Public Blog

Don't Be Misled By Dairy Ads

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:35 GMT

According to a review of the published scientific literature, claims that low-fat dairy products or calcium can help people lose weight are untrue. Neither dairy products in general nor calcium intake promote weight loss.

Out of 49 clinical trials, 41 showed no effects of diary or calcium on weight, two showed an increase in body weight with a dairy regimen, and one showed a lower rate of weight gain. Only five showed weight loss.

An association between calcium or dairy intake and weight loss has been seen in some "observational" studies, possibly due to other factors such as increased exercise, cutting out high-calorie foods with little nutritional value, or other diet changes.

Can New Mouthwashes Really Take Bad Breath Away?

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:26 GMT

The primary ingredient in a relatively new class of mouthwashes with clinical-sounding names such as TheraBreath, Oxyfresh, CloSYS and ProFresh is sodium chlorite, also known as stabilized chlorine dioxide. These rinses claim to freshen breath for up to six hours. But one independent study found that sodium chlorite rinses actually worked for anywhere from four to 42 minutes.

The products change the chemical composition of odiferous gases so they no longer smell. However, the underlying bacteria remain potent and continue producing odors.

Some mouthwashes have attempted to go further. SmartMouth uses sodium chlorite mixed with zinc chloride. The zinc ions find the bacteria that produce rancid gases, then block amino-acid receptor sites so the bacteria cannot produce gas. Another brand, Biotene, contains two enzymes that break down the biofilm and put the mouth bacteria into a healthy balance.

Even the most effective products, however, will not help people with extremely bad oral hygiene.

Drug Company Petition Seeks to Eliminate the Competition

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:22 GMT

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has petitioned the FDA to classify weight loss claims for dietary supplements as disease claims. Many say that this is nothing more than an attempt by the makers of alli, an over-the-counter weight loss drug, to quash competition from the supplement weight loss industry.

It is yet another instance of a pharmaceutical giant using its considerable monetary, legal and political advantages against competing products.

This could have vast implications for the rapidly-growing supplement weight loss industry, estimated to currently be worth $1.3 billion in annual sales, but for the dietary supplements industry overall.

Smoking Triggers Deadly Changes in Your Cells

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:19 GMT

Researchers have uncovered a key mechanism by which smoking triggers genetic changes that cause lung cancer.

Exposure to cigarette smoke slows production of a protein called FANCD2 in lung cells. This protein plays a key role in repairing damage to DNA, and causing faulty cells to commit suicide before they cause damage.

The discovery raises hopes of finding improved treatments for the disease.

Go Hungry and Live Longer

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:13 GMT

A study examining aging in mice has found that the hormonal changes that occur when mice eat significantly less may explain why a low calorie diet can extend their lifespan, far more so than can be explained by reduced obesity.

Because of this, reduced calorie diets extended the rodents’ lives far longer than an exercise program could.

The study applies only to rodents, which are different in some key ways from humans, but two studies which examined people who engage in high-volume exercise versus people who restricted their calorie intake had similar outcomes. Caloric restriction has physiological benefits that exercise alone does not.

Animal Kingdom's Odd Couples

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:11 GMT

Ready to be overwhelmed by cuteness? Click the link below to see some unusual pairs of animals getting along just fine. Who says nature is always red in tooth and claw?

More Than Half of Americans Are on Chronic Meds -- Are You One of Them?

Dr. Mercola — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:11:04 GMT

For the first time in history, more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems. In 2007, 51 percent of American children and adults were taking one or more prescription drugs for a chronic condition, up from 50 percent the previous four years and 47 percent in 2001. The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Experts say the data reflect not just worsening public health, but also factors such as more aggressive treatment by doctors and the pharmaceutical industry's relentless advertising.

With those factors unlikely to change, the proportion of Americans on chronic medications is likely to grow rather than shrink in coming years.

Americans buy much more medicine per person than any other country.

Electrodes in Your Brain: A New Approach to Treating Disease?

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:58 GMT

Earlier this year, neurosurgeon Andres Lozano was testing deep-brain stimulation, in which electrical current is delivered directly to the brain, as a treatment for obesity. Much to his surprise, while the patient's weight showed little change, his memory improved significantly. Lozano has formed a company to commercialize the technique as an Alzheimer's therapy. It is currently being tested on six patients in the early stages of the disease.

In the past few years, deep-brain stimulation has become a routine treatment for Parkinson's disease. Scientists are testing it as a way to treat a growing number of other disorders, including epilepsy, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The procedure involves a thin electrode surgically implanted into the brain, stimulating neurons in areas affected by disease. The voltage is controlled by a power pack implanted in the patient's chest.

Lozano found that turning on the electrical stimulation triggered old memories in his obesity patient; the higher the voltage, the more details he recalled. More importantly, after several months of low-level stimulation, testing revealed that the man's memory had significantly improved.

Drug Makers Churn Out Record Amounts of Ineffective Flu Vaccine

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:42 GMT

Flu vaccine manufacturers are planning to make a record number of doses for the next flu season, in spite of concerns that demand may drop because this year's vaccine was largely ineffective.

The five companies that make flu vaccine for the U.S. market plan to make at least 143 million doses for the 2008-09 season. They made 140 million doses for the most recent season, which was nonetheless the worst in four years for adult deaths from flu and pneumonia.

Federal health officials have been expanding recommendations for annual flu shots, potentially ratcheting up demand. In February, an influential government advisory panel expanded annual flu shots recommendations to virtually all U.S. children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies.

This means that about 30 million additional children could be getting vaccinated, starting this year.

Mass Die-Off Hits German Bee Hives

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:31 GMT

In Germany's Baden-Württemburg region, helpless beekeepers are watching as their hives are hit by an unprecedented die-off. Many are saying one of Germany's biggest chemical companies could be to blame.

In some parts of the region, hundreds of bees per hive have been dying each day. 50 to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives.

Regional officials spent the week testing bees, pollen, honey and plant materials to look for the cause. Germany's beekeepers are blaming a popular, recently-introduced pesticide called clothianidin. Produced by Monheim-based Bayer CropScience, clothianidin is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. The chemical was used last year to fight an outbreak of corn rootworm, and its success led to a much wider application this spring up and down the Rhine. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, "clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees."

Germany's bees are still in better shape than those in the United States, where the mysterious "Colony Collapse Disorder" has devastated the American beekeeping industry.

Why Traumas Can Haunt and Sabotage Your Health for Years

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:25 GMT

Emotional memories of traumatic life events are stored in a particularly robust way by your brain, making effective treatment very difficult. Researchers have now successfully tracked down the molecular bases of these strong, persistent memories.

It has long been known that emotional memories of both a positive and a negative kind are stored by your brain in a particularly robust way. Consequently they have a very large effect on your behavior.

A research group has shown that the enzyme calcineurin and the gene regulation factor Zif268 decisively determine the intensity of emotional memories. For the first time, this has enabled the regulatory processes at the synapse, which are important for emotional memories, to be linked to the processes in the cell nucleus.

While the research has no clinical applications at present, it could eventually lead to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying psychological traumas or brain diseases related to memory problems.

More Than 2 Million U.S. Teens Are Depressed

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:20 GMT

More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls.

According to a government survey, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode. But there were striking differences between boys and girls, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.

Depression is the leading cause of suicide, which is itself the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States.

Not Your Everyday Travel Tips

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:53:12 GMT

Here are some travel tips you might not have heard before, gleaned from the experiences of frequent fliers.

Don’t travel with gel pens. You could wake up in a pool of ink -- the air pressure changes can cause the ink to burst out.

ALWAYS take a second to look at the airline luggage routing tags that the ticket agent is putting on your checked baggage, and look at your claim stubs too. Don’t just assume they are putting the right tag on the right bag.

Take note of something interesting about the contents of your bag. It makes it easier to identify if there’s a problem.

Travel with Sharpie markers and zip-closure plastic bags. They are great for marking and identifying things quickly.

If your flight is cancelled, don’t wait in the long line in front of the ticket agent to get on another plane. Just step aside and call your airline directly from your cell phone. It’s just like cutting in line, but nobody will get mad at you.

For more great tips, click the link below.

What's the Real Reason All the Cheetahs Dying?

Dr. Mercola — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:52:34 GMT

Cheetahs are being threatened by a deadly disease called amyloid A amyloidosis, or AA amyloidosis. The illness kills up to 70 percent of the cats in captivity, making breeding efforts difficult.

AA amyloidosis resembles mad cow disease. A misfolded version of a protein converts normal proteins into abnormal ones, until large deposits of damaging protein build up in tissues -- the spleen and liver in the case of AA amyloidosis, the brain and central nervous system for mad cow disease.

AA amyloidosis is not caused by a bacteria or virus, but it can likely spread from animal to animal like an infectious disease. Biologists have had difficulty, however, figuring out how the disease moves from cat to cat.

Folks, cheetahs are my absolute favorite animals, probably for the same reason that Flash is my favorite comic book super hero. I am fascinated with speed, and that is one of the reasons I have been a runner for over 40 years.

It is such a miracle to see a cheetah engaged in a full out sprint, and it amazes me every time I see them perform their feat of magic.

My strong suspicion that the primary reason why cheetahs are dying in captivity is that the zoo keepers are clueless about their nutritional requirements. They are likely focused on total calories, vitamins, minerals, fat and carbs, and are missing the most significant aspect of most wild animals diets.

They need RAW food.

Take away the raw food and you disrupt nearly every important biochemical pathway in their body -- an absolute prescription for disaster. Unfortunately, American scientists and researchers are ignorant about this important aspect of health. Many savvy German and European researchers are exploring this though in the form of biophoton research which, in my eyes, is one of the most exciting areas of biomedical research.

Sunlight is vital. Without the sun there is no life. We notice very clearly what a revitalizing effect sunlight has on our body and spirits when, after a long winter, we enjoy the first rays of spring sun. But we can absorb sun energy via our food as well as through the skin.

We are human photocells whose ultimate biological nutrient is sunlight. Dr. Johanna Budwig from Germany has stated that live foods are electron rich and act as high-powered electron donors, and also as solar resonance fields in the body to attract, store, and conduct the sun's energy in our body. The greater our store of light energy, the greater the power our overall electromagnetic field, and consequently the more energy is available for healing and the maintenance of optimal health.

Stored sun energy finds its way into our cells via food in the form of minute particles of light. These light particles are called 'biophotons', which are the smallest physical units of light. They contain important bio-information, which controls complex vital processes in our bodies. The biophotons have the power to order and regulate, and, in doing so, to elevate the organism to a higher oscillation or order. This is manifested as a feeling of vitality and well-being.

Every living organism emits biophotons or low-level luminescence (light with a wavelength between 200 and 800 nanometers). It is thought that the higher the level of light energy a cell emits, the greater its vitality and the potential for the transfer of that energy to the individual which consumes it. The more light a food is able to store, the more nutritious it is. Naturally grown fresh vegetables, for example, and sun-ripened fruits are rich in light energy. The capacity to store biophotons is therefore a measure of the quality of our food.

SO what is the take home message for you?

Eat MORE raw, live food in your diet. My personal goal is 85 percent. Unless I am traveling I almost am always over 50 percent, and typically 85 percent. Yes, that includes animal proteins, as I am a protein type. Not all raw foodists are vegetarians or vegans. I know it sounds extreme, but it is my belief that, like the cheetah, that is the way you and I were designed to eat. If you veer very far away from that you are bound to have complications, just like the cheetahs in captivity.

Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Do Nothing for Alzheimer's

Dr. Mercola — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:41:20 GMT

Contrary to predictions, the anti-inflammatory drugs naproxen and celecoxib do not appear to improve cognitive function in older adults with a family history of Alzheimer's disease. Naproxen may have a slightly detrimental effect.

Inflammatory processes may play a role in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Some observational studies have shown an association between the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease.

But when the ADAPT (Alzheimer's Disease Anti-Inflammatory Prevention Trial) Research Group conducted a randomized clinical trial involving more than 2,000 individuals with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, they found that NSAIDS did not show a protective effect on cognitive function. In fact, cognitive function scores were significantly lower over time for patients on naproxen than those on a placebo.