2/3s chicken contaminated

If you've been watching great documentaries like Food Inc., or reading any Michael Pollan, you already know how disgusting factory farming is (the animals live in their own poop, pumped full of antibiotics so they won't DIE), so it 's no surprise all this gloop makes it to the grocery store.

We buy our eggs fresh, unwashed (sometimes with feathers stuck to them) and I do my old Korean/Rocky thing of eating them raw. Never have a problem, never have to worry about contaminating the kitchen. The superbugs are endemic to the food, even if they bleach and use ammonia (yes, they do!) and soon will irradiate it. I.e., it's already on the inside of the egg--what you see on my counter (yes, fresh eggs do not need to be refrigerated) looks disgustingly dirty...but it's clean!

So, the latest (via Huffpo):

Consumer Reports' latest test of fresh, whole broilers bought in 22 states reveals that two-thirds of birds tested harbored salmonella and/or campylobacter, the leading bacterial causes of food-borne disease. The report reveals that organic "air-chilled" broilers were among the cleanest and that Perdue was found to be the cleanest of the brand-name chicken. Tyson and Foster Farms chickens were found to be the most contaminated. The report is available, free online (note, you have to click through the side bars to the left of the story) and in the January 2010 issue of the magazine.

read more here.

Simple: Cut Down on Fried Foods, Reduce Disease

We could probably save tons of money on healthcare if we banned high fat fryers, but oh well, in the meantime, on this eve of the over-eatingest holiday, this fancy-schmancy scientific study basically says eating fried foods puts a lot of stress on your body, but your body will nicely bounce back if you stop pummeling it with fried food.

Interesting how we spend so much money investigating this stuff that's pretty common sense...and then when science confirms it, we STILL subsidize cheap fried corn-filled foods who cares about the how it makes us sick in the long term.

Fried turkey is ok, but not every day!

Reduction in Glycotoxins from Heat-Processing of Foods Reduces Risk of Chronic Disease and Restores Innate Biological Defense Mechanisms

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine report that cutting back on the consumption of processed and fried foods, which are high in toxins called Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs), can reduce inflammation and actually help restore the body’s natural defenses regardless of age or health status. These benefits are present even without changing caloric or nutrient intake. (Embargo expired on 04-Nov-2009 at 00:05 ET)
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Oct/Nov-2009

—The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Hand Sanitizers have chemicals too...

With the fears of Swine flu, there's more hand sanitizers out there than you can shake a stick at. I saw a huge wipe thing you're supposed to use on your grocery cart (or your kid? the indications were unclear: "For the safety of your children").

Blech, personally, I feel that having a healthy immune system is more important than killing all those microbes--many of which are beneficial, many of which (e.g., staph) are ubiquitous anyway. So I'm a simple soap and water type, and I have no qualms about eating a little dirt with my organic produce that my friend drops off from her farm.

If you want to obsessively use hand sanitizers, however, you might want to check Environmental Working Groups database (and give them a donation so they can keep doing this work) and see what kind of weird stuff may be lurking in your sanitizer. For example, Triclosan is a common ingredient here, but it's banned in the EU, so know what's in there.

Click here.

Prenatal Smoke Exposure can cause Behavioral Problems

Don't know if this pertains to secondhand smoke as well, but I would assume any smoke isn't good. From Medscape:

November 9, 2009 (Honolulu, Hawaii) — Prenatal tobacco exposure (TE) has been linked to irritability in neonates, poor attention and information processing in infants, and impulsivity in preschool children," according to new research presented here at the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 56th Annual Meeting.

"We found that even in the first year of life, we can see differences in attention and irritability and in regulation of emotions," lead investigator Sandra A. Wiebe, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta, Canada, told Medscape Psychiatry.

"Then at age 3, we saw that kids with prenatal [TE] seem to have trouble waiting for an award, which ties in with findings that smoking during pregnancy can have specific impact on the parts of the brain that are involved in regulating behavior," she added.

Off Label Marketing and DEADLY drugs

Here's an article (rather long, but worth it) about off-label marketing schemes by major pharmaceutical companies. Our babysitter was put on neurontin off label even though it didn't DO anything for her. In a clinical trial for Eli Lilly's Zyprexa apparently 31 people DIED.

Read here.

BPA in your canned tomatoes and soup

If you saw my post on Sigg bottles, and are concerned about BPA and other plastic chemical leakage, put canned foods in that category. We only buy tomatoes if they are in glass (the organic "lined" cans weirded me out) especially because they are very acidic, and intuition seems to have proved right. This post on a Consumer Report test via our friends at Treehugger bears a close read (ONE OF EVERY THREE CANS IOF INFANT FORMULA!):

Two new bits of research: A new study by members of the Reproductive Toxicology Branch of the EPA did not find any evidence that Bisphenol A (BPA), was a "gender bender" in female rats. BPA "Does not Alter Sexually Dimorphic Behavior, Puberty, Fertility and Anatomy of Female LE Rats" (Abstract here, via Stats.org)

This is particularly good news in the light of the Consumers Union's recent report that showed leaching of BPA from canned food, as reported in Calorie Lab. The worst product, Progresso Vegetable Soup, had BPA content in the range of 67 to 134 parts per billion. These are levels comparable to those found in the polycarbonate bottles that we have all been dumping like mad.

This shouldn't be news to TreeHugger readers; studies have been finding BPA in cans for years. See:
BPA Danger may be greater from Tin Cans than Water Bottles
Bisphenol A Is In Your Tomato Sauce
Is There Bisphenol A In Your Home Canning?
Bisphenol A Found in Baby Food in Glass Jars

So what should one do? Certainly not jump on the one new study and say that proves that BPA is harmless, as many in the plastics industry are doing; The Environmental Working Group lists over a hundred studies that say otherwise.

There were fairly easy substitutes for polycarbonate bottles, either stainless steel or new BPA free plastics. Replacing it in cans is not so simple. But the EPA is no longer taking its orders from the American Chemistry Council, and according to the Los Angeles Times, a review of existing evidence about BPA's health effects was nearly completed and that [Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret] Hamburg would "make a decision how to proceed" by the end of the month.

Conclusion: There is absolutely nothing new in the Consumers Union report. If you are concerned about BPA, we made five recommendations in an earlier post:

Don't use canned baby formula: All U.S. manufacturers use BPA-based lining on the metal portions of the formula containers. If you must use formula, choose powered or liquid in plastic bottles.

Don't eat canned food if you are pregnant. the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says "We don't want to tell people not to eat canned beans or tomatoes," said CSPI nutritionist David Schardt. "But at the same time, it makes sense for all parents, and especially pregnant and nursing women, to minimize the exposure of their kids' developing bodies and brains to BPA."

Buy in bottles, not cans. Many products, like tomato sauces, are available in bottles as well as cans. Does that white epoxy on the inside of the metal lid have BPA? Yes, but there is a lot less surface area than the whole inside of a can.

Start cooking instead of just heating. The fact that 17% of the American diet comes out of cans is just a scandal when we are surrounded by fresh food. Cook it from scratch and avoid the problem altogether.

Demand BPA-free cans. Not every manufacturer uses it; Some brands, like Eden Foods, are BPA free.

But most of all, don't panic, and lets wait to see what the FDA says at the end of the month.

SSRIs may be bad for sperm

Eeek, besides the disturbing fact that so many of those crazy shooters (now, Columbine, and back) have been on SSRIs, which of course affect the biochemistry of your brain, apparently it looks like SSRIs may cause MAJOR DNA damage in sperm. The study used Paxil (interestingly, I have seen articles pushing Paxil as it's cheaper than other SSRIs) but researchers hypothesize it's ALL SSRIs. From Medscape.com:

June 22, 2009 — The selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine (Paxil, GlaxoSmithKline) may affect male fertility through its effects on sperm DNA, according to a small study by Weill Cornell Medical Center researchers. In the study of 35 healthy volunteers without psychiatric disorders, the antidepressant induced abnormal sperm DNA fragmentation in more than 40% of participants.

"Sperm DNA fragmentation is thought to be a very sensitive measure of sperm abnormality, independent of sperm counts or standard sperm tests, and predicts natural fertility as well as fertility with the most advanced forms of assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization," said senior author Peter Schlegel, MD, chair of the department of urology and professor of reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center, in New York City. "What the study tells us is that paroxetine could have an effect on fertility that will not show up in standard sperm tests — and cause an increase in genetic damage to sperm," he said.

Present Idea, bamboo + silk scares

You know I love organizations like Kiva that help people make a living, especially with green projects, folk medicines, etc. Well, it's present season and you might want to consider some of these great three-season silk and bamboo scarves that are made with pesticide free materials and low impact dyes, made by these women in Chang Mai, Thailand.

This bamboo and silk scarf is soft, light, and stylish. Tyler, the person who runs this organization, Giftscarves.com, sent me some of the pictures of the women at work. Check the other colors out here.

UK Guardian

The Slate.com article was reprised in the UK Guardian. They had a more sober view of cannabis, but then the so-called "health editor" questioned whether the improvement we were seeing was merely coincidental or a delusion on my part. He is welcome to fiddle while Rome burns, in my opinion: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-ultimate-herbal-remedy-can-cannabis-improve-autism-1814756.html

NYtimes, Mammograms: "Just Skip It"

Longtime readers know I've been ranting about the dubious value of mammos and myself have never had one (search the blog for older posts) much to the chagrin of my midwives. Finally, turns out some prominent docs are agreeing, or at least finally questioning the orthodoxy:

Quandary With Mammograms: Get a Screening, or Just Skip It?

Published: November 2, 2009
by Denise Grady

Here we go again. Another study raises questions about the benefits of mammograms, and another set of confusing statements issue forth from experts.

read more here.

Soft Drinks Hard on the Body

Interestingly, there is a faction of Coke Connoisseurs who prefer Mexican Coke over any other...reason why? Mexico use real sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. Sad to say SUGAR is much better for you than HFCS. But anyway, lay off the soda pop. It's hard on oyur metabolism, your immune system, your fertility, and it's made with icky old tap water. Diet soda gives you not only chemicals but (ironically) belly fat, anyway:

From the Ask Dr. Mao Column via Yahoo:

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

read more.

Cell Phone use linked to Brain tumors

We all know there's probably SOMETHING up with cellphones and brain tumors, but here's another study. And check out this comment that was on it:

MY FOUR YEAR OLD SON DIED....

24.10.09, 8:28pm

This is very important to know. When I was pregnant with my son Skyler, I had a cell phone in my pocket for a lot of the pregnancy. I didn't know it was dangerous at the time, as it was 6 years ago. He died last year of a rapid brain stem tumor. He was 4 years old. Here is his website:
www.caringbridge.org/visit/skylersmith

Thanks for reading,
Michelle

Children Can Greatly Reduce Abdominal Pain by Using Their Imagination

I read somewhere that lots of powerful pharma drugs (esp. SSRIs/antidepressants) work largely on the placebo effect, but their side effects are unfortunately quite biologically real. Maybe physicians should start with sugar pills, first. The mind is a powerful thing. This study was conducted at UNC Chapel Hill, published in the journal Pediatrics, and comes to us via Newswise, the journalists'-only site:

Newswise — Children with functional abdominal pain who used audio recordings of guided imagery at home in addition to standard medical treatment were almost three times as likely to improve their pain problem, compared to children who received standard treatment alone.

And those benefits were maintained six months after treatment ended, a new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University Medical Center researchers has found.

The study is published in the November 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics. The lead author is Miranda van Tilburg, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the UNC School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Center for Functional GI & Motility Disorders.

“What is especially exciting about our study is that children can clearly reduce their abdominal pain a lot on their own with guidance from audio recordings, and they get much better results that way than from medical care alone,” said van Tilburg. “Such self-administered treatment is, of course, very inexpensive and can be used in addition to other treatments, which potentially opens the door for easily enhancing treatment outcomes for a lot of children suffering from frequent stomach aches.”

Prenatal SSRIs Linked to Problems in Newborns

Ok, I'm supposed to be working on my novel, but there's some news too important not to post. Given that so many people are on SSRIs, if you're planning to try to get pregnant, you shoudl read this. From Medscape:

October 7, 2009 — Infants of mothers who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy are at greater risk for preterm birth, a low 5-minute Apgar score, and admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), according to a report in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Whether these risks outweigh the risks to the developing infant of a mother's untreated depression during gestation is unknown, as are the long-term implications for the child's health and development. The research team was led by Najaaraq Lund, MD, from the Bandim Health Project, Indepth Network, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, and Aarhus University, Denmark.

Dr. Lund told Medscape Psychiatry that his group's most important findings were that prenatal exposure to SSRIs was associated with increased risk for preterm delivery, low 5-minute Apgar score, and increased chance of NICU admission (which was not explained by either Apgar score or gestational age).

Heat Forms Potentially Harmful Substance in High-fructose Corn Syrup

Ack! HFCS fed to bees? Another reason to ONLY BUY ORGANIC:

Released: 10/15/2009 9:00 PM EDT
Source: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Newswise — Researchers have established the conditions that foster formation of potentially dangerous levels of a toxic substance in the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) often fed to honey bees. Their study, which appears in ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, could also help keep the substance out of soft drinks and dozens of other human foods that contain HFCS. The substance, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), forms mainly from heating fructose.

In the new study, Blaise LeBlanc and Gillian Eggleston and colleagues note HFCS’s ubiquitous usage as a sweetener in beverages and processed foods. Some commercial beekeepers also feed it to bees to increase reproduction and honey production. When exposed to warm temperatures, HFCS can form HMF and kill honeybees. Some researchers believe that HMF may be a factor in Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that has killed at least one-third of the honeybee population in the United States.

The scientists measured levels of HMF in HFCS products from different manufacturers over a period of 35 days at different temperatures. As temperatures rose, levels of HMF increased steadily. Levels jumped dramatically at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit. “The data are important for commercial beekeepers, for manufacturers of HFCS, and for purposes of food storage. Because HFCS is incorporated as a sweetener in many processed foods, the data from this study are important for human health as well,” the report states. It adds that studies have linked HMF to DNA damage in humans. In addition, HMF breaks down in the body to other substances potentially more harmful than HMF.
------------

I'm also happy to quote, from the longer article: There appears to be a dearth of knowledge on the thermal effects of the kinetics of HMF formation in HFCS. Published research in the area appears to be limited to a single paper reported by Korean investigators (11)

read more here: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf9014526?cookieSet=1

Novel needs attention

Hi, all,

Kind of going on hiatus again...see you soon.

WSJ: Canada Halting Swine Flu Vaxxing

I haven't been following this issue all too closely as I plan not to get a swine flu or any kind of flu vax (n.b. we haven't had the flu in the house for years, don't see too much difference--if any--from when MAN FERTILITY and I used to get flu shots every year through school), but I seem to recall the OTHER swine flu vax from the 70s killed all these people or gave them awful things like Guillame-Barre. The big problem is, we don't know anything about long-term safety until...well, the long term.

Also, as I wrote in my Slate article about medical marijuana, I have been observing that many pharma drugs seem to give you what you're trying to cure--i.e., the anti inflammatories we gave out son for his autoimmune gut condition eventually gave him stomach cramps.

I'm not a medical professional making any recommendations, but I'm just sayin'.

From the Wall Street Journal:

By PHRED DVORAK and BETSY MCKAY

TORONTO -- An unpublished Canadian study that suggests getting an annual flu shot may make it easier to contract swine flu has caused most provincial governments in Canada to postpone or limit seasonal-flu vaccination programs.

The study remains a mystery in many ways. It is being reviewed for potential publication in a scientific journal, but the authors won't say which one. Few people have seen the data, and some experts have expressed skepticism of the results.

read more here.

Cover Story on Slate!

Sorry, a bit tardy. I wrote the second part of my installment on organic medical marijuana and autism/inflammation/pain, etc. Cover story!

Read it here.

Iodine for fertility and health

Iodine is so important for the healthy functioning of the thyroid, but soils are often depleted of this nutrient and chemicals such as flouride and bromine and chlorine can displace iodine in the body. Without a health thyroid, which controls so many hormones, fertility is sure to be compromised.

Iodine is also generally good for health. At the turn of the century, doctors gave people who seemed generally unwell, infertile, etc. iodine as a matter of course. I just read an old book called Vermont Folk Medicine that talks about using a simple iodine solution called Lugol's for better health, and Lugol's is making a comeback for everything from thyroid issues to cancer healing--lack of iodine may be a factor in developing certain cancers such as breast cancer.

It's also interested to note that the Japanese and Okinawans have the best longevity stats (as anyone following the healthcare debate will find), and the Japanese diet probably has about the most natural iodine with all the seafood and seaweed. And, interestingly, Japanese women have the lowest rates of breast cancer in the world.

In order to make up for our lousy iodine intake, the government iodizes salt. But I don't like/trust bleached table salt read more here) and would like to get my iodine another way.

Food sources of iodine include seaweeds (although the popular sushi seaweed, nori, probably has the least) and seafood. Many fish unfortunately are contaminated with mercury, which kind of negates the benefits, but smaller fish like sardines can fill the bill.

But even so, it's difficult to get enough iodine. Our family probably gets more natural iodine than most families as we eat seaweed fairly regularly. It turned out our son even had a sluggish thyroid, and I used a potassium iodine product called Ioderal, which helped bring his hormone levels back to normal. I have thryoid issues myself and used this product but didn't find any help for my fatigue, etc.

But I tried this "nascent iodine," which is supposed to be a particularly bio-available source of iodine, a few drops in a glass of water three times a day and noticed slightly more energy. And more proof, my thyroid hormone levels were improved as well. I felt it was helping enough that I even brought the bottle with me on a recent trip to NORTH KOREA, and I kept up with a bunch of students on what was a very physically demanding trip. It was also handy knowing that I could put 15 drops in a glass of water to sterilize it if I needed to.

The taste is not great, but the results are worth it. Again, I am not a medical professional but only recounting my experience with this product. Get it here.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) could increase risks of obesity and dementia in adulthood

In a natural conception, the egg is surrounded by all these sperm...but only one (sometimes two at the same time) gets in. If you watch the real time movies of the process, it's not a race to see which sperm gets there first. The egg sits there like this for a while, almost as if deciding which sperm to let in.

The successful sperm has to have many factors: it can't be weirdly shaped so it can't swim, it has to be fast enough to stay with the crowd, it has to secrete a special enzyme that dissolves the outer layer of the egg.

Nature builds in its own protection, and thus lame-o sperm, which is also likely to have DNA damage, get left by the wayside. But there is a way that doctors can FORCE the egg to accept a sperm, by ICSP, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where they pierce the egg with a needle and push the sperm in. Nor surprisingly, they are finding kids born of this procedure often have genetic or other anomalies.

So one other IVF procedure they often add to this is PGD, pre implantation genetic diagnosis, where they "steal" a call from from a new multicelled fertilized egg and examine the DNA. As you can imagine, when the blastocyst is only made up of a few cells, it kinda needs them. Amazingly, the long term effects on children born to PGD haven't been studied, until now:

From Natural News:

(NaturalNews) Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has become an important part of the booming infertility and baby-making medical industry. This example of unnatural selection allows for the chromosomes of an embryo created through in vitro fertilization (IVF)to be analyzed. If there's a problem, the embryo can be discarded or, at the very least, frozen away. PGD has helped many couples conceive children believed to be totally healthy and the procedure is promoted as a widely used and safe medical test -- at least, until now. A new long-term analysis of PGD suggests that this procedure may hold serious long-term risks for humans subjected to this test while they were embryos. Animal tests have come up with worrisome evidence PGD could increase risks of obesity and dementia in adulthood.

read more.