Health Food Market Selections

Many people are so thrilled about the health food selections that they find through online health food markets that they shop online and purchase several people gift baskets that are filled with marvelous things that are not only good for them but very tasty indeed. The health food market online is always clean and shoppers never have to worry about items being sold out after they leave home.

Many health food market selections will be typical stable food selections that every home keeps on hand through most of the year. Healthy food items like beans, lentils and peas have a long shelf life and families like knowing that these items are within easy reach when they have meals to prepare. Eating healthy does not cost a lot more than regular food items found in a local grocery store but the health benefits they offer make the slight increase well worth the effort.

Some health food markets specialize in stocking healthy foods with an Asian culture attached to them. This gives creative cooks many opportunities to prepare Chinese specialties without worrying about all the amount of fat content that they might be cooked in. Some of the Asian health food offerings will create magnificent breakfast dishes like buckwheat pancakes, or side dishes that are prepared with Asian brown rice.

The heath food market selections for preserves will give families the opportunity to keep a wide assortment of fruits on hand that they know will be good for them. The variety might include organic apple butter, or an apricot fruit spread. Some families get adventurous and add passion fruit, mango or blood orange to their fruit preserve stock piles. All of these delightful fruits can be used as toppings for desserts or make whole wheat pancakes truly flavorful.

While at the health food market, parents might want to restock the sweeteners that they use in their favorite beverages. While they are added they can select from a wide selection of health food coffees that are organically grown and very delectable. They might want to stock up on party items too and add olives and pasta to the list. Guests always enjoy heath food salads that are made from the finest ingredients.

The best reason to shop at health food stores online is the free shipping that is offered with many purchases. This will give homemakers access to a health food shopping resource that they can shop at in the convenience of their own home and do not have to leave the house to pick up the order they place. They know when their food is delivered because a large delivery van will arrive at their house their next day.

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When Your Doctor Says Quit Smoking Cigarettes

Have you gone to see your doctor only to have him ask you if you smoke and then have him tell you that you need to quit? Most of your doctors these days do this each and every time you go to see them. They all tell you that you need to quit, but sometimes they do not tell you how hard it might be to do. Even some doctors smoke themselves. How can they expect you to quit easily if they can not even quit themselves?

If this has happened to you there might be a way you can follow your doctors advice without those patches and that gum that he will probably try to push on you. It is called a mini, electronic cigarette, smokeless cigarettes, or the e-cigarettes. They are all one and the same. It is a device to get you away from the tobacco of a real cigarette. This will do what it says as it has no tobacco in it. You do not have all of those nasty chemicals that the tobacco companies put on the tobacco. These chemicals are added to the tobacco leaves before they are dried with some added while they are drying.

This e-cigarette is a small battery that has a small flow censor that the filter sits on. This flow censor or atomizer turns a small amount of liquid nicotine into a vapor which you exhale. As you puff on your e-cigarette you get your hit of nicotine faster then you would if you were smoking a real cigarette. You do not have to light this and since there is no tobacco you will not be sending out any secondhand smoke for those people in the room to receive. The vapor you send will not even be received by that person standing next to you.

You put this mini in your shirt pocket or even flat in your lunch pail. It must be as flat as possible and all you will have to do is put it to your mouth and take a puff. You will have no ashes to flick and no butts to throw or drop. So there you will not have the need for that lighter or an ashtray. The electric cigarette is cheaper than using tobacco cigarettes. If you want to stop smoking tobacco, you might want to try this product as an alternative to still get the nicotine you crave.

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Internet Can Prevent senile.

This is good news for the netters and bloggers normally as well as for the aged (aged) in particular.

Resulting from access the Internet, we can not solely find information but to surf on this digital world, may help to enhance and practice brain functions.

And this, especially for the elderly, to forestall senility (dementia), which regularly threatens the elderly, as a result of with the Web access means we've carried out or contain the mind in an activity that is quite difficult in order that mind function can still be maintained.

By surfing the Internet, supposing we like reading a e book, in order that a part of the mind that capabilities to control language, control reminiscence and visual assets will go to work, even including an extra activity for the mind is to regulate the decisions and considerations.

This is what distinguishes it from studying, because when we surf the web then we will probably be confronted with varied decisions of knowledge that ought to we choose or we click on, with a choice to be made this is the activity of the brain for making decisions and issues will proceed to be sharpened.

Properly, if the aged are often searching for information on the Internet will inhibit a variety of growing older on the brain, similar to reduction or shrinkage of the brain cell exercise and this can make dad and mom preserve his memory fresh.

There are additionally several other activities that allegedly may also forestall dementia / senility that's taking part in a puzzle, enjoying music, playing chess and in addition be assisted by sustaining a diet with balanced vitamin and don't forget it's with common exercise.

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Prevent Diabetes with Milk

Are you get diabetes? Recent research has suggested that we should consume dairy products with low fat content, such as smoothies made with low fat yogurt. But do not also forget to equip it with regular exercise.

This conclusion is derived from the 10-year study of 3,000 respondents. They were then divided into 2 groups. First is the group who consumed various types of dairy products and the second group did not consume dairy at all. As a result, the first group have insulin resistance 70 percent lower.

What is insulin resistance? Insulin resistance is a condition in which decreased insulin sensitivity and makes our blood sugar levels are not balanced or excess blood sugar. General obesity or obesity, marked by increasing insulin resistance.

"All content in milk, such as lactose, protein, and fat has the potential to increase the sugar content," said Mark A. Pereira, PhD, one of the researchers from Harvard Medical School. But the milk sugar (lactose) is converted into blood sugar is processed more slowly, so it is good to control blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels.

Protein in milk helps keep our immune. While the fat content will make us also feel satisfied. Enjoy also the other nutrients from dairy products are also useful, such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

Let's fight diabetes by:
1. Consume 2 servings of low-fat milk every day. Each portion will be cut resistance insuli excess up to 20%.

2. Do exchange. Choose dairy products, snacks instead of high carbohydrate and low in fiber, such as soft drinks, candy, or fast food.

3. Accompany the milk with fruit, vegetables and whole grains. We can add fresh fruit pieces in yogurt for breakfast. Or low-fat cheese melted on whole wheat bread.

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Most cancers Screening

The sooner a cancer is detected, the better the possibilities for recovery. Unfortunately, detection of cancer just isn't easy as a result of the illness is commonly asymptomatic until it reaches a complicated stage. Fortunately, scientists managed to conduct screening approach to study the jellyfish.

As it's recognized, the jellyfish might glow in the dark waters thanks to a particular protein in these marine animals. Properly, cell protein that can remove this gentle and attempt to learn and used to mark the tumor contained in the human body.

Cancer cells within the human body fairly troublesome to detect at an early stage. In fact, X-ray know-how troublesome to penetrate deep into tissues, especially bone, so the diagnosis of bone cancer who are microscopic quite impossible.

Scientists from the British research the protein in jellyfish that can glow. "What we do is to enter cell jellyfish protein into human cancer cells," said Professor Norman Maitland.

With a special camera, the protein appeared to glow when interacting with normal cells so it can be found in tumor cells the place hiding. This method was developed from research carried out by U.S. scientist Roger Tsien, who received the Nobel Prize as a result of it managed to purify the protein that makes the jellyfish glow.

Research conducted Maitland is to make use of a virus that's harmless and is set solely to carry proteins into the tumor. Once the virus is multiplying, the protein will possible be increasingly colored. "Once the digicam is turned on, the protein will expand so that we see the placement of the most cancers cells. We name this methodology Virimaging," he explained.

He added that it has the flexibility Virimaging 10 instances higher than CT scans in detecting tumors. Nonetheless, this screening technique research remains to be in its early stages so cannot be utilized to the patient. Let's wait one other 5 years.

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Canon's hi-tech retina photography

From the front, Canon’s latest retina-imaging camera looks every inch the hi-tech hospital machine. But look past the small, curved shelf where you rest your chin and you’ll notice that the operator is pressing the shutter of what looks suspiciously like a very standard, digital SLR camera.

These machines take images of the back of the inside of your eye and are used to diagnose conditions such as glaucoma. The retina is also the only place in the human body where blood vessels can be directly observed so detailed pictures can also help doctors spot the early signs of diabetes and hypertension. A very clear, high resolution image is essential so that doctors can detect the exact formation of blood vessels and tissues in an area just a few millimeters wide.

In fact, the camera in these retina imaging machines is a Canon EOS 50D, a consumer camera that you can buy for about £800. This camera has a 15.1 megapixel sensor, and so produces pictures that have a perfectly high enough resolution to show the required details. EOS cameras also have a well-balanced system of lenses, mirrors and filters making them an excellent starting point for very specialised cameras.

So could you take the 50D off the back of the retina imaging machine, attach a lens and start taking pictures? Well in theory you could, explained the operator who photographed my retina at Canon’s expo show last week. “Except you’d end up with really rubbish pictures.”

The EOS sensor has been specially adapted and the infrared cut-off filter found in many photographic sensors has been removed. The resulting camera can handle multiple kinds of retina imaging, including in a high quality infra red observation mode, color fundus photography, and digital filtered images for red-free and cobalt photography. Without this infrared cut-off filter, however, the sensor would struggle in normal light conditions so I wouldn’t recommend trying to smuggle this camera home if you ever have your retina photographed.

We’re fairly used to the idea that specialised technology sometimes filters down into every day objects; NASA's inventions - from cordless power tools to the design for shock-absorbing trainers - turn up all over the place.

What is more remarkable is the idea that consumer products are now sophisticated enough to send technology back in the other direction so that one man’s relatively standard digital camera becomes another man’s hi-tech machine.

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Statin drugs may lower colon cancer risk: study

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:41pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Statin drugs may lower the risk of colon cancer by as much as 12 percent, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The longer people took the highly popular cholesterol-lowering pills, the lower their risk of later developing colon cancer, the researchers told a meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Many researchers have found that statin drugs, which include Pfizer Inc's Lipitor and AstraZeneca Plc's Crestor, have effects far beyond lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart disease.

"Observational studies have suggested that long-term use of statins is associated with reduced risk of several cancers, including breast, prostate, lung, pancreas and liver," said Dr. Jewel Samadder of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who led the study.

"Our findings suggest that randomized controlled trials designed to test the hypothesis that statins reduce the risk of colorectal cancer are warranted," Samadder added in a statement.

Samadder's team did what is known as a meta-analysis, combining the findings of 22 scientific studies with more than 2.5 million volunteers.

Overall, patients who took statins had a 12 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with colon cancer than people who did not take the drugs, they found.

Statins are not risk-free. In May, British researchers reported that patients taking them have a higher risks of liver dysfunction, kidney failure, muscle weakness and cataracts.

And U.S. health officials have been watching data that suggests some statins such as Merck & Co's blockbuster drug Vytorin may actually raise the risk of cancer, although they have saidf this is unlikely.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

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First decision on healthcare reform lawsuit before Jan: Judge

By Lisa Lambert

RICHMOND | Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:19pm EDT

RICHMOND (Reuters) - The first important decision in U.S. state lawsuits over federal healthcare reform will be announced in the next few months, a federal judge told a hearing on Monday.

The case involves arguments over government power, taxes, and if President Barack Obama mislead the American public.

Judge Henry Hudson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Richmond said he would reach a decision "by the end of the year" in the lawsuit Virginia filed over part of the health system overhaul that requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay a federal fine.

Virginia is suing because it passed its own law before the reform plan was approved prohibiting the U.S. government from compelling a citizen to buy insurance. Both the state and the U.S. government plan to appeal if Hudson's decision is not in their favor.

"This court is just one brief stop on the way to the Supreme Court," Hudson said.

During the hearing, the sides squared off on the Commerce Clause, a part of the U.S. Constitution allowing the federal government to regulate commerce among the states.

Virginia contends the federal government cannot regulate someone not buying a good or service under the clause. The U.S. government says everyone will some day participate in the healthcare market.

Under the U.S. government's "strained and extreme," position, "no one can opt out of the food market or clothing or shelter," said Virginia Solicitor General Duncan Getchell.

By buying health insurance, people essentially pay for services they will use in the future, said U.S. Department of Justice Department attorney Ian Gershengorn. The alternative is to charge people each time they see doctors, and refuse them if they cannot pay.

In recent weeks, as a similar lawsuit involving 20 states has advanced in Florida, arguments have shifted from the Commerce Clause to the fine those without insurance must pay. The states say it is a punitive fine, while the federal government says it is a tax that it is entitled to levy.

This is of particular concern because Obama had said it would not function as a tax.

"Why did the members of Congress and the President deny to everyone in America it was a tax?" Hudson asked Gershengorn.

"They denied it's a tax. The President did. Was he trying to deceive the people?" Hudson added.

Despite the lawsuit, Virginia will proceed with carrying out the many parts of the reform plan entrusted to the states because of the swift succession of deadlines for putting them in place, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli told reporters.

Hudson could decide only to nullify the individual health insurance mandate and allow the rest of the law to stand. He will have to assess whether Congress would have passed the law without the provision, with little guidance on how to measure such a complicated piece of legislation.

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Surgery on the wrong patient? It's still a problem

By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:15pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study from Colorado shows surgery on the wrong body part, or even the wrong patient, is still a problem.

Insurance records show that among some 27,000 adverse events reported by doctors, there were 107 cases of procedures done on the wrong part of a patient's body and 25 done on the wrong patient.

"It is a major preventable problem," said Dr. Martin A. Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who was not involved in the study.

He estimates about one in 75,000 operations go wrong every year in the US -- sometimes with fatal consequences, as in the case of one patient in the new report who died following surgery on the wrong lung.

"In the world of the health care system it ranks low compared to other harms," said Makary, "but it ranks high in terms of preventable harms."

The researchers, led by Dr. Philip Stahel of the University of Colorado in Denver, found significant harm in 43 cases out of 132. Communication errors were involved in all the patient mix-ups; for wrong-site surgery, errors in clinical judgment and lack of a short briefing session before the procedure were the main culprits.

That's despite the widespread use of a protocol to ensure such briefings -- called time-outs -- and making sure that doctors are dealing with the right patients.

"It is not as simple as adopting a checklist, it requires a change of culture," said Makary, adding that operating staff used to be afraid to speak up when they perceived an error.

"There is a very strong hierarchy in the operating room," he told Reuters Health. "Orders are passed on in telegraphic manner. You don't see anyone's face. It is known to be a very intimidating environment."

"We do encourage patients to ask their team to have a briefing discussion before their surgery," said Makary. And they might even want to mark the body part where they are going to have surgery with a permanent marker, he added.

SOURCE: link.reuters.com/qag98p Archives of Surgery, October 18, 2010.

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So, what's in a placebo, anyway?

By Lynne Peeples

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:18pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite carrying monikers like 'fake' or 'dummy' or 'sham,' some placebo pills may be potent enough to taint medical research results, hints a new review of more than 150 clinical trials.

This time researchers aren't just talking about a 'placebo effect' on the mind, but rather physiological effects of the pills' constituents on the body. What's more, they found that less than one out of every 10 studies published in four top medical journals actually divulged what ingredients were used in placebo pills.

"We've been trained to associate placebos with being inert," lead researcher Dr. Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego, told Reuters Health. "But there isn't evidence that anything is truly physiologically inert."

"This really does question the primary foundation on which medical care is based," added Golomb.

A standard method used to deduce whether or not an experimental drug is effective is to compare it to one that looks, smells and tastes the same yet lacks active ingredients: a placebo. By keeping patients unaware of which pill they consume, a research team can learn if the differences in observed outcomes are due to the medication itself or simply the power of suggestion.

At least that's the ideal. However, in looking at older studies of heart disease, Golomb noticed that placebos often consisted of things like olive or corn oil, which are now known to lower cholesterol levels -- potentially diluting the experimental treatment's perceived benefits.

Some earlier clinical trials of cancer and HIV treatments, she found, used placebo pills composed of lactose sugar and found relatively few gastrointestinal problems in the experimental group: AIDS and cancer patients can be at an increased risk for lactose intolerance.

And these were just the rare studies that included the recipe. Further, she noted that the company producing the experimental drug often supplies the study placebo as well.

"This led me to wonder," said Golomb. "What rules are there about what goes into placebos?"

She contacted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and learned that, in fact, there were no rules.

So Golomb and her colleagues decided to dig deeper. They reviewed 167 placebo-controlled trials published in highly respected medical journals in 2008 and 2009 and found that placebo components were very rarely described.

Only about 8 percent of the trials shared the contents of the pills. Studies were a little more open regarding placebo injections and other treatments with about one in every four divulging the information, report the researchers in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We can only hope that this hasn't seriously systematically affected medical treatment," noted Golomb.

But she and her team suggest that it is a very real possibility, with potentially serious consequences. "An ineffective treatment might appear effective, or an effective treatment might appear ineffective in trials," senior researcher Jeremy Howick of the University of Oxford, in England, told Reuters Health in an email. "This is obviously harmful for public health since it could lead to use and payment for ineffective treatments, or failure to recognize effective ones."

"Placebos are best viewed as treatments in their own right," he added.

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Musty odor sparks another Tylenol recall

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:38pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A moldy odor has again stricken Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol, and the company is recalling another lot of the over-the-counter painkiller.

J&J, which has recalled tens of millions of bottles of Tylenol and other consumer medicines in the past year because of complaints of a musty or moldy odor in the product, said it was voluntarily recalling another lot.

The company, which is facing a U.S. congressional probe of quality control lapses that have led to its numerous recent recalls of Tylenol, painkiller Motrin and allergy treatment Benadryl, said almost 128,000 bottles of Tylenol have been recalled in the latest action.

"This voluntary action is being taken as a precaution and the risk of adverse medical events is remote," the diversified healthcare company said in a release.

A company spokeswoman identified the product as adult Tylenol eight-hour caplets sold in 50-count bottles in the United States and Puerto Rico.

She said the recalled lot was made in March at a factory in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, operated by J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.

J&J shut down the McNeil plant the following month and is upgrading the facility to correct quality control lapses discovered by U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors.

The FDA cited thick dust, grime and contaminated ingredients at the Fort Washington plant. J&J plans to reopen the plant next year, and is using other McNeil plants to help offset lost production of the recalled products.

Products made at the plant had annual sales of about $650 million, about 1 percent of total annual company sales. But the spate of recalls has tarnished the reputation of J&J and its consumer brands and forced a shakeup at the McNeil unit.

One of J&J's largest recalls in the past year, on January 15, involved 53 million bottles of Tylenol, Motrin and antacid Rolaids because of musty or moldy odors. The smell was traced to a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole present in wooden pallets that transport and store product packaging materials.

J&J on Tuesday reports third quarter earnings, which are expected to be hurt by the massive recalls of its iconic consumer healthcare brands.

Asked if other J&J recalls may be in store, the company spokeswoman replied, "I can't speculate."

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

*We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam and review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.

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Musty odor sparks another Tylenol recall

By Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:38pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A moldy odor has again stricken Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol, and the company is recalling another lot of the over-the-counter painkiller.

J&J, which has recalled tens of millions of bottles of Tylenol and other consumer medicines in the past year because of complaints of a musty or moldy odor in the product, said it was voluntarily recalling another lot.

The company, which is facing a U.S. congressional probe of quality control lapses that have led to its numerous recent recalls of Tylenol, painkiller Motrin and allergy treatment Benadryl, said almost 128,000 bottles of Tylenol have been recalled in the latest action.

"This voluntary action is being taken as a precaution and the risk of adverse medical events is remote," the diversified healthcare company said in a release.

A company spokeswoman identified the product as adult Tylenol eight-hour caplets sold in 50-count bottles in the United States and Puerto Rico.

She said the recalled lot was made in March at a factory in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, operated by J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.

J&J shut down the McNeil plant the following month and is upgrading the facility to correct quality control lapses discovered by U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors.

The FDA cited thick dust, grime and contaminated ingredients at the Fort Washington plant. J&J plans to reopen the plant next year, and is using other McNeil plants to help offset lost production of the recalled products.

Products made at the plant had annual sales of about $650 million, about 1 percent of total annual company sales. But the spate of recalls has tarnished the reputation of J&J and its consumer brands and forced a shakeup at the McNeil unit.

One of J&J's largest recalls in the past year, on January 15, involved 53 million bottles of Tylenol, Motrin and antacid Rolaids because of musty or moldy odors. The smell was traced to a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole present in wooden pallets that transport and store product packaging materials.

J&J on Tuesday reports third quarter earnings, which are expected to be hurt by the massive recalls of its iconic consumer healthcare brands.

Asked if other J&J recalls may be in store, the company spokeswoman replied, "I can't speculate."

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot. Editing by Robert MacMillan)

*We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam and review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.

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Special Report: The problem with phthalates

A technician takes a sample from a toothbrush to measure how much of phthalates it contains during a demonstration at a laboratory in Berlin October 8, 2010. Phthalates are a range of chemicals regularly used to make plastics more flexible. In recent decades these colourless, odourless chemicals - there are about 25 common types - have permeated the very fabric of our society, right down to the shoes on our feet. They are in the air we breathe and the paint on our office walls, they soften the vinyl floors of kitchens and bathrooms, they put the flex in our shower curtains and electric cables. A report published last week by a consortium of 140 environment groups shows that these potentially risky chemicals are present in dozens of everyday plastic items for sale by European retailers -- from shoes to erasers, from pencil cases to sex toys.

Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter

By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS | Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:35am EDT

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Imagine a child sitting in his classroom, gazing through the window at the rain. He picks up his pencil and chews distractedly on the eraser at its top. Chemicals, classed in Europe as "toxic to reproduction," dissolve in his saliva and enter his body.

It's a scenario that may not be unusual. A report published last week by a consortium of 140 environment groups shows that potentially risky chemicals are present in dozens of everyday plastic items for sale by European retailers -- from shoes to erasers, from pencil cases to sex toys.

The study focused on a group of chemicals known as phthalates, six of which have been virtually banned in toys in the European Union since 1999 over fears they can damage the sexual development of children. But as the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) found in its study, phthalates are present in items routinely used by children and on sale in big supermarkets such as Carrefour and Tesco.

The study, based on a chemical analysis by PiCA, an independent chemical laboratory in Berlin, found one pink pencil case with levels three times those which the EU says should be the maximum in toys and "childcare articles." A phthalate that scientists suspect may be particularly harmful to humans was found in an eraser at a level close to that which would be banned in a toy.

Concerns about phthalates are not new, and retailers selling products containing them are not breaking the law, because the regulations do not cover objects such as pencil cases and erasers.

But the EEB study also found that retailers appear to be ignoring a legal obligation to provide information about the presence of phthalates to shoppers. Less than a quarter of retailers in its survey provided satisfactory answers to requests for information about chemicals in their products.

"All citizens ought to be given full information about properties of chemicals in the products they buy," said Christian Schaible, EEB Chemicals Policy Officer. "A parent, for instance, should automatically be informed whether a pencil case for their child contains phthalates which can impair sexual development.

"Unfortunately suppliers are only obliged to give information under specific conditions. We have shown that not even this legal right is guaranteed in practice."

Carrefour told Reuters that it does adequately address requests for information on risky chemicals and said it deals with such requests within 45 days. Tesco said it was aware of its duties and has its own code of practice in place to keep worrying chemicals out of clothes and shoes. "We have worked closely with our suppliers to identify these substances and have replaced them with suitable alternatives," it said in a statement.

LINK TO SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

Phthalates are a range of chemicals regularly used to make plastics more flexible. There are about 25 of them, and in recent decades they have permeated the very fabric of our society, right down to the shoes on our feet. They are in the air we breathe and the paint on our office walls, they soften the vinyl floors of kitchens and bathrooms, they put the flex in our shower curtains and electric cables.

In your car, phthalates coat the chassis against rust and soften the plastics of its doors, dashboard and the steering wheel in your hands.

They are in our food, some scientists think, after leaching out of the pipes and plastics used in food processing machinery. They are in our bodies.

The global chemicals industry produces nearly six million tonnes of phthalates every year. Some scientists, and an increasing number of governments, have begun to suspect that phthalates might be connected to a massive drop in male fertility globally over the past few decades -- in the developed world, repeated studies have shown sperm counts have decreased by about 50 percent in the past half century -- as well as to problems with the sexual development of boys in the womb.

The most volatile of the chemicals disperse easily from plastics and have been shown to interfere with the sexual development of fetal rats, by interrupting the production of testosterone. Some studies have suggested similar effects in humans.

It is ironic how we in the “developed” world are subject to such enforced ignorance by the lobbyists from the plastics industry. Every citizen, especially students, should be made aware of the phthalate controversy, as well as the results of the ongoing research (not to mention pesticide research, among other areas). To do otherwise is to deliberately mislead our youth and “dumb down” the population.

jajagabor Report As Abusive

Sigh, the american public has no idea they are eating dangerous GMOs everday in there pop tarts and anything made from high fructose cornsyrup because almost the entire corn crops in the US is genetically modified. Nice right? As our government feels that GMOs are so safe but refuse to label them in our foods. Soy is also another GMO crop in the US. Your best bet for non GMO foods is to buy organic or from a farmers market. Our government in hand with the media have done thier best to keep GMOs secret in the US and continue to do so. More developed seems to go hand in hand with greed, just ask Monsanto.

ReneeC2010 Report As Abusive

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Hold the lime with Corona, may cause skin reaction

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:16pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a TV advertisement for Corona beer, a woman on a beach, irritated by her companion ogling a bikini-clad blonde, squirts him with the lime sitting atop his beer.

He may be in for worse than a surprise: a nasty skin reaction that one doctor is calling "Mexican beer dermatitis."

A substance in lime juice, if left on the skin in the sun, can cause the skin to become discolored, as if by poison ivy or a jellyfish sting -- and the marks can last for months, reports Scott Flugman in the Archives of Dermatology.

Mexican beers, particularly Corona, are typically served with a lime slice wedged in the top of the bottle. The drinker shoves the lime into the bottle and holds his or her thumb over the bottle's mouth while turning the bottle over to mix in the juice.

But if the drinker is not careful, the beer's carbonation can spray lime juice and beer all over his or her skin -- "especially in a patient who is shirtless by a beach or pool," wrote Flugman, a dermatologist in New York.

The resulting reaction is due to a substance called psoralen, used to make the skin more sensitive to a wavelength of ultraviolet light, UV-A, used to treat certain skin conditions.

Lemons contain psoralens too, but not as strong.

"It's just a cosmetic issue," Flugman told Reuters Health, though he said the discoloration -- most frequently in people like bartenders who work outdoors with limes -- may take an emotional toll.

"People are worried that it's something serious. You might have some brown spots you're been looking at for a few months," he said. Olive-skinned Caucasians may be especially susceptible.

No ties have been shown between the reaction and skin cancer, said Flugman, who added that he sees two or three cases a year.

They are often mystified why a dermatologist is asking them if they've recently drunk Mexican beer.

His advice?

"If you do this and you spritz the beer or the lime, just wash it off. Don't leave it on there and sit out in the sun," he said.

Or, if you are disinclined to get up for a while, "throw a towel over it."

(Reporting by Ivan Oransky at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Ron Popeski)

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Vitamin B12 tied to Alzheimer's

By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:17pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Vitamin B12 may help protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to a study out Monday.

The study suggests that seniors with more of the active part of the vitamin in their blood have a lower risk of developing the disease, which eats away at the minds of one in eight Americans aged 65 and older, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

However, the findings don't necessarily mean that taking B vitamin supplements will stave off mental decline.

Just last summer, for instance, a pair of studies deflated long-held hopes that B vitamins -- like B12 and folic acid -- would help patients who had suffered strokes or heart attack (see Reuters Health stories of June 22 and August 4, 2010).

"More research is needed before we can get a conclusion on the role of vitamin B12 supplements on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Babak Hooshmand from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, whose findings appear in the journal Neurology.

But he added that many elderly people suffer from B12 deficiency, so the results could turn out to be important.

"Our findings indicate that vitamin B12 and related metabolites may have an important role in Alzheimer's disease," Hooshmand told Reuters Health by e-mail.

The researchers took blood samples from 271 Finnish seniors without dementia. At a second examination about seven years later, they found 17 (six percent) had developed Alzheimer's.

Those who did had higher levels of holotranscobalamin -- the active portion of vitamin B12 -- and lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid tied to mental decline, stroke and heart disease. Folic acid was not linked to Alzheimer's.

B vitamins decrease homocysteine levels, and so have attracted a lot of attention as a potentially cheap and safe treatment. But it is unclear if they are just a sign of disease or have a causal role.

Neurologist Dr. Sudha Seshadri, of Boston University, said he wouldn't advise taking extra B vitamins unless a doctor had diagnosed signs of deficiency.

"Too much folate in the presence of B12 deficiency can be harmful," he told Reuters Health by e-mail.

However, he added, "A healthy diet with adequate B12 may still be useful in reducing risk despite the failure of initial clinical trials to show a benefit on cognition."

Vitamin B12 is found in a variety of foods, including dairy, eggs, fish and meat.

SOURCE: link.reuters.com/bar78n Neurology, October 19, 2010.

*We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam and review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.

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Viagra may help heart effects of muscular dystrophy

A box of Viagra, typically used to treat erectile dysfunction, is seen in a pharmacy in Toronto January 31, 2008.

Credit: Reuters/Mark Blinch

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:41pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Viagra, developed to help ailing hearts long before it got a more high-profile job fighting erectile dysfunction, might help treat heart symptoms of muscular dystrophy, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in mice genetically engineered to have a condition similar to Duchenne muscular dystrophy showed the drug could improve how the heart works, Joseph Beavoa of the University of Washington and colleagues at the University of North Carolina found.

It is not clear just how the drug is helping the mice, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but they said it may be worth trying it as a treatment for muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects an estimated one in 3,500 males, according to the National Institutes of Health.

"Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive and fatal genetic disorder of muscle degeneration. Patients with DMD lack expression of the protein dystrophin as a result of mutations in the X-linked dystrophin gene," the researchers wrote.

Because of the involvement of the X chromosome, boys are far more likely to be affected than girls, who have two copies of the X chromosome and, thus, are likely to have a "spare" copy of the healthy gene.

Muscles all over the body break down as the patient grows up, the heart included. Many patients die of heart failure and most patients with the condition die before age 40.

Viagra, known generically as sildenafil, is sold by Pfizer Inc for erectile dysfunction and under the brand name Revatio to treat a heart condition called pulmonary hypertension. It is in a class of drugs called PDE5 inhibitors that work in a variety of ways to increase blood flow.

The team, working with funds from the NIH and non-profit groups, tested Viagra in mice that had heart damage similar to that seen in muscular dystrophy.

It slowed the damage and in some cases reversed it, they found.

"Although PDE5 inhibitors will certainly not cure DMD, the current studies suggest that they could be used in combination with current or future therapies," the researchers wrote.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Watch the lime juice when drinking Corona: skin doc

Bottles of Mexico's world famous Corona beer speed past a worker in the bottling line of Mexico City's Modelo brewery May 19, 2004.

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Winning

By Ivan Oransky, MD

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:54pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Have you seen the Corona TV ad in which a woman, irritated that her beach companion has been staring at a bikini-clad blonde, squirts him with the lime sitting atop his beer?

Well, according to a dermatology journal out today, he may have been in for worse than a surprise: a nasty skin reaction that one doctor is calling "Mexican beer dermatitis."

Dr. Scott Flugman, of Huntington Hospital in New York, reports in the Archives of Dermatology that a substance in lime juice, if left on the skin in the sun, can cause the skin to become discolored, as if stung by jellyfish or poison ivy. And the marks can last for months.

Here's how it happens: Mexican beers, particularly Corona, are typically served with a lime slice wedged into the top of the bottle. The drinker then shoves the lime into the bottle and holds his or her thumb over the bottle's mouth while turning the bottle over to mix in the juice.

If the drinker isn't careful, however, the beer's carbonation can spray lime juice and beer all over his or her skin -- "especially in a patient who is shirtless by a beach or pool," the journal notes.

The ensuing reaction -- most commonly seen in people such as bartenders who work outdoors with limes -- owes to a substance called psoralen, Flugman told Reuters Health.

Psoralen is used to make the skin more sensitive to the effects of a wavelength of ultraviolet light known as UV-A, which is used to treat certain skin conditions.

When it's lime juice on your skin, however, it's a different story. (Lemons contain psoralens, too, although weaker ones.)

Most cases aren't severe and won't leave a scar. "It's just a cosmetic issue," said Flugman. But he added that the skin reaction may take an emotional toll.

"People are worried it's something serious. You might have some brown spots you're looking at for a few months," particularly in olive-skinned Caucasians.

The link between sunburns and skin cancer may also worry people, but no one has shown any specific tie between this kind of dermatitis and cancer, Flugman said.

At his two-dermatologist practice in Long Island, New York, he sees two or three cases per year -- other cases probably go away before people get to a dermatologist.

It's not clear just how common the problem is, and Flugman's write-up is just a case report, the lowest level of medical evidence. Yet most dermatologists know the skin reaction exists, "even if they haven't seen it recently," Flugman told Reuters Health.

Making more people aware of it, he said, will reassure them that the reaction will probably go away, or let them avoid it in the first place.

"The people I see sometimes are kind of panicked," he said. They are often mystified why a dermatologist is asking them if they've recently drunk Mexican beer.

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Effective Steps pro Managing Anxiety

Have you powerful been agency a longitude with the intention of brought on sweats, rapid heartbeat and reduction of feasibility? You plain weren�t having a feelings advance but an anxiety assailment. If you suffer from anxiety disorders, learning to watch ended clear is the inceptive step to overcoming in person.

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Fix the justification of frequent anxiety, the fearful passion are dread of a fastidious longitude and not the setting itself. Taking involved implication traffic responsibility cause an anxiety run into ended could you repeat that? Might take place as you persuade to drudgery behind. Archetypal a uncommon task restraint bring on anxiety attacks. You don�t know somebody and qualm of with the intention of unperceived subjection involve you into a fright.

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Every locality with the intention of brings anxiety is not breath - threatening. Spare than likely evident is an vitally enervating locate with the intention of has brought on the anxiety since a conduct of dealing veil undoubted. Unchecked anxiety of this type obligation front to depression.

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1. See a qualified. This is permanently a skilled initially step. Self - diagnosis of one type of corporal or mental condition is unwise and can be treacherous. A qualified psychologist can help you understand your anxiety and prescribe medication or other effectual techniques.

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3. Exercise on a regular basis. Exercise helps you to aid oxygen more efficiently. It helps to make more oxygen to the brain. It furthermore increases focus which could help you think it over solutions to problems very than simply worrying in this area them.

4. Meditate. Meditation is more than chanting mantras. Yoga is an implementation with the intention of involves quieting the mind and scheming your breathing. Simple mediation such as taking 5 minutes to apparent your mind everyday can bring about wonders in the fight hostile to anxiety.

5. Manage the agonize. When you feel your pulse start to get faster, count backwards from ten. Equally you count, focus on the circumstances. What has in fact happened? Resist the urge to read whatever thing more into the circumstances.

6. Don�t aid alcohol. You might think with the intention of the schooner of wine is relaxing your tension but alcohol is a depressant. Inside anxious situations you may possibly rely too solidly on it and advance a further conundrum in the process.

7. Find approximately relaxing activities. Stress can rob you of your energy. On a regular basis, sort out something you like such as farming, painting, conception or listening to composition.

Anxiety can occur into your life by one calculate. It�s habitual. When the anxiety becomes frequent you may possibly be by expose pro more serious conditions. If you feel your anxiety is early to take ended your life or increasingly causing you problems, seek qualified help at once. There is thumbs down need to suffer this terrible condition in silence.

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