treatment at the Northeast Indiana Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Hospital in Fort Wayne.
The dog has cancer. And while a few years ago, that would have been a sad way indeed to spend the morning of Christmas Eve, today they have reason for hope.
Lying on his side on a blanket, Mackenzie is getting his next-to-last chemotherapy treatment through an intravenous line in his back leg.
In about 15 minutes, the session is done, and the dog, wearing a little melon-colored bandage, bounds to his feet and smothers his attendants with canine kisses.
“His heart and lungs sound good. His belly seems good,” said Dr. Amy Totten, a board-certified veterinary internist supervising the silver-furred canine’s care. “He’s doing excellent.”
Pete Yarger said that only goes to show how far things have come in just a few years.
“This isn’t our first go-round with cancer,” he told Fort Wayne Ind.-based The Journal Gazette, adding that a previous malamute named Buddy died of the disease. “That was awful,” he said.
These days, a cancer diagnosis doesn’t automatically mean a pet must suffer or be immediately euthanized, Totten said.
Although not all canine or feline cancers can be cured or treated, she said, for some pets, options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunological and nutritional support, and advanced pain management.
Many times, the therapies can extend a quality life for pets for months or even years.
The services are in demand. Estimates are that one in four dogs, and one in two dogs over age 10, will succumb to cancer.
Although it may seem as if the cancer incidence is going up, that’s partly because pets are living longer because of more committed owners and better veterinary care, said Dr. William Chastaine of Aboite Animal Hospital in Fort Wayne. Vets also have more diagnostic means at their disposal to detect cancer, Chastaine said.
“We, unfortunately, do see a lot (of cancer) in our senior pet population,” he said. “One of the dreaded things about veterinary medicine is doing a routine exam and finding something that turns out to be cancer. It’s not fun.
“It’s scary for pet owners,” he adds. “It’s an emotional time for them, depending on the prognosis, because pets are so much a part of people’s families. I just try to be compassionate and honest and not withhold the truth from them.”
Pet CancersTotten said pets get cancer for reasons that are unclear. But they include genetics, hormonal and environmental factors including exposure to sun and toxins, and viruses. Vaccines, food additives, unintended drug exposure and drug interactions, and even stress are also being investigated.
Pets can get cancer at any site where people can get it, although some spots are more common than others, Totten said.
“Probably the most common cancer we see is dogs who have cancer in their spleen,” she said. “We probably see at least one a week – there’s definitely an increased frequency in that problem.”
Lymphoma is another common cancer in dogs and cats, with the latter prone to intestinal manifestations. Lung and liver cancers, brain cancer, bone cancer, mast cell cancer and melanoma (skin cancer) are also found in pets. Pets also can develop breast cancer, though less commonly than humans; it’s been linked to late neutering.
One problem for pet guardians and their doctors, Totten said, is that the diagnosis often sneaks up on them. After all, pets can’t talk – and they often don’t otherwise complain or show signs they’re sick.
When they’re ill or in pain, Totten said, “animals are good at hiding it.” In the wild, a sick animal may be abandoned by its pack or quickly end up as prey. “Their instinct is to act as if they’re just fine,” she said.
But pets with cancer do show general signs, she said—lethargy, weakness and tiredness. They may vomit or stop eating, or have unusual bodily discharges.
Some cancers have specific signs. A lymphoma or mast cell cancer can show up as a lump or series of lumps. And if a dog has cancer of the spleen, it may rupture and bleed and fill the abdomen with fluid, making it tender and swollen.
Such signs shouldn’t be ignored, because, as with humans, earlier diagnosis often foretells longer survival, Totten said.
Mackenzie’s TreatmentFor the Yargers, the first sign was blood in Mackenzie’s stool. He was diagnosed with a colorectal tumor, which turned out to be B cell lymphoma.
The tumor was surgically removed, and the dog underwent a chemotherapy regimen known as the CHOP protocol developed by the University of Wisconsin veterinary school.
Totten calls the treatment, which is given once a week for eight weeks and then once every other week for eight more treatments, “probably the most well-known lymphoma protocol that there is.”
It uses three drugs—vincristine, cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin—and is generally well tolerated, Totten said.
The Yargers, residents of Hamilton, say their dog, adopted from a rescue organization, tends to be a little tired after treatment, but he bounces back.
Peggy Yarger said Mackenzie’s chemo is being augmented at home with medication and nutritional supplements designed to boost the dog’s immune system, which is depressed by the treatment.
The dog also gets a special diet of organic foods prepared by Peggy, who said she’s not above making the pet poached-egg snacks.
“The idea is to help his own body fight the cancer,” she said.
Not every owner of a pet with cancer chooses to treat it, Totten said.
“The most common reason is people don’t want to put their pet through that, or the pet is already elderly. But budget definitely comes into play,” she said, adding that lymphoma testing and treatment on the CHOP protocol averages about $5,000.
Most owners do not have pet insurance, she said, and while she knows of some national organizations that help with pet cancer costs, she’s not aware of any local group with that mission.
Still, lymphoma is one of the canine cancers considered most responsive to chemotherapy, Totten said.
About 80 percent of dogs with B cell lymphoma treated with the CHOP regimen go into remission.
Typically, survival time ranges upward from 12 months, including the time the dog spends in receiving chemo, she said.
Chastaine said he’s seen cases where a dog with lymphoma lived between two and three years longer because of treatment.
“That may not seem like a long time, but when you consider a dog’s normal lifespan, and considering those are dog years, that’s pretty good,” he said.
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Topic # 2 of 2
Cash for Kidneys:
The Case for a Legal Market for Organs
There is a clear remedy for the growing shortage of organ donors, say Gary S. Becker and Julio J. Elias
(1) Mr. Becker is a Nobel prize-winning professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
(2) Mr. Elias is an economics professor at the Universidad del CEMA in Argentina. _____________________
(1) The past year, 95,000 American men, women and children were on the waiting list for new kidneys, the most commonly transplanted organ.
(2) Yet only about 16,500 kidney transplant operations were performed that year
(3) Taking into account the number of people who die while waiting for a transplant, this implies
an average wait of 4.5 years for a kidney transplant in the U.S.
The situation is far worse than it was just a decade ago, when nearly 54,000 people were on the waiting list, with an average wait of 2.9 years. For all the recent attention devoted to the health-care overhaul, the long and growing waiting times for tens of thousands of individuals who badly need organ transplants hasn't been addressed.
Finding a way to increase the supply of organs would reduce wait times and deaths, and it would greatly ease the suffering that many sick individuals now endure while they hope for a transplant. The most effective change, we believe, would be to provide compensation to people who give their organs—that is, we recommend establishing a market for organs.
Organ transplants are one of the extraordinary developments of modern science. They began in 1954 with a kidney transplant performed at Brigham & Women's hospital in Boston. But the practice only took off in the 1970s with the development of immunosuppressive drugs that could prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. Since then, the number of kidney and other organ transplants has grown rapidly, but not nearly as rapidly as the growth in the number of people with defective organs who need transplants. The result has been longer and longer delays to receive organs.
Many of those waiting for kidneys are on dialysis, and life expectancy while on dialysis isn't long. For example, people age 45 to 49 live, on average, eight additional years if they remain on dialysis, but they live an additional 23 years if they get a kidney transplant. That is why in 2012, almost 4,500 persons died while waiting for kidney transplants. Although some of those waiting would have died anyway, the great majority died because they were unable to replace their defective kidneys quickly enough.
The toll on those waiting for kidneys and on their families is enormous, from both greatly reduced life expectancy and the many hardships of being on dialysis. Most of those on dialysis cannot work, and the annual cost of dialysis averages about $80,000. The total cost over the average 4.5-year waiting period before receiving a kidney transplant is $350,000, which is much larger than the $150,000 cost of the transplant itself.
Individuals can live a normal life with only one kidney, so about 34% of all kidneys used in transplants come from live donors. The majority of transplant kidneys come from parents, children, siblings and other relatives of those who need transplants. The rest come from individuals who want to help those in need of transplants.
In recent years, kidney exchanges—in which pairs of living would-be donors and recipients who prove incompatible look for another pair or pairs of donors and recipients who would be compatible for transplants, cutting their wait time—have become more widespread. Although these exchanges have grown rapidly in the U.S. since 2005, they still account for only 9% of live donations and just 3% of all kidney donations, including after-death donations. The relatively minor role of exchanges in total donations isn't an accident, because exchanges are really a form of barter, and barter is always an inefficient way to arrange transactions.
Exhortations and other efforts to encourage more organ donations have failed to significantly close the large gap between supply and demand. For example, some countries use an implied consent approach, in which organs from cadavers are assumed to be available for transplant unless, before death, individuals indicate that they don't want their organs to be used.
(The U.S. continues to use informed consent, requiring people to make an active declaration of their wish to donate.) In our own highly preliminary study of a few countries—Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile and Denmark—that have made the shift to implied consent from informed consent or vice versa, we found that the switch didn't lead to consistent changes in the number of transplant surgeries
The average cost of a kidney transplant is $150,000. Annual cost of dialysis: $80,000.
Other studies have found more positive effects from switching to implied consent, but none of the effects would be large enough to eliminate the sizable shortfall in the supply of organs in the U.S. That shortfall isn't just an American problem. It exists in most other countries as well, even when they use different methods to procure organs and have different cultures and traditions.
Paying donors for their organs would finally eliminate the supply-demand gap. In particular, sufficient payment to kidney donors would increase the supply of kidneys by a large percentage, without greatly increasing the total cost of a kidney transplant.
We have estimated how much individuals would need to be paid for kidneys to be willing to sell them for transplants. These estimates take account of the slight risk to donors from transplant surgery, the number of weeks of work lost during the surgery and recovery periods, and the small risk of reduction in the quality of life.
Our conclusion is that a very large number of both live and cadaveric kidney donations would be available by paying about $15,000 for each kidney. That estimate isn't exact, and the true cost could be as high as $25,000 or as low as $5,000—but even the high estimate wouldn't increase the total cost of kidney transplants by a large percentage.
Few countries have ever allowed the open purchase and sale of organs, but Iran permits the sale of kidneys by living donors. Scattered and incomplete evidence from Iran indicates that the price of kidneys there is about $4,000 and that waiting times to get kidneys have been largely eliminated. Since Iran's per capita income is one-quarter of that of the U.S., this evidence supports our $15,000 estimate. Other countries are also starting to think along these lines: Singapore and Australia have recently introduced limited payments to live donors that compensate mainly for time lost from work.
Since the number of kidneys available at a reasonable price would be far more than needed to close the gap between the demand and supply of kidneys, there would no longer be any significant waiting time to get a kidney transplant. The number of people on dialysis would decline dramatically, and deaths due to long waits for a transplant would essentially disappear.
Today, finding a compatible kidney isn't easy. There are four basic blood types, and tissue matching is complex and involves the combination of six proteins. Blood and tissue type determine the chance that a kidney will help a recipient in the long run. But the sale of organs would result in a large supply of most kidney types, and with large numbers of kidneys available, transplant surgeries could be arranged to suit the health of recipients (and donors) because surgeons would be confident that compatible kidneys would be available.
The system that we're proposing would include payment to individuals who agree that their organs can be used after they die. This is important because transplants for heart and lungs and most liver transplants only use organs from the deceased. Under a new system, individuals would sell their organs "forward" (that is, for future use), with payment going to their heirs after their organs are harvested. Relatives sometimes refuse to have organs used even when a deceased family member has explicitly requested it, and they would be more inclined to honor such wishes if they received substantial compensation for their assent.
The idea of paying organ donors has met with strong opposition from some (but not all) transplant surgeons and other doctors, as well as various academics, political leaders and others. Critics have claimed that paying for organs would be ineffective, that payment would be immoral because it involves the sale of body parts and that the main donors would be the desperate poor, who could come to regret their decision. In short, critics believe that monetary payments for organs would be repugnant.
But the claim that payments would be ineffective in eliminating the shortage of organs isn't consistent with what we know about the supply of other parts of the body for medical use. For example, the U.S. allows market-determined payments to surrogate mothers—and surrogacy takes time, involves great discomfort and is somewhat risky. Yet in the U.S., the average payment to a surrogate mother is only about $20,000.
Another illuminating example is the all-volunteer U.S. military. Critics once asserted that it wouldn't be possible to get enough capable volunteers by offering them only reasonable pay, especially in wartime. But the all-volunteer force has worked well in the U.S., even during wars, and the cost of these recruits hasn't been excessive.
Whether paying donors is immoral because it involves the sale of organs is a much more subjective matter, but we question this assertion, given the very serious problems with the present system. Any claim about the supposed immorality of organ sales should be weighed against the morality of preventing thousands of deaths each year and improving the quality of life of those waiting for organs. How can paying for organs to increase their supply be more immoral than the injustice of the present system?
Under the type of system we propose, safeguards could be created against impulsive behavior or exploitation. For example, to reduce the likelihood of rash donations, a period of three months or longer could be required before someone would be allowed to donate their kidneys or other organs. This would give donors a chance to re-evaluate their decisions, and they could change their minds at any time before the surgery. They could also receive guidance from counselors on the wisdom of these decisions.
Though the poor would be more likely to sell their kidneys and other organs, they also suffer more than others from the current scarcity. Today, the rich often don't wait as long as others for organs since some of them go to countries such as India, where they can arrange for transplants in the underground medical sector, and others (such as the lateSteve Jobs ) manage to jump the queue by having residence in several states or other means. The sale of organs would make them more available to the poor, and Medicaid could help pay for the added cost of transplant surgery.
The altruistic giving of organs might decline with an open market, since the incentive to give organs to a relative, friend or anyone else would be weaker when organs are readily available to buy. On the other hand, the altruistic giving of money to those in need of organs could increase to help them pay for the cost of organ transplants.
Paying for organs would lead to more transplants—and thereby, perhaps, to a large increase in the overall medical costs of transplantation. But it would save the cost of dialysis for people waiting for kidney transplants and other costs to individuals waiting for other organs. More important, it would prevent thousands of deaths and improve the quality of life among those who now must wait years before getting the organs they need.
Initially, a market in the purchase and sale of organs would seem strange, and many might continue to consider that market "repugnant." Over time, however, the sale of organs would grow to be accepted, just as the voluntary military now has widespread support.
Eventually, the advantages of allowing payment for organs would become obvious. At that point, people will wonder why it took so long to adopt such an obvious and sensible solution to the shortage of organs for transplant.
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Sunday, 3/9 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Radio Show
Topic # 1 of 3
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Sunday, 3/16 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Topic # 1 of 3
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The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
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Sunday, 4/6 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show Topic # 1 of 2 Civilization’s Starter Kit By LEWIS DARTNELL MARCH 29, 2014
I’M an astrobiologist*) — I study the essential building blocks of life, on this planet and others. But I don’t know how to fix a dripping tap, or what to do when the washing machine goes on the blink. I don’t know how to bake bread, let alone grow wheat. I’m utterly useless with my hands. My father-in-law used to joke that I had three degrees, but didn’t know anything about anything, whereas he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Life.
*) Click: Astrobiology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe: extraterrestrial life and life on Earth. This interdisciplinary field ...
Overview - Methodology - Life in the Solar System - Rare Earth hypothesis
It’s not just me. Many purchases today no longer even come with an instruction manual. If something breaks it’s easier to chuck it and buy a new model than to reach for the screwdriver. Over the past generation or two we’ve gone from being producers and tinkerers to consumers. As a result, I think we feel a sense of disconnect between our modern existence and the underlying processes that support our lives. Who has any real understanding of where their last meal came from or how the objects in their pockets were dug out of the earth and transformed into useful materials? What would we do if, in some science-fiction scenario, a global catastrophe collapsed civilization and we were members of a small society of survivors?
My research has to do with what factors planets need to support life. Recently, I’ve been wondering what factors are needed to support our modern civilization. What key principles of science and technology would be necessary to rebuild our world from scratch?
The great physicist Richard Feynman once posed a similar question: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.”
That certainly does encapsulate a huge amount of understanding, but it also wouldn’t be particularly useful, in a practical sense. So, allowing myself to be a little more expansive than a single sentence, I have some suggestions for what someone scrabbling around the ruins of civilization would need to know about basic necessities.
You would need to start with germ theory — the notion that contagious diseases are not caused by whimsical gods but by invisibly small organisms invading your body. Drinking water can be disinfected with diluted household bleach or even swimming pool chlorine. Soap for washing hands can be made from any animal fat or plant oil stirred with lye, which is soda from the ashes of burned seaweed combined with quicklime from roasted chalk or limestone. When settling down, ensure that your excrement isn’t allowed to contaminate your water source — this may sound obvious, but wasn’t understood even as late as the mid-19th century.
In the longer term, you’ll need to remaster the principles of agriculture and the ability to stockpile a food reserve and support dense cities away from the fields. The cereal crops that have sustained civilizations throughout history — wheat, rice and maize — are fast growing, perfect as fodder for livestock or, after processing, for human sustenance.
The millstone grinding grain into flour is a technological extension of our molar teeth. And when we bake bread or boil rice or pasta, we wield the transformative power of heat to help break down the complex molecules and release more easily absorbed nourishment. So in a sense, the pots and pans we use in the kitchen today are a pre-digestive system, processing what we consume so that it doesn’t poison us and maximizing the nutrition our body can extract.
Then there are the many materials society requires: How do you transform base substances like clay and iron into brick or concrete or steel, and then shape that material into a useful tool? To learn a small piece of this, I spent a day in a traditional, 18th-century iron forge, learning the essentials of the craft of the blacksmith. Sweating over an open coke-fired hearth, I managed to beat a lump of steel into a knife. Once shaped, I got it cherry-red hot and then quenched it with a satisfying squeal into a water trough, before reheating the blade slightly to temper it for extra toughness.
The first thing I did when I got home was to use the knife to slice some Cheddar and bread and make myself a grilled cheese. Unfortunately, the blade immediately developed a ruinous crack, and I’ve not had the nerve to use it again. But I made something real with my own hands and I’ve got a good idea of how to do it better next time.
Of course, it needn’t take a catastrophic collapse of civilization to make you appreciate the importance of understanding the basics of how devices around you work. Localized disasters can disrupt normal services, making a reasonable reserve of clean water, canned food and backup technologies like kerosene lamps a prudent precaution. And becoming a little more self-reliant is immensely rewarding in its own right. Thought experiments like these can help us to explore how our modern world actually came to be, and to appreciate all that we take for granted.
Take, for example, plain old glass — a wonder material that is somehow relatively strong and yet perfectly transparent. The recipe to create it is simple enough and uses some of the same ingredients as soap: a handful of silica (pure white sand, quartz or flint), some potash or soda ash (extracted by soaking wood or seaweed ash in water, straining the water and then boiling it down) and quicklime (roasted chalk or limestone); mix them together and bake in a kiln. Once the substance is fluid and bubble-free, you can form it into jars or bottles or window panes.
Glass also happens to be a crucial material for understanding the world, in the form of thermometers and test tubes, and even for manipulating light itself, when shaped into lenses for microscopes and telescopes — tools that are indispensable for science, including my own field of astrobiology. I may never have to practice the alchemy that transforms sand, soda and quicklime into this miraculous transparent membrane, but the world outside my window feels closer and more in focus for the knowing.
Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiology research fellow at the University of Leicester and the author of the forthcoming book “The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch.”
_____________ Topic # 2 of 2 Sunday, 4/6 /14 The Christian Penumbra Penumbra = a surrounding or adjoining region in which something exists in a lesser degree : fringe HERE is a seeming paradox of American life. One the one hand, there is a broad social-science correlation between religious faith and various social goods -- health and happiness, upward mobility, social trust, charitable work and civic participation.Yet at the same time, some of the most religious areas of the country — the Bible Belt, the deepest South — struggle mightily with poverty, poor health, political corruption and social disarray.
Part of this paradox can be resolved by looking at nonreligious variables like race. But part of it reflects an important fact about religion in America: The social goods associated with faith flow almost exclusively from religious participation, not from affiliation or nominal belief. And where practice ceases or diminishes, in what you might call America’s “Christian penumbra,” the remaining residue of religion can be socially damaging instead.
Consider, as a case study, the data on divorce. Earlier this year, a pair of demographers released a study showing that regions with heavy populations of conservative Protestants had higher-than-average divorce rates, even when controlling for poverty and race.
Their finding was correct, but incomplete. As the sociologist Charles Stokes pointed out, practicing conservative Protestants have much lower divorce rates, and practicing believers generally divorce less frequently than the secular and unaffiliated.
But the lukewarmly religious are a different matter. What Stokes calls “nominal” conservative Protestants, who attend church less than twice a month, have higher divorce rates even than the nonreligious. And you can find similar patterns with other indicators — out-of-wedlock births, for instance, are rarer among religious-engaged evangelical Christians, but nominal evangelicals are a very different story.
It isn’t hard to see why this might be. In the Christian penumbra, certain religious expectations could endure (a bias toward early marriage, for instance) without support networks for people struggling to live up to them. Or specific moral ideas could still have purchase without being embedded in a plausible life script. (For instance, residual pro-life sentiment could increase out-of-wedlock births.) Or religious impulses could survive in dark forms rather than positive ones — leaving structures of hypocrisy intact and ratifying social hierarchies, without inculcating virtue, charity or responsibility.
And it isn’t hard to see places in American life where these patterns could be at work. Among those working-class whites whose identification with Christianity is mostly a form of identity politics, for instance. Or among second-generation Hispanic immigrants who have drifted from their ancestral Catholicism. Or in African-American communities where the church is respected as an institution without attracting many young men on Sunday morning.
Seeing some of the problems in our culture through this lens might be useful for the religious and secular alike. For nonbelievers inclined to look down on the alleged backwardness of the Bible Belt, it would be helpful to recognize that at least some the problems they see at work reflect traditional religion’s growing weakness rather than its potency.
For believers, meanwhile, the Christian penumbra’s pathologies could just be seen as a kind of theological vindication — proof, perhaps, of the New Testament admonition that it’s much worse to be lukewarm than hot or cold.
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Sunday, 4/13 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Article A (Article B next below)
China’s Poisonous Waterways BEIJING — Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been clouded by news of deaths — deaths of people I knew well. Some were still young, only in their 30s or 40s. When I returned to the village early last year, two people had just died, and a few others were dying.My father conducted an informal survey last year of deaths in our village, which has about 1,000 people, to learn why they died and the ages of the deceased. After visiting every household over the course of two weeks, he and two village elders came up with these numbers: Over 10 years, there were 86 cases of cancer. Of these, 65 resulted in death; the rest are terminally ill. Most of their cancers are of the digestive system. In addition, there were 261 cases of snail fever, a parasitic disease, that led to two deaths.
The Lanxi is lined with factories, from mineral processing plants to cement and chemical manufacturers. For years, industrial and agricultural waste has been dumped into the water untreated. I have learned that the grim situation along our river is far from uncommon in China.
The nation has more than 200 “cancer villages,” small towns like mine blanketed with factories where cancer rates have risen far above the national average. (Some researchers say there are more than 400 such villages.) Last year the Ministry of Environmental Protection acknowledged the problem of “cancer villages” for the first time, but this is of little comfort to my parents’ neighbors and millions like them around the country.
More than 50 percent of China’s rivers have disappeared altogether, and few of the surviving waterways are not completely polluted. Some 280 million Chinese people drink unsafe water, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Nearly half of the country’s rivers and lakes carry water that is unfit even for human contact.
And China’s cancer mortality rate has soared, climbing 80 percent in the last 30 years. About 3.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year, 2.5 million of whom die. Rural residents are more likely than urban residents to die of stomach and intestinal cancers, presumably because of polluted water. State media reported on one government inquiry that found 110 million people across the country reside less than a mile from a hazardous industrial site.
I have lived away from my hometown for years and only return for brief visits, usually during the Chinese New Year. I am becoming more and more a stranger there. And yet my journey as a fiction writer started from this humble place. It has been a literary gold mine for me, giving me endless inspiration. The once sweet and sparkling water of the Lanxi frequently appears in my work.
People used to bathe in the river, wash their clothes beside it, and cook with water from it. People would celebrate the dragon-boat festival and the lantern festival on its banks. The generations who’ve lived by the Lanxi have all experienced their own heartaches and moments of happiness, yet in the past, no matter how poor our village was, people were healthy and the river was pristine. ___________
ARTICLE B (Article A next above)
China's Rivers: Frontlines for Chemical Wastes Three months after a chemical plant explosion contaminated northeastern China's Songhua River, a second large spill occurred on the upper reaches of the Yuexi River in southeastern Sichuan province, releasing toxins into a 100-kilometer stretch near the city of Yibin and disrupting the water supply to area people.
China’s water pollution will be more difficult to fix than its dirty air
Although China’s air pollution keeps making headlines, its water pollution is just as urgent a problem. One-fifth of the country’s rivers are toxic, while two-fifths are classified as seriously polluted. In 2012 more than half of China’s cities had water that was “poor” or “very poor”. Last week China’s ministry of environmental protection announced a trillion-yuan (US$320 billion) plan to start dealing with this urgent issue.
The action plan, which is currently being drafted, will focus on curbing water pollution in the worst affected areas and preventing future pollution of the better conserved waters, deputy minister of environmental protection Zhai Qing said at a press conference.
Proposed measures reportedly include cutting industrial waste water discharge, improving sewage management in cities and introducing better treatment for polluted water in rural areas.
“The situation of China’s water environment is still very grim,” the deputy minister said, quoting the figures of China’s annual volume of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen emissions, common indicators of water quality. The current annual volumes of the two is 24 million tonnes and 2.45 million tonnes respectively, Zhai said.
According to China Business News, China will have to reduce its annual volumes of COD and ammonia nitrogen emissions by 30-50% before there’s any significant improvement of its water.
Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based green NGO, told chinadialogue that China’s waste water discharge has far exceeded the nation’s environmental bearing capacity and hence the incoming action plan is “very necessary”.
“Tackling water pollution is as serious and worthy a challenge for the authority as combating air pollution...water pollution poses a bigger health threat to about 300 million people living in rural areas, and many of them are vulnerable and disadvantaged,” Ma Jun said.
In June 2013, China’s national disease control authority confirmed that water pollution was responsible for the high cancer rates along the Huai River and its tributaries. Later in September, state news agency Xinhuareported that water pollution may be linked to the increase in cancer cases in more than 247 villages nationwide.
The worsening water pollution is fueling social discontent. On the same day that top environmental officials announced the action plan, the Associated Press reported that villagers in south-western Yunnan province had clashed with local police over a factory that was discharging waste water.
Though the action plan on water pollution aims to address public concerns over China’s deteriorating environment, it is not likely to see quick effects, experts have said.
“China’s water pollution is the byproduct of three decades’ rapid economic development. There is no doubt that the action plan will speed up the improvement of water quality, but it will take a very long time before any fundamental improvement occurs,” said Fu Tao, a water governance expert at Tsinghua University, in an interview with China Business Radio.
Ma Jun echoed Fu’s opinion by saying that water is more difficult to clean up than air. “The cleaning process will take longer and cost more, especially when the polluted water has entered the underground water circle,” he said.
“But we can borrow experience from the anti-air pollution campaign. Disclosing information, encouraging public participation, identifying pollution sources and reducing waste water discharges are all good places to start.”
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Article 2 of 2 The Smart Way to Do Fracking Plug leaks, run more tests and build better wells
New York state has a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. So do Los Angeles, Quebec and France. Polls show rising opposition to this controversial oil field technique, which cracks open rocks to free oil and natural gas, and some critics want it banned unless it can be proven safe.
Meanwhile, U.S. energy companies are drilling and fracking about 100 wells every day across much of the country. Whether you think that it is an economic godsend or fear that it is an environmental disaster, whether you spell it fracking or fraccing (as the energy industry prefers), that is a lot of holes in the ground.
Fracking is a fairly straightforward process. You drill a well straight down for a few thousand feet and gradually turn the shaft until it runs horizontally through the shale. Then you isolate a section of the rock and inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure. This makes the rock fracture—hence the name. The sand stays behind to prop open the new network of fractures, and oil and gas flow out.
Like it or not, fracking will continue. It is big business for giants such as Exxon MobilCorp. XOM +0.77% to smaller firms such as Range Resources Corp. RRC +1.62%From railroads to petrochemicals, many sectors of the economy are reliant on the business of the energy boom, creating a broad coalition to support it. Fracking generates middle-class jobs and pays checks to mineral-rights owners. It can help U.S. national security by making the country less reliant on foreign oil, and it provides plenty of relatively low-carbon, affordable energy that makes North America the envy of the world.
But fracking is an industrial process, and its many critics have some real and legitimate concerns about its impact on the environment and the communities near the wells.
Since we're fracking so much, what can we do to make it safer for people and the planet? I've asked this question, in one form or another, to hundreds of engineers, executives, academics and environmentalists since touring my first frack site more than a decade ago. I've heard many answers. Here are three that seem eminently reasonable.
Fix the leaks.
Natural gas is an efficient fuel, and burning it emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than burning coal. But natural gas is mostly methane, a very potent contributor to climate change. If too much methane leaks, natural gas stops being part of a climate solution and becomes part of the problem.
We don't really know how much methane is leaking from wells and pipelines. A recent article in the journal Science suggested that leakage rates are well above current federal estimates.
"If you want to argue that gas is part of the climate solution, you have to deal with methane leakage," says Hal Harvey, chief executive of Energy Innovations LLC, a policy and technology consultant. The good news, he adds: "It's a plumbing problem. It's not thermodynamics." Making a power plant twice as efficient is difficult engineering; cutting methane leakage in half isn't. You just find the leaks and plug them.
Some companies are ready to comply. "When you keep methane in the pipe, not only is it the right thing to do, but you capture it for sale," says Ted Brown, senior vice president of Noble Energy Inc. NBL +1.29% The Houston company is the largest oil and gas producer in Colorado, which recently proposed new air-emission rules. Noble plans to hire 16 full-time employees to use infrared cameras to find leaks around its wells and pipelines.
Methane also contributes to smog, and Denver's air quality is deteriorating. Tackling smog would create a visible sign of the industry's efforts to run a tighter ship.
Get better data.
Fights over whether fracking contaminates groundwater are bitter and divisive. Many people who live near fracking sites worry that their health is at risk. The only way to take these concerns off the table—or fix problems as they arise—is to require more testing, especially before drilling starts.
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development, a joint effort of major operators, environmental groups and foundations, says that it is critical to test groundwater before drilling begins and then for at least a year afterward.
"We want to say, 'Here's the data, it speaks for itself,' " says Susan Packard LeGros, executive director of the group, which counts Chevron Corp. CVX +1.54% , the Environmental Defense Fund and the William Penn Foundation among its partners.
Requiring independent tests of water before drilling begins makes sense, says Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas. "It would be good for companies because it protects them from abusive false claims," he says. "It would also give the local community peace of mind and evidence to take action if they need to take action."
Testing should go further, he says. Before-and-after air sampling could identify locations that release toxic compounds. Surveys of community-health metrics could help identify ways in which concentrated drilling activity harms nearby residents—or dispel misconceptions and worries.
Mr. Webber says that requiring this kind of testing would also create valuable data on water resources and environmental quality across the country, something that doesn't now exist. "We have big data in everything in life except for our natural resources and the environment," he says.
Build better wells.
In 2012, Claude Cooke called me after an article I wrote about poorly built gas wells. He is one of nine men whom the Society of Petroleum Engineers has honored as a "Legend of Hydraulic Fracturing."
He said that people worried that the cracks in the rock caused by fracking would cause environmental problems. This fear was misplaced, he said: Fracking takes place miles below the surface of the earth or any potable aquifer.
"If there is a problem, the issue is well integrity," he said, and most likely a problem with the cement placed around wells to prevent any fluid or gas from migrating upward. Faulty cement doomed the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico and led to the death of 11 men and the worst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
California has set an interesting example in ensuring that wells are built well. Last year, when the state published interim regulations on fracking, chief among them were steps to ensure a well's integrity, including testing its cement.
Mr. Cooke says that more can be done to make sure that a well is safe and secure—and built to last for decades. After all, the U.S. is drilling 100 new wells a day. It would be a colossal problem if they were unsound.
The industry figured out how to extract abundant energy from the densest rocks imaginable. Now it has a chance to do something even more audacious: to show that it can provide that energy in a safe, clean way.
—Mr. Gold covers the energy industry for The Wall Street Journal and is the author of "The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World," to be published by Simon & Schuster on April 8,2014
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Sunday, 4/20 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 3
BUSINESS
Fish Farming Explores Deeper, Cleaner Waters Norwegian Salmon Producer SalMar Is Exploring the Use of Offshore Platforms - "The day when the oil and gas production is over, fishing is an industry that will remain for eternity."
SalMar ASA is a Norwegian fish farm company. It holds 52 licenses for atlantic salmon in Norway, located in Trøndelag, Nordmøre and, through the subsidiary Senja Sjøfarm AS, Troms. Click: Wikipedia
Click Salmar (the Norwegian language text can be translated to any major language just by clicking the translate sign)
Norwegian fish farmer SalMar has been working two years on creating oil-rig-like structures that can harvest salmon in more free-flowing waters, reducing disease and pollution concerns.
FRØYA, Norway—Salmon farmers, swimming in profits, are looking for better ways to raise their fish.
Amid growing global demand for food, aquaculture companies aim to be bigger players by investing in new feeding processes and betting on elaborate new farming techniques. By 2016, for instance, SalMar — one of the world's largest salmon producers—will launch a pricey and largely untested offshore fishing platform designed by a longtime oil executive.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, has grown faster than the wild-catch industry in recent decades, and Norway's fish farmers benefited as the nation has become the second-largest exporter of farmed fish behind China. Global output of aquaculture expanded 12-fold between 1980 and 2010 to 60 million tons, while captured fish intake stabilized at 90 million tons, according to the latest data available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks fish production.
Total fish trade, including both fish farming and wild catch, grew to $217.5 billion in 2010 from $71.5 billion in 2004, the organization said.
At last count, fish farming accounted for 47% of global fish production, compared to 9% of the stock in 1980, with salmon farmers representing the fastest-growing segment of the industry as their product has grown well beyond being a luxury item.
But current farming techniques might be limiting the industry's ability to keep up with demand. Government farming quotas—largely aimed at limiting fish disease and pollution from fish farms—cap the output of companies such as SalMar, a Norwegian competitor that ranks as the biggest farmer in the world.
Supply constraints have boosted prices at a time when salmon is becoming a common source of protein world-wide. Global salmon consumption is now three times higher than it was in 1980, according to the World Wildlife Fund. That leads to big paydays for farmers, but there is concern the good times may come to an end.
Gunnar Myrebøe, SalMar's platform designer, spent much of his career overseeing development at Norwegian oil giant before turning to aquaculture after learning of the idea of a fish-farming platform. "We had to do something like this, otherwise the industry would never be able to grow," he said
Conventional fish farms essentially consist of a floating ring onto which a net is fastened. These constructions are placed in fjords or close to the ocean shore, with each net holding hundreds of thousands of fish. Water flow is more limited in these farms than in the open sea, which can lead to problems such as disease and pollution.
SalMar's farming platform is one of the few "quantum leaps" on the horizon for addressing these issues, Mr. Myrebøe said.
The offshore farm will resemble a modern-day oil platform. Weighing 5,600 metric tons and standing 220 feet tall, the farming platform would be anchored half submerged far offshore so that water can flow freshly through the community of growing fish. They would also be equipped with the same type of nets used to repel sharks.
According to SalMar, the oil-rig-inspired anchoring technology allows the net to stand almost still in waves that are up to nine meters, or about 30 feet, high, and the fish "simply can't escape."
One of the biggest environmental challenges in salmon farming is the risk of escapes. The fish that escape can potentially mate with wild species, which can lead to genetic changes and the possible extinction of certain populations.
The costly platform proposal is only in the initial phase of testing. While a platform could theoretically hold seven times as many fish as a conventional net, about 1.6 million, there is no guarantee that salmon lice—a parasite that is one of the main concerns for farmers—will be reduced.
SalMar co-founder Gustav Witzøe estimates the first platform could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and is currently in talks with shipyards in an effort to secure a builder. One key consideration for the project, said Mr. Myrebøe, is whether the new project qualifies for so-called green concessions that Norway hands out for sustainable projects.
Norwegian officials have expressed a desire to expand the salmon farming industry, and researchers claim the country's production could be sixfold by 2050.
Marine Harvest, SalMar's bigger rival, recently announced a plan to purify all salmon feed—a practice not yet widely employed—to help boost salmon consumption in certain groups, such as pregnant women. The Bergen, Norway-based company is also working on extending the time smolt, or newborn fish, live in indoor pools, to reduce exposure to diseases.
As Norwegian companies work on new farming techniques, Denmark's Atlantic Sapphire A/S last year started selling salmon nurtured entirely indoors. Thue Holm, a biologist who co-founded the company, said indoor farming—using pools where temperature and water flow are regulated—"might do a better job than the sea."
At the same time, indoor fish are likely to be higher price and smaller in size.
Bendik Fyhn Terjesen, a researcher at the Norwegian food research institute Nofima, said the future of fish farming is "a combination of different approaches, including partly onshore farming, offshore farming, and breeding of special types of fish that eat salmon lice."
Mr. Holm agrees: "It will be like tomatoes—which are grown in [both] greenhouses and on open land."
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has called on producers to boost output while addressing concerns about disease, pollution and escapes.
"If we do not initiate a concerted effort to increase aquaculture sector growth, and do it more sustainably than ever, the per capita fish consumption will decrease," said Arni Mathiesen, an administrator with the FAO. "This, I believe, would be disastrous as well as unacceptable."
To get governmental permits to expand, however, Norwegian fish farming has to become more environmentally sound.
During a recent trip in the Arctic, Norway's fisheries minister, Elisabeth Aspaker, said the nation—rich in oil and gas resources—needs to give more attention to an industry that will clearly outlast fossil fuels.
"The day when the oil and gas production is over, fishing is an industry that will remain for eternity."
Topic # 2 of 3
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show/4/20/13
Lucy Brown on the Neuroscience of Love To Dr. Lucy Brown, dopamine cells are the most beautiful sight in the world. When she looks under the microscope she sees a universe of stars. The dopamine cells are like florescent green stars, she said, stars with little oblong arms. More important, dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the sensation of falling in love.
Brown, 68, is a neuroscientist and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She lives on City Island, a quiet, maritime community filled with fresh seafood restaurants and yacht clubs. Although a New Yorker for 48 years, Brown still finds a stroll through Times Square one of her most joyous things to do in Manhattan. The flashing lights remind her of neurons dashing along axons.
Brown once majored in philosophy. She views scientific inquiry through contemplative eyes, brightened by black cat-rimmed glasses. She broke ground as one of the first neuroscientists to study the brain in love. She conducted the research with her best friend, Helen Fisher, whom she met at a menopause conference some years ago.
Fisher teaches Biological Anthropology at Rutgers University and also serves as chief scientific adviser to Match.com. The two scientists posted their 15 years of findings on their website, The Anatomy of Love. Clinics have used their studies to better understand types of drug addiction and depression that find their source in heartbreak.
At her age, Brown feels that she has something important to tell the world: it is okay to feel heartbreak. In fact, it only happens because you need it to happen. Brown said there is a physiological explanation for everything, and if more people understood the physiology of their emotions, perhaps the world would be more at peace.
That is the premise of her current project—a virtual, giant, walk-through brain.
Virtual BrainShe doesn’t just want to disclose her findings to academics who read scientific journals. Brown and Fisher are currently working on The Virtual Giant Walk-Through Brain, which will be a website that allows visitors to take a virtual tour through the human brain in a series of 3-D animated games.
It will take a user through the brain’s many pathways, factories, and circuits that create our memories, vision, and feelings.
Part One, with a planned launch in September, will tour the limbic system—the part of the brain that controls our emotions, motivation, and long-term memory.
In the next five years, a series of games on the visual system, memory system, and clinical issues will follow. “It’s a never-before-attempted way to teach about the brain,” Brown said. “You can teach difficult anatomy in the context of romantic love, which is something everyone is interested in.”
The brain scans from years of research on romantic love, rejection, and long-term attachment show that the act of falling in love is controlled by the same part of the brain that controls when to breath and swallow. “Love is in the most basic part of our system, the same system that controls our swallowing. It’s that basic,” she said. “Nature built it as a part of our survival mechanism.”
Idyllic Childhood
She knows something about surviving depression. In some respects, Brown enjoyed a bucolic childhood on a farm in Cambridge, Mass. It was a childhood filled with the warm smell of buttery milk, fresh and slightly frothy, collected in stainless steel buckets. It was a childhood spent playing with the soft ears of furry animals.
Then, when she was 7, her mother passed away from breast cancer. Her father fell into depression, and she had to spend a part of her childhood with a guardian, a Harvard professor and friend of the family. Every evening at 6 p.m., she and her guardian would discuss what books they were reading. It greatly influenced her intellectual pursuits.
She had the best of both worlds, intellectual rigor and the freedom of rural life. Despite this, Brown felt no one really told her about one important aspect of a full and satisfying life: love and relationships. “People say generation X and Y need courses on relationships because of all the technology,” Brown said. “But I wish I would have taken a course on relationships; I wish I would have gotten truly wise advice.”
A Second Chance Profound grief befell Brown when her husband of 33 years passed away eight years ago. A mutual friend also lost his wife around the same time. They often met to talk about what it was like to lose a long-term spouse.
“Suddenly, we were in love with each other,” she said. When she realized she had feelings for him, she had her brain scanned. “My brain showed that I was very much in love.” They’ll be married four years in August.
“It’s part of nature’s imperative for us,” she said. “You can fall in love again if you need to.”
Topic # 3 of 3
DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show/4/20/13
Walmart Will Enter Cash Wiring Business
Walmart announced on Thursday,4/17/14 that it would allow customers to make store-to-store money transfers within the United States.
In a move that threatens to upend another piece of the financial services industry, Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, announced on Thursday that it would allow customers to make store-to-store money transfers within the United States at cut-rate fees.
This latest offer, aimed largely at lower-income shoppers who often rely on places like check-cashing stores for simple transactions, represents another effort by the giant retailer to carve out a space in territory that once belonged exclusively to traditional banks.
In this instance, competitors like longtime wire-transfer companies were the immediate target: MoneyGram’s stock fell more than 17 percent on the news; Western Union’s went down about 5 percent.
Walmart has become a big player in alternative financial products, especially those that cater to people with little or no access to banks, like prepaid debit cards, check cashing and now, the new cash transfer program, called “Walmart-2-Walmart.”
Lower-income consumers have been a core demographic for Walmart, but in recent quarters those shoppers have turned increasingly to dollar stores.
“Walmart-2-Walmart leverages our existing footprint and the large-scale systems that our company can bring to bear to enable a low-cost service such as this,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president of services for Walmart United States.
More than 29 percent of households in the United States did not have a savings account in 2011, and about 10 percent of households did not have a checking account, according to a study sponsored by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. And while alternative financial products give consumers access to services they might otherwise be denied, people who are shut out of the traditional banking system sometimes find themselves paying high fees for transactions as basic as cashing a check.
Alternatives to banks have sprung up in many unlikely places in recent years. Costco offers mortgages, for example, and Home Depot provides loans to help customers finance improvement projects. Walmart actually sought a banking charter for years before abandoning the effort in 2007.
“In many cases, these services crop up in response to demand, but it’s also a space that’s less regulated,” said Suzanne Martindale, a staff lawyer at Consumers Union, an advocacy group. “There may be weak protections or a patchwork of protections.”
Walmart said that its new service, especially for larger money transfers, will be cheaper than the alternatives. Transfers of up to $50 will cost $4.50 and transfers of up to $900 — the maximum amount customers can send in a day — will cost $9.50.
According to a fee estimator on Western Union’s website, sending $900 within the United States could cost as much as $76 when done in person. MoneyGram’s website estimated that the same transaction would cost $73.
Walmart already offered customers a way to transfer money in its stores, through a partnership with MoneyGram. Unlike Walmart-2-Walmart, MoneyGram does not have a $900 limit and it allows for transfers to other countries.
Mr. Eckert said using MoneyGram would remain an option for Walmart customers. In its annual report, MoneyGram said that Walmart accounted for 27 percent of its total fee and investment revenue last year.
Financial services make up a relatively small portion of Walmart’s overall revenue, and some analysts said the wire transfer program could ultimately be more consequential for other wire-transfer companies like MoneyGram and Western Union than the retailer.
Michelle Buckalew, a spokeswoman at MoneyGram, said in a statement that the company would not change its own prices in response to Walmart’s announcement.
In a statement, Western Union said that domestic money transfers accounted for only about 8 percent of the company’s revenue in 2013. Both Western Union and MoneyGram pointed out that they had hundreds of thousands of affiliated locations globally. Walmart has more than 4,000 stores in the United States.
Ria Money Transfer, a subsidiary of the payment company Euronet Worldwide, will be Walmart’s partner for this program.
Last week, Walmart said it would begin selling organic pantry items, like tomato paste and apple sauce, for the same price as comparable nonorganic items, undercutting organic competitors. Given Walmart’s size and the quantities of its orders, that initiative is likely to have far-reaching effects on the price of organic ingredients for years to come.
All of Walmart’s U.S. stores, including its smaller, neighborhood market stores, will begin offering the in-house money transfer service on April 24.
Faye Landes, an analyst at the Cowen Group, said that since customers on both the sending and the receiving end of these payments would have to be physically in Walmart’s stores, they might do a little shopping while there.
“This and the organic initiative are large-scale efforts both to drive traffic and to make a statement that they have very, very low prices on things people care about,” Ms. Landes said. “They’ve had five straight quarters of negative traffic in the U.S., so every little bit helps.”
Mr. Eckert of Walmart said that the program was not aimed at increasing traffic in stores, but acknowledged that it was a possibility.
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Sunday, 4/27/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Topic # 1 of 1
Wildlife Gives a Wake Up Call
for Our Survival
Click the green title above to see the pictures. If the link has expired search with the title.
Wildlife photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson give a wake up call about climate change, talking about their travels to remote parts of the world
Lessons from conservation photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
His voice carries a palpable sense of urgency, “We are in the eleventh hour!” he says. His passion for life undeniable, “Honoring life, is more important than any interpretation of life,” Cyril Christo continues as he shares snippets of his life story, his raison d’être.
The poet, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, wildlife photographer, and son of the renowned artist-couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude does not care for fame (he grew up with it) or even for the permanence of his work, he explains. “If we could stop the ivory trade, I would burn every [photo] negative tomorrow,” he says. Representations of wildlife essentially do not matter. He would rather see those animals thriving in their natural habitat. He writes, photographs, and films to inspire others in a call to action.
“We have to have a Marshall Plan immediately for how we treat the earth, for utter respect and survival.” About 40,000 African elephants are killed every year—that is, one every 15 minutes—at the hands of poachers. At that rate, elephants could become extinct within just 10 years.
If only time could be extended so as to fully grasp the rich tapestry of all the stories Christo begins to tell, but are left trailing. Time spent in nature in all its plethora of wonder and beauty can leave you tranquil and amazed. It’s incredibly challenging to be able to communicate that experience. Christo tries to convey how intricately interconnected nature is.
Each line of thought could turn into a lengthy poem with a powerful purpose. Each leads to the same conclusion: respect life. Christo recounts a lucid dream with words that left a profound impression, “Hold on to the waters of life.”
Animals signal and warn us of climate change because “they form part of the immune system of our planet,” he says. Melting arctic ice leaves polar bears starving to death in their shrinking habitat. With forests dwindling, some tigers have gone rogue, hunting people instead of calves, like the so-called man-eating tiger in India’s Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand states in recent months.
There are only about 3,200 tigers left, compared to 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. Only about 15,000 wild lions are left in Africa, compared to 200,000 just 30 years ago.
Africa’s forest elephant plays a key role in maintaining the second largest rainforest in the world in the Congo Basin. Those rainforests are the lungs of earth. The seeds of forest trees can only germinate after passing through an elephant’s digestive tract. “So we have all sorts of climactic ramifications with the loss of 80 to 90 percent of the forest elephant,” Christo says.
What has concerned Christo and conservationists for years is starting to get through to some world leaders. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a U.N. report on March 31 warning that the state of the environment is reaching a tipping point. The Obama administration says it is taking this new report as a call for action, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying, “The costs of inaction are catastrophic.”
That message echoes what Christo learned from Hopi, Navaho, and Apache elders, who told him that the next five years are crucial. The year 2020 could be the point of no return. For Christo, that means a climate bill.
Conservation Power CoupleChristo generates all of his projects with his wife, Marie Wilkinson, an architect who started taking photographs as a hobby. Their sideline soon developed into books, films, and campaigns. They vigorously opposed the ivory trade and protested bad environmental bills put forward in the Legislature of New Mexico where the couple lives.
They have traveled twice around the world, especially where there are no electric lights, where more stars can be seen, where the thunderous roar of lions wakes up your soul, and where indigenous elders have profound lessons to teach us.
“Slowly we started to entwine,” Wilkinson says. That is evident in the way they converse with each other—synergistic and full of energy. “How we got into elephants is because of looking at indigenous people, how we got into indigenous people is how we were looking at culture and place. … It became quite clear that different cultures had different stories that showed an incredible understanding and respect and connection to the places that they lived,” Wilkinson explains.
Christo elaborates, “Native people have a near mystical understanding and appreciation of animals. And we have made them, since the French enlightenment, into almost robotic beings to be dissected and things to be manipulated.”
Nanfang Daily, a local newspaper in Zhanjian, in China’s Guangdong Province, recently published a shocking report. A party of local officials and well-heeled folks had a “fun day” by electrocuting at least 10 tigers. They called it “visual feast” entertainment. The tigers’ body parts were then given away as expensive gifts or sold on the black market.
In sharp contrast, Christo and Wilkinson strive to reverse that depravity, the popular trend of dominating the forces of nature. As artists and conservationists, they encourage us to understand and “incorporate those forces” instead.
In Predatory LightReading Christo and Wilkinson’s third and latest book, “In Predatory Light: Lions, Tigers and Polar Bears” (review)— one of Amazon’s Top 10 nature and photography titles of 2013—becomes a visceral, cinematic experience, taking the reader to a place and time when humans and predators cohabited peaceably. Christo and Wilkinson call it a truce.
“The lions would go to the water hole at night and the Bushmen would go drink during the day when it was warm and there would never be antagonism,” Christo wrote. There is the tale of a tiger in the Gir forest of India that would regularly hunker down by a sadhu’s temple to listen to the bell being rung every evening.
Christo and Wilkinson take black and white photographs, they do not alter them, and they develop their images from celluloid negatives. The images have a raw beauty to them.
The couple might wait for days or even weeks to photograph a tiger. “The thing about the tiger is: you can go looking for a tiger, but you are not going to find a tiger. The tiger is going to choose to reveal itself,” Wilkinson says. The couple would drive through the woods for hours and hours through Bandhavgarh National Park in India. Then at the most unexpected moment a huge, vibrant, tiger would suddenly appear. In seconds Wilkinson would barely get her camera ready before the tiger would disappear into the forest—just as quickly as it had appeared.
Describing her encounter, she conveys how predators command respect. “They look straight at you. It’s like they look into your soul. They are both knowing and menacing. You don’t mess with them, even if you want to scratch them behind the ear,” Wilkinson says.
In their natural environment predators are not prone to killing humans in the way that some humans are prone to killing them for sheer entertainment or blood money. “We understand now the disorder that we are living throughout the entire world, that kids are undergoing, is because we don’t have that millennial relationship with the organic world,” Christo says.
Traveling ChildhoodChristo encountered that organic world at a young age. He grew up shuttling back and forth across the Atlantic between France, Tunisia, and New York.
In Paris his family lived near the Guimet Museum, which was full of Asian artifacts; he lived in a small castle with lots of books in northern France; in New York City, he lived in a loft with rats running around and where he played with his father’s paintbrushes; he saw Bedouins in southern Tunisia, ate couscous, and swam with his favorite uncle. He called these and other temporary residences “a little bit of the best of the New World and the Old World.”
When he turned 15, Christo tired of New York City and trekked to Africa to climb Mount Kenya with other students in an international exchange program. They started at 10,000 feet and climbed up to 13,000 feet the first day. Christo carried a 40-pound backpack in a downpour for nine hours through what he calls a “miasma of pure mud and hell.” The next day they went up to 17,000 feet and survived the first of many, in his words, “amazing trials.”
He contemplated the volcanic Chyulu hills overlooking Kilimanjaro, and a parade of elephants going right by his tent. He heard lions roaring at night. “It’s an acoustic blast summoning you to the beginning of time,” he recalls. He says that whole experience “moves in your spirit for the rest of your life.” That experience, bigger than himself, strengthened Christo’s character, and instilled in him a sense of purpose.
Despite, or maybe because of, his extraordinary background and journey growing up, Christo has a humble demeanor. “I wasn’t trained to do anything, but wanted to verbalize concerns, to try to remind people how extraordinary the world is,” he says. In some ways he has learned more from traveling than from his studies at Columbia University where he felt “a bit discombobulated.”
Lessons From the Elders Christo and Wilkinson have developed an immense appreciation for nature in its stark contrast to a world where people think they would be at a loss without their smartphones and other gadgets, where obesity is on the rise, and where children spend more time playing video games than playing outdoors.
They discovered that the Maasai, the semi-nomadic people in Kenya and Tanzania, do not even have a term for nature because the Maasai don’t see a separation. They know how to farm in the deserts and scrublands. Their invaluable survival skills may finally be recognized as a way to cope with climate change.
Like the Maasai, the Inuit in the Arctic regions understand that everything is reciprocal. “The life force for the Inuit is also part of the mind. If you don’t respect the weather, it affects your mind. If you don’t respect the polar bear, your spirit is upset,” Christo says.
A San Bushman baby of southern Africa receives the name of the first star seen at the baby’s birth, he says. This close connection to the cosmos gets lost in an urban environment. In the big city, city lights wipe out the starlight.
Today, people are unable to see the whole picture. Christo says we only see bits and pieces of what’s important. “The Samburu elders, who have their totem called the elephant, said that we [in the modern world] are interested in body parts.”
People kill tigers for their fur, or claws, teeth, bones, whiskers, and whatever else to make medicines. Poachers kill elephants for one relatively small body part: their tusks. The illegal ivory trade fuels half a billion dollars in annual profit (video: God’s Ivory).
“What we lost is the association with life. The modern world does not honor truly anything, to be quite frank. It honors profit and that is something that is costing the life force itself. We will not be able to survive without the other beings,” Christo says.
Humans as well as other living beings depend on a survivable environment. “There’s no amount of money that can supplant a species, an ecosystem, a river, what the Amazon gives us, the phytoplankton.” It seems we are stuck in an ethos of scarcity with the false assumption that profit can only be gained through destruction.
Although the IPCC report, put together by 1,250 experts, gives a grim assessment, it assures that a climate change catastrophe can be prevented without sacrificing living standards. If we have the willpower, we have the capacity and the green technology to turn the tide. It could even be profitable—in a sustainable way. Secretary of State Kerry contends that the global energy market represents a $6 trillion opportunity and that investment in the energy sector could reach nearly $17 trillion by 2035.
But to turn that tide requires concerted action, and that action can only stem from a broader understanding of nature and ourselves. Christo recalls, “The Native American elders say, ‘Do not fight against yourselves, you will have enough to deal with Mother Nature.’”
Climate change will contribute to escalating global security problems, like strife and fights over resources, like water, the Nobel Peace Prize-winningIPCC reports.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘What kind of relationship do we want?’ because we are creating a society that destroys relationships. … The alienation is also with those other beings that are not human but that have an immense amount of things to teach us about who we are,” Christo says.
Those predators keep us in check. If we eliminate the last predators on earth, Christo argues humans will be in danger of self-cannibalizing. “We’ve got to honor existence again or otherwise we won’t even be in survival mode. We will be in a mode we have to make sure we don’t strangle each other. We are not thriving,” he adds.
Overcoming Obstacles, Creating for the FutureThe immediacy conveyed in Christo’s voice also shows a hint of anxiety and frustration with the obstacles he’s confronted with. He calls it an “incredible parochialism of the mass lack of imagination” of those who are not concerned about climate change. He wants to make sure the earth will be sustainable for his own son and for the future of all children.
Christo and Wilkinson are now looking to fund a feature film, titled “Walking Thunder: The Last Stand of the African Elephant.” They are dedicating it to their 8-year-old son, Lysander, who learned to walk in Africa. It will be a personal vision based on their encounters with the native people of East Africa and the importance of the elephant to the human condition.
Christo and Wilkinson say, “We are going to go a lot further with this next film. What does the future of the elephant have to do with the future of childhood? The answer is: absolutely everything! Civilization will stand or fall on the back of the African elephant.”
For more information about Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson: http://www.christoandwilkinsonphotography.com/
Read more: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/629074-wildlife-gives-a-wake-up-call-for-our-survival/?photo=2#ixzz306BR9Jt3
Follow us: @EpochTimes on Twitter | epochtimes on Facebook
Click to see the pictures if the link has expired search with the title+ The Epoch Times Wildlife Gives a Wake Up Call for Our Survival - Epoch Timeswww.theepochtimes.com/.../629074-wildlife-gives-a-wake-up-call-for-o...
Apr 19, 2014 - Wildlife photographers Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson give a wake up call about climate change, talking about their travels to remote parts of
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Sunday, 5/4 /14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Raising a Moral Child
Click green web links for further info
What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example click: research suggests*) that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and become more motivated.
*) Abstract from the research study: Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth.
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) - Look fur further info click: research suggests
Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority for most parents. We’re much more concerned about our children becoming kind, compassionate and helpful. Surveys reveal that in the United States, parents from European, Asian, Hispanic and African ethnic groups all place far greater importance on caring than achievement. These patterns hold around the world: When people in 50 countries were asked to report their guiding principles in life, the value that mattered most was not achievement, but caring.
Despite the significance that it holds in our lives, teaching children to care about others is no simple task. In an Israeli study of nearly 600 families, parents who valued kindness and compassion frequently failed to raise children who shared those values.
Are some children simply good-natured — or not? For the past decade, I’ve been studying the surprising success of people who frequently help others without any strings attached. As the father of two daughters and a son, I’ve become increasingly curious about how these generous tendencies develop.
Genetic twin studies suggest that anywhere from a quarter to more than half of our propensity to be giving and caring is inherited. That leaves a lot of room for nurture, and the evidence on how parents raise kind and compassionate children flies in the face of what many of even the most well-intentioned parents do in praising good behavior, responding to bad behavior, and communicating their values.
By age 2, children experience some moral emotions — feelings triggered by right and wrong. To reinforce caring as the right behavior, research indicates, praise is more effective than rewards. Rewards run the risk of leading children to be kind only when a carrot is offered, whereas praise communicates that sharing is intrinsically worthwhile for its own sake. But what kind of praise should we give when our children show early signs of generosity?
Many parents believe it’s important to compliment the behavior, not the child — that way, the child learns to repeat the behavior. Indeed, I know one couple who are careful to say, “That was such a helpful thing to do,” instead of, “You’re a helpful person.”
But is that the right approach? In a clever experiment, the researchers Joan E. Grusec and Erica Redler set out to investigate what happens when we commend generous behavior versus generous character. After 7- and 8-year-olds won marbles and donated some to poor children, the experimenter remarked, “Gee, you shared quite a bit.”
The researchers randomly assigned the children to receive different types of praise. For some of the children, they praised the action: “It was good that you gave some of your marbles to those poor children. Yes, that was a nice and helpful thing to do.” For others, they praised the character behind the action: “I guess you’re the kind of person who likes to help others whenever you can. Yes, you are a very nice and helpful person.”
A couple of weeks later, when faced with more opportunities to give and share, the children were much more generous after their character had been praised than after their actions had been. Praising their character helped them internalize it as part of their identities. The children learned who they were from observing their own actions: I am a helpful person. This dovetails with new research led by the psychologist Christopher J. Bryan, who finds that for moral behaviors, nouns work better than verbs. To get 3- to 6-year-olds to help with a task, rather than inviting them “to help,” it was 22 to 29 percent more effective to encourage them to “be a helper.” Cheating was cut in half when instead of, “Please don’t cheat,” participants were told, “Please don’t be a cheater.” When our actions become a reflection of our character, we lean more heavily toward the moral and generous choices. Over time it can become part of us.
When our actions become a reflection of our character, we lean more heavily toward the moral and generous choices. Over time it can become part of us.
Praise appears to be particularly influential in the critical periods when children develop a stronger sense of identity. When the researchers Joan E. Grusec and Erica Redler praised the character of 5-year-olds, any benefits that may have emerged didn’t have a lasting impact: They may have been too young to internalize moral character as part of a stable sense of self. And by the time children turned 10, the differences between praising character and praising actions vanished: Both were effective. Tying generosity to character appears to matter most around age 8, when children may be starting to crystallize notions of identity.
Praise in response to good behavior may be half the battle, but our responses to bad behavior have consequences, too. When children cause harm, they typically feel one of two moral emotions: shame or guilt. Despite the common belief that these emotions are interchangeable, research led by the psychologist June Price Tangney reveals that they have very different causes and consequences.
Shame is the feeling that I am a bad person, whereas guilt is the feeling that I have done a bad thing. Shame is a negative judgment about the core self, which is devastating: Shame makes children feel small and worthless, and they respond either by lashing out at the target or escaping the situation altogether. In contrast, guilt is a negative judgment about an action, which can be repaired by good behavior. When children feel guilt, they tend to experience remorse and regret, empathize with the person they have harmed, and aim to make it right.
In one study spearheaded by the psychologist Karen Caplovitz Barrett, parents rated their toddlers’ tendencies to experience shame and guilt at home. The toddlers received a rag doll, and the leg fell off while they were playing with it alone. The shame-prone toddlers avoided the researcher and did not volunteer that they broke the doll. The guilt-prone toddlers were more likely to fix the doll, approach the experimenter, and explain what happened. The ashamed toddlers were avoiders; the guilty toddlers were amenders.
If we want our children to care about others, we need to teach them to feel guilt rather than shame when they misbehave. In a review of research on emotions and moral development, the psychologist Nancy Eisenberg suggests that shame emerges when parents express anger, withdraw their love, or try to assert their power through threats of punishment: Children may begin to believe that they are bad people. Fearing this effect, some parents fail to exercise discipline at all, which can hinder the development of strong moral standards.
The most effective response to bad behavior is to express disappointment. According to independent reviews by Professor Eisenberg and David R. Shaffer, parents raise caring children by expressing disappointment and explaining why the behavior was wrong, how it affected others, and how they can rectify the situation. This enables children to develop standards for judging their actions, feelings of empathy and responsibility for others, and a sense of moral identity , which are conducive to becoming a helpful person. The beauty of expressing disappointment is that it communicates disapproval of the bad behavior, coupled with high expectations and the potential for improvement: “You’re a good person, even if you did a bad thing, and I know you can do better.”
As powerful as it is to criticize bad behavior and praise good character, raising a generous child involves more than waiting for opportunities to react to the actions of our children. As parents, we want to be proactive in communicating our values to our children. Yet many of us do this the wrong way.
In a classic experiment, the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton gave 140 elementary- and middle-school-age children tokens for winning a game, which they could keep entirely or donate some to a child in poverty. They first watched a teacher figure play the game either selfishly or generously, and then preach to them the value of taking, giving or neither. The adult’s influence was significant: Actions spoke louder than words. When the adult behaved selfishly, children followed suit. The words didn’t make much difference — children gave fewer tokens after observing the adult’s selfish actions, regardless of whether the adult verbally advocated selfishness or generosity. When the adult acted generously, students gave the same amount whether generosity was preached or not — they donated 85 percent more than the norm in both cases. When the adult preached selfishness, even after the adult acted generously, the students still gave 49 percent more than the norm. Children learn generosity not by listening to what their role models say, but by observing what they do.
To test whether these role-modeling effects persisted over time, two months later researchers observed the children playing the game again. Would the modeling or the preaching influence whether the children gave — and would they even remember it from two months earlier?
The most generous children were those who watched the teacher give but not say anything. Two months later, these children were 31 percent more generous than those who observed the same behavior but also heard it preached. The message from this research is loud and clear: If you don’t model generosity, preaching it may not help in the short run, and in the long run, preaching is less effective than giving while saying nothing at all.
People often believe that character causes action, but when it comes to producing moral children, we need to remember that action also shapes character. As the psychologist Karl Weick is fond of asking, “How can I know who I am until I see what I do? How can I know what I value until I see where I walk?”
Source: Adam Grant is a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.”
Source: NYT
Click to see the pictures: Raising a Moral Child
Click: What makes a life good?
Research study
Pages 156-165
King, Laura A.; Napa, Christie K
Abstract:
Two studies examined folk concepts of the good life. Samples of college students (N = 104) and community adults
(N = 264) were shown a career survey ostensibly completed by a person rating his or her occupation. After reading the survey, participants judged the desirability and moral goodness of the respondent's life, as a function of the amount of happiness, meaning in life, and wealth experienced. Results revealed significant effects of happiness and meaning on ratings of desirability and moral goodness. In the college sample, individuals high on all 3 independent variables were judged as likely to go to heaven. In the adult sample, wealth was also related to higher desirability. Results suggest a general perception that meaning in life and happiness are essential to the folk concept of the good life, whereas money is relatively unimportant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA)
Topic # 2 of 2
Parental Involvement Is Overrated
Most people, asked whether parental involvement benefits children academically, would say, “of course it does.” But evidence from our research suggests otherwise. In fact, most forms of parental involvement, like observing a child’s class, contacting a school about a child’s behavior, helping to decide a child’s high school courses, or helping a child with homework, do not improve student achievement. In some cases, they actually hinder it.
Over the past few years, we conducted an extensive study of whether the depth of parental engagement in children’s academic lives improved their test scores and grades. We pursued this question because we noticed that while policy makers were convinced that parental involvement positively affected children’s schooling outcomes, academic studies were much more inconclusive.
Despite this, increasing parental involvement has been one of the focal points of both President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act and President Obama’s Race to the Top. Both programs promote parental engagement as one remedy for persistent socioeconomic and racial achievement gaps.
We analyzed longitudinal surveys of American families that spanned three decades (from the 1980s to the 2000s) and obtained demographic information on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, the academic outcomes of children in elementary, middle and high school, as well as information about the level of parental engagement in 63 different forms.
What did we find? One group of parents, including blacks and Hispanics, as well as some Asians (like Cambodians, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders), appeared quite similar to a second group, made up of white parents and other Asians (like Chinese, Koreans and Indians) in the frequency of their involvement. A common reason given for why the children of the first group performed worse academically on average was that their parents did not value education to the same extent. But our research shows that these parents tried to help their children in school just as much as the parents in the second group.
Even the notion that kids do better in school when their parents are involved does not stack up. After comparing the average achievement of children whose parents regularly engage in each form of parental involvement to that of their counterparts whose parents do not, we found that most forms of parental involvement yielded no benefit to children’s test scores or grades, regardless of racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic standing.
In fact, there were more instances in which children had higher levels of achievement when their parents were less involved than there were among those whose parents were more involved. Even more counterintuitively: When involvement does seem to matter, the consequences for children’s achievement are more often negative than positive.
When involvement did benefit kids academically, it depended on which behavior parents were engaging in, which academic outcome was examined, the grade level of the child, the racial and ethnic background of the family and its socioeconomic standing. For example, regularly discussing school experiences with your child seems to positively affect the reading and math test scores of Hispanic children, to negatively affect test scores in reading for black children, and to negatively affect test scores in both reading and math for white children (but only during elementary school). Regularly reading to elementary school children appears to benefit reading achievement for white and Hispanic children but it is associated with lower reading achievement for black children. Policy makers should not advocate a one-size-fits-all model of parental involvement.
What about when parents work directly with their children on learning activities at home? When we examined whether regular help with homework had a positive impact on children’s academic performance, we were quite startled by what we found. Regardless of a family’s social class, racial or ethnic background, or a child’s grade level, consistent homework help almost never improved test scores or grades. Most parents appear to be ineffective at helping their children with homework. Even more surprising to us was that when parents regularly helped with homework, kids usually performed worse. One interesting exception: The group of Asians that included Chinese, Korean and Indian children appeared to benefit from regular help with homework, but this benefit was limited to the grades they got during adolescence; it did not affect their test scores.
Our findings also suggest that the idea that parental involvement will address one of the most salient and intractable issues in education, racial and ethnic achievement gaps, is not supported by the evidence. This is because our analyses show that most parental behavior has no benefit on academic performance. While there are some forms of parental involvement that do appear to have a positive impact on children academically, we find at least as many instances in which more frequent involvement is related to lower academic performance.
As it turns out, the list of what generally works is short: expecting your child to go to college, discussing activities children engage in at school (despite the complications we mentioned above), and requesting a particular teacher for your child.
Do our findings suggest that parents are not important for children’s academic success? Our answer is no. We believe that parents are critical for how well children perform in school, just not in the conventional ways that our society has been promoting. The essential ingredient is for parents to communicate the value of schooling, a message that parents should be sending early in their children’s lives and that needs to be reinforced over time. But this message does not need to be communicated through conventional behavior, like attending PTA meetings or checking in with teachers.
When the federal government issues mandates on the implementation of programs that increase parental involvement, schools often encourage parents to spend more time volunteering, to attend school events, to help their children with homework and so forth. There is a strong sentiment in this country that parents matter in every respect relating to their children’s academic success, but we need to let go of this sentiment and begin to pay attention to what the evidence is telling us.
Conventional wisdom holds that since there is no harm in having an involved parent, why shouldn’t we suggest as many ways as possible for parents to participate in school? This conventional wisdom is flawed. Schools should move away from giving the blanket message to parents that they need to be more involved and begin to focus instead on helping parents find specific, creative ways to communicate the value of schooling, tailored to a child’s age. Future research should investigate how parental involvement can be made more effective, but until then, parents who have been less involved or who feel uncertain about how they should be involved should not be stigmatized.
What should parents do? They should set the stage and then leave it.
Source:
Keith Robinson, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, and Angel L. Harris, a professor of sociology and African and African-American studies at Duke, are the authors of “The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement With Children’s Education.”
Published also in the NYT
Click: Duke University
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Sunday, 5/11/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Natural ways to fight Allergies
Think of this as your organic seasonal allergy survival guide
Allergies occur when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance such as pollen, bee venom or pet dander.
Venom (synonyms: poison, toxin) is a poisonous substance secreted by animals such as bees, snakes, spiders, and scorpions and typically injected into prey or aggressors by biting or stinging.
Dander is loose scales formed on the skin and shed from the coat or feathers of various animals, often causing allergic reactions.
Our immune system produces substances known as antibodies clicks: Antibody. Some of these antibodies protect us from unwanted invaders that could make us sick or cause an infection. When we have allergies, our immune system makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as something harmful, even though it isn't. When we come into contact with the allergen, our immune system's reaction can inflame our skin, sinuses, airways or digestive system.
The severity of allergies varies from person to person and can range from minor irritation to anaphylaxis — a potentially life-threatening emergency click: Anaphylaxis
While most allergies have no known full cure, a number of treatments can help relieve the allergy symptoms. click: Symptoms - click: Causes - click: Risk factors - click: Complications - click: Treatments & drugs
click: Lifestyle and home remedies - click: Alternative medicine - click: Prevention
When you're looking for relief for tree pollen, grass pollen and mold seasons, here five natural strategies to have in your arsenal that go beyond pills or shots.
Take the organic route to fighting allergies. When you follow these rules and eat well, you will be able to self-heal your seasonal allergies a bit and they won't be as severe.
Of course, everyone's different, and you have to consult with a doctor for certain things. But take a chance and try to fight an ailment through a natural source.
When you're looking for relief for tree pollen, grass pollen and mold seasons,
here 5 natural strategies to have in your arsenal that go beyond pills or shots.
(1) Yogurt
The probiotics*) in yogurt are believed to help balance bacteria levels in your gut, which can boost your immune system. When your immunity is way up, you can really help to fight allergies naturally and decrease the chances of having allergy attack. It's helpful to have a diet that is high in probiotic foods to keep inflammation down.
Avoid yogurts that are high in sugar, use unsweetened Greek yogurt that has around 10 grams of sugar or less.
Click: Yogurt Benefits
*) The World Health Organization's 2001 definition of probiotics is: "live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host". Following this definition, a working group convened by the FAO**)/WHO in May 2002 issued the “Guidelines for the Evaluation of Probiotics in Food”. This first global effort was further developed in 2010, two expert groups of academic scientists and industry representatives made recommendations for the evaluation and validation of probiotic health claim.[9][10] The same principles emerged from those groups as the ones expressed in the Guidelines of FAO/WHO in 2002. This definition, although widely adopted, is not acceptable to the European Food Safety Authority because it embeds a health claim which is not measurable.
**) FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationswww.fao.org/ - FAO urges further protection of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems for sustainability, food security, livelihoods and culture.
*) click: Health benefits of taking probiotics www.health.harvard.edu...Harvard University
To find out more
for basic information and research news about probiotics: click: www.usprobiotics.org
(2) Walnuts
are high in antioxidants and omega-3s, which can "help reduce inflammation and relieve seasonal allergies," said the author. Oily fish like salmon are packed with those nutrients too.
click: Walnuts - The World's Healthiest Foods
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Topic # 2 of 2
Massage as Therapy
Touch is such a basic human response that it may not register as a legitimate form of therapy.
Eastern cultures have a long tradition of medicinal massage techniques, but the foundation of therapeutic touch in the West began just over a century and a half ago. It was in the 1850s, when physiologist and gymnastics instructor Pehr Henrik Ling developed Swedish massage.
Many modern massage therapists still practice Ling’s form, but their skills likely include a wide range of advanced bodywork techniques such as trigger point, myofascial release, or cranial-sacral therapy. They may even be trained in massage traditions from Asia or other regions as well.
Previously viewed in the West as more of an indulgence than a viable therapy, massage has earned a new reputation in the medical community. According to Dr. Leena Guptha, chair of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB), therapeutic touch now works alongside modern medicine. Click: National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and ...www.ncbtmb.org/
“Massage therapists are being recruited into hospitals and medical centers,” Dr. Guptha said. “There are massage therapists who are working with oncology patients, side by side with a team of complementary therapists.”
Clare Martin—an NCBTMB board certified therapist who graduated valedictorian in her class at the SOMA Institute for clinical massage therapy in Chicago—is one example of a contemporary practitioner. Martin is the sole massage therapist at Purebalance, an integrative clinic 18 miles north of Chicago that includes holistic physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and neurologists.
“I have had people call me a masseuse, but I correct them and say, ‘No, I’m a massage therapist.’ Masseuse is an older term, but it can mean a different thing,” Martin said.
Qualifications and Style
The first indication of a good massage therapist is proof of licensure. To obtain a license (available in 44 states), a practitioner must complete between 500 and 1,000 hours at an accredited school. NCBTMB certification represents another level of achievement, requiring more education, practice, and competency exams.
After credentials, finding the right therapist is just as much a matter of taste as it is technique. Dr. Guptha recommends having a conversation with a therapist before scheduling an appointment.
“A good rapport between the consumer and the therapist is also an essential factor in the healing process,” she said.
According to Martin, even if two massage therapists have the same training, they might approach a session in very different ways. “I like the nitty-gritty stuff,” she said. “I like to spend an hour on someone’s back, really getting to all the muscles, trying to release trigger points and sore areas.”
Moira Scullion, owner of Shungo Bodywork in Chicago and a former teacher at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, is trained in conventional massage techniques, but over the past 16 years of practice, her style has evolved to focus more attention on the abdomen and lower back. About half of her clientele are women with fertility, menstrual, or digestive issues.
“When I was teaching full time, one of my favorite classes to teach was the abdominal class because it was different from all the other classes,” she said. “It’s not just about learning the muscles; there’s another layer. It’s an emotional piece that’s in there.”
Expert Suggestions
Massage can be a rewarding career, but it can also be hard work, and massage therapists are perhaps the people who most need regular treatment for their own well-being.
Claire Davis has been a clinical massage therapist for 11 years. She works at both a chiropractic clinic and an office where she treats accountants. Her work focuses on pain management, stress reduction, and postural imbalances. But when Davis wants a treatment for herself, she seeks the spa experience.
“I don’t have any specific ailments,” she said. “But I’m a busy mom giving a lot of my energy, so I’m looking for some time to feel like I’m being taken care of.”
When Martin looks for a therapist, she wants someone proficient in the same techniques she uses in her own practice. “While a relaxation message is good and all, I have a lot of issues going on. I get kind of sore working, so I have them target specific areas,” she said.
Scullion seeks practitioners who use an eclectic approach “I really like practitioners who have a rounded palate,” she said. “They do a little bit of Thai massage or Shiatsu along with knowing their anatomy. If somebody doesn’t know their anatomy, they don’t typically give a great massage.”
Trust Yourself and Communicate If you’ve never had bodywork before, it may take some time to figure out what you need, like, or feel comfortable with. Davis says referrals from a chiropractor or other health care providers can identify a style or therapist with a good track record, but your own inner voice is just as important.
“If you feel like something is wrong before you get on the table, it’s going to be even worse when you’re in a vulnerable situation,” Davis said. “They might be a really great therapist, but it’s just not the right fit.”
“Trust your gut,” Scullion said. “If they talk about themselves too much, that’s a red flag because the session is about you. You’re paying for it. It’s your time. It’s not about the therapist.”
Another key to a good massage is good communication. While a sensitive therapist strives for appropriate pressure and technique, a few words from the client can make it much clearer.
“I highly encourage communication when I’m working with someone,” Martin said. “You’d want to tell your dentist if the Novocain isn’t working.”
Source:
Click: Clinical Massage Therapy - The Soma Institute
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Massage as Therapy
Touch is such a basic human response that it may not register as a legitimate form of therapy.
Eastern cultures have a long tradition of medicinal massage techniques, but the foundation of therapeutic touch in the West began just over a century and a half ago. It was in the 1850s, when physiologist and gymnastics instructor Pehr Henrik Ling developed Swedish massage.
Many modern massage therapists still practice Ling’s form, but their skills likely include a wide range of advanced bodywork techniques such as trigger point, myofascial release, or cranial-sacral therapy. They may even be trained in massage traditions from Asia or other regions as well.
Previously viewed in the West as more of an indulgence than a viable therapy, massage has earned a new reputation in the medical community. According to Dr. Leena Guptha, chair of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB), therapeutic touch now works alongside modern medicine. Click: National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and ...www.ncbtmb.org/
“Massage therapists are being recruited into hospitals and medical centers,” Dr. Guptha said. “There are massage therapists who are working with oncology patients, side by side with a team of complementary therapists.”
Clare Martin—an NCBTMB board certified therapist who graduated valedictorian in her class at the SOMA Institute for clinical massage therapy in Chicago—is one example of a contemporary practitioner. Martin is the sole massage therapist at Purebalance, an integrative clinic 18 miles north of Chicago that includes holistic physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and neurologists.
“I have had people call me a masseuse, but I correct them and say, ‘No, I’m a massage therapist.’ Masseuse is an older term, but it can mean a different thing,” Martin said.
Qualifications and Style
The first indication of a good massage therapist is proof of licensure. To obtain a license (available in 44 states), a practitioner must complete between 500 and 1,000 hours at an accredited school. NCBTMB certification represents another level of achievement, requiring more education, practice, and competency exams.
After credentials, finding the right therapist is just as much a matter of taste as it is technique. Dr. Guptha recommends having a conversation with a therapist before scheduling an appointment.
“A good rapport between the consumer and the therapist is also an essential factor in the healing process,” she said.
According to Martin, even if two massage therapists have the same training, they might approach a session in very different ways. “I like the nitty-gritty stuff,” she said. “I like to spend an hour on someone’s back, really getting to all the muscles, trying to release trigger points and sore areas.”
Moira Scullion, owner of Shungo Bodywork in Chicago and a former teacher at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy, is trained in conventional massage techniques, but over the past 16 years of practice, her style has evolved to focus more attention on the abdomen and lower back. About half of her clientele are women with fertility, menstrual, or digestive issues.
“When I was teaching full time, one of my favorite classes to teach was the abdominal class because it was different from all the other classes,” she said. “It’s not just about learning the muscles; there’s another layer. It’s an emotional piece that’s in there.”
Expert Suggestions
Massage can be a rewarding career, but it can also be hard work, and massage therapists are perhaps the people who most need regular treatment for their own well-being.
Claire Davis has been a clinical massage therapist for 11 years. She works at both a chiropractic clinic and an office where she treats accountants. Her work focuses on pain management, stress reduction, and postural imbalances. But when Davis wants a treatment for herself, she seeks the spa experience.
“I don’t have any specific ailments,” she said. “But I’m a busy mom giving a lot of my energy, so I’m looking for some time to feel like I’m being taken care of.”
When Martin looks for a therapist, she wants someone proficient in the same techniques she uses in her own practice. “While a relaxation message is good and all, I have a lot of issues going on. I get kind of sore working, so I have them target specific areas,” she said.
Scullion seeks practitioners who use an eclectic approach “I really like practitioners who have a rounded palate,” she said. “They do a little bit of Thai massage or Shiatsu along with knowing their anatomy. If somebody doesn’t know their anatomy, they don’t typically give a great massage.”
Trust Yourself and Communicate If you’ve never had bodywork before, it may take some time to figure out what you need, like, or feel comfortable with. Davis says referrals from a chiropractor or other health care providers can identify a style or therapist with a good track record, but your own inner voice is just as important.
“If you feel like something is wrong before you get on the table, it’s going to be even worse when you’re in a vulnerable situation,” Davis said. “They might be a really great therapist, but it’s just not the right fit.”
“Trust your gut,” Scullion said. “If they talk about themselves too much, that’s a red flag because the session is about you. You’re paying for it. It’s your time. It’s not about the therapist.”
Another key to a good massage is good communication. While a sensitive therapist strives for appropriate pressure and technique, a few words from the client can make it much clearer.
“I highly encourage communication when I’m working with someone,” Martin said. “You’d want to tell your dentist if the Novocain isn’t working.”
Source:
Click: Clinical Massage Therapy - The Soma Institute
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Sunday, 5/18/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Suboxone: A Double-Edged Sword
Gemma had made all the right moves. She was 27 and already working as an account executive at a major advertising firm.
One day as she stood up she was seized with lower back pain. After a brief exam her primary care physician wrote her a prescription for Vicodin. Gemma found they energized her for work and her stress seemed to melt away. She kept taking them and after a while noticed it took more and more pills to stave off the anxiety, sweating, and body pain that descended whenever she missed a dose. Her physician refilled the increasingly important medication without batting an eyelash at the diminishing intervals of her visits.
Then came a time she was unable to reach her doctor for a refill and was handed OxyContin by a “friend.” Before Gemma knew it she had a 180 mg/day habit coming to a tab of almost $200/day. She knew she was in over her head but terrified at the thought of losing her job if she sought help at a detox center. Then Gemma came across Suboxone while trolling the Internet for a way out. She dialed the hotline and set up a consultation at my office.
“I looked like hell and just couldn’t go on. I was ashamed to tell my friends. My mom, coworkers, even the guy I was dating had no idea,” she said. “I’d worked so hard for everything I had. It was all slipping through my fingers so I made the call.
Painkiller Blocker
Suboxone is the brand name for a combination of an opioid called buprenorphine and another drug called naloxone. Naloxone blocks opioid receptors in the brain and ensures that patients cannot get high from painkillers or heroin while taking Suboxone. Naloxone is the same drug given to revive someone from a heroin or painkiller overdose.
Doctors prescribe Suboxone, which comes as Listerine-like films that are dissolved in the mouth, to patients who are addicted to opioid drugs including Vicodin, OxyContin, Opana, and heroin. Suboxone relieves their withdrawal symptoms and can be slowly tapered, eventually leaving them drug free.
Growing Popularity
In 1996, OxyContin was released and abuse of this crushable, snortable, and injectable, long acting painkiller spread across the country like wildfire. It was quickly dubbed “hillbilly heroin” and ignited an increase in prescription opioid abuse and deaths from overdose, the likes of which had never been seen in this country. From 1997 to 2010, the total number of opioids prescribed per person in America, increased more than 700 percent.
Due to this unprecedented surge in addiction, more physicians have been forced to learn how to prescribe Suboxone. It has taken time for both patients and physicians to warm up to Suboxone since it was put on the market in 2002. However, sales reached $1.3 billion dollars in 2011 and are growing at 10 percent per year. Although only a brief Internet physician licensure course is required to be able to prescribe this drug, a background in addiction and treatment experience are fundamental to prescribing it skillfully and in a way that best meets the needs of the patient.
Unlike methadone, another prescription opioid used to treat narcotic drug addiction, which requires daily visits to a public clinic, Suboxone can be prescribed in weekly doses, making it far more convenient for patients. In addition, methadone produces a high, along with sweats and constipation, and has a very long half-life, meaning it stays in the patient’s system longer, making it extremely difficult to be weaned off of. Suboxone does not produce a high and it can be tapered more easily
On the Street
On the street Suboxone is used by addicts to “bridge,” or get them through when they don’t have the cash or can’t find their drug of choice. Another formulation of buprenorphine (the opioid in Suboxone) made without naloxone (the opioid blocker), is a drug known as Subutex. This drug allows seamless segueing from heroin and painkillers back to the Subutex without the inconvenience of the requisite 24-hour period of “kicking” or withdrawal needed when transferring off or on Suboxone.
Treatment
Gemma listened quietly as I explained that before she can start Suboxone, it is crucial for her to abstain from opiates for 24 hours in order to achieve a state of moderate withdrawal. In this way the drug she was taking would be cleared from her opioid brain receptors in order for the Suboxone to take over the turf without throwing her into a severe, precipitated withdrawal, which is a period of sweating, nausea, and chills brought on by prematurely taking Suboxone. I stressed the importance of avoiding this by putting herself into a milder state of withdrawal before the “induction” or transfer onto Suboxone.
I explained she would start out very uncomfortable but feel completely well before she left the office and that during her induction with Suboxone we would give her small doses of the sublingual Suboxone strips or films every 15 minutes over a two-hour period.
When her now empty brain receptors start to fill up with Suboxone, the cramps, sweats, and all withdrawal symptoms will disappear immediately as Suboxone starts to take effect within minutes of taking the very first strip. We would then determine her dose judging by the point at which she felt “completely normal.”
“I’ll do it. I just can’t take it anymore,” Gemma shook her head while explaining, “I used up all my savings and maxed out my credit. I even have couch surfers on my sofa just to scrape by.”
Focusing on Life
Treatment with Suboxone shifts the addict’s focus back to their lives, helping them develop self-esteem. In my clinic, we engage people like Gemma in one-on-one counseling as well as addiction group meetings, which ameliorate the isolation that accompanies addiction.
When Suboxone is prescribed in tandem with individual and group counseling, patients have a window of time where they can acquire the coping skills necessary for a sober life—skills like developing humility, asking for help, self-care, fellowshipping, and taking the next right action.
I find that something as simple as the suggestion made by 12 Step programs to never be too HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, or tired) goes a long way. I also urge patients that no matter how quickly we taper them off Suboxone, they still need to do the work of recovery or they will be right back where they started.
Before leaving the office following her second appointment Gemma declared, “I feel normal for the first time in the last five years.”
“It’s been hell on earth until just now.”
Dark Side
While Suboxone gives much-needed reprieve to addicts like Gemma when properly prescribed, it remains a double-edged sword in combating addiction.
A powerful narcotic, an average dose of two 8 milligram films of Suboxone is equivalent to 2000 milligrams morphine. If this dose is taken by someone who is opioid naïve, it can stop their breathing and cause coma and death. The potency of this drug should never be underestimated. Just two milligrams of Suboxone can kill a person who has not been taking opioids.
Suboxone can be a young person’s gateway opioid drug on the path to addiction. It has a very powerful euphoric effect on people who have not taken these drugs before and experimenting with Suboxone can rapidly change them into full-fledged addicts.
The relapse rate with Suboxone treatment can be as high as 50 percent. Patients often do not take Suboxone as prescribed, selling it outright, or taking less than prescribed, which invites cravings to return. I have found that the most effective treatments fully engage patients in weekly counseling. Along with urine drug screening, the counseling helps alert doctors to “slips” so when patients relapse they can intervene with intensified counseling and psychiatry.
Gemma has been tapering over the past year while acquiring tools for recovery with our counselor as well as attending our weekly addiction support group and AA meetings. Studies have shown that supportive interventions such as counseling help prevent relapses and give people like Gemma the chance to lead a productive, drug free life.
Dana Jane Saltzman, M.D. L.Ac is a practicing physician treating addiction in Midtown New York City.
Suboxone FAQ:
Q: Is Suboxone addictive?
A: Addiction is a prerequisite for using this medication. It is true that patients must have their dose every day or they will experience withdrawal. The bottom line is that those taking Suboxone are indeed addicted to a legal medication freeing them from unstable, drug seeking behavior and the highs and lows of addiction which ravage their lives.
Q: How long does it take to get off Suboxone?
A: Tapering is a slow process. It’s difficult to taper by more than 1 milligram per month so the common dose of 16 milligrams/day takes over one year to taper off. And patients should keep in mind that their counselor and doctor must help gauge the right time to taper because going too fast can lead them to relapse. The last two weeks are tough so I recommend patients take at least a week off work.
Doctors mistakenly prescribe painkillers for young and old patients who complain of back pain. There is no evidence for treating noncancerous pain with these extremely addictive medications. Many young men come to my practice with a history of painkillers for back pain as their very first drug use. Many of them have been unable to wean from them for many years. Unnecessary use of painkillers can condemn patients to a lifelong struggle with opioids. That is where it starts for a lot of my patients now being treated with Suboxone.
Q: What happens to people who started painkillers for real pain? What is the connection between taking painkillers and Suboxone?
A: Buprenorphine, the active ingredient in Suboxone is itself a strong painkiller and has been remarketed as an analgesic patch called Butrans. To help patients manage their pain, I also have them begin alternative methods of pain control including acupuncture, physical therapy, exercise, meditation, and massage.
Q: What about drinking and taking other medication like Xanax while on Suboxone?
A: This is a common problem. Alcohol and benzodiazepines are absolutely contraindicated due to interactions and can lead to respiratory depression and death.
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Article 2 of 2 Sunday, 5/18/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Friends Can Be Dangerous
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I’M not sure whether it’s a badge of honor or a mark of shame, but a paper I published a few years ago is now ranked No. 8 on a list of studies that other psychologists would most like to see replicated. Good news: People find the research interesting. Bad news: They don’t believe it.
The paper in question, written with my former student Margo Gardner, appeared in the journal Developmental Psychology in July 2005. It described a study in which we randomly assigned subjects to play a video driving game, either alone or with two same-age friends watching them. The mere presence of peers made teenagers take more risks and crash more often, but no such effect was observed among adults.
I find my colleagues’ skepticism surprising. Most people recall that as teenagers, they did far more reckless things when with their friends than when alone. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that many more juvenile crimes than adult crimes are committed in groups. And driving statistics conclusively show that having same-age passengers in the car substantially increases the risk of a teen driver’s crashing but has no similar impact when an adult is behind the wheel.
Then again, I’m aware that our study challenged many psychologists’ beliefs about the nature of peer pressure, for it showed that the influence of peers on adolescent risk taking doesn’t rely solely on explicit encouragement to behave recklessly. Our findings also undercut the popular idea that the higher rate of real-world risk taking in adolescent peer groups is a result of reckless teenagers’ being more likely to surround themselves with like-minded others.
My colleagues and I have replicated our original study of peer influences on adolescent risk taking several times since 2005. We have also shown that the reason teenagers take more chances when their peers are around is partly because of the impact of peers on the adolescent brain’s sensitivity to rewards. In a study of people playing our driving game, my colleague Jason Chein and I found that when teens were with people their own age, their brains’ reward centers became hyperactivated, which made them more easily aroused by the prospect of a potentially pleasurable experience. This, in turn, inclined teenagers to pay more attention to the possible benefits of a risky choice than to the likely costs, and to make risky decisions rather than play it safe. Peers had no such effect on adults’ reward centers, though.
In other studies we have shown that being around peers not only makes adolescents more reward-sensitive but also draws them to immediate, rather than longer-term, rewards. Using an experimental setup in which individuals are asked to choose between smaller immediate rewards ($200 now) and larger, delayed ones ($1,000 in six months), we found that college students were significantly more likely to pick the immediate reward when their decision making was being observed by people their own age. On average, as we mature through adolescence, we become more willing to delay gratification in order to obtain a bigger prize. Indeed, when college students are alone, their ability to delay gratification resembles that of people in their late 20s. But when they are being watched by their peers, they display the myopia of 14-year-olds.
Our studies have important implications for psychologists who study risky decision making, as most other research in this area has tested individuals when they were by themselves. Many such studies have found no differences between teenagers and adults, but this may be an artifact of testing people when they were alone, rather than when they were with others, which is frequently the context in which risky choices are made.
Perhaps the most intriguing of our studies of peer influences on adolescent behavior is one that we published earlier this year in Developmental Science. In this paper we replicated our earlier studies, but this time using mice rather than humans. We created “peer groups” of mice by raising them in triads composed of animals from three different litters. We then tested whether, if given unfettered access to alcohol, they would drink more when they were with their peers than when they were alone. Mice tested when they were fully grown drank equally in both contexts. But adolescent mice — tested shortly after puberty — drank significantly more in the presence of their peers than when they were by themselves.
The propensity for teenagers to do more risky things when they are with their peers — which understandably worries their parents, and which should concern those who supervise teenagers in groups — is not only real; it may be hard-wired.
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Source:
Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University, is the author of the forthcoming book “Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence.”
Click:Temple Universitywww.temple.edu/Temple University
Are you Temple Made? Learn more about Temple University, located in Philadelphia, PA, one of the most diverse and comprehensive universities in the U.S..
Click: Friends Can Be Dangerous - NYTimes.com
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Sunday, 5/25/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Article A
(Article B next below)
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How to Serve Wine 101:
Why and When to Decant
Expert advice on enjoying your bottles at their best
Seems like serving a wine should be easy enough: Just open and pour. But anyone who has ever struggled with a crumbling cork, or listened to a debate over whether the Cabernet they’re drinking needs to “breathe” more, knows that sometimes it’s not quite so simple.
Decanting is one of those elements of wine service that remains mysterious and intimidating to many drinkers: Which wines need it? When to do it? And how? Is it really even necessary or just a bit of wine pomp and circumstance?
Get the Sed(iment) Out Fundamentally, decanting serves two purposes: to separate a wine from any sediment that may have formed and to aerate a wine in the hope that its aromas and flavors will be more vibrant upon serving.
Older red wines and Vintage Ports naturally produce sediment as they age (white wines rarely do); the color pigments and tannins bond together and fall out of solution. Stirring up the sediment when pouring will cloud a wine’s appearance and can impart bitter flavors and a gritty texture. It’s not harmful, but definitely less enjoyable.
Decanting is simply the process of separating this sediment from the clear wine. It’s fairly safe to assume that a red will have accumulated sediment after five to 10 years in the bottle, even if this can’t be verified visually, and should be decanted. Here’s how to do it well:
Others feel that decanting makes a wine fade faster, and that a wine is exposed to plenty of oxygen when you swirl it in your glass. Plus, it can be fun to experience the full evolution of wine as it opens up in your glass; you might miss an interesting phase if you decant too soon.
A particularly fragile or old wine (especially one 15 or more years old) should only be decanted 30 minutes or so before drinking. A younger, more vigorous, full-bodied red wine—and yes, even whites—can be decanted an hour or more before serving. At some tastings, wines are decanted for hours beforehand and may show beautifully, but these experiments can be risky (the wine could end up click: oxidized) and are best done by people very familiar with how those wines age and evolve.
If you’re curious, experiment for yourself with multiple bottles of the same wine—one decanted and one not, or bottles decanted for different lengths of time—and see which you prefer.
More about decanting: Ask Dr. Vinny: What actually happens to a wine when you decant it?
Ask Dr. Vinny: How do I decant a really large bottle of wine?
Ask Dr. Vinny: Can you tell me how long I should decant a specific wine before drinking?
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Topic 1 of 2
PART B
(Part A next above)
A second wine decanting article by another specialist
The How and Why of Decanting Wine
To decant … or not to decant. That is the question.
In recent years, at many of the better restaurants, the sommelier or
wine steward (= a waiter in a restaurant or club who is in charge of wine; sommelier)
will decant that is, slowly transfer your still wine selection, especially the big reds, from the bottle you selected, to a large, wide-bottomed crystal or glass carafe to let it breathe for 20 or so minutes before pouring you a glass. click: Sommelier
Wine decanting has been seen as pompous, and may sound silly—how can pouring wine from one container into another make it taste better?—yet it works. It is a practice that truly enhances the wine drinking experience.
Originally, wine was decanted to remove sediment from older vintages. Wines aged in bottles threw sediment after perhaps 10 years. Not only was this sediment displeasing
to the eye, it could also be quite unpleasant in the mouth. Nowadays, because of better fining and filtering methods, and because wines are drunk relatively younger, even the very big reds of Spain, France, and Italy rarely throw off sediment. Decanting is performed to aerate the wine, vaporize some of the alcohol, soften the hard tannins, enhance the aromatics, and bring forth the wine’s depth and complexity.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you should only decant certain types of wine (Bordeaux) and not others (Burgundy). I recommend decanting everything. I’m one of those who insists on decanting reds, especially older reds.
A couple of days before I plan to open a big, tannic red, I stand it upright on the off chance that sediment has formed. I open the bottle a day in advance, and then decant it the morning before dinner. I have a number of vessels, crystal decanters and glass carafes—gifts from friends and associates—and take full advantage of decanting. I do not discard the original bottle after decanting, unless I believe that none of the decanted wine will remain after the meal. I rinse the bottle with cold water and the next morning, should there be any leftover, I pour it back to be used in cooking.
Wine professionals think that the best decanter has a long neck and a wide bottom surface. These features permit oxygen to reach the wine for a smoother, mellower finish. A clear, crystal decanter allows you to see the wine at its best. Be sure that the decanter is spotless and free from any musty odors. Never clean your decanter with detergent, because the shape of a decanter makes it very difficult to get the soapy residue out.
If the wine is very mature (over 15 years), take great caution when uncorking. The cork may be very brittle, causing it to split or break. If you’ve properly stored your bottle in a dark, cool cellar, you would be probably fine, but it is not guaranteed, as the quality of cork has decreased due to the vast demand from increased wine production.
For these older bottles, instead of a standard corkscrew, I personally use an AhSo cork remover. It is a two-bladed implement that when inserted in the neck of a bottle, grips the cork from the sides, and insures that even a brittle cork can be twisted and removed intact.click: Ah-so Cork Puller
I find that Italian reds, Barolos, Brolios, Chiantis, Barbarescos, and the better sangiovese-based bottles, such as Brunello, benefit from judicious aeration; and so do most of the Spanish Riojas. Chilean cabernet sauvignon and carmenère also benefit from decanting, and of course the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Catalan garnachas, California and Oregon pinot noirs.
Even white wines, especially chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, will usually benefit from decanting, which enhances the fruit aromas.
So, when in doubt, decant...decant...decant
Source: Manos Angelakis is a well-known wine and food critic based in the New York City area. He has been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master, by the Tuscan Wine Masters Academy, as well as being an expert on Greek, Chilean and Brazilian wines. He judges numerous wine competitions each year and is the senior Food & Wine writer for LuxuryWeb Magazine www.luxuryweb.com and The Oenophile Blog www.oenophileblog.com
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Topic 2 of 2
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Travel topic
Hotels, Alarms, and Fires….oh my!
I recently took a few days off from work and treated myself to a mini getaway at a very nice New York City hotel near Central Park. My room ended up being on the top floor, the 46th, with a lovely view. On my first night, I was in a very deep sleep with my IPOD headphones still in my ears, when I vaguely sensed an alarm bell and announcement going off in the hallway at 2:45 a.m.
I ripped my earphones off, stood by my door, and sure enough the fire alarm was sounding and someone was explaining on the emergency sound system that the “incident” was all clear and they were sorry for any inconvenience. Well, this type of announcement is a bit unnerving, after all I had no idea what the “incident” was. Could it have been a shooter running loose in the building, a fire, or something else? I attempted to call the manager on duty to find out what was happening, but the phone line was busy and I eventually gave up.
Since I did not see or smell smoke, the most immediate danger I could think of, I stayed in my room. However, who could sleep? This extremely loud alarm and announcement proceeded to go off every 10 minutes or so, until about 3:30 a.m. At this point, a new voice came over the sound system and told all the hotel guests to go back to their rooms. The drama was apparently over.
The next morning, as I took the elevator to the lobby I asked a gentleman who entered on the 43rd floor if he knew what had happened. Apparently, there was a small fire in a wastebasket in one of the rooms on his floor. He said that there had been confusion over what to do exactly, because one set of firefighters asked those on his floor to evacuate to the 40th floor, while another group of firefighters earlier did not require an evacuation. He felt the instructions were not clear or consistent. I would have to agree.
In the end, all of the hotel guests and staff were safe, but this incident was a great reminder of being prepared in case this ever happens to you. I would like to review a few basic safety tips for you to apply on all of your trips going forward:
1. Top floor risks: Yes, the views are amazing when you are way up high. However, if there is an emergency and evacuation is needed, you will most likely need to take the stairs. If you are not physically able to handle such a requirement or are not willing to take the risk, request to make stay on a lower floor when you check in.
2. Keep your essentials packed: If an emergency strikes in the middle of the night, and you need to run out of your room, it is important to get in the habit of keeping all of your essentials ready to go in a backpack or handbag before you retire for the night. By essentials, I mean things such as passport/ID, wallet, medication, and glasses. Don’t try to take everything with you.
3. Put your shoes on: Unless immediate danger is about to strike you, take a minute to put your shoes on before you run out of your room. If you need to run down the stairs or exit the hotel and stand in the street, this may be difficult to do with bare feet or slippers.
4. Always pack a mini-flashlight: In case the hotel lights go out and you need to find the exit and staircase, having a small flashlight will be a lifesaver for you and your fellow hotel guests. Keep it in a handy place, like your bedside table. When your room is dark and your adrenaline is on high alert from the sound of alarms, trust me, the last thing you want to do is fumble around in your luggage to find a flashlight. Mobile phones sometimes have lights already built into them, which can be a good substitute, or you can also explore different flashlight Apps available for your phone. Just don’t forget to charge your phone so that you have enough battery power to get you to safety.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate Traveler
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Sunday, 6/1/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Hillary Clinton's Legacy at State Dept.:
A Hawk With Clipped Wings
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As secretary of state, Clinton was more hawkish than the White House, and at key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way.
In her final weeks as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton wrote a private memo to President Barack Obama warning that relations with Russia had hit a low point and the heralded "reset" in relations was over, according to people who saw the document.
Inside the White House, some officials were loath to ditch a cornerstone of Mr. Obama's Russia policy. Months passed before Russian President Vladimir Putin gave sanctuary to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, prompting Mr. Obama to cancel a planned summit in Moscow, a stark sign the reset was off track, if not dead.
Mrs. Clinton, if she runs for president, likely will lean heavily on her experience as the nation's top diplomat. Her memo, written in January 2013, illustrates two striking features of her four years in the post: She was often more hawkish than the White House she served, and at some key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way.
Mr. Obama and his White House advisers were the ultimate architects of foreign policy and kept tight hold over major decisions. Mrs. Clinton, though she held strong views, didn't push them hard in internal meetings, some of her former colleagues say.
Mrs. Clinton will have a chance to tell her own story about her State Department record in her new memoir, "Hard Choices," scheduled for release on June 10. Her book tour could amount to a kind of trial run for her expected presidential bid, focusing on what she considered her mission of improving America's image overseas.
Her State Department record reveals she made progress on several fronts and sought to advance American economic interests, but notched no sweeping peace agreements or marquee breakthroughs that reshaped the international stage.
"If she runs, the No. 1 item on her résumé is going to be her term as secretary of state," says Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University. "But in terms of outcomes, the grade she probably deserves is I for incomplete, in the sense that it's difficult to point to some specific achievements, or to some important initiatives, or to some creative idea that we would attribute to her."
Mrs. Clinton wanted to arm the rebels fighting the Assad regime in Syria at an early stage in the conflict, but was rebuffed by a president wary of deeper involvement in another messy Middle Eastern conflict. She was at odds with more junior White House aides over the proper U.S. response to the tumultuous protests in Egypt that swept aside an old U.S. ally, President Hosni Mubarak.
House Republicans, meanwhile, will spend part of the summer ramping up a new inquiry into an unhappy chapter in her record: the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 that killed four Americans, a tragedy that continues to dog her. She has accepted responsibility for the event, calling it her "biggest regret," but also has said Republicans have exploited it for political gain.
Another flash point has been her department's decision—later reversed—not to put Boko Haram, the Nigerian group behind the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls, on a list of foreign terror groups.
Within the constraints laid out by the White House, Mrs. Clinton achieved some of her goals. In particular, she used the State Department's far-flung offices to promote the interests of U.S. businesses in hopes of speeding economic recovery at home.
"We wanted to demonstrate that when there was a CEO or other business leader who had a problem, we wanted them to come to the State Department," says Robert Hormats, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive and an undersecretary of state under Mrs. Clinton. "We would use the whole apparatus."
Mrs. Clinton's supporters note she had a direct pipeline to the president. The two met and spoke several times a week and developed a rapport after the bitter 2008 presidential Democratic nomination contest. Her preference often was to offer her opinions directly to Mr. Obama, rather than in broader meetings, they say.
"Her biggest job was the mission of restoring American leadership after eight years in which it was badly eroded," says Dan Schwerin, Mrs. Clinton's policy adviser. "Everything else that came afterward was possible because we did that."
By many accounts, Mrs. Clinton was a diligent executive who read the briefing memos prepared by her staff and never seemed out of her depth in head-to-head meetings with foreign leaders.
As then U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul often faced hostile treatment at the hands of Mr. Putin's government. One day in 2012, he says, he was surprised to get a call from Mrs. Clinton on an unsecure telephone line. He answered and listened as she praised him for the job he was doing and told him she was "100% behind you," Mr. McFaul recalls.
He later saw her in person and asked why she had called him on a phone that could have been tapped by the Russian government.
"She said, 'I wanted everybody to hear,' " Mr. McFaul says. "It was done on purpose."
It wasn't always clear to administration aides where Mrs. Clinton stood on some issues. Her style wasn't to aggressively argue her position in cabinet-level meetings, present and former administration aides say. Aides concluded she would share her more candid views with the president in one-on-one meetings.
A Clinton adviser disputes that characterization, saying she wasn't afraid of "mixing it up" during sessions with senior officials.
On many issues, she and Mr. Obama were in agreement. She supported his decision to stage the military raid that killed Osama bin Laden. When Mr. Obama decided to launch a military strike against the Libyan leader, Mrs. Clinton helped assemble the international coalition supporting the action.
But she was more comfortable than Mr. Obama with the use of military force and saw it as an important complement to diplomacy, present and former administration aides say.
"In the debates that we had, she generally was someone who came down in favor of military action," says Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. "She had a comfort with U.S. military action."
Syria was a test case. The civil war exposed a divide in the administration, with Mr. Obama hesitant to commit military force and Mrs. Clinton pushing to arm secular rebels who might help oust Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
In an April 2012 meeting in her office, Mrs. Clinton peppered a longtime adviser with questions, soliciting "arguments for why this was the right thing to do," according to the adviser.
Then-CIA Director David Petraeus embraced the idea and championed it during an October 2012 meeting in the White House Situation Room. Mrs. Clinton spoke in favor of the initiative but her remarks were brief, according to officials who were in the meeting.
A former Obama administration official who attended White House meetings on Syria said Mrs. Clinton didn't push hard on arming the rebels.
In the spring of 2013, under pressure from Gulf allies, Mr. Obama authorized a small CIA arming and training program for non-Islamist rebels.
"In retrospect, we did spend too much time trying to get the Russians to come along and not enough time developing our own policy" on the Syrian conflict, says Mr. McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia. "She most certainly was in the camp of more action on Syria."
Mrs. Clinton sometimes found herself jockeying with younger aides for influence on policy. In 2011, as the Arab world erupted in protest, two schools of thought emerged inside the administration.
Mr. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, and other senior officials argued that the administration needed to stand with the protesters to be on the right side of history, a longtime adviser to Mrs. Clinton recalls.
Mrs. Clinton was in the other camp: She didn't want the U.S. to look like it was holding on to an unpopular regime, but was more cautious about breaking with Mr. Mubarak. She cited concerns over what would come next and whether other Arab leaders would be unnerved by the U.S. forsaking a longtime ally.
"There were a number of people, she included, who were anxious about the day after the day after—about what would come next in Egypt after Mubarak," says Michael Posner, a former assistant secretary of state under Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton dispatched to Cairo Frank Wisner, a retired diplomat and businessman who had a relationship with Mr. Mubarak. In some ways, Mr. Wisner was sympathetic to the longtime leader and tried to prod him to preside over a transition.
But Mr. Wisner's mission to Cairo was a failure and was viewed within the White House as a major stumble by the State Department, according to the Clinton adviser. Some White House officials became more cautious about letting the diplomats take the lead. "They thought: That's the last time we do that," the adviser says.
Clinton's Tenure as Secretary of State
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Topic # 2 of 2
A Better Solution for Too-Big-to-Fail Banks
Dodd-Frank's flimsy 'orderly liquidation authority' won't end bailouts. Bank debt that converts to equity coul
Click: Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
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Critics of Dodd-Frank have long argued that the law has not ended the danger posed to taxpayers and the financial system by "too-big-to-fail" banks. Instead, the law's "orderly liquidation authority" has institutionalized the problem by creating a formal bailout procedure and earmarking a new source of tax revenue to fund bailouts.
In March, European Central Bank economists Magdalena Ignatowski and Josef Korte released a paper confirming critics' fears.
The largest and systemically most important banks, they found, have not perceptibly changed their risk-taking behavior.
Megabanks, it seems, don't take Dodd-Frank's orderly resolution authority as a serious constraint on their behavior.
What's next? A new funding requirement—contingent capital—could impose the necessary market discipline on megabanks to avoid their failure and the need for taxpayer bailouts.
There are other possible reforms, including the replacement of Dodd-Frank's orderly resolution with a new bankruptcy procedure that omits a bailout option. That won't be enough. Any Treasury secretary faced with a megabank failure will find a way to avoid that outcome with ad hoc*) assistance, meanwhile predicting chaos if the government doesn't do something.
*) ad hoc = for the particular end or case at hand without consideration of wider application
What about raising megabanks' required capital to make failure unlikely? Easier said than done. Bankers, regulators and politicians have reasons to manipulate risk measures and asset values. Understating losses in downturns avoids politically and financially undesirable contractions in credit.
Moreover, the financial health of a megabank is not well measured even by accurate book equity-to-asset ratios. A recent paper I coauthored with Doron Nissim (forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Intermediation, also available at the SSRN website**) showed that the persistently low market values of U.S. banks today primarily reflects reductions in banks' cash flows that are unrelated to the values of tangible assets or liabilities.
**) SSRN: Homewww.ssrn.com - Social Science Research Network - Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of ... We have received several excellence awards for our web site.
A more promising idea, originated by Mark Flannery of the University of Florida, has growing support among financial economists: require, alongside higher book equity-to-assets, another funding requirement known as contingent capital, or "CoCos,"***) which is debt convertible into equity on the basis of a market value trigger. A paper I wrote with Richard Herring (Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 2013), explores how this could work.
***) click:Contingent Convertibles (CoCos) Definition | Investopediawww.investopedia.com/terms/c/contingentconvertible
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Suboxone: A Double-Edged Sword
Gemma had made all the right moves. She was 27 and already working as an account executive at a major advertising firm.
One day as she stood up she was seized with lower back pain. After a brief exam her primary care physician wrote her a prescription for Vicodin. Gemma found they energized her for work and her stress seemed to melt away. She kept taking them and after a while noticed it took more and more pills to stave off the anxiety, sweating, and body pain that descended whenever she missed a dose. Her physician refilled the increasingly important medication without batting an eyelash at the diminishing intervals of her visits.
Then came a time she was unable to reach her doctor for a refill and was handed OxyContin by a “friend.” Before Gemma knew it she had a 180 mg/day habit coming to a tab of almost $200/day. She knew she was in over her head but terrified at the thought of losing her job if she sought help at a detox center. Then Gemma came across Suboxone while trolling the Internet for a way out. She dialed the hotline and set up a consultation at my office.
“I looked like hell and just couldn’t go on. I was ashamed to tell my friends. My mom, coworkers, even the guy I was dating had no idea,” she said. “I’d worked so hard for everything I had. It was all slipping through my fingers so I made the call.
Painkiller Blocker
Suboxone is the brand name for a combination of an opioid called buprenorphine and another drug called naloxone. Naloxone blocks opioid receptors in the brain and ensures that patients cannot get high from painkillers or heroin while taking Suboxone. Naloxone is the same drug given to revive someone from a heroin or painkiller overdose.
Doctors prescribe Suboxone, which comes as Listerine-like films that are dissolved in the mouth, to patients who are addicted to opioid drugs including Vicodin, OxyContin, Opana, and heroin. Suboxone relieves their withdrawal symptoms and can be slowly tapered, eventually leaving them drug free.
Growing Popularity
In 1996, OxyContin was released and abuse of this crushable, snortable, and injectable, long acting painkiller spread across the country like wildfire. It was quickly dubbed “hillbilly heroin” and ignited an increase in prescription opioid abuse and deaths from overdose, the likes of which had never been seen in this country. From 1997 to 2010, the total number of opioids prescribed per person in America, increased more than 700 percent.
Due to this unprecedented surge in addiction, more physicians have been forced to learn how to prescribe Suboxone. It has taken time for both patients and physicians to warm up to Suboxone since it was put on the market in 2002. However, sales reached $1.3 billion dollars in 2011 and are growing at 10 percent per year. Although only a brief Internet physician licensure course is required to be able to prescribe this drug, a background in addiction and treatment experience are fundamental to prescribing it skillfully and in a way that best meets the needs of the patient.
Unlike methadone, another prescription opioid used to treat narcotic drug addiction, which requires daily visits to a public clinic, Suboxone can be prescribed in weekly doses, making it far more convenient for patients. In addition, methadone produces a high, along with sweats and constipation, and has a very long half-life, meaning it stays in the patient’s system longer, making it extremely difficult to be weaned off of. Suboxone does not produce a high and it can be tapered more easily
On the Street
On the street Suboxone is used by addicts to “bridge,” or get them through when they don’t have the cash or can’t find their drug of choice. Another formulation of buprenorphine (the opioid in Suboxone) made without naloxone (the opioid blocker), is a drug known as Subutex. This drug allows seamless segueing from heroin and painkillers back to the Subutex without the inconvenience of the requisite 24-hour period of “kicking” or withdrawal needed when transferring off or on Suboxone.
Treatment
Gemma listened quietly as I explained that before she can start Suboxone, it is crucial for her to abstain from opiates for 24 hours in order to achieve a state of moderate withdrawal. In this way the drug she was taking would be cleared from her opioid brain receptors in order for the Suboxone to take over the turf without throwing her into a severe, precipitated withdrawal, which is a period of sweating, nausea, and chills brought on by prematurely taking Suboxone. I stressed the importance of avoiding this by putting herself into a milder state of withdrawal before the “induction” or transfer onto Suboxone.
I explained she would start out very uncomfortable but feel completely well before she left the office and that during her induction with Suboxone we would give her small doses of the sublingual Suboxone strips or films every 15 minutes over a two-hour period.
When her now empty brain receptors start to fill up with Suboxone, the cramps, sweats, and all withdrawal symptoms will disappear immediately as Suboxone starts to take effect within minutes of taking the very first strip. We would then determine her dose judging by the point at which she felt “completely normal.”
“I’ll do it. I just can’t take it anymore,” Gemma shook her head while explaining, “I used up all my savings and maxed out my credit. I even have couch surfers on my sofa just to scrape by.”
Focusing on Life
Treatment with Suboxone shifts the addict’s focus back to their lives, helping them develop self-esteem. In my clinic, we engage people like Gemma in one-on-one counseling as well as addiction group meetings, which ameliorate the isolation that accompanies addiction.
When Suboxone is prescribed in tandem with individual and group counseling, patients have a window of time where they can acquire the coping skills necessary for a sober life—skills like developing humility, asking for help, self-care, fellowshipping, and taking the next right action.
I find that something as simple as the suggestion made by 12 Step programs to never be too HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, or tired) goes a long way. I also urge patients that no matter how quickly we taper them off Suboxone, they still need to do the work of recovery or they will be right back where they started.
Before leaving the office following her second appointment Gemma declared, “I feel normal for the first time in the last five years.”
“It’s been hell on earth until just now.”
Dark Side
While Suboxone gives much-needed reprieve to addicts like Gemma when properly prescribed, it remains a double-edged sword in combating addiction.
A powerful narcotic, an average dose of two 8 milligram films of Suboxone is equivalent to 2000 milligrams morphine. If this dose is taken by someone who is opioid naïve, it can stop their breathing and cause coma and death. The potency of this drug should never be underestimated. Just two milligrams of Suboxone can kill a person who has not been taking opioids.
Suboxone can be a young person’s gateway opioid drug on the path to addiction. It has a very powerful euphoric effect on people who have not taken these drugs before and experimenting with Suboxone can rapidly change them into full-fledged addicts.
The relapse rate with Suboxone treatment can be as high as 50 percent. Patients often do not take Suboxone as prescribed, selling it outright, or taking less than prescribed, which invites cravings to return. I have found that the most effective treatments fully engage patients in weekly counseling. Along with urine drug screening, the counseling helps alert doctors to “slips” so when patients relapse they can intervene with intensified counseling and psychiatry.
Gemma has been tapering over the past year while acquiring tools for recovery with our counselor as well as attending our weekly addiction support group and AA meetings. Studies have shown that supportive interventions such as counseling help prevent relapses and give people like Gemma the chance to lead a productive, drug free life.
Dana Jane Saltzman, M.D. L.Ac is a practicing physician treating addiction in Midtown New York City.
Suboxone FAQ:
Q: Is Suboxone addictive?
A: Addiction is a prerequisite for using this medication. It is true that patients must have their dose every day or they will experience withdrawal. The bottom line is that those taking Suboxone are indeed addicted to a legal medication freeing them from unstable, drug seeking behavior and the highs and lows of addiction which ravage their lives.
Q: How long does it take to get off Suboxone?
A: Tapering is a slow process. It’s difficult to taper by more than 1 milligram per month so the common dose of 16 milligrams/day takes over one year to taper off. And patients should keep in mind that their counselor and doctor must help gauge the right time to taper because going too fast can lead them to relapse. The last two weeks are tough so I recommend patients take at least a week off work.
Doctors mistakenly prescribe painkillers for young and old patients who complain of back pain. There is no evidence for treating noncancerous pain with these extremely addictive medications. Many young men come to my practice with a history of painkillers for back pain as their very first drug use. Many of them have been unable to wean from them for many years. Unnecessary use of painkillers can condemn patients to a lifelong struggle with opioids. That is where it starts for a lot of my patients now being treated with Suboxone.
Q: What happens to people who started painkillers for real pain? What is the connection between taking painkillers and Suboxone?
A: Buprenorphine, the active ingredient in Suboxone is itself a strong painkiller and has been remarketed as an analgesic patch called Butrans. To help patients manage their pain, I also have them begin alternative methods of pain control including acupuncture, physical therapy, exercise, meditation, and massage.
Q: What about drinking and taking other medication like Xanax while on Suboxone?
A: This is a common problem. Alcohol and benzodiazepines are absolutely contraindicated due to interactions and can lead to respiratory depression and death.
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Article 2 of 2 Sunday, 5/18/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Friends Can Be Dangerous
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I’M not sure whether it’s a badge of honor or a mark of shame, but a paper I published a few years ago is now ranked No. 8 on a list of studies that other psychologists would most like to see replicated. Good news: People find the research interesting. Bad news: They don’t believe it.
The paper in question, written with my former student Margo Gardner, appeared in the journal Developmental Psychology in July 2005. It described a study in which we randomly assigned subjects to play a video driving game, either alone or with two same-age friends watching them. The mere presence of peers made teenagers take more risks and crash more often, but no such effect was observed among adults.
I find my colleagues’ skepticism surprising. Most people recall that as teenagers, they did far more reckless things when with their friends than when alone. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that many more juvenile crimes than adult crimes are committed in groups. And driving statistics conclusively show that having same-age passengers in the car substantially increases the risk of a teen driver’s crashing but has no similar impact when an adult is behind the wheel.
Then again, I’m aware that our study challenged many psychologists’ beliefs about the nature of peer pressure, for it showed that the influence of peers on adolescent risk taking doesn’t rely solely on explicit encouragement to behave recklessly. Our findings also undercut the popular idea that the higher rate of real-world risk taking in adolescent peer groups is a result of reckless teenagers’ being more likely to surround themselves with like-minded others.
My colleagues and I have replicated our original study of peer influences on adolescent risk taking several times since 2005. We have also shown that the reason teenagers take more chances when their peers are around is partly because of the impact of peers on the adolescent brain’s sensitivity to rewards. In a study of people playing our driving game, my colleague Jason Chein and I found that when teens were with people their own age, their brains’ reward centers became hyperactivated, which made them more easily aroused by the prospect of a potentially pleasurable experience. This, in turn, inclined teenagers to pay more attention to the possible benefits of a risky choice than to the likely costs, and to make risky decisions rather than play it safe. Peers had no such effect on adults’ reward centers, though.
In other studies we have shown that being around peers not only makes adolescents more reward-sensitive but also draws them to immediate, rather than longer-term, rewards. Using an experimental setup in which individuals are asked to choose between smaller immediate rewards ($200 now) and larger, delayed ones ($1,000 in six months), we found that college students were significantly more likely to pick the immediate reward when their decision making was being observed by people their own age. On average, as we mature through adolescence, we become more willing to delay gratification in order to obtain a bigger prize. Indeed, when college students are alone, their ability to delay gratification resembles that of people in their late 20s. But when they are being watched by their peers, they display the myopia of 14-year-olds.
Our studies have important implications for psychologists who study risky decision making, as most other research in this area has tested individuals when they were by themselves. Many such studies have found no differences between teenagers and adults, but this may be an artifact of testing people when they were alone, rather than when they were with others, which is frequently the context in which risky choices are made.
Perhaps the most intriguing of our studies of peer influences on adolescent behavior is one that we published earlier this year in Developmental Science. In this paper we replicated our earlier studies, but this time using mice rather than humans. We created “peer groups” of mice by raising them in triads composed of animals from three different litters. We then tested whether, if given unfettered access to alcohol, they would drink more when they were with their peers than when they were alone. Mice tested when they were fully grown drank equally in both contexts. But adolescent mice — tested shortly after puberty — drank significantly more in the presence of their peers than when they were by themselves.
The propensity for teenagers to do more risky things when they are with their peers — which understandably worries their parents, and which should concern those who supervise teenagers in groups — is not only real; it may be hard-wired.
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Source:
Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University, is the author of the forthcoming book “Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence.”
Click:Temple Universitywww.temple.edu/Temple University
Are you Temple Made? Learn more about Temple University, located in Philadelphia, PA, one of the most diverse and comprehensive universities in the U.S..
Click: Friends Can Be Dangerous - NYTimes.com
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Sunday, 5/25/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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How to Serve Wine 101:
Why and When to Decant
Expert advice on enjoying your bottles at their best
Seems like serving a wine should be easy enough: Just open and pour. But anyone who has ever struggled with a crumbling cork, or listened to a debate over whether the Cabernet they’re drinking needs to “breathe” more, knows that sometimes it’s not quite so simple.
Decanting is one of those elements of wine service that remains mysterious and intimidating to many drinkers: Which wines need it? When to do it? And how? Is it really even necessary or just a bit of wine pomp and circumstance?
Get the Sed(iment) Out Fundamentally, decanting serves two purposes: to separate a wine from any sediment that may have formed and to aerate a wine in the hope that its aromas and flavors will be more vibrant upon serving.
Older red wines and Vintage Ports naturally produce sediment as they age (white wines rarely do); the color pigments and tannins bond together and fall out of solution. Stirring up the sediment when pouring will cloud a wine’s appearance and can impart bitter flavors and a gritty texture. It’s not harmful, but definitely less enjoyable.
Decanting is simply the process of separating this sediment from the clear wine. It’s fairly safe to assume that a red will have accumulated sediment after five to 10 years in the bottle, even if this can’t be verified visually, and should be decanted. Here’s how to do it well:
- Set the bottle upright for 24 hours or more before drinking, so the sediment can slide to the bottom of the bottle, making it easier to separate.
- Locate a decanter or other clean, clear vessel from which the wine can easily be poured into glasses.
- Remove the capsule and cork; wipe the bottle neck clean.
- Hold a light under the neck of the bottle; a candle or flashlight works well.
- Pour the wine into the decanter slowly and steadily, without stopping; when you get to the bottom half of the bottle, pour even more slowly.
- Stop as soon as you see the sediment reach the neck of the bottle. Sediment isn’t always chunky and obvious; stop if the wine’s color becomes cloudy or if you see what looks like specks of dust in the neck.
- The wine is now ready to serve. Discard the remaining ounce or two of sediment-filled liquid in the bottle.
Others feel that decanting makes a wine fade faster, and that a wine is exposed to plenty of oxygen when you swirl it in your glass. Plus, it can be fun to experience the full evolution of wine as it opens up in your glass; you might miss an interesting phase if you decant too soon.
A particularly fragile or old wine (especially one 15 or more years old) should only be decanted 30 minutes or so before drinking. A younger, more vigorous, full-bodied red wine—and yes, even whites—can be decanted an hour or more before serving. At some tastings, wines are decanted for hours beforehand and may show beautifully, but these experiments can be risky (the wine could end up click: oxidized) and are best done by people very familiar with how those wines age and evolve.
If you’re curious, experiment for yourself with multiple bottles of the same wine—one decanted and one not, or bottles decanted for different lengths of time—and see which you prefer.
More about decanting: Ask Dr. Vinny: What actually happens to a wine when you decant it?
Ask Dr. Vinny: How do I decant a really large bottle of wine?
Ask Dr. Vinny: Can you tell me how long I should decant a specific wine before drinking?
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PART B
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A second wine decanting article by another specialist
The How and Why of Decanting Wine
To decant … or not to decant. That is the question.
In recent years, at many of the better restaurants, the sommelier or
wine steward (= a waiter in a restaurant or club who is in charge of wine; sommelier)
will decant that is, slowly transfer your still wine selection, especially the big reds, from the bottle you selected, to a large, wide-bottomed crystal or glass carafe to let it breathe for 20 or so minutes before pouring you a glass. click: Sommelier
Wine decanting has been seen as pompous, and may sound silly—how can pouring wine from one container into another make it taste better?—yet it works. It is a practice that truly enhances the wine drinking experience.
Originally, wine was decanted to remove sediment from older vintages. Wines aged in bottles threw sediment after perhaps 10 years. Not only was this sediment displeasing
to the eye, it could also be quite unpleasant in the mouth. Nowadays, because of better fining and filtering methods, and because wines are drunk relatively younger, even the very big reds of Spain, France, and Italy rarely throw off sediment. Decanting is performed to aerate the wine, vaporize some of the alcohol, soften the hard tannins, enhance the aromatics, and bring forth the wine’s depth and complexity.
Don’t let anybody tell you that you should only decant certain types of wine (Bordeaux) and not others (Burgundy). I recommend decanting everything. I’m one of those who insists on decanting reds, especially older reds.
A couple of days before I plan to open a big, tannic red, I stand it upright on the off chance that sediment has formed. I open the bottle a day in advance, and then decant it the morning before dinner. I have a number of vessels, crystal decanters and glass carafes—gifts from friends and associates—and take full advantage of decanting. I do not discard the original bottle after decanting, unless I believe that none of the decanted wine will remain after the meal. I rinse the bottle with cold water and the next morning, should there be any leftover, I pour it back to be used in cooking.
Wine professionals think that the best decanter has a long neck and a wide bottom surface. These features permit oxygen to reach the wine for a smoother, mellower finish. A clear, crystal decanter allows you to see the wine at its best. Be sure that the decanter is spotless and free from any musty odors. Never clean your decanter with detergent, because the shape of a decanter makes it very difficult to get the soapy residue out.
If the wine is very mature (over 15 years), take great caution when uncorking. The cork may be very brittle, causing it to split or break. If you’ve properly stored your bottle in a dark, cool cellar, you would be probably fine, but it is not guaranteed, as the quality of cork has decreased due to the vast demand from increased wine production.
For these older bottles, instead of a standard corkscrew, I personally use an AhSo cork remover. It is a two-bladed implement that when inserted in the neck of a bottle, grips the cork from the sides, and insures that even a brittle cork can be twisted and removed intact.click: Ah-so Cork Puller
I find that Italian reds, Barolos, Brolios, Chiantis, Barbarescos, and the better sangiovese-based bottles, such as Brunello, benefit from judicious aeration; and so do most of the Spanish Riojas. Chilean cabernet sauvignon and carmenère also benefit from decanting, and of course the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Catalan garnachas, California and Oregon pinot noirs.
Even white wines, especially chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, will usually benefit from decanting, which enhances the fruit aromas.
So, when in doubt, decant...decant...decant
Source: Manos Angelakis is a well-known wine and food critic based in the New York City area. He has been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master, by the Tuscan Wine Masters Academy, as well as being an expert on Greek, Chilean and Brazilian wines. He judges numerous wine competitions each year and is the senior Food & Wine writer for LuxuryWeb Magazine www.luxuryweb.com and The Oenophile Blog www.oenophileblog.com
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Topic 2 of 2
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Travel topic
Hotels, Alarms, and Fires….oh my!
I recently took a few days off from work and treated myself to a mini getaway at a very nice New York City hotel near Central Park. My room ended up being on the top floor, the 46th, with a lovely view. On my first night, I was in a very deep sleep with my IPOD headphones still in my ears, when I vaguely sensed an alarm bell and announcement going off in the hallway at 2:45 a.m.
I ripped my earphones off, stood by my door, and sure enough the fire alarm was sounding and someone was explaining on the emergency sound system that the “incident” was all clear and they were sorry for any inconvenience. Well, this type of announcement is a bit unnerving, after all I had no idea what the “incident” was. Could it have been a shooter running loose in the building, a fire, or something else? I attempted to call the manager on duty to find out what was happening, but the phone line was busy and I eventually gave up.
Since I did not see or smell smoke, the most immediate danger I could think of, I stayed in my room. However, who could sleep? This extremely loud alarm and announcement proceeded to go off every 10 minutes or so, until about 3:30 a.m. At this point, a new voice came over the sound system and told all the hotel guests to go back to their rooms. The drama was apparently over.
The next morning, as I took the elevator to the lobby I asked a gentleman who entered on the 43rd floor if he knew what had happened. Apparently, there was a small fire in a wastebasket in one of the rooms on his floor. He said that there had been confusion over what to do exactly, because one set of firefighters asked those on his floor to evacuate to the 40th floor, while another group of firefighters earlier did not require an evacuation. He felt the instructions were not clear or consistent. I would have to agree.
In the end, all of the hotel guests and staff were safe, but this incident was a great reminder of being prepared in case this ever happens to you. I would like to review a few basic safety tips for you to apply on all of your trips going forward:
1. Top floor risks: Yes, the views are amazing when you are way up high. However, if there is an emergency and evacuation is needed, you will most likely need to take the stairs. If you are not physically able to handle such a requirement or are not willing to take the risk, request to make stay on a lower floor when you check in.
2. Keep your essentials packed: If an emergency strikes in the middle of the night, and you need to run out of your room, it is important to get in the habit of keeping all of your essentials ready to go in a backpack or handbag before you retire for the night. By essentials, I mean things such as passport/ID, wallet, medication, and glasses. Don’t try to take everything with you.
3. Put your shoes on: Unless immediate danger is about to strike you, take a minute to put your shoes on before you run out of your room. If you need to run down the stairs or exit the hotel and stand in the street, this may be difficult to do with bare feet or slippers.
4. Always pack a mini-flashlight: In case the hotel lights go out and you need to find the exit and staircase, having a small flashlight will be a lifesaver for you and your fellow hotel guests. Keep it in a handy place, like your bedside table. When your room is dark and your adrenaline is on high alert from the sound of alarms, trust me, the last thing you want to do is fumble around in your luggage to find a flashlight. Mobile phones sometimes have lights already built into them, which can be a good substitute, or you can also explore different flashlight Apps available for your phone. Just don’t forget to charge your phone so that you have enough battery power to get you to safety.
As always I wish you all the happiest of travels!
Source: Consummate Traveler
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Sunday, 6/1/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
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Hillary Clinton's Legacy at State Dept.:
A Hawk With Clipped Wings
Click green web links for further info
As secretary of state, Clinton was more hawkish than the White House, and at key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way.
In her final weeks as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton wrote a private memo to President Barack Obama warning that relations with Russia had hit a low point and the heralded "reset" in relations was over, according to people who saw the document.
Inside the White House, some officials were loath to ditch a cornerstone of Mr. Obama's Russia policy. Months passed before Russian President Vladimir Putin gave sanctuary to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, prompting Mr. Obama to cancel a planned summit in Moscow, a stark sign the reset was off track, if not dead.
Mrs. Clinton, if she runs for president, likely will lean heavily on her experience as the nation's top diplomat. Her memo, written in January 2013, illustrates two striking features of her four years in the post: She was often more hawkish than the White House she served, and at some key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way.
Mr. Obama and his White House advisers were the ultimate architects of foreign policy and kept tight hold over major decisions. Mrs. Clinton, though she held strong views, didn't push them hard in internal meetings, some of her former colleagues say.
Mrs. Clinton will have a chance to tell her own story about her State Department record in her new memoir, "Hard Choices," scheduled for release on June 10. Her book tour could amount to a kind of trial run for her expected presidential bid, focusing on what she considered her mission of improving America's image overseas.
Her State Department record reveals she made progress on several fronts and sought to advance American economic interests, but notched no sweeping peace agreements or marquee breakthroughs that reshaped the international stage.
"If she runs, the No. 1 item on her résumé is going to be her term as secretary of state," says Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University. "But in terms of outcomes, the grade she probably deserves is I for incomplete, in the sense that it's difficult to point to some specific achievements, or to some important initiatives, or to some creative idea that we would attribute to her."
Mrs. Clinton wanted to arm the rebels fighting the Assad regime in Syria at an early stage in the conflict, but was rebuffed by a president wary of deeper involvement in another messy Middle Eastern conflict. She was at odds with more junior White House aides over the proper U.S. response to the tumultuous protests in Egypt that swept aside an old U.S. ally, President Hosni Mubarak.
House Republicans, meanwhile, will spend part of the summer ramping up a new inquiry into an unhappy chapter in her record: the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 that killed four Americans, a tragedy that continues to dog her. She has accepted responsibility for the event, calling it her "biggest regret," but also has said Republicans have exploited it for political gain.
Another flash point has been her department's decision—later reversed—not to put Boko Haram, the Nigerian group behind the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls, on a list of foreign terror groups.
Within the constraints laid out by the White House, Mrs. Clinton achieved some of her goals. In particular, she used the State Department's far-flung offices to promote the interests of U.S. businesses in hopes of speeding economic recovery at home.
"We wanted to demonstrate that when there was a CEO or other business leader who had a problem, we wanted them to come to the State Department," says Robert Hormats, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive and an undersecretary of state under Mrs. Clinton. "We would use the whole apparatus."
Mrs. Clinton's supporters note she had a direct pipeline to the president. The two met and spoke several times a week and developed a rapport after the bitter 2008 presidential Democratic nomination contest. Her preference often was to offer her opinions directly to Mr. Obama, rather than in broader meetings, they say.
"Her biggest job was the mission of restoring American leadership after eight years in which it was badly eroded," says Dan Schwerin, Mrs. Clinton's policy adviser. "Everything else that came afterward was possible because we did that."
By many accounts, Mrs. Clinton was a diligent executive who read the briefing memos prepared by her staff and never seemed out of her depth in head-to-head meetings with foreign leaders.
As then U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul often faced hostile treatment at the hands of Mr. Putin's government. One day in 2012, he says, he was surprised to get a call from Mrs. Clinton on an unsecure telephone line. He answered and listened as she praised him for the job he was doing and told him she was "100% behind you," Mr. McFaul recalls.
He later saw her in person and asked why she had called him on a phone that could have been tapped by the Russian government.
"She said, 'I wanted everybody to hear,' " Mr. McFaul says. "It was done on purpose."
It wasn't always clear to administration aides where Mrs. Clinton stood on some issues. Her style wasn't to aggressively argue her position in cabinet-level meetings, present and former administration aides say. Aides concluded she would share her more candid views with the president in one-on-one meetings.
A Clinton adviser disputes that characterization, saying she wasn't afraid of "mixing it up" during sessions with senior officials.
On many issues, she and Mr. Obama were in agreement. She supported his decision to stage the military raid that killed Osama bin Laden. When Mr. Obama decided to launch a military strike against the Libyan leader, Mrs. Clinton helped assemble the international coalition supporting the action.
But she was more comfortable than Mr. Obama with the use of military force and saw it as an important complement to diplomacy, present and former administration aides say.
"In the debates that we had, she generally was someone who came down in favor of military action," says Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. "She had a comfort with U.S. military action."
Syria was a test case. The civil war exposed a divide in the administration, with Mr. Obama hesitant to commit military force and Mrs. Clinton pushing to arm secular rebels who might help oust Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
In an April 2012 meeting in her office, Mrs. Clinton peppered a longtime adviser with questions, soliciting "arguments for why this was the right thing to do," according to the adviser.
Then-CIA Director David Petraeus embraced the idea and championed it during an October 2012 meeting in the White House Situation Room. Mrs. Clinton spoke in favor of the initiative but her remarks were brief, according to officials who were in the meeting.
A former Obama administration official who attended White House meetings on Syria said Mrs. Clinton didn't push hard on arming the rebels.
In the spring of 2013, under pressure from Gulf allies, Mr. Obama authorized a small CIA arming and training program for non-Islamist rebels.
"In retrospect, we did spend too much time trying to get the Russians to come along and not enough time developing our own policy" on the Syrian conflict, says Mr. McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia. "She most certainly was in the camp of more action on Syria."
Mrs. Clinton sometimes found herself jockeying with younger aides for influence on policy. In 2011, as the Arab world erupted in protest, two schools of thought emerged inside the administration.
Mr. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, and other senior officials argued that the administration needed to stand with the protesters to be on the right side of history, a longtime adviser to Mrs. Clinton recalls.
Mrs. Clinton was in the other camp: She didn't want the U.S. to look like it was holding on to an unpopular regime, but was more cautious about breaking with Mr. Mubarak. She cited concerns over what would come next and whether other Arab leaders would be unnerved by the U.S. forsaking a longtime ally.
"There were a number of people, she included, who were anxious about the day after the day after—about what would come next in Egypt after Mubarak," says Michael Posner, a former assistant secretary of state under Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton dispatched to Cairo Frank Wisner, a retired diplomat and businessman who had a relationship with Mr. Mubarak. In some ways, Mr. Wisner was sympathetic to the longtime leader and tried to prod him to preside over a transition.
But Mr. Wisner's mission to Cairo was a failure and was viewed within the White House as a major stumble by the State Department, according to the Clinton adviser. Some White House officials became more cautious about letting the diplomats take the lead. "They thought: That's the last time we do that," the adviser says.
Clinton's Tenure as Secretary of State
- Jan. 21, 2009: Sworn in as Secretary of State
- March 6, 2009: Clinton hits 'reset' button with Russia. Promises new start to U.S.-Russian relations.
- Feb. 11, 2011: Egypt's Mubarak steps down amid protests. Clinton urges an 'orderly, peaceful transition.'
- May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden killed in U.S. raid. Clinton tells Taliban: 'You cannot defeat us.'
- Oct. 20, 2011: Deposed Libyan leader Gadhafi killed. Clinton had created an international coalition urging his overthrow.
- December 2011: Clinton encourages renewed relations with Myanmar. Myanmar president hails her visit to the country as a 'historic milestone.'
- May 19, 2012: Blind Chinese activist released from China. Clinton helped broker deal for his departure to the U.S.
- Sept. 11, 2012: Attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton's handling of the attacks, which killed four Americans, has come under fire.
- Sept. 28, 2012: Clinton pledges $45 million to Syrian opposition. Move increases pressure on Syrian president to resign.
- December 2012: Clinton faints, sustains concussion. Doctors later discover she is suffering from a blood clot related to the concussion.
- January 2013: Clinton writes private memo to Obama warning about Russian reset. Clinton says it would be fruitless to keep pursuing solid partnership with Russia.
- Feb. 1, 2013: Clinton resigns as secretary of state. John Kerry is sworn in as her successor.
____________________________
Topic # 2 of 2
A Better Solution for Too-Big-to-Fail Banks
Dodd-Frank's flimsy 'orderly liquidation authority' won't end bailouts. Bank debt that converts to equity coul
Click: Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Click green web links for further info
Critics of Dodd-Frank have long argued that the law has not ended the danger posed to taxpayers and the financial system by "too-big-to-fail" banks. Instead, the law's "orderly liquidation authority" has institutionalized the problem by creating a formal bailout procedure and earmarking a new source of tax revenue to fund bailouts.
In March, European Central Bank economists Magdalena Ignatowski and Josef Korte released a paper confirming critics' fears.
The largest and systemically most important banks, they found, have not perceptibly changed their risk-taking behavior.
Megabanks, it seems, don't take Dodd-Frank's orderly resolution authority as a serious constraint on their behavior.
What's next? A new funding requirement—contingent capital—could impose the necessary market discipline on megabanks to avoid their failure and the need for taxpayer bailouts.
There are other possible reforms, including the replacement of Dodd-Frank's orderly resolution with a new bankruptcy procedure that omits a bailout option. That won't be enough. Any Treasury secretary faced with a megabank failure will find a way to avoid that outcome with ad hoc*) assistance, meanwhile predicting chaos if the government doesn't do something.
*) ad hoc = for the particular end or case at hand without consideration of wider application
What about raising megabanks' required capital to make failure unlikely? Easier said than done. Bankers, regulators and politicians have reasons to manipulate risk measures and asset values. Understating losses in downturns avoids politically and financially undesirable contractions in credit.
Moreover, the financial health of a megabank is not well measured even by accurate book equity-to-asset ratios. A recent paper I coauthored with Doron Nissim (forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Intermediation, also available at the SSRN website**) showed that the persistently low market values of U.S. banks today primarily reflects reductions in banks' cash flows that are unrelated to the values of tangible assets or liabilities.
**) SSRN: Homewww.ssrn.com - Social Science Research Network - Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of ... We have received several excellence awards for our web site.
A more promising idea, originated by Mark Flannery of the University of Florida, has growing support among financial economists: require, alongside higher book equity-to-assets, another funding requirement known as contingent capital, or "CoCos,"***) which is debt convertible into equity on the basis of a market value trigger. A paper I wrote with Richard Herring (Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 2013), explores how this could work.
***) click:Contingent Convertibles (CoCos) Definition | Investopediawww.investopedia.com/terms/c/contingentconvertible
_________________________________________
Sunday, 6/29/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
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Topic # 1 of 1
Why Are We Importing Our Own Fish?
Important info or every person
IN 1982 a Chinese aquaculture scientist named Fusui Zhang journeyed to Martha’s Vineyard in search of scallops. The New England bay scallop had recently been domesticated, and Dr. Zhang thought the Vineyard-grown shellfish might do well in China. After a visit to Lagoon Pond in Tisbury, he boxed up 120 scallops and spirited them away to his lab in Qingdao. During the journey 94 died. But 26 thrived. Thanks to them, today China now grows millions of dollars of New England bay scallops, a significant portion of which are exported back to the United States.
As go scallops, so goes the nation. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, even though the United States controls more ocean than any other country, 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported.
But it’s much fishier than that: While a majority of the seafood Americans eat is foreign, a third of what Americans catch is sold to foreigners.
The seafood industry, it turns out, is a great example of the swaps, delete-and-replace maneuvers and other mechanisms that define so much of the outsourced American economy; you can find similar, seemingly inefficient phenomena in everything from textiles to technology. The difference with seafood, though, is that we’re talking about the destruction and outsourcing of the very ecological infrastructure that underpins the health of our coasts. Let’s walk through these illogical arrangements, course by course.
Appetizers: Half Shells for Cocktails
Our most blatant seafood swap has been the abandonment of local American oysters for imported Asian shrimp. Once upon a time, most American Atlantic estuaries (including the estuary we now call the New York Bight) had vast reefs of wild oysters. Many of these we destroyed by the 1800s through overharvesting. But because oysters are so easy to cultivate (they live off wild microalgae that they filter from the water), a primitive form of oyster aquaculture arose up and down our Atlantic coast.
Until the 1920s the United States produced two billion pounds of oysters a year. The power of the oyster industry, however, was no match for the urban sewage and industrial dumps of various chemical stews that pummeled the coast at midcentury. Atlantic oyster culture fell to just 1 percent of its historical capacity by 1970.
Just as the half-shell appetizer was fading into obscurity, the shrimp cocktail rose to replace it, thanks to a Japanese scientist named Motosaku Fujinaga and the kuruma prawn. Kurumas were favored in a preparation known as “dancing shrimp,” a dish that involved the consumption of a wiggling wild shrimp dipped in sake. Dr. Fujinaga figured out how to domesticate this pricey animal. His graduate students then fanned out across Asia and tamed other varieties of shrimp.
Today shrimp, mostly farmed in Asia, is the most consumed seafood in the United States: Americans eat nearly as much of it as the next two most popular seafoods (canned tuna and salmon) combined. Notably, the amount of shrimp we now eat is equivalent to our per capita oyster consumption a century ago.
And the Asian aquaculture juggernaut didn’t stop with shrimp. In fact, shrimp was a doorway into another seafood swap, which leads to the next course.
Fish Sticks: Atlantic for Pacific
Most seafood eaters know the sad story of the Atlantic cod. The ill effects of the postwar buildup of industrialized American fishing are epitomized by that fish’s overexploitation: Gorton’s fish sticks and McDonald’s Filets-o-Fish all once rode on the backs of billions of cod. The codfish populations of North America plummeted and have yet to return.
Just as the North Atlantic was falling as a fish-stick producer, the Pacific rose. Beginning in the 1990s two new white fish started coming to us from Asia: tilapia, which grows incredibly fast, and the Vietnamese Pangasius catfish, which grows even faster (and can breathe air if its ponds grow too crowded). These two are now America’s fourth- and sixth-most-consumed seafoods, respectively, according to the National Fisheries Institute.
Alongside them, a fishery arose for an indigenous wild American Pacific fish called the Alaskan, or walleye, pollock. In just a few decades, pollock harvests went from negligible to billions of pounds a year. Pollock is now the fish in McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish and the crab in the “fake crab” that Larry David discussed mid-coitus on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In fact, there is so much pollock that we can’t seem to use it all: Every year more than 600 million pounds is frozen into giant blocks and sent to the churning fish processing plants of Asia, Germany and the Netherlands.
Sending all this wild fish abroad and then importing farmed fish to replace it is enough to make you want to take a stiff drink and go to bed. But when you wake up and reach for your bagel, surprise! The fish swap will get you again.
Lox: Wild for Farmed
There was a time when “nova lox” was exactly that: wild Atlantic salmon (laks in Norwegian) caught off Nova Scotia or elsewhere in the North Atlantic. But most wild Atlantic salmon populations have been fished to commercial extinction, and today a majority of our lox comes from selectively bred farmed salmon, with Chile our largest supplier.
This is curious, given that salmon are not native to the Southern Hemisphere. But after Norwegian aquaculture companies took them there in the ’80s, they became so numerous as to be considered an invasive species.
The prevalence of imported farmed salmon on our bagels is doubly curious because the United States possesses all the wild salmon it could possibly need. Five species of Pacific salmon return to Alaskan rivers every year, generating several hundred million pounds of fish flesh every year. Where does it all go?
Again, abroad. Increasingly to Asia. Alaska, by far our biggest fish-producing state, exports around three-quarters of its salmon.
To make things triply strange, a portion of that salmon, after heading across the Pacific, returns to us: Because foreign labor is so cheap, many Alaskan salmon are caught in American waters, frozen, defrosted in Asia, filleted and boned, refrozen and sent back to us. Pollock also make this Asian round trip, as do squid — and who knows what else?
The prevalence of imported farmed salmon on our bagels is doubly curious because the United States possesses all the wild salmon it could possibly need. Five species of Pacific salmon return to Alaskan rivers every year, generating several hundred million pounds of fish flesh every year. Where does it all go?
Again, abroad. Increasingly to Asia. Alaska, by far our biggest fish-producing state, exports around three-quarters of its salmon.
To make things triply strange, a portion of that salmon, after heading across the Pacific, returns to us: Because foreign labor is so cheap, many Alaskan salmon are caught in American waters, frozen, defrosted in Asia, filleted and boned, refrozen and sent back to us. Pollock also make this Asian round trip, as do squid — and who knows what else?
Click: GRAPHIC
Seafood, Shipped
In The United States imports seafood in increasing numbers, even for salmon, which it has in abundance.
If the graphic link has expired, search for the original article in the NYT archives
click:
Why Are We Importing Our Own Fish? - NYTimes.
comwww.nytimes.com/.../why-are-we-importing-our-own...The New York Times
Jun 20, 2014
IF also the article link has expired search the NYT (= The New York Times) archives with the article title and the publishing date
Sources:
(1) Paul Greenberg is the click: author of the forthcoming book “American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood,” from which this essay was adapted.
(2) Data analysis was provided by Carolyn Hall, a historical marine ecologist.
(3) STAF, Inc.
_______________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
In case below is no text, then the broadcasted show is the source - some shows do not have a text
Topic # 1 of 1
Why Are We Importing Our Own Fish?
Important info or every person
IN 1982 a Chinese aquaculture scientist named Fusui Zhang journeyed to Martha’s Vineyard in search of scallops. The New England bay scallop had recently been domesticated, and Dr. Zhang thought the Vineyard-grown shellfish might do well in China. After a visit to Lagoon Pond in Tisbury, he boxed up 120 scallops and spirited them away to his lab in Qingdao. During the journey 94 died. But 26 thrived. Thanks to them, today China now grows millions of dollars of New England bay scallops, a significant portion of which are exported back to the United States.
As go scallops, so goes the nation. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, even though the United States controls more ocean than any other country, 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported.
But it’s much fishier than that: While a majority of the seafood Americans eat is foreign, a third of what Americans catch is sold to foreigners.
The seafood industry, it turns out, is a great example of the swaps, delete-and-replace maneuvers and other mechanisms that define so much of the outsourced American economy; you can find similar, seemingly inefficient phenomena in everything from textiles to technology. The difference with seafood, though, is that we’re talking about the destruction and outsourcing of the very ecological infrastructure that underpins the health of our coasts. Let’s walk through these illogical arrangements, course by course.
Appetizers: Half Shells for Cocktails
Our most blatant seafood swap has been the abandonment of local American oysters for imported Asian shrimp. Once upon a time, most American Atlantic estuaries (including the estuary we now call the New York Bight) had vast reefs of wild oysters. Many of these we destroyed by the 1800s through overharvesting. But because oysters are so easy to cultivate (they live off wild microalgae that they filter from the water), a primitive form of oyster aquaculture arose up and down our Atlantic coast.
Until the 1920s the United States produced two billion pounds of oysters a year. The power of the oyster industry, however, was no match for the urban sewage and industrial dumps of various chemical stews that pummeled the coast at midcentury. Atlantic oyster culture fell to just 1 percent of its historical capacity by 1970.
Just as the half-shell appetizer was fading into obscurity, the shrimp cocktail rose to replace it, thanks to a Japanese scientist named Motosaku Fujinaga and the kuruma prawn. Kurumas were favored in a preparation known as “dancing shrimp,” a dish that involved the consumption of a wiggling wild shrimp dipped in sake. Dr. Fujinaga figured out how to domesticate this pricey animal. His graduate students then fanned out across Asia and tamed other varieties of shrimp.
Today shrimp, mostly farmed in Asia, is the most consumed seafood in the United States: Americans eat nearly as much of it as the next two most popular seafoods (canned tuna and salmon) combined. Notably, the amount of shrimp we now eat is equivalent to our per capita oyster consumption a century ago.
And the Asian aquaculture juggernaut didn’t stop with shrimp. In fact, shrimp was a doorway into another seafood swap, which leads to the next course.
Fish Sticks: Atlantic for Pacific
Most seafood eaters know the sad story of the Atlantic cod. The ill effects of the postwar buildup of industrialized American fishing are epitomized by that fish’s overexploitation: Gorton’s fish sticks and McDonald’s Filets-o-Fish all once rode on the backs of billions of cod. The codfish populations of North America plummeted and have yet to return.
Just as the North Atlantic was falling as a fish-stick producer, the Pacific rose. Beginning in the 1990s two new white fish started coming to us from Asia: tilapia, which grows incredibly fast, and the Vietnamese Pangasius catfish, which grows even faster (and can breathe air if its ponds grow too crowded). These two are now America’s fourth- and sixth-most-consumed seafoods, respectively, according to the National Fisheries Institute.
Alongside them, a fishery arose for an indigenous wild American Pacific fish called the Alaskan, or walleye, pollock. In just a few decades, pollock harvests went from negligible to billions of pounds a year. Pollock is now the fish in McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish and the crab in the “fake crab” that Larry David discussed mid-coitus on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” In fact, there is so much pollock that we can’t seem to use it all: Every year more than 600 million pounds is frozen into giant blocks and sent to the churning fish processing plants of Asia, Germany and the Netherlands.
Sending all this wild fish abroad and then importing farmed fish to replace it is enough to make you want to take a stiff drink and go to bed. But when you wake up and reach for your bagel, surprise! The fish swap will get you again.
Lox: Wild for Farmed
There was a time when “nova lox” was exactly that: wild Atlantic salmon (laks in Norwegian) caught off Nova Scotia or elsewhere in the North Atlantic. But most wild Atlantic salmon populations have been fished to commercial extinction, and today a majority of our lox comes from selectively bred farmed salmon, with Chile our largest supplier.
This is curious, given that salmon are not native to the Southern Hemisphere. But after Norwegian aquaculture companies took them there in the ’80s, they became so numerous as to be considered an invasive species.
The prevalence of imported farmed salmon on our bagels is doubly curious because the United States possesses all the wild salmon it could possibly need. Five species of Pacific salmon return to Alaskan rivers every year, generating several hundred million pounds of fish flesh every year. Where does it all go?
Again, abroad. Increasingly to Asia. Alaska, by far our biggest fish-producing state, exports around three-quarters of its salmon.
To make things triply strange, a portion of that salmon, after heading across the Pacific, returns to us: Because foreign labor is so cheap, many Alaskan salmon are caught in American waters, frozen, defrosted in Asia, filleted and boned, refrozen and sent back to us. Pollock also make this Asian round trip, as do squid — and who knows what else?
The prevalence of imported farmed salmon on our bagels is doubly curious because the United States possesses all the wild salmon it could possibly need. Five species of Pacific salmon return to Alaskan rivers every year, generating several hundred million pounds of fish flesh every year. Where does it all go?
Again, abroad. Increasingly to Asia. Alaska, by far our biggest fish-producing state, exports around three-quarters of its salmon.
To make things triply strange, a portion of that salmon, after heading across the Pacific, returns to us: Because foreign labor is so cheap, many Alaskan salmon are caught in American waters, frozen, defrosted in Asia, filleted and boned, refrozen and sent back to us. Pollock also make this Asian round trip, as do squid — and who knows what else?
Click: GRAPHIC
Seafood, Shipped
In The United States imports seafood in increasing numbers, even for salmon, which it has in abundance.
If the graphic link has expired, search for the original article in the NYT archives
click:
Why Are We Importing Our Own Fish? - NYTimes.
comwww.nytimes.com/.../why-are-we-importing-our-own...The New York Times
Jun 20, 2014
IF also the article link has expired search the NYT (= The New York Times) archives with the article title and the publishing date
Sources:
(1) Paul Greenberg is the click: author of the forthcoming book “American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood,” from which this essay was adapted.
(2) Data analysis was provided by Carolyn Hall, a historical marine ecologist.
(3) STAF, Inc.
_______________________________
Sunday, 7/6/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Are We Fat Because We Overeat,
Or Do We Overeat Because We Are Fat?
Always Hungry? Here’s Why
FOR most of the last century, our understanding of the cause of obesity has been based on immutable physical law.
Obesity = body adiposity click: Body adiposity index New Latin adiposus, from Latin adeps fat
Specifically, it’s the first law of thermodynamics, which dictates that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. When it comes to body weight, this means that calorie intake minus calorie expenditure equals calories stored. Surrounded by tempting foods, we overeat, consuming more calories than we can burn off, and the excess is deposited as fat. The simple solution is to exert willpower and eat less.
The problem is that this advice doesn’t work, at least not for most people over the long term. In other words, your New Year’s resolution to lose weight probably won’t last through the spring, let alone affect how you look in a swimsuit in July. More of us than ever are obese, despite an incessant focus on calorie balance by the government, nutrition organizations and the food industry.
But what if we’ve confused cause and effect? What if it’s not overeating that causes us to get fat, but the process of getting fatter that causes us to overeat?
The more calories we lock away in fat tissue, the fewer there are circulating in the bloodstream to satisfy the body’s requirements. If we look at it this way, it’s a distribution problem: We have an abundance of calories, but they’re in the wrong place. As a result, the body needs to increase its intake. We get hungrier because we’re getting fatter.
It’s like edema, a common medical condition in which fluid leaks from blood vessels into surrounding tissues. No matter how much water they drink, people with edema may experience unquenchable thirst because the fluid doesn’t stay in the blood, where it’s needed. Similarly, when fat cells suck up too much fuel, calories from food promote the growth of fat tissue instead of serving the energy needs of the body, provoking overeating in all but the most disciplined individuals.
We discuss this hypothesis in an article just published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. According to this alternative view, factors in the environment have triggered fat cells in our bodies to take in and store excessive amounts of glucose and other calorie-rich compounds. Since fewer calories are available to fuel metabolism, the brain tells the body to increase calorie intake (we feel hungry) and save energy (our metabolism slows down). Eating more solves this problem temporarily but also accelerates weight gain. Cutting calories reverses the weight gain for a short while, making us think we have control over our body weight, but predictably increases hunger and slows metabolism even more.
Consider fever as another analogy. A cold bath will lower body temperature temporarily, but also set off biological responses — like shivering and constriction of blood vessels — that work to heat the body up again. In a sense, the conventional view of obesity as a problem of calorie balance is like conceptualizing fever as a problem of heat balance; technically not wrong, but not very helpful, because it ignores the apparent underlying biological driver of weight gain.
This is why diets that rely on consciously reducing calories don’t usually work. Only one in six overweight and obese adults in a nationwide survey reports ever having maintained a 10 percent weight loss for at least a year. (Even this relatively modest accomplishment may be exaggerated, because people tend to overestimate their successes in self-reported surveys.) In studies by Dr. Rudolph L. Leibel of Columbia and colleagues, when lean and obese research subjects were underfed in order to make them lose 10 to 20 percent of their weight, their hunger increased and metabolism plummeted. Conversely, overfeeding sped up metabolism.
For both over- and under-eating, these responses tend to push weight back to where it started — prompting some obesity researchers to think in terms of a body weight “set point” that seems to be predetermined by our genes.
But if basic biological responses push back against changes in body weight, and our set points are predetermined, then why have obesity rates — which, for adults, are almost three times what they were in the 1960s — increased so much? Most important, what can we do about it?
As it turns out, many biological factors affect the storage of calories in fat cells, including genetics, levels of physical activity, sleep and stress. But one has an indisputably dominant role: the hormone insulin. We know that excess insulin treatment for diabetes causes weight gain, and insulin deficiency causes weight loss. And of everything we eat, highly refined and rapidly digestible carbohydrates produce the most insulin.
By this way of thinking, the increasing amount and processing of carbohydrates in the American diet has increased insulin levels, put fat cells into storage overdrive and elicited obesity-promoting biological responses in a large number of people. Like an infection that raises the body temperature set point, high consumption of refined carbohydrates — chips, crackers, cakes, soft drinks, sugary breakfast cereals and even white rice and bread — has increased body weights throughout the population.
One reason we consume so many refined carbohydrates today is because they have been added to processed foods in place of fats — which have been the main target of calorie reduction efforts since the 1970s. Fat has about twice the calories of carbohydrates, but low-fat diets are the least effective of comparable interventions, according to several analyses, including one presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association this year.
.A recent study by one of us, Dr. Ludwig, and his colleagues published in JAMA examined 21 overweight and obese young adults after they had lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight, on diets ranging from low fat to low carbohydrate. Despite consuming the same number of calories on each diet, subjects burned about 325 more calories per day on the low carbohydrate than on the low fat diet — amounting to the energy expended in an hour of moderately intense physical activity.
Another study published by Dr. Ludwig and colleagues in The Lancet in 2004 suggested that a poor-quality diet could result in obesity even when it was low in calories. Rats fed a diet with rapidly digesting (called high “glycemic index”) carbohydrate gained 71 percent more fat than their counterparts, who ate more calories over all, though in the form of slowly digesting carbohydrate.
These ideas aren’t entirely new. The notion that we overeat because we’re getting fat has been around for at least a century, as described by Gary Taubes in his book “Good Calories, Bad Calories.” In 1908, for example, a German internist named Gustav von Bergmann dismissed the energy-balance view of obesity, and hypothesized that it was instead caused by a metabolic disorder that he called “lipophilia,” or “love of fat.”
But such theories have been generally ignored, perhaps because they challenge entrenched cultural attitudes. The popular emphasis on calorie balance reinforces the belief that we have conscious control over our weight, and that obesity represents a personal failure because of ignorance or inadequate willpower.
In addition, the food industry — which makes enormous profits from highly processed products derived from corn, wheat and rice — invokes calorie balance as its first line of defense. If all calories are the same, then there are no bad foods, and sugary beverages, junk foods and the like are fine in moderation. It’s simply a question of portion control. The fact that this rarely works is taken as evidence that obese people lack willpower, not that the idea itself might be wrong.
UNFORTUNATELY, existing research cannot provide a definitive test of our hypothesis (= theory). Several prominent clinical trials reported no difference in weight loss when comparing diets purportedly differing in protein, carbohydrate and fat. However, these trials had major limitations; at the end, subjects reported that they had not met the targets for complying with the prescribed diets. We wouldn’t discard a potentially lifesaving cancer treatment based on negative findings, if the research subjects didn’t take the drug as intended.
There are better ways to do this research. Studies should provide participants with at least some of their food, to make it easier for them to stick to the diets. Two studies that did this — one by the Direct Group in 2008 and the other by the Diogenes Project in 2010 — reported substantial benefits associated with the reduction of rapidly digestible carbohydrate compared with conventional diets. We need to invest much more in this research. With the annual economic burden of diabetes — just one obesity-related complication — predicted to approach half a trillion dollars by 2020, a few billion dollars for state-of-the-art nutrition research would make a good investment.
If this hypothesis turns out to be correct, it will have immediate implications (= involvement, etc.) for public health. It would mean that the decades-long focus on calorie restriction was destined to fail for most people. Information about calorie content would remain relevant, not as a strategy for weight loss, but rather to help people avoid eating too much highly processed food loaded with rapidly digesting carbohydrates. But obesity treatment would more appropriately focus on diet quality rather than calorie quantity.
People in the modern food environment seem to have greater control over what they eat than how much. With reduced consumption of refined grains, concentrated sugar and potato products and a few other sensible lifestyle choices, our internal body weight control system should be able to do the rest. Eventually, we could bring the body weight set point back to pre-epidemic levels. Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories.
Source:
(1) NYT by: David S. Ludwig directs the click: New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
(2) Mark I. Friedman is vice president of research at the Click: Nutrition Science Initiative.
(3) JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
(4) STAF, Inc.
Additional related articles
A better index of body adiposity Bergman RN1, Stefanovski D, Buchanan TA, Sumner AE, Reynolds JC, Sebring NG, Xiang AH, Watanabe RM.
Author information
adiposity state of being fat : obesity ( New Latin adiposus, from Latin adeps fat)
Abstract Obesity is a growing problem in the United States and throughout the world. It is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. The BMI has been used to assess body fat for almost 200 years. BMI is known to be of limited accuracy, and is different for males and females with similar %body adiposity. Here, we define an alternative parameter, the body adiposity index (BAI = ((hip circumference)/((height)(1.5))-18)). The BAI can be used to reflect %body fat for adult men and women of differing ethnicities without numerical correction. We used a population study, the "BetaGene" study, to develop the new index of body adiposity. %Body fat, as measured by the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), was used as a "gold standard" for validation. Hip circumference (R = 0.602) and height (R = -0.524) are strongly correlated with %body fat and therefore chosen as principal anthropometric measures on which we base BAI. The BAI measure was validated in the "Triglyceride and Cardiovascular Risk in African-Americans (TARA)" study of African Americans. Correlation between DXA-derived %adiposity and the BAI was R = 0.85 for TARA with a concordance of C_b = 0.95. BAI can be measured without weighing, which may render it useful in settings where measuring accurate body weight is problematic. In summary, we have defined a new parameter, the BAI, which can be calculated from hip circumference and height only. It can be used in the clinical setting even in remote locations with very limited access to reliable scales. The BAI estimates %adiposity directly.
Aindex of adiposity. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012] index and the sexual dimorphism in body fat. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011]
PMID: 21372804 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3275633 Free PMC Article
health and well-being. As you grow older, if you continue to eat the same types and amounts of food but don’t become more active, you’ll probably gain weight.
That’s because metabolism (how you burn the calories you eat) can slow down with age.
The secret to maintaining a healthy weight is to balance “energy in” and “energy out.” Energy in means the calories you get from the food and beverages you consume. Energy out means the calories you burn for basic body functions and
during physical activity.
How active should you be to keep a healthy weight?The answer is different for each person, but generally:
● To keep your weight the same, you need to burn the same number of calories as you eat and drink.
● To lose weight, burn more calories than you eat and drink.
● To gain weight, burn fewer calories than you eat and drink.
Other ways to maintain a healthy weight?
● Limit portion size to control calorie intake. healthy snacks during the day if you want to
gain weight.
● Be as physically active as you can be.
● Talk to your doctor about your weight if you
think that you weigh too much or too little.
___________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Are We Fat Because We Overeat,
Or Do We Overeat Because We Are Fat?
Always Hungry? Here’s Why
FOR most of the last century, our understanding of the cause of obesity has been based on immutable physical law.
Obesity = body adiposity click: Body adiposity index New Latin adiposus, from Latin adeps fat
Specifically, it’s the first law of thermodynamics, which dictates that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. When it comes to body weight, this means that calorie intake minus calorie expenditure equals calories stored. Surrounded by tempting foods, we overeat, consuming more calories than we can burn off, and the excess is deposited as fat. The simple solution is to exert willpower and eat less.
The problem is that this advice doesn’t work, at least not for most people over the long term. In other words, your New Year’s resolution to lose weight probably won’t last through the spring, let alone affect how you look in a swimsuit in July. More of us than ever are obese, despite an incessant focus on calorie balance by the government, nutrition organizations and the food industry.
But what if we’ve confused cause and effect? What if it’s not overeating that causes us to get fat, but the process of getting fatter that causes us to overeat?
The more calories we lock away in fat tissue, the fewer there are circulating in the bloodstream to satisfy the body’s requirements. If we look at it this way, it’s a distribution problem: We have an abundance of calories, but they’re in the wrong place. As a result, the body needs to increase its intake. We get hungrier because we’re getting fatter.
It’s like edema, a common medical condition in which fluid leaks from blood vessels into surrounding tissues. No matter how much water they drink, people with edema may experience unquenchable thirst because the fluid doesn’t stay in the blood, where it’s needed. Similarly, when fat cells suck up too much fuel, calories from food promote the growth of fat tissue instead of serving the energy needs of the body, provoking overeating in all but the most disciplined individuals.
We discuss this hypothesis in an article just published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. According to this alternative view, factors in the environment have triggered fat cells in our bodies to take in and store excessive amounts of glucose and other calorie-rich compounds. Since fewer calories are available to fuel metabolism, the brain tells the body to increase calorie intake (we feel hungry) and save energy (our metabolism slows down). Eating more solves this problem temporarily but also accelerates weight gain. Cutting calories reverses the weight gain for a short while, making us think we have control over our body weight, but predictably increases hunger and slows metabolism even more.
Consider fever as another analogy. A cold bath will lower body temperature temporarily, but also set off biological responses — like shivering and constriction of blood vessels — that work to heat the body up again. In a sense, the conventional view of obesity as a problem of calorie balance is like conceptualizing fever as a problem of heat balance; technically not wrong, but not very helpful, because it ignores the apparent underlying biological driver of weight gain.
This is why diets that rely on consciously reducing calories don’t usually work. Only one in six overweight and obese adults in a nationwide survey reports ever having maintained a 10 percent weight loss for at least a year. (Even this relatively modest accomplishment may be exaggerated, because people tend to overestimate their successes in self-reported surveys.) In studies by Dr. Rudolph L. Leibel of Columbia and colleagues, when lean and obese research subjects were underfed in order to make them lose 10 to 20 percent of their weight, their hunger increased and metabolism plummeted. Conversely, overfeeding sped up metabolism.
For both over- and under-eating, these responses tend to push weight back to where it started — prompting some obesity researchers to think in terms of a body weight “set point” that seems to be predetermined by our genes.
But if basic biological responses push back against changes in body weight, and our set points are predetermined, then why have obesity rates — which, for adults, are almost three times what they were in the 1960s — increased so much? Most important, what can we do about it?
As it turns out, many biological factors affect the storage of calories in fat cells, including genetics, levels of physical activity, sleep and stress. But one has an indisputably dominant role: the hormone insulin. We know that excess insulin treatment for diabetes causes weight gain, and insulin deficiency causes weight loss. And of everything we eat, highly refined and rapidly digestible carbohydrates produce the most insulin.
By this way of thinking, the increasing amount and processing of carbohydrates in the American diet has increased insulin levels, put fat cells into storage overdrive and elicited obesity-promoting biological responses in a large number of people. Like an infection that raises the body temperature set point, high consumption of refined carbohydrates — chips, crackers, cakes, soft drinks, sugary breakfast cereals and even white rice and bread — has increased body weights throughout the population.
One reason we consume so many refined carbohydrates today is because they have been added to processed foods in place of fats — which have been the main target of calorie reduction efforts since the 1970s. Fat has about twice the calories of carbohydrates, but low-fat diets are the least effective of comparable interventions, according to several analyses, including one presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association this year.
.A recent study by one of us, Dr. Ludwig, and his colleagues published in JAMA examined 21 overweight and obese young adults after they had lost 10 to 15 percent of their body weight, on diets ranging from low fat to low carbohydrate. Despite consuming the same number of calories on each diet, subjects burned about 325 more calories per day on the low carbohydrate than on the low fat diet — amounting to the energy expended in an hour of moderately intense physical activity.
Another study published by Dr. Ludwig and colleagues in The Lancet in 2004 suggested that a poor-quality diet could result in obesity even when it was low in calories. Rats fed a diet with rapidly digesting (called high “glycemic index”) carbohydrate gained 71 percent more fat than their counterparts, who ate more calories over all, though in the form of slowly digesting carbohydrate.
These ideas aren’t entirely new. The notion that we overeat because we’re getting fat has been around for at least a century, as described by Gary Taubes in his book “Good Calories, Bad Calories.” In 1908, for example, a German internist named Gustav von Bergmann dismissed the energy-balance view of obesity, and hypothesized that it was instead caused by a metabolic disorder that he called “lipophilia,” or “love of fat.”
But such theories have been generally ignored, perhaps because they challenge entrenched cultural attitudes. The popular emphasis on calorie balance reinforces the belief that we have conscious control over our weight, and that obesity represents a personal failure because of ignorance or inadequate willpower.
In addition, the food industry — which makes enormous profits from highly processed products derived from corn, wheat and rice — invokes calorie balance as its first line of defense. If all calories are the same, then there are no bad foods, and sugary beverages, junk foods and the like are fine in moderation. It’s simply a question of portion control. The fact that this rarely works is taken as evidence that obese people lack willpower, not that the idea itself might be wrong.
UNFORTUNATELY, existing research cannot provide a definitive test of our hypothesis (= theory). Several prominent clinical trials reported no difference in weight loss when comparing diets purportedly differing in protein, carbohydrate and fat. However, these trials had major limitations; at the end, subjects reported that they had not met the targets for complying with the prescribed diets. We wouldn’t discard a potentially lifesaving cancer treatment based on negative findings, if the research subjects didn’t take the drug as intended.
There are better ways to do this research. Studies should provide participants with at least some of their food, to make it easier for them to stick to the diets. Two studies that did this — one by the Direct Group in 2008 and the other by the Diogenes Project in 2010 — reported substantial benefits associated with the reduction of rapidly digestible carbohydrate compared with conventional diets. We need to invest much more in this research. With the annual economic burden of diabetes — just one obesity-related complication — predicted to approach half a trillion dollars by 2020, a few billion dollars for state-of-the-art nutrition research would make a good investment.
If this hypothesis turns out to be correct, it will have immediate implications (= involvement, etc.) for public health. It would mean that the decades-long focus on calorie restriction was destined to fail for most people. Information about calorie content would remain relevant, not as a strategy for weight loss, but rather to help people avoid eating too much highly processed food loaded with rapidly digesting carbohydrates. But obesity treatment would more appropriately focus on diet quality rather than calorie quantity.
People in the modern food environment seem to have greater control over what they eat than how much. With reduced consumption of refined grains, concentrated sugar and potato products and a few other sensible lifestyle choices, our internal body weight control system should be able to do the rest. Eventually, we could bring the body weight set point back to pre-epidemic levels. Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories.
Source:
(1) NYT by: David S. Ludwig directs the click: New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
(2) Mark I. Friedman is vice president of research at the Click: Nutrition Science Initiative.
(3) JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
(4) STAF, Inc.
Additional related articles
A better index of body adiposity Bergman RN1, Stefanovski D, Buchanan TA, Sumner AE, Reynolds JC, Sebring NG, Xiang AH, Watanabe RM.
Author information
adiposity state of being fat : obesity ( New Latin adiposus, from Latin adeps fat)
Abstract Obesity is a growing problem in the United States and throughout the world. It is a risk factor for many chronic diseases. The BMI has been used to assess body fat for almost 200 years. BMI is known to be of limited accuracy, and is different for males and females with similar %body adiposity. Here, we define an alternative parameter, the body adiposity index (BAI = ((hip circumference)/((height)(1.5))-18)). The BAI can be used to reflect %body fat for adult men and women of differing ethnicities without numerical correction. We used a population study, the "BetaGene" study, to develop the new index of body adiposity. %Body fat, as measured by the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), was used as a "gold standard" for validation. Hip circumference (R = 0.602) and height (R = -0.524) are strongly correlated with %body fat and therefore chosen as principal anthropometric measures on which we base BAI. The BAI measure was validated in the "Triglyceride and Cardiovascular Risk in African-Americans (TARA)" study of African Americans. Correlation between DXA-derived %adiposity and the BAI was R = 0.85 for TARA with a concordance of C_b = 0.95. BAI can be measured without weighing, which may render it useful in settings where measuring accurate body weight is problematic. In summary, we have defined a new parameter, the BAI, which can be calculated from hip circumference and height only. It can be used in the clinical setting even in remote locations with very limited access to reliable scales. The BAI estimates %adiposity directly.
Aindex of adiposity. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012] index and the sexual dimorphism in body fat. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011]
- Body adiposity index indicates only total adiposity, not risk. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012]
- Newly proposed body adiposity index (bai) by Bergman et al. is not strongly related to cardiovascular health risk. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012]
- BMI Correlates Better to Visceral Fat and Insulin Sensitivity Than BAI. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012]
PMID: 21372804 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC3275633 Free PMC Article
health and well-being. As you grow older, if you continue to eat the same types and amounts of food but don’t become more active, you’ll probably gain weight.
That’s because metabolism (how you burn the calories you eat) can slow down with age.
The secret to maintaining a healthy weight is to balance “energy in” and “energy out.” Energy in means the calories you get from the food and beverages you consume. Energy out means the calories you burn for basic body functions and
during physical activity.
How active should you be to keep a healthy weight?The answer is different for each person, but generally:
● To keep your weight the same, you need to burn the same number of calories as you eat and drink.
● To lose weight, burn more calories than you eat and drink.
● To gain weight, burn fewer calories than you eat and drink.
Other ways to maintain a healthy weight?
● Limit portion size to control calorie intake. healthy snacks during the day if you want to
gain weight.
● Be as physically active as you can be.
● Talk to your doctor about your weight if you
think that you weigh too much or too little.
___________________________
Sunday, 7/13/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Dirt Good for Infant Immune System
Bacteria exposure may reduce allergies and asthma in newborns
Infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens, and a wide variety of household bacteria in the first year of life appear less likely to suffer from allergies, wheezing, and asthma, according to results of a study conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions.
Previous research has shown that children who grow up on farms have lower allergy and asthma rates, a phenomenon attributed to their regular exposure to microorganisms present in farm soil.
Other studies, however, have found increased asthma risk among inner-city dwellers exposed to high levels of roach and mouse allergens and pollutants.
The new study confirms that children who live in such homes do have higher overall allergy and asthma rates but adds a surprising twist: Those who encounter such substances before their first birthdays seem to benefit rather than suffer from them.
Importantly, the protective effects of both allergen and bacterial exposure were not seen if a child’s first encounter with these substances occurred after age 1, the research found.
A report on the study, published on June 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, reveals that early exposure to bacteria and certain allergens may have a protective effect by shaping children’s immune responses—a finding that researchers say may help inform preventive strategies for allergies and wheezing, both precursors to asthma.
“Our study shows that the timing of initial exposure may be critical,” says study author Robert Wood, M.D., chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
“What this tells us is that not only are many of our immune responses shaped in the first year of life, but also that certain bacteria and allergens play an important role in stimulating and training the immune system to behave a certain way.”
Study DetailsThe study was conducted among 467 inner-city newborns from Baltimore, Boston, New York and St. Louis whose health was tracked over three years.
The investigators visited homes to measure the levels and types of allergens present in the infants’ surroundings and tested them for allergies and wheezing via periodic blood and skin-prick tests, physical exams, and parental surveys. In addition, the researchers collected and analyzed the bacterial content of dust collected from the homes of 104 of the 467 infants in the study.
Infants who grew up in homes with mouse and cat dander and cockroach droppings in the first year of life had lower rates of wheezing at age 3, compared with children not exposed to these allergens soon after birth.
The protective effect, moreover, was additive, the researchers found, with infants exposed to all three allergens having lower risk than those exposed to one, two, or none of the allergens.
Specifically, wheezing was three times as common among children who grew up without exposure to such allergens (51 percent), compared with children who spent their first year of life in houses where all three allergens were present (17 percent).
In addition, infants in homes with a greater variety of bacteria were less likely to develop environmental allergies and wheezing at age 3.
When researchers studied the effects of cumulative exposure to both bacteria and mouse, cockroach, and cat allergens, they noticed another striking difference.
Children free of wheezing and allergies at age 3 had grown up with the highest levels of household allergens and were the most likely to live in houses with the richest array of bacterial species. Some 41 percent of allergy-free and wheeze-free children had grown up in such allergen- and bacteria-rich homes.
By contrast, only 8 percent of children who suffered from both allergy and wheezing had been exposed to these substances in their first year of life.
Asthma is one of the most common pediatric illnesses, affecting some 7 million children in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By the time they turn 3, up to half of all children develop wheezing, which in many cases evolves into full-blown asthma.
Other institutions involved in the research included the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Boston University School of Medicine, the University of California–San Fran cisco, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Topic 2 of 2 Sunday 7/13/14
Health Benefits of Watermelon
Watermelon’s Remarkable Health Benefits
Watermelons are the perfect healthy treat for the summer. Sweet, juicy, and best served ice cold, click: watermelons are extremely versatile and delicious. Eat ‘em on their own or as part of a tasty click: fruit salad. Even better, the sweetness of watermelons work great in smoothies, helping you to feel energized throughout your day. And the benefits of watermelon don’t stop there. Did you know they’re excellent for your heath, too?
Click: Among the benefits of watermelon are the vitamins packed into the fruit. They’re a great source of vitamin A, C, and B6. Watermelons also contain the amino acids citrulline and arginine which can help maintain a healthy blood flow and boost your overall cardiovascular function. They’re also a great source of potassium, which can lower your risk of high blood pressure. Most people would think of bananas when it comes to good sources of potassium, but watermelons are just as good!
Vitamin C is a great immune booster, and while most people would quickly reach for an orange, it is one of the many benefits of watermelon that can improve your health. B6 vitamins can minimize the risk of inflammation and help support your nervous system, and vitamin A can actually keep cancer at bay by keeping your cells healthy and limiting the production of DNA in cancerous cells.
Watermelons also contain high levels of lycopene, which is an antioxidant that can also fight cancer and heart disease. Click: Lycopene is also quite high in tomatoes, and can also fight cardiovascular disease
Watermelons are great in click: salads, smoothies, or even on their own, but if you’re looking for a great refreshing summer drink, try this great tasting watermelon lemonade! Watermelons are synonymous with summer, as a hot summer picnic just isn’t the same without this delicious treat. Eat up!
__________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Dirt Good for Infant Immune System
Bacteria exposure may reduce allergies and asthma in newborns
Infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens, and a wide variety of household bacteria in the first year of life appear less likely to suffer from allergies, wheezing, and asthma, according to results of a study conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions.
Previous research has shown that children who grow up on farms have lower allergy and asthma rates, a phenomenon attributed to their regular exposure to microorganisms present in farm soil.
Other studies, however, have found increased asthma risk among inner-city dwellers exposed to high levels of roach and mouse allergens and pollutants.
The new study confirms that children who live in such homes do have higher overall allergy and asthma rates but adds a surprising twist: Those who encounter such substances before their first birthdays seem to benefit rather than suffer from them.
Importantly, the protective effects of both allergen and bacterial exposure were not seen if a child’s first encounter with these substances occurred after age 1, the research found.
A report on the study, published on June 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, reveals that early exposure to bacteria and certain allergens may have a protective effect by shaping children’s immune responses—a finding that researchers say may help inform preventive strategies for allergies and wheezing, both precursors to asthma.
“Our study shows that the timing of initial exposure may be critical,” says study author Robert Wood, M.D., chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
“What this tells us is that not only are many of our immune responses shaped in the first year of life, but also that certain bacteria and allergens play an important role in stimulating and training the immune system to behave a certain way.”
Study DetailsThe study was conducted among 467 inner-city newborns from Baltimore, Boston, New York and St. Louis whose health was tracked over three years.
The investigators visited homes to measure the levels and types of allergens present in the infants’ surroundings and tested them for allergies and wheezing via periodic blood and skin-prick tests, physical exams, and parental surveys. In addition, the researchers collected and analyzed the bacterial content of dust collected from the homes of 104 of the 467 infants in the study.
Infants who grew up in homes with mouse and cat dander and cockroach droppings in the first year of life had lower rates of wheezing at age 3, compared with children not exposed to these allergens soon after birth.
The protective effect, moreover, was additive, the researchers found, with infants exposed to all three allergens having lower risk than those exposed to one, two, or none of the allergens.
Specifically, wheezing was three times as common among children who grew up without exposure to such allergens (51 percent), compared with children who spent their first year of life in houses where all three allergens were present (17 percent).
In addition, infants in homes with a greater variety of bacteria were less likely to develop environmental allergies and wheezing at age 3.
When researchers studied the effects of cumulative exposure to both bacteria and mouse, cockroach, and cat allergens, they noticed another striking difference.
Children free of wheezing and allergies at age 3 had grown up with the highest levels of household allergens and were the most likely to live in houses with the richest array of bacterial species. Some 41 percent of allergy-free and wheeze-free children had grown up in such allergen- and bacteria-rich homes.
By contrast, only 8 percent of children who suffered from both allergy and wheezing had been exposed to these substances in their first year of life.
Asthma is one of the most common pediatric illnesses, affecting some 7 million children in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By the time they turn 3, up to half of all children develop wheezing, which in many cases evolves into full-blown asthma.
Other institutions involved in the research included the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Boston University School of Medicine, the University of California–San Fran cisco, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Topic 2 of 2 Sunday 7/13/14
Health Benefits of Watermelon
Watermelon’s Remarkable Health Benefits
Watermelons are the perfect healthy treat for the summer. Sweet, juicy, and best served ice cold, click: watermelons are extremely versatile and delicious. Eat ‘em on their own or as part of a tasty click: fruit salad. Even better, the sweetness of watermelons work great in smoothies, helping you to feel energized throughout your day. And the benefits of watermelon don’t stop there. Did you know they’re excellent for your heath, too?
Click: Among the benefits of watermelon are the vitamins packed into the fruit. They’re a great source of vitamin A, C, and B6. Watermelons also contain the amino acids citrulline and arginine which can help maintain a healthy blood flow and boost your overall cardiovascular function. They’re also a great source of potassium, which can lower your risk of high blood pressure. Most people would think of bananas when it comes to good sources of potassium, but watermelons are just as good!
Vitamin C is a great immune booster, and while most people would quickly reach for an orange, it is one of the many benefits of watermelon that can improve your health. B6 vitamins can minimize the risk of inflammation and help support your nervous system, and vitamin A can actually keep cancer at bay by keeping your cells healthy and limiting the production of DNA in cancerous cells.
Watermelons also contain high levels of lycopene, which is an antioxidant that can also fight cancer and heart disease. Click: Lycopene is also quite high in tomatoes, and can also fight cardiovascular disease
Watermelons are great in click: salads, smoothies, or even on their own, but if you’re looking for a great refreshing summer drink, try this great tasting watermelon lemonade! Watermelons are synonymous with summer, as a hot summer picnic just isn’t the same without this delicious treat. Eat up!
__________________________
Sunday, 7/20/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
The focus of Asian diet plan is to create wellness. By practicing these dietary habits you will have health and energy for life.
We all know: ”Health is not simply the absence of sickness.” — Hannah Green click: Hannah Green
Consider ways to eat what you enjoy and enjoy what you eat by following these Asian Diet secrets.
This list has been perfected and practiced for centuries.
To paraphrase Sun Simiao, the great Chinese physician in the sixth century, one wastes the skill of a great physician if one does not first consider the food he or she are eating. This is still true today. Consider also when you eat and how you eat as you read the tips below. click: Sun Simiao
11 Diet Habits suitable for you and for the rest of the world to follow
#1. Limit Drinks, Especially Cold Drinks With Meals
Americans have a bad habit of drinking a cold glass of water or soda with meals. Changing this habit alone will create better digestion of food. Limit fluid intake with your meals and you will stop diluting your digestive enzymes which are so important for proper digestion. Green tea or other hot teas before a meal supports enzymatic activity and helps enhance your digestive abilities. It’s best to add liquids 30 minutes before or after meals, not during.
The digestive process starts in the mouth. The purpose of chewing is not only to cut the food in smaller pieces but also to mix it well with the saliva. Saliva is an important ingredients in a healthy digestive balance. That's why slow eating is important - to chew every bite 20 - 30 times is needed. Also water must be blended with saliva - roll every water-"mouth-ful" well to mix it with saliva.
#2. Enjoy Soup Often as an appetizer or as the main item
Soup is a nutrient dense food and fills you up quickly. You don’t need much, just a half cup is beneficial. Most Asian soups are made with bones and/or combinations of vegetables so you’re getting lots of vitamins and minerals even with a small portion. Whether it is bone broth soup, vegetable or miso, soups are rich in vitamins and minerals and easily absorbed. Secondly, but equally important is that the warm temperature of soup (like tea) can improve the entire digestive process.
#3. Eat a 3:1 Ratio Vegetables to Meat
3:1 means three times the amount of vegetables to the amount of meat. The meat and potato American diet does not make much room for vegetables on the plate. In fact, the favorite American vegetable, potatoes, (i.e., French fries) should be replaced with sweet potatoes if you absolutely can’t live without that starch. Better still, consider vegetables with bitter flavors. Give radishes, radicchio and bitter melon a spot on your plate.
#4. Small Plates and Chopsticks
Small serving bowls and small plates are a great way to eat smaller portions. I love to mix up attractive small plates and bowls in different shapes and sizes. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to eat from these but it helps you eat smaller portions. Chopsticks are another easy way to avoid the shovel techniques of eating. For the average American inexperienced chopstick user, they are guaranteed to slow down your rate of consumption and give your stomach time to send the message to your brain that you’re full and it’s time to stop eating.
#5. Rice Combining
Rice combinations like black, brown, red, or even purple rice are nutritionally denser than white or brown alone. (The best is unpolished/less processed rice, because it is rich in B vitamins.) Rice is eaten to supplement the meal in Asia, not a main course. Rice has always been a popular carbohydrate, cheap to grow and easy to transport and store. But as a carbohydrate it is converted into sugar during the digestive process. This means it can cause a dramatic effect in our glycemic index. This is good for fast energy, but bad if you want to avoid blood sugar fluctuations and bad for those who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Rice combinations are less starchy therefore less sugar conversion and lower in calories.
click: Glycemic index glycemic index = The effects that different foods have on blood glucose levels (i.e., blood sugar) vary considerably.
The glycemic index or glycaemic index (GI) attempts to measure this variation.
#6. Not Every Night Is Dessert Night
My kids will tell you from the time they were very little if they asked about dessert, my standard answer was “tonight is not dessert night.” Admittedly, this didn’t work so well past the age of 7, but it’s still a great rule of thumb. If you must have dessert make it fruit. Fruit is nutritious and delicious and a common Asian dessert. Cut and serve it up in a fun and interesting way to make it that much more exciting. Sugary cakes, cookies and ice cream can be for special celebrations only.
#7. Seafood — See Food Differently
No need to repeat what we already know. Research supports this common Asian diet practice of eating fish daily. We’ve heard all about the healthy oils from fish. Fish has always been part of man’s diet nearly everywhere in the world, not just Asia. But the Asian culture has kept this part of their heritage alive better than most.
#8. Asian Snacks are Healthier
Take a look at what Asians eat for snacks and compare it with the American chips and cookies and you’ll understand part of the reason Americans are so overweight and Asians are not. Choose seaweed snacks, nuts, dried fruit and seeds. I love pumpkin and sunflower seeds. All are easy to find in nearly every market. These healthy snacks are packed full of micro-nutrients, vitamins and minerals and the choices are limitless. One caveat, do watch out for the salt content of nuts. Raw is preferred but admittedly not as tasty as salted. If you really want the salt, try “lightly salted” versions.
#9. Optimize Food Temperatures With Seasons
Energetic temperatures of foods should not be overlooked. Eat warming foods in cold weather and cooling foods in hot weather. This common-sense rule of thumb is barely spoken in Asia because it’s simply practiced. Cold drinks and cold foods such celery, melons and cold salads are not eaten in the middle of winter. Hot soups and stews with meat are preferred because this is what the body needs in cold weather. A hot summer day is the perfect time for watermelon or a cooling drink made with aloe and cucumber. Every food has an energetic temperature and acts on the body accordingly. Eating the right temperature foods during the various season of the year is an important part of a healthy diet.
#10. Avoid Cow’s Milk and Milk Combining
Milk combines horribly with just about everything, while supplying vastly too much calcium and not enough magnesium. Cow’s milk is completely absent in Asian diets. Other cultures such as Jewish kosher rules recognized thousands of years ago that milk products should be eaten apart from other foods. If you just can’t give up cow’s milk, at the very least don’t ignore the tenet of food combining. Combining the wrong foods, i.e., dairy, slows down gut motility to a snail’s pace, the exact opposite of what is best for healthy digestion. Replacements for cow’s milk are easier than ever today with the arrival of convenient cartons of almond, coconut, rice or organic soy milk.
#11 is regular bowel movements.
Healthy eating and good digestion create healthy bowel movements and a healthy gut is a clean gut. Although often not talked about in the S.A.D. Standard American Diet, a minimum of one bowel movement a day is an absolute necessity. So much of our immune system is dependent on our gut health and this is one reason proper digestion is key to optimizing our health and wellness. This is our body’s natural detox method and the last on this list of Asian diet tips.
(Not endorsed by STAF, Inc. - check on your own risk: Check out Skinny Boost Herb Pack a Chinese herb formula for improving bowel health is the #1 formula used in Japan to improve weight loss results and detox the gut gently and safely.
This article was originally published on www.pacherbs.com.
Then also in The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times, click: The Epoch Times
____________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
The focus of Asian diet plan is to create wellness. By practicing these dietary habits you will have health and energy for life.
We all know: ”Health is not simply the absence of sickness.” — Hannah Green click: Hannah Green
Consider ways to eat what you enjoy and enjoy what you eat by following these Asian Diet secrets.
This list has been perfected and practiced for centuries.
To paraphrase Sun Simiao, the great Chinese physician in the sixth century, one wastes the skill of a great physician if one does not first consider the food he or she are eating. This is still true today. Consider also when you eat and how you eat as you read the tips below. click: Sun Simiao
11 Diet Habits suitable for you and for the rest of the world to follow
#1. Limit Drinks, Especially Cold Drinks With Meals
Americans have a bad habit of drinking a cold glass of water or soda with meals. Changing this habit alone will create better digestion of food. Limit fluid intake with your meals and you will stop diluting your digestive enzymes which are so important for proper digestion. Green tea or other hot teas before a meal supports enzymatic activity and helps enhance your digestive abilities. It’s best to add liquids 30 minutes before or after meals, not during.
The digestive process starts in the mouth. The purpose of chewing is not only to cut the food in smaller pieces but also to mix it well with the saliva. Saliva is an important ingredients in a healthy digestive balance. That's why slow eating is important - to chew every bite 20 - 30 times is needed. Also water must be blended with saliva - roll every water-"mouth-ful" well to mix it with saliva.
#2. Enjoy Soup Often as an appetizer or as the main item
Soup is a nutrient dense food and fills you up quickly. You don’t need much, just a half cup is beneficial. Most Asian soups are made with bones and/or combinations of vegetables so you’re getting lots of vitamins and minerals even with a small portion. Whether it is bone broth soup, vegetable or miso, soups are rich in vitamins and minerals and easily absorbed. Secondly, but equally important is that the warm temperature of soup (like tea) can improve the entire digestive process.
#3. Eat a 3:1 Ratio Vegetables to Meat
3:1 means three times the amount of vegetables to the amount of meat. The meat and potato American diet does not make much room for vegetables on the plate. In fact, the favorite American vegetable, potatoes, (i.e., French fries) should be replaced with sweet potatoes if you absolutely can’t live without that starch. Better still, consider vegetables with bitter flavors. Give radishes, radicchio and bitter melon a spot on your plate.
#4. Small Plates and Chopsticks
Small serving bowls and small plates are a great way to eat smaller portions. I love to mix up attractive small plates and bowls in different shapes and sizes. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to eat from these but it helps you eat smaller portions. Chopsticks are another easy way to avoid the shovel techniques of eating. For the average American inexperienced chopstick user, they are guaranteed to slow down your rate of consumption and give your stomach time to send the message to your brain that you’re full and it’s time to stop eating.
#5. Rice Combining
Rice combinations like black, brown, red, or even purple rice are nutritionally denser than white or brown alone. (The best is unpolished/less processed rice, because it is rich in B vitamins.) Rice is eaten to supplement the meal in Asia, not a main course. Rice has always been a popular carbohydrate, cheap to grow and easy to transport and store. But as a carbohydrate it is converted into sugar during the digestive process. This means it can cause a dramatic effect in our glycemic index. This is good for fast energy, but bad if you want to avoid blood sugar fluctuations and bad for those who are diabetic or pre-diabetic. Rice combinations are less starchy therefore less sugar conversion and lower in calories.
click: Glycemic index glycemic index = The effects that different foods have on blood glucose levels (i.e., blood sugar) vary considerably.
The glycemic index or glycaemic index (GI) attempts to measure this variation.
#6. Not Every Night Is Dessert Night
My kids will tell you from the time they were very little if they asked about dessert, my standard answer was “tonight is not dessert night.” Admittedly, this didn’t work so well past the age of 7, but it’s still a great rule of thumb. If you must have dessert make it fruit. Fruit is nutritious and delicious and a common Asian dessert. Cut and serve it up in a fun and interesting way to make it that much more exciting. Sugary cakes, cookies and ice cream can be for special celebrations only.
#7. Seafood — See Food Differently
No need to repeat what we already know. Research supports this common Asian diet practice of eating fish daily. We’ve heard all about the healthy oils from fish. Fish has always been part of man’s diet nearly everywhere in the world, not just Asia. But the Asian culture has kept this part of their heritage alive better than most.
#8. Asian Snacks are Healthier
Take a look at what Asians eat for snacks and compare it with the American chips and cookies and you’ll understand part of the reason Americans are so overweight and Asians are not. Choose seaweed snacks, nuts, dried fruit and seeds. I love pumpkin and sunflower seeds. All are easy to find in nearly every market. These healthy snacks are packed full of micro-nutrients, vitamins and minerals and the choices are limitless. One caveat, do watch out for the salt content of nuts. Raw is preferred but admittedly not as tasty as salted. If you really want the salt, try “lightly salted” versions.
#9. Optimize Food Temperatures With Seasons
Energetic temperatures of foods should not be overlooked. Eat warming foods in cold weather and cooling foods in hot weather. This common-sense rule of thumb is barely spoken in Asia because it’s simply practiced. Cold drinks and cold foods such celery, melons and cold salads are not eaten in the middle of winter. Hot soups and stews with meat are preferred because this is what the body needs in cold weather. A hot summer day is the perfect time for watermelon or a cooling drink made with aloe and cucumber. Every food has an energetic temperature and acts on the body accordingly. Eating the right temperature foods during the various season of the year is an important part of a healthy diet.
#10. Avoid Cow’s Milk and Milk Combining
Milk combines horribly with just about everything, while supplying vastly too much calcium and not enough magnesium. Cow’s milk is completely absent in Asian diets. Other cultures such as Jewish kosher rules recognized thousands of years ago that milk products should be eaten apart from other foods. If you just can’t give up cow’s milk, at the very least don’t ignore the tenet of food combining. Combining the wrong foods, i.e., dairy, slows down gut motility to a snail’s pace, the exact opposite of what is best for healthy digestion. Replacements for cow’s milk are easier than ever today with the arrival of convenient cartons of almond, coconut, rice or organic soy milk.
#11 is regular bowel movements.
Healthy eating and good digestion create healthy bowel movements and a healthy gut is a clean gut. Although often not talked about in the S.A.D. Standard American Diet, a minimum of one bowel movement a day is an absolute necessity. So much of our immune system is dependent on our gut health and this is one reason proper digestion is key to optimizing our health and wellness. This is our body’s natural detox method and the last on this list of Asian diet tips.
(Not endorsed by STAF, Inc. - check on your own risk: Check out Skinny Boost Herb Pack a Chinese herb formula for improving bowel health is the #1 formula used in Japan to improve weight loss results and detox the gut gently and safely.
This article was originally published on www.pacherbs.com.
Then also in The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times, click: The Epoch Times
____________________________
Sunday, 8/10/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Top 10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs
Cooked up in a lab and served on our plates, it’s time to investigate the 10 most worrying facts about GMO foods. From venomous*) cabbages to spine tingling diseases, this might put you off your dinner.
*) venomous = poisonous = of animals, especially snakes, or their parts, secreting venom; capable of injecting venom by means of a bite or sting;
venom = a poisonous substance secreted by animals such as snakes, spiders, and scorpions and typically injected into prey or aggressors by biting or stinging; synonyms:poison, toxin
Click: Genetically modified organism
Throughout the article click the green web links for further info
If you don’t know whether or not you’re eating genetically modified organisms, you’re not alone—at least in the U.S. Despite the many petitions and appeals for state or federal regulations on labeling foods that contain GMOs, none have passed. And that means companies still don’t have to disclose whether or not a product includes genetically modified organisms. What’s the big deal, you ask?
More than 60 countries require GMO labeling (or ban GMOs altogether) for a number of reasons. While there are many, these are some of the most common concerns:
1. Are they safe? Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow—they’ll all tell you their GMO products have met safety requirements, but the truth is, long term studies haven’t been done on their impact to the human body. USDA approval requires several processes that prove safety, but GMOs have only been in our diet since the mid-’90s, so it’s difficult to know what the long-term health impacts truly are.
2. Known health risks: What we do know is that when genetic modification happens, genes are forced to express certain traits (including pesticides). To do this, the scientists “turn on” all the gene’s components, which can mean releasing allergens that would normally not be expressed in a non-GMO variety. Experts like Jeffrey Smith suggest this is directly related to the rise in health issues.
3. Heavy use of toxic pesticides and herbicides: By design, genetically modified seeds require pesticides and herbicides. While some manufacturers have claimed the pesticide use would decrease over time, it’s only increased, according to a peer-reviewed 2012 study.
4. Pesticides and digestive health: The main function of herbicides and pesticides is to kill unwanted plants and insects. Glyphosate—the most common herbicide used on GMO crops—has been shown to negatively impact the gut bacteria of humans. Jeffrey Smith’s recent film Genetic Roulette highlights the parallel of GMOs in our diet and the rise in digestive health issues and food allergies.
5. Cancer: Both pesticides and GMOs have been connected with an increased risk of certain types of cancer. There are additonal health concerns too including reproductive issues, autism and even heart disease.
6. Environmental impact: GMO crops and their companion pesticides and herbicides wreak havoc on the environment including polluting air, water and soil. Glyphosate—marketed by Monsanto as the herbicide Roundup—is in effect, an antibiotic, which can destroy soil quality and thus impair the plant’s nutritional value as well.
Cross-pollination *) between GMO and non-GMO crops is common as well, and can destroy natural plant varieties in the wild.Click: Pollination
7. Superbugs and superweeds: Despite the claims that pesticides and GMO crops can relieve farmers of crop-destroying insects and plants, the opposite is showing to be true. Farmers in the Midwest are now battling superbugs and superweeds resistant to pesticides. They’re damaging crops and farm equipment and costing the farmers more money in having to apply heavier doses of toxic pesticides.
8. Patent issues: At the core of the GMO industry is the corporate ownership of seed and seed patents. Companies like Monsanto are notorious for suing small farmers for saving seeds or if GMO crop drift pollinates on their land.
9. Corporate protection: Earlier this year, the U.S. government passed a bill nicknamed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” In essence, it grants biotech companies immunity from the courts, even if a judge determines it’s unlawful to plant GMO crops, the companies can do it anyway.
10. Prolific presence: Whether or not GMOs are safe has yet to be determined, yet every day, millions of Americans eat them unknowingly due to the lack of labeling requirements. Are you a lab rat? Don’t you at least have the right to know what you’re eating
Click: Countries & Regions With GE Food/Crop Bans
Source:
(1) The Epoch Times
(2) This article was originally published on www.NaturallySavvy.com
(3) STAF, Inc,
____________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Top 10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs
Cooked up in a lab and served on our plates, it’s time to investigate the 10 most worrying facts about GMO foods. From venomous*) cabbages to spine tingling diseases, this might put you off your dinner.
*) venomous = poisonous = of animals, especially snakes, or their parts, secreting venom; capable of injecting venom by means of a bite or sting;
venom = a poisonous substance secreted by animals such as snakes, spiders, and scorpions and typically injected into prey or aggressors by biting or stinging; synonyms:poison, toxin
Click: Genetically modified organism
Throughout the article click the green web links for further info
If you don’t know whether or not you’re eating genetically modified organisms, you’re not alone—at least in the U.S. Despite the many petitions and appeals for state or federal regulations on labeling foods that contain GMOs, none have passed. And that means companies still don’t have to disclose whether or not a product includes genetically modified organisms. What’s the big deal, you ask?
More than 60 countries require GMO labeling (or ban GMOs altogether) for a number of reasons. While there are many, these are some of the most common concerns:
1. Are they safe? Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow—they’ll all tell you their GMO products have met safety requirements, but the truth is, long term studies haven’t been done on their impact to the human body. USDA approval requires several processes that prove safety, but GMOs have only been in our diet since the mid-’90s, so it’s difficult to know what the long-term health impacts truly are.
2. Known health risks: What we do know is that when genetic modification happens, genes are forced to express certain traits (including pesticides). To do this, the scientists “turn on” all the gene’s components, which can mean releasing allergens that would normally not be expressed in a non-GMO variety. Experts like Jeffrey Smith suggest this is directly related to the rise in health issues.
3. Heavy use of toxic pesticides and herbicides: By design, genetically modified seeds require pesticides and herbicides. While some manufacturers have claimed the pesticide use would decrease over time, it’s only increased, according to a peer-reviewed 2012 study.
4. Pesticides and digestive health: The main function of herbicides and pesticides is to kill unwanted plants and insects. Glyphosate—the most common herbicide used on GMO crops—has been shown to negatively impact the gut bacteria of humans. Jeffrey Smith’s recent film Genetic Roulette highlights the parallel of GMOs in our diet and the rise in digestive health issues and food allergies.
5. Cancer: Both pesticides and GMOs have been connected with an increased risk of certain types of cancer. There are additonal health concerns too including reproductive issues, autism and even heart disease.
6. Environmental impact: GMO crops and their companion pesticides and herbicides wreak havoc on the environment including polluting air, water and soil. Glyphosate—marketed by Monsanto as the herbicide Roundup—is in effect, an antibiotic, which can destroy soil quality and thus impair the plant’s nutritional value as well.
Cross-pollination *) between GMO and non-GMO crops is common as well, and can destroy natural plant varieties in the wild.Click: Pollination
7. Superbugs and superweeds: Despite the claims that pesticides and GMO crops can relieve farmers of crop-destroying insects and plants, the opposite is showing to be true. Farmers in the Midwest are now battling superbugs and superweeds resistant to pesticides. They’re damaging crops and farm equipment and costing the farmers more money in having to apply heavier doses of toxic pesticides.
8. Patent issues: At the core of the GMO industry is the corporate ownership of seed and seed patents. Companies like Monsanto are notorious for suing small farmers for saving seeds or if GMO crop drift pollinates on their land.
9. Corporate protection: Earlier this year, the U.S. government passed a bill nicknamed the “Monsanto Protection Act.” In essence, it grants biotech companies immunity from the courts, even if a judge determines it’s unlawful to plant GMO crops, the companies can do it anyway.
10. Prolific presence: Whether or not GMOs are safe has yet to be determined, yet every day, millions of Americans eat them unknowingly due to the lack of labeling requirements. Are you a lab rat? Don’t you at least have the right to know what you’re eating
Click: Countries & Regions With GE Food/Crop Bans
Source:
(1) The Epoch Times
(2) This article was originally published on www.NaturallySavvy.com
(3) STAF, Inc,
____________________________________________
Sunday, 8/31/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Click the green title below for the basic info:
Have you had your bacteria (= your fermented food) today? - (If the link has expired, search with the title)
Bacteria = Probiotics
Click: Health benefits of taking probiotics www.health.harvard.edu/
(If the link has expired, search with the title)
Topic 2 of 2
click:Teens eat better when parents are home for meals
(on the same page as the topic 1 of 2) see the lower part of the page) (If the link has expired, search with the title)
________________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Click the green title below for the basic info:
Have you had your bacteria (= your fermented food) today? - (If the link has expired, search with the title)
Bacteria = Probiotics
Click: Health benefits of taking probiotics www.health.harvard.edu/
(If the link has expired, search with the title)
Topic 2 of 2
click:Teens eat better when parents are home for meals
(on the same page as the topic 1 of 2) see the lower part of the page) (If the link has expired, search with the title)
________________________________________________
Sunday, 9/7/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information the text below is the basic topic text
Topics # 1 of 2 - 2 of 2
Click: 10 Foods You May Think Are Healthy, but Aren't (Part 1) Click: 10 Foods You May Think Are Healthy, but Aren't (Part 2) (If the link has expired, search with the title) ______________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information the text below is the basic topic text
Topics # 1 of 2 - 2 of 2
Click: 10 Foods You May Think Are Healthy, but Aren't (Part 1) Click: 10 Foods You May Think Are Healthy, but Aren't (Part 2) (If the link has expired, search with the title) ______________________________________________
Wednesday, 10/15/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
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Topic # 1 of 1
Article # 1 of 2 - Article # 2 of 2 next below
A Musical Fix for American Schools
Research shows that music training boosts IQ, focus and persistence
Instruction in music literally expanded students’ brains.
American education is in perpetual crisis. Our students are falling ever farther behind their peers in the rest of the world. Learning disabilities have reached epidemic proportions, affecting as many as one in five of our children. Illiteracy costs American businesses $80 billion a year.
Many solutions have been tried, but few have succeeded. So I propose a different approach: music training. A growing body of evidence suggests that music could trump many of the much more expensive “fixes” that we have thrown at the education system.
Plenty of outstanding achievers have attributed at least some of their success to music study. Stanford University’s Thomas Sudhof, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine last year, gave credit to his bassoon teacher. Albert Einstein, who began playing the violin at age 6, said his discovery of the theory of relativity was “the result of musical perception.”
Click: Thomas Sudhof
Until recently, though, it has been a chicken-and-egg question: Are smart, ambitious people naturally attracted to music? Or does music make them smart and ambitious? And do musically trained students fare better academically because they tend to come from more affluent, better educated families?
New research provides some intriguing answers. Music is no cure-all, nor is it likely to turn your child into a Nobel Prize winner. But there is compelling evidence that it can boost children’s academic performance and help fix some of our schools’ most intractable problems.
Music raises your IQ.
E. Glenn Schellenberg, a University of Toronto psychology professor, was skeptical about claims that music makes you smarter when he devised a 2004 study to assess its impact on IQ scores. He randomly assigned 132 first-graders to keyboard, singing or drama lessons, or no lessons at all. He figured that at the end of the school year, both music and drama students would show bumps in IQ scores, just because of “that experience of getting them out of the house.” But something unexpected happened. The IQ scores of the music students increased more than those of the other groups.
Another Canadian study, this one of 48 preschoolers and published in 2011, found that verbal IQ increased after only 20 days of music training. In fact, the increase was five times that of a control group of preschoolers, who were given visual art lessons, says lead researcher Sylvain Moreno, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He found that music training enhanced the children’s “executive function”—that is, their brains’ ability to plan, organize, strategize and solve problems. And he found the effect in 90% of the children, an unusually high rate.
Music training can reduce the academic gap between rich and poor districts.
The Harmony Project in Los Angeles gives free instrument lessons to children in impoverished neighborhoods. Margaret Martin, who founded the program in 2001, noticed
that the program’s students not only did better in school but also were more likely to graduate and to attend college.
To understand why, Northwestern University neurobiologist Nina Kraus spent two years tracking 44 6-to-9-year-olds in the program and then measured their brain activity. She found a significant increase in the music students’ ability to process sounds, which is key to language, reading and focus in the classroom. Academic results bore that out: While the music students’ reading scores held steady, scores for a control group that didn’t receive lessons declined.
Prof. Kraus found similar results in a 2013 study published in Frontiers in Educational Psychology of 43 high-school students from impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago. Students randomly assigned to band or choir lessons showed significant increases in their ability to process sounds, while those in a control group, who were enrolled in a junior ROTC program, didn’t. “A musician has to make sense of a complicated soundscape,” Prof. Kraus says, which translates into an ability to understand language and to focus, for example, on what a teacher is saying in a noisy classroom.
Last year, the German Institute for Economic Research compared music training with sports, theater and dance in a study of 17-year-olds. The research, based on a survey of more than 3,000 teens, found that those who had taken music lessons outside school scored significantly higher in terms of cognitive skills, had better grades and were more conscientious and ambitious than their peers. The impact of music was more than twice that of the other activities—and held true regardless of the students’ socioeconomic background.
To be sure, the other activities also had benefits. Kids in sports also showed increased ambition, while those in theater and dance expressed more optimism. But when it came to core academic skills, the study’s authors found, the impact of music training was much stronger.
Music can be an inexpensive early screening tool for reading disabilities.
Brazilian music teacher Paulo Estevao Andrade noticed that his second-grade students who struggled with rhythm and pitch often went on to have reading problems. So he invented a “game” in which he played a series of chords on a guitar and asked his students to write symbols representing high and low notes. Those who performed poorly on the exercise, he found, typically developed severe reading problems down the line.
Intrigued, he joined with Nadine Gaab, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, to follow 43 students over three years, and they found that the test predicted general learning disabilities as well. Why? Mr. Andrade notes that the brain processes used in the music test—such as auditory sequencing abilities, necessary to hear syllables, words and sentences in order—are the same as those needed to learn to read. Prof. Gaab says the test, which is simple and inexpensive to administer, has great potential as a tool for early intervention.
Music literally expands your brain.
In a 2009 study in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers used an MRI to study the brains of 31 6-year-old children, before and after they took lessons on musical instrument for 15 months. They found that the music students’ brains grew larger in the areas that control fine motor skills and hearing—and that students’ abilities in both those areas also
improved. The corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain, grew as well.
click: Corpus callosum
click: Images for corpus callosum
Ellen Winner, a Boston College psychology professor and co-author of the study, notes that the study doesn’t show a rise in cognitive abilities. But she argues that music shouldn’t have to justify itself as an academic booster. “If we are going to look for effects outside of music, I would look at things like persistence and discipline, because this is what’s required to play an instrument,” she says.
Yet music programs continue to be viewed as expendable. A 2011 analysis in the Journal of Economic Finance calculated that a K-12 school music program in a large suburban district cost $187 per student a year, or just 1.6% of the total education budget. That seems a reasonable price to pay for fixing some of the thorniest and most expensive problems facing American education. Music programs shouldn’t have to sing for their supper.
Source: WSJ click:
Click for the original text to see the pictures - if the link has expired search with the article title
A Musical Fix for American Schools - WSJ
________________________
Article # 2 of 2
This article # 2 of 2
is an additional article not handled in today's radio show - however it has been handled in another, earlier show -
Beneficial article for every person
Is Music the Key to Success?
Condoleezza Rice trained to be a concert pianist. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. The hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard.
click: Condoleezza Rice - click: Alan Greenspan click: Bruce Kovner click: The Juilliard School
Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?
The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements.
The phenomenon extends beyond the math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.
Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)?
click: Paul Allen
Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.
Look carefully and you’ll find musicians at the top of almost any industry. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula Zahn (cello) and the NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell trained to become a professional violinist. Both Microsoft’s Mr. Allen and the venture capitalist Roger McNamee have rock bands. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist. The former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn has played cello at Carnegie Hall.
“It’s not a coincidence,” says Mr. Greenspan, who gave up jazz clarinet but still dabbles at the baby grand in his living room. “I can tell you as a statistician, the probability that that is mere chance is extremely small.” The cautious former Fed chief adds, “That’s all that you can judge about the facts. The crucial question is: why does that connection exist?”
Paul Allen offers an answer. He says music “reinforces your confidence in the ability to create.” Mr. Allen began playing the violin at age 7 and switched to the guitar as a teenager. Even in the early days of Microsoft, he would pick up his guitar at the end of marathon days of programming. The music was the emotional analog to his day job, with each channeling a different type of creative impulse. In both, he says, “something is pushing you to look beyond what currently exists and express yourself in a new way.”
Mr. Todd says there is a connection between years of practice and competition and what he calls the “drive for perfection.” The veteran advertising executive Steve Hayden credits his background as a cellist for his most famous work, the Apple “1984” commercial depicting rebellion against a dictator. “I was thinking of Stravinsky when I came up with that idea,” he says. He adds that his cello performance background helps him work collaboratively: “Ensemble playing trains you, quite literally, to play well with others, to know when to solo and when to follow.”
For many of the high achievers I spoke with, music functions as a “hidden language,” as Mr. Wolfensohn calls it, one that enhances the ability to connect disparate or even contradictory ideas. When he ran the World Bank, Mr. Wolfensohn traveled to more than 100 countries, often taking in local performances (and occasionally joining in on a borrowed cello), which helped him understand “the culture of people, as distinct from their balance sheet.”
It’s in that context that the much-discussed connection between math and music resonates most. Both are at heart modes of expression. Bruce Kovner, the founder of the hedge fund Caxton Associates and chairman of the board of Juilliard, says he sees similarities between his piano playing and investing strategy; as he says, both “relate to pattern recognition, and some people extend these paradigms across different senses.”
Mr. Kovner and the concert pianist Robert Taub both describe a sort of synesthesia — they perceive patterns in a three-dimensional way. Mr. Taub, who gained fame for his Beethoven recordings and has since founded a music software company, MuseAmi, says that when he performs, he can “visualize all of the notes and their interrelationships,” a skill that translates intellectually into making “multiple connections in multiple spheres.”
For others I spoke to, their passion for music is more notable than their talent. Woody Allen told me bluntly, “I’m not an accomplished musician. I get total traction from the fact that I’m in movies.”
Mr. Allen sees music as a diversion, unconnected to his day job. He likens himself to “a weekend tennis player who comes in once a week to play. I don’t have a particularly good ear at all or a particularly good sense of timing. In comedy, I’ve got a good instinct for rhythm. In music, I don’t, really.”
Still, he practices the clarinet at least half an hour every day, because wind players will lose their embouchure (mouth position) if they don’t: “If you want to play at all you have to practice. I have to practice every single day to be as bad as I am.” He performs regularly, even touring internationally with his New Orleans jazz band. “I never thought I would be playing in concert halls of the world to 5,000, 6,000 people,” he says. “I will say, quite unexpectedly, it enriched my life tremendously.”
Music provides balance, explains Mr. Wolfensohn, who began cello lessons as an adult. “You aren’t trying to win any races or be the leader of this or the leader of that. You’re enjoying it because of the satisfaction and joy you get out of music, which is totally unrelated to your professional status.
For Roger McNamee click: Roger McNamee, whose Elevation Partners click: Elevation Partners
is perhaps best known for its early investment in Facebook, “music and technology have converged,” he says. He became expert on Facebook by using it to promote his band, Moonalice click:Moonalice, and now is focusing on video by live-streaming its concerts. He says musicians and top professionals share “the almost desperate need to dive deep.” This capacity to obsess seems to unite top performers in music and other fields.
Ms. Zahn remembers spending up to four hours a day “holed up in cramped practice rooms trying to master a phrase” on her cello. Mr. Todd, now 41, recounted in detail the solo audition at age 17 when he got the second-highest mark rather than the highest mark — though he still was principal horn in Florida’s All-State Orchestra.
“I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time,” and it translates into “working on something over and over again, or double-checking or triple-checking.” He adds, “There’s nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results.”
That’s an observation worth remembering at a time when music as a serious pursuit — and music education — is in decline in this country.
Consider the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening.
Source: NYT
Is Music the Key to Success?
_________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Article # 1 of 2 - Article # 2 of 2 next below
A Musical Fix for American Schools
Research shows that music training boosts IQ, focus and persistence
Instruction in music literally expanded students’ brains.
American education is in perpetual crisis. Our students are falling ever farther behind their peers in the rest of the world. Learning disabilities have reached epidemic proportions, affecting as many as one in five of our children. Illiteracy costs American businesses $80 billion a year.
Many solutions have been tried, but few have succeeded. So I propose a different approach: music training. A growing body of evidence suggests that music could trump many of the much more expensive “fixes” that we have thrown at the education system.
Plenty of outstanding achievers have attributed at least some of their success to music study. Stanford University’s Thomas Sudhof, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine last year, gave credit to his bassoon teacher. Albert Einstein, who began playing the violin at age 6, said his discovery of the theory of relativity was “the result of musical perception.”
Click: Thomas Sudhof
Until recently, though, it has been a chicken-and-egg question: Are smart, ambitious people naturally attracted to music? Or does music make them smart and ambitious? And do musically trained students fare better academically because they tend to come from more affluent, better educated families?
New research provides some intriguing answers. Music is no cure-all, nor is it likely to turn your child into a Nobel Prize winner. But there is compelling evidence that it can boost children’s academic performance and help fix some of our schools’ most intractable problems.
Music raises your IQ.
E. Glenn Schellenberg, a University of Toronto psychology professor, was skeptical about claims that music makes you smarter when he devised a 2004 study to assess its impact on IQ scores. He randomly assigned 132 first-graders to keyboard, singing or drama lessons, or no lessons at all. He figured that at the end of the school year, both music and drama students would show bumps in IQ scores, just because of “that experience of getting them out of the house.” But something unexpected happened. The IQ scores of the music students increased more than those of the other groups.
Another Canadian study, this one of 48 preschoolers and published in 2011, found that verbal IQ increased after only 20 days of music training. In fact, the increase was five times that of a control group of preschoolers, who were given visual art lessons, says lead researcher Sylvain Moreno, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He found that music training enhanced the children’s “executive function”—that is, their brains’ ability to plan, organize, strategize and solve problems. And he found the effect in 90% of the children, an unusually high rate.
Music training can reduce the academic gap between rich and poor districts.
The Harmony Project in Los Angeles gives free instrument lessons to children in impoverished neighborhoods. Margaret Martin, who founded the program in 2001, noticed
that the program’s students not only did better in school but also were more likely to graduate and to attend college.
To understand why, Northwestern University neurobiologist Nina Kraus spent two years tracking 44 6-to-9-year-olds in the program and then measured their brain activity. She found a significant increase in the music students’ ability to process sounds, which is key to language, reading and focus in the classroom. Academic results bore that out: While the music students’ reading scores held steady, scores for a control group that didn’t receive lessons declined.
Prof. Kraus found similar results in a 2013 study published in Frontiers in Educational Psychology of 43 high-school students from impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago. Students randomly assigned to band or choir lessons showed significant increases in their ability to process sounds, while those in a control group, who were enrolled in a junior ROTC program, didn’t. “A musician has to make sense of a complicated soundscape,” Prof. Kraus says, which translates into an ability to understand language and to focus, for example, on what a teacher is saying in a noisy classroom.
Last year, the German Institute for Economic Research compared music training with sports, theater and dance in a study of 17-year-olds. The research, based on a survey of more than 3,000 teens, found that those who had taken music lessons outside school scored significantly higher in terms of cognitive skills, had better grades and were more conscientious and ambitious than their peers. The impact of music was more than twice that of the other activities—and held true regardless of the students’ socioeconomic background.
To be sure, the other activities also had benefits. Kids in sports also showed increased ambition, while those in theater and dance expressed more optimism. But when it came to core academic skills, the study’s authors found, the impact of music training was much stronger.
Music can be an inexpensive early screening tool for reading disabilities.
Brazilian music teacher Paulo Estevao Andrade noticed that his second-grade students who struggled with rhythm and pitch often went on to have reading problems. So he invented a “game” in which he played a series of chords on a guitar and asked his students to write symbols representing high and low notes. Those who performed poorly on the exercise, he found, typically developed severe reading problems down the line.
Intrigued, he joined with Nadine Gaab, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, to follow 43 students over three years, and they found that the test predicted general learning disabilities as well. Why? Mr. Andrade notes that the brain processes used in the music test—such as auditory sequencing abilities, necessary to hear syllables, words and sentences in order—are the same as those needed to learn to read. Prof. Gaab says the test, which is simple and inexpensive to administer, has great potential as a tool for early intervention.
Music literally expands your brain.
In a 2009 study in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers used an MRI to study the brains of 31 6-year-old children, before and after they took lessons on musical instrument for 15 months. They found that the music students’ brains grew larger in the areas that control fine motor skills and hearing—and that students’ abilities in both those areas also
improved. The corpus callosum, which connects the left and right sides of the brain, grew as well.
click: Corpus callosum
click: Images for corpus callosum
Ellen Winner, a Boston College psychology professor and co-author of the study, notes that the study doesn’t show a rise in cognitive abilities. But she argues that music shouldn’t have to justify itself as an academic booster. “If we are going to look for effects outside of music, I would look at things like persistence and discipline, because this is what’s required to play an instrument,” she says.
Yet music programs continue to be viewed as expendable. A 2011 analysis in the Journal of Economic Finance calculated that a K-12 school music program in a large suburban district cost $187 per student a year, or just 1.6% of the total education budget. That seems a reasonable price to pay for fixing some of the thorniest and most expensive problems facing American education. Music programs shouldn’t have to sing for their supper.
Source: WSJ click:
Click for the original text to see the pictures - if the link has expired search with the article title
A Musical Fix for American Schools - WSJ
________________________
Article # 2 of 2
This article # 2 of 2
is an additional article not handled in today's radio show - however it has been handled in another, earlier show -
Beneficial article for every person
Is Music the Key to Success?
Condoleezza Rice trained to be a concert pianist. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. The hedge fund billionaire Bruce Kovner is a pianist who took classes at Juilliard.
click: Condoleezza Rice - click: Alan Greenspan click: Bruce Kovner click: The Juilliard School
Multiple studies link music study to academic achievement. But what is it about serious music training that seems to correlate with outsize success in other fields?
The connection isn’t a coincidence. I know because I asked. I put the question to top-flight professionals in industries from tech to finance to media, all of whom had serious (if often little-known) past lives as musicians. Almost all made a connection between their music training and their professional achievements.
The phenomenon extends beyond the math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collaboration. The ability to listen. A way of thinking that weaves together disparate ideas. The power to focus on the present and the future simultaneously.
Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)?
click: Paul Allen
Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.
Look carefully and you’ll find musicians at the top of almost any industry. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula Zahn (cello) and the NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell trained to become a professional violinist. Both Microsoft’s Mr. Allen and the venture capitalist Roger McNamee have rock bands. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist. The former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn has played cello at Carnegie Hall.
“It’s not a coincidence,” says Mr. Greenspan, who gave up jazz clarinet but still dabbles at the baby grand in his living room. “I can tell you as a statistician, the probability that that is mere chance is extremely small.” The cautious former Fed chief adds, “That’s all that you can judge about the facts. The crucial question is: why does that connection exist?”
Paul Allen offers an answer. He says music “reinforces your confidence in the ability to create.” Mr. Allen began playing the violin at age 7 and switched to the guitar as a teenager. Even in the early days of Microsoft, he would pick up his guitar at the end of marathon days of programming. The music was the emotional analog to his day job, with each channeling a different type of creative impulse. In both, he says, “something is pushing you to look beyond what currently exists and express yourself in a new way.”
Mr. Todd says there is a connection between years of practice and competition and what he calls the “drive for perfection.” The veteran advertising executive Steve Hayden credits his background as a cellist for his most famous work, the Apple “1984” commercial depicting rebellion against a dictator. “I was thinking of Stravinsky when I came up with that idea,” he says. He adds that his cello performance background helps him work collaboratively: “Ensemble playing trains you, quite literally, to play well with others, to know when to solo and when to follow.”
For many of the high achievers I spoke with, music functions as a “hidden language,” as Mr. Wolfensohn calls it, one that enhances the ability to connect disparate or even contradictory ideas. When he ran the World Bank, Mr. Wolfensohn traveled to more than 100 countries, often taking in local performances (and occasionally joining in on a borrowed cello), which helped him understand “the culture of people, as distinct from their balance sheet.”
It’s in that context that the much-discussed connection between math and music resonates most. Both are at heart modes of expression. Bruce Kovner, the founder of the hedge fund Caxton Associates and chairman of the board of Juilliard, says he sees similarities between his piano playing and investing strategy; as he says, both “relate to pattern recognition, and some people extend these paradigms across different senses.”
Mr. Kovner and the concert pianist Robert Taub both describe a sort of synesthesia — they perceive patterns in a three-dimensional way. Mr. Taub, who gained fame for his Beethoven recordings and has since founded a music software company, MuseAmi, says that when he performs, he can “visualize all of the notes and their interrelationships,” a skill that translates intellectually into making “multiple connections in multiple spheres.”
For others I spoke to, their passion for music is more notable than their talent. Woody Allen told me bluntly, “I’m not an accomplished musician. I get total traction from the fact that I’m in movies.”
Mr. Allen sees music as a diversion, unconnected to his day job. He likens himself to “a weekend tennis player who comes in once a week to play. I don’t have a particularly good ear at all or a particularly good sense of timing. In comedy, I’ve got a good instinct for rhythm. In music, I don’t, really.”
Still, he practices the clarinet at least half an hour every day, because wind players will lose their embouchure (mouth position) if they don’t: “If you want to play at all you have to practice. I have to practice every single day to be as bad as I am.” He performs regularly, even touring internationally with his New Orleans jazz band. “I never thought I would be playing in concert halls of the world to 5,000, 6,000 people,” he says. “I will say, quite unexpectedly, it enriched my life tremendously.”
Music provides balance, explains Mr. Wolfensohn, who began cello lessons as an adult. “You aren’t trying to win any races or be the leader of this or the leader of that. You’re enjoying it because of the satisfaction and joy you get out of music, which is totally unrelated to your professional status.
For Roger McNamee click: Roger McNamee, whose Elevation Partners click: Elevation Partners
is perhaps best known for its early investment in Facebook, “music and technology have converged,” he says. He became expert on Facebook by using it to promote his band, Moonalice click:Moonalice, and now is focusing on video by live-streaming its concerts. He says musicians and top professionals share “the almost desperate need to dive deep.” This capacity to obsess seems to unite top performers in music and other fields.
Ms. Zahn remembers spending up to four hours a day “holed up in cramped practice rooms trying to master a phrase” on her cello. Mr. Todd, now 41, recounted in detail the solo audition at age 17 when he got the second-highest mark rather than the highest mark — though he still was principal horn in Florida’s All-State Orchestra.
“I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time,” and it translates into “working on something over and over again, or double-checking or triple-checking.” He adds, “There’s nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results.”
That’s an observation worth remembering at a time when music as a serious pursuit — and music education — is in decline in this country.
Consider the qualities these high achievers say music has sharpened: collaboration, creativity, discipline and the capacity to reconcile conflicting ideas. All are qualities notably absent from public life. Music may not make you a genius, or rich, or even a better person. But it helps train you to think differently, to process different points of view — and most important, to take pleasure in listening.
Source: NYT
Is Music the Key to Success?
_________________________________________
Wednesday, 11/19/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Antibiotics: A Dangerous Pandemic of Overuse
*Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, but they can also damage organs and tissues.
*Antibiotics are important medicines, but their use should be curtailed and limited to life-threatening conditions. Routine use of these agents is often harmful and unnecessary.
Click the colored words for further info
pandemic = (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
synonyms:widespread, prevalent, pervasive, rife, rampant "the disease is pandemic in Africa"
Compare: epidemic = a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
a flu epidemic; synonyms: outbreak, plague, pandemic, epizootic "an epidemic of typhoid"
click: Typhoid
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently noted that antibiotic overuse is “a problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine.”
Click: World Health Organization: WHO
“A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility in the 21st century,” states the WHO’s 2014 report on antimicrobial resistance.
Antibiotics were developed to perform what was once believed to be a relatively simple task: to kill harmful bacteria without hurting the human host. However, they were developed before there was much understanding of the immune system, the human microbiome, or environmental ecology.
Click: Microbiome - Wikipedia
Since then, antibiotic use has led to several crucial discoveries:
• Most bacteria, viruses, and fungi either innately possess or can acquire the means to resist these drugs and evade their toxic effects.
• A healthy immune system relies upon a diverse ecosystem of the human microbiome, which can be substantially damaged by the use of these drugs.
• Antibiotics are a short-term solution with many long-term problems.
Environmental Pollution
While necessary in some cases, antibiotics are often overused in medicine and dentistry. They are also widely used in agriculture and have become environmental pollutants.
For example, antibiotics have been used to such excess in meat production that residues now saturate regional water tables and permeate the food chains of native wildlife species, found researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), antibiotic use in livestock increased by 16 percent from 2009 to 2012.
Click: U S Food and Drug Administration Home Pagewww.fda.gov
In addition to the immediate consequences of pollution, the omnipresence of antibiotic agents in our environment can promote the development of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, leading to a rise in infectious diseases that are difficult to treat.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) antibiotic resistance is already “one of the world’s most pressing public health problems.” The medicinal use of antibiotics in cases where they are not needed is also a major concern.
Prescription Abuse
The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics has increased in nearly every age group in recent years, despite warnings by medical experts in organizations like the WHO, the FDA, and the CDC.
In their analysis of national data, researchers from the University of California–San Francisco found that more than 25 percent of broad-spectrum antibiotics between 2007 and 2009 were prescribed “for conditions for which antibiotics are rarely indicated,” such as bronchitis and other respiratory conditions.
They are also often used injudiciously for viral infections of the ears, sinuses, throat, upper respiratory tract, skin, gastrointestinal tract, bladder, and prostate, where they have been shown to offer no advantage over placebo.
In the United States, 95 percent of all childhood ear and respiratory infections are treated with antibiotics. However, there is no clinical basis supporting such routine use, since most cases can resolve without treatment.
“Though AOM [acute otitis media, a type of ear infection,] usually resolves without treatment, it is often treated with antibiotics,” wrote researchers from Australia in a 2009 report.
Click: Otitis media
“Antibiotics are not very useful for most children with AOM [acute otitis media, a type of ear infection,]
” they concluded after reviewing results from 10 clinical trials of nearly 3,000 children. Treatment with antibiotics showed only a slight benefit compared to no treatment, but also “caused unwanted effects such as diarrhea, stomach pain and rash.”
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, Americans consumed more than 258 million courses of antibiotics in 2010. Most were prescribed in children younger than 10 years of age and adults over 65.
Analysis published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases estimated that adverse events related to the routine use of antibiotics were responsible for more than 142,500 emergency department visits a year. Researchers from the University of Southern California also reported that they account for 25 percent of all in-hospital adverse drug reactions in the United States.
Risks of AntibioticsAntibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. But they are also capable of causing significant damage to the organs and tissues of the human body.
The use of antibiotics is associated with many consequences. These drugs:
• Selectively breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• Impair the innate and adaptive immune systems
• Impair long-term immunity
• Promote recurrent bacterial, viral, and fungal infections
• Damage the microbiome
• Damage collateral organs and tissues in the body
• Are associated with an epidemic of chronic inflammatory illnesses
Further research is always called for. It is important to calculate the extent of possible damage and to better understand the exact nature of how these drugs may undermine the health of modern society. But enough is already known to begin to change our practices.
Antibiotics are important medicines, but their use should be curtailed and limited to life-threatening conditions. Routine use of these agents is often harmful and unnecessary.
Many infections may be treated with alternative measures that strengthen immune function, work to balance the microbiome, and don’t harm the environment.
For further reading: click: Principles of innate and adaptive immunity - Immunobiology
Sources:
(1) The Epoch Times
(2) STAF, Inc.
__________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation has added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 1
Antibiotics: A Dangerous Pandemic of Overuse
*Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, but they can also damage organs and tissues.
*Antibiotics are important medicines, but their use should be curtailed and limited to life-threatening conditions. Routine use of these agents is often harmful and unnecessary.
Click the colored words for further info
pandemic = (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
synonyms:widespread, prevalent, pervasive, rife, rampant "the disease is pandemic in Africa"
Compare: epidemic = a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
a flu epidemic; synonyms: outbreak, plague, pandemic, epizootic "an epidemic of typhoid"
click: Typhoid
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently noted that antibiotic overuse is “a problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine.”
Click: World Health Organization: WHO
“A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility in the 21st century,” states the WHO’s 2014 report on antimicrobial resistance.
Antibiotics were developed to perform what was once believed to be a relatively simple task: to kill harmful bacteria without hurting the human host. However, they were developed before there was much understanding of the immune system, the human microbiome, or environmental ecology.
Click: Microbiome - Wikipedia
Since then, antibiotic use has led to several crucial discoveries:
• Most bacteria, viruses, and fungi either innately possess or can acquire the means to resist these drugs and evade their toxic effects.
• A healthy immune system relies upon a diverse ecosystem of the human microbiome, which can be substantially damaged by the use of these drugs.
• Antibiotics are a short-term solution with many long-term problems.
Environmental Pollution
While necessary in some cases, antibiotics are often overused in medicine and dentistry. They are also widely used in agriculture and have become environmental pollutants.
For example, antibiotics have been used to such excess in meat production that residues now saturate regional water tables and permeate the food chains of native wildlife species, found researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), antibiotic use in livestock increased by 16 percent from 2009 to 2012.
Click: U S Food and Drug Administration Home Pagewww.fda.gov
In addition to the immediate consequences of pollution, the omnipresence of antibiotic agents in our environment can promote the development of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, leading to a rise in infectious diseases that are difficult to treat.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) antibiotic resistance is already “one of the world’s most pressing public health problems.” The medicinal use of antibiotics in cases where they are not needed is also a major concern.
Prescription Abuse
The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics has increased in nearly every age group in recent years, despite warnings by medical experts in organizations like the WHO, the FDA, and the CDC.
In their analysis of national data, researchers from the University of California–San Francisco found that more than 25 percent of broad-spectrum antibiotics between 2007 and 2009 were prescribed “for conditions for which antibiotics are rarely indicated,” such as bronchitis and other respiratory conditions.
They are also often used injudiciously for viral infections of the ears, sinuses, throat, upper respiratory tract, skin, gastrointestinal tract, bladder, and prostate, where they have been shown to offer no advantage over placebo.
In the United States, 95 percent of all childhood ear and respiratory infections are treated with antibiotics. However, there is no clinical basis supporting such routine use, since most cases can resolve without treatment.
“Though AOM [acute otitis media, a type of ear infection,] usually resolves without treatment, it is often treated with antibiotics,” wrote researchers from Australia in a 2009 report.
Click: Otitis media
“Antibiotics are not very useful for most children with AOM [acute otitis media, a type of ear infection,]
” they concluded after reviewing results from 10 clinical trials of nearly 3,000 children. Treatment with antibiotics showed only a slight benefit compared to no treatment, but also “caused unwanted effects such as diarrhea, stomach pain and rash.”
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, Americans consumed more than 258 million courses of antibiotics in 2010. Most were prescribed in children younger than 10 years of age and adults over 65.
Analysis published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases estimated that adverse events related to the routine use of antibiotics were responsible for more than 142,500 emergency department visits a year. Researchers from the University of Southern California also reported that they account for 25 percent of all in-hospital adverse drug reactions in the United States.
Risks of AntibioticsAntibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. But they are also capable of causing significant damage to the organs and tissues of the human body.
The use of antibiotics is associated with many consequences. These drugs:
• Selectively breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• Impair the innate and adaptive immune systems
• Impair long-term immunity
• Promote recurrent bacterial, viral, and fungal infections
• Damage the microbiome
• Damage collateral organs and tissues in the body
• Are associated with an epidemic of chronic inflammatory illnesses
Further research is always called for. It is important to calculate the extent of possible damage and to better understand the exact nature of how these drugs may undermine the health of modern society. But enough is already known to begin to change our practices.
Antibiotics are important medicines, but their use should be curtailed and limited to life-threatening conditions. Routine use of these agents is often harmful and unnecessary.
Many infections may be treated with alternative measures that strengthen immune function, work to balance the microbiome, and don’t harm the environment.
For further reading: click: Principles of innate and adaptive immunity - Immunobiology
Sources:
(1) The Epoch Times
(2) STAF, Inc.
__________________________________________
Wednesday, 11/26/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
The Use Less Day - The Third Thursday of November
Important info for every person on our planet
Use Less Stuff: An Interview With Sustainability Expert Bob Lilienfeld
You can help to save our planet - ULS -principles for every person
Bob Lilienfeld is editor of “The ULS Report,” a newsletter aimed at spreading the benefits of source reduction (ULS means Use Less Stuff). He and co-author Dr. William L. Rathje of the University of Arizona, wrote “Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.” He served on the Corporate Environmental Management Program Advisory Board at the University of Michigan Business School, and the Sustainable Enterprise Institute Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.
Click: The Use Less Stuffwww.use-less-stuff.com/
The Use Less Stuff (ULS) Report helps people conserve resources and reduce waste.
Our world with rapidly diminishing natural resources, conservation is incredibly important.
Use Less Stuff Day is all about re-using, patching up, recycling and handing things down rather than throwing them away and buying new things.
Dates The Third Thursday of November
The interview (below) done by The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - subscribe it, read it - it will inform and improve your life like our organization, the new leading in healthy lifestyle & correct nutrition, in all family matter, in financial matter and in everything
for the good life
Click: The Epoch Times - Breaking news, independent China newswww.theepochtimes.com/
Epoch Times is an independent, global news source, headquartered in New York
The interview
Use Less Stuff Day is celebrated in America on the Thursday before Thanksgiving (the 3rd Thursday in November). As the holidays can mark a peak of consumerism and waste, ULS offers a way to enjoy the period in a more sustainable way.
Environmentalist, author, commentator, and photographer Bob Lilienfeld started the observance. Here is an interview with him.
Epoch Times: Why did you start Use Less Stuff Day?
Bob Lilienfeld: Americans throw away 25 percent more stuff per week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Use Less Stuff Day was created to alert people to this incremental 5 million tons of waste, and help them learn how to reduce it.
Epoch Times: Tell us more about the Sustainable Products Certification Program.
Mr. Lilienfeld: We want to help businesses and other organizations promote products that have undergone significant decreases in material usage or energy consumption. If at least a 10 percent reduction versus similar or previous products can be proven, we allow the products to feature the ULS logo for a two-year period. The cost to do so is minimal. We charge only our time to certify and announce the claim. There is no ongoing royalty fee.
Epoch Times: Sometimes I hear contradictory things about the greenness or lack of greenness of things such as cloth versus disposable diapers and paper versus plastic bags. How can a regular person cut through the mass of information?
Mr. Lilienfeld: There is a great deal of scientific evidence that generally supports lighter weight products and packages, regardless of the material used. In many cases, this means that from a larger lifecycle perspective, plastics produce the least amount of waste in terms of materials used, energy consumed, and greenhouse gases that are generated. So, consumers should simply focus on being moderate in terms of the amount of materials and energy they use. If they think about saving time and money, they will save natural resources as well.
Epoch Times: I’ve read that solving environmental problems needs concerted, governmental/corporate efforts, and that emphasizing individual things like home recycling is too small. What do you think?
Mr. Lilienfeld: There is no question that by itself, home recycling is not going to solve the big environmental issues such as greenhouse gas production, loss of biodiversity, and deforestation. In fact, there is a danger that by simply putting their trash in the recycling bin rather than the trash bin, people inadvertently reward themselves for consuming!
Frankly, consumption is the real environmental problem, and its key causes are global population growth and increasing affluence. Governments and industries must work together to ensure a sustainable quality of life while continually innovating to help people do more with less.
Epoch Times: Anything else people should think about or do to use less stuff?
Mr. Lilienfeld: It’s holiday time. Think about your own childhood memories and you’ll realize that they were experiential, not material. Give gifts that provide lasting experiences: tickets to sporting or cultural events, trips to local theaters or museums, and even restaurant gift cards. No material goods, wrapping paper, or ribbons are needed. The gift receiver will enjoy the gift today, and will also remember it for years to come.
Epoch Times: Thank you so much for being willing to do an email interview. We like to highlight green living and sustainable practices.
Bob Lilienfeld is editor of “The ULS Report,” a newsletter aimed at spreading the benefits of source reduction (ULS means Use Less Stuff). He and co-author Dr. William L. Rathje of the University of Arizona, wrote “Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.” He served on the Corporate Environmental Management Program Advisory Board at the University of Michigan Business School, and the Sustainable Enterprise Institute Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.
You may also like to read:
Click the green title - if the link has expired search the web with the article title
Sources:
(1) The Epoch Times: The interview - Click: The Epoch Times
(2) STAF, Inc. Click: www.staf
_____________________
Treating the Right Vein
Important info for everyone as the vein problems have dramatically grown
Topic 2 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
NEW YORK—When it comes to treating visible varicose and spider veins, many specialists can and do. Gynecologists treat because their clientele often run into vein problems, and dermatologists treat because surface vein problems are unaesthetic.
The procedures for treating surface veins issues are relatively simple, require little equipment, are outpatient, and tend to be covered by insurance. But because venous medicine is a relatively new field, no regulatory body has been established to qualify physicians and procedures, leaving the door relatively open for medical specialists to get into the business of zapping veins.
to zap = destroy or obliterate; ex.(1) "zap the enemy's artillery before it can damage your core units",
ex. (2) cause to move suddenly and rapidly in a specified direction. "the boat zapped us up river"
But not all veins are created equal and if the inappropriate vein is treated, the specialist could make the leg worse, according to thoracic surgeon Dr. John Anastasi (web link at the end of the article).
Anastasi is the medical director of Vein Cure Center (web link at the end of the article) in New York and has had 25 years of experience treating cardiac and vascular disease, doing everything from treating spider veins, commonly thought of as a cosmetic issue, to open heart surgery.
Heart surgeons need to understand the ins and outs of the circulatory system in order to operate on the heart. This makes them more aware than perhaps other types of specialists—such as gynecologists and dermatologists—of complications that can arise with vein treatment, Anastasi said.
Choosing Right
Treatments of faulty veins involve removing, blocking, or closing off the vein so that blood will be rerouted into healthy ones.
The legs have over 20 veins so “if vein is abnormal and you take it out of circulation, it doesn’t hurt you,” Anastasi said.
However, if a doctor accidentally removes a healthy vein, the patient can develop swelling in the affected leg, exacerbating the problem the surgery was meant to correct.
Sometimes the line between operable and not worth operating on is very narrow, and even if a vein is refluxing, but not too much and is still not too wide, it may not need closing.
“The vein should be at least .5 centimeters and have at least four seconds of reflux to be appropriate for treatment,” Anastasi explained.
In cases where the patient has a refluxing vein that is narrower than .5 centimeters, but the patient has no clinical manifestations of venous disease, Anastasi said he would not recommend treating that vein.
Vein Function and Malfunction
The legs have four kinds of veins: superficial, perforator, deep, and reticular. Superficial veins drain blood from the skin; perforators connect superficial veins to the deep vein system. Deep veins drain blood from the legs, and reticular veins connect branches of any of the other three types of vein.
“Think of the venous system like a tree,” Anastasi said. “The deep vein system is the trunk. The branches and leaves are spider veins.”
The purpose of the venous system is to bring deoxygenated blood back to the heart to be replenished. Valves are supposed to control this flow, allowing blood to flow upward despite gravity.
But in patients with venous disease, these valves weaken or fail, and the blood refluxes, pooling in the lower extremities. The increased pressure causes the veins to get larger, resulting in sore, swollen legs; bumpy, bulging varicose veins, and even bleeding through the skin around the ankles.
This condition is called venous insufficiency.
It can be asymptomatic at first, and later signs are attributed to other conditions. If a doctor does not know what to look for, venous disease may not be recognized until it is far advanced.
“Swelling, ache, lower ankle brownness—people often think it’s just due to aging,” Anastasi said. “But next they develop varicose veins that get larger and painful and cause ulcers and bleeding.”
Cautions for Vein Care
Diabetes, arterial insufficiency, and heart disease can complicate vein treatments. A decade of experience specializing in venous problems has taught Anastasi that he needs to examine the whole patient before treating vein issues.
“The heart, lung, kidneys—we look at whole system. I look at the patient in total … I take into consideration whether they have diabetes, arterial insufficiency, and potential heart disease.” Anastasi said.
Diabetes inhibits a patient’s ability to heal and diabetics are more prone to infection. “Therefore a surgeon needs to be careful about making incisions in these patients especially down in the ankle or foot region,” he said.
Arterial insufficiency reduces the blood supply to the legs, which makes it more difficult for the body to heal incisions on the legs and can also put a patient at greater risk of infection.
Severe heart disease increases the risks associated with vein treatments, and patients need to be monitored more closely, Anastasi cautioned.
Dr. John Anastasi
Vein Cure Center of NYC
1041 Third Ave.
New York, NY
646-651-4745
Click: veintreatmentnyc.com
Click: White Blood Cells at Risk
Important Info to Ask Your Dr. When it Comes to Chemo & WBC Counts (WBC = white blood cell, also called leukosyte),
click: White blood cell - Wikipedia
Click:
Click: WBC count: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
Click: High red blood cell count Definition - Symptoms - Mayo Clinic
(RBC - red blood cell = also called erythrocyte)
Additional information
More click: Treatments and Techniques
__________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
The Use Less Day - The Third Thursday of November
Important info for every person on our planet
Use Less Stuff: An Interview With Sustainability Expert Bob Lilienfeld
You can help to save our planet - ULS -principles for every person
Bob Lilienfeld is editor of “The ULS Report,” a newsletter aimed at spreading the benefits of source reduction (ULS means Use Less Stuff). He and co-author Dr. William L. Rathje of the University of Arizona, wrote “Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.” He served on the Corporate Environmental Management Program Advisory Board at the University of Michigan Business School, and the Sustainable Enterprise Institute Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.
Click: The Use Less Stuffwww.use-less-stuff.com/
The Use Less Stuff (ULS) Report helps people conserve resources and reduce waste.
Our world with rapidly diminishing natural resources, conservation is incredibly important.
Use Less Stuff Day is all about re-using, patching up, recycling and handing things down rather than throwing them away and buying new things.
Dates The Third Thursday of November
- 19th Nov, 2015
- 20th Nov, 2014
- 21st Nov, 2013
- 15th Nov, 2012
The interview (below) done by The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses The Epoch Times - subscribe it, read it - it will inform and improve your life like our organization, the new leading in healthy lifestyle & correct nutrition, in all family matter, in financial matter and in everything
for the good life
Click: The Epoch Times - Breaking news, independent China newswww.theepochtimes.com/
Epoch Times is an independent, global news source, headquartered in New York
The interview
Use Less Stuff Day is celebrated in America on the Thursday before Thanksgiving (the 3rd Thursday in November). As the holidays can mark a peak of consumerism and waste, ULS offers a way to enjoy the period in a more sustainable way.
Environmentalist, author, commentator, and photographer Bob Lilienfeld started the observance. Here is an interview with him.
Epoch Times: Why did you start Use Less Stuff Day?
Bob Lilienfeld: Americans throw away 25 percent more stuff per week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Use Less Stuff Day was created to alert people to this incremental 5 million tons of waste, and help them learn how to reduce it.
Epoch Times: Tell us more about the Sustainable Products Certification Program.
Mr. Lilienfeld: We want to help businesses and other organizations promote products that have undergone significant decreases in material usage or energy consumption. If at least a 10 percent reduction versus similar or previous products can be proven, we allow the products to feature the ULS logo for a two-year period. The cost to do so is minimal. We charge only our time to certify and announce the claim. There is no ongoing royalty fee.
Epoch Times: Sometimes I hear contradictory things about the greenness or lack of greenness of things such as cloth versus disposable diapers and paper versus plastic bags. How can a regular person cut through the mass of information?
Mr. Lilienfeld: There is a great deal of scientific evidence that generally supports lighter weight products and packages, regardless of the material used. In many cases, this means that from a larger lifecycle perspective, plastics produce the least amount of waste in terms of materials used, energy consumed, and greenhouse gases that are generated. So, consumers should simply focus on being moderate in terms of the amount of materials and energy they use. If they think about saving time and money, they will save natural resources as well.
Epoch Times: I’ve read that solving environmental problems needs concerted, governmental/corporate efforts, and that emphasizing individual things like home recycling is too small. What do you think?
Mr. Lilienfeld: There is no question that by itself, home recycling is not going to solve the big environmental issues such as greenhouse gas production, loss of biodiversity, and deforestation. In fact, there is a danger that by simply putting their trash in the recycling bin rather than the trash bin, people inadvertently reward themselves for consuming!
Frankly, consumption is the real environmental problem, and its key causes are global population growth and increasing affluence. Governments and industries must work together to ensure a sustainable quality of life while continually innovating to help people do more with less.
Epoch Times: Anything else people should think about or do to use less stuff?
Mr. Lilienfeld: It’s holiday time. Think about your own childhood memories and you’ll realize that they were experiential, not material. Give gifts that provide lasting experiences: tickets to sporting or cultural events, trips to local theaters or museums, and even restaurant gift cards. No material goods, wrapping paper, or ribbons are needed. The gift receiver will enjoy the gift today, and will also remember it for years to come.
Epoch Times: Thank you so much for being willing to do an email interview. We like to highlight green living and sustainable practices.
Bob Lilienfeld is editor of “The ULS Report,” a newsletter aimed at spreading the benefits of source reduction (ULS means Use Less Stuff). He and co-author Dr. William L. Rathje of the University of Arizona, wrote “Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.” He served on the Corporate Environmental Management Program Advisory Board at the University of Michigan Business School, and the Sustainable Enterprise Institute Advisory Board at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business.
You may also like to read:
Click the green title - if the link has expired search the web with the article title
- Snakes: Keepers of the Ecological Balance
- Ecological Insults and Injuries Revealed Four Years After Deepwdcater Horizon
- NYC Sewer Upgrades to Protect Ecologically-Sensitive Waters
Sources:
(1) The Epoch Times: The interview - Click: The Epoch Times
(2) STAF, Inc. Click: www.staf
_____________________
Treating the Right Vein
Important info for everyone as the vein problems have dramatically grown
Topic 2 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
NEW YORK—When it comes to treating visible varicose and spider veins, many specialists can and do. Gynecologists treat because their clientele often run into vein problems, and dermatologists treat because surface vein problems are unaesthetic.
The procedures for treating surface veins issues are relatively simple, require little equipment, are outpatient, and tend to be covered by insurance. But because venous medicine is a relatively new field, no regulatory body has been established to qualify physicians and procedures, leaving the door relatively open for medical specialists to get into the business of zapping veins.
to zap = destroy or obliterate; ex.(1) "zap the enemy's artillery before it can damage your core units",
ex. (2) cause to move suddenly and rapidly in a specified direction. "the boat zapped us up river"
But not all veins are created equal and if the inappropriate vein is treated, the specialist could make the leg worse, according to thoracic surgeon Dr. John Anastasi (web link at the end of the article).
Anastasi is the medical director of Vein Cure Center (web link at the end of the article) in New York and has had 25 years of experience treating cardiac and vascular disease, doing everything from treating spider veins, commonly thought of as a cosmetic issue, to open heart surgery.
Heart surgeons need to understand the ins and outs of the circulatory system in order to operate on the heart. This makes them more aware than perhaps other types of specialists—such as gynecologists and dermatologists—of complications that can arise with vein treatment, Anastasi said.
Choosing Right
Treatments of faulty veins involve removing, blocking, or closing off the vein so that blood will be rerouted into healthy ones.
The legs have over 20 veins so “if vein is abnormal and you take it out of circulation, it doesn’t hurt you,” Anastasi said.
However, if a doctor accidentally removes a healthy vein, the patient can develop swelling in the affected leg, exacerbating the problem the surgery was meant to correct.
Sometimes the line between operable and not worth operating on is very narrow, and even if a vein is refluxing, but not too much and is still not too wide, it may not need closing.
“The vein should be at least .5 centimeters and have at least four seconds of reflux to be appropriate for treatment,” Anastasi explained.
In cases where the patient has a refluxing vein that is narrower than .5 centimeters, but the patient has no clinical manifestations of venous disease, Anastasi said he would not recommend treating that vein.
Vein Function and Malfunction
The legs have four kinds of veins: superficial, perforator, deep, and reticular. Superficial veins drain blood from the skin; perforators connect superficial veins to the deep vein system. Deep veins drain blood from the legs, and reticular veins connect branches of any of the other three types of vein.
“Think of the venous system like a tree,” Anastasi said. “The deep vein system is the trunk. The branches and leaves are spider veins.”
The purpose of the venous system is to bring deoxygenated blood back to the heart to be replenished. Valves are supposed to control this flow, allowing blood to flow upward despite gravity.
But in patients with venous disease, these valves weaken or fail, and the blood refluxes, pooling in the lower extremities. The increased pressure causes the veins to get larger, resulting in sore, swollen legs; bumpy, bulging varicose veins, and even bleeding through the skin around the ankles.
This condition is called venous insufficiency.
It can be asymptomatic at first, and later signs are attributed to other conditions. If a doctor does not know what to look for, venous disease may not be recognized until it is far advanced.
“Swelling, ache, lower ankle brownness—people often think it’s just due to aging,” Anastasi said. “But next they develop varicose veins that get larger and painful and cause ulcers and bleeding.”
Cautions for Vein Care
Diabetes, arterial insufficiency, and heart disease can complicate vein treatments. A decade of experience specializing in venous problems has taught Anastasi that he needs to examine the whole patient before treating vein issues.
“The heart, lung, kidneys—we look at whole system. I look at the patient in total … I take into consideration whether they have diabetes, arterial insufficiency, and potential heart disease.” Anastasi said.
Diabetes inhibits a patient’s ability to heal and diabetics are more prone to infection. “Therefore a surgeon needs to be careful about making incisions in these patients especially down in the ankle or foot region,” he said.
Arterial insufficiency reduces the blood supply to the legs, which makes it more difficult for the body to heal incisions on the legs and can also put a patient at greater risk of infection.
Severe heart disease increases the risks associated with vein treatments, and patients need to be monitored more closely, Anastasi cautioned.
Dr. John Anastasi
Vein Cure Center of NYC
1041 Third Ave.
New York, NY
646-651-4745
Click: veintreatmentnyc.com
Click: White Blood Cells at Risk
Important Info to Ask Your Dr. When it Comes to Chemo & WBC Counts (WBC = white blood cell, also called leukosyte),
click: White blood cell - Wikipedia
Click:
Click: WBC count: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
Click: High red blood cell count Definition - Symptoms - Mayo Clinic
(RBC - red blood cell = also called erythrocyte)
Additional information
More click: Treatments and Techniques
__________________________________________
-Wednesday, 12/3/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Smoking Hits All-Time Low: CDC
Americans are smoking less, the CDC says. click: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In 2013, only 17.8% of adults smoked cigarettes, down from 20.9% in 2005, the agency said in the Nov. 28, 20145 issue of click: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
That's the lowest rate since the CDC began tracking the numbers in 1965, the agency said in a statement.
What's more, people who still light up are smoking less often and smoking fewer cigarettes, according to data from the 2013 click: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
On the other hand, some groups still smoke at higher than average rates, including men, people of mixed race, those living in poverty, and those who have a disability.
The 2013 survey, for the first time, asked about sexual orientation and found that people who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual smoked at a rate that was nearly 10 percentage points above the national average, the CDC report said.
"There is encouraging news in this study, but we still have much more work to do to help people quit," Tim McAfee, MD, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement.
The NHIS, carried out annually, is a nationally representative in-person survey of noninstitutionalized of U.S. civilians. For 2013, the survey had 34,557 respondents 18 or older with a response rate of 61.2%.
The results are adjusted for nonresponse and weighted to give nationally representative averages.
For this analysis, respondents were classified as current smokers if they reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and during the interview said they smoked every day or some days. The average number of cigarettes smoked per day was calculated among those who said they smoked daily.
The analysis showed:
Some 26.6% of respondents who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual reported being smokers, compared with 17.6% of straight adults, the analysis showed.
There was a difference by sex among straight adults -- 20.3% of men and 15% of women reported smoking -- but there was no significant gender difference in smoking rates among those who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (26.4% and 26.7%, respectively, for men and women).
While some 42 million people still smoke, fewer smoke every day, the survey showed: Among current smokers, 76.9% (32.4 million people) lit up daily in 2013, down from 80.8% (36.5 million people) in 2005. The trend was significant at P<0.05.
Put another way, the proportion of daily smokers in 2013 was 13.7% of all adults, down from 16.9% in 2005.
As well, the average number of cigarettes the daily smokers lit up fell from 16.7 a day in 2005 to 14.2 a day in 2013. Again, the trend was significant at P<0.05.
The study is subject to several limitations, the agency report said. Among them: cigarette smoking was self-reported and not validated by biochemical testing; results can't be applied to institutionalized populations and those in the military; the 61.2% response rate might have led to nonresponse bias; and the report does not include estimates of cigar or other combustible tobacco use.
____________________________________
Topic # 2 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Are Houses by the Highway a Public Health Risk?
People living within 328 feet of a highway or major road had a 22 percent greater risk of hypertension than people living over half a mile away, according to a new study
Source:
From Brown University via click: Futurity.org
click: Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/Brown University
Brown University, founded in 1764, is a member of the Ivy League and recognized for the quality of its teaching, research, and unique curriculum. Providence
The closer a post-menopausal woman lives to a major roadway, the greater her risk of high blood pressure, according to new research. click: Postmenopausal Health Concerns |
National Institute on Agingwww.nia.nih.gov/.../menopause.../postmenop..
Learn about possible women's health problems post menopause, such as risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, urinary incontinence, and more.
The finding, which accounts for a wide variety of possible confounding factors, adds to concerns that traffic exposure may present public health risks.
Working in the San Diego metropolitan area, researchers discovered that women who lived within 100 meters (328 feet) of a highway or major arterial road had a 22 percent greater risk of hypertension than women who lived at least 1,000 meters away (just over half a mile).
In a range of intermediate distances, hypertension risk rose with proximity to the roadways.
Put in epidemiological*) terms, a 58-year-old woman in the study who lived close to a major road had the blood pressure risk of a 60-year-old woman who lived far from one.
*) Epidemiology - the study of how disease spreads and can be controlled
- the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health - is the science that studies the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations. It is the cornerstone of public health, and informs policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare.
Click: Epidemiology
Hypertension is an underlying factor for some cardiovascular diseases. For that reason, the increased likelihood of hypertension reported in the new study may help explain prior findings of associations between proximity to major roadways and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
A few studies, mostly in Europe, have also tested the association between roadway proximity and hypertension, but results have been mixed.
“I think in the United States this study does tip the scale in favor of being concerned about the urban environment and how we develop our cities and our transportation systems,” says corresponding author Gregory Wellenius, assistant professor of epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health.
“There are a lot of new developments going up right near highways. One has to start thinking about what are the associated health effects with that.”
Food Deserts
The study data comes from the Women’s Health Initiative, a study funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute that enrolled tens of thousands of participants in the mid-1990s, including more than 5,600 in San Diego County. click: Women's Health Initiative
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, gathered data on a wide variety of personal health and demographic measures, including where participating women lived, their blood pressure, and other key attributes.
Wellenius, lead author and graduate student Kipruto Kirwa, and their co-authors took this dataset and used mapping software to measure the distance from each woman’s home to a major roadway.
They also consulted a database to determine each neighborhood’s abundance of supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to determine who lived in a so-called “food desert” where unhealthy food options were relatively many and healthier ones relatively few.
Pollution and Noise
They then looked at the association between the prevalence of high blood pressure and distance from the highway (in ranges of less than or exactly 100 meters, between 100 and 200 meters, 200 to 1,000 meters, and more than 1,000 meters).
In three levels of analysis, the researchers controlled for more and more possible confounding factors. In all, they controlled for age, ethnicity, smoking status, education, household income, cholesterol, body-mass index, diabetes history, physical activity level, and local food quality.
After all that, they found the odds of hypertension were 1.22 to 1 for those living closest, 1.13 to 1 for those between 100 and 200 meters, and 1.05 to 1 for those between 200 and 1000 meters from a major roadway. These odds are indexed such that 1 represents the prevalence risk of those living more than 1,000 meters from a major roadway.
Wellenius acknowledges that because the study only measured who had hypertension and where they lived at one moment in time, it does not necessarily show a causal link. The study also does not shed light on what specifically about proximity to the road could cause hypertension.
It could be airborne pollutants or noise or both—or something else. But prior studies have shown specific physiological effects from pollution and noise that could have direct causal relevance to cardiovascular disease.
Wellenius cautions that hypertension, even when treated, still carries an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The best policy, he says, is therefore prevention.
“The public health message is that we need to take into consideration the health of the population when planning neighborhoods, when planning transportation systems, and when deciding where new highways are going to go, and how we might be able to mitigate traffic or its effects,” Wellenius says.
Sources:
(1) From Brown University via Futurity.org
(2) STAF, Inc.
_______________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Smoking Hits All-Time Low: CDC
Americans are smoking less, the CDC says. click: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
In 2013, only 17.8% of adults smoked cigarettes, down from 20.9% in 2005, the agency said in the Nov. 28, 20145 issue of click: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
That's the lowest rate since the CDC began tracking the numbers in 1965, the agency said in a statement.
What's more, people who still light up are smoking less often and smoking fewer cigarettes, according to data from the 2013 click: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
On the other hand, some groups still smoke at higher than average rates, including men, people of mixed race, those living in poverty, and those who have a disability.
The 2013 survey, for the first time, asked about sexual orientation and found that people who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual smoked at a rate that was nearly 10 percentage points above the national average, the CDC report said.
"There is encouraging news in this study, but we still have much more work to do to help people quit," Tim McAfee, MD, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement.
The NHIS, carried out annually, is a nationally representative in-person survey of noninstitutionalized of U.S. civilians. For 2013, the survey had 34,557 respondents 18 or older with a response rate of 61.2%.
The results are adjusted for nonresponse and weighted to give nationally representative averages.
For this analysis, respondents were classified as current smokers if they reported smoking at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and during the interview said they smoked every day or some days. The average number of cigarettes smoked per day was calculated among those who said they smoked daily.
The analysis showed:
- Current cigarette smoking among U.S. adults fell from an estimated 45.1 million people in 2005 to 42.1 million in 2013 (20.9% to 17.8%), which represented a significant trend.
- More men (20.5%) smoked than women (15.3%).
- Smoking prevalence was highest among adults 25 through 44 (20.1%) and lowest among those 65 and older (8.8%).
- Smoking rates were highest among people reporting multiple races (26.8%) and American Indians/Alaska Natives (26.1%). The rate was lowest among Asians (9.6%).
- The largest variation was by education. Among adults 25 and older, 41.4% of people with a General Education Development certificate smoked, compared with just 5.6% of those with a graduate degree.
- 29.9% of people living below the poverty level reported smoking, compared with 16.2% of those at or above the poverty line.
- Adults who said they had a disability or limitation had a higher prevalence (23.0%) than those reporting none (17.0%).
Some 26.6% of respondents who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual reported being smokers, compared with 17.6% of straight adults, the analysis showed.
There was a difference by sex among straight adults -- 20.3% of men and 15% of women reported smoking -- but there was no significant gender difference in smoking rates among those who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (26.4% and 26.7%, respectively, for men and women).
While some 42 million people still smoke, fewer smoke every day, the survey showed: Among current smokers, 76.9% (32.4 million people) lit up daily in 2013, down from 80.8% (36.5 million people) in 2005. The trend was significant at P<0.05.
Put another way, the proportion of daily smokers in 2013 was 13.7% of all adults, down from 16.9% in 2005.
As well, the average number of cigarettes the daily smokers lit up fell from 16.7 a day in 2005 to 14.2 a day in 2013. Again, the trend was significant at P<0.05.
The study is subject to several limitations, the agency report said. Among them: cigarette smoking was self-reported and not validated by biochemical testing; results can't be applied to institutionalized populations and those in the military; the 61.2% response rate might have led to nonresponse bias; and the report does not include estimates of cigar or other combustible tobacco use.
____________________________________
Topic # 2 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Are Houses by the Highway a Public Health Risk?
People living within 328 feet of a highway or major road had a 22 percent greater risk of hypertension than people living over half a mile away, according to a new study
Source:
From Brown University via click: Futurity.org
click: Brown Universitywww.brown.edu/Brown University
Brown University, founded in 1764, is a member of the Ivy League and recognized for the quality of its teaching, research, and unique curriculum. Providence
The closer a post-menopausal woman lives to a major roadway, the greater her risk of high blood pressure, according to new research. click: Postmenopausal Health Concerns |
National Institute on Agingwww.nia.nih.gov/.../menopause.../postmenop..
Learn about possible women's health problems post menopause, such as risk for heart disease, osteoporosis, urinary incontinence, and more.
The finding, which accounts for a wide variety of possible confounding factors, adds to concerns that traffic exposure may present public health risks.
Working in the San Diego metropolitan area, researchers discovered that women who lived within 100 meters (328 feet) of a highway or major arterial road had a 22 percent greater risk of hypertension than women who lived at least 1,000 meters away (just over half a mile).
In a range of intermediate distances, hypertension risk rose with proximity to the roadways.
Put in epidemiological*) terms, a 58-year-old woman in the study who lived close to a major road had the blood pressure risk of a 60-year-old woman who lived far from one.
*) Epidemiology - the study of how disease spreads and can be controlled
- the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health - is the science that studies the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations. It is the cornerstone of public health, and informs policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare.
Click: Epidemiology
Hypertension is an underlying factor for some cardiovascular diseases. For that reason, the increased likelihood of hypertension reported in the new study may help explain prior findings of associations between proximity to major roadways and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
A few studies, mostly in Europe, have also tested the association between roadway proximity and hypertension, but results have been mixed.
“I think in the United States this study does tip the scale in favor of being concerned about the urban environment and how we develop our cities and our transportation systems,” says corresponding author Gregory Wellenius, assistant professor of epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health.
“There are a lot of new developments going up right near highways. One has to start thinking about what are the associated health effects with that.”
Food Deserts
The study data comes from the Women’s Health Initiative, a study funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute that enrolled tens of thousands of participants in the mid-1990s, including more than 5,600 in San Diego County. click: Women's Health Initiative
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, gathered data on a wide variety of personal health and demographic measures, including where participating women lived, their blood pressure, and other key attributes.
Wellenius, lead author and graduate student Kipruto Kirwa, and their co-authors took this dataset and used mapping software to measure the distance from each woman’s home to a major roadway.
They also consulted a database to determine each neighborhood’s abundance of supermarkets and fast-food restaurants to determine who lived in a so-called “food desert” where unhealthy food options were relatively many and healthier ones relatively few.
Pollution and Noise
They then looked at the association between the prevalence of high blood pressure and distance from the highway (in ranges of less than or exactly 100 meters, between 100 and 200 meters, 200 to 1,000 meters, and more than 1,000 meters).
In three levels of analysis, the researchers controlled for more and more possible confounding factors. In all, they controlled for age, ethnicity, smoking status, education, household income, cholesterol, body-mass index, diabetes history, physical activity level, and local food quality.
After all that, they found the odds of hypertension were 1.22 to 1 for those living closest, 1.13 to 1 for those between 100 and 200 meters, and 1.05 to 1 for those between 200 and 1000 meters from a major roadway. These odds are indexed such that 1 represents the prevalence risk of those living more than 1,000 meters from a major roadway.
Wellenius acknowledges that because the study only measured who had hypertension and where they lived at one moment in time, it does not necessarily show a causal link. The study also does not shed light on what specifically about proximity to the road could cause hypertension.
It could be airborne pollutants or noise or both—or something else. But prior studies have shown specific physiological effects from pollution and noise that could have direct causal relevance to cardiovascular disease.
Wellenius cautions that hypertension, even when treated, still carries an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The best policy, he says, is therefore prevention.
“The public health message is that we need to take into consideration the health of the population when planning neighborhoods, when planning transportation systems, and when deciding where new highways are going to go, and how we might be able to mitigate traffic or its effects,” Wellenius says.
Sources:
(1) From Brown University via Futurity.org
(2) STAF, Inc.
_______________________________
Wednesday, 11/5/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Article 1 of 2
handles the sickness called sleep apnea - obesity, obesity & overweight are one of the biggest reasons for sleep apnea - our nations curse
Interview with Dr. Jordan Stern on ‘The Cost of Poor Sleep"
The EPOCH Times recently interviewed Dr. Jordan Stern for their in-depth report on “The Cost of Poor Sleep’. Sleep apnea tolls the health of tens of millions of individuals. Fatigue-related productivity loss is estimated to cost companies nearly $2000 per year for each sleep deprived employee. In the year prior to diagnosis, the medical expenses of individuals with sleep apnea are found to be almost two times that of control individuals who have not been diagnosed with the condition.
NEW YORK by EPOCH TIMES — Sleep-apnea testing can mean the difference between life and death.
The conductor driving the Metro-North train that crashed last year is a case in point. The conductor had undiagnosed severe sleep apnea, so even though he was able to fall asleep and stay asleep just fine, he was unable to get the deep sleep necessary to be alert throughout the day.
Sleep apnea is when breathing becomes shallow and stops altogether during sleep. When a person stops breathing, blood oxygen levels are lowered.
With obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form, the low oxygen levels send warning signals to the brain to wake the body up enough to restart breathing. This often happens with a loud choking or snorting sound, and the person breathes normally for a while before stopping again.
This cycle repeats throughout the night and prevents people from entering into deep sleep and REM sleep, needed for feeling rested and energized.
Besides daytime sleepiness, studies have linked sleep apnea to high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, acid reflux, depression, and in children, ADHD and behavior problems.
Yet it is still not commonly tested for. This is because—as is the case with most scientific fields—research is far ahead of training and practice. In particular, the field of sleep medicine is relatively young, and medical schools do not offer much training in sleep apnea, according to Dr. Jordan Stern, founder of blueSleep, a center to treat apnea and snoring in lower Manhattan.
After 10 years as an ear, nose, and throat doctor who specialized in surgery for head and neck cancer, Dr. Stern became interested in sleep apnea when he started researching it.
He worked as a consultant to a French company that was developing home testing devices for sleep apnea. Through this job, Dr. Stern participated in clinical trials to test the devices, co-authored several papers on them, and became aware of a huge, costly gap in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea. This realization led to him to go back for board certification in sleep medicine and to open blueSleep.
Based on his research, Dr. Stern estimates about a third of Americans have problematic sleep apnea, but about 90 percent don’t know it.
When he went through medical school to become an ear, nose, and throat doctor (otolaryngologist) he got no training about sleep apnea, and said when he speaks to current medical students, they report having had very little training.
“The majority of doctors still don’t have a good grasp about how extensive this disease is,” Dr. Stern said.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON EPOCH TIMES
← Sleep Apnea and Night Time Leg Pain
EPO
Article 2 of 2
Sleep Apnea Led to Deadly Metro-North Crash:
NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board Reports Detail a Series of Failures by One of the Nation’s Busiest Railroads
An undiagnosed case of sleep apnea led a Metro-North Railroad engineer to fall asleep as the train he was driving sped through a tight curve in the Bronx, New York City, in December 2013, in a derailment that killed 4 and injured at least 61 passengers, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board
click: National Transportation Safety Board
click: Four dead, 63 injured after NYC-bound Metro-North
The NTSB = Click: National Transportation Safety Board
released reports identifying a probable cause in that derailment and four other major Metro-North mishaps over the last two years.
A news conference was scheduled for at Grand Central Terminal. Click: Grand Central Terminal
In another case, investigators faulted an undetected broken pair of joint bars in a May 2013 derailment and collision in Bridgeport, Conn., that injured at least 65 people.
The NTSB blamed the railroad’s lack of a comprehensive track maintenance program, less-stringent inspection requirements for high-density railroads and a decision to defer scheduled repairs. The report cited an employee who said trains’ punctuality took priority over repairs.
In all, the reports detail a series of failures by one of the nation’s busiest railroads whose ridership between New York City suburbs and Connecticut and Westchester County suburbs has boomed in recent years.
They come after a Federal Railroad Administration report earlier this year leveled sharp criticism of Metro-North for prizing on-time performance of trains over safety. Click: Federal Railroad Administration: FRAwww.fra.dot.gov/
In the wake of Metro-North’s problems, officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the railroad, have announced a number of steps they say would prevent future accidents.
The authority has installed a new management team and tried to refocus the railroad on safety, beefed up training and as well as staffing. Metro-North has also embarked on a systemwide effort to rebuild its tracks and ramp up inspections.
The MTA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. But Joe Giulietti
Click: Joseph Giulietti « CBS New York, who took over as president of Metro-North earlier this year, said Monday the railroad has made progress in reforms but still has much to do. A primary goal, he said, is “to provide a safe service that is also reliable, not a reliable service that is also safe.”
Source:
(1) WSJ
(2) STAF, Inc.
__________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Article 1 of 2
handles the sickness called sleep apnea - obesity, obesity & overweight are one of the biggest reasons for sleep apnea - our nations curse
Interview with Dr. Jordan Stern on ‘The Cost of Poor Sleep"
The EPOCH Times recently interviewed Dr. Jordan Stern for their in-depth report on “The Cost of Poor Sleep’. Sleep apnea tolls the health of tens of millions of individuals. Fatigue-related productivity loss is estimated to cost companies nearly $2000 per year for each sleep deprived employee. In the year prior to diagnosis, the medical expenses of individuals with sleep apnea are found to be almost two times that of control individuals who have not been diagnosed with the condition.
NEW YORK by EPOCH TIMES — Sleep-apnea testing can mean the difference between life and death.
The conductor driving the Metro-North train that crashed last year is a case in point. The conductor had undiagnosed severe sleep apnea, so even though he was able to fall asleep and stay asleep just fine, he was unable to get the deep sleep necessary to be alert throughout the day.
Sleep apnea is when breathing becomes shallow and stops altogether during sleep. When a person stops breathing, blood oxygen levels are lowered.
With obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form, the low oxygen levels send warning signals to the brain to wake the body up enough to restart breathing. This often happens with a loud choking or snorting sound, and the person breathes normally for a while before stopping again.
This cycle repeats throughout the night and prevents people from entering into deep sleep and REM sleep, needed for feeling rested and energized.
Besides daytime sleepiness, studies have linked sleep apnea to high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, acid reflux, depression, and in children, ADHD and behavior problems.
Yet it is still not commonly tested for. This is because—as is the case with most scientific fields—research is far ahead of training and practice. In particular, the field of sleep medicine is relatively young, and medical schools do not offer much training in sleep apnea, according to Dr. Jordan Stern, founder of blueSleep, a center to treat apnea and snoring in lower Manhattan.
After 10 years as an ear, nose, and throat doctor who specialized in surgery for head and neck cancer, Dr. Stern became interested in sleep apnea when he started researching it.
He worked as a consultant to a French company that was developing home testing devices for sleep apnea. Through this job, Dr. Stern participated in clinical trials to test the devices, co-authored several papers on them, and became aware of a huge, costly gap in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea. This realization led to him to go back for board certification in sleep medicine and to open blueSleep.
Based on his research, Dr. Stern estimates about a third of Americans have problematic sleep apnea, but about 90 percent don’t know it.
When he went through medical school to become an ear, nose, and throat doctor (otolaryngologist) he got no training about sleep apnea, and said when he speaks to current medical students, they report having had very little training.
“The majority of doctors still don’t have a good grasp about how extensive this disease is,” Dr. Stern said.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON EPOCH TIMES
← Sleep Apnea and Night Time Leg Pain
EPO
Article 2 of 2
Sleep Apnea Led to Deadly Metro-North Crash:
NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board Reports Detail a Series of Failures by One of the Nation’s Busiest Railroads
An undiagnosed case of sleep apnea led a Metro-North Railroad engineer to fall asleep as the train he was driving sped through a tight curve in the Bronx, New York City, in December 2013, in a derailment that killed 4 and injured at least 61 passengers, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board
click: National Transportation Safety Board
click: Four dead, 63 injured after NYC-bound Metro-North
The NTSB = Click: National Transportation Safety Board
released reports identifying a probable cause in that derailment and four other major Metro-North mishaps over the last two years.
A news conference was scheduled for at Grand Central Terminal. Click: Grand Central Terminal
In another case, investigators faulted an undetected broken pair of joint bars in a May 2013 derailment and collision in Bridgeport, Conn., that injured at least 65 people.
The NTSB blamed the railroad’s lack of a comprehensive track maintenance program, less-stringent inspection requirements for high-density railroads and a decision to defer scheduled repairs. The report cited an employee who said trains’ punctuality took priority over repairs.
In all, the reports detail a series of failures by one of the nation’s busiest railroads whose ridership between New York City suburbs and Connecticut and Westchester County suburbs has boomed in recent years.
They come after a Federal Railroad Administration report earlier this year leveled sharp criticism of Metro-North for prizing on-time performance of trains over safety. Click: Federal Railroad Administration: FRAwww.fra.dot.gov/
In the wake of Metro-North’s problems, officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the railroad, have announced a number of steps they say would prevent future accidents.
The authority has installed a new management team and tried to refocus the railroad on safety, beefed up training and as well as staffing. Metro-North has also embarked on a systemwide effort to rebuild its tracks and ramp up inspections.
The MTA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning. But Joe Giulietti
Click: Joseph Giulietti « CBS New York, who took over as president of Metro-North earlier this year, said Monday the railroad has made progress in reforms but still has much to do. A primary goal, he said, is “to provide a safe service that is also reliable, not a reliable service that is also safe.”
Source:
(1) WSJ
(2) STAF, Inc.
__________________________________
Wednesday, 12/24/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 3
Half of babies born today will live to be 100
Global life expectancy increased by 6 years in the past 23 years
The first person to live for 1,000 years is probably already alive
The discrepancy between men’s and women’s LONGER lifespans is because
women drink less, smoke less and take better care of themselves when they are sick
Some say that the first pen to live for 1,000 years is probably already alive. But the rest of us mere mortals aren’t doing too badly either.
Between 1990 and 2013, average life expectancy rose from 65.3 years to 71.5 years, according to a new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study. In the past 23 years, life expectancy increased by 5 years and 8 months for men and 6 years and 6 months for women. Click: Global burden of disease
"The progress we are seeing against a variety of illnesses and injuries is good, even remarkable, but we can and must do even better," says lead author Dr. Christopher Murray. "The huge increase in collective action and funding given to the major infectious diseases such as diarrhea, measles, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria has had a real impact.”
Click: Christopher J.L. Murray
However, the developed world is developing some new problems that pose a threat to the gains made elsewhere, according to Murray, the professor of global health at the University of Washington. “This study shows that some major chronic diseases have been largely neglected but are rising in importance, particularly drug disorders, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and chronic kidney disease," Click: University of Washington
Why the difference?
The discrepancy between men’s and women’s lifespans is because women drink less, smoke less and take better care of themselves when they are sick.
Since 1990, liver cancer caused by hepatitis C increased by 125 percent, drug use disorders by 63 percent, and chronic kidney disease by 37 percent.
Both high-income and low-income countries have seen their life expectancy rise, but for different reasons. In richer countries, death rates from most cancers (down by 15 percent) and cardiovascular diseases (down by 22 percent) are falling, while poorer areas are making gains from reducing diarrhea, lower respiratory tract infections and childhood illnesses.
Some of these countries, such as Nepal, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, Maldives, Timor-Leste and Iran have seen exceptional gains in life expectancy in less than three decades. Indeed, the rise is more than 12 years for both sexes.
“Even though we have reached a remarkably high level, life expectancy will keep increasing but at a slower pace in the coming decades. But we can already predict that one in two children who are born today will be a centenarian,” Maurice Giroud, professor in Neurology at the University Hospital of Dijon, told. Click: Professeur Maurice GIROUD
Click: Dijon University Hospital Centre - Ascom
Sources:
Click: Global burden of disease
STAF, Inc,
______________________
Topic # 2 of 3
Sugar Is Worse For Your Health Than Salt
In recent years, salt has become somewhat less of a culprit in heart disease, and sugar has, at least in some researchers’ eyes, taken its place. Now, authors of a new Click: study in Open Heart argue that sugar consumption may be considerably worse for blood pressure than salt intake. Click: BMJ Journals Click: BMJ
In fact, they say, “It is time for guideline committees to shift focus away from salt and focus greater attention to the likely more-consequential food additive: sugar.” Whether it’s really valuable to pit one white crystal against the other is unclear, but what we do know is that neither salt nor sugar, in high amounts, is very good for anyone’s heart. For people who already have heart disease or high blood pressure, it’s probably best to keep an eye on both. Click:
But here’s the rationale for the argument that sugar is worse for blood pressure than salt. Sugar, in high amounts, has many well-documented negative effects on the body, and in particular, on one’s metabolic profile. There’s an established link between sugar and metabolic syndrome, a conglomeration of cardiovascular markers that includes insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high triglycerides (blood fats), and excess weight, especially in the form of belly fat.
Sugar also seems to lead, in a series of steps, to an increase in blood pressure per se. “Consuming sugar increases insulin levels,” study author James DiNicolantonio tells me, “which activates the sympathetic nervous system, leading to increases in heart rate and blood pressure.” It also apparently reduces the sensitivity of the receptors that regulate our blood pressure. Finally, sugar depletes ATP, cells’ energy stores, which, again through a cascade of events, constricts blood vessels, and increases blood pressure.
Sources: Click: BMJ Journals
STAF, Inc.
________________________
Topic # 3 of 3
Part A (Part B below the article A)
Olive Oil Can Help A Failing Heart "Immediately"
Not all fats are created equal
We’re all aware of the long-term health benefits of olive oil (First Cold-pressed Virgin Olive oil), but a new study claims that olive oil can reverse heart failure “immediately.”Click: Olive oil
Click: What Does “First Cold Pressed” Olive Olive Oil Really Mean
Researchers at the University of Illinois found that oleate, a healthy fat found in olive oil, can help a failing heart by pumping blood more efficiently and use body fat as fuel. Click: University of Illinois
The study, published in the journal Circulation, discovered that oleate could rekindle the genes that produce enzymes to break down fat into an absorbable substance that can maintain the heart's muscle strength. Click: Circulation
“These genes are often suppressed in failing hearts,” explains lead author Douglas Lewandowski. “The fact that we can restore beneficial gene expression, as well as more balanced fat metabolism, plus reduce toxic fat, just by supplying hearts with oleate is a very exciting finding.” Click: E. Douglas Lewandowski, PhD - University of Illinois
Cardiovascular failure, symptoms of which include shortness of breath, swelling of the feet, ankles, stomach and lower back, weight loss and fatigue, is commonly associated with drug and alcohol abuse, high blood pressure, or by the consequences of a heart attack.
At present there is no treatment to reverse this disease but a combination of a healthy diet, physical activity and prescription medicine can keep it under control.
Nutritionists have long maintained that foods such as avocado, salmon or nuts containing healthy fats, “gives more proof” that oleate has “a significantly positive effect on cardiac health,” according to Lewandowski.
Further evidence of olive oil's positive impact was observed when experts at the University of Illinois pumped oleate through the falling hearts of rats. "We saw an immediate improvement in how the hearts contracted and pumped blood,” says Lewandowski.
When the team did the same procedure with palmitate, a fat found in animal fats and dairy products, they noticed quite the opposite effect – diseased hearts worsened and more toxic fat was produced. Click: Palmitate definition
Source:
(1) Journal Circulation
(2) STAF , Inc.
PART B
Same Olive oil Topic as next above in part A with additional information
Scientists have found that oleate, a common healthy fat found in the oil can help a diseased heart muscle work better.
Experts have hailed the "exciting" findings and say they are further proof that eating a dietrich in good fats can dramatically improve and protect heart health.
And they said that there was even a benefit in consuming the staple of the Mediterranean diet even after heart disease had set in.
Dr Douglas Lewandowski, director of the University of Illinois Centre for Cardiovascular Research in the US, said: "This gives more proof to the idea that consuming healthy fats like oleate can have a significantly positive effect on cardiac health."
Around 750,000 people in Britain suffer from heart failure.
About 600,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
Heart failure is a chronic and incurable disease which occurs when the organ is damaged, either suddenly following a heart attack or gradually over a number of years for reasons including heart disease, long-term high blood pressure, alcohol or recreational drugs.
Once damaged it becomes enlarged, or hypertrophic, in response to the high blood pressure which requires it to work harder to pump blood.
As the heart walls grow thick, the volume of blood pumped out diminishes and can no longer supply the body with enough nutrients.
Failing hearts are also unable to properly process or store the fats they use for fuel, which are contained within tiny droplets called lipid bodies in heart muscle cells.
The inability to use fats, the heart's primary fuel source, causes the muscle to become starved for energy.
And the fats the failing heart does manage to metabolise in fact break down into toxic by-products that further fuel the heart disease.
For this latest click: research, published in the journal Circulation, scientists discovered that oleate can actually help disease heart muscle process and use fuel.
_________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 3
Half of babies born today will live to be 100
Global life expectancy increased by 6 years in the past 23 years
The first person to live for 1,000 years is probably already alive
The discrepancy between men’s and women’s LONGER lifespans is because
women drink less, smoke less and take better care of themselves when they are sick
Some say that the first pen to live for 1,000 years is probably already alive. But the rest of us mere mortals aren’t doing too badly either.
Between 1990 and 2013, average life expectancy rose from 65.3 years to 71.5 years, according to a new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study. In the past 23 years, life expectancy increased by 5 years and 8 months for men and 6 years and 6 months for women. Click: Global burden of disease
"The progress we are seeing against a variety of illnesses and injuries is good, even remarkable, but we can and must do even better," says lead author Dr. Christopher Murray. "The huge increase in collective action and funding given to the major infectious diseases such as diarrhea, measles, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria has had a real impact.”
Click: Christopher J.L. Murray
However, the developed world is developing some new problems that pose a threat to the gains made elsewhere, according to Murray, the professor of global health at the University of Washington. “This study shows that some major chronic diseases have been largely neglected but are rising in importance, particularly drug disorders, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and chronic kidney disease," Click: University of Washington
Why the difference?
The discrepancy between men’s and women’s lifespans is because women drink less, smoke less and take better care of themselves when they are sick.
Since 1990, liver cancer caused by hepatitis C increased by 125 percent, drug use disorders by 63 percent, and chronic kidney disease by 37 percent.
Both high-income and low-income countries have seen their life expectancy rise, but for different reasons. In richer countries, death rates from most cancers (down by 15 percent) and cardiovascular diseases (down by 22 percent) are falling, while poorer areas are making gains from reducing diarrhea, lower respiratory tract infections and childhood illnesses.
Some of these countries, such as Nepal, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Niger, Maldives, Timor-Leste and Iran have seen exceptional gains in life expectancy in less than three decades. Indeed, the rise is more than 12 years for both sexes.
“Even though we have reached a remarkably high level, life expectancy will keep increasing but at a slower pace in the coming decades. But we can already predict that one in two children who are born today will be a centenarian,” Maurice Giroud, professor in Neurology at the University Hospital of Dijon, told. Click: Professeur Maurice GIROUD
Click: Dijon University Hospital Centre - Ascom
Sources:
Click: Global burden of disease
STAF, Inc,
______________________
Topic # 2 of 3
Sugar Is Worse For Your Health Than Salt
In recent years, salt has become somewhat less of a culprit in heart disease, and sugar has, at least in some researchers’ eyes, taken its place. Now, authors of a new Click: study in Open Heart argue that sugar consumption may be considerably worse for blood pressure than salt intake. Click: BMJ Journals Click: BMJ
In fact, they say, “It is time for guideline committees to shift focus away from salt and focus greater attention to the likely more-consequential food additive: sugar.” Whether it’s really valuable to pit one white crystal against the other is unclear, but what we do know is that neither salt nor sugar, in high amounts, is very good for anyone’s heart. For people who already have heart disease or high blood pressure, it’s probably best to keep an eye on both. Click:
But here’s the rationale for the argument that sugar is worse for blood pressure than salt. Sugar, in high amounts, has many well-documented negative effects on the body, and in particular, on one’s metabolic profile. There’s an established link between sugar and metabolic syndrome, a conglomeration of cardiovascular markers that includes insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high triglycerides (blood fats), and excess weight, especially in the form of belly fat.
Sugar also seems to lead, in a series of steps, to an increase in blood pressure per se. “Consuming sugar increases insulin levels,” study author James DiNicolantonio tells me, “which activates the sympathetic nervous system, leading to increases in heart rate and blood pressure.” It also apparently reduces the sensitivity of the receptors that regulate our blood pressure. Finally, sugar depletes ATP, cells’ energy stores, which, again through a cascade of events, constricts blood vessels, and increases blood pressure.
Sources: Click: BMJ Journals
STAF, Inc.
________________________
Topic # 3 of 3
Part A (Part B below the article A)
Olive Oil Can Help A Failing Heart "Immediately"
Not all fats are created equal
We’re all aware of the long-term health benefits of olive oil (First Cold-pressed Virgin Olive oil), but a new study claims that olive oil can reverse heart failure “immediately.”Click: Olive oil
Click: What Does “First Cold Pressed” Olive Olive Oil Really Mean
Researchers at the University of Illinois found that oleate, a healthy fat found in olive oil, can help a failing heart by pumping blood more efficiently and use body fat as fuel. Click: University of Illinois
The study, published in the journal Circulation, discovered that oleate could rekindle the genes that produce enzymes to break down fat into an absorbable substance that can maintain the heart's muscle strength. Click: Circulation
“These genes are often suppressed in failing hearts,” explains lead author Douglas Lewandowski. “The fact that we can restore beneficial gene expression, as well as more balanced fat metabolism, plus reduce toxic fat, just by supplying hearts with oleate is a very exciting finding.” Click: E. Douglas Lewandowski, PhD - University of Illinois
Cardiovascular failure, symptoms of which include shortness of breath, swelling of the feet, ankles, stomach and lower back, weight loss and fatigue, is commonly associated with drug and alcohol abuse, high blood pressure, or by the consequences of a heart attack.
At present there is no treatment to reverse this disease but a combination of a healthy diet, physical activity and prescription medicine can keep it under control.
Nutritionists have long maintained that foods such as avocado, salmon or nuts containing healthy fats, “gives more proof” that oleate has “a significantly positive effect on cardiac health,” according to Lewandowski.
Further evidence of olive oil's positive impact was observed when experts at the University of Illinois pumped oleate through the falling hearts of rats. "We saw an immediate improvement in how the hearts contracted and pumped blood,” says Lewandowski.
When the team did the same procedure with palmitate, a fat found in animal fats and dairy products, they noticed quite the opposite effect – diseased hearts worsened and more toxic fat was produced. Click: Palmitate definition
Source:
(1) Journal Circulation
(2) STAF , Inc.
PART B
Same Olive oil Topic as next above in part A with additional information
Scientists have found that oleate, a common healthy fat found in the oil can help a diseased heart muscle work better.
Experts have hailed the "exciting" findings and say they are further proof that eating a dietrich in good fats can dramatically improve and protect heart health.
And they said that there was even a benefit in consuming the staple of the Mediterranean diet even after heart disease had set in.
Dr Douglas Lewandowski, director of the University of Illinois Centre for Cardiovascular Research in the US, said: "This gives more proof to the idea that consuming healthy fats like oleate can have a significantly positive effect on cardiac health."
Around 750,000 people in Britain suffer from heart failure.
About 600,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.
Heart failure is a chronic and incurable disease which occurs when the organ is damaged, either suddenly following a heart attack or gradually over a number of years for reasons including heart disease, long-term high blood pressure, alcohol or recreational drugs.
Once damaged it becomes enlarged, or hypertrophic, in response to the high blood pressure which requires it to work harder to pump blood.
As the heart walls grow thick, the volume of blood pumped out diminishes and can no longer supply the body with enough nutrients.
Failing hearts are also unable to properly process or store the fats they use for fuel, which are contained within tiny droplets called lipid bodies in heart muscle cells.
The inability to use fats, the heart's primary fuel source, causes the muscle to become starved for energy.
And the fats the failing heart does manage to metabolise in fact break down into toxic by-products that further fuel the heart disease.
For this latest click: research, published in the journal Circulation, scientists discovered that oleate can actually help disease heart muscle process and use fuel.
_________________
Sunday, 1/4/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
iPad Reading at Night Causes Sleep Problems
Bedtime reading on an electronic device, like an iPad or Nook, might disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing the release of the hormone melatonin.
“Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light—with a peak around 450 nm—than natural light,” says Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “This is different from natural light in composition, having a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms.”
Chang and colleagues observed 12 adults for two weeks, comparing when the participants read from an iPad, serving as an e-reader, before bedtime to when they read from a printed book before bedtime. The researchers monitored the participants’ melatonin levels, sleep and next-morning alertness, as well as other sleep-related measures.
Participants took nearly 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and had a significantly lower amount of REM—rapid eye movement—sleep after reading from a light-emitting e-reader than they did after reading from a print book.
Bedtime reading on an electronic device, like an iPad or Nook, might disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing the release of the hormone melatonin.
“Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light—with a peak around 450 nm—than natural light,” says Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “This is different from natural light in composition, having a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms.”
Chang and colleagues observed 12 adults for two weeks, comparing when the participants read from an iPad, serving as an e-reader, before bedtime to when they read from a printed book before bedtime. The researchers monitored the participants’ melatonin levels, sleep and next-morning alertness, as well as other sleep-related measures.
Participants took nearly 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and had a significantly lower amount of REM—rapid eye movement—sleep after reading from a light-emitting e-reader than they did after reading from a print book.
Our most surprising finding was that individuals using the e-reader would be more tired and take longer to become alert the next morning,” says Chang. “This has real consequences for daytime functioning, and these effects might be worse in the real world as opposed to the controlled environment we used.”
iPad, iPhone, Nook, and Kindle
The researchers measured the amount of brightness coming from several devices, including an iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Kindle Fire, and Nook Color. The Kindle e-reader does not emit light, while the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook Color emit similar amounts of light. However, the iPad is the brightest of the devices measured.
The study participants were admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for the duration of the 14-day study, in order for the researchers to control for many factors. Each participant read from an iPad before bedtime for five nights in a row, and did the same with a printed book.
It was randomly determined whether a participant read from a print book or an iPad first—the results showed that the order didn’t make a difference. Participants were able to choose their own reading material, as long as it could be considered “leisure” reading and did not contain any images or puzzles, only text.
The subjects read for four hours before bed, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with time designated for sleep from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The researchers collected blood samples from the readers hourly to measure melatonin.
Polysomnography—which records brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and eye movements—was also used to determine how long it took to fall asleep, the amount of time spent asleep and the amount of time spent in each sleep stage. The researchers also used the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale to measure subjective sleepiness.
“We live in a sleep-restricted society, in general,” says Chang. “It is important to further study the effects of using light-emitting devices, especially before bed, as they may have longer term health consequences than we previously considered.”
Researchers from Harvard Medical School collaborated on the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources. Read the published report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: Penn State University
Republished from Futurity.org under Creative Commons License 3.0.
Click each title below for further info
One More Reason to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Siberian Scientists May Be on Brink of Parkinson’s Cure
Light-Emitting E-readers Before Bedtime Can Adversely Impact Sleep
________________________
Wednesday, 1/14/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Keep Your Heart Health,
Then You keep the rest of the health
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the catch-all term for diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels—including heart attack and stroke—is the leading global killer.
Ultimately, managing heart health is a lifetime effort.
Ignoring strong potential risk factors may put our health at risk over time. Complications linked to CVD can also be difficult to manage. The best advice then would be to start thinking about prevention early—particularly if you think you’re at risk—and embed good behavior patterns into daily life. This goes for us individually, but also for our education systems and wider culture.
Bad heart health can lead to health impairments, from loss of body function to mental disturbances that can greatly affect our quality of life.
We’re constantly told to eat this and do that in order to keep ourselves healthy. We’re familiar with all of the warnings that come with drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating junk food.
According to the World Health Organization, the top ways to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease include the following: reduce smoke inhalation, make healthy food choices, be physically active and therefore reduce your body mass index, and control blood pressure and cholesterol. Click: World Health Organization: WHO
In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends reducing salt and fat in foods, using active modes of transport such as walking, and removing stressful living environments.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control also recommends going for regular health checkups.
So, from my research looking at studies on CVD, what would I say are the top five things that could likely delay or even prevent heart disease? Click: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
1
Have Annual Checkups and Know Family History.
In Australasia, Japan, India, Nigeria, and Sweden, studies that took a single snapshot of a sample of the population suggested that only about 50 percent of people went for health checkups. A correlation has been observed between an awareness of regular health checkups and the development of strokes. Of course, this may be because people who get regular checkups could also have a greater general awareness of health to keep themselves healthy. But such awareness is still generally low—despite heart disease being a big killer—and this may also limit people’s knowledge of any family history that might indicate later problems.
2
Eat Healthy Foods and Limit Alcohol.
Diets are complex in human societies, and different foods have been observed to increase or decrease risk of cardiovascular disease.
Since the 1990s, the Mediterranean diet must be one of the most promoted. The Mediterranean diet in particular is encouraged by the Mayo Clinic because of these key components: It includes primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts; replaces butter with healthy fats, such as olive oil; uses herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods; limits red meat to no more than a few times a month; and substitutes fish and poultry at least twice a week. It also promotes drinking red wine in moderation, if alcohol is drunk.
Click: Mediterranean diet for heart health - Mayo Clinic
However, the Mediterranean diet is based on Western food and ingredients. From an Eastern perspective, the Paleolithic diet*) is characterized by more protein and meat, fewer carbohydrates, more nonstarchy vegetables, and high fiber. It excludes dairy products, grains, legumes, processed oils, refined sugar, salt, alcohol, and coffee.
*)
The Paleolithic diet, also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional diet designed to emulate, insofar as possible using modern foods, the diet of wild plants and animals eaten by humans during the Paleolithic era. Click: Paleolithic diet
3
Keep Cleaner and Quieter Environments.
We’ve known for decades how harmful smoking and second-hand smoke, particularly in
homes, can be for heart health. There have already been bans on smoking in public spaces and advertising tobacco products in many countries and reduced hospital admissions have been recorded. Banning smoking in the home has also been found to be beneficial.
Living in adverse*) neighborhood conditions has also been observed to be linked to greater prevalence of CVD. This includes environmental factors such as air and water quality, noise, traffic, and rubbish, but also links with stress factors such as harassment, discrimination, and violence. *) adverse = preventing success or development; harmful;
A recent study observed that adolescents in the United Kingdom who preventing success or development were dissatisfied with their neighborhood, for whatever reason, were more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors and lifestyle. While housing was hypothesized to play a role in heart health, air quality, room temperature, heating use, and chemicals could matter, too. In households, sleep is essential for biological functioning. Sleep deprivation can affect blood pressure and microvascular function (a form of blood vessel disease) and consequently increase cardiovascular risk.
Poor housing, neighborhoods, and workplace are also where stress and violence could trigger the development of CVD symptoms—and women could be particularly affected. Policies for upgrading and regenerating areas, as is happening in Scotland, could lower risk.
4
Exercise and Use Public Transportation.
Obesity is a strong risk factor for many chronic diseases, including CVD, and is growing alarmingly in many countries. Lots of scientific research has shown how being physically active could help lessen CVD risk.
British and Indian researchers recently documented how active travel by walking, biking, or using public transportation could help reduce CVD risk. By doing so, it could also help reduce CO2 emissions and clean the shared breathing air in urban areas. Take 10K - 25 K steops daily - Use a pedometer click: Pedometer
5
Avoid Artificial Products With Chemicals.
Environmental chemicals, which could disrupt our hormones and energy metabolism, have been linked to CVD risk.
The European Commission says it is committed to combating the use of such
chemicals. Click: EUROPA - European Commission
We come into contact with these chemicals on a daily basis from multiple sources, including cans, bottles, containers, plastic products, and canned food. While there is often debate about the dangers of some chemicals and/or amounts of exposure, certain chemicals are associated with conditions such as high blood pressure.
While governments implement policy to minimize the use of chemicals in industry, we as consumers could learn to choose more natural products to avoid such exposure—although the affordability of these kinds of products might be a concern. In addition, more use of green space has been found to benefit heart health in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, and
New Zealand. Exposure to natural environments can increase vitamin D, which is also important for heart health. It is not only associated with metabolic function, but also with good sleep patterns—the kinds of things that impact CVD risk. So far, taking vitamin D supplements is neither proven to be beneficial nor harmful for CVD.
Ultimately, managing heart health is a lifetime effort. Ignoring strong potential risk factors may put our health at risk over time. Complications linked to CVD can also be difficult to manage. The best advice then would be to start thinking about prevention early—particularly if you think you’re at risk—and embed good behavior patterns into daily life. This goes for us individually, but also for our education systems and wider culture.
Source:
(1) Ivy Shiue, Ph.D., is an assistant professor
at Heriot-Watt University in the United
Kingdom. This article was originally
(2) Source: The Conversation
Click: Ivy Shiue | Heriot-Watt University
Click: Heriot-Watt University
(3) Source: STAF Inc. Research Center
Topic # 2 of 2
New Diet Guidelines Might Support Less Meat
New Guide every 5 years
A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet
A panel that advises the Agriculture Department appears set to recommend that you be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but also for the environment. That means that when the latest version of the government’s dietary guidelines comes out, it may push even harder than it has in recent years for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat.
The beef and agriculture industries are crying foul, saying an environmental agenda has no place in what has always been a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle.
The advisory panel has been discussing the idea of sustainability in public meetings, indicating that its recommendations, expected early this year, may address the environment. A draft recommendation circulated last month said a sustainable diet helps ensure food access for both the current population and future generations.
A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet,” the draft said.
That appears to take at least partial aim at the beef industry. A study by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year said raising beef for the American dinner table is more harmful to the environment than other meat industries such as pork and chicken.
Click: Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienceswww.pnas.org.
The study said that compared with other popular animal proteins, beef produces more heat-trapping gases per calorie, puts out more water-polluting nitrogen, takes more water for irrigation and uses more land.
As the advisory committee has discussed the idea, doctors and academics on the panel have framed sustainability in terms of conserving food resources and also what are the healthiest foods. There is “compatibility and overlap” between what’s good for health and good for the environment, the panel says.
Once the recommendations are made, the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments will craft the final dietary guidelines, expected about a year from now. Published every five years, the guidelines are the basis for USDA’s “My Plate” icon that replaced the well-known food pyramid in 2010 and is designed to help Americans with healthy eating. Guidelines will also be integrated into school lunch meal patterns and other federal eating programs.
The meat industry has fought for years to ensure that the dietary guidelines do not call for eating less meat. The guidelines now recommend eating lean meats instead of reducing meat altogether. But another draft discussed at the panel’s Dec. 15 meeting says a healthy dietary pattern includes fewer “red and processed meats.”
In response, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association sent out a statement by doctor and cattle producer Richard Thorpe calling the committee biased and the meat recommendation absurd. He said lean beef has a role in healthy diets.
Objections are coming from Congress, too.
A massive year-end spending bill enacted last month noted the advisory committee’s interest in the environment and directed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “to only include nutrition and dietary information, not extraneous factors” in final guidelines. Congress often uses such non-binding directions to put a department on notice that lawmakers will push back if the executive branch moves forward.
Environmentalists are pushing the committee and the government to go the route being considered.
“We need to make sure our diets are in alignment with our natural resources and the need to reduce climate change,” said Kari Hamerschlag of the advocacy group Friends of the Earth.
Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the idea of broader guidelines isn’t unprecedented. They have already been shaped to address physical activity and food safety, he said.
“You don’t want to recommend a diet that is going to poison the planet,” he said.
More in Health News
_____________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
iPad Reading at Night Causes Sleep Problems
Bedtime reading on an electronic device, like an iPad or Nook, might disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing the release of the hormone melatonin.
“Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light—with a peak around 450 nm—than natural light,” says Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “This is different from natural light in composition, having a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms.”
Chang and colleagues observed 12 adults for two weeks, comparing when the participants read from an iPad, serving as an e-reader, before bedtime to when they read from a printed book before bedtime. The researchers monitored the participants’ melatonin levels, sleep and next-morning alertness, as well as other sleep-related measures.
Participants took nearly 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and had a significantly lower amount of REM—rapid eye movement—sleep after reading from a light-emitting e-reader than they did after reading from a print book.
Bedtime reading on an electronic device, like an iPad or Nook, might disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing the release of the hormone melatonin.
“Electronic devices emit light that is short-wavelength-enriched light, which has a higher concentration of blue light—with a peak around 450 nm—than natural light,” says Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. “This is different from natural light in composition, having a greater impact on sleep and circadian rhythms.”
Chang and colleagues observed 12 adults for two weeks, comparing when the participants read from an iPad, serving as an e-reader, before bedtime to when they read from a printed book before bedtime. The researchers monitored the participants’ melatonin levels, sleep and next-morning alertness, as well as other sleep-related measures.
Participants took nearly 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and had a significantly lower amount of REM—rapid eye movement—sleep after reading from a light-emitting e-reader than they did after reading from a print book.
Our most surprising finding was that individuals using the e-reader would be more tired and take longer to become alert the next morning,” says Chang. “This has real consequences for daytime functioning, and these effects might be worse in the real world as opposed to the controlled environment we used.”
iPad, iPhone, Nook, and Kindle
The researchers measured the amount of brightness coming from several devices, including an iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Kindle Fire, and Nook Color. The Kindle e-reader does not emit light, while the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook Color emit similar amounts of light. However, the iPad is the brightest of the devices measured.
The study participants were admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for the duration of the 14-day study, in order for the researchers to control for many factors. Each participant read from an iPad before bedtime for five nights in a row, and did the same with a printed book.
It was randomly determined whether a participant read from a print book or an iPad first—the results showed that the order didn’t make a difference. Participants were able to choose their own reading material, as long as it could be considered “leisure” reading and did not contain any images or puzzles, only text.
The subjects read for four hours before bed, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with time designated for sleep from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The researchers collected blood samples from the readers hourly to measure melatonin.
Polysomnography—which records brain waves, heart rate, breathing, and eye movements—was also used to determine how long it took to fall asleep, the amount of time spent asleep and the amount of time spent in each sleep stage. The researchers also used the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale to measure subjective sleepiness.
“We live in a sleep-restricted society, in general,” says Chang. “It is important to further study the effects of using light-emitting devices, especially before bed, as they may have longer term health consequences than we previously considered.”
Researchers from Harvard Medical School collaborated on the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources. Read the published report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: Penn State University
Republished from Futurity.org under Creative Commons License 3.0.
Click each title below for further info
One More Reason to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Siberian Scientists May Be on Brink of Parkinson’s Cure
Light-Emitting E-readers Before Bedtime Can Adversely Impact Sleep
________________________
Wednesday, 1/14/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic # 1 of 2
Keep Your Heart Health,
Then You keep the rest of the health
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the catch-all term for diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels—including heart attack and stroke—is the leading global killer.
Ultimately, managing heart health is a lifetime effort.
Ignoring strong potential risk factors may put our health at risk over time. Complications linked to CVD can also be difficult to manage. The best advice then would be to start thinking about prevention early—particularly if you think you’re at risk—and embed good behavior patterns into daily life. This goes for us individually, but also for our education systems and wider culture.
Bad heart health can lead to health impairments, from loss of body function to mental disturbances that can greatly affect our quality of life.
We’re constantly told to eat this and do that in order to keep ourselves healthy. We’re familiar with all of the warnings that come with drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating junk food.
According to the World Health Organization, the top ways to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease include the following: reduce smoke inhalation, make healthy food choices, be physically active and therefore reduce your body mass index, and control blood pressure and cholesterol. Click: World Health Organization: WHO
In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends reducing salt and fat in foods, using active modes of transport such as walking, and removing stressful living environments.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control also recommends going for regular health checkups.
So, from my research looking at studies on CVD, what would I say are the top five things that could likely delay or even prevent heart disease? Click: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
1
Have Annual Checkups and Know Family History.
In Australasia, Japan, India, Nigeria, and Sweden, studies that took a single snapshot of a sample of the population suggested that only about 50 percent of people went for health checkups. A correlation has been observed between an awareness of regular health checkups and the development of strokes. Of course, this may be because people who get regular checkups could also have a greater general awareness of health to keep themselves healthy. But such awareness is still generally low—despite heart disease being a big killer—and this may also limit people’s knowledge of any family history that might indicate later problems.
2
Eat Healthy Foods and Limit Alcohol.
Diets are complex in human societies, and different foods have been observed to increase or decrease risk of cardiovascular disease.
Since the 1990s, the Mediterranean diet must be one of the most promoted. The Mediterranean diet in particular is encouraged by the Mayo Clinic because of these key components: It includes primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts; replaces butter with healthy fats, such as olive oil; uses herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods; limits red meat to no more than a few times a month; and substitutes fish and poultry at least twice a week. It also promotes drinking red wine in moderation, if alcohol is drunk.
Click: Mediterranean diet for heart health - Mayo Clinic
However, the Mediterranean diet is based on Western food and ingredients. From an Eastern perspective, the Paleolithic diet*) is characterized by more protein and meat, fewer carbohydrates, more nonstarchy vegetables, and high fiber. It excludes dairy products, grains, legumes, processed oils, refined sugar, salt, alcohol, and coffee.
*)
The Paleolithic diet, also popularly referred to as the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet, is a modern nutritional diet designed to emulate, insofar as possible using modern foods, the diet of wild plants and animals eaten by humans during the Paleolithic era. Click: Paleolithic diet
3
Keep Cleaner and Quieter Environments.
We’ve known for decades how harmful smoking and second-hand smoke, particularly in
homes, can be for heart health. There have already been bans on smoking in public spaces and advertising tobacco products in many countries and reduced hospital admissions have been recorded. Banning smoking in the home has also been found to be beneficial.
Living in adverse*) neighborhood conditions has also been observed to be linked to greater prevalence of CVD. This includes environmental factors such as air and water quality, noise, traffic, and rubbish, but also links with stress factors such as harassment, discrimination, and violence. *) adverse = preventing success or development; harmful;
A recent study observed that adolescents in the United Kingdom who preventing success or development were dissatisfied with their neighborhood, for whatever reason, were more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors and lifestyle. While housing was hypothesized to play a role in heart health, air quality, room temperature, heating use, and chemicals could matter, too. In households, sleep is essential for biological functioning. Sleep deprivation can affect blood pressure and microvascular function (a form of blood vessel disease) and consequently increase cardiovascular risk.
Poor housing, neighborhoods, and workplace are also where stress and violence could trigger the development of CVD symptoms—and women could be particularly affected. Policies for upgrading and regenerating areas, as is happening in Scotland, could lower risk.
4
Exercise and Use Public Transportation.
Obesity is a strong risk factor for many chronic diseases, including CVD, and is growing alarmingly in many countries. Lots of scientific research has shown how being physically active could help lessen CVD risk.
British and Indian researchers recently documented how active travel by walking, biking, or using public transportation could help reduce CVD risk. By doing so, it could also help reduce CO2 emissions and clean the shared breathing air in urban areas. Take 10K - 25 K steops daily - Use a pedometer click: Pedometer
5
Avoid Artificial Products With Chemicals.
Environmental chemicals, which could disrupt our hormones and energy metabolism, have been linked to CVD risk.
The European Commission says it is committed to combating the use of such
chemicals. Click: EUROPA - European Commission
We come into contact with these chemicals on a daily basis from multiple sources, including cans, bottles, containers, plastic products, and canned food. While there is often debate about the dangers of some chemicals and/or amounts of exposure, certain chemicals are associated with conditions such as high blood pressure.
While governments implement policy to minimize the use of chemicals in industry, we as consumers could learn to choose more natural products to avoid such exposure—although the affordability of these kinds of products might be a concern. In addition, more use of green space has been found to benefit heart health in Canada, Denmark, Lithuania, and
New Zealand. Exposure to natural environments can increase vitamin D, which is also important for heart health. It is not only associated with metabolic function, but also with good sleep patterns—the kinds of things that impact CVD risk. So far, taking vitamin D supplements is neither proven to be beneficial nor harmful for CVD.
Ultimately, managing heart health is a lifetime effort. Ignoring strong potential risk factors may put our health at risk over time. Complications linked to CVD can also be difficult to manage. The best advice then would be to start thinking about prevention early—particularly if you think you’re at risk—and embed good behavior patterns into daily life. This goes for us individually, but also for our education systems and wider culture.
Source:
(1) Ivy Shiue, Ph.D., is an assistant professor
at Heriot-Watt University in the United
Kingdom. This article was originally
(2) Source: The Conversation
Click: Ivy Shiue | Heriot-Watt University
Click: Heriot-Watt University
(3) Source: STAF Inc. Research Center
Topic # 2 of 2
New Diet Guidelines Might Support Less Meat
New Guide every 5 years
A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet
A panel that advises the Agriculture Department appears set to recommend that you be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but also for the environment. That means that when the latest version of the government’s dietary guidelines comes out, it may push even harder than it has in recent years for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat.
The beef and agriculture industries are crying foul, saying an environmental agenda has no place in what has always been a practical blueprint for a healthy lifestyle.
The advisory panel has been discussing the idea of sustainability in public meetings, indicating that its recommendations, expected early this year, may address the environment. A draft recommendation circulated last month said a sustainable diet helps ensure food access for both the current population and future generations.
A dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet,” the draft said.
That appears to take at least partial aim at the beef industry. A study by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last year said raising beef for the American dinner table is more harmful to the environment than other meat industries such as pork and chicken.
Click: Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienceswww.pnas.org.
The study said that compared with other popular animal proteins, beef produces more heat-trapping gases per calorie, puts out more water-polluting nitrogen, takes more water for irrigation and uses more land.
As the advisory committee has discussed the idea, doctors and academics on the panel have framed sustainability in terms of conserving food resources and also what are the healthiest foods. There is “compatibility and overlap” between what’s good for health and good for the environment, the panel says.
Once the recommendations are made, the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments will craft the final dietary guidelines, expected about a year from now. Published every five years, the guidelines are the basis for USDA’s “My Plate” icon that replaced the well-known food pyramid in 2010 and is designed to help Americans with healthy eating. Guidelines will also be integrated into school lunch meal patterns and other federal eating programs.
The meat industry has fought for years to ensure that the dietary guidelines do not call for eating less meat. The guidelines now recommend eating lean meats instead of reducing meat altogether. But another draft discussed at the panel’s Dec. 15 meeting says a healthy dietary pattern includes fewer “red and processed meats.”
In response, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association sent out a statement by doctor and cattle producer Richard Thorpe calling the committee biased and the meat recommendation absurd. He said lean beef has a role in healthy diets.
Objections are coming from Congress, too.
A massive year-end spending bill enacted last month noted the advisory committee’s interest in the environment and directed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “to only include nutrition and dietary information, not extraneous factors” in final guidelines. Congress often uses such non-binding directions to put a department on notice that lawmakers will push back if the executive branch moves forward.
Environmentalists are pushing the committee and the government to go the route being considered.
“We need to make sure our diets are in alignment with our natural resources and the need to reduce climate change,” said Kari Hamerschlag of the advocacy group Friends of the Earth.
Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the idea of broader guidelines isn’t unprecedented. They have already been shaped to address physical activity and food safety, he said.
“You don’t want to recommend a diet that is going to poison the planet,” he said.
More in Health News
_____________________________________
Wednesday, 1/28/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Science Says: Eat With Your Kids
By Click: Anne Fishel,
Anne Fishel is an associate clinical professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard Medical School January 2015
Family meals nourish your body, but that’s not all.
It is also soul food, brain food, avoiding physical & mental/emotional sickness food, getting A's in school food,
family peace food, avoiding risky behavior food, success food
What’s so magical about family mealtime?
Soul food
(1) In most industrialized countries, families don’t farm together, play musical instruments or stitch quilts on the porch. So dinner is the most reliable way for families to connect and find out what’s going on with each other.
In a Click: survey, American teens were asked when they were most likely to talk with their parents: dinner was their top answer. Kids who eat dinner with their parents experience Click: less stress and have a better relationship with them. This daily mealtime connection (or as often weekly as your family reasonably can) is like a seat belt for traveling the potholed road of childhood and adolescence and all its possible risky behaviors.
(2) Teens who have dinner with their families less than three times a week are three times likelier to say half or more of their friends currently use marijuana, compared to teens who have dinner with their families at least five times a week.
Click the colored links for further info
As a family therapist, I often have the impulse to tell families to go home and have dinner together rather than spending an hour with me. And 20 years of research in North America, Europe and Australia back up my enthusiasm for family dinners. It turns out that sitting down for a nightly meal is great for the brain, the body and the spirit. And that nightly dinner doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal that took three hours to cook, nor does it need to be made with organic arugula and heirloom parsnips.
Brain food
For starters, Click: researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation boosts vocabulary even more than being read aloud to. The researchers counted the number of rare words – those not found on a list of 3,000 most common words – that the families used during dinner conversation. Young kids learned 1,000 rare words at the dinner table, compared to only 143 from parents reading storybooks aloud. Kids who have a large vocabulary read earlier and more easily.
Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of Click: high achievement scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art.
Other researchers reported a consistent association between family dinner frequency and teen academic performance. Adolescents who ate family meals 5 to 7 times a week were Click: twice as likely to get A’s in school as those who ate dinner with their families fewer than two times a week.
Does a body good
Children who eat regular family dinners also Click: consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins and micronutrients (= a chemical element or substance required in trace amounts for the normal growth and development of living organisms) as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. And the Click: nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up: young adults who ate regular family meals Click: as teens are less likely to be obese and more likely to eat healthily once they live on their own.
Some research has even found a connection between regular family dinners and the reduction of symptoms in medical disorders, such as asthma. The benefit might be due to two possible byproducts of a shared family meal: lower anxiety and the chance to check in about a child’s medication compliance.
It isn’t just the presence of healthy foods that leads to all these benefits. The dinner Click: atmosphere is also important. Parents need to be warm and engaged, rather than controlling and restrictive, to encourage healthy eating in their children.
But all bets are off if the TV is on during dinner. In one study, American kindergartners who watched TV during dinner were more likely to be overweight by the time they were in third grade. The association between TV-watching during dinner and overweightness in children was also reported in several European countries.
Family meals nourish your body, but that’s not all
It is also soul food, brain food, avoiding physical & mental/emotional sickness food, getting A's in school food,
family peace food, avoiding risky behavior food, success food
Soul food
In addition, a stack of studies link regular family dinners with lowering a host of Click: high risk teenage behaviors parents fear: smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, violence, school problems, eating disorders and sexual activity. In one study of more than 5,000 Minnesota teens, researchers concluded that regular family dinners were associated with lower rates of Click: depression and suicidal thoughts. In a very recent study, kids who had been Click: victims of cyberbullying bounced back more readily if they had regular family dinners. Family dinners have been found to be a more powerful deterrent against high-risk teen behaviors than church attendance or good grades.
There are also associations between regular family dinners and good behaviors, not just the absence of bad ones.
In a Click: New Zealand study, a higher frequency of family meals was strongly associated with
Click: positive moods in adolescents. Similarly, other researchers have shown that teens who dine regularly with their families also have a more Click: positive view of the future, compared to their peers who don’t eat with parents.
What’s so magical about family mealtime?
In most industrialized countries, families don’t farm together, play musical instruments or stitch quilts on the porch.
So dinner is the most reliable way for families to connect and find out what’s going on with each other.
In a Click: survey, American teens were asked when they were most likely to talk with their parents: dinner was their top answer. Kids who eat dinner with their parents experience Click: less stress and have a better relationship with them. This daily mealtime connection (or as often weekly as your family reasonably can) is like a seat belt for traveling the potholed road of childhood and adolescence and all its possible risky behaviors.
Of course, the real power of dinners lies in their interpersonal quality.
If family members sit in stony silence, if parents yell at each other, or scold their kids, family dinner won’t confer positive benefits. Sharing a roast chicken won’t magically transform parent-child relationships. But, dinner may be the one time of the day when a parent and child can share a positive experience – a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a story – and these small moments can gain momentum to create stronger connections away from the table.
Sources:
(1) The basic text author: Click: Anne Fishel
Anne Fishel is an associate clinical professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard Medical School January 2015
(2) This article was originally published on Click: The Conversation
(3) Links, additions, modifications: STAF, Inc.
__________________________________
Topic 2 of 2 Wednesday, 1/28/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
2014 Breaks Heat Record,
Challenging Global Warming Skeptics
(1) The year 2014 was the hottest on earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse gas emissions and undermining claims by Click: climate change contrarians that click: global warming had somehow stopped.
(2) But the temperature of 1998 is now being surpassed every four or five years, and 2014 was the first time that happened without a significant Click: El Niño
2014 The Warmest Year on Record
Parts of the eastern United States were cooler than average in 2014, but globally 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history since 1880.
Extreme heat blanketed Alaska and much of the western United States last year. Records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent. And the ocean surface was unusually warm virtually everywhere except near Antarctica, the scientists said, providing the energy that fueled damaging Pacific storms.
In the annals of climatology, 2014 surpassed 2010 as the warmest year.
The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997, a reflection of the relentless planetary warming that scientists say is a consequence of human activity and poses profound long-term risks to civilization and nature.
“Climate change is perhaps the major challenge of our generation,” said Michael H. Freilich, director of earth sciences at
Click: NASA, one of the agencies that track global temperatures.
Click: Dr. Michael Freilich, Earth Science Division Director - NASA ...science.nasa.gov
Of the large land areas where many people live, only the eastern portion of the United States recorded below-average temperatures in 2014, in sharp contrast to the unusual heat in the West. Some experts think the weather pattern that produced those American extremes is an indirect consequence of the release of greenhouse gases, though that is not proven.
Several scientists said the most remarkable thing about the 2014 record was that it had occurred in a year that did not feature a strong El Niño, a large-scale weather pattern in which the Pacific Ocean pumps an enormous amount of heat into the atmosphere. Click: El Niño
Skeptics of climate change have long argued that global warming stopped around 1998, when an unusually powerful
El Niño produced the hottest year of the 20th century. Some politicians in Washington have seized on that claim to justify inaction on emissions.
But the temperature of 1998 is now being surpassed every four or five years, and 2014 was the first time that happened without a significant Click: El Niño. Gavin A. Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, said the next strong El Niño would probably rout all temperature records.
Click: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies: NASA GISS www.giss.nasa.gov
NASA has named Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt to head the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, a leading Earth climate research laboratory.
To see related pictures click: 2014 Breaks Heat Record, Challenging Global Warming
...www.nytimes.com/.../2014-was-hottest-year-on-recor...The New York Times Jan 16, 2015
If the link is expired, search the web or The NYT archives with the above article title & date
Sources:
(1) NASA
(2) NYT
(3) STAF, Inc.
___________________________________________
2014 Breaks Heat Record,
Challenging Global Warming Skeptics
(1) The year 2014 was the hottest on earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse gas emissions and undermining claims by Click: climate change contrarians that click: global warming had somehow stopped.
(2) But the temperature of 1998 is now being surpassed every four or five years, and 2014 was the first time that happened without a significant Click: El Niño
2014 The Warmest Year on Record
Parts of the eastern United States were cooler than average in 2014, but globally 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history since 1880.
Extreme heat blanketed Alaska and much of the western United States last year. Records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent. And the ocean surface was unusually warm virtually everywhere except near Antarctica, the scientists said, providing the energy that fueled damaging Pacific storms.
In the annals of climatology, 2014 surpassed 2010 as the warmest year.
The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1997, a reflection of the relentless planetary warming that scientists say is a consequence of human activity and poses profound long-term risks to civilization and nature.
“Climate change is perhaps the major challenge of our generation,” said Michael H. Freilich, director of earth sciences at
Click: NASA, one of the agencies that track global temperatures.
Click: Dr. Michael Freilich, Earth Science Division Director - NASA ...science.nasa.gov
Of the large land areas where many people live, only the eastern portion of the United States recorded below-average temperatures in 2014, in sharp contrast to the unusual heat in the West. Some experts think the weather pattern that produced those American extremes is an indirect consequence of the release of greenhouse gases, though that is not proven.
Several scientists said the most remarkable thing about the 2014 record was that it had occurred in a year that did not feature a strong El Niño, a large-scale weather pattern in which the Pacific Ocean pumps an enormous amount of heat into the atmosphere. Click: El Niño
Skeptics of climate change have long argued that global warming stopped around 1998, when an unusually powerful
El Niño produced the hottest year of the 20th century. Some politicians in Washington have seized on that claim to justify inaction on emissions.
But the temperature of 1998 is now being surpassed every four or five years, and 2014 was the first time that happened without a significant Click: El Niño. Gavin A. Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, said the next strong El Niño would probably rout all temperature records.
Click: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies: NASA GISS www.giss.nasa.gov
NASA has named Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt to head the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, a leading Earth climate research laboratory.
To see related pictures click: 2014 Breaks Heat Record, Challenging Global Warming
...www.nytimes.com/.../2014-was-hottest-year-on-recor...The New York Times Jan 16, 2015
If the link is expired, search the web or The NYT archives with the above article title & date
Sources:
(1) NASA
(2) NYT
(3) STAF, Inc.
___________________________________________
Sunday, 1/28/14 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Science Says: Eat With Your Children
Family meals nourish your body, helps in avoiding overweight,
builds closer relationships in your family and helps the children avoid risky behavior
As a family therapist, I often have the impulse to tell families to go home and have dinner together rather than spending an hour with me. And 20 years of research in North America, Europe and Australia back up my enthusiasm for family dinners. It turns out that sitting down for a nightly meal is great for the brain, the body and the spirit. And that nightly dinner doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal that took three hours to cook, nor does it need to be made with organic arugula and heirloom parsnips.
Brain Food
For starters, researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation boosts vocabulary even more than being read aloud to. The researchers counted the number of rare words – those not found on a list of 3,000 most common words – that the families used during dinner conversation. Young kids learned 1,000 rare words at the dinner table, compared to only 143 from parents reading storybooks aloud. Kids who have a large vocabulary read earlier and more easily.
Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of high achievement scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art.
Other researchers reported a consistent association between family dinner frequency and teen academic performance. Adolescents who ate family meals 5 to 7 times a week were twice as likely to get A’s in school as those who ate dinner with their families fewer than two times a week.
Family meals nourish your body, but that’s not all.
Does a Body Good
Children who eat regular family dinners also consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. And the nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up: young adults who ate regular family meals as teens are less likely to be obese and more likely to eat healthily once they live on their own.
Some research has even found a connection between regular family dinners and the reduction of symptoms in medical disorders, such as asthma. The benefit might be due to two possible byproducts of a shared family meal: lower anxiety and the chance to check in about a child’s medication compliance.
It isn’t just the presence of healthy foods that leads to all these benefits. The dinner atmosphere is also important. Parents need to be warm and engaged, rather than controlling and restrictive, to encourage healthy eating in their children.
But all bets are off if the TV is on during dinner. In one study, American kindergartners who watched TV during dinner were more likely to be overweight by the time they were in third grade. The association between TV-watching during dinner and overweightness in children was also reported in Sweden, Finland and Portugal.
Soul Food
In addition, a stack of studies link regular family dinners with lowering a host of high risk teenage behaviors parents fear: smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, violence, school problems, eating disorders and sexual activity. In one study of more than 5,000 Minnesota teens, researchers concluded that regular family dinners were associated with lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. In a very recent study, kids who had been victims of cyberbullying bounced back more readily if they had regular family dinners. Family dinners have been found to be a more powerful deterrent against high-risk teen behaviors than church attendance or good grades.
There are also associations between regular family dinners and good behaviors, not just the absence of bad ones. In a New Zealand study, a higher frequency of family meals was strongly associated with positive moods in adolescents. Similarly, other researchers have shown that teens who dine regularly with their families also have a more positive view of the future, compared to their peers who don’t eat with parents.
What’s So Magical About Mealtime?
In most industrialized countries, families don’t farm together, play musical instruments or stitch quilts on the porch. So dinner is the most reliable way for families to connect and find out what’s going on with each other. In a survey, American teens were asked when they were most likely to talk with their parents: dinner was their top answer. Kids who eat dinner with their parents experience less stress and have a better relationship with them. This daily mealtime connection is like a seat belt for traveling the potholed road of childhood and adolescence and all its possible risky behaviors.
Of course, the real power of dinners lies in their interpersonal quality.
If family members sit in stony silence, if parents yell at each other, or scold their kids,
family dinner won’t confer positive benefits.
Sharing a roast chicken won’t magically transform parent-child relationships.
But, dinner may be the one time of the day when a parent and child can share a positive experience
– a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a story – and these small moments
can gain momentum to create stronger connections away from the table.
Source:
(1) The Conversation
(2) STAF, Inc.
______________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Science Says: Eat With Your Children
Family meals nourish your body, helps in avoiding overweight,
builds closer relationships in your family and helps the children avoid risky behavior
As a family therapist, I often have the impulse to tell families to go home and have dinner together rather than spending an hour with me. And 20 years of research in North America, Europe and Australia back up my enthusiasm for family dinners. It turns out that sitting down for a nightly meal is great for the brain, the body and the spirit. And that nightly dinner doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal that took three hours to cook, nor does it need to be made with organic arugula and heirloom parsnips.
Brain Food
For starters, researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation boosts vocabulary even more than being read aloud to. The researchers counted the number of rare words – those not found on a list of 3,000 most common words – that the families used during dinner conversation. Young kids learned 1,000 rare words at the dinner table, compared to only 143 from parents reading storybooks aloud. Kids who have a large vocabulary read earlier and more easily.
Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of high achievement scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art.
Other researchers reported a consistent association between family dinner frequency and teen academic performance. Adolescents who ate family meals 5 to 7 times a week were twice as likely to get A’s in school as those who ate dinner with their families fewer than two times a week.
Family meals nourish your body, but that’s not all.
Does a Body Good
Children who eat regular family dinners also consume more fruits, vegetables, vitamins and micronutrients, as well as fewer fried foods and soft drinks. And the nutritional benefits keep paying dividends even after kids grow up: young adults who ate regular family meals as teens are less likely to be obese and more likely to eat healthily once they live on their own.
Some research has even found a connection between regular family dinners and the reduction of symptoms in medical disorders, such as asthma. The benefit might be due to two possible byproducts of a shared family meal: lower anxiety and the chance to check in about a child’s medication compliance.
It isn’t just the presence of healthy foods that leads to all these benefits. The dinner atmosphere is also important. Parents need to be warm and engaged, rather than controlling and restrictive, to encourage healthy eating in their children.
But all bets are off if the TV is on during dinner. In one study, American kindergartners who watched TV during dinner were more likely to be overweight by the time they were in third grade. The association between TV-watching during dinner and overweightness in children was also reported in Sweden, Finland and Portugal.
Soul Food
In addition, a stack of studies link regular family dinners with lowering a host of high risk teenage behaviors parents fear: smoking, binge drinking, marijuana use, violence, school problems, eating disorders and sexual activity. In one study of more than 5,000 Minnesota teens, researchers concluded that regular family dinners were associated with lower rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. In a very recent study, kids who had been victims of cyberbullying bounced back more readily if they had regular family dinners. Family dinners have been found to be a more powerful deterrent against high-risk teen behaviors than church attendance or good grades.
There are also associations between regular family dinners and good behaviors, not just the absence of bad ones. In a New Zealand study, a higher frequency of family meals was strongly associated with positive moods in adolescents. Similarly, other researchers have shown that teens who dine regularly with their families also have a more positive view of the future, compared to their peers who don’t eat with parents.
What’s So Magical About Mealtime?
In most industrialized countries, families don’t farm together, play musical instruments or stitch quilts on the porch. So dinner is the most reliable way for families to connect and find out what’s going on with each other. In a survey, American teens were asked when they were most likely to talk with their parents: dinner was their top answer. Kids who eat dinner with their parents experience less stress and have a better relationship with them. This daily mealtime connection is like a seat belt for traveling the potholed road of childhood and adolescence and all its possible risky behaviors.
Of course, the real power of dinners lies in their interpersonal quality.
If family members sit in stony silence, if parents yell at each other, or scold their kids,
family dinner won’t confer positive benefits.
Sharing a roast chicken won’t magically transform parent-child relationships.
But, dinner may be the one time of the day when a parent and child can share a positive experience
– a well-cooked meal, a joke, or a story – and these small moments
can gain momentum to create stronger connections away from the table.
Source:
(1) The Conversation
(2) STAF, Inc.
______________________
Wednesday, 2/18/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 1
February is the U.S. Heart Month
Heart Disease Still Our Nation's no. 1 Killer
12 Heart Healthy Tips
By University of California, Los Angeles | February 3, 2015
In addition to following a healthy diet and staying active,
there are other things that we can do every day
to help protect our hearts such as staying socially connected and getting enough sleep.
Click: UCLAwww.ucla.edu/
University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is the largest
UC campus in terms of enrollment, and one of the few public research universities
Click: Quick Facts - UCLA
With the arrival of American Heart Month now in February, it’s that time of the year to remind ourselves to take good care of our hearts.
To that end, cardiologists from the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, point out lifestyle factors that can help lower heart disease risk in both men and women.
Click: UCLA Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Health Program
Click: Barbra Streisand
“In addition to following a healthy diet and staying active, there are other things that we can do every day to help protect our hearts such as staying socially connected and getting enough sleep,” said Dr. Karol Watson, director of the heart program.
Watson, who is also a professor of medicine, division of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says that as a country we’re making good strides in that fewer Americans are dying from heart disease, but it still remains the nation’s number one killer.
Here Are Some Lifestyle Tips:
1. Stay active. All activities that get your heart rate up count (mowing the lawn, walking around the block, strenuous housework). Thirty minutes per day of physical activity is the goal.
Dr. Tamara Horwich, co-director of the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, notes that every little bit counts:
Click: UCLA Cardiology - Tamara Horwich, M.D.
“Daily activity doesn’t all have to be done in one block. Adding 10 minutes here and five minutes there equals 15 minutes. It all adds up during the day,” said Horwich, who is also an associate professor of medicine in the cardiology division at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
A handful of nuts a day (12-15 nuts) are a smart addition to your diet.
2. Go nuts. Nuts have many heart benefits. They are rich in monounsaturated oils and some even contain omega 3 fats (the heart healthy fats typically found in fish). A handful of nuts a day (12-15 nuts) are a smart addition to your diet.
3. Manage stress. Use whatever helps to reduce stress (except pills and other medication on your own) .
Try exercise, meditation or yoga.
4. Sip your favorite brew. Emerging research shows that both coffee and tea in moderation boost heart health.
5. Eat an egg or 2— it’s OK! The egg is called the perfect food.
Eggs get a reprieve with new guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association that allow a daily occasional egg or two as part of a heart healthy diet. Do not boil, do not fry your eggs. Steam them. To save time, steam once a week your family's needs of eggs (1 -2 a day and keep them refrigerated. Stack up eggs when on sale, steam and freeze). One a day is enoug - its good elements will accumulate - occasionally (if temporarily short of other foods 2 eggs is OK. Aim to eat only one egg a day (saves also you money).
(1) Click: Eggs and Cholesterol - How Many Eggs Can You Safely Eat? authoritynutrition.com/how-many-eggs-should-you-eat/
(2) Click: Egg Yolks: To Eat or Toss? - Health - US News & World Report
6. Limit solid fats. Reduce the amount of solid fats like margarine, butter or lard. Harmful fats (saturated and trans fats) are solid at room temperature while healthful fats (monounsaturated fats and omega 3 fats) are liquid at room temperature (like olive oil).
7. Limit screen time (TV, computer, addictive cell phone games) as much as possible. Excessive “sitting” time is associated with heart disease.
Try to get seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night.
8. Get your Zzzzzzs. Try to get seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night. Sleep deprivation can harm your health. People who don’t get enough sleep have a higher risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and depression. Too much sleep is also associated with poorer health. Getting more than 10 hours of sleep per night is also associated with disease. The brain clean itself in REM sleep.
Click: Brain may flush out toxins during sleepwww.nih.gov › ... › News Releases - National Institutes of Health
Click: Rapid eye movement sleep - Rapid eyemovement
Click: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep: National Institute of ...
How do you know if your sleep is good quality? If you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, you’re probably getting good quality sleep. But, if you wake up after a full night’s sleep feeling drained, you probably have poor sleep quality and should consult a physician specializing in sleep medicine
Click: American Board of Sleep Medicinewww.absm.org
Certification by the American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) stands for the highest standard in clinical sleep medicine and sleep technology. Physicians ...
9. Connect with friends, family and loved ones.
Dr. Marcella Anne Calfon Press, co-director, UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, notes the importance of reaching out to others.
“Healthy relationships and social connections give richness to life and are good for the heart, too,” said Calfon Press, assistant professor of medicine, division of cardiology, Geffen School of Medicine.
Click: Marcella Anne Calfon Press, MD, PhD, Cardiology
10. Enjoy a bit of chocolate. That is, if it’s dark. Dark chocolate is actually heart healthy but only in small amounts (about an ounce daily). Have at least 75 % cocoa in the dark chocolate - one small piece a day or once a week is enough - depending what you can afford (the positive effects accumulates positively in your body even in small portions when repeated daily or weeekly). Its primary ingredient, cocoa, has triple the antioxidants of green tea
Click: Cocoa, The Health Miracle | Medicine Hunterwww.medicinehunter.com/cocoa-health-miracle
Cocoa, one of nature's many miracles, is in fact the great super-food that many people seek. Cocoa makes other so-called super-fruits pale in comparison.
Cocoa, The Health Miracle | Medicine Hunterwww.medicinehunter.com/cocoa-health-miracle
Cocoa, one of nature's many miracles, is in fact the great super-food that many people seek. Cocoa makes other so-called super-fruits pale in comparison.
Click: Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate
11. Attain or maintain optimal weight. Healthy diet, physical activity, managing stress, and getting adequate sleep will all help you achieve this goal, and ultimately reduce your risk of getting heart disease.
12. Make sure you can recognize the early signs of a heart attack. Tightness or discomfort in the chest, neck, arm or stomach which comes on with exertion (either physical or emotional) and goes away with rest may be the first sign of a heart attack.
Click: Early Signs Of A Heart Attack - Cedars-Sinai.edu
Sources:
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences
From Newswise
STAF, Inc.
____________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 1
February is the U.S. Heart Month
Heart Disease Still Our Nation's no. 1 Killer
12 Heart Healthy Tips
By University of California, Los Angeles | February 3, 2015
In addition to following a healthy diet and staying active,
there are other things that we can do every day
to help protect our hearts such as staying socially connected and getting enough sleep.
Click: UCLAwww.ucla.edu/
University of California, Los Angeles - UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is the largest
UC campus in terms of enrollment, and one of the few public research universities
Click: Quick Facts - UCLA
With the arrival of American Heart Month now in February, it’s that time of the year to remind ourselves to take good care of our hearts.
To that end, cardiologists from the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, point out lifestyle factors that can help lower heart disease risk in both men and women.
Click: UCLA Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Health Program
Click: Barbra Streisand
“In addition to following a healthy diet and staying active, there are other things that we can do every day to help protect our hearts such as staying socially connected and getting enough sleep,” said Dr. Karol Watson, director of the heart program.
Watson, who is also a professor of medicine, division of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, says that as a country we’re making good strides in that fewer Americans are dying from heart disease, but it still remains the nation’s number one killer.
Here Are Some Lifestyle Tips:
1. Stay active. All activities that get your heart rate up count (mowing the lawn, walking around the block, strenuous housework). Thirty minutes per day of physical activity is the goal.
Dr. Tamara Horwich, co-director of the UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, notes that every little bit counts:
Click: UCLA Cardiology - Tamara Horwich, M.D.
“Daily activity doesn’t all have to be done in one block. Adding 10 minutes here and five minutes there equals 15 minutes. It all adds up during the day,” said Horwich, who is also an associate professor of medicine in the cardiology division at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
A handful of nuts a day (12-15 nuts) are a smart addition to your diet.
2. Go nuts. Nuts have many heart benefits. They are rich in monounsaturated oils and some even contain omega 3 fats (the heart healthy fats typically found in fish). A handful of nuts a day (12-15 nuts) are a smart addition to your diet.
3. Manage stress. Use whatever helps to reduce stress (except pills and other medication on your own) .
Try exercise, meditation or yoga.
4. Sip your favorite brew. Emerging research shows that both coffee and tea in moderation boost heart health.
5. Eat an egg or 2— it’s OK! The egg is called the perfect food.
Eggs get a reprieve with new guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association that allow a daily occasional egg or two as part of a heart healthy diet. Do not boil, do not fry your eggs. Steam them. To save time, steam once a week your family's needs of eggs (1 -2 a day and keep them refrigerated. Stack up eggs when on sale, steam and freeze). One a day is enoug - its good elements will accumulate - occasionally (if temporarily short of other foods 2 eggs is OK. Aim to eat only one egg a day (saves also you money).
(1) Click: Eggs and Cholesterol - How Many Eggs Can You Safely Eat? authoritynutrition.com/how-many-eggs-should-you-eat/
(2) Click: Egg Yolks: To Eat or Toss? - Health - US News & World Report
6. Limit solid fats. Reduce the amount of solid fats like margarine, butter or lard. Harmful fats (saturated and trans fats) are solid at room temperature while healthful fats (monounsaturated fats and omega 3 fats) are liquid at room temperature (like olive oil).
7. Limit screen time (TV, computer, addictive cell phone games) as much as possible. Excessive “sitting” time is associated with heart disease.
Try to get seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night.
8. Get your Zzzzzzs. Try to get seven to eight hours of good quality sleep each night. Sleep deprivation can harm your health. People who don’t get enough sleep have a higher risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes and depression. Too much sleep is also associated with poorer health. Getting more than 10 hours of sleep per night is also associated with disease. The brain clean itself in REM sleep.
Click: Brain may flush out toxins during sleepwww.nih.gov › ... › News Releases - National Institutes of Health
Click: Rapid eye movement sleep - Rapid eyemovement
Click: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep: National Institute of ...
How do you know if your sleep is good quality? If you wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, you’re probably getting good quality sleep. But, if you wake up after a full night’s sleep feeling drained, you probably have poor sleep quality and should consult a physician specializing in sleep medicine
Click: American Board of Sleep Medicinewww.absm.org
Certification by the American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) stands for the highest standard in clinical sleep medicine and sleep technology. Physicians ...
- What type of doctor specializes in sleep disorders? |parkwaysleep.com/.../what-type-of-doctor-specializes-in-sleep-disorders/``
Doctors specializing in sleep disorders are “Board Certified” in sleep medicine. Call Parkway SleepHealth at 919-462-8081 for sleep doctors in Cary NC.
9. Connect with friends, family and loved ones.
Dr. Marcella Anne Calfon Press, co-director, UCLA Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Health Program, notes the importance of reaching out to others.
“Healthy relationships and social connections give richness to life and are good for the heart, too,” said Calfon Press, assistant professor of medicine, division of cardiology, Geffen School of Medicine.
Click: Marcella Anne Calfon Press, MD, PhD, Cardiology
10. Enjoy a bit of chocolate. That is, if it’s dark. Dark chocolate is actually heart healthy but only in small amounts (about an ounce daily). Have at least 75 % cocoa in the dark chocolate - one small piece a day or once a week is enough - depending what you can afford (the positive effects accumulates positively in your body even in small portions when repeated daily or weeekly). Its primary ingredient, cocoa, has triple the antioxidants of green tea
Click: Cocoa, The Health Miracle | Medicine Hunterwww.medicinehunter.com/cocoa-health-miracle
Cocoa, one of nature's many miracles, is in fact the great super-food that many people seek. Cocoa makes other so-called super-fruits pale in comparison.
Cocoa, The Health Miracle | Medicine Hunterwww.medicinehunter.com/cocoa-health-miracle
Cocoa, one of nature's many miracles, is in fact the great super-food that many people seek. Cocoa makes other so-called super-fruits pale in comparison.
Click: Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate
11. Attain or maintain optimal weight. Healthy diet, physical activity, managing stress, and getting adequate sleep will all help you achieve this goal, and ultimately reduce your risk of getting heart disease.
12. Make sure you can recognize the early signs of a heart attack. Tightness or discomfort in the chest, neck, arm or stomach which comes on with exertion (either physical or emotional) and goes away with rest may be the first sign of a heart attack.
Click: Early Signs Of A Heart Attack - Cedars-Sinai.edu
Sources:
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences
From Newswise
STAF, Inc.
____________________________
Wednesday, 2/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Everyday Chemicals Linked to Earlier Menopause
Menopause = a natural decline in reproductive hormones when a woman reaches her 40s or 50s
Etymology of the word 'menopause':
In the English language from 1845 as a French word; from French ménopause, from medical Latin menopausis, from Greek men (genitive menos) "month" (see moon (n.)) +pausis "a cessation, a pause," from pauein "to cause to cease" (see pause (n.) Earlier it was change of life.
Menopause is defined
as occurring 12 months after your last menstrual period and marks the end of menstrual cycles. Menopause can happen in your 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States.
Menopause is a natural biological process. Although it also ends fertility, you can stay healthy, vital and sexual. Some women feel relieved because they no longer need to worry about pregnancy.
Even so, the physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, and emotional symptoms of menopause may disrupt your sleep, lower your energy or — for some women — trigger anxiety or feelings of sadness and loss.
Hot flashes are sudden feelings of warmth, which are usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin may redden, as if you're blushing. Hot flashes can also cause profuse sweating and may leave you chilled.
Although other hormonal conditions can cause them, hot flashes most commonly are due to menopause — the time when a woman's menstrual periods stop. In fact, hot flashes are the most common symptom of the menopausal transition.
How often hot flashes occur varies from woman to woman, but usually the range is from one or two a day to one an hour. There are a variety of treatments for particularly bothersome hot flashes.
Don't hesitate to seek treatment for symptoms that bother you. Many effective treatments are available, from lifestyle adjustments to hormone therapy.
Click: Menopause - Mayo Clinic
Click: Hot flashes Definition - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic
_______
The article
Everyday Chemicals Linked to Earlier Menopause
Chemicals linked to earlier menopause may lead to an early decline in ovarian function,
and our results suggest we as a society should be concerned
Click for the original article:
Earlier menopause linked to everyday chemical exposures - Washington University in St. Louis
Jan 28, 2015 - The researchers looked at levels in blood and urine of 111 chemicals that are suspected of interfering with the natural production and ...
High levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, common household items and the environment have been linked to an early decline in ovarian function.
Women whose bodies have high levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, common household items and the environment experience menopause two to four years earlier than women with lower levels of these chemicals, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The findings are reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers looked at levels in blood and urine of 111 chemicals that are suspected of interfering with the natural production and distribution of hormones in the body. While several smaller studies have examined the link between so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals and menopause, the new research is the first to broadly explore the association between menopause and individual chemicals on a large scale, using a nationally representative sample of patients across the United States.
“Chemicals linked to earlier menopause may lead to an early decline in ovarian function, and our results suggest we as a society should be concerned,” said senior author Amber Cooper, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
A decline in ovarian function not only can adversely affect fertility but also can lead to earlier development of heart disease, osteoporosis and other health problems. Other problems already linked to the chemicals include certain cancers, metabolic syndrome and, in younger females, early puberty.
“Many of these chemical exposures are beyond our control because they are in the soil, water and air,” Cooper said. “But we can educate ourselves about our day-to-day chemical exposures and become more aware of the plastics and other household products we use.”
For example, Cooper recommends that people microwave food in glass or paper containers instead of in plastic and try to learn more about the ingredients in cosmetics, personal-care products and food packaging they use every day.
Although many of the chemicals included in the study have been banned from U.S. production because of their negative health effects, they still are produced globally and are pervasive in the environment.
In the study, Cooper and researchers at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and the Wadsworth Center at the State University of New York at Albany analyzed data collected from 1999-2008 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The survey included data from 31,575 people, including 1,442 menopausal women who had been tested for levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The average age of these women was 61, and none was using estrogen-replacement therapies or had had surgery to remove ovaries.
The survey was designed so that the women who had undergone chemical testing would represent a population of almost 9 million menopausal women.
The women’s blood and urine samples were analyzed for exposures to 111 mostly man-made chemicals, which included known reproductive toxins and/or those that take more than a year to break down. Chemicals from the following categories were analyzed in the survey: dioxins/furans (industrial combustion byproducts); phthalates (found in plastics, common household items, pharmaceuticals and personal-care products including lotions, perfumes, makeup, nail polish, liquid soap and hair spray); phytoestrogens (plant-derived estrogens); polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, coolants); phenolic derivatives (phenols, industrial pollutants); organophosphate pesticides; surfactants; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (combustion products).
The researchers identified 15 chemicals — nine PCBs, three pesticides, two phthalates and a furan (a toxic chemical) -- that warrant closer evaluation because they were significantly associated with earlier ages of menopause and potentially have detrimental effects on ovarian function.
“Earlier menopause can alter the quality of a woman’s life and has profound implications for fertility, health and our society,” Cooper said. “Understanding how the environment affects health is complex. This study doesn’t prove causation, but the associations raise a red flag and support the need for future research.”
Sources:
(1) The findings are reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE. Click: PLOS ONE : accelerating the publication of peer-reviewed
(2) STAF, Inc.
_________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Everyday Chemicals Linked to Earlier Menopause
Menopause = a natural decline in reproductive hormones when a woman reaches her 40s or 50s
Etymology of the word 'menopause':
In the English language from 1845 as a French word; from French ménopause, from medical Latin menopausis, from Greek men (genitive menos) "month" (see moon (n.)) +pausis "a cessation, a pause," from pauein "to cause to cease" (see pause (n.) Earlier it was change of life.
Menopause is defined
as occurring 12 months after your last menstrual period and marks the end of menstrual cycles. Menopause can happen in your 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States.
Menopause is a natural biological process. Although it also ends fertility, you can stay healthy, vital and sexual. Some women feel relieved because they no longer need to worry about pregnancy.
Even so, the physical symptoms, such as hot flashes, and emotional symptoms of menopause may disrupt your sleep, lower your energy or — for some women — trigger anxiety or feelings of sadness and loss.
Hot flashes are sudden feelings of warmth, which are usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin may redden, as if you're blushing. Hot flashes can also cause profuse sweating and may leave you chilled.
Although other hormonal conditions can cause them, hot flashes most commonly are due to menopause — the time when a woman's menstrual periods stop. In fact, hot flashes are the most common symptom of the menopausal transition.
How often hot flashes occur varies from woman to woman, but usually the range is from one or two a day to one an hour. There are a variety of treatments for particularly bothersome hot flashes.
Don't hesitate to seek treatment for symptoms that bother you. Many effective treatments are available, from lifestyle adjustments to hormone therapy.
Click: Menopause - Mayo Clinic
Click: Hot flashes Definition - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic
_______
The article
Everyday Chemicals Linked to Earlier Menopause
Chemicals linked to earlier menopause may lead to an early decline in ovarian function,
and our results suggest we as a society should be concerned
Click for the original article:
Earlier menopause linked to everyday chemical exposures - Washington University in St. Louis
Jan 28, 2015 - The researchers looked at levels in blood and urine of 111 chemicals that are suspected of interfering with the natural production and ...
High levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, common household items and the environment have been linked to an early decline in ovarian function.
Women whose bodies have high levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, common household items and the environment experience menopause two to four years earlier than women with lower levels of these chemicals, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The findings are reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers looked at levels in blood and urine of 111 chemicals that are suspected of interfering with the natural production and distribution of hormones in the body. While several smaller studies have examined the link between so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals and menopause, the new research is the first to broadly explore the association between menopause and individual chemicals on a large scale, using a nationally representative sample of patients across the United States.
“Chemicals linked to earlier menopause may lead to an early decline in ovarian function, and our results suggest we as a society should be concerned,” said senior author Amber Cooper, MD, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
A decline in ovarian function not only can adversely affect fertility but also can lead to earlier development of heart disease, osteoporosis and other health problems. Other problems already linked to the chemicals include certain cancers, metabolic syndrome and, in younger females, early puberty.
“Many of these chemical exposures are beyond our control because they are in the soil, water and air,” Cooper said. “But we can educate ourselves about our day-to-day chemical exposures and become more aware of the plastics and other household products we use.”
For example, Cooper recommends that people microwave food in glass or paper containers instead of in plastic and try to learn more about the ingredients in cosmetics, personal-care products and food packaging they use every day.
Although many of the chemicals included in the study have been banned from U.S. production because of their negative health effects, they still are produced globally and are pervasive in the environment.
In the study, Cooper and researchers at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and the Wadsworth Center at the State University of New York at Albany analyzed data collected from 1999-2008 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The survey included data from 31,575 people, including 1,442 menopausal women who had been tested for levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The average age of these women was 61, and none was using estrogen-replacement therapies or had had surgery to remove ovaries.
The survey was designed so that the women who had undergone chemical testing would represent a population of almost 9 million menopausal women.
The women’s blood and urine samples were analyzed for exposures to 111 mostly man-made chemicals, which included known reproductive toxins and/or those that take more than a year to break down. Chemicals from the following categories were analyzed in the survey: dioxins/furans (industrial combustion byproducts); phthalates (found in plastics, common household items, pharmaceuticals and personal-care products including lotions, perfumes, makeup, nail polish, liquid soap and hair spray); phytoestrogens (plant-derived estrogens); polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, coolants); phenolic derivatives (phenols, industrial pollutants); organophosphate pesticides; surfactants; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (combustion products).
The researchers identified 15 chemicals — nine PCBs, three pesticides, two phthalates and a furan (a toxic chemical) -- that warrant closer evaluation because they were significantly associated with earlier ages of menopause and potentially have detrimental effects on ovarian function.
“Earlier menopause can alter the quality of a woman’s life and has profound implications for fertility, health and our society,” Cooper said. “Understanding how the environment affects health is complex. This study doesn’t prove causation, but the associations raise a red flag and support the need for future research.”
Sources:
(1) The findings are reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE. Click: PLOS ONE : accelerating the publication of peer-reviewed
(2) STAF, Inc.
_________________________
Wednesday, 2/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
How Social Status Affects Your Health
Click green links for further info
By Christopher von Rueden
an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
WHAT is the relationship between social status and health?
This is a tricky question. In modern industrialized societies, health certainly improves as you move up the socioeconomic ladder, but much of that trend is a result of health care and lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity) that are associated with income — not relative social position per se (= by or in itself or themselves).
If you want to see how status affects health, you have to isolate status from material wealth.
How to do that? The easiest way is to observe a society in which there is minimal material wealth to contest and where there are limited avenues for status competition.
So that is what my colleagues and I did. For several years, we studied the Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Bolivia, a small, preindustrial, politically egalitarian*) society in which status confers no formal privileges
such as **) coercive authority).
*) Egalitarianism (from French égal, meaning "equal")—or, rarely, equalitarianism or equalism—is a trend of thought that favors equality for all people. Egalitarian doctrines maintain that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status.
**) coercive authority = to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition (= the faculty or power of using one's will).
As we report in a recent article in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, we found that even among the Tsimane, higher status was associated with lower levels of stress and better health.
Click: Tsimané people - Wikipedia
Along the banks of the Maniqui River and in adjacent forests, the Tsimane people hunt, fish and plant plantains, rice and sweet manioc. They live in villages that range in size from 30 to 700 people. During village meetings, decision making is consensus-based. No individual has the right to coerce anyone else.
Click: Maniqui River
But that doesn’t mean there are no status distinctions. When you attend a Tsimane village meeting, you soon notice that the opinions of certain men are more influential during the consensus-building process. These same men are often solicited to mediate disputes or to represent villagers’ interests with outsiders. (Many Tsimane women have a voice in community affairs, but it is rare in such small-scale societies for women to have equal status, on average, with men.)
My colleagues and I measured the social status of all the men from four Tsimane villages (nearly 200 men between the ages of 18 and 83), by asking them to evaluate one another on their informal political influence. The men also provided urine samples and received medical examinations from physicians associated with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project.
We found that Tsimane men with less political influence had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which has many important physiological functions. This result persisted after controlling for other factors that might affect stress levels, including age, body size and personality.
In addition, we found that the less influential Tsimane men had a higher risk of respiratory infection, the most common cause of sickness and death in their society. Stress may contribute to this disparity in infection risk; when chronic, stress can dampen immune function.
Studying the same individuals over a four-year period, we also found that for men whose influence declined over time, greater declines were correlated with higher levels of cortisol and respiratory illness. Downward mobility is harmful, it seems, even in an egalitarian society.
Why might low status cause such stress for the Tsimane? One possibility is that status offers a greater sense of control. Another is that status acts as a form of social insurance. Influential Tsimane men have more allies and food-production partners, who can be helpful in mitigating conflict, sickness and food shortage. The relative lack of such support may cause psychosocial stress.
Our study is limited to adults, yet further studies might examine if childhood and adolescence are important periods in Tsimane society for establishing the social ties that beget status and regulate stress. Recent studies in industrialized societies have found that adults who experience low socioeconomic status in childhood show heightened cortisol responses as adults, regardless of their current socioeconomic status.
It is interesting that even in industrialized societies, the status comparisons most consequential for psychosocial stress are often among individuals who live near one another or occupy the same social network, not individuals at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. Those living just above the poverty line may resent welfare for those living just below it, and a millionaire may envy a multimillionaire more than he envies a billionaire.
The importance of relative status perceptions may have its roots in the small-scale societies of our ancestors, which were similar to that of the Tsimane. In such societies, both our political competitors and our cooperative partners were likely individuals with whom we interacted regularly.
As our society debates the effects of wealth inequality, the Tsimane help us understand why we care so deeply about relative social position — and why our health depends on it.
Sources:
(1) Christopher von Rueden is an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
Click: Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmondjepson.richmond.edu/
(2) STAF, Inc.
_________
Topic 2 of 2
Mail Monitoring Rarely Denied,
U.S. Postal Service Says
WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service granted almost all of the nearly 6,700 requests from law enforcement agencies last year to monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations, Postal Service officials told a House panel.
The officials said that only 10 requests had been denied, for a rate of approval that some members of Congress sharply criticized. Cases of monitoring are called mail covers because the collected information comes from the outside of letters and parcels.
“The fact that 99.85 percent of the mail covers were approved raises serious questions about privacy and the management of the mail covers program,” said Representative Blake Farenthold, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee responsible for the Postal Service, the panel that heard the testimonial.
The hearing followed a recent data breach by hackers into the Postal Service’s computer system and a May audit by the agency’s inspector general that found numerous problems with how the Postal Service runs its mail surveillance program.
At the hearing, postal officials sought to assure members of the panel that the agency had adequate controls over the surveillance to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.
Guy Cottrell, chief of the Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, said the agency had made several changes in the way it managed the mail covers program after the audit in May. The audit found that 21 percent of law enforcement requests to monitor mail had been approved without written authorization from the proper Postal Service officials, and that 13 percent had lacked properly documented explanations for their approval.
Click: Chief Postal Inspector - United States Postal Inspection
The audit also found that the Postal Inspection Service had not conducted annual reviews of the mail cover program as required by federal law, and that more than 900 mail covers were still active even though the orders for them had expired.
“We had made substantial progress in addressing the issues raised in the audit,” Mr. Cottrell told the subcommittee. He provided data showing that the number of mail covers requested by law enforcement agencies had declined to about 6,700 in 2013 from slightly more than 9,400 in 2010.
But Mr. Cottrell said the Postal Service’s overall use of mail covers, including by its internal law enforcement arm, had jumped to about 57,000 so far this year from about 16,000 in 2012. He said the increase was due to the Postal Inspection Service’s use of one-day covers, mostly in cases of suspected drug smuggling through the mail. The one-day covers permit surveillance of a single piece of mail rather than of all the mail going to an individual or business.
Under the program, which is more than a century old, local and federal law enforcement officials send requests to the Postal Inspection Service to monitor the mail of individuals or businesses suspected of a crime. The inspection service then directs postal workers to record visible external information on mail sent to the target of an investigation, including names, addresses and postmarks. The process is not subject to judicial review.
Law enforcement officials, including Capt. Charles E. Hamby II of the Prince George’s County, Md., Police Department, who testified at the hearing, said that although mail covers are old-fashioned, they can still be critical to investigations.
Click: Captain Charles Hamby
The agency is updating its computer system, Mr. Cottrell said, to make sure its information on each mail cover is accurate, and it is developing a process to bar law enforcement agencies who abuse the program from being approved for mail covers. The Postal Service also uses a program called Mail Imaging, in which its computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail sent in the United States. The program primarily helps process the mail, but in some cases it allows law enforcement agencies to request stored images of mail sent to and received by people who are under investigation.
Timothy H. Edgar, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University who was the first director of privacy and civil liberties for the National Security Council in the Obama administration, told the panel that the Mail Imaging program was troubling.
“It raises real questions about the bulk collection of metadata, raises privacy risks and questions about who has access to this data,” he said.
Additional related article links:
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
How Social Status Affects Your Health
Click green links for further info
By Christopher von Rueden
an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
WHAT is the relationship between social status and health?
This is a tricky question. In modern industrialized societies, health certainly improves as you move up the socioeconomic ladder, but much of that trend is a result of health care and lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity) that are associated with income — not relative social position per se (= by or in itself or themselves).
If you want to see how status affects health, you have to isolate status from material wealth.
How to do that? The easiest way is to observe a society in which there is minimal material wealth to contest and where there are limited avenues for status competition.
So that is what my colleagues and I did. For several years, we studied the Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Bolivia, a small, preindustrial, politically egalitarian*) society in which status confers no formal privileges
such as **) coercive authority).
*) Egalitarianism (from French égal, meaning "equal")—or, rarely, equalitarianism or equalism—is a trend of thought that favors equality for all people. Egalitarian doctrines maintain that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status.
**) coercive authority = to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition (= the faculty or power of using one's will).
As we report in a recent article in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, we found that even among the Tsimane, higher status was associated with lower levels of stress and better health.
Click: Tsimané people - Wikipedia
Along the banks of the Maniqui River and in adjacent forests, the Tsimane people hunt, fish and plant plantains, rice and sweet manioc. They live in villages that range in size from 30 to 700 people. During village meetings, decision making is consensus-based. No individual has the right to coerce anyone else.
Click: Maniqui River
But that doesn’t mean there are no status distinctions. When you attend a Tsimane village meeting, you soon notice that the opinions of certain men are more influential during the consensus-building process. These same men are often solicited to mediate disputes or to represent villagers’ interests with outsiders. (Many Tsimane women have a voice in community affairs, but it is rare in such small-scale societies for women to have equal status, on average, with men.)
My colleagues and I measured the social status of all the men from four Tsimane villages (nearly 200 men between the ages of 18 and 83), by asking them to evaluate one another on their informal political influence. The men also provided urine samples and received medical examinations from physicians associated with the Tsimane Health and Life History Project.
We found that Tsimane men with less political influence had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which has many important physiological functions. This result persisted after controlling for other factors that might affect stress levels, including age, body size and personality.
In addition, we found that the less influential Tsimane men had a higher risk of respiratory infection, the most common cause of sickness and death in their society. Stress may contribute to this disparity in infection risk; when chronic, stress can dampen immune function.
Studying the same individuals over a four-year period, we also found that for men whose influence declined over time, greater declines were correlated with higher levels of cortisol and respiratory illness. Downward mobility is harmful, it seems, even in an egalitarian society.
Why might low status cause such stress for the Tsimane? One possibility is that status offers a greater sense of control. Another is that status acts as a form of social insurance. Influential Tsimane men have more allies and food-production partners, who can be helpful in mitigating conflict, sickness and food shortage. The relative lack of such support may cause psychosocial stress.
Our study is limited to adults, yet further studies might examine if childhood and adolescence are important periods in Tsimane society for establishing the social ties that beget status and regulate stress. Recent studies in industrialized societies have found that adults who experience low socioeconomic status in childhood show heightened cortisol responses as adults, regardless of their current socioeconomic status.
It is interesting that even in industrialized societies, the status comparisons most consequential for psychosocial stress are often among individuals who live near one another or occupy the same social network, not individuals at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. Those living just above the poverty line may resent welfare for those living just below it, and a millionaire may envy a multimillionaire more than he envies a billionaire.
The importance of relative status perceptions may have its roots in the small-scale societies of our ancestors, which were similar to that of the Tsimane. In such societies, both our political competitors and our cooperative partners were likely individuals with whom we interacted regularly.
As our society debates the effects of wealth inequality, the Tsimane help us understand why we care so deeply about relative social position — and why our health depends on it.
Sources:
(1) Christopher von Rueden is an assistant professor in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
Click: Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmondjepson.richmond.edu/
(2) STAF, Inc.
_________
Topic 2 of 2
Mail Monitoring Rarely Denied,
U.S. Postal Service Says
WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service granted almost all of the nearly 6,700 requests from law enforcement agencies last year to monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations, Postal Service officials told a House panel.
The officials said that only 10 requests had been denied, for a rate of approval that some members of Congress sharply criticized. Cases of monitoring are called mail covers because the collected information comes from the outside of letters and parcels.
“The fact that 99.85 percent of the mail covers were approved raises serious questions about privacy and the management of the mail covers program,” said Representative Blake Farenthold, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee responsible for the Postal Service, the panel that heard the testimonial.
The hearing followed a recent data breach by hackers into the Postal Service’s computer system and a May audit by the agency’s inspector general that found numerous problems with how the Postal Service runs its mail surveillance program.
At the hearing, postal officials sought to assure members of the panel that the agency had adequate controls over the surveillance to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.
Guy Cottrell, chief of the Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, said the agency had made several changes in the way it managed the mail covers program after the audit in May. The audit found that 21 percent of law enforcement requests to monitor mail had been approved without written authorization from the proper Postal Service officials, and that 13 percent had lacked properly documented explanations for their approval.
Click: Chief Postal Inspector - United States Postal Inspection
The audit also found that the Postal Inspection Service had not conducted annual reviews of the mail cover program as required by federal law, and that more than 900 mail covers were still active even though the orders for them had expired.
“We had made substantial progress in addressing the issues raised in the audit,” Mr. Cottrell told the subcommittee. He provided data showing that the number of mail covers requested by law enforcement agencies had declined to about 6,700 in 2013 from slightly more than 9,400 in 2010.
But Mr. Cottrell said the Postal Service’s overall use of mail covers, including by its internal law enforcement arm, had jumped to about 57,000 so far this year from about 16,000 in 2012. He said the increase was due to the Postal Inspection Service’s use of one-day covers, mostly in cases of suspected drug smuggling through the mail. The one-day covers permit surveillance of a single piece of mail rather than of all the mail going to an individual or business.
Under the program, which is more than a century old, local and federal law enforcement officials send requests to the Postal Inspection Service to monitor the mail of individuals or businesses suspected of a crime. The inspection service then directs postal workers to record visible external information on mail sent to the target of an investigation, including names, addresses and postmarks. The process is not subject to judicial review.
Law enforcement officials, including Capt. Charles E. Hamby II of the Prince George’s County, Md., Police Department, who testified at the hearing, said that although mail covers are old-fashioned, they can still be critical to investigations.
Click: Captain Charles Hamby
The agency is updating its computer system, Mr. Cottrell said, to make sure its information on each mail cover is accurate, and it is developing a process to bar law enforcement agencies who abuse the program from being approved for mail covers. The Postal Service also uses a program called Mail Imaging, in which its computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail sent in the United States. The program primarily helps process the mail, but in some cases it allows law enforcement agencies to request stored images of mail sent to and received by people who are under investigation.
Timothy H. Edgar, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University who was the first director of privacy and civil liberties for the National Security Council in the Obama administration, told the panel that the Mail Imaging program was troubling.
“It raises real questions about the bulk collection of metadata, raises privacy risks and questions about who has access to this data,” he said.
Additional related article links:
- Postal Service Discloses Major Theft of Its Employees’ Personal Data NOV. 10, 2014
- Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S.OCT. 27, 2014
- U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement JULY 3, 2013
Sources:
(1) U.S. Postal Service
(2) STAF, Inc.
Wednesday, 3/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 1
This article provides more light at the human behavior
In pursuit of happiness:
Why some pain helps us feel pleasure
We need pain to provide a contrast for pleasure
Click green links for further info
The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different. Pleasure alone cannot not make us happy.
Take Christina Onassis, the daughter of shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. She inherited wealth beyond imagination and spent it on extravagant pleasures in an attempt to alleviate her unhappiness. She died at 37 and her biography, tellingly subtitled Click: All the Pain Money Can Buy, recounts a life full of mind-boggling extravagance that contributed to her suffering.
Click all green links even though it may not have a "Click" in front of it
Aldous Huxley recognised the possibility that endless pleasure may actually lead to dystopian*) societies in his 1932 novel Brave New World. Although the idea of endless pleasure seems idyllic, the reality is often very different.
*) "Utopian" describes a society that's conceived to be perfect. Dystopian is the exact opposite — it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible - it's an imaginary community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated as "not-good place", an antonym (= opposite) of utopia.
Click: Aldous Huxley
We need pain to provide a contrast for pleasure; without pain life becomes dull, boring and downright undesirable. Like a chocoholic in a chocolate shop, we soon forget what it was that made our desires so desirable in the first place.
Emerging evidence suggests that pain may actually enhance the pleasure and happiness we derive from life. As my colleagues and I recently outlined in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, pain promotes pleasure and keeps us connected to the world around us.
Pain builds pleasure
An excellent example of how pain may enhance pleasure is the experience commonly referred to as “the runners high”. After intense physical exertion, runners experience a sense of euphoria that has been linked to the production of opioids,
a neurochemical that is also released in response to pain.
Other work has shown that experiencing relief from pain not only increases our feelings of happiness but also reduces our feelings of sadness. Pain may not be a pleasurable experience itself, but it builds our pleasure in ways that pleasure alone simply cannot achieve.
After exercise, runners feel a sense of euphoria (= a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. a state of intense happiness and self-confidence: e.g.: "the euphoria of success will fuel your desire to continue training" synonyms: elation, happiness, joy, delight, glee)
Pain may also make us feel more justified in rewarding ourselves with pleasant experiences. Just think how many people indulge themselves a little after a trip to the gym.
My colleagues and I tested this possibility by asking people to hold their hand in a bucket of ice-water and then offered them the choice of either a Caramello Koala or a florescent highlighter to take with them as a gift.
Participants who did not experience any pain chose the highlighter 74% of the time. But those who had pain only chose it 40% of the time – they were more likely to take the chocolate. Pain, it seems, can make chocolate guilt-free!
Pain connects us to our world
People are constantly seeking new ways to clear their minds and connect with their immediate experiences. Just think of the popularity of mindfulness and mediation exercises, both of which aim to bring us in touch with our direct experience of the world.
There is good reason to believe pain may be effective in achieving this same goal. Why? Because pain captures our attention.
Imagine dropping a large book on your toe mid conversation. Would you finish the conversation or attend to your toe? Pain drags us into the moment and after pain we are more alert and attuned to our sensory environment – less caught up in our thoughts about yesterday or tomorrow.
My colleagues and I recently tested whether this effect of pain may also have some benefits. We asked people to eat a Tim Tam chocolate biscuit after holding their hand in a bucket of ice-cold water for as long as they could. We found that people who experienced pain before eating the Tim Tam enjoyed it more than those who did not have pain.
In two follow-up studies, we showed that pain increases the intensity of a range of different tastes and reduces people’s threshold for detecting different flavors. One reason people enjoyed the Tim Tam more after pain was because it actually tasted better – the flavor they experienced was more intense and they were more sensitive to it.
Cold beer always tastes better after a hard day’s work.
Our findings shed light on why a Gatorade*) tastes so much better after a long hard run, why a cold beer is more pleasant after a day of hard labor, and why a hot chocolate is more enjoyable after coming in from the cold.
Click: Gatorade | G Series Sports Drinks for Energy, Hydration and ....
STAF, Inc.'s healthy life style advice comment: Please DO NOT drink Gatorade or any other 'energy' drinks - they actually eat your energy and have harmful ingredients - drink plain, pure water.
Pain literally brings us in touch with our immediate sensory experience of the world, allowing for the possibility that pleasures can become more pleasant and more intense.
Pain bond us with others
Anyone who has experienced a significant disaster will know that these events bring people together. Consider the 55,000 volunteers who helped clean up after the 2011 Brisbane floods or the sense of community spirit that developed in New York in response to 911.
Painful ceremonies have been used throughout history to create cooperation and cohesion within groups of people. A recent study examining one such ritual – the kavadi in Mauritius *)– found that participants who experienced pain were more likely to donate money to a community cause, as were those who had simply observed the ceremony.
The experience of pain, or simply observing others in pain, made people more generous.
*) Click: KAVADI FESTIVAL IN MAURITIUS
Click: Mauritius-'Kaavadi' Festval - YouTube
Building on this work, my colleagues and I had people experience pain in groups. Across three studies, again, participants either immersed their hand in ice-water and held a squat position for as long as they could, or ate very hot raw chilies.
We compared these experiences to a no-pain control condition and found pain increased cooperation within the group. After sharing pain, people felt more bonded together and were also more cooperative in an economic game: they were more likely to take personal risks to benefit the group as a whole.
A different side of pain
Pain is commonly associated with illness, injury or harm. Often we don’t see pain until it is associated with a problem and in these cases pain may have few benefits at all. Yet, we also experience pain in a range of common and healthy activities.
We all experience day-to-day pains.
Consider the recent ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) ice-bucket challenge. =ALS = A nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function Very rare - Fewer than 20K US cases per year- Medically manageable-
Treatment can help
By dousing ourselves in ice water we were able to raise unprecedented support for a good cause.
Click: What is ALS? - The ALS Association
Understanding that pain can have a range of positive consequences is not only important for better understanding pain, but may also help us manage pain when it does become a problem. Framing pain as a positive, rather than negative, increases neurochemical responses that help us better manage pain.
Sources:
(1) Click: Brock Bastian, author - ARC Future Fellow, School of Psychology at UNSW Australia
Click: UNSW Australia
(2) Published first in The Conversation
(3) STAF, Inc. - - added links by STAF, Inc.
The Conversation is funded by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Alfred P Sloan Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Our global publishing platform is funded by Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that’s free to read and republish.
Click: The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ...
___________________________________________
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 1
This article provides more light at the human behavior
In pursuit of happiness:
Why some pain helps us feel pleasure
We need pain to provide a contrast for pleasure
Click green links for further info
The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different. Pleasure alone cannot not make us happy.
Take Christina Onassis, the daughter of shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. She inherited wealth beyond imagination and spent it on extravagant pleasures in an attempt to alleviate her unhappiness. She died at 37 and her biography, tellingly subtitled Click: All the Pain Money Can Buy, recounts a life full of mind-boggling extravagance that contributed to her suffering.
Click all green links even though it may not have a "Click" in front of it
Aldous Huxley recognised the possibility that endless pleasure may actually lead to dystopian*) societies in his 1932 novel Brave New World. Although the idea of endless pleasure seems idyllic, the reality is often very different.
*) "Utopian" describes a society that's conceived to be perfect. Dystopian is the exact opposite — it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible - it's an imaginary community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is literally translated as "not-good place", an antonym (= opposite) of utopia.
Click: Aldous Huxley
We need pain to provide a contrast for pleasure; without pain life becomes dull, boring and downright undesirable. Like a chocoholic in a chocolate shop, we soon forget what it was that made our desires so desirable in the first place.
Emerging evidence suggests that pain may actually enhance the pleasure and happiness we derive from life. As my colleagues and I recently outlined in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, pain promotes pleasure and keeps us connected to the world around us.
Pain builds pleasure
An excellent example of how pain may enhance pleasure is the experience commonly referred to as “the runners high”. After intense physical exertion, runners experience a sense of euphoria that has been linked to the production of opioids,
a neurochemical that is also released in response to pain.
Other work has shown that experiencing relief from pain not only increases our feelings of happiness but also reduces our feelings of sadness. Pain may not be a pleasurable experience itself, but it builds our pleasure in ways that pleasure alone simply cannot achieve.
After exercise, runners feel a sense of euphoria (= a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. a state of intense happiness and self-confidence: e.g.: "the euphoria of success will fuel your desire to continue training" synonyms: elation, happiness, joy, delight, glee)
Pain may also make us feel more justified in rewarding ourselves with pleasant experiences. Just think how many people indulge themselves a little after a trip to the gym.
My colleagues and I tested this possibility by asking people to hold their hand in a bucket of ice-water and then offered them the choice of either a Caramello Koala or a florescent highlighter to take with them as a gift.
Participants who did not experience any pain chose the highlighter 74% of the time. But those who had pain only chose it 40% of the time – they were more likely to take the chocolate. Pain, it seems, can make chocolate guilt-free!
Pain connects us to our world
People are constantly seeking new ways to clear their minds and connect with their immediate experiences. Just think of the popularity of mindfulness and mediation exercises, both of which aim to bring us in touch with our direct experience of the world.
There is good reason to believe pain may be effective in achieving this same goal. Why? Because pain captures our attention.
Imagine dropping a large book on your toe mid conversation. Would you finish the conversation or attend to your toe? Pain drags us into the moment and after pain we are more alert and attuned to our sensory environment – less caught up in our thoughts about yesterday or tomorrow.
My colleagues and I recently tested whether this effect of pain may also have some benefits. We asked people to eat a Tim Tam chocolate biscuit after holding their hand in a bucket of ice-cold water for as long as they could. We found that people who experienced pain before eating the Tim Tam enjoyed it more than those who did not have pain.
In two follow-up studies, we showed that pain increases the intensity of a range of different tastes and reduces people’s threshold for detecting different flavors. One reason people enjoyed the Tim Tam more after pain was because it actually tasted better – the flavor they experienced was more intense and they were more sensitive to it.
Cold beer always tastes better after a hard day’s work.
Our findings shed light on why a Gatorade*) tastes so much better after a long hard run, why a cold beer is more pleasant after a day of hard labor, and why a hot chocolate is more enjoyable after coming in from the cold.
Click: Gatorade | G Series Sports Drinks for Energy, Hydration and ....
STAF, Inc.'s healthy life style advice comment: Please DO NOT drink Gatorade or any other 'energy' drinks - they actually eat your energy and have harmful ingredients - drink plain, pure water.
Pain literally brings us in touch with our immediate sensory experience of the world, allowing for the possibility that pleasures can become more pleasant and more intense.
Pain bond us with others
Anyone who has experienced a significant disaster will know that these events bring people together. Consider the 55,000 volunteers who helped clean up after the 2011 Brisbane floods or the sense of community spirit that developed in New York in response to 911.
Painful ceremonies have been used throughout history to create cooperation and cohesion within groups of people. A recent study examining one such ritual – the kavadi in Mauritius *)– found that participants who experienced pain were more likely to donate money to a community cause, as were those who had simply observed the ceremony.
The experience of pain, or simply observing others in pain, made people more generous.
*) Click: KAVADI FESTIVAL IN MAURITIUS
Click: Mauritius-'Kaavadi' Festval - YouTube
Building on this work, my colleagues and I had people experience pain in groups. Across three studies, again, participants either immersed their hand in ice-water and held a squat position for as long as they could, or ate very hot raw chilies.
We compared these experiences to a no-pain control condition and found pain increased cooperation within the group. After sharing pain, people felt more bonded together and were also more cooperative in an economic game: they were more likely to take personal risks to benefit the group as a whole.
A different side of pain
Pain is commonly associated with illness, injury or harm. Often we don’t see pain until it is associated with a problem and in these cases pain may have few benefits at all. Yet, we also experience pain in a range of common and healthy activities.
We all experience day-to-day pains.
Consider the recent ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) ice-bucket challenge. =ALS = A nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function Very rare - Fewer than 20K US cases per year- Medically manageable-
Treatment can help
By dousing ourselves in ice water we were able to raise unprecedented support for a good cause.
Click: What is ALS? - The ALS Association
Understanding that pain can have a range of positive consequences is not only important for better understanding pain, but may also help us manage pain when it does become a problem. Framing pain as a positive, rather than negative, increases neurochemical responses that help us better manage pain.
- A neurochemical is an organic molecule, such as serotonin, dopamine, or nerve growth factor, that participates in neural activity. The science of neurochemistry studies the functions of neurochemicals.
- Click: Neurochemical - Wikipedia
Sources:
(1) Click: Brock Bastian, author - ARC Future Fellow, School of Psychology at UNSW Australia
Click: UNSW Australia
(2) Published first in The Conversation
(3) STAF, Inc. - - added links by STAF, Inc.
The Conversation is funded by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Alfred P Sloan Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Our global publishing platform is funded by Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that’s free to read and republish.
Click: The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ...
___________________________________________
Wednesday, 2/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Wednesday, 2/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
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Wednesday, 2/25/15 - DrDrCanYouHelpMe Show
Please notice:
The show presentation may have added information, the text below is the basic topic text
Topic 1 of 2
________________________________________________________________
10 Countries That Love (and Hate) America the Most
Who loves ya, baby? If you’re the United States of America, the answer is fewer and fewer people around the world.
In Britain, France, Germany and nearly a dozen other prominent nations, the percentage of people with a favorable view of the United States has declined over the last decade, according to a new global survey by the Pew Research Center. That trend has been apparent since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which was highly unpopular in many countries. The 2008 financial meltdown marked another slip in America’s reputation, as many people blamed Wall Street for a global recession that still weighs on the world economy. Controversial drone strikes aimed at terrorists and childish political antics in Washington continue to mar America’s image abroad.
Some nations still have a soft spot for the U.S., however. Of 39 nations where Pew conducted surveys, here are the 10 where people have the most favorable impression of the U.S.:
1. Philippines (percentage with a favorable view of the United States: 85%)
2. Israel (83%)
3. Ghana (83%)
4. Senegal (81%)
5. Kenya (81%)
6. El Salvador (79%)
7. South Korea (78%)
8. Italy (76%)
9. Uganda (73%)
10. Brazil (73%)
Why are these particular countries so fond of us? For many of the African nations, it's largely because of the aid we send them, which is a strong starting point for better relations with this increasingly important continent. Most Americans don’t think much about Africa, but other nations -- like Chinado -- because economic conditions in several African nations are improving rapidly, and some of them are rich in rare-earth minerals, oil and other valuable resources. Africa is also important because it can serve as a staging area for counterterrorism operations in Somalia, Libya, and wherever the bad guys try to hide out next.
The strong U.S. showing in South Korea shows the two nations remain unified in their approach to the cranks in North Korea, perhaps the most nettlesome nation on earth. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest and most important developing nations, so good relations there are important. Israel’s spot near the top of the list shows a strong alliance on Middle East interests, despite some sharp differences on how to manage some of the more divisive issues, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
America’s popularity in the Philippines, meanwhile, suggests Uncle Sam isn’t the exploitative quasicolonial power some critics claim it is. There's been a strong history of military and economic cooperation between the two nations since the Philippines became independent in 1946, including substantial U.S. aid to the archipelago. The Philippines also has territorial disputes with China, which could bind it even more closely to the United States.
It goes without saying that we remain unpopular in a few places. Here are the 10 nations with the least favorable impression of the U.S., according to Pew:
1. Pakistan (percentage with a favorable view of the United States: 11%)
2. Jordan (14%)
3. Palestinian territories (16%)
4. Egypt (16%)
5. Turkey (21%)
6. Greece (39%)
7. China (40%)
8. Argentina (41%)
9. Tunisia (42%)
10. Lebanon (47%)
It’s not surprising that America is most unpopular in Pakistan -- there are deep divisions over U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani territory and other unilateral efforts to hunt down terrorists without that country's approval or cooperation. Strong U.S. support of Israel has long been generating enmity in Muslim nations, including Jordan, Turkey and Egypt, plus the Palestinian territories.
The negative view of America in China — where we're the biggest consumer of Chinese exports -- may come from government efforts to paint the U.S. as a hypocritical nation that badgers others about environmental issues and human rights, even though its own record is spotty. Argentina has developed strong ties with China in recent years, which might explain its modest antipathy toward America.
There’s some consolation in those week approval numbers. In several countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Germany, Australia and even Russia, American citizens are more popular than the nation they hail from. That suggests the U.S. government and its policies are the biggest threat to our standing in the world. A lot of Americans probably agree.
Source: click: global survey by the Pew Research Center
__________________________________
=========================================================================================================================================================
This is how far it is gone in Britain
Partying Until Drunk and Disorderly in Britain
Year 2014
NORTHAMPTON, England — It was just after 4 a.m., the last clubs were closing and the police had three young men pinned against a brick wall and a fourth on the ground. The young men, gloriously incoherent, some of them bleeding, could barely stand, let alone answer the questions from the officers, who were responding to a fight. As the scene in downtown Northampton unfolded, another drunken young man slugged a passer-by, then fled.
A young woman, Becky, tried to attend to her boyfriend, whose arm was numb and collar bone possibly broken. It was freezing cold, but she had on a thin dress and no shoes. He begged her to stay; drunk herself, she walked away, then returned, crying, and began to kiss him as the police tried to restore order.
About a hundred yards away, on the main drag, Bridge Street, a young woman emerged weaving from NB’s nightclub. She threw up on the sidewalk and her own thin, glittery dress, as a friend tried to hold her head. Then she looked up at a policewoman coming over to help, and with vomit in the corners of her mouth, sweetly apologized.
Six miles away, on Shadowfax Drive, in tougher east Northampton, a drunken house party had gotten out of control. Three people ended up in the hospital, one with his arm nearly amputated by a meat cleaver and another missing part of his nose, and 10 others were arrested.
It was just another Friday night in Northampton, where young Britons, often in packs, go out to get thoroughly, blindingly and often violently drunk, said Inspector Vaughan Clarke of the Northamptonshire Police. Given the price of alcohol in bars, pubs and clubs, they often “pre-load” with cheap vodka and gin from 24-hour discount stores or supermarkets. Some arrive in the city center drunk; by the time they leave, they make the city’s vagrants look sober.
From Falstaff to Churchill and beyond, Britons have been known for their love of drink. But whether as entertainment or mating ritual, the spectacle of dressed-up youth wandering the early morning streets barely able to walk or talk has become an issue of growing social importance, because of both the violence that alcohol often engenders and the vulnerability of young women, who are sometimes molested or raped when they are in no condition to defend themselves.
Britain’s click: Institute of Alcohol Studies - IAS said there had been a small decline in alcohol use from its height in 2005 and the country is roughly in the middle compared with other European Union countries in estimates of liters of legally sold alcohol drunk per person. But the institute said that the drinking habits of Britons ages 15 to 24 “differ from older generations,” in that “they drink less often during the week, but that they are more prone to heavy episodic or binge drinking when they do,” a phenomenon that the police are starting to address more forcefully.
“Those scenes in Northampton would be the same in every town center in Britain on a Friday and Saturday night,” said Inspector Clarke, who has also worked with the Los Angeles Police Department. “I think it’s just in our culture, but we have a serious problem. People in America don’t go out and get hammered in the same way.”
The chief constable of Northamptonshire, Adrian Lee, wants to do something about it. Locally, he has cracked down on drunken youths who commit violence.
He has put police officers on the streets during what is euphemistically known as “the night economy”; placed undercover police officers in bars and clubs to check for underage drinking; and stationed a truck with small cells — a “Mobile Custody Suite” — in the town center on Friday and Saturday nights, so that officers can book violent or incapable drunken youths quickly and then return to the street. (The cells have a small plastic chair and a trench that runs outside, for urine and vomit, which can be hosed down later.)
But Chief Constable Lee, appalled by the public money needed to handle and treat the problem of binge drinking, is also proposing a series of measures for the national government to consider, including a privatized system of “drunk tanks” so that those who are merely plastered can be cared for, sobered up, fined and then charged for the service. It costs the public up to £400 a night to keep a drunken person in jail, he said. Because some 70 percent of alcohol here is currently sold in stores, outside licensed pubs and bars, he also supports minimum pricing for each unit of alcohol, to avoid supermarket “loss leader” sales of cheap alcohol.
For now, that idea has been rejected by the government. But officials say they plan to ban the sale of alcohol at a price lower than that of the tax due on it, promise action against “irresponsible promotions in pubs and clubs” and have increased taxes on frozen “alcopops.”
Chief Constable Lee, who represents the Association of Chief Police Officers on the issue of problem drinking, said there had been a profound social change in Britain, and that what was once seen as amusing behavior had become a serious public hazard.
“I think more people drink and set out to get drunk as a means of entertainment than was the case in the past,” he said. “That always happened, but not in the numbers and volume and the almost normalcy created around, ‘Its O.K. to go out and get so drunk you end up lying on the streets incapable of looking after yourself.’ ”
He said 50 percent of all violent crime in Britain was alcohol-related, and that alcohol was involved in 73 percent of all domestic violence and 25 percent of child abuse cases. Alcohol-related crime is estimated to cost the economy £11 billion a year, or about $18 billion, including £3.5 billion for the National Health Service.
Extending licensing hours, an attempt to create a continental-style cafe culture in Britain, has been a “valid but failed experiment,” he said. The idea was doomed, he said, because unlike in France, many Britons see alcohol consumption as a pursuit in itself, rather than an accompaniment to a meal.
Alastair Campbell, a former tabloid journalist and press adviser to Tony Blair when he was prime minister, considered himself “a functioning alcoholic” until, while the youngest news editor on Fleet Street in the early 1980s, he realized that his first waking thought was related to alcohol. He once passed out in a train station, was arrested and ended up in a hospital, where a psychiatrist helped him confront his problem.
Britain must do the same, he said.
“I always say that as a problem drinker, you only address the problem when you admit you’ve got the problem,” Mr. Campbell said. “And I think we have to do the same as a country: We are a problem-drinking country, and you can only address that problem by saying that out loud.”
Alcohol has become so prevalent among all classes in Britain that “you never have to explain why you drink, but always have to explain why you don’t,” Mr. Campbell said. “What binge drinking is, it’s actually saying the purpose of drinking is to get drunk. And I don’t think you do see that, other than with fairly well-developed alcoholics, in other countries.”
Roger Hampton and Jane Cosby were out on Bridge Street, too, on that Friday night as church volunteers dispensed bottles of water, blankets and pink flip-flops to those who need them. The flip-flops are for the girls in stiletto heels who at some point in the night can no longer walk in them, Ms. Cosby said.
As the police were standing up the bleeding fighters against the brick wall near Bridge Street, two drunken women stumbled by, arm in arm, screaming obscenities. A young man turned toward them, lost his balance and hit the ground. An ambulance arrived.
“You tolerate behavior at 3 a.m. that you wouldn’t at 3 p.m.,” Inspector Clarke said. “It’s not about stopping the drink. It’s about stopping the violence attached to it.”
Source: NYT _________________________
Radio Show Original
Texts Above
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___________________________________
Retooled Superman is Superb
The movie audience mostly does NOT know that
the SUPERMAN story is
based and built on the Bible
and on the story of Jesus Christ
Keep a copy for your home use if you collect movies
Jesus Christ & Superman were both sent off from the universe, from outside our
world, to Earth to save the people before the earth would fully collapse
Both did miracles, both rescued the mankind out of love
What do you get when you have producer Chris Nolan (of Dark Knight fame), director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen), and a modernized take on the most famous superhero of all time? A stupendously entertaining movie with an all-star cast including Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon, and Laurence Fishburne.
Superman aka Clark Kent aka Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is born in the midst of his planet literally imploding. His parents Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) make the ultimate sacrifice and send him off to Earth just moments before they and their kind perish as their planet explodes.
Fast-forward to a few years later (in Smallville, Kan., obviously). Clark is a young boy living with his parents Martha and Jonathan Kent, played by Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. Clark is struggling to deal with his supernormal abilities.
This portrayal of Superman’s human side is what sets Man of Steel apart from its predecessors. We are given a glimpse of the superhero’s internal struggles as he comes to terms with who he is and the responsibilities that fall on his shoulders. For the first time, we’re privy to the insecurities and internal conflicts that plague Kal-El as he balances his supernormal abilities while trying to fit into the human world.
These internal struggles are heightened when he’s forced to choose between saving his new home/mankind and preserving the Kryptonite DNA, which would mean wiping out all human life on Earth.
Michael Shannon plays General Zod, a fellow Kryptonian who is zealously dedicated to preserving his people’s legacy and future. While Zod isn’t purely evil, per se, his role as an antagonist serves to bring out Superman’s humanness and his compassion.
Man of Steel is a well-rounded story of self-discovery and the importance of choosing your character and destiny. It is made whole with amazing acting, cinematography, special effects, and music by the talented Hans Zimmer, as well as action scenes that will leave you breathless.
The risks that the filmmakers took in tweaking and updating the storyline paid off, as Superman 2.0 is everything that captured our imaginations and hearts decades ago. And the character is a lot more relatable, as his complexities and tough decisions ground him with normal people.
One of the most enjoyable movies this year, Man of Steel stands up to all of its hype—just like Superman stands up for justice and peace on his adopted home turf.
4 stars
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburne
Running Time: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Rating: PG-13
________________________________________________
Modern Slavery: Broken Promises and a Life of Captivity
Article Date: October, 2013
Click colored areas for further info
LONDON—It was the promise of a high-earning, stable job that lured the then 21-year-old Diana to come to Europe from her native Uganda. Click: Uganda - Wikipedia
The man that approached her about the opportunity had told her that she’d be able to earn enough money working in the service industry to support her two young children as well as her mother and sibling back home.
But once Diana (not her real name) set foot in the U.K., she was trapped in a nightmare. The man who had promised her a better future was a human trafficker, and young Diana was forced into prostitution behind locked doors and repeatedly raped.
Her captor instilled fear in her, saying the police would abuse her if she didn’t do what he wanted. Thinking of the police and violence back in Uganda, Diana didn’t dare to trust even the authorities.
“He kept threatening that they [the police] will report, they’ll cut you, they’ll beat you, they’ll jail you,” she said, struggling to explain her experience.
Before coming to the U.K., Diana thought Europe was a safe place. “I felt so bad because I thought maybe I would be free [in Europe],” she said.
Diana also feared for the safety of her family back home; her captor perpetually threatened to hurt her family so she would comply with his requests.
“I would do anything he wanted me to do,” she recalled.
Fortunately, Diana eventually managed to escape from her captors in July and was found by authorities sleeping on the street in Leeds in northern England. She was eventually referred to the Medaille Trust*), a charity that helps victims who have been freed from trafficking.
*) The Medaille Trust : Welcomewww.medaille.co.uk/The Medaille Trust. The Medaille Trust is a charity founded to help women, young men and children who have been freed from human-trafficking
Mike Emberson, project director at the Medaille Trust, has worked with victims of trafficking for over nine years. He said trafficking is a very lucrative business for criminals.
“It’s a piece of crime that keeps on giving. If you sell a kilo of heroine it’s gone—with trafficking, you can sell her every night,” Emberson said.
Criminals use different methods to lure women into the U.K. and force them to prostitution, Emberson explained. Women are often promised job posts such as chambermaids in London hotels, then deceived, or they are tricked by developing a romantic relationship with a man before being forced into prostitution.
Many victims first go through other European countries where the border controls are less strict, before coming to the U.K.
Adult trafficking victims are most commonly exploited for sex. In 2012, the U.K.’s National Referral Mechanism*), an organization that helps identify and support victims of trafficking, received referrals of 1,186 potential victims of trafficking. Out of 813 adult cases, 379 reported sexual exploitation, more than any other type of exploitation.
*) The National Referral Mechanism | ECPAT UK - Protecting Children ...www.ecpat.org.uk › Law & policy The National Referral Mechanism is a process set up by the Government to identify and support victims of trafficking in the UK. It was born out of the ...
Since July 2011, The Salvation Army*) has been contracted by the Ministry of Justice to support adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales.
salvationarmyusa.org - The Salvation Armywww.salvationarmyusa.org/Give to The Salvation Army today and help change a life. Ways to Give - Programs That Help - About Us
A representative from the Salvation Army said that human trafficking is the third or fourth largest income worldwide for criminals. In the U.K., although there are a few cases where locals have been kidnapped, the traffickers most commonly target vulnerable individuals in their home countries.
Modern Slavery Bill*)
A representative from the U.K.’s Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said sexual exploitation is an ongoing issue across Europe.
*) Modern Slavery: Broken Promises and a Life of Captivity
The modern slavery bill, announced in August 2013 by Home Secretary Theresa May, would toughen the laws on human trafficking and create a ...
“Unfortunately, there are many groups of men, women, and children who are susceptible to exploitation, especially the most vulnerable of our society,” the representative said.
Despite the high number of cases of human trafficking, there were only eight successful convictions for sexual exploitation under trafficking offences in the U.K. in 2011.
Emberson said the low number of convictions is partly due to the lack of a sufficient number of specialized units within the police force.
“Not many police officers can recognize a trafficker. There is only one dedicated anti-trafficking unit in the Met police” he said, “it is also to do with awareness, knowledge, and resourcing.”
The fact that there is not a unified piece of legislation that would address the issue also leads to the problem, an issue that Emberson said should be rectified with the newly announced modern slavery bill that the government intends to introduce.
The modern slavery bill, announced in August 2013 by Home Secretary Theresa May, would toughen the laws on human trafficking and create a modern slavery commissioner role.
According to the representative from the ACPO*), trafficking prosecutions “appear low” because they are often recorded, in severe cases, as sentences for rape or “grievous bodily harm.”
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)www.acpo.police.uk/The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) brings together the expertise and experience of chief police officers from the United Kingdom, providing ... Contacts - Statement of Purpose - Freedom of Information - Vacancies
The representative said raising awareness across law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, as well as the new modern slavery bill should increase prosecutions in the future.
A representative from the Home Office*), which oversees immigration and crime policy, said that the U.K.’s newly formed National Crime Agency**), which replaced the Serious Organized Crime Agency this month, will “lead an enhanced and coordinated response to targeting trafficking gangs.”
*) The Home Office is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service (MI5). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Office
**) National Crime Agency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Crime_AgencyThe National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom which replaced the existing Serious Organised Crime Agency.
She added that the draft modern slavery bill will be brought forward during the current session of the British Parliament.
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Source: The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses to subscribe & read The Epoch Times - Excellent quolity - won several jounalistic awards
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The Epoch Times » The Epoch Times is an independent voice in ...www.theepochtimes.com/The Epoch Times is an independent voice in print and on the web. We report news responsibly and truthfully so that readers can improve their own lives and ...China - About Us - New York - World
Article Date: October, 2013
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LONDON—It was the promise of a high-earning, stable job that lured the then 21-year-old Diana to come to Europe from her native Uganda. Click: Uganda - Wikipedia
The man that approached her about the opportunity had told her that she’d be able to earn enough money working in the service industry to support her two young children as well as her mother and sibling back home.
But once Diana (not her real name) set foot in the U.K., she was trapped in a nightmare. The man who had promised her a better future was a human trafficker, and young Diana was forced into prostitution behind locked doors and repeatedly raped.
Her captor instilled fear in her, saying the police would abuse her if she didn’t do what he wanted. Thinking of the police and violence back in Uganda, Diana didn’t dare to trust even the authorities.
“He kept threatening that they [the police] will report, they’ll cut you, they’ll beat you, they’ll jail you,” she said, struggling to explain her experience.
Before coming to the U.K., Diana thought Europe was a safe place. “I felt so bad because I thought maybe I would be free [in Europe],” she said.
Diana also feared for the safety of her family back home; her captor perpetually threatened to hurt her family so she would comply with his requests.
“I would do anything he wanted me to do,” she recalled.
Fortunately, Diana eventually managed to escape from her captors in July and was found by authorities sleeping on the street in Leeds in northern England. She was eventually referred to the Medaille Trust*), a charity that helps victims who have been freed from trafficking.
*) The Medaille Trust : Welcomewww.medaille.co.uk/The Medaille Trust. The Medaille Trust is a charity founded to help women, young men and children who have been freed from human-trafficking
Mike Emberson, project director at the Medaille Trust, has worked with victims of trafficking for over nine years. He said trafficking is a very lucrative business for criminals.
“It’s a piece of crime that keeps on giving. If you sell a kilo of heroine it’s gone—with trafficking, you can sell her every night,” Emberson said.
Criminals use different methods to lure women into the U.K. and force them to prostitution, Emberson explained. Women are often promised job posts such as chambermaids in London hotels, then deceived, or they are tricked by developing a romantic relationship with a man before being forced into prostitution.
Many victims first go through other European countries where the border controls are less strict, before coming to the U.K.
Adult trafficking victims are most commonly exploited for sex. In 2012, the U.K.’s National Referral Mechanism*), an organization that helps identify and support victims of trafficking, received referrals of 1,186 potential victims of trafficking. Out of 813 adult cases, 379 reported sexual exploitation, more than any other type of exploitation.
*) The National Referral Mechanism | ECPAT UK - Protecting Children ...www.ecpat.org.uk › Law & policy The National Referral Mechanism is a process set up by the Government to identify and support victims of trafficking in the UK. It was born out of the ...
Since July 2011, The Salvation Army*) has been contracted by the Ministry of Justice to support adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales.
salvationarmyusa.org - The Salvation Armywww.salvationarmyusa.org/Give to The Salvation Army today and help change a life. Ways to Give - Programs That Help - About Us
A representative from the Salvation Army said that human trafficking is the third or fourth largest income worldwide for criminals. In the U.K., although there are a few cases where locals have been kidnapped, the traffickers most commonly target vulnerable individuals in their home countries.
Modern Slavery Bill*)
A representative from the U.K.’s Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said sexual exploitation is an ongoing issue across Europe.
*) Modern Slavery: Broken Promises and a Life of Captivity
The modern slavery bill, announced in August 2013 by Home Secretary Theresa May, would toughen the laws on human trafficking and create a ...
“Unfortunately, there are many groups of men, women, and children who are susceptible to exploitation, especially the most vulnerable of our society,” the representative said.
Despite the high number of cases of human trafficking, there were only eight successful convictions for sexual exploitation under trafficking offences in the U.K. in 2011.
Emberson said the low number of convictions is partly due to the lack of a sufficient number of specialized units within the police force.
“Not many police officers can recognize a trafficker. There is only one dedicated anti-trafficking unit in the Met police” he said, “it is also to do with awareness, knowledge, and resourcing.”
The fact that there is not a unified piece of legislation that would address the issue also leads to the problem, an issue that Emberson said should be rectified with the newly announced modern slavery bill that the government intends to introduce.
The modern slavery bill, announced in August 2013 by Home Secretary Theresa May, would toughen the laws on human trafficking and create a modern slavery commissioner role.
According to the representative from the ACPO*), trafficking prosecutions “appear low” because they are often recorded, in severe cases, as sentences for rape or “grievous bodily harm.”
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)www.acpo.police.uk/The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) brings together the expertise and experience of chief police officers from the United Kingdom, providing ... Contacts - Statement of Purpose - Freedom of Information - Vacancies
The representative said raising awareness across law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, as well as the new modern slavery bill should increase prosecutions in the future.
A representative from the Home Office*), which oversees immigration and crime policy, said that the U.K.’s newly formed National Crime Agency**), which replaced the Serious Organized Crime Agency this month, will “lead an enhanced and coordinated response to targeting trafficking gangs.”
*) The Home Office is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service (MI5). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Office
**) National Crime Agency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Crime_AgencyThe National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom which replaced the existing Serious Organised Crime Agency.
She added that the draft modern slavery bill will be brought forward during the current session of the British Parliament.
Click colored areas for further info
Source: The Epoch Times
STAF, Inc. endorses to subscribe & read The Epoch Times - Excellent quolity - won several jounalistic awards
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The Epoch Times » The Epoch Times is an independent voice in ...www.theepochtimes.com/The Epoch Times is an independent voice in print and on the web. We report news responsibly and truthfully so that readers can improve their own lives and ...China - About Us - New York - World
______________________
Important info for your health
Rogue dentist’s 30-year crusade against
wisdom teeth removal extracts results
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Rogue dentist’s 30-year crusade against wisdom teeth removal extracts results Dr. Jay Friedman relishes his role as dental outcast. Like a pesky younger brother who enjoys watching his siblings squirm, the 86-year-old dentist and public health advocate has for decades been poking and prodding at the oral health community over his personal obsession: wisdom teeth.
Friedman has argued for more than 30 years that the practice of removing a young person's healthy wisdom teeth -- called "third molars" by professionals -- is an unnecessary and irresponsible practice. While many dentists and oral surgeons have dismissed him as a traitor and a zealot, in 2007, people in the public health arena began to listen.
That's when Friedman published an article in the American Journal of Public Health claiming at least two-thirds of the millions of wisdom teeth extracted each year at a cost of billions of dollars were removed for no good reason. In pointed terms, Friedman accused his colleagues of ignoring the lack of evidence supporting the need for such surgery in order to line their own pockets.
Friedman has compared the practice to prophylactic tonsillectomies, which were routinely performed on healthy children to prevent future throat problems in the first part of the 20th century, before the medical community denounced them as unnecessary.
"There can be no excuse for tolerating so many unnecessary extractions on millions of unsuspecting and misled people and putting them at risk of so much ... nerve injury. This is a public health hazard," Friedman wrote.
The next year, the American Public Health Association adopted a recommendation opposing the prophylactic removal of wisdom teeth and a few insurance plans decided they would no longer cover such extractions.
It's hard to overstate how much these developments have angered oral surgeons.
Dr. Lou Rafetto, a practitioner in Delaware, paused during a phone interview to apologize as he wound down a tirade. "Sometimes I get emotional when it comes to Jay Friedman," Rafetto said.
Many surgeons have been similarly angered by Friedman over the years and have questioned his qualifications since he is not a trained oral surgeon. Practitioners insist wisdom teeth cause many people problems later in life, and say it's prudent to remove them early rather than wait for trouble.
One surgeon said he recently had to remove an infected wisdom tooth in a 93-year-old man, who should have had it out when he was a teenager, when the surgery would have entailed a quick recovery.
"It's sort of a thorn in the side of people who actually treat patients with third molars that this guy gets so much traction," Rafetto said of Friedman.
Yet despite the maverick dentist's unpopularity, Friedman has sparked some soul searching within the profession and even prompted a change in policy.
Earlier this year, the official oral surgeons' group, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), adopted a new recommendation on wisdom teeth removal. For the first time, the group said surgeons should consider retaining young patients' wisdom teeth if they do not show signs of disease. For decades, the accepted wisdom was that all wisdom teeth should be removed.
"The retention part is new," said Dr. Thomas Dodson, a member of AAOMS's task force on wisdom teeth.
Dodson, an oral surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, sees himself as one of the few people in the middle of the acrimonious wisdom tooth debate. He argues that Friedman is ignoring the problems associated with keeping wisdom teeth while some oral surgeons are minimizing the risks of subjecting so many people to the surgery.
And there are risks. About 1 percent of people whose wisdom teeth are removed experience nerve damage -- usually temporary numbness of the lips, mouth, or tongue. Sometimes, that damage is permanent, leading to "frequent drooling, biting of the lip or the inside of the cheek or the side of the tongue, and paralytic disfigurement or drooping of the lip," Friedman wrote. Complications from anesthesia can lead to death in very rare instances.
There's no long-term research, however, on the risks of retaining healthy wisdom teeth.
Some studies suggest that about 30 percent of wisdom teeth removed each year created some kind of problem for the patient, ranging from gum disease to cysts to painful infections. And oral surgeons point to research that shows gums are more likely to be infected around wisdom teeth than other teeth, which can lead to other health problems.
Friedman argues that dental professionals should wait until they actually see signs of disease before removing a patient's wisdom teeth, saying it's not worth subjecting people to potential complications on a hunch that their wisdom teeth might cause problems later. (That's the official policy of Britain's National Health Service, which won't pay for prophylactic procedures.) The cost is also something to consider, since without insurance, wisdom teeth extractions can cost a patient several thousand dollars.
So when Dodson is treating a young patient whose wisdom teeth seem normal, he says he's not really sure what to tell them.
"The reality is the science is insufficient at this point to demonstrate that taking them out or leaving them is the right thing to do," Dodson said.
Jay FriedmanFriedman says in these situations, oral surgeons should tell their patients to come back if they or their dentist ever notice a problem. Dodson, however, leaves the decision up to the patient after warning them of the risks of both courses of action. He says about 60 percent of these patients opt for surgery.
Friedman calls the new AAOMS policy "a big sea change" from the days when retaining healthy wisdom teeth was not even an option, and happily takes credit for it. But he's not satisfied. Though he agrees that any wisdom teeth that are causing problems should be removed, he thinks oral surgeons are overhyping the risks of retaining teeth that don't show any symptoms.
Friedman has some reason to be skeptical of AAOMS policies.
A pamphlet on the group's website once stated that 80 percent of people who retained their third molars would experience problems with them within 10 years. After Friedman pointed out that the number did not seem to be based on any scientific research, AAOMS removed the figure.
Friedman, who once reviewed medical claims for self-insured companies, introduced his theory that most wisdom teeth extractions were unnecessary in a fiery speech to a California dental association in 1976. The editor of a local dentistry journal published the speech, prompting a wave of outraged letters from California dentists. To this day, oral surgeons say Friedman is biased against wisdom teeth extractions because his aim is to save the insurance industry money.
Friedman has taken out hundreds of wisdom teeth in his own right, including those belonging to his only child. When his daughter was 18 she began to complain of pain and discomfort from her wisdom teeth and Friedman was unable to dissuade her from taking a wait-and-see approach. He says he took her to his office, removed all four teeth in 15 minutes, and then flew the next day to a dental association meting Las Vegas to lecture oral surgeons on their overzealous extraction policies.
"I didn't tell them that the day before I had taken out my daughter's wisdom teeth," Friedman said mischievously.
Dodson, for one, said Friedman's crusade has made him consider his own practices more carefully, despite their difference in opinion.
"He made me think about why we were doing what we're doing," Dodson said.
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_______________________________________________________
Important info for your health
Rogue dentist’s 30-year crusade against
wisdom teeth removal extracts results
Click green for further info
Rogue dentist’s 30-year crusade against wisdom teeth removal extracts results Dr. Jay Friedman relishes his role as dental outcast. Like a pesky younger brother who enjoys watching his siblings squirm, the 86-year-old dentist and public health advocate has for decades been poking and prodding at the oral health community over his personal obsession: wisdom teeth.
Friedman has argued for more than 30 years that the practice of removing a young person's healthy wisdom teeth -- called "third molars" by professionals -- is an unnecessary and irresponsible practice. While many dentists and oral surgeons have dismissed him as a traitor and a zealot, in 2007, people in the public health arena began to listen.
That's when Friedman published an article in the American Journal of Public Health claiming at least two-thirds of the millions of wisdom teeth extracted each year at a cost of billions of dollars were removed for no good reason. In pointed terms, Friedman accused his colleagues of ignoring the lack of evidence supporting the need for such surgery in order to line their own pockets.
Friedman has compared the practice to prophylactic tonsillectomies, which were routinely performed on healthy children to prevent future throat problems in the first part of the 20th century, before the medical community denounced them as unnecessary.
"There can be no excuse for tolerating so many unnecessary extractions on millions of unsuspecting and misled people and putting them at risk of so much ... nerve injury. This is a public health hazard," Friedman wrote.
The next year, the American Public Health Association adopted a recommendation opposing the prophylactic removal of wisdom teeth and a few insurance plans decided they would no longer cover such extractions.
It's hard to overstate how much these developments have angered oral surgeons.
Dr. Lou Rafetto, a practitioner in Delaware, paused during a phone interview to apologize as he wound down a tirade. "Sometimes I get emotional when it comes to Jay Friedman," Rafetto said.
Many surgeons have been similarly angered by Friedman over the years and have questioned his qualifications since he is not a trained oral surgeon. Practitioners insist wisdom teeth cause many people problems later in life, and say it's prudent to remove them early rather than wait for trouble.
One surgeon said he recently had to remove an infected wisdom tooth in a 93-year-old man, who should have had it out when he was a teenager, when the surgery would have entailed a quick recovery.
"It's sort of a thorn in the side of people who actually treat patients with third molars that this guy gets so much traction," Rafetto said of Friedman.
Yet despite the maverick dentist's unpopularity, Friedman has sparked some soul searching within the profession and even prompted a change in policy.
Earlier this year, the official oral surgeons' group, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS), adopted a new recommendation on wisdom teeth removal. For the first time, the group said surgeons should consider retaining young patients' wisdom teeth if they do not show signs of disease. For decades, the accepted wisdom was that all wisdom teeth should be removed.
"The retention part is new," said Dr. Thomas Dodson, a member of AAOMS's task force on wisdom teeth.
Dodson, an oral surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, sees himself as one of the few people in the middle of the acrimonious wisdom tooth debate. He argues that Friedman is ignoring the problems associated with keeping wisdom teeth while some oral surgeons are minimizing the risks of subjecting so many people to the surgery.
And there are risks. About 1 percent of people whose wisdom teeth are removed experience nerve damage -- usually temporary numbness of the lips, mouth, or tongue. Sometimes, that damage is permanent, leading to "frequent drooling, biting of the lip or the inside of the cheek or the side of the tongue, and paralytic disfigurement or drooping of the lip," Friedman wrote. Complications from anesthesia can lead to death in very rare instances.
There's no long-term research, however, on the risks of retaining healthy wisdom teeth.
Some studies suggest that about 30 percent of wisdom teeth removed each year created some kind of problem for the patient, ranging from gum disease to cysts to painful infections. And oral surgeons point to research that shows gums are more likely to be infected around wisdom teeth than other teeth, which can lead to other health problems.
Friedman argues that dental professionals should wait until they actually see signs of disease before removing a patient's wisdom teeth, saying it's not worth subjecting people to potential complications on a hunch that their wisdom teeth might cause problems later. (That's the official policy of Britain's National Health Service, which won't pay for prophylactic procedures.) The cost is also something to consider, since without insurance, wisdom teeth extractions can cost a patient several thousand dollars.
So when Dodson is treating a young patient whose wisdom teeth seem normal, he says he's not really sure what to tell them.
"The reality is the science is insufficient at this point to demonstrate that taking them out or leaving them is the right thing to do," Dodson said.
Jay FriedmanFriedman says in these situations, oral surgeons should tell their patients to come back if they or their dentist ever notice a problem. Dodson, however, leaves the decision up to the patient after warning them of the risks of both courses of action. He says about 60 percent of these patients opt for surgery.
Friedman calls the new AAOMS policy "a big sea change" from the days when retaining healthy wisdom teeth was not even an option, and happily takes credit for it. But he's not satisfied. Though he agrees that any wisdom teeth that are causing problems should be removed, he thinks oral surgeons are overhyping the risks of retaining teeth that don't show any symptoms.
Friedman has some reason to be skeptical of AAOMS policies.
A pamphlet on the group's website once stated that 80 percent of people who retained their third molars would experience problems with them within 10 years. After Friedman pointed out that the number did not seem to be based on any scientific research, AAOMS removed the figure.
Friedman, who once reviewed medical claims for self-insured companies, introduced his theory that most wisdom teeth extractions were unnecessary in a fiery speech to a California dental association in 1976. The editor of a local dentistry journal published the speech, prompting a wave of outraged letters from California dentists. To this day, oral surgeons say Friedman is biased against wisdom teeth extractions because his aim is to save the insurance industry money.
Friedman has taken out hundreds of wisdom teeth in his own right, including those belonging to his only child. When his daughter was 18 she began to complain of pain and discomfort from her wisdom teeth and Friedman was unable to dissuade her from taking a wait-and-see approach. He says he took her to his office, removed all four teeth in 15 minutes, and then flew the next day to a dental association meting Las Vegas to lecture oral surgeons on their overzealous extraction policies.
"I didn't tell them that the day before I had taken out my daughter's wisdom teeth," Friedman said mischievously.
Dodson, for one, said Friedman's crusade has made him consider his own practices more carefully, despite their difference in opinion.
"He made me think about why we were doing what we're doing," Dodson said.
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Counterfeits: The True Cost
Dimi Vyamdi stood at the door of a dessert shop on Mott Street. For four weeks, she has heard whispers from men and women, “Louis Vuitton” some say. Others whisper “Rolex, Chanel.”
Vyadmi knows the game. “Many people can’t afford genuine brand-name products, but everyone would like to have a brand-name bag,” she said, with a laugh.
The counterfeit industry feeds off indifference. High prices keep designer bags out of reach for most of us, and counterfeits give a cheap alternative. You can find them being sold out of black trash bags around Times Square, or in the side streets of Chinatown. Someone may lead you to the back of a truck, or a store owner may pull back a curtain revealing a wide selection of knock-off bags.
Yet, behind the industry of counterfeits is a market that preys on the meek. It’s a ring where the able-bodied are forced to work in factories, and the attractive-bodied are forced into prostitution. It’s an industry tied to the drugs and guns being trafficked into the United States by gangs, and it’s an industry that is grabbing cash from the pockets of honest businesses here in New York.
Valerie Salembier is president of the Authentics Foundation, a non-profit she started as a way to advocate to consumers about the dangers that result from the counterfeit industry.
“If women, particularly, understood that the $50 fake bag they bought on Canal Street or somewhere in Chinatown, that it was funding things like child labor, I know would attitudes change,” she said.
Salembier became interested in fighting the counterfeits market when she was the publisher of Harper’s Bazaar.
She held up two small Louis Vuitton bags and asked, “Can you guess which one is a fake?”
The colors and logo look identical. The size and design are the same. The differences are getting harder to find. Other than a few areas with sloppy painting and sewing, the discrepancies frequently stem more from oversight, like a hard bottom or feet added to products that aren’t supposed to have them.
“If you’re selling a fake for $25, you know it’s a fake when you buy it,” Salembier said. “What’s happening is that the counterfeiters—the big criminal organizations—understand this now. So they are making counterfeits with far better materials, and in some cases it is difficult to tell, unless you know what to look for.”
The counterfeit industry is a cozy home for gangs and terrorists. Part of this is because of the nature of the industry. “It’s high profit and low risk,” Salembier said.
According to Max Abrahams, a fellow at John Hopkins and an expert on terrorism, counterfeits also provide a strong source of revenue that’s difficult to track.
“It makes perfect sense that terrorist groups would have these sources of funding because they want to stay on the down-low and they have to stay clandestine—they have to avoid society,” Abrahms said.
An Illicit Market
The global counterfeit market is estimated to bring in $250 billion a year and is run by transnational organized crime groups,according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It includes counterfeit bags, cigarettes, toys, medicine, and a broad array of other goods—including the infamous exploding batteries that were recently uncovered in New York.
“Criminal organizations are also often involved beyond just producing and moving counterfeit goods, with many also trafficking drugs, firearms and people,” it states.
Manufacturing the goods requires expensive equipment, and because of this it is rarely done on a small scale. According to a report from the Union des Fabricants, a typical factory that can manufacture leather goods and duplicate labeling will typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Many counterfeit production plants are financed by investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, who can obtain a higher return on their money, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong (Canton) and Zhejiang (region south of Shanghai),” it states.
The counterfeit market is run heavily through Chinese organized crime groups, including the Fuk Ching—one of the main transnational organized crime groups in the world, which has its base in New York City. It operates under a “tong” or “triad” called the Fukien American Association, which has both legitimate and nonlegitimate activities, according to a report by James Finckenauer, “Chinese Transnational Organized Crime: The Fuk Ching.”
Notably, Oliver Pan was executive vice chairman of the Fukien American Association when he was found guilty of attempting to defraud the city using straw donors to raise money for New York City Comptroller John Liu’s mayoral campaign.
The Fukien American Association communicates with Fuk Ching between a representative they call “an ah kung” (grandfather), and the leader of the gang who they call “dai dai lo” (big big brother), according to the report from Finckenauer.
According to a book, “The Triads as Business” by Yiu-kong Chu, “The Fuk Ching gang is able to dominate the Chinese smuggling business because they not only have connections in Fujian province, but also have established a power base in the USA.”
It adds, “The fact that they are Fujianese can help them in collecting debts from the Chinese immigrants.”
The term “collecting debts” refers to the debt Chinese immigrants incur when they are smuggled into the United States or other countries by members of the gangs, often called Snakeheads. Paying off these debts typically includes slave labor in one of the industries run by the gangs—which include sewing factories, prostitution rings, and other gang-controlled businesses such as restaurants.
Sheng Xue, a Chinese journalist in Canada, has received firsthand accounts of the treatment of Chinese immigrants forced into slavery. She began investigating the market after four people smuggled from Fujian to Canada were caught in 1999.
She said most of them are kept insulated, and because of this they don’t understand the systems in democratic countries. “They don’t have any connection with the community, or the services, or welfare,” she said. “They know nothing about the benefits the community or the society can provide to them, and especially they don’t have a sense of human rights.”
“A lot of people have been taken to farms or factories or supermarkets, and working there 10 hours-a-day and even 6 or 7 days a week,” she said.
New York attorney Peter Gleason said the situation is similar in New York City. He witnessed the living conditions of smuggled Chinese through his work in the NYPD and FDNY in Chinatown.
“You would have rooms that should suitably sleep two people having twenty people, with cots up and down the wall, a real fire trap, if you will,” Gleason said.
“Some of the things that I’ve witnessed in basements in Chinatown would shock the conscience,” he said.
Hannah Cai contributed to this report.
Source: The Epoch Times
_______________________________________________________
Dimi Vyamdi stood at the door of a dessert shop on Mott Street. For four weeks, she has heard whispers from men and women, “Louis Vuitton” some say. Others whisper “Rolex, Chanel.”
Vyadmi knows the game. “Many people can’t afford genuine brand-name products, but everyone would like to have a brand-name bag,” she said, with a laugh.
The counterfeit industry feeds off indifference. High prices keep designer bags out of reach for most of us, and counterfeits give a cheap alternative. You can find them being sold out of black trash bags around Times Square, or in the side streets of Chinatown. Someone may lead you to the back of a truck, or a store owner may pull back a curtain revealing a wide selection of knock-off bags.
Yet, behind the industry of counterfeits is a market that preys on the meek. It’s a ring where the able-bodied are forced to work in factories, and the attractive-bodied are forced into prostitution. It’s an industry tied to the drugs and guns being trafficked into the United States by gangs, and it’s an industry that is grabbing cash from the pockets of honest businesses here in New York.
Valerie Salembier is president of the Authentics Foundation, a non-profit she started as a way to advocate to consumers about the dangers that result from the counterfeit industry.
“If women, particularly, understood that the $50 fake bag they bought on Canal Street or somewhere in Chinatown, that it was funding things like child labor, I know would attitudes change,” she said.
Salembier became interested in fighting the counterfeits market when she was the publisher of Harper’s Bazaar.
She held up two small Louis Vuitton bags and asked, “Can you guess which one is a fake?”
The colors and logo look identical. The size and design are the same. The differences are getting harder to find. Other than a few areas with sloppy painting and sewing, the discrepancies frequently stem more from oversight, like a hard bottom or feet added to products that aren’t supposed to have them.
“If you’re selling a fake for $25, you know it’s a fake when you buy it,” Salembier said. “What’s happening is that the counterfeiters—the big criminal organizations—understand this now. So they are making counterfeits with far better materials, and in some cases it is difficult to tell, unless you know what to look for.”
The counterfeit industry is a cozy home for gangs and terrorists. Part of this is because of the nature of the industry. “It’s high profit and low risk,” Salembier said.
According to Max Abrahams, a fellow at John Hopkins and an expert on terrorism, counterfeits also provide a strong source of revenue that’s difficult to track.
“It makes perfect sense that terrorist groups would have these sources of funding because they want to stay on the down-low and they have to stay clandestine—they have to avoid society,” Abrahms said.
An Illicit Market
The global counterfeit market is estimated to bring in $250 billion a year and is run by transnational organized crime groups,according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It includes counterfeit bags, cigarettes, toys, medicine, and a broad array of other goods—including the infamous exploding batteries that were recently uncovered in New York.
“Criminal organizations are also often involved beyond just producing and moving counterfeit goods, with many also trafficking drugs, firearms and people,” it states.
Manufacturing the goods requires expensive equipment, and because of this it is rarely done on a small scale. According to a report from the Union des Fabricants, a typical factory that can manufacture leather goods and duplicate labeling will typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Many counterfeit production plants are financed by investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan, who can obtain a higher return on their money, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong (Canton) and Zhejiang (region south of Shanghai),” it states.
The counterfeit market is run heavily through Chinese organized crime groups, including the Fuk Ching—one of the main transnational organized crime groups in the world, which has its base in New York City. It operates under a “tong” or “triad” called the Fukien American Association, which has both legitimate and nonlegitimate activities, according to a report by James Finckenauer, “Chinese Transnational Organized Crime: The Fuk Ching.”
Notably, Oliver Pan was executive vice chairman of the Fukien American Association when he was found guilty of attempting to defraud the city using straw donors to raise money for New York City Comptroller John Liu’s mayoral campaign.
The Fukien American Association communicates with Fuk Ching between a representative they call “an ah kung” (grandfather), and the leader of the gang who they call “dai dai lo” (big big brother), according to the report from Finckenauer.
According to a book, “The Triads as Business” by Yiu-kong Chu, “The Fuk Ching gang is able to dominate the Chinese smuggling business because they not only have connections in Fujian province, but also have established a power base in the USA.”
It adds, “The fact that they are Fujianese can help them in collecting debts from the Chinese immigrants.”
The term “collecting debts” refers to the debt Chinese immigrants incur when they are smuggled into the United States or other countries by members of the gangs, often called Snakeheads. Paying off these debts typically includes slave labor in one of the industries run by the gangs—which include sewing factories, prostitution rings, and other gang-controlled businesses such as restaurants.
Sheng Xue, a Chinese journalist in Canada, has received firsthand accounts of the treatment of Chinese immigrants forced into slavery. She began investigating the market after four people smuggled from Fujian to Canada were caught in 1999.
She said most of them are kept insulated, and because of this they don’t understand the systems in democratic countries. “They don’t have any connection with the community, or the services, or welfare,” she said. “They know nothing about the benefits the community or the society can provide to them, and especially they don’t have a sense of human rights.”
“A lot of people have been taken to farms or factories or supermarkets, and working there 10 hours-a-day and even 6 or 7 days a week,” she said.
New York attorney Peter Gleason said the situation is similar in New York City. He witnessed the living conditions of smuggled Chinese through his work in the NYPD and FDNY in Chinatown.
“You would have rooms that should suitably sleep two people having twenty people, with cots up and down the wall, a real fire trap, if you will,” Gleason said.
“Some of the things that I’ve witnessed in basements in Chinatown would shock the conscience,” he said.
Hannah Cai contributed to this report.
Source: The Epoch Times
_______________________________________________________
Pakistan gunmen shoot five health workers
Some Islamists and Muslim preachers say
"the polio vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslims"
Other religious leaders have taken part in campaigns aimed at debunking that myth
By Imtiaz Shah - Reuters
KARACHI (Reuters), 12/19/12 - Gunmen shot five health workers on an anti-polio drive in a string of attacks in Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said, raising fears for the safety of workers immunizing children against the crippling disease.
It was not clear who was behind the shootings but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly denounced the anti-polio campaign as a Western plot.
Health officials suspended the immunization campaign in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city of 18 million people.
Three women were killed and a man was wounded in two separate attacks on health workers in Karachi on Tuesday, said senior police superintendent police Imran Shaukat.
The team had received telephone calls warning workers they would regret helping the "infidel" campaign against polio, said health official Gul Naz, who oversees project in the area where the women were shot.
An anti-polio worker in Karachi was shot dead on Monday, the United Nations said.
In the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday, gunmen on a motorbike shot a 17-year-old girl supervising an anti-polio campaign, said government official Javed Marwar.
She died of her wounds in hospital, a doctor said.
All of the victims were Pakistanis working with a U.N.-backed program to eradicate polio, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.
It has been eradicated in all but a handful of countries but at least 35 children in Pakistan have been infected this year.
In Karachi, provincial Health Minister Saghir Ahmed said the government had told 24,000 polio workers it was suspending the anti-polio drive in the province.
Officials could not confirm if all the attacks were linked to the health campaign, said Matthew Coleman, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.
Many of the attacks occurred in areas notorious for gun violence but the situation was a worry, he said.
"We're concerned for the safety of front-line workers. They are the true heroes," he said.
There have been at least three other shootings involving polio eradication workers this year.
Some Islamists and Muslim preachers say the police vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. Other religious leaders have taken part in campaigns aimed at debunking that myth.
_________________________________________________________
Native Americans came to America 13,000 years ago
from a tiny mountain region in Siberia, DNA research reveals
They are thought to have walked across the ice from Russia to America
Altai in southern Siberia, sits right at the center of Russia - next to Mongolia & Kazakhstan. But the tiny, mountainous republic has a claim to fame unknown until now - Native Americans can trace their origins to the remote region.
DNA research revealed that genetic markers linking people living in the Russian republic of Altai, southern Siberia, with indigenous populations in North America.
A study of the mutations indicated a lineage shift between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago - when people are thought to have walked across the ice from Russia to America.
Altai in southern Siberia - it right at the center next to Mongolia & Kazakhstan: A study of genetic markers in DNA showed that the lineage of Native Americans changed around 13-14,000 years ago - when people are thought to have walked across the Bering Strait
This roughly coincides with the period when humans from Siberia are thought to have crossed what is now the Bering strait and entered America.
'Altai is a key area because it's a place where people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years,' said Dr Theodore Schurr, from the University of Pennsylvania in the US.
Among the people who may have emerged from the Altai region are the predecessors of the first Native Americans.
More... Click colored areas - if the link is expired, search with the topic
Roughly 20-25,000 years ago, these prehistoric humans carried their Asian genetic lineages up into the far reaches of Siberia and eventually across the then-exposed Bering land mass into the Americas.
'Our goal in working in this area was to better define what those founding lineages or sister lineages are to Native American populations,' Schurr said.
The region lies at the intersection of what is now Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan.
An engraving of early native Americans from the 1500s: DNA research hints that their ancestors came from one tiny region in central Russia
Dr Schurr's team checked Altai DNA samples for markers in mitochondrial DNA which is always passed on by mothers, and Y chromosome DNA which sons inherit from their fathers.
Because of the large number of gene markers examined, the findings have a high degree of precision.
'At this level of resolution we can see the connections more clearly,' Schurr said.
Looking at the Y chromosome DNA, the researchers found a unique mutation shared by Native Americans and southern Altaians in the lineage known as Q.
Mitochondrial DNA is found in tiny rod-like 'powerplants' in cells that generate energy.
Both kinds of DNA showed links between Altaians and Native Americans.
In the Y chromosome DNA, the researchers found a unique mutation shared by Native Americans and people from southern Altai.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in January 2012.
Calculating how long the mutations they noted took to arise, Schurr's team estimated that the southern Altaian lineage diverged genetically from the Native American lineage 13,000 to 14,000 years ago, a timing scenario that aligns with the idea of people moving into the Americas from Siberia between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.
Though it's possible, even likely, that more than one wave of people crossed the land bridge, Schurr said that other researchers have not yet been able to identify another similar geographic focal point from which Native Americans can trace their heritage.
'It may change with more data from other groups, but, so far, even with intensive work in Mongolia, they're not seeing the same things that we are,' he said.
In addition to elucidating the Asia-America connection, the study confirms that the modern cultural divide between southern and northern Altaians has ancient genetic roots
Source: The American Journal of Human Genetics, January 2012
_________________________________________________________________________________
from a tiny mountain region in Siberia, DNA research reveals
They are thought to have walked across the ice from Russia to America
- Tiny Altai mountain region in central Russia has DNA link to native Americans today
- Ancestors thought to have walked across ice 13,000 years ago
- Altai is 'key place', because central location means ancient peoples passed through
Altai in southern Siberia, sits right at the center of Russia - next to Mongolia & Kazakhstan. But the tiny, mountainous republic has a claim to fame unknown until now - Native Americans can trace their origins to the remote region.
DNA research revealed that genetic markers linking people living in the Russian republic of Altai, southern Siberia, with indigenous populations in North America.
A study of the mutations indicated a lineage shift between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago - when people are thought to have walked across the ice from Russia to America.
Altai in southern Siberia - it right at the center next to Mongolia & Kazakhstan: A study of genetic markers in DNA showed that the lineage of Native Americans changed around 13-14,000 years ago - when people are thought to have walked across the Bering Strait
This roughly coincides with the period when humans from Siberia are thought to have crossed what is now the Bering strait and entered America.
'Altai is a key area because it's a place where people have been coming and going for thousands and thousands of years,' said Dr Theodore Schurr, from the University of Pennsylvania in the US.
Among the people who may have emerged from the Altai region are the predecessors of the first Native Americans.
More... Click colored areas - if the link is expired, search with the topic
- Creepy? Clever? A robotic baby built to play the role of premature infants on television
- The Monet machine? 'Art-ificial' painter improvises all its works - and often surprises its creator
Roughly 20-25,000 years ago, these prehistoric humans carried their Asian genetic lineages up into the far reaches of Siberia and eventually across the then-exposed Bering land mass into the Americas.
'Our goal in working in this area was to better define what those founding lineages or sister lineages are to Native American populations,' Schurr said.
The region lies at the intersection of what is now Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan.
An engraving of early native Americans from the 1500s: DNA research hints that their ancestors came from one tiny region in central Russia
Dr Schurr's team checked Altai DNA samples for markers in mitochondrial DNA which is always passed on by mothers, and Y chromosome DNA which sons inherit from their fathers.
Because of the large number of gene markers examined, the findings have a high degree of precision.
'At this level of resolution we can see the connections more clearly,' Schurr said.
Looking at the Y chromosome DNA, the researchers found a unique mutation shared by Native Americans and southern Altaians in the lineage known as Q.
Mitochondrial DNA is found in tiny rod-like 'powerplants' in cells that generate energy.
Both kinds of DNA showed links between Altaians and Native Americans.
In the Y chromosome DNA, the researchers found a unique mutation shared by Native Americans and people from southern Altai.
The findings are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in January 2012.
Calculating how long the mutations they noted took to arise, Schurr's team estimated that the southern Altaian lineage diverged genetically from the Native American lineage 13,000 to 14,000 years ago, a timing scenario that aligns with the idea of people moving into the Americas from Siberia between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.
Though it's possible, even likely, that more than one wave of people crossed the land bridge, Schurr said that other researchers have not yet been able to identify another similar geographic focal point from which Native Americans can trace their heritage.
'It may change with more data from other groups, but, so far, even with intensive work in Mongolia, they're not seeing the same things that we are,' he said.
In addition to elucidating the Asia-America connection, the study confirms that the modern cultural divide between southern and northern Altaians has ancient genetic roots
Source: The American Journal of Human Genetics, January 2012
_________________________________________________________________________________
NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s legacy: A safer, cleaner New York
Date: 2/1/13
The former NYC mayor—who served three terms from 1978 to 1989, and who died Friday, 2/1/13, at age 88
of congestive heart failure—came to power in an era few would consider a golden age for New York
NEW YORK—Greenwich Village, with its historic brownstones and close proximity to Washington Square Park—one of the city’s most famous public spaces—has long been considered one of Manhattan’s most sought-after addresses.
But 35 years ago, the area, despite also housing New York University, wasn’t so nice. The park was the epicenter of New York’s growing drug trade—with dealers and their customers conducting illicit transactions from morning until night. The park’s famous arch—modeled after Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and a future backdrop to films including “When Harry Met Sally”—was covered in racist graffiti. And the ground was so littered with broken shards of glass that people in the neighborhood joked it was like living near an old bottling company.
“It was a disaster,” Joan, a 65-year-old Manhattan resident who declined to give her last name, recalled as she strolled through the now-pristine park Friday morning with her Labrador retriever, Charlie. “People avoided this place. You couldn’t walk through here without being scared, even during the day.”
It was a sentiment that defined New York at the time, as the city sat on the brink of bankruptcy and faced down a crime epidemic unlike any in its history. The summer of 1977 might have been the era's low point: Residents were on edge over a series of murders committed by a serial killer known as the Son of Sam, and New York was plunged further into chaos after a citywide power blackout prompted massive looting and riots throughout Brooklyn and the Bronx.
But that fall, Ed Koch, a wisecracking congressman and Greenwich Village resident known for his unbridled candor, won the city’s mayoral election—in part by promising he would bring New York back from the brink. That New Yorkers now live in one of the safest and most successful cities in in the world is in large part due to Koch having been one of the city’s greatest champions.
“He gave us back our morale, our pride,” Jack Lebewohl, whose family runs the 2nd Avenue Deli, one of the city’s oldest dining establishments, told Yahoo News.
The former mayor—who served three terms from 1978 to 1989, and who died Friday at age 88 of congestive heart failure—came to power in an era few would consider a golden age for New York.
Not only was the city in dire financial straits, but a bailout request from the federal government had been denied by President Gerald Ford and members of Congress. That prompted the New York Daily News to run one of its most famous headlines ever: “Ford to the City: Drop Dead.”
The rampant crime and the turbulent feel of the city was captured in films like Martin Scorcese’s “Taxi Driver,” in which production was repeatedly interrupted by the sirens of police cars responding to crime reports around Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen, where the movie was largely filmed.
In kicking off his bid for mayor, Koch spoke not just of restoring the city’s financial standing but of trying to change the city’s scary image. And he took that message to average people. He spent hours riding the subway throughout the five boroughs asking for votes—shaking hands in subway cars often covered from floor to ceiling in graffiti.
“How’m I doing?” Koch would ask, again and again, soliciting advice from people.
After winning the election, Koch immediately moved to hold municipal spending down and worked to restore the city’s credit. Using the funds he did have, Koch poured money into capital projects, like refurbishing city streets and other infrastructure such as subways and bridges. He also backed efforts to restore the city’s park system, visiting public spaces like Washington Square Park and Central Park, vowing to rid them of crime and restore them to their original grandeur.
Koch also focused on up-and-coming neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, where he put more police officers on the ground to push back on prostitution and drug dealing that had come to rule the streets, and pushed for more economic development.
“When he was inaugurated in '78, it was a welcome change,” said Robert Albinder, a general manager at Katz’s Delicatessen, who has worked at the Lower East Side deli for more than 30 years. “He was somebody who was looking to deal with the crises that we were having, but he also just gave you a better mood. He rejuvenated the city. You started seeing a lot of improvement in people’s attitudes and businesses coming back.”
He added, "Of course, it took a long time. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. But from his term on, the city changed for the better.”
Koch did not have a perfect tenure at City Hall. While his first and second term was helped by the city’s economic turnaround under his watch, Koch’s third term in office was dominated by scandal. Many of his top aides were caught up in corruption scandals—though Koch himself was never implicated in wrongdoing.
Koch also publicly feuded with critics who trashed the mayor's slow response to the AIDS crisis in New York. (Associates later said he was wary of being too vocal about AIDS amid public whispers about his sexuality.) The mayor also had a poor relationship with African American leaders in the city. He lost his bid for re-election in 1989 after a year of racial tensions in the city, including over the case of five black teenagers accused of raping a woman jogging in Central Park.
But even those who disagreed with some of Koch's moves in the mayoral office have praised him as being an unabashed champion of New York City. In a statement Friday, activist Jesse Jackson, who publicly feuded with Koch, praised him as someone who had "helped a lot of people."
“Not everyone will agree with me, but he was a unifier," said the 2nd Avenue Deli's Lebewohl. "He worked to bring the city together and get it moving again. He left the city better than he had found it. New York wouldn't be what it is without him."
Source: Yahoo News, 2/1/13
______________________________________________________________
Mystery of Hindenburg air catastrophe solved
Mystery Solved 76 Years After The Deadly Explosion
The answer helps to avoid accidents in many situations as the reason can be common
& the accident is preventable also in our home setting
Mystery Solved 76 Years After The Deadly Explosion
The answer helps to avoid accidents in many situations as the reason can be common
& the accident is preventable also in our home setting
Click green for further info
The airship Hindenburg gets its name from the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934 Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg - see below the link for further info for the President and for the airship.
Researchers say they know how the Hindenburg airship came to its fiery end: static electricity.
Seventy-six years ago, the German dirigible was promoted as the future of trans-Atlantic flight, but instead it became the notorious poster child of air disasters.
As the hydrogen-filled blimp was landing in Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937, it suddenly burst into flames and crashed in front of shocked bystanders, killing 35 of the 100 passengers and crew on board—and putting an end to the short-lived air travel program.
Now scientists who have been studying the circumstances that led to the Hindenburg’s end say they know what happened.
The Independent, in an article about a documentary on the Hindenburg airing on Britain's Channel 4 on Thursday, explains that Jem Stansfield, a British aeronautical engineer who led a team of researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, blew up and set fire to models of the dirigible to rule out possibilities including a bomb and exploding paint.
They Independent reports that the actual chain of events, discovered by the scientists, unfolded as follows:
The airship had become charged with static as a result of an electrical storm. A broken wire or sticking gas valve leaked hydrogen into the ventilation shafts, and when ground crew members ran to take the landing ropes they effectively "earthed" the airship. The fire appeared on the tail of the airship, igniting the leaking hydrogen.
"I think the most likely mechanism for providing the spark is electrostatic," said Mr. Stansfield. "That starts at the top, then the flames from our experiments would've probably tracked down to the center. With an explosive mixture of gas, that gave the whoomph when it got to the bottom."
Click green for further info
(1) Airship Hindenburg disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
The Airship Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey.
(2) Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934. Click green for further info: Wikipedia
__________________________________
The airship Hindenburg gets its name from the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934 Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg - see below the link for further info for the President and for the airship.
Researchers say they know how the Hindenburg airship came to its fiery end: static electricity.
Seventy-six years ago, the German dirigible was promoted as the future of trans-Atlantic flight, but instead it became the notorious poster child of air disasters.
As the hydrogen-filled blimp was landing in Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937, it suddenly burst into flames and crashed in front of shocked bystanders, killing 35 of the 100 passengers and crew on board—and putting an end to the short-lived air travel program.
Now scientists who have been studying the circumstances that led to the Hindenburg’s end say they know what happened.
The Independent, in an article about a documentary on the Hindenburg airing on Britain's Channel 4 on Thursday, explains that Jem Stansfield, a British aeronautical engineer who led a team of researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, blew up and set fire to models of the dirigible to rule out possibilities including a bomb and exploding paint.
They Independent reports that the actual chain of events, discovered by the scientists, unfolded as follows:
The airship had become charged with static as a result of an electrical storm. A broken wire or sticking gas valve leaked hydrogen into the ventilation shafts, and when ground crew members ran to take the landing ropes they effectively "earthed" the airship. The fire appeared on the tail of the airship, igniting the leaking hydrogen.
"I think the most likely mechanism for providing the spark is electrostatic," said Mr. Stansfield. "That starts at the top, then the flames from our experiments would've probably tracked down to the center. With an explosive mixture of gas, that gave the whoomph when it got to the bottom."
Click green for further info
(1) Airship Hindenburg disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster
The Airship Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey.
(2) Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934. Click green for further info: Wikipedia
__________________________________
Catholicism’s Curse
Date: January, 2013
“I HAVE nothing against priests,” writes Garry Wills in his provocative new book, “Why Priests? A Failed Tradition,” and I’d like at the outset to say the same. During a career that has included no small number of formal interviews and informal conversations with them, I’ve met many I admire, men of genuine compassion and remarkable altruism, more dedicated to humanity than to any dogma or selective tradition.
But while I have nothing against priests, I have quite a lot against an institution that has done a disservice to them and to the parishioners in whose interests they should toil. I refer to the Roman Catholic Church, specifically to its modern incarnation and current leaders, who have tucked priests into a cosseted caste above the flock, wrapped them in mysticism and prioritized their protection and reputations over the needs and sometimes even the anguish of the people in the pews. I have a problem, in other words, with the church’s arrogance, a thread that runs through Wills’s book, to be published next month; through fresh revelations of how assiduously a cardinal in Los Angeles worked to cover up child sexual abuse; and through the church’s attempts to silence dissenters, including an outspoken clergyman in Ireland who was recently back in the news.
LET’S start with Los Angeles. Last week, as a result of lawsuits filed against the archdiocese of Los Angeles by hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by priests, internal church personnel files were made public. They showed that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s impulse, when confronted with priests who had molested children, was to hush it up and keep law enforcement officials at bay. While responses like this by Roman Catholic bishops and cardinals have been extensively chronicled and are no longer shocking, they remain infuriating. At one point Cardinal Mahony instructed a priest whom he’d dispatched to New Mexico for counseling not to return to California, lest he risk being criminally prosecuted. That sort of shielding of priests from accountability allowed them, in many cases across the United States, to continue their abusive behavior and claim more young victims.
Cardinal Mahony, who led the Los Angeles archdiocese from 1985 to 2011, released a statement last week in which he said that until 2006, when he began to meet with dozens of victims, he didn’t grasp “the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have” on the children subjected to them. I find that assertion incredible and appalling. It takes no particular sophistication about matters of mental health to intuit that a child molested by an adult — in these cases, by an adult who is supposed to be a moral exemplar and tutor, even a conduit to the divine — would be grievously damaged. The failure to recognize that and to make sure that abusive priests’ access to children was eliminated, even if that meant trials and jail sentences, suggests a greater concern for the stature of clergymen than for the souls of children.
Church officials and defenders note that Cardinal Mahony’s gravest misdeeds occurred in the 1980s, before church leaders were properly educated about recidivism among pedophiles and before the dimensions of the child sexual abuse crisis in the church became clear. They point out that the church’s response improved over time. That’s true, but what hasn’t changed is the church’s hubris. This hubris abetted the crisis: the particular sway that abusers held over their victims and the special trust they received from those children’s parents were tied into the church’s presentation of priests as paragons.
And this hubris also survives the crisis, manifest in the way that the Vatican, a gilded enclave so far removed and so frequently out of step with the rest of the world, clamps down on Catholics who challenge its rituals and rules. Much of what these dissenters raise questions about — the all-male priesthood, for example, or the commitment to celibacy that priests are required to make — aren’t indisputable edicts from God. They’re inventions of the mortals who took charge of the faith.
And yet with imperious regularity, Vatican officials issue their relished condemnations. These officials are reliably riled by nuns, a favorite target of their wrath. And they’ve been none too pleased with an Irish priest, the Rev. Tony Flannery, 66, who was suspended from his ministry by the Vatican last year and informed, he recently said, that he could return to it on the condition that he publicly express his endorsement of a range of official positions that he had questioned, including the exclusion of women from the priesthood. Last Sunday he broke a long silence to say that the Vatican had threatened him with excommunication and to call its approach toward him “reminiscent of the Inquisition.”
Among the Vatican’s issues with him was his stated belief in a 2010 article that the priesthood, rather than originating with Jesus and a specially selected group of followers, was selfishly created later by a “privileged group within the community who had abrogated power and authority to themselves.”
That may sound like an extreme assertion, but the new book by Wills, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has written extensively about Christianity and the church, says that at the start, Christianity not only didn’t have priests but opposed them. The priesthood was a subsequent tweak, and the same goes for the all-male, celibate nature of the Roman Catholic clergy and the autocratic hierarchy that this clergy inhabits, an unresponsive government whose subjects — the laity — have limited say.
“It can’t admit to error, the church hierarchy,” Wills told me on the phone on Thursday. “Any challenge to their prerogative is, in their eyes, a challenge to God. You can’t be any more arrogant than that.”
“We Catholics were taught not only that we must have priests but that they must be the right kind of priests,” he writes in the book, which argues that priests aren’t ultimately necessary. “What we were supposed to accept is that all priesthoods are invalid ones except the Roman Catholic.”
That’s an awfully puffed-up position, and there’s a corresponding haughtiness in the fact that bishops can assign priests to parishes without any real obligation to get input or feedback from the parishioners those priests serve. This way of doing business in fact enabled church leaders to shuttle priests accused of molestation around, keeping them one step ahead of their crimes.
It has also helped to turn many Catholics away from the church, while prompting others to regard its leaders as ornamental and somewhat irrelevant distractions. They cherish the essence and beauty of their religion. They just can’t abide the arrogance of many of its appointed caretakers.
Opinionator | Anxiety: A Brief History of Panic Study - Apply
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In STAF, Inc.'s scale 0-10 this article is 9+
Important details you need to know - we all need to know
World Hunger: The Problem Left Behind
Click the green areas for further information
THE drought-induced run-up in corn prices is a reminder that we’re nowhere near solving the problem of feeding the world. The price surge, the third major international food price spike in the last five years, casts more doubt on the assumption that widespread economic development leads to corresponding gains in agriculture.
The green revolution has slowed since the early 1990s, and it has become harder to bolster crop yields, as I have discussed in my book, “An Economist Gets Lunch.” And recent research by Dani Rodrik, a professor of international political economy at Harvard, indicates that agricultural productivity improvements are among the hardest to transmit from one nation to another.
For all its importance to human well-being, agriculture seems to be one of the lagging economic sectors of the last two decades. That means the problem of hunger is flaring up again, as the World Bank and several United Nations agencies have recently warned.
Consider Africa, which is often considered to have turned a corner and to be headed toward steady growth. The expansion of the African middle class and the decline in child mortality rates are both quite real, but the advances have not been balanced — and agriculture lags behind.
In a recent address, Michael Lipton, an economist and research professor at Sussex University in Britain, offered a sobering look at Africa’s agricultural productivity. He suggests that Rwanda and Ghana are gaining, but that most of the continent is not. Production and calorie intake per capita don’t seem to be higher today than they were in the early 1960s. It remains an issue how Africa’s growing population will be fed.
One huge problem is that the price of fertilizer in Africa is often two to four times the world price. Yet African soil and rainfall make much of the continent subpar for growing food. In other words, the region that probably needs fertilizer the most also has to pay the most for it, and much of Africa doesn’t have the prosperity to make this an easy stretch. The high prices result in large part from infrastructure and trade networks that aren’t developed enough to create a low-cost and competitive market. And the problem could worsen if economic troubles in China distract it from its beneficial investments in African roads and harbors.
On top of all that, many African nations have unhelpful policies toward agriculture. Malawi, for instance, subjects corn to periodic export and import restrictions as well as to price controls, all of which thwart development of a well-functioning market. When market speculators save corn in anticipation of greater scarcity, they may be punished by law. These restrictions of market incentives exacerbate the basic supply problems.
Such bottlenecks are a challenge for the future of the African economies. For comparison, the rapid expansions of economic growth in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were all preceded by significant progress in agricultural productivity. In these countries, higher yields created a domestic surplus for savings and investment, encouraged small-scale entrepreneurship, fostered a sense of economic security and helped the middle class expand.
In contrast, much of Africa’s growth has come from resource wealth — such as oil, diamonds, gold and strategic minerals — and, unfortunately, resource prices are notoriously volatile. Resource wealth is less well-suited to supporting sustainable democracies, because it tends to be connected with state-backed privileges and other legally entrenched entities. The Norwegian government manages its oil wealth just fine, for example, but autocracies and fledgling democracies are more likely to be corrupted.
There is no shortage of writing — often from a locavore point of view — in support of more organic methods of farming, for both developed and developing countries. These opinions recognize that current farming methods bring serious environmental problems involving water supplies, fertilizer runoff and energy use. Yet organic farming typically involves smaller yields — 5 to 34 percent lower, as estimated in a recent study in the journal Nature, depending on the crop and the context. For all the virtues of organic approaches, it’s hard to see how global food problems can be solved by starting with a cut in yields. Claims in this area are often based on wishful thinking rather than a hard-nosed sense of what’s practical.
WHAT to do? First, put food problems higher on the agenda. In the United States, there is no general consciousness of the precarious state of global agriculture. Even in the economics profession, the field of agricultural economics is often viewed as secondary in status.
Second, the United States government should stop subsidizing its own corn-based biofuels, mainly ethanol. Today, about 40 percent of America’s field corn goes into biofuels, thanks to a subsidy and regulatory policy dating from 2005. With virtual unanimity, experts condemn these subsidies as driving up food prices, damaging land use and costing the taxpayers money. Once the energy costs of producing the biofuels are taken into account, it doesn’t even appear that this policy helps slow climate change. It has become a form of crony capitalism, at great global expense.
Today, we have two presidential candidates who both look a bit short on grand vision and transformational change. Perhaps they could look to helping solve the food problem — and making a big dent in global hunger — as America’s next beneficial legacy.
The world is not yet in that happy situation where “what’s for dinner?” is a boring question.
Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
Source:
September 16, 2012
Tyler Cowen
Professor of Economics
at George Mason University
This is for your private use, only
_________________________________________
In STAF, Inc.'s scale 0 - 10 this article is 9 +
Fish sold in New York is routinely mislabeled: study
Mislabeled seafood can present a public health concern because many hazards are species specific, a U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokeswoman said. Allergic reactions and food-borne illnesses are
some of the possible health hazards, the spokeswoman said
NEW YORK (Reuters), 12/11/2012 - Nearly three in five New York City grocery stores and restaurants that sell seafood have mislabeled part of their stock, substituting varieties that could cause health problems, according to a new study.
Some 39 percent of the fish obtained for the study by the ocean conservation group Oceana was inaccurately identified, Oceana said. Sometimes cheap fish is substituted for more expensive varieties or plentiful species for scarce ones.
Forensic DNA analysis revealed 58 percent of 81 New York retailers and eateries sampled incorrectly labeled the seafood they sold, according to the study released Tuesday.
"It's unacceptable that New York seafood lovers are being duped more than one-third of the time when purchasing certain types of fish," Kimberly Warner, a senior scientist at Oceana and an author of the study, said in a news release.
In some instances, consumers unknowingly purchased fish that could pose health risks.
Blueline tilefish masqueraded as halibut and red snapper. The FDA urges pregnant women, nursing mothers and small children to avoid tilefish given its high mercury content.
All but one of the 17 white tuna samples obtained from sushi restaurants turned out to be escolar*), a fish whose diarrhea-inducing properties earned it the nickname the "ex-lax fish."
Study the escolar info in the following Wikipedia link - a must-to-know information - health hazard
*) Escolar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escolar
The escolar, Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, a species of fish in the family Gempylidae, is found in deep (200–885 m) tropical and temperate waters around the ...
Biology - Health effects - Mislabeling - Regulation and banning
Mislabeled seafood can present a public health concern because many hazards are species specific, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokeswoman said in an email. Allergic reactions and food-borne illnesses are some of the possible health hazards, the spokeswoman said.
New York's rate of seafood mislabeling was higher than Miami's (31 percent) but lower than that of Boston (48 percent) and Los Angeles (55 percent), according to recent Oceana investigations.
What distinguishes New York's seafood marketplace from those of the other American cities Oceana tested is the presence of smaller, independent food stores, 40 percent of which sold mislabeled fish, Warner said in an interview. In contrast, only 12 percent of seafood bought at national chain grocery stores in New York were labeled incorrectly.
The problem is not new. A study appearing in a 1992 issue of Consumer Reports found about a third of the seafood sampled in New York, Chicago, and San Jose was incorrectly labeled.
Nor is seafood mislabeling an issue that has gone unreported. The discovery in August 2011 that Zabar's, a gourmet food store on Manhattan, had been passing off crawfish as lobster in its lobster salad for at least 15 years was the subject of multiple, high-profile media stories.
This article is for your private use, only
Source: FDA
_________________________________
Fish sold in New York is routinely mislabeled: study
Mislabeled seafood can present a public health concern because many hazards are species specific, a U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokeswoman said. Allergic reactions and food-borne illnesses are
some of the possible health hazards, the spokeswoman said
NEW YORK (Reuters), 12/11/2012 - Nearly three in five New York City grocery stores and restaurants that sell seafood have mislabeled part of their stock, substituting varieties that could cause health problems, according to a new study.
Some 39 percent of the fish obtained for the study by the ocean conservation group Oceana was inaccurately identified, Oceana said. Sometimes cheap fish is substituted for more expensive varieties or plentiful species for scarce ones.
Forensic DNA analysis revealed 58 percent of 81 New York retailers and eateries sampled incorrectly labeled the seafood they sold, according to the study released Tuesday.
"It's unacceptable that New York seafood lovers are being duped more than one-third of the time when purchasing certain types of fish," Kimberly Warner, a senior scientist at Oceana and an author of the study, said in a news release.
In some instances, consumers unknowingly purchased fish that could pose health risks.
Blueline tilefish masqueraded as halibut and red snapper. The FDA urges pregnant women, nursing mothers and small children to avoid tilefish given its high mercury content.
All but one of the 17 white tuna samples obtained from sushi restaurants turned out to be escolar*), a fish whose diarrhea-inducing properties earned it the nickname the "ex-lax fish."
Study the escolar info in the following Wikipedia link - a must-to-know information - health hazard
*) Escolar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escolar
The escolar, Lepidocybium flavobrunneum, a species of fish in the family Gempylidae, is found in deep (200–885 m) tropical and temperate waters around the ...
Biology - Health effects - Mislabeling - Regulation and banning
Mislabeled seafood can present a public health concern because many hazards are species specific, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokeswoman said in an email. Allergic reactions and food-borne illnesses are some of the possible health hazards, the spokeswoman said.
New York's rate of seafood mislabeling was higher than Miami's (31 percent) but lower than that of Boston (48 percent) and Los Angeles (55 percent), according to recent Oceana investigations.
What distinguishes New York's seafood marketplace from those of the other American cities Oceana tested is the presence of smaller, independent food stores, 40 percent of which sold mislabeled fish, Warner said in an interview. In contrast, only 12 percent of seafood bought at national chain grocery stores in New York were labeled incorrectly.
The problem is not new. A study appearing in a 1992 issue of Consumer Reports found about a third of the seafood sampled in New York, Chicago, and San Jose was incorrectly labeled.
Nor is seafood mislabeling an issue that has gone unreported. The discovery in August 2011 that Zabar's, a gourmet food store on Manhattan, had been passing off crawfish as lobster in its lobster salad for at least 15 years was the subject of multiple, high-profile media stories.
This article is for your private use, only
Source: FDA
_________________________________
January 4, 2013
Click the green title for a picture
Alarming sight:
thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
Click green for further info - if not connecting search the net with the samae keyword
Alarming sight: thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass
The number of shark fins set out to dry like the morning laundry on a Hong Kong factory building rooftop is staggering. To look at the accompanying images and video, revealing perhaps 10,000 fins, and to grasp that sharks are being slaughtered at a furious pace so their fins can be used to make soup, one cannot help but wonder how many years will pass before at least some shark species are banished to extinction.
Shark conservation movements are growing, especially regarding the cruel practice of finning, but the striking imagery supplied by photojournalist Alex Hofford illustrates that conservation efforts, while they have made progress, have a long away to go toward stemming the killing of sharks for their fins.
Hofford states on his blog that traders have taken to using rooftops instead of ground-level markets to dry their fins out of public view: "I'm now of the opinion that this place has been operating for a very long time, and it's only in the last three days that their activities have come to light."
China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass. Hofford focused his camera on a specific location: Kwong Ga Factory Building, 64 Victoria Rd., Kennedy Town.
Though it's not illegal to posses and sell fins in China, most traders keep their operations at least somewhat private to avoid negative PR. Asked how he was able to obtain his vantage point Hofford responded, via email: "Evading security guards, running up and down dusty stair cases, climbing up rusty ladders, and general low-level paranoia!"
The photojournalist blogged: "The front line in the war against the shark fin trade has shifted from the sidewalks to the roof tops. The theory goes that after being exposed at street level, they have now sought to move their activities out of the public eye to avoid further backlash."
Shark finning, which involves the removal of fins from captured sharks and the tossing of shark carcasses overboard, is increasingly under fire. The practice is illegal in some areas, including the U.S., and many U.S. states have banned the sale and possession of shark fins.
But scientists estimate that up to 70 million sharks are killed each year, solely for their fins. Most of them end up in China, where shark-fin soup is a delicacy enjoyed mostly by the affluent. It's not clear whether the fins in Hofford's images were from sharks killed only for their fins, but it's easy to draw that conclusion.
"I feel disgusted with humanity," Hofford blogs. "These shark fins belong in the ocean, not the rooftop of an industrial building. Rhinos, elephants, tigers. Now sharks. When will it ever end?"
It will not end, unfortunately, until demand for shark-fin soup shrinks to an insignificant level.
Click green for further info
_____________________________________________________________
Click the green title for a picture
Alarming sight:
thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
Click green for further info - if not connecting search the net with the samae keyword
Alarming sight: thousands of shark fins drying on Hong Kong rooftop
China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass
The number of shark fins set out to dry like the morning laundry on a Hong Kong factory building rooftop is staggering. To look at the accompanying images and video, revealing perhaps 10,000 fins, and to grasp that sharks are being slaughtered at a furious pace so their fins can be used to make soup, one cannot help but wonder how many years will pass before at least some shark species are banished to extinction.
Shark conservation movements are growing, especially regarding the cruel practice of finning, but the striking imagery supplied by photojournalist Alex Hofford illustrates that conservation efforts, while they have made progress, have a long away to go toward stemming the killing of sharks for their fins.
Hofford states on his blog that traders have taken to using rooftops instead of ground-level markets to dry their fins out of public view: "I'm now of the opinion that this place has been operating for a very long time, and it's only in the last three days that their activities have come to light."
China is the world's largest shark fin market and Hong Kong is a hub through which many fins pass. Hofford focused his camera on a specific location: Kwong Ga Factory Building, 64 Victoria Rd., Kennedy Town.
Though it's not illegal to posses and sell fins in China, most traders keep their operations at least somewhat private to avoid negative PR. Asked how he was able to obtain his vantage point Hofford responded, via email: "Evading security guards, running up and down dusty stair cases, climbing up rusty ladders, and general low-level paranoia!"
The photojournalist blogged: "The front line in the war against the shark fin trade has shifted from the sidewalks to the roof tops. The theory goes that after being exposed at street level, they have now sought to move their activities out of the public eye to avoid further backlash."
Shark finning, which involves the removal of fins from captured sharks and the tossing of shark carcasses overboard, is increasingly under fire. The practice is illegal in some areas, including the U.S., and many U.S. states have banned the sale and possession of shark fins.
But scientists estimate that up to 70 million sharks are killed each year, solely for their fins. Most of them end up in China, where shark-fin soup is a delicacy enjoyed mostly by the affluent. It's not clear whether the fins in Hofford's images were from sharks killed only for their fins, but it's easy to draw that conclusion.
"I feel disgusted with humanity," Hofford blogs. "These shark fins belong in the ocean, not the rooftop of an industrial building. Rhinos, elephants, tigers. Now sharks. When will it ever end?"
It will not end, unfortunately, until demand for shark-fin soup shrinks to an insignificant level.
Click green for further info
_____________________________________________________________
The Great Gerrymander of 2012
The 2012 election:
Congress doesn't reflect the people's vote
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gerrymandering = manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class
HAVING the first modern democracy comes with bugs. Normally we would expect more seats in Congress to go to the political party that receives more votes, but the last election confounded expectations. Democrats received 1.4 million more votes for the House of Representatives, yet Republicans won control of the House by a 234 to 201 margin. This is only the second such reversal since World War II.
Using statistical tools that are common in fields like my own, neuroscience, I have found strong evidence that this historic aberration arises from partisan disenfranchisement. Although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense, the rather asymmetrical results may surprise you.
Through artful drawing of district boundaries, it is possible to put large groups of voters on the losing side of every election. The Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington-based political group dedicated to electing state officeholders, recently issued a progress report on Redmap, its multiyear plan to influence redistricting. The $30 million strategy consists of two steps for tilting the playing field: take over state legislatures before the decennial Census, then redraw state and Congressional districts to lock in partisan advantages. The plan was highly successful.
I have developed approaches to detect such shenanigans by looking only at election returns. To see how the sleuthing works, start with the naïve standard that the party that wins more than half the votes should get at least half the seats. In November, five states failed to clear even this low bar: Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Now let’s do something more subtle. We can calculate each state’s appropriate seat breakdown — in other words, how a Congressional delegation would be constituted if its districts were not contorted to protect a political party or an incumbent. We do this by randomly picking combinations of districts from around the United States that add up to the same statewide vote total. Like a fantasy baseball team, a delegation put together this way is not constrained by the limits of geography. On a computer, it is possible to create millions of such unbiased delegations in short order. In this way, we can ask what would happen if a state had districts that were typical of the rest of the nation.
In North Carolina, where the two-party House vote was 51 percent Democratic, 49 percent Republican, the average simulated delegation was seven Democrats and six Republicans. The actual outcome? Four Democrats, nine Republicans — a split that occurred in less than 1 percent of simulations. If districts were drawn fairly, this lopsided discrepancy would hardly ever occur.
Confounding conventional wisdom, partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties. By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: the five I have mentioned, plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often.
Surprisingly absent from the guilty list is California, where 62 percent of the two-party vote went to Democrats and the average mock delegation of 38 Democrats and 15 Republicans exactly matched the newly elected delegation. Notably, California voters took redistricting out of legislators’ hands by creating the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
Gerrymandering is not hard. The core technique is to jam voters likely to favor your opponents into a few throwaway districts where the other side will win lopsided victories, a strategy known as “packing.” Arrange other boundaries to win close victories, “cracking” opposition groups into many districts. Professionals useproprietary software to draw districts, but free software like Dave’s Redistricting App lets you do it from your couch.
Political scientists have identified other factors that have influenced the relationship between votes and seats in the past. Concentration of voters in urban areas can, for example, limit how districts are drawn, creating a natural packing effect. But in 2012 the net effect of intentional gerrymandering was far larger than any one factor.
We can quantify this effect using three different methods. First, Democrats would have had to win the popular vote by 7 percentage points to take control of the House the way that districts are now (assuming that votes shifted by a similar percentage across all districts). That’s an 8-point increase over what they would have had to do in 2010, and a margin that happens in only about one-third of Congressional elections.
Second, if we replace the eight partisan gerrymanders with the mock delegations from my simulations, this would lead to a seat count of 215 Democrats, 220 Republicans, give or take a few.
Third, gerrymandering is a major form of disenfranchisement. In the seven states where Republicans redrew the districts, 16.7 million votes were cast for Republicans and 16.4 million votes were cast for Democrats. This elected 73 Republicans and 34 Democrats. Given the average percentage of the vote it takes to elect representatives elsewhere in the country, that combination would normally require only 14.7 million Democratic votes. Or put another way, 1.7 million votes (16.4 minus 14.7) were effectively packed into Democratic districts and wasted.
Compared with a national total House vote of 121 million, this number is considerable. In Illinois, Democrats did the converse, wasting about 70,000 Republican votes. In both cases, the number of wasted votes dwarfs the likely effect of voter-ID laws, a Democratic concern, or of voter fraud, a Republican concern.
SOME legislators have flirted with the idea of gerrymandering the presidency itself under the guise of Electoral College reform. In one short-lived plan, Virginia State Senator Charles Carrico sponsored legislation to allocate electoral votes by Congressional district. In contrast to the current winner-take-all system, which usually elects the popular vote winner, Mr. Carrico’s proposal applied nationwide would have elected Mitt Romney, despite the fact that he won five million fewer votes than Mr. Obama. This is basically an admission of defeat by Republicans in swing states. Mr. Carrico’s constituents might well ask whether these changes serve their interests or those of the Republican National Committee.
To preserve majority rule and minority representation, redistricting must be brought into fairer balance. I propose two plans. First, let’s establish nonpartisan redistricting commissions in all 50 states. In Ohio, one such ballot measure failed in November, in part because of a poorly financed campaign. Maybe those who prodded voters to turn out could support future initiatives.
Second, we need to adopt a statistically robust judicial standard for partisan gerrymandering. In the Supreme Court’s Vieth v. Jubelirer case, in 2004, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy voted against intervention in chicanery in Pennsylvania, but left the door open for future remedies elsewhere if a clear standard could be established.
The great gerrymander of 2012 came 200 years after the first use of this curious word, which comes from the salamander-shaped districts signed into law by Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. Gov. Gerry’s party engineered its electoral coup using paper maps and ink. But the advent of inexpensive computing and free software has placed the tools for fighting politicians who draw absurd districts into the hands of citizens like you and me.
Politicians, especially Republicans facing demographic and ideological changes in the electorate, use redistricting to cling to power. It’s up to us to take control of the process, slay the gerrymander, and put the people back in charge of what is, after all, our House.
Source: NYT
By Sam Wang
Sam Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton and the founder of the Princeton Election Consortium
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____________________________________________
It's official: The new (click: Pinnacles National Park is America's 59th national park.
Pinnacles National Park: what makes it stand out
California's 9th National Park
Here's what you should know about this natural treasure:
Click green for further info
Pinnacles is also home to the endangered California condor. (Photo: National Park Service)
(Photo: Phil Stoffer, USGS)— The park was already a popular tourist destination in California as Pinnacles National Monument. The park, which boasts caves, an ancient volcanic landscape, and plenty of rock climbing, has been "elevated" to national park status.
In a statement to celebrate its newest park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, "Like other national parks across our country, Pinnacles not only takes visitors’ breaths away with its natural beauty but it also provides opportunities for outdoor recreation and supports economic growth and jobs in the local community.”
— Pinnacles is the ninth national park in California. First declared a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, the park already draws 343,000 visitors a year, many of them rock climbers. With the elevation of the monument to a national park, National Park Service officials are hoping to boost park attendance. Pinnacles is home to the endangered California condor. (Photo: National Park Service)
— The park is known for its spectacular rock formations from an ancient volcanic field. With 30 miles of trails, it's a popular site for adventurous rock climbers. Located near the San Andreas Fault in the Gabilan Mountains, east of central California's Salinas Valley, the park includes 27,000 acres of wild lands.
Bear Gulch Cave (Photo: Phil Stoffer, USGS)— The rock at Pinnacles has eroded over millions of years, leaving behind boulders, spires of volcanic rock, and caves. The rock shapes are called … pinnacles. The rock's weathering has created a unique landscape. An example of shifting tectonic plates, the area was formed when the San Andreas Fault split the volcanic field some 23 million years ago. As the Pacific Plate crept north, it carried the Pinnacles with it, according to a statement from the Department of the Interior.
— The park is home to the California condor, an endangered species; it is one of 32 flying birds that populate the park. But the park is not just a good home for condors: Pinnacles has been part of the California Condor Recovery Program since 2003, and park biologists keep close watch to make sure that the birds roost safely, far from power lines and populated trails.
— Ken Burns is a fan. Yes, that Ken Burns. The documentary filmmaker had penned a letter in support of the Pinnacles National Parks Act, arguing, "It would preserve a place that over the centuries, Native Americans, early Spanish settlers, homesteaders from the East, and Basque sheepherders have considered home, offering an important series of perspectives on the larger sweep of American history."
Pinnacles National Park: what makes it stand out
California's 9th National Park
Here's what you should know about this natural treasure:
Click green for further info
Pinnacles is also home to the endangered California condor. (Photo: National Park Service)
(Photo: Phil Stoffer, USGS)— The park was already a popular tourist destination in California as Pinnacles National Monument. The park, which boasts caves, an ancient volcanic landscape, and plenty of rock climbing, has been "elevated" to national park status.
In a statement to celebrate its newest park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, "Like other national parks across our country, Pinnacles not only takes visitors’ breaths away with its natural beauty but it also provides opportunities for outdoor recreation and supports economic growth and jobs in the local community.”
— Pinnacles is the ninth national park in California. First declared a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, the park already draws 343,000 visitors a year, many of them rock climbers. With the elevation of the monument to a national park, National Park Service officials are hoping to boost park attendance. Pinnacles is home to the endangered California condor. (Photo: National Park Service)
— The park is known for its spectacular rock formations from an ancient volcanic field. With 30 miles of trails, it's a popular site for adventurous rock climbers. Located near the San Andreas Fault in the Gabilan Mountains, east of central California's Salinas Valley, the park includes 27,000 acres of wild lands.
Bear Gulch Cave (Photo: Phil Stoffer, USGS)— The rock at Pinnacles has eroded over millions of years, leaving behind boulders, spires of volcanic rock, and caves. The rock shapes are called … pinnacles. The rock's weathering has created a unique landscape. An example of shifting tectonic plates, the area was formed when the San Andreas Fault split the volcanic field some 23 million years ago. As the Pacific Plate crept north, it carried the Pinnacles with it, according to a statement from the Department of the Interior.
— The park is home to the California condor, an endangered species; it is one of 32 flying birds that populate the park. But the park is not just a good home for condors: Pinnacles has been part of the California Condor Recovery Program since 2003, and park biologists keep close watch to make sure that the birds roost safely, far from power lines and populated trails.
— Ken Burns is a fan. Yes, that Ken Burns. The documentary filmmaker had penned a letter in support of the Pinnacles National Parks Act, arguing, "It would preserve a place that over the centuries, Native Americans, early Spanish settlers, homesteaders from the East, and Basque sheepherders have considered home, offering an important series of perspectives on the larger sweep of American history."
Loophole May Hold Up Dorner Reward
| ABC News February 15/2013
A legal loophole could prevent good Samaritans, instrumental in ending the manhunt for a fugitive ex-cop accused of killing four people, from claiming more than $1 million in reward money because Christopher Dorner died and was not captured.
On 2/10/13, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged $1 million, sourced from private individuals, companies and unions, "for information that will lead to Mr. Dorner's capture."
The L.A. City Council followed up with its own promise of a $100,000 reward, for information "leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of Christopher Dorner."
But Dorner, accused of killing four people and threatening the lives of several dozen more, was never captured, apprehended or convicted. Instead, he died following a standoff with police near Big Bear, Calif., when the cabin in which he was barricaded burned down with him inside.
The mayor's office has not yet determined if the reward could still be paid out given Dorner died.
"At this time, no decision has been made on the reward," Villaraigosa's spokesman Peter Sanders told ABC News.com in an email.
So far, none of the privately sourced "funds have been deposited into the City's 'Special Reward Trust Fund,'" according to the Frank T. Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney.
That still leaves an additional $100,000 that the city council could pay with municipal money, but there legal questions there, as well.
"The reward is definitely still on the table," said Jessica Tarman, spokeswoman for Councilman Daniel Zine.
But there are still plenty of questions.
The council ultimately decides how and to whom the reward will get paid. If its members are feeling generous, they could interpret the language of the original offer to make sure a worthy recipient gets paid.
"Arguably, city law is broad enough to allow payment to persons who assisted in the "identification, apprehension OR arrest and conviction" of a suspect," Metaljan said in an email [emphasis his].
If the city decides to honor the reward, there are still multiple steps before a claimant can be paid.
Anyone who thinks they are worthy must apply in writing. That claim would then be reviewed by the LAPD robbery and homicide division, and a recommendation would be made to the police commissioner. The commissioner would tell the council to consider the claim, and the council would vote on it.
So far, no one has come forward to ask for the reward. More than 1,000 leads were called to a city hotline
One couple seems most deserving, if they decide to seek the reward. Jim and Karen Reynolds, a couple in whose Big Bear, Calif., home Dorner is believed to have hidden for days, called in the tip Tuesday that ultimately put police on the trail to Dorner's final location.
On Tuesday, 2/12/13, the couple found Dorner at their home. He briefly held them captive, but they managed to escape and call in their tip.
| ABC News February 15/2013
A legal loophole could prevent good Samaritans, instrumental in ending the manhunt for a fugitive ex-cop accused of killing four people, from claiming more than $1 million in reward money because Christopher Dorner died and was not captured.
On 2/10/13, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged $1 million, sourced from private individuals, companies and unions, "for information that will lead to Mr. Dorner's capture."
The L.A. City Council followed up with its own promise of a $100,000 reward, for information "leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of Christopher Dorner."
But Dorner, accused of killing four people and threatening the lives of several dozen more, was never captured, apprehended or convicted. Instead, he died following a standoff with police near Big Bear, Calif., when the cabin in which he was barricaded burned down with him inside.
The mayor's office has not yet determined if the reward could still be paid out given Dorner died.
"At this time, no decision has been made on the reward," Villaraigosa's spokesman Peter Sanders told ABC News.com in an email.
So far, none of the privately sourced "funds have been deposited into the City's 'Special Reward Trust Fund,'" according to the Frank T. Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney.
That still leaves an additional $100,000 that the city council could pay with municipal money, but there legal questions there, as well.
"The reward is definitely still on the table," said Jessica Tarman, spokeswoman for Councilman Daniel Zine.
But there are still plenty of questions.
The council ultimately decides how and to whom the reward will get paid. If its members are feeling generous, they could interpret the language of the original offer to make sure a worthy recipient gets paid.
"Arguably, city law is broad enough to allow payment to persons who assisted in the "identification, apprehension OR arrest and conviction" of a suspect," Metaljan said in an email [emphasis his].
If the city decides to honor the reward, there are still multiple steps before a claimant can be paid.
Anyone who thinks they are worthy must apply in writing. That claim would then be reviewed by the LAPD robbery and homicide division, and a recommendation would be made to the police commissioner. The commissioner would tell the council to consider the claim, and the council would vote on it.
So far, no one has come forward to ask for the reward. More than 1,000 leads were called to a city hotline
One couple seems most deserving, if they decide to seek the reward. Jim and Karen Reynolds, a couple in whose Big Bear, Calif., home Dorner is believed to have hidden for days, called in the tip Tuesday that ultimately put police on the trail to Dorner's final location.
On Tuesday, 2/12/13, the couple found Dorner at their home. He briefly held them captive, but they managed to escape and call in their tip.
Girl shot by Taliban discharged from UK hospital
Associated Press 2/8/13
LONDON (AP) — Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani education activist shot in the head by the Taliban, was discharged from a British hospital Friday after undergoing skull reconstruction and receiving a cochlear implant to restore her hearing.
The 15-year-old had been released for a few weeks in January but re-entered Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital to undergo the latest procedures last weekend. The hospital said Malala is "making good recovery" and will now continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home in Birmingham.
Malala was shot by a Taliban gunman on Oct. 9 while on her way home from school in northwestern Pakistan's Swat Valley. The militant group said it targeted her because she promoted "Western thinking." Malala had been an outspoken critic of the Taliban's opposition to educating girls.
The teen was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan to receive specialized medical care and protection against further Taliban threats. She is expected to remain in the U.K. for some time; her father, Ziauddin, has secured a post with the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham.
The shooting sparked outrage in Pakistan and many other countries, and Malala's story increased the global attention for the struggle for women's rights in her homeland. In a sign of her impact, the teen made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2012.
In a video statement taped before her latest surgeries, Malala said she was "getting better, day by day" and would continue to campaign for girls' education.
"I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated," she said, speaking clearly but with the left side of her face appearing rigid.
In Staf. Inc.'s 0-10 scale this is 9-1/2 - the information is important - it is valid today for your health
Is Vegetarianism the Only Way to Go in 2050 ?
Click the green parts for further information
Vegetarianism will likely be the only option for most of the world’s population by the year 2050, due to dwindling water and land resources, according to a recent report published by Swedish water scientists.
As the world’s population burgeons to around 9 billion in the next 40 years, there will not be enough resources or space to raise livestock to produce meat and dairy products. The current production and eating habits would end up creating a disastrous food shortage for the world, the Stockholm International Water Institute, or SIWI, said in its report.
The report said that currently “nearly one billion people still suffer from hunger and malnourishment” even though there is more food than ever before, highlighting the waste and inefficiency of current modes of production.
It stressed that with severe agricultural challenges and water management issues, the world’s leaders need to “think differently” and focus on innovative ways to handle the problem.
The scientists noted that addressing hunger and feeding the world’s people is an immensely complicated situation, but said it boils down mainly to energy and water, which as they noted, need to be regarded as finite and not as free resources for the world’s food production.
Droughts in northern Africa have created a food shortage for millions of people in the region, while droughts in the United States are also set to drive the world’s food prices up by the end of the end of the year and next year.
“The analysis showed that there will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in Western nations,” which have populations that eat high quantities of meat, SIWI’s report said.
“There will, however, be just enough water” for people to comprise 5 percent of their diet with animal-based foods, including meat and dairy, the report’s authors added. Currently, humans get around 20 percent of their calories from animal-based protein.
Even if the world switches over to a primarily plant-based diet, it is still unclear if that will be enough to avert a catastrophic food shortage.
SIWI stressed that governments must deal with the waste of food and improve upon the food-production system that is currently implemented.
The U.N. released a report in June that said agriculture consumes 70 percent of the world’s freshwater supply, most of which is from meat and dairy production, which also consumes 38 percent of the world’s land use, and produces 19 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.
The SIWI’s report was released ahead of the annual conference held in Stockholm this week, where over 2,500 delegates, NGO groups, scientists, and others converge to discuss matters related to water scarcity and management.rtages
In a recent report, aid agency Oxfam said that the world’s poorest people will face an unmitigated disaster over skyrocketing food prices because the food system is flawed.
“Policy-makers have taken cheap food for granted for nearly 30 years. Those days are gone,” it said and added that governments must end “the obscene waste of food including burning it as biodiesel in our trucks and cars.”
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
Tags: agriculture global population meat water supplies
Related Articles
Is Vegetarianism the Only Way to Go in 2050 ?
Click the green parts for further information
Vegetarianism will likely be the only option for most of the world’s population by the year 2050, due to dwindling water and land resources, according to a recent report published by Swedish water scientists.
As the world’s population burgeons to around 9 billion in the next 40 years, there will not be enough resources or space to raise livestock to produce meat and dairy products. The current production and eating habits would end up creating a disastrous food shortage for the world, the Stockholm International Water Institute, or SIWI, said in its report.
The report said that currently “nearly one billion people still suffer from hunger and malnourishment” even though there is more food than ever before, highlighting the waste and inefficiency of current modes of production.
It stressed that with severe agricultural challenges and water management issues, the world’s leaders need to “think differently” and focus on innovative ways to handle the problem.
The scientists noted that addressing hunger and feeding the world’s people is an immensely complicated situation, but said it boils down mainly to energy and water, which as they noted, need to be regarded as finite and not as free resources for the world’s food production.
Droughts in northern Africa have created a food shortage for millions of people in the region, while droughts in the United States are also set to drive the world’s food prices up by the end of the end of the year and next year.
“The analysis showed that there will not be enough water available on current croplands to produce food for the expected population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets common in Western nations,” which have populations that eat high quantities of meat, SIWI’s report said.
“There will, however, be just enough water” for people to comprise 5 percent of their diet with animal-based foods, including meat and dairy, the report’s authors added. Currently, humans get around 20 percent of their calories from animal-based protein.
Even if the world switches over to a primarily plant-based diet, it is still unclear if that will be enough to avert a catastrophic food shortage.
SIWI stressed that governments must deal with the waste of food and improve upon the food-production system that is currently implemented.
The U.N. released a report in June that said agriculture consumes 70 percent of the world’s freshwater supply, most of which is from meat and dairy production, which also consumes 38 percent of the world’s land use, and produces 19 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.
The SIWI’s report was released ahead of the annual conference held in Stockholm this week, where over 2,500 delegates, NGO groups, scientists, and others converge to discuss matters related to water scarcity and management.rtages
In a recent report, aid agency Oxfam said that the world’s poorest people will face an unmitigated disaster over skyrocketing food prices because the food system is flawed.
“Policy-makers have taken cheap food for granted for nearly 30 years. Those days are gone,” it said and added that governments must end “the obscene waste of food including burning it as biodiesel in our trucks and cars.”
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
Tags: agriculture global population meat water supplies
Related Articles
- Meat Eaters Deny Mental Qualities in Animals (see below)
- Worst Drought in a Millennium Creates Severe Food Shortness __________________________________________________________
Meat Eaters Deny Mental Qualities in Animals
People can psychologically justify eating meat by denying that animals have minds, according to new research from Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ).
When confronted with the harm a carnivorous diet brings to food animals, people reduce their discomfort by viewing those animals as having reduced mental capacity.
“Many people like eating meat, but most are reluctant to harm things that have minds,” said research leader Brock Bastian in a media release. “Our studies show that this motivates people to deny minds to animals.”
Denial of animals having minds becomes more evident with anticipation of eating meat in the near future.
“Meat is central to most people’s diets and a focus of culinary enjoyment, yet most people also like animals and are disturbed by harm done to them; therefore creating a ‘meat paradox’–people’s concern for animal welfare conflicts with their culinary behavior,” Bastian explained.
He added that people prefer not to think about where meat comes from, the living conditions of food animals, or the processes meat goes through before reaching the dinner table.
People also mentally separate the concept of meat from animals themselves “so they can eat pork or beef without thinking about pigs or cows,” Bastian said.
“Denying minds to animals reduces concern for their welfare, justifying the harm caused to them in the process of meat production,” he added.
“In short, our work highlights the fact that although most people do not mind eating meat, they do not like thinking of animals they eat as having possessed minds.”
Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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Millions of Tons of Chinese Grain
Poisoned by Heavy Metals
By Hsin-Yi Lin On February 10, 2013
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At least 36,000 hectares of farmland in China are contaminated with excessive levels of heavy metals, according to a document authored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China. As a result, 12 million tons of crops harvested in China each year are contaminated, which translates into 20 billion yuan (US$ 3.2 billion) of economic losses every year.
According to Han Jun, the deputy director of the Development Research Center of China’s State Department, “China imported 80.25 million tons of grain in 2012. Assuming that the average person consumes 400 kg of grain a year, we imported enough grain alone last year to feed 190 million people in China.”
According to Time Weekly, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources conducted a nationwide investigation into soil pollution in 2006. To avoid bias, the surveyed land was divided into 4-by-4 kilometer (about 2.4-by-2.4 miles) square grids using GPS technology, and soil samples were taken from each grid. The investigation took three years to complete, with almost 20,000 staff collecting and analyzing soil samples from around the country.
The investigation cost 1 billion yuan, but its results were never made public. On Jan. 31 this year, Dong Zhengwei, an attorney based in Beijing, submitted an inquiry to the Ministry of Environmental Protection asking it to “publish the data from the nationwide soil pollution investigation and the causes of the pollution.” The ministry never replied to Dong.
Although the ministry never officially released the full investigation report, it appears that parts of the report were later leaked to the public.
Poisoned Rice
Based on the leaked documents, which appeared on the Internet recently, long-term industrial pollution has resulted in the accumulation of agricultural chemicals, heavy metals, and non-biodegradable organic pollutants in the soils in developed regions such as the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Economic Rim.
The polluted regions are also expanding. In some cities in southern China, half of the farmland was found to be polluted with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, and mercury, as well as petroleum-based compounds. In the Yangtze River Delta, 10 percent of the sampled farmland was found to be no longer suitable for growing crops, because of heavy metal pollution.
The document said that up to 10 million hectares, or over 10 percent of China’s farmland, has been contaminated with heavy metals, with most of the pollution occurring in more economically developed regions.
In 2002, the China National Rice Research Institute conducted tests on rice samples from markets across China. The result showed that 28 percent of the sampled rice contained excessive levels of lead, and 10.3 percent had excessive levels of cadmium. In 2007, professor Pan Genxing from Nanjing Agricultural University led a research group in a similar nationwide study, which also found that about 10 percent of the rice in China’s markets contained cadmium.
Reliance on Imports
The most immediate impact of soil pollution is the damage it causes to food production. At least 10 million tons of rice each year are lost due to pollution from pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial waste, according to Li Fasheng, a researcher at the Department of Soil Pollution Control in Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, who spoke to Chinese media.
Related Articles
_____________________________________________________________
Poisoned by Heavy Metals
By Hsin-Yi Lin On February 10, 2013
Click green for further info
At least 36,000 hectares of farmland in China are contaminated with excessive levels of heavy metals, according to a document authored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China. As a result, 12 million tons of crops harvested in China each year are contaminated, which translates into 20 billion yuan (US$ 3.2 billion) of economic losses every year.
According to Han Jun, the deputy director of the Development Research Center of China’s State Department, “China imported 80.25 million tons of grain in 2012. Assuming that the average person consumes 400 kg of grain a year, we imported enough grain alone last year to feed 190 million people in China.”
According to Time Weekly, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources conducted a nationwide investigation into soil pollution in 2006. To avoid bias, the surveyed land was divided into 4-by-4 kilometer (about 2.4-by-2.4 miles) square grids using GPS technology, and soil samples were taken from each grid. The investigation took three years to complete, with almost 20,000 staff collecting and analyzing soil samples from around the country.
The investigation cost 1 billion yuan, but its results were never made public. On Jan. 31 this year, Dong Zhengwei, an attorney based in Beijing, submitted an inquiry to the Ministry of Environmental Protection asking it to “publish the data from the nationwide soil pollution investigation and the causes of the pollution.” The ministry never replied to Dong.
Although the ministry never officially released the full investigation report, it appears that parts of the report were later leaked to the public.
Poisoned Rice
Based on the leaked documents, which appeared on the Internet recently, long-term industrial pollution has resulted in the accumulation of agricultural chemicals, heavy metals, and non-biodegradable organic pollutants in the soils in developed regions such as the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Economic Rim.
The polluted regions are also expanding. In some cities in southern China, half of the farmland was found to be polluted with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, and mercury, as well as petroleum-based compounds. In the Yangtze River Delta, 10 percent of the sampled farmland was found to be no longer suitable for growing crops, because of heavy metal pollution.
The document said that up to 10 million hectares, or over 10 percent of China’s farmland, has been contaminated with heavy metals, with most of the pollution occurring in more economically developed regions.
In 2002, the China National Rice Research Institute conducted tests on rice samples from markets across China. The result showed that 28 percent of the sampled rice contained excessive levels of lead, and 10.3 percent had excessive levels of cadmium. In 2007, professor Pan Genxing from Nanjing Agricultural University led a research group in a similar nationwide study, which also found that about 10 percent of the rice in China’s markets contained cadmium.
Reliance on Imports
The most immediate impact of soil pollution is the damage it causes to food production. At least 10 million tons of rice each year are lost due to pollution from pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial waste, according to Li Fasheng, a researcher at the Department of Soil Pollution Control in Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, who spoke to Chinese media.
Related Articles
- International Efforts to Stop Forced Organ Harvesting From Falun Gong in China
- The Cost of Doing Business in China
_____________________________________________________________
The White House Administration developing penalties for cybertheft
Date: February 20, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Evidence of an unrelenting campaign of cyberstealing linked to the Chinese government is prompting the Obama administration to develop more aggressive responses to the theft of U.S. government data and corporate trade secrets.
The Obama administration is expected to announce new measures Wednesday, including possible fines and other trade actions against China or any other country guilty of cyber-espionage. Officials familiar with the administration's plans spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the threatened action.
The Chinese government denies being involved in the cyberattacks cited in a cybersecurity firm's analysis of breaches that compromised more than 140 companies. On Wednesday, China's Defense Ministry called the report deeply flawed.
Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm, released a torrent of details Monday that tied a secret Chinese military unit in Shanghai to years of cyberattacks against U.S. companies. Mandiant concluded that the breaches can be linked to the People's Liberation Army's Unit 61398.
Military experts believe the unit is part of the People's Liberation Army's cybercommand, which is under the direct authority of the General Staff Department, China's version of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As such, its activities would be likely to be authorized at the highest levels of China's military.
The release of the Mandiant report, complete with details on three of the alleged hackers and photographs of one of the military unit's buildings in Shanghai, makes public what U.S. authorities have said less publicly for years. But it also increases the pressure on the U.S. to take more forceful action against the Chinese for what experts say has been years of systematic espionage.
"If the Chinese government flew planes into our airspace, our planes would escort them away. If it happened two, three or four times, the president would be on the phone and there would be threats of retaliation," said Shawn Henry, former FBI executive assistant director. "This is happening thousands of times a day. There needs to be some definition of where the red line is and what the repercussions would be."
Henry, the president of the security firm CrowdStrike, said that rather than tell companies to increase their cybersecurity, the government needs to focus more on how to deter the hackers and the nations that are backing them.
James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in the past year the White House has been taking a serious look at responding to China. "This will be the year they will put more pressure on, even while realizing it will be hard for the Chinese to change. There's not an on-off switch," Lewis said.
In denying involvement in the cyberattacks tracked by Mandiant, China's Foreign Ministry said China too has been a victim of hacking, some of it traced to the U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei cited a report by an agency under the Ministry of Information Technology and Industry that said that in 2012 alone foreign hackers used viruses and other malicious software to seize control of 1,400 computers in China and 38,000 websites.
"Among the above attacks, those from the U.S. numbered the most," Hong said at a daily media briefing, lodging the most specific allegations the Chinese government has made about foreign hacking.
Cybersecurity experts say U.S. authorities do not conduct similar attacks or steal data from Chinese companies but acknowledge that intelligence agencies routinely spy on other countries.
China is clearly a target of interest, said Lewis, noting that the U.S. would be interested in Beijing's military policies, such as any plans for action against Taiwan or Japan.
In its report, Mandiant said it traced the hacking back to a neighborhood in the outskirts of Shanghai that includes a white 12-story office building run by the army's Unit 61398.
Mandiant said there are only two viable conclusions about the involvement of the Chinese military in the cyberattacks: Either Unit 61398 is responsible for the persistent attacks, or they are being done by a secret organization of Chinese speakers, with direct access to the Shanghai telecommunications infrastructure, who are engaged in a multi-year espionage campaign being run right outside the military unit's gates.
"In a state that rigorously monitors Internet use, it is highly unlikely that the Chinese government is unaware of an attack group that operates from the Pudong New Area of Shanghai," the Mandiant report said, concluding that the only way the group could function is with the "full knowledge and cooperation" of the Beijing government.
The unit "has systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations," Mandiant wrote. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. The most popular version of the new iPhone 5, for example, has 16 gigabytes of space, while the more expensive iPads have as much as 64 gigabytes of space. The U.S. Library of Congress' 2006-10 Twitter archive of about 170 billion tweets totals 133.2 terabytes.
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(1) Click: Chinese military responsible for cyber attacks, report says
(2) Click: The building housing “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army is seen in the outskirts of Shanghai, Tuesday Feb. 19, 2013. Cyberattacks that stole information from 141 targets in the U.S. and other countries have been traced to the Chinese military unit in the building, a U.S. security firm alleged Tuesday. According to the report by the Virginia-based Mandiant Corp., it has traced the massive amount of hacking back to the 12-story office building run by “Unit 61398”, and that the attacks targeted key industries including military contractors and companies that control energy grids. China dismissed the report as "groundless."(AP Photo)
(3) Click US ready to strike back against China cyberattacks
Source: Associated Press
Bill Gates Is Trying To Eliminate Polio,
But Radical Islamists Keep Killing People To Stop Him
Date: February 2013
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Efforts like the one being led by Bill Gates and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have reduced the number of children paralyzed by the polio virus from 350,000 in 1998 to fewer than 225 cases in 2012.
But the last remnants of the the debilitating disease must be wiped out in Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, or else it will make a comeback.
Radical islamic militants are preventing that from happening by attacking clinics, health workers, and police who travel with vaccinators to administer the vaccine to children.
Earlier this month in northern Nigeria, armed men linked to Islamist extremist group Boko Haramkilled nine people at a clinic after a local cleric denounced polio vaccination campaigns and local radio programs saying the campaigns are part of a foreign plot to sterilize Muslims.
The province, Kona, is now the epicenter of polio infections in Africa as it has refused to participate in the vaccination campaign.
In Pakistan a total of 18 people have been killed in the last three months, including a police officerwho was escorting a polio team in the tribal areas in the country's northwest.
The cultural suspicions may be even messier in Pakistan where came to light that CIA hired a Pakistani doctor to give out hepatitis B vaccine in Abbottabad in March 2011 in an apparent effort to get DNA samples from Osama bin Laden’s hide-out.
"Boko Haram and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan share a common ideology and common strategy and ... their targets are similar," Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, told the Guardian. "Boko Haram have targeted police stations, politicians, religious clerics who speak out against them and people engaging in polio vaccination programmes."
The tactics have been effective as polio infections have doubled in Pakistan since 2009, new cases are on the rise in Afghanistan, and a polio virus traced to Pakistan was recently found in sewers in Cairo, Egypt (which hasn't seen a case since 2004).
Gates, Microsoft's 57-year-old co-founder, who has donated an estimated $28 billion to charity through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is determined to completely eradicate the disease.
"Polio's pretty special because once you get an eradication you no longer have to spend money on it," Gates told The Times of India. "It's just there as a gift for the rest of time ... All you need is over 90 percent of children to have the vaccine drop three times and the disease stops spreading ... The great thing about finishing polio is that we'll have resources to get going on malaria and measles."
David Scales of The Disease Daily notes that the key to success in the remaining infected areas is "regaining trust of both the local people and religious leaders," which led northern Nigeria to resume polio vaccinations after a 2003 boycott. Until then, the polio teams need more protection.
Pakistanis aren't so optimistic about solving it through cultural outreach.
"There is only one lasting solution to this and that is to militarily defeat the Taliban once and for all," according to an editorial in the Pakistan Express Tribune.
Polio, a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis in a matter of hours, usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions.
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Source: Internet
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Chinese dare officials to swim in polluted rivers
China's environmental officials challenged to swim in polluted rivers for cash
BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese businessman angry about a filthy river has come up with an equally dirty dare: He'll give an environmental official about $32,000 just for swimming in the polluted waterway.
Businessman Jin Zengmin posted on his microblog photos of a garbage-filled river in his hometown of Rui'an city in the eastern province of Zhejiang. He dared the local environmental protection chief,Bao Zhenming, to swim in it for a cash prize of 200,000 yuan.
The challenge, made Saturday, reflects growing frustration among the Chinese public over widespread pollution and lack of governmental action. It quickly inspired at least one other offer: A posting Tuesday under an alias on an online forum offered a 300,000 yuan ($48,000) cash prize to the environmental protection chief in the nearby county of Cangnan if the official swam in polluted rivers there.
Jin said on his microblog that a rubber shoe factory has been dumping wastewater into the river, and that the area had an exceptionally high cancer rate.
A Rui'an government official who would give only his surname, Chi, would not say Wednesday whether Bao would accept Jin's challenge. But Chi said the bureau had contacted Jin and will take some measures, including working with residents to clean up trash in the river and putting up signs warning against dumping.
"We will also step up efforts in controlling industrial pollution sources," Chi said.
He also said that the public should shoulder responsibility in protecting the environment, and that theenvironmental protection bureau welcomes public supervision and participation in cleaning up local rivers.
China's booming economy has brought more water pollution, some of it shockingly serious. High-profile industrial accidents along major rivers have disrupted water supplies to big cities in recent years.
Hu Siyi, vice minister of water resources, said last year that 20 percent of China's rivers were so polluted that their water quality was rated too toxic for human contact, and that up to 40 percent of the rivers were seriously polluted, according to state media.
Last month, about nine tons of aniline, a chemical used to make polyurethane, leaked into a river in northern China. It took five days for the leak to be reported, and by then it had contaminated the water supply of a city in a neighboring province.
Yang Jianhua, a researcher at the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the state-run China News Service that the cash-prize challenges reflect the public's deep worries about pollution.
"The environmental agencies are obligated to make efforts and solve the problem," Yang told China News.
Source: AP News
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The Surprising Cause of Most 'Spider Bites'
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If the thought of spiders makes your skin crawl, you might find it reassuring that the chances of being bitten by a spider are smaller than you imagine, recent research shows.
Most so-called "spider bites" are not actually spider bites, according to researchers and several recent studies. Instead, "spider bites" are more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections, said Chris Buddle, an arachnologist at McGill University in Montreal.
Spiders are good at killing "nuisance insects," which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders,
In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends.
"I've been handling spiders for almost 20 years, and I've never been bitten," Buddle told LiveScience. "You really have to work to get bitten by a spider, because they don't want to bite you."
For one thing, spiders tend to avoid people, and have no reason to bite humans because they aren't bloodsuckers and don't feed on humans, Buddle said. "They are far more afraid of us than we are of them," he said. "They're not offensive."
Not very scary
When spider bites do happen, they tend to occur because the eight-legged beasts are surprised -- for example when a person reaches into a glove, shoe or nook that they are occupying at the moment, Buddle said.
Even then, however, the majority of spiders are not toxic to humans. Spiders prey on small invertebrates such as insects, so their venom is not geared toward large animals such as humans.
Many spiders aren't even capable of piercing human flesh. Buddle said he has observed spiders "moving their fangs back and forth against his skin," all to no avail. [Creepy, Crawly & Incredible: Photos of Spiders]
Only about a dozen of the approximately 40,000 spider species worldwide can cause serious harm to the average healthy adult human. In North America, there are only two groups of spiders that are medically important: the widow group (which includes black widows) and the recluse group (brown recluses). These spiders do bite people, and if they live in your area, you should know what they look like, Buddle said. But still, records show bites from these spiders are very infrequent.
The bite of widow spiders like the black widow is one of the only well-recognized spider bites in North America, with obvious, unmistakable symptoms, said Rick Vetter, a retired arachnologist at the University of California at Riverside. Signs can include intense pain and muscle contractions, which occur because the bite interferes with nerves in muscles.
Nowadays, deaths from the bite are rare thanks to widow spider antivenom. Before this was developed, however, treatments for black widow bites included whiskey, cocaine and nitroglycerine, according to a review Vetter published this month in the journal Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.
Misidentified 'bites'
Often, black widow and brown recluse spiders are misidentified, and reported in regions where they are extremely unlikely to actually live, Vetter said. For example, In South Carolina, 940 physicians responding to a survey reported a total of 478 brown recluse spider bites in the state — but only one brown recluse bite has ever been definitively confirmed in the state. Recluses are mainly found in the central and southern United States, according to Vetter's study.
"I've had 100 recluse spiders running up my arm, and I've never been bitten by one," Vetter told LiveScience.
The vast majority of "spider bites" are caused by something else, research shows. One study Vetter cited found that of 182 Southern California patients seeking treatment for spider bites, only 3.8 percent had actual spider bites, while 85.7 percent had infections.
And a national study found that nearly 30 percent of people with skin lesions who said they had a spider bite actually had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Other things that can cause symptoms that mimic spider bites include biting fleas or bedbugs, allergies, poison oak and poison ivy, besides various viral and bacterial infections, Vetter said.
In recent years, doctors have become better at identifying true spider bites, Vetter writes.
But spiders are still widely regarded as dangerous to humans, which is generally not the case, Buddle said.
Spiders are good at killing "nuisance insects," which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders, Buddle added. "In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends."
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If the thought of spiders makes your skin crawl, you might find it reassuring that the chances of being bitten by a spider are smaller than you imagine, recent research shows.
Most so-called "spider bites" are not actually spider bites, according to researchers and several recent studies. Instead, "spider bites" are more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections, said Chris Buddle, an arachnologist at McGill University in Montreal.
Spiders are good at killing "nuisance insects," which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders,
In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends.
"I've been handling spiders for almost 20 years, and I've never been bitten," Buddle told LiveScience. "You really have to work to get bitten by a spider, because they don't want to bite you."
For one thing, spiders tend to avoid people, and have no reason to bite humans because they aren't bloodsuckers and don't feed on humans, Buddle said. "They are far more afraid of us than we are of them," he said. "They're not offensive."
Not very scary
When spider bites do happen, they tend to occur because the eight-legged beasts are surprised -- for example when a person reaches into a glove, shoe or nook that they are occupying at the moment, Buddle said.
Even then, however, the majority of spiders are not toxic to humans. Spiders prey on small invertebrates such as insects, so their venom is not geared toward large animals such as humans.
Many spiders aren't even capable of piercing human flesh. Buddle said he has observed spiders "moving their fangs back and forth against his skin," all to no avail. [Creepy, Crawly & Incredible: Photos of Spiders]
Only about a dozen of the approximately 40,000 spider species worldwide can cause serious harm to the average healthy adult human. In North America, there are only two groups of spiders that are medically important: the widow group (which includes black widows) and the recluse group (brown recluses). These spiders do bite people, and if they live in your area, you should know what they look like, Buddle said. But still, records show bites from these spiders are very infrequent.
The bite of widow spiders like the black widow is one of the only well-recognized spider bites in North America, with obvious, unmistakable symptoms, said Rick Vetter, a retired arachnologist at the University of California at Riverside. Signs can include intense pain and muscle contractions, which occur because the bite interferes with nerves in muscles.
Nowadays, deaths from the bite are rare thanks to widow spider antivenom. Before this was developed, however, treatments for black widow bites included whiskey, cocaine and nitroglycerine, according to a review Vetter published this month in the journal Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America.
Misidentified 'bites'
Often, black widow and brown recluse spiders are misidentified, and reported in regions where they are extremely unlikely to actually live, Vetter said. For example, In South Carolina, 940 physicians responding to a survey reported a total of 478 brown recluse spider bites in the state — but only one brown recluse bite has ever been definitively confirmed in the state. Recluses are mainly found in the central and southern United States, according to Vetter's study.
"I've had 100 recluse spiders running up my arm, and I've never been bitten by one," Vetter told LiveScience.
The vast majority of "spider bites" are caused by something else, research shows. One study Vetter cited found that of 182 Southern California patients seeking treatment for spider bites, only 3.8 percent had actual spider bites, while 85.7 percent had infections.
And a national study found that nearly 30 percent of people with skin lesions who said they had a spider bite actually had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Other things that can cause symptoms that mimic spider bites include biting fleas or bedbugs, allergies, poison oak and poison ivy, besides various viral and bacterial infections, Vetter said.
In recent years, doctors have become better at identifying true spider bites, Vetter writes.
But spiders are still widely regarded as dangerous to humans, which is generally not the case, Buddle said.
Spiders are good at killing "nuisance insects," which may be more likely to bite humans than spiders, Buddle added. "In the vast majority of cases, spiders are our friends."
- Gallery: Spooky Spiders
- Natural Viagra: Spider Bite Causes Erection
- What Really Scares People: Top 10 Phobias 10 Common Phobias: Slithering snakes (slither = Move smoothly over a surface with a twisting motion) - Creepy crawlies -Other people - Harrowing heights - The dark - Thunder & Lightning - Frightful Flight - Dogs - Dentist Click green for further info Source: U.S. Science __________________________________________________
Bloomberg’s Quest for a Healthy City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg at City Hall on March 11, 2013, with Michael Cardozo, the city's Corporation Counsel
Bloomberg said he's confident the large sugary drink ban, declared invalid by a judge, will pass on appeal
Many of Bloomberg's health initiatives have been challenged but most have ultimately passed
Darius Mozaffarian, Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health:
"I think that Mayor Bloomberg of NYC is a great example of what politicians should be doing"
Click green for further info
NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg is hailed by many in the public health sector as a visionary who isn’t afraid to try out new things.
The large sugary drink ban, blocked by a judge on March, 3/18/13, is only the latest in a series of public health initiatives Bloomberg has developed. Despite the setback, many of the mayor’s signature efforts have received fairly widespread support.
Beginning in 2002 with banning smoking from most buildings—including bars—a controversial and relatively trend-setting move at the time, Bloomberg has moved on to nutrition and exercise programs for children, and regulating the consumption of sugary drinks.
Two of Bloomberg’s most famous health initiatives started in 2007 with a ban on trans fat, which naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and dairy products, but a health risk when coming from partially hydrogenated oil that turns solid at room temperature. Next, the city began requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus— a measure that was included in the federal Affordable Care Act.
Bloomberg Confident He’ll Get Large Sugary Drink Decision Overturned
Later, several initiatives failed to pass into law—such as not letting people buy sugary drinks with food stamps.
“I just give Bloomberg a lot of credit for trying these things,” said David Levitsky, professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. “That’s more than any other mayor in any other town is doing—or any other public official—and I think we have to try these things.”
Do Initiatives Equal Success?
Levitsky, along with some others in the public health field, credit Bloomberg with using solid data to craft his initiatives, but they question their effectiveness and ability to deliver substantial results.
Sugary drinks lead to increased body weight, but whether reducing container size would result in people consuming fewer calories and losing weight is questionable, said Levitsky. The large sugary drink ban would have banned most drinks larger than 16 ounces containing more than 50 calories.
If the ban had passed, “it would have been a perfect laboratory to study if indeed that is possible,” he added.
There are two approaches to public health. The first is dealing with things at a mass level, such as creating a law to limit certain behaviors or launching an advertising campaign. The second involves a more personal approach, where the tools are emphasized more, such as encouraging the use of regular monitoring of a person’s weight using scales. Bloomberg prefers the former.
Those who support and advocate Bloomberg’s methods frequently cite his successes, such as New Yorkers’ longer life expectancy, and a 5.5 percent reduction in children’s body mass index (how much fat people have) between 2006 and 2011, which the administration attributes to its aggressive nutrition and exercise programs.
“Clearly the public health regulations are having some kind of impact,” said Jennifer Pomeranz, director of Legal Initiatives at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. “And I think that New York City’s totally been an innovator in terms of food policy.”
Out of all of Bloomberg’s initiatives, the trans fat ban and menu labeling stand out. Philadelphia, Boston, and the state of California have adopted one or both measures after New York City, and the federal government also included menu labeling in the Affordable Care Act.
“The effect has certainly been to start a national conversation, which I think is one of the most important roles that New York City has ended up playing,” said Pomeranz, who worked with the city on the menu labeling, and has written in support of the large sugary drink ban.
Pomeranz said she believes the ban on sugary drinks is completely legal, considering the Department of Health is charged with addressing chronic disease and food supply.
Related: Judge Strikes Down Large Sugary Drink Ban in NYC
The judge who ruled it is outside the city’s jurisdiction to enact the ban “is basically confining the department to address things like sanitation problems, which are health issues that are long gone as being the most pressing public health issues of our day,” she said.
Bloomberg ‘Grasping’ for Soda Initiative While the large sugary drink ban struck many, including the judge, as arbitrary, it is just the latest proposal attempting to get people to drink less soda and other sugary drinks.
In early 2010 Bloomberg urged the state Legislature to pass a tax on soda. The penny-per-ounce tax was intended to help fight obesity through an estimated $1 billion, which would have been earmarked for education and Medicaid. It didn’t pass.
Soon after, Bloomberg and then-Gov. David Paterson proposed a pilot program to block people from using food stamps to buy sugary drinks. The federal government rejected it, citing a number of concerns related to enforcement and effectiveness in combating obesity.
Both of these proposals would have been effective if passed, according to Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Now, Bloomberg is “grasping to find anything he can do” to limit sugary drinks, because his two main proposals were blocked, said Mozaffarian. He added that in his view no other states would be willing to try proposing a similar pilot program for food stamps unless the Obama administration signals its support.
“The food stamp program says in its mission statement that the goal is to provide healthy and nutritious food for people who can’t afford it, so it’s just outrageous that we should be using that to buy sugar sweetened beverages,” said Mozaffarian.
“It’s amazing to me the way the government is not just taking the sensible approaches that would reduce cost, make a healthier food supply for everybody, and make everybody actually feel better,” he added. “So I think that Mayor Bloomberg is a great example of what politicians should be trying to do.”
__________________________________________
Israelis brand selves in solidarity with animals
TO BRAND = an ancient mode of punishment, which was to inflict a mark on an offender with a hot iron
This barbarous punishment has been generally disused
The movement, called 269Life - The group's name derives from a number branded on a calf that activists encountered
at an Israeli dairy farm last year. They chose its number, 269, as a way to individualize the calf, which is still alive
Date: June, 2013
JERUSALEM (AP) — Sasha Boojor squirmed and struggled as black-clad masked men yanked him out of a cage and branded him with a hot iron. While the smell of seared flesh was disturbing, he said, this shocking and painful act was worth it: He was showing solidarity with animals that suffer branding on farms around the world.
Boojor claims 30 people have brand themselves worldwide, and thousands more support their effort to make the case for animal rights. The group, like other animal liberation movements, opposes the use of animals for human consumption, research or entertainment, going far beyond demands by more moderate groups for humane treatment and painless slaughtering.
Critics, including some animal rights sympathizers, believe this movement is going too far.
A public branding in Tel Aviv last year launched the movement, called 269Life. Since then it has spread, with brandings in Italy, the United States, Argentina and elsewhere. On Wednesday, 11 people branded themselves in the Czech capital, Prague.
The group's name derives from a number branded on a calf that activists encountered at an Israeli dairy farm last year. They chose its number, 269, as a way to individualize the calf, which is still alive.
"We aim to bring the pain and horror other animals face each and every day out of the suppressed darkness and into the realm of everyday life," the group states on its website.
In recent months, the group has staged sensational and sometimes gruesome stunts in Israel. They have freed chickens from coops and defaced fountains with severed cow heads while dyeing the water blood-red.
The brandings set them apart from other animal rights groups.
Last October, Boojor and two other activists sat in a mock pen in a central Tel Aviv square, caged in with barbed wire, with tags bearing the number 269 dangling from their ears. One by one, they were hoisted out by men in ski masks and held down to be branded, as bystanders watched in horror.
In video from that event, Boojor is seen writhing on the ground before his forearm is stamped with the number 269.
"What's really unpleasant is the sensation — a feeling of the skin being torn off — and you can smell the flesh burning," said Boojor, a 27-year-old from Tel Aviv who works odd jobs. "You feel out of control, and it's easy to understand how animals feel when they are in that situation."
The video of the branding has nearly 270,000 views on YouTube and was a key factor in the group's growth. The group was active on Facebook early on — the international movement's page has more than 33,000 "likes" — and has received inquiries from activists elsewhere interested in starting their own branches.
The movement is loosely organized. The different branches are in touch but choose on their own what works locally. Boojor said activists from Holland were attending Wednesday's Prague branding to learn how to stage their own. Leading activists from each country report to Boojor on how many people have been tattooed or branded, and the group uploads photos of those markings to its website.
Eleven activists, including four women, participated in Wednesday's event in square in central Prague, branding themselves with a hot iron on various parts of their bodies. The activists wore black underwear with metal chains around their necks and were taken one by one behind a wire fence where they sat and waited to be branded.
A few dozen people watched, while the smell of burning flesh wafted in the air. Some onlookers applauded at the end.
"As I expected it is a very intense experience," said Ondrej Kral, one of the activists. "Now, I feel even more motivated to fight for the rights of animals."
As 269 Life has raised its profile and increased its activities, it has also run afoul of Israeli police.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said nine people were questioned in connection with the fountain stunt, and that an investigation is underway into the group's activities. He called the group a "cult" that "seems quite extreme."
"Going to jail doesn't disturb me," Boojor said. "The captivity of animals is what disturbs me."
Boojor said the branding should have a special resonance in Israel, because Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II were marked with permanent identification numbers in concentration camps.
The use of that imagery sparks outrage. Uri Hanoch, an 85-year-old survivor from the Dachau camp in Germany, said such a comparison is "a sin."
He said, "Branding animals is a matter of identification. Doing it on humans is a disgrace."
Boojor said he has seen progress on the issue of animal rights in Israel, with an increasing number of vegan restaurants sprouting up and vegan products available to a greater degree. Still, he has yet to persuade barbecue-loving Israelis of his view that animals have rights similar to those of humans.
Israel passed an animal welfare law in 1994 that protects animals from abuse and explicitly permits the slaughter of animals for food. Critics charge that police enforce the law selectively and tend to ignore abuses in the farming industry.
Last year an Israeli TV program exposed ill-treatment of animals at a large slaughterhouse in northern Israel, where workers were filmed beating and shocking calves and lambs. Lawsuits demanding the closure of the slaughterhouse were launched, and the cases are ongoing. Most abattoirs in Israel slaughter animals according to Jewish dietary laws, which profess to be humane.
The country has a multitude of animal rights groups with different approaches.
Ben Baron, a spokesman for the Israeli animal liberation group Shevi, said he does not oppose 269Life's approach but called it "aggressive," adding that he thinks educating people on animal rights is a more effective way to raise awareness.
"I understand and relate to the pain, but I don't think that is the way, personally," he said.
The international animal rights organization People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals said the brandings spark important discussions about the issue.
"It's an eye-catching and a head-turning way to draw attention to a very serious message," said Ashley Fruno, a senior campaigner for PETA Asia-Pacific, which oversees the Middle East. PETA itself has been criticized for extreme projects on behalf of animals, sabotaging testing facilities among other activities.
Fruno said several PETA activists have tattooed themselves with the number 269.
"This is a badge of honor for these people," she said.
___
Follow Goldenberg at www.twitter.com/tgoldenberg
Associated Press writer Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.
TO BRAND = an ancient mode of punishment, which was to inflict a mark on an offender with a hot iron
This barbarous punishment has been generally disused
The movement, called 269Life - The group's name derives from a number branded on a calf that activists encountered
at an Israeli dairy farm last year. They chose its number, 269, as a way to individualize the calf, which is still alive
Date: June, 2013
JERUSALEM (AP) — Sasha Boojor squirmed and struggled as black-clad masked men yanked him out of a cage and branded him with a hot iron. While the smell of seared flesh was disturbing, he said, this shocking and painful act was worth it: He was showing solidarity with animals that suffer branding on farms around the world.
Boojor claims 30 people have brand themselves worldwide, and thousands more support their effort to make the case for animal rights. The group, like other animal liberation movements, opposes the use of animals for human consumption, research or entertainment, going far beyond demands by more moderate groups for humane treatment and painless slaughtering.
Critics, including some animal rights sympathizers, believe this movement is going too far.
A public branding in Tel Aviv last year launched the movement, called 269Life. Since then it has spread, with brandings in Italy, the United States, Argentina and elsewhere. On Wednesday, 11 people branded themselves in the Czech capital, Prague.
The group's name derives from a number branded on a calf that activists encountered at an Israeli dairy farm last year. They chose its number, 269, as a way to individualize the calf, which is still alive.
"We aim to bring the pain and horror other animals face each and every day out of the suppressed darkness and into the realm of everyday life," the group states on its website.
In recent months, the group has staged sensational and sometimes gruesome stunts in Israel. They have freed chickens from coops and defaced fountains with severed cow heads while dyeing the water blood-red.
The brandings set them apart from other animal rights groups.
Last October, Boojor and two other activists sat in a mock pen in a central Tel Aviv square, caged in with barbed wire, with tags bearing the number 269 dangling from their ears. One by one, they were hoisted out by men in ski masks and held down to be branded, as bystanders watched in horror.
In video from that event, Boojor is seen writhing on the ground before his forearm is stamped with the number 269.
"What's really unpleasant is the sensation — a feeling of the skin being torn off — and you can smell the flesh burning," said Boojor, a 27-year-old from Tel Aviv who works odd jobs. "You feel out of control, and it's easy to understand how animals feel when they are in that situation."
The video of the branding has nearly 270,000 views on YouTube and was a key factor in the group's growth. The group was active on Facebook early on — the international movement's page has more than 33,000 "likes" — and has received inquiries from activists elsewhere interested in starting their own branches.
The movement is loosely organized. The different branches are in touch but choose on their own what works locally. Boojor said activists from Holland were attending Wednesday's Prague branding to learn how to stage their own. Leading activists from each country report to Boojor on how many people have been tattooed or branded, and the group uploads photos of those markings to its website.
Eleven activists, including four women, participated in Wednesday's event in square in central Prague, branding themselves with a hot iron on various parts of their bodies. The activists wore black underwear with metal chains around their necks and were taken one by one behind a wire fence where they sat and waited to be branded.
A few dozen people watched, while the smell of burning flesh wafted in the air. Some onlookers applauded at the end.
"As I expected it is a very intense experience," said Ondrej Kral, one of the activists. "Now, I feel even more motivated to fight for the rights of animals."
As 269 Life has raised its profile and increased its activities, it has also run afoul of Israeli police.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said nine people were questioned in connection with the fountain stunt, and that an investigation is underway into the group's activities. He called the group a "cult" that "seems quite extreme."
"Going to jail doesn't disturb me," Boojor said. "The captivity of animals is what disturbs me."
Boojor said the branding should have a special resonance in Israel, because Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II were marked with permanent identification numbers in concentration camps.
The use of that imagery sparks outrage. Uri Hanoch, an 85-year-old survivor from the Dachau camp in Germany, said such a comparison is "a sin."
He said, "Branding animals is a matter of identification. Doing it on humans is a disgrace."
Boojor said he has seen progress on the issue of animal rights in Israel, with an increasing number of vegan restaurants sprouting up and vegan products available to a greater degree. Still, he has yet to persuade barbecue-loving Israelis of his view that animals have rights similar to those of humans.
Israel passed an animal welfare law in 1994 that protects animals from abuse and explicitly permits the slaughter of animals for food. Critics charge that police enforce the law selectively and tend to ignore abuses in the farming industry.
Last year an Israeli TV program exposed ill-treatment of animals at a large slaughterhouse in northern Israel, where workers were filmed beating and shocking calves and lambs. Lawsuits demanding the closure of the slaughterhouse were launched, and the cases are ongoing. Most abattoirs in Israel slaughter animals according to Jewish dietary laws, which profess to be humane.
The country has a multitude of animal rights groups with different approaches.
Ben Baron, a spokesman for the Israeli animal liberation group Shevi, said he does not oppose 269Life's approach but called it "aggressive," adding that he thinks educating people on animal rights is a more effective way to raise awareness.
"I understand and relate to the pain, but I don't think that is the way, personally," he said.
The international animal rights organization People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals said the brandings spark important discussions about the issue.
"It's an eye-catching and a head-turning way to draw attention to a very serious message," said Ashley Fruno, a senior campaigner for PETA Asia-Pacific, which oversees the Middle East. PETA itself has been criticized for extreme projects on behalf of animals, sabotaging testing facilities among other activities.
Fruno said several PETA activists have tattooed themselves with the number 269.
"This is a badge of honor for these people," she said.
___
Follow Goldenberg at www.twitter.com/tgoldenberg
Associated Press writer Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011
& its fallout may be causing illness in American babies everywhere in the U.S.: Study
Click green for further info
Fri, Apr 5, 201
It is not only Fukushima - a similar risk is all the time present round the U.S. (see below) and worldwide. Wind and air streams take the poisonous dust to every corner of the world.
A new study from the Radiation and Public Health Project found that babies born in the western United States as well as other Pacific countries shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011 may be at greater risk for congenital hypothyroidism.
Babies born in places including Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington shortly after Fukushima were 28 percent more likely to suffer from the illness, according to the study, than children born in those same regions one year earlier. The illness, if untreated, can cause permanent handicaps in both the body and brain.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "If untreated, congenital hypothyroidism can lead to intellectual disability and abnormal growth. In the United States and many other countries, all newborns are tested for congenital hypothyroidism. If treatment begins in the first month after birth, infants usually develop normally."
MSN's Healthy Living blog explains the Fukushima explosions led to clouds of radioisotope iodine-131 that "floated east over the Pacific Ocean and landed through precipitation on West Coast states as well as other Pacific countries."
In Japan, the health effects associated with Fukushima are obviously much worse. The mortality rate of elderly people who were in retirement facilities near the nuclear plant has reportedly tripled. There has also been reported increases in the number of children with flat feet, thought to be the result of kids playing on radiated soil.
Experts suggest that parents of children born in the western United States or Pacific regions in March or April 2011 get their children checked by a pediatrician for congenital hypothyroidism.
____________________________
Source: Wikipedia
Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a condition of thyroid hormone deficiency present at birth. Approximately 1 in 4000 newborn infants has a severe deficiency of thyroid function, while even more have mild or partial degrees. If untreated for several months after birth, severe congenital hypothyroidism can lead to growth failure and permanent mental retardation. Treatment consists of a daily dose of thyroid hormone (thyroxine) by mouth. Because the treatment is simple, effective, and inexpensive, nearly all of the developed world practices newborn screening to detect and treat congenital hypothyroidism in the first weeks of life.
Diagnostic evaluation
In the developed world, nearly all cases of congenital hypothyroidism are detected by the newborn screening program. These are based on measurement of TSH or thyroxine (T4) on the second or third day of life. If the TSH is high, or the T4 low, the infant's doctor and parents are called and a referral to a pediatric endocrinologist is recommended to confirm the diagnosis and initiate treatment. Often atechnetium (Tc-99m pertechnetate) thyroid scan is performed to detect a structurally abnormal gland. A radioactive iodine (RAIU) exam will help differentiate congenital absence or a defect in organification (a process necessary to make thyroid hormone).
Recent
Researchers have discovered that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has had far-reaching health effects more drastic than previously thought: young children born on the US West Coast are 28 percent more likely to develop congenital hypothyroidism.
In examining post-Fukushima conditions along the West Coast, researchers found American-born children to be developing similar conditions that some Europeans acquired after the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
"Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the US, and was especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation," researchers from the New York-based Radiation and Health Project wrote in a study published by the Open Journal of Pediatrics.http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=28599
Treatment
The goal of newborn screening programs is to detect and start treatment within the first 1-2 weeks of life. Treatment consists of a daily dose of thyroxine, available as a small tablet. The generic name is levothyroxine, and several brands are available. Commonly used brands in North America are Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid, and Levothroid. The tablet is crushed and given to the infant with a small amount of water or milk. The most commonly recommended dose range is 10-15 μg/kg daily, typically 37.5 or 44 μg.[4] Within a few weeks, the T4 and TSH levels are rechecked to confirm that they are being normalized by treatment. As the child grows up, these levels are checked regularly to maintain the right dose. The dose increases as the child grows.
Symptoms
Infants born with congenital hypothyroidism may show no effects, or may display mild effects that often go unrecognized as a problem:excessive sleeping, reduced interest in nursing, poor muscle tone, low or hoarse cry, infrequent bowel movements, exaggeratedjaundice, and low body temperature. If fetal deficiency was severe because of complete absence (athyreosis) of the gland, physical features may include a larger anterior fontanel, persistence of a posterior fontanel, an umbilical hernia, and a large tongue (macroglossia).
In the era before newborn screening, less than half of cases of severe hypothyroidism were recognized in the first month of life. As the months proceeded, these infants would grow poorly and be delayed in their development. By several years of age, they would display the recognizable facial and body features of cretinism. Persistence of severe, untreated hypothyroidism resulted in severe mental impairment, with an IQ below 80 in the majority. Most of these children eventually ended up in institutional care.
Prognosis
Most children born with congenital hypothyroidism and correctly treated with thyroxine grow and develop normally in all respects. Even most of those with athyreosis and undetectable T4 levels at birth develop with normal intelligence, although as a population academic performance tends to be below that of siblings and mild learning problems occur in some.
Congenital hypothyroidism is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Few treatments in the practice of medicine provide as large a benefit for as small an effort.
Congenital hypothyroidism - - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Classification and external resources
6 week old female with symptoms of jaundice due to hypothyrodism. This patient was treated with supplemental thyroid hormonal therapy, and appeared to be a normal healthy child at 1 year of age.
Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a condition of thyroid hormone deficiency present at birth. Approximately 1 in 4000 newborn infants has a severe deficiency of thyroid function, while even more have mild or partial degrees. If untreated for several months after birth, severe congenital hypothyroidism can lead to growth failure and permanent mental retardation. Treatment consists of a daily dose of thyroid hormone (thyroxine) by mouth. Because the treatment is simple, effective, and inexpensive, nearly all of the developed world practices newborn screening to detect and treatcongenital hypothyroidism in the first weeks of life.
Contents
Etiology = (synonym: aetiology
- The cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition.
- The causation of diseases and disorders as a subject of investigation.
______________
Around the world, the most common cause of congenital hypothyroidism is iodine deficiency, but in most of the developed world and areas of adequate environmental iodine, cases are due to a combination of known and unknown causes. Most commonly there is a defect of development of the thyroid gland itself, resulting in an absent (athyreosis) or underdeveloped (hypoplastic) gland. A hypoplastic gland may develop higher in the neck or even in the back of the tongue. A gland in the wrong place is referred to as ectopic, and an ectopic gland at the base or back of the tongue is a lingual thyroid. Some of these cases of developmentally abnormal glands result from genetic defects, and some are "sporadic," with no identifiable cause. One Japanese study found a statistical correlation between certain organochlorine insecticides and dioxin-like chemicals in the milk of mothers who had given birth to infants with congenital hypothyroidism.
In some instances, hypothyroidism detected by screening may be transient. One common cause of this is the presence of maternal antibodies that temporarily impair thyroid function for several weeks.
Cretinism is an old term for the state of mental and physical retardation resulting from untreated congenital hypothyroidism, usually due to iodine deficiency from birth because of low iodine levels in the soil and local food sources. The term, like so many other 19th century medical terms, acquired pejorative connotations as it became used in lay speech. It is now rarely used by physicians.
Genetic
Congenital hypothyroidism can also occur due to genetic defects of thyroxine or triiodothyronine synthesis within a structurally normal gland. Among specific defects are thyrotropin (TSH) resistance, iodine trapping defect, organification defect, thyroglobulin, and iodotyrosine deiodinase deficiency. In a small proportion of cases of congenital hypothyroidism, the defect is due to a deficiency of thyroid stimulating hormone, either isolated or as part of congenital hypopituitarism.
Genetic types of nongoitrous congenital hypothyroidism include:
Nongoitrous congenital hypothyroidism has been described as the "most prevalent inborn endocrine disorder".
Diagnostic evaluation
In the developed world, nearly all cases of congenital hypothyroidism are detected by the newborn screening program. These are based on measurement of TSH or thyroxine (T4) on the second or third day of life. If the TSH is high, or the T4 low, the infant's doctor and parents are called and a referral to a pediatric endocrinologist is recommended to confirm the diagnosis and initiate treatment. Often atechnetium (Tc-99m pertechnetate) thyroid scan is performed to detect a structurally abnormal gland. A radioactive iodine (RAIU) exam will help differentiate congenital absence or a defect in organification (a process necessary to make thyroid hormone).
Recent
Researchers have discovered that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has had far-reaching health effects more drastic than previously thought: young children born on the US West Coast are 28 percent more likely to develop congenital hypothyroidism.
In examining post-Fukushima conditions along the West Coast, researchers found American-born children to be developing similar conditions that some Europeans acquired after the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
"Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the US, and was especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation," researchers from the New York-based Radiation and Health Project wrote in a study published by the Open Journal of Pediatrics.http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=28599
Treatment
The goal of newborn screening programs is to detect and start treatment within the first 1-2 weeks of life. Treatment consists of a daily dose of thyroxine, available as a small tablet. The generic name is levothyroxine, and several brands are available. Commonly used brands in North America are Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid, and Levothroid. The tablet is crushed and given to the infant with a small amount of water or milk. The most commonly recommended dose range is 10-15 μg/kg daily, typically 37.5 or 44 μg.[4] Within a few weeks, the T4 and TSH levels are rechecked to confirm that they are being normalized by treatment. As the child grows up, these levels are checked regularly to maintain the right dose. The dose increases as the child grows.
Symptoms
Infants born with congenital hypothyroidism may show no effects, or may display mild effects that often go unrecognized as a problem:excessive sleeping, reduced interest in nursing, poor muscle tone, low or hoarse cry, infrequent bowel movements, exaggeratedjaundice, and low body temperature. If fetal deficiency was severe because of complete absence (athyreosis) of the gland, physical features may include a larger anterior fontanel, persistence of a posterior fontanel, an umbilical hernia, and a large tongue (macroglossia).
In the era before newborn screening, less than half of cases of severe hypothyroidism were recognized in the first month of life. As the months proceeded, these infants would grow poorly and be delayed in their development. By several years of age, they would display the recognizable facial and body features of cretinism. Persistence of severe, untreated hypothyroidism resulted in severe mental impairment, with an IQ below 80 in the majority. Most of these children eventually ended up in institutional care.
Prognosis
Most children born with congenital hypothyroidism and correctly treated with thyroxine grow and develop normally in all respects. Even most of those with athyreosis and undetectable T4 levels at birth develop with normal intelligence, although as a population academic performance tends to be below that of siblings and mild learning problems occur in some.[5]
Congenital hypothyroidism is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Few treatments in the practice of medicine provide as large a benefit for as small an effort.
- Congenital hypothyroidism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_hypothyroidism
Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a condition of thyroid hormone deficiency present at birth. Approximately 1 in 4000 newborn infants has a severe deficiency ...
Etiology - Diagnostic evaluation - Treatment - Symptoms
Congenital hypothyroidism - Genetics Home Reference
ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition=congenitalhypothyroidism
Congenital hypothyroidism is a condition that affects infants from birth (congenital) and results from a partial or complete loss of thyroid function (hypothyroidism).
Neonatal hypothyroidism: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001193.htm
If the baby was born with the condition, it is called congenital hypothyroidism. If it develops soon after birth, it is called hypothyroidism acquired in the newborn ...
CH (Congenital Hypothyroidism) - NEWBORN SCREENING
www.newbornscreening.info/Parents/otherdisorders/CH.html
Dec 12, 2012 - This fact sheet contains general information about congenital hypothyroidism (CH). Every child is different and some of these facts may not ...
Newborn Screening Program - Congenital Hypothyroidism
www.idph.state.il.us/HealthWellness/fs/congenitalhypo.htm
Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) occurs when infants are unable to produce sufficient amounts of thyroid hormone (thyroxine, or T4), which is necessary for ... (1) Click green for further info (2) Source: U.S. CDC - Centers for Disease Control & Prevention _________________________________________________________________________________
Little Girl's Best Friend Is A Skunk
An incredibly shy girl named Harriet Cooper in Kent, England has come out of her shell after becoming best friends with a skunk named Humbug. Harriet’s parents are animal handlers who run a petting zoo that tours local schools.
One morning, Humbug was trying to claw Harriet’s mother, Maria. Out of nowhere, Harriet scooped Humbug into her arms and started petting him, which calmed the skunk down. Harriet and Humbug have been best friends ever since. Harriet walks Humbug on a special leash and Humbug even sleeps in Harriet’s bed. Her mother Maria thinks that Harriet has lavished so much attention on Humbug that the skunk believes he’s a cat. It's adorable.
But the love relationship between Harriet and her skunk has absolutely opened Harriet and she is no shy any longer.
Comment from the public:
(1) Growing up I had a skunk for a pet. He was my best friend. We cuddled and played. He ate cat food and used a litter box. Once domesticated they act and think very much like cats.
(2) I had a skunk for a pet as a young girl ---wonderful little guy and they are smart can potty train them like a cat, will eat a lot of different things and they like to snuggle
(3) "Mommy I'm hungry" said the Sudanese child who hadn't eaten in days. "Shhhh I'm watching this video about a girl who has a skunk as a pet!!" Said the Mother.
STAF, Inc. is not suggesting to have a skunk as a pet - this is to place and interesting story to enjoy
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Important article - study & apply
20-year Study with 45 K people
Quotation "Knowledge is no power - only applied knowledge is power"
(Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc. President)
Quotation "To stay healthy is to eat what your body wants, not what you want"
(Dr. Christian, STAF, Inc. President)
Low Heart Disease Risk for Vegetarians
Going meatless gives vegetarians a 32 percent lower heart disease risk than non-vegetarians, a British study found, offering further proof that eating meat can be hazardous to health. Processed meat is even more deadly.
The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involved 44,561 people enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Oxford Study, which began in England and Scotland in 1993. Researchers sought to compare a range of diets and their impact on overall health, and 34 percent of all participants were vegetarians.
"It's a very good study," said Dr. William Abraham, who directs the division of cardiovascular medicine at Ohio State University, noting the large proportion of vegetarians. "It's further evidence that vegetarian diets are associated with a lesser risk of developing ischemic*) heart disease or coronary**) artery disease."
*) ischemic heart disease = due to an abnormality of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart - Both high blood pressure and high cholesterol are known risk factors for ischemic heart disease because they constrict the blood vessels and cut off blood supply to the heart.
**) coronary heart disease = Heart disease is a result of plaque buildup in your coronary arteries -- a condition called atherosclerosis -- that leads to blockages. The arteries, which start out smooth and elastic, become narrow and rigid, restricting blood flow to the heart. The heart becomes starved of oxygen and the vital nutrients it needs to pump properly.
Click green here to read the ABC's of heart health.
He and Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist at St. John Providence Health System in Michigan, agreed it's not about what's in the vegetarian diet that makes it so heart healthy - it's about what the vegetarian diet leaves out: saturated fat and sodium.
"Saturated fat is the single greatest dietary factor in the production of cholesterol," McCollough said, adding that people assume dietary cholesterol increases cholesterol levels though it's not true. "Sodium intake is the single greatest dietary determinant of blood pressure." HBP/hbp = high blood pressure
Both high blood pressure and high cholesterol are known risk factors for ischemic heart disease because they constrict the blood vessels and cut off blood supply to the heart.
Abraham said he occasionally prescribes a vegetarian diet to patients who have already had heart attacks - but this study might persuade him to prescribe them preventively to patients with heart disease risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
McCollough, on the other hand, has never prescribed a vegetarian diet and said limiting sodium and saturated fats can be done by picking the right meats, controlling portion sizes and avoiding what he calls the three s-es: sugars, starches and saturated fats. He said the healthiest protein to eat is fish and the least healthy is beef. Behind fish, beans and nuts are the best way to get protein, he said.
Vegetarianism isn't always the answer because even vegetarians can eat too many sugars, one of the three-s categories, he said. For example, he added, vegetarians eat more cheese than non-vegetarians and, although it has some protein, about 60 percent of cheese is saturated fat.
Other studies have examined how (click green) daily servings of red meat can lead to early death and how processed meat can lead to heart disease and diabetes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 2 million heart attacks and stroke a year in the United States, and about 800,000 deaths from heart disease.
Source:
(1) The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
(2) European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Oxford Study
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In STAF, Inc.'s scale 1 - 10 this article is 10 - 3 i's: inspiring - important - info
Study: Americans Waste 40 Percent of Their Food
Click the green for further information
Americans throw away as much as 40 percent of their food per year; the equivalent of around $165 billion, according to a study released by NRDC (see below). Worldwide the number is about 30 %.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental advocacy group, said in its study that the average American family of four throws away the equivalent of $2,275 annually in food.
The study also found that in American landfills, food is the single largest component, while there has been a 50 percent increase in U.S. food waste since the 1970s.
The NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council noted that if there were only a 15 percent reduction in the amount of food thrown away, then there would be enough to feed approximately 25 million Americans per year.
“As a country, we’re essentially tossing every other piece of food that crosses our path—that’s money and precious resources down the drain,” said Dana Gunders with the NRDC in a press release.
With drought affecting much of the country as well as corn and soybean crops, “now is the time to embrace all the tremendous untapped opportunities to get more out of our food system,” she added. “We can do better.”
Related Articles
- Waste Not, Want Not (click)
- Optimizing the City’s Food System: Panel (click)
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter. (click)
URL to article: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/study-americans-waste-40-percent-of-their-food-282374.html
This is for your private use, only
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Summertime And The Living Is Itchy
The question:
Why does this rash itch so much and what can I do about it?
Summer is a season of itching. Poison plants, allergies, sunburn, insect bites, scabies and mysterious rashes are all potential sources of pruritus, the medical term for the sensation of an itch that needs scratching.
The skin releases inflammatory chemicals, including histamine, in response to contact or exposure to substances that cause allergic reactions or injury to the skin. This stimulates the dilation of blood vessels and resulting localized redness and swelling associated with rashes and itching. People who have baseline high circulating levels of histamine often get rashes merely from scratching their skin or being exposed to heat.
The general symptomatic treatment for all itching includes over-the-counter antihistamines (like Benadryl), topical creams containing hydrocortisone and avoiding exposure to heat. Prescription steroids may be administered by your physician for worsening or severe allergic reactions. Hot showers will make itching worse if you are already feeling prickly.
Some of the most common summertime causes of itching for which there are specific remedies include:
Poison plants
Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac are found locally in parks, wooded areas and backyards. When the skin comes in contact with resin from the leaves of these plants, collectively called toxicodendrons, the skin erupts in a red-based rash of small blister-like bumps that are very itchy. Prevention is the best medicine, so if you are going to be outdoors gardening, hiking, or camping, take care to identify these plants beforehand, and wear clothing that keeps your arms and legs covered. Wear gloves if you are pulling out weeds. If you become exposed, wash all skin surfaces and under your fingernails thoroughly with soap and water, as the toxin is not contagious, but may spread between body parts. Treatment involves washing, antihistamines and possibly steroid creams or oral systemic steroid pills prescribed by your doctor. Also, make sure to wash your pets, clothing and shoes, as you can be re-exposed after you leave the great outdoors.
Insect bites
Mosquitoes, fleas, chiggers, bedbugs, lice and scabies are common itchy nuisances. The general treatment of the itching itself is largely the same — antihistamines, and topical hydrocortisone cream. If there is any doubt about the source of the itching, or if after treatment of the symptoms things get worse, visit to your primary care doctor or dermatologist. He or she can best identify a potentially contagious parasite (scabies or lice), bedbugs or an infected bite that requires a prescription for antibiotics.
Ticks
Ticks are the vectors for transmission of a number of infectious illnesses, including Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Erlichiosis*), to name a few. A small itch on your leg or neck after being outdoors in a suburban backyard or golf course may reveal a tick embedded in your skin. If the tick doesn’t come off easily when grasped with a tweezers, cover it with Vaseline and try again in an hour. This smothers the tick and may release its grip. If this doesn’t work see a health care professional, as identification of the tick, as well as preventive treatment for Lyme Disease, may be indicated.
*) Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial illness transmitted by ticks that causes flu-like symptoms. The signs and symptoms of ehrlichiosis range from mild body aches to severe fever and usually appear within a week or two of a tick bite. If treated quickly with appropriate antibiotics, ehrlichiosis generally improves within a few days, Another tick-borne infection — anaplasmosis — is closely related to ehrlichiosis. But the two have distinct differences and are caused by different microorganisms. The best way to prevent these infections is to avoid tick bites. Tick repellents, thorough body checks after being outside and proper removal of ticks give you the best chance of avoiding ehrlichiosis.
Word source: New Latin, from Ehrlichia, bacteria genus, from Paul Ehrlich - First Known Use: 1965
RELATED ARTICLES
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The web provider, weebly.com, is working on this page and on this whole website to find out the reason for the technical malfunctioning.
The orderly, original set up for article topics, lines and additional links with the complete texts is not holding.
The lines are jumping unevenly, changing the font size and boldness is changing by itself after the website work. All is fine when STAF, Inc.'s editors save & publish the new information. When next time starting to work on the editing and placing new material, the pages appear badly messed up - it happens after STAF, Inc.'s editors exit the whole website.
H0wever, all information stays in this extensive website is available in full in every page and for every article.
STAF, Inc. is sorry for the inconvenience - the web provider will repair this technical malfunctioning.
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Save The American Family - STAF, Inc.,-not-for-profit- __________________________________________
The question:
Why does this rash itch so much and what can I do about it?
Summer is a season of itching. Poison plants, allergies, sunburn, insect bites, scabies and mysterious rashes are all potential sources of pruritus, the medical term for the sensation of an itch that needs scratching.
The skin releases inflammatory chemicals, including histamine, in response to contact or exposure to substances that cause allergic reactions or injury to the skin. This stimulates the dilation of blood vessels and resulting localized redness and swelling associated with rashes and itching. People who have baseline high circulating levels of histamine often get rashes merely from scratching their skin or being exposed to heat.
The general symptomatic treatment for all itching includes over-the-counter antihistamines (like Benadryl), topical creams containing hydrocortisone and avoiding exposure to heat. Prescription steroids may be administered by your physician for worsening or severe allergic reactions. Hot showers will make itching worse if you are already feeling prickly.
Some of the most common summertime causes of itching for which there are specific remedies include:
Poison plants
Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac are found locally in parks, wooded areas and backyards. When the skin comes in contact with resin from the leaves of these plants, collectively called toxicodendrons, the skin erupts in a red-based rash of small blister-like bumps that are very itchy. Prevention is the best medicine, so if you are going to be outdoors gardening, hiking, or camping, take care to identify these plants beforehand, and wear clothing that keeps your arms and legs covered. Wear gloves if you are pulling out weeds. If you become exposed, wash all skin surfaces and under your fingernails thoroughly with soap and water, as the toxin is not contagious, but may spread between body parts. Treatment involves washing, antihistamines and possibly steroid creams or oral systemic steroid pills prescribed by your doctor. Also, make sure to wash your pets, clothing and shoes, as you can be re-exposed after you leave the great outdoors.
Insect bites
Mosquitoes, fleas, chiggers, bedbugs, lice and scabies are common itchy nuisances. The general treatment of the itching itself is largely the same — antihistamines, and topical hydrocortisone cream. If there is any doubt about the source of the itching, or if after treatment of the symptoms things get worse, visit to your primary care doctor or dermatologist. He or she can best identify a potentially contagious parasite (scabies or lice), bedbugs or an infected bite that requires a prescription for antibiotics.
Ticks
Ticks are the vectors for transmission of a number of infectious illnesses, including Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Erlichiosis*), to name a few. A small itch on your leg or neck after being outdoors in a suburban backyard or golf course may reveal a tick embedded in your skin. If the tick doesn’t come off easily when grasped with a tweezers, cover it with Vaseline and try again in an hour. This smothers the tick and may release its grip. If this doesn’t work see a health care professional, as identification of the tick, as well as preventive treatment for Lyme Disease, may be indicated.
*) Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial illness transmitted by ticks that causes flu-like symptoms. The signs and symptoms of ehrlichiosis range from mild body aches to severe fever and usually appear within a week or two of a tick bite. If treated quickly with appropriate antibiotics, ehrlichiosis generally improves within a few days, Another tick-borne infection — anaplasmosis — is closely related to ehrlichiosis. But the two have distinct differences and are caused by different microorganisms. The best way to prevent these infections is to avoid tick bites. Tick repellents, thorough body checks after being outside and proper removal of ticks give you the best chance of avoiding ehrlichiosis.
Word source: New Latin, from Ehrlichia, bacteria genus, from Paul Ehrlich - First Known Use: 1965
RELATED ARTICLES
- Want a perfect night's Sleep? Check out these 13 tips
- Energy drinks no more powerful than caffeine, study suggests - energy drinks are dangerous - do not use them
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NOTICE: Important info for every web visitor
The web provider, weebly.com, is working on this page and on this whole website to find out the reason for the technical malfunctioning.
The orderly, original set up for article topics, lines and additional links with the complete texts is not holding.
The lines are jumping unevenly, changing the font size and boldness is changing by itself after the website work. All is fine when STAF, Inc.'s editors save & publish the new information. When next time starting to work on the editing and placing new material, the pages appear badly messed up - it happens after STAF, Inc.'s editors exit the whole website.
H0wever, all information stays in this extensive website is available in full in every page and for every article.
STAF, Inc. is sorry for the inconvenience - the web provider will repair this technical malfunctioning.
All material in this website is being used in College & University education for every degree level. Despite the "jumping lines & other technical difficulties", you will and every web visitor still will get the high level science information.
Save The American Family - STAF, Inc.,-not-for-profit- __________________________________________
_________ The End _______ .
LEGAL WARNING: In this website and in its Radio & TV Shows Save The American Family - STAF, Inc. -not-for-profit- publishes the opinions of leading authorities in many fields. But the use of these opinions is no substitute for legal, accounting, investment, medical and other professional services to suit your specific personal needs. Always consult a competent professional for answers to your specific questions.
LEGAL WARNING: In this website and in its Radio & TV Shows Save The American Family - STAF, Inc. -not-for-profit- publishes the opinions of leading authorities in many fields. But the use of these opinions is no substitute for legal, accounting, investment, medical and other professional services to suit your specific personal needs. Always consult a competent professional for answers to your specific questions.