Month: May 2014

Kids who play outdoors are more spiritual and creative: study

playing

Turn off the TV, hide the game consoles and send your kids to play in the great outdoors if you want to raise more thoughtful, fulfilled and spiritual children, suggest the findings of a small study.
Children who spend significant amounts of time playing outside were found to have a stronger sense of purpose, peacefulness and spiritual connection to the earth.

For their study, published in the Journal of the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, researchers from Michigan State University conducted in-depth interviews, drawings, diaries, observation and conversation with parents to measure the children’s esthetic values and sensibilities.

Children who spent five to 10 hours a week playing outside were found to demonstrate strong imaginations, creativity, and curiosity, as well as a deep appreciation for nature’s beauty, whether it be lush green bushes, water patterns or a fascination with bees’ nests, researchers noted.

The 10 children, ages seven and eight, reported feelings of peacefulness and wonderment at natural phenomena like storms, and said they felt happy.
They also expressed a sense of belonging in the world and an acute need to protect the earth.

Though small in scale, the findings underscore the importance of free play for children and its lasting impact: the parents of children who expressed the highest affinity toward nature likewise reported spending significant amounts of time playing outdoors in their childhood.

More than video game graphics and cartoons, researchers theorize that nature’s multisensory diversity — sights, sounds and colors — can help children feel more alive and build self-confidence.

Another study published out of Finland, meanwhile, found gender differences in the way school-aged boys and girls viewed nature: While girls said they appreciated the beauty of flowers and plants, more than 30 percent of boys in the study said they could live without vegetation.

Source: ctv news

Florida woman delivers triplets at 47 without fertility treatment

AR-140509491A woman in Florida named Sharon Lewis recently gave birth to triplets at the age of 47 years old. Forty-seven. With nary a fertility pill or treatment to be seen.

It’s amazing and rare. According to obstetrician Dr. Salih Y. Yasin, getting pregnant is 1 percent, but to be twins it’s probably 1 percent of that. Triplets is 1 percent of 1 percent of that.

Dylan, Denere and Denard each weighed two pounds at birth and were taken care of by the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Lewis developed high blood pressure at some point during her pregnancy, so her doctors decided to deliver the triplets early, at the tender age of thirty weeks.

I often wonder what it would be like if I were to be pregnant again. Eeek. Actually, I don’t wonder–a shiver passes through my spine and I chase it from my mind. I just turned 42–I’m practically ancient. To be totally honest, I can’t imagine doing it all over again at this age. The swollen feet, the heartburn, the lack of sleep, the food cravings, the muscle soreness, the body changing at the speed of light. Not to mention childbirth, breastfeeding, changing diapers. I’ve been through it all and I made it to the other side (six times, to boot), but I just couldn’t do it again.

I know the big trend in Hollywood is to have your babies later on in life but thanks but no thanks. I had my last child when I turned 33 and that was hard enough. My daughter wrecked it all–my stomach, my hair, my lower back and my ability to sneeze without needing a diaper. I think we should just leave it at that.

Source: Baby center

Early Fitness Can Improve the Middle-Age Brain

fitness

The more physically active you are at age 25, the better your thinking tends to be when you reach middle age, according to a large-scale new study. Encouragingly, the findings also suggest that if you negligently neglected to exercise when young, you can start now and still improve the health of your brain.

Those of us past age 40 are generally familiar with those first glimmerings of forgetfulness and muddled thinking. We can’t easily recall people’s names, certain words, or where we left the car keys. “It’s what we scientists call having a C.R.S. problem,” said David R. Jacobs, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a co-author of the new study. “You can’t remember stuff.”

But these slight, midlife declines in thinking skills strike some people later or less severely than others, and scientists have not known why. Genetics almost certainly play a role, most researchers agree. Yet the contribution of lifestyle, and in particular of exercise habits, has been unclear.

So recently, Dr. Jacobs and colleagues from universities in the United States and overseas turned to a large trove of data collected over several decades for the Cardia study. The study, whose name is short for Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, began in the mid-1980s with the recruitment of thousands of men and women then ages 18 to 30 who underwent health testing to determine their cholesterol levels, blood pressure and other measures. Many of the volunteers also completed a treadmill run to exhaustion, during which they strode at an increasingly brisk pace until they could go no farther. The average time to exhaustion among these young adults was 10 minutes, meaning that most were moderately but not tremendously fit.

Twenty-five years later, several thousand of the original volunteers, now ages 43 to 54, were asked to repeat their treadmill run. Most quit much sooner now, with their running times generally lasting seven minutes or less, although a few ran longer in middle age than they had as relative youngsters.

Then, the volunteers completed a battery of cognitive tests intended to measure their memory and executive function, which is the ability to make speedy, accurate judgments and decisions. The volunteers had to remember lists of words and distinguish colors from texts, so that when, for example, the word “yellow” flashed onto a screen in green ink, they would note the color, not the word. (The participants did not undergo similar memory tests in their 20s.)

The results, published last month in Neurology, are both notable and sobering. Those volunteers who had been the most fit as young adults, who had managed to run for more than 10 minutes before quitting, generally performed best on the cognitive tests in middle age. For every additional minute that someone had been able to run as a young adult, he or she could usually remember about one additional word from the lists and make one fewer mistake in distinguishing colors and texts.

That difference in performance, obviously, is slight, but represents about a year’s worth of difference in what most scientists would consider normal brain aging, Dr. Jacobs said. So the 50-year-old who could remember one word more than his age-matched fellows would be presumed to have the brain of a 49-year-old, a bonus that potentially could be magnified later, Dr. Jacobs added. “In other studies, every additional word that someone remembered on the memory test in middle age was associated with nearly a 20 percent decrease in the risk of developing dementia” in old age, he said.

In essence, the findings suggest that the ability to think well in middle age depends to a surprisingly large degree on your lifestyle as a young adult. “It looks like the roots of cognitive decline go back decades,” Dr. Jacobs said.

Which would be a bummer for anyone who spent his or her early adulthood in happy, heedless physical sloth, if the scientists hadn’t also found that those few of their volunteers who had improved their aerobic fitness in the intervening years now performed better on the cognitive tests than those whose fitness had remained about the same or declined. “It’s a cliché, but it really is never too late to start exercising,” Dr. Jacobs said, if you wish to sharpen your thinking skills.

This study did not examine why exercise may increase brainpower. But, Dr. Jacobs said, other studies, including some that have used the same data from the Cardia study, suggest that out-of-shape young people have poor cholesterol profiles and other markers of cardiovascular health that, over time, may contribute to the development of plaques in the blood vessels leading to the brain, eventually impeding blood flow to the brain and impairing its ability to function.

“The lesson is that people need to be moving throughout their lives,” Dr. Jacobs said.

Source: New York Times

An Aspirin a Day? Don’t Dose Yourself, FDA Says

aspirin_140505

Taking an aspirin a day may help prevent heart attack or stroke in some people, but it’s not for everyone — and the common drug can have serious side effects that offset the benefits.

That’s the reminder Monday from health officials at the federal Food and Drug Administration, who have finally told giant drugmaker Bayer Corp. not to expect the agency to give the go-ahead for labels listing aspirin as a drug for primary prevention of heart attacks and other problems.

Instead, the recommendation for daily doses of therapeutic aspirin remains the same: It should be used only in people at high risk for heart attack and stroke, and then only under a doctor’s care.

“You should use daily aspirin therapy only after first talking to your health care professional, who can weigh the risks and benefits,” said Dr. Robert Temple, the FDA’s deputy director for clinical science.

Some studies have shown that taking doses ranging from an 81-milligram baby aspirin to a 325-milligram full-strength tablet can be helpful and aspirin therapy is recommended for those who’ve had a heart attack or who are at high risk for one.

But no one should be taking daily aspirin just because they think it’s a good idea, said Dr. Richard Chazal, vice president of the American College of Cardiology.

“There’s been sort of a conception that since aspirin is so good that maybe it would be a good idea if everyone took it,” he said. “But the data don’t really support that.”

Aspirin is a blood thinner, which helps with heart attack and stroke, but also carries risk of dangerous bleeding in the stomach or brain. People need individual assessment of their health condition to determine whether aspirin is right for them.

Bayer asked the FDA in 2003 to allow label changes, citing studies that showed daily low-dose aspirin appeared to cut the risk of cardiac problems and stroke. The agency finally sent the firm an answer on Friday, saying that subsequent studies don’t show a significant benefit of aspirin for primary prevention uses.

But both FDA and Bayer officials acknowledged that there are a number of ongoing, large scale clinical studies under way to test the use of aspirin for primary prevention of heart attack and stroke. Bayer officials said the results of aspirin use in more than 50,000 patients are expected in the next few years.

One caveat: If you’re already taking aspirin under a doctor’s orders, don’t stop without checking. It can be life-threatening to abruptly halt your dose, said Dr. Steven M. Goldberg, a cardiologist at North Shore Cardiology and Internal Medicine in Great Neck, N.Y.

Source: nbc news

Depression treatment technique uses new helmet therapy

depression treatment

A helmet that delivers electro-magnetic impulses to the brain has shown promise in treating people with depression, Danish researchers have said.

About 30% of those with the condition fail to respond to medication or psychological counselling. The new device targets malfunctioning blood cells in the brain.

In clinical trials two-thirds who used it reported that their symptoms had disappeared, and improvements in mood were noticeable within a week. The helmet was tested on 65 patients with treatment-resistant depression.

The trials were conducted by the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Copenhagen University and the Psychiatric Centre at Hillerod in North Zealand.

Patients also continued taking their regular anti-depressant medication for the eight weeks of the trial.

‘It’s amazing’
“They were feeling well, they were functioning well, they could start work,” said Birgit Straaso, chief doctor at Hillerod.

“The helmet is amazing,” said Annemette Ovlisen, a graphic artist who suffered recurrent depression for 16 years and a participant in the Hillerod trials.

“It’s like the fog lifts. It was like somebody hit the reset button.”

The device contains seven coils that deliver a dose of Transcranial Pulsating Electro Magnetic Fields (T-PEMF) to brain tissues.

The pulses are so minute that the patient cannot detect any sensation, and the only side effect so far is occasional “tiny” nausea that immediately disappears after treatment.

Prof Steen Dissing, of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health Sciences is the helmet’s principal architect. He said: “The device mimics electrical fields in the brain, and triggers the body’s own healing mechanism.”

The pulses activate capillaries in the brain, which form new blood vessels and secrete growth hormones. “We think it works so well because we have imitated the electrical signalling that goes on in the brain and we figured out that this signalling communicates with the blood vessels,” said Prof Dissing.

“And blood vessels do communicate with blood tissue. And we found that communication pathway.” In the trial, whose results were published this month in the journal Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 34 patients received half an hour of T-PEMF once a day, and 31 had two 30-minute doses.

The treatment had the additional benefit of enabling patients to improve their tolerance of the anti-depression medicine, researchers found.

They are currently seeking permission from the European Union to market the helmet within six months to a year, and said the potential demand was enormous.

Depression rates rising
According to the World Health Organization, more than 350 million people are suffering from depression and the number is rising, especially amongst the elderly, where one in five succumb.

At its worst, depression leads to suicide and one million take their own lives each year.

Raj Persaud, a consultant psychiatrist in the UK, said: “It is an exciting and important development as it shows that this treatment works at an acceptable level of efficacy and has low side effects.”

A similar treatment – Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) – had also been shown to be an effective treatment for depression, but no more so than taking anti-depressants, he said.

“Pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers who may not want to take an anti-depressant may find this treatment more acceptable.

“This uses and administers less electrical power than TMS, another reason why it’s theoretically interesting, and it’s self-administered, which TMS is not.

“However, most health services will be reluctant try this new treatment because they will not want the additional costs and would prefer to stick to anti-depressants.

“This is a mistake in my view, as with depression the more possible effective treatments you can offer, the better. “Only roughly one-third of people get better with anti-depressants, so having other treatments to try like this is a good thing.

“These treatments will be unpopular with health services because as well as initial start-up costs, there is training of technicians and clinicians.”

ECT replacement
Prof Dissing believes the helmet could ultimately replace controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which has been used to treat the most severe forms of depression since the 1940s.

ECT patients are sedated before being strapped to a stretcher and subjected to a dose of current that generates an epileptic fit lasting 20 to 50 seconds.

Some psychiatrists regard ECT as a life-saver, while detractors deplore side effects such as memory loss, and in some extreme cases, personality changes. The Danish helmet employs completely different technology to ECT and should not be compared, says Prof Dissing.

Colleagues at Odense University are so impressed with his invention that they will conduct an experiment in May to determine whether T-PEMF can have a positive impact on the degenerative Parkinson’s Disease.

It is hoped patients will see an improvement in symptoms such as limb stiffness and tremors.

Source: BBC news

Cinnamon levels up from common spice to ‘super’ health food

Cinnamon

A team of scientists elevated the prized spice, cinnamon, from its culinary applications to a loftier stratum as a promising molecular weapon for combating chronic diseases. Researchers from various fields, including Kiram Panickar, Heping Cao, Bolin Qin and Richard A. Anderson, collaborated in making this significant breakthrough. The results revived ancient interest in the therapeutic benefits of common cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum, also known as the “true cinnamon,” to modern genomic medicine. Compounds found in cinnamon revealed multiple utility in terms of enhancing the effects of insulin, its antioxidant function, efficacy against inflammation, and its neuroprotective benefits.

Cinnamon polyphenol extract (CPE) regulates a number of genes and exerts a significant influence on the metabolism of glucose. Various studies conducted on human subjects afflicted with metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus also showed the beneficial effects of whole cinnamon and its aqueous extract on the glucose, insulin, lipid profile and anti-oxidant status of the patients.

Experts also posited possible effects of cinnamon compounds on body composition, lean body mass and inflammatory response.

Cinnamon Extract Helps against Dyslipedemia

Patients with metabolic syndrome develop resistance to insulin action, which in turn causes dyslipedemia or abnormal level of lipids in the blood. In most cases, the problem is hyperlipedemia. Cinnamon presents a good potential in lowering lipid levels in both animal and human subjects.

Cinnamon Extract Lowers Systolic Blood Pressure

Agents that are typically employed as an intervention for insulin resistance and/or lower circulating insulin concentration in the blood also tend to lower blood pressure. Such agents include nutrients, nutritional supplements, and drugs. Research conducted on spontaneously hypertensive rats fed with sucrose-containing diet showed that elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) is lowered when the rats were given dietary cinnamon. This presents a promising development highlighting the efficacy of cinnamon not only for sucrose-induced high SBP but also for hypertension caused by genetic factors.

Molecular Targets

Based on the aforementioned link between chronic diseases and genetic influences, research is now pursuing genomic targets for therapy. Quantitative research on polymerase chain reaction was performed to examine the effects of aqueous cinnamon extract on the expression of genes coding for the glucose transporter (GLUT) and anti-inflammatory tristetrapolin (TTP) families, components of the insulin signal transduction pathway, etc. So far, there are tell-tale signs that the medical hypotheses on selected targets are leaning towards positive results.

Age-Old Super Spice

From its basic ancient uses as treatment for toothache, anti-halitosis or bad breath, medication for the nasty common cold and digestion aid, cinnamon has gone quite a long way. Recent studies also showed that even just the smell of cinnamon or chewing cinnamon gum improves brain function from memory to visual-motor speed, recognition, and attention and focus.
Source: natural news

Are nail salon UV lamps a skin cancer risk?

Nail-lamp

The ultraviolet lamps used in some nail salons to dry and cure nail polish deliver the same hazardous rays as tanning beds, but it would take many manicures to actually cause damage, suggests a new study.

After testing 17 different lamps in nail salons, researchers calculated that it would take between eight and 208 visits – depending on the machine – to damage skin cells in a way that raises cancer risk.

“I wouldn’t tell a patient to stop going unless they were going multiple times a month,” lead author Dr. Lyndsay Shipp from Georgia Regents University in Augusta told Reuters Health.

Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a risk factor for most skin cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. Natural sunlight and UV lamps used for tanning give off the harmful rays, as do the small lamps used to speed drying in nail salons.

Previous studies have looked at the polish-drying UV lamps and suggested the rays may be powerful enough to cause damage, Shipp’s team notes in JAMA Dermatology, but those studies had flaws.

“They didn’t actually go out and measure the nail lamps themselves and measure the UV radiation they’re exposed to,” Shipp said.

For the new study, the researchers measured the UV-A rays produced by 17 different nail polish drying devices at 16 salons. UV-A is one of three types of UV ray. It ages the skin to cause wrinkles and breaks DNA strands within skin cells, which can lead to cancer.

The lamps tested by the researchers differed in their power levels, but generally UV lamps with higher wattages put out higher levels of UV-A radiation.

Based on a calculation of how much UV-A radiation exposure is needed to damage DNA, the researchers found that it would take – on average – 11 uses for the devices to deliver enough UV-A to raise cancer risk.

They estimated that hands would be in the device for about eight minutes per manicure, and the risky total exposure times ranged from eight minutes to 208 minutes, depending on the machine.

Although the risk is low, Shipp’s team endorsed the idea of wearing sunscreen to protect hands from UV damage. Dr. Alina Markova, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health it’s also important to note that DNA damage doesn’t mean the person will develop cancer.

“Just one risk factor of DNA damage doesn’t mean you’ll have a clinical outcome of skin cancer or photoaging,” she said. Markova, who works within the Boston University Department of Dermatology, has studied the UV rays put off by nail salon lamps.

“While we’re starting to realize these UV nail lamps are relatively safe, we still need to realize that the artificial UV devices that are hazardous are tanning beds,” she said.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Dermatology have come out against indoor tanning in recent years. In 2009, WHO labeled tanning devices as high-level carcinogens, which puts tanning on par with tobacco use as a public health threat.

Shipp said doctors can’t say anything is perfectly safe, but nail salon lamps seem relatively safe. “Personally, I won’t stop getting manicures myself,” she said.

Source: Reuters

10 natural, home-made scrubs to get rid of dead skin cells

natural-scrubs

Want to keep your skin looking young? Apart from cleansing and moisturising it, you also need to use a scrub. Even if you have the most sensitive skin, you will still have to exfoliate it using a mild scrub. Exfoliation helps clear out the layer of dead skin cells and helps in better blood circulation as well giving you renewed and younger looking skin. It is a good practice to scrub your skin – not just your face but knees, elbows, etc too – at least once a week of once every two weeks. But if you are wary of using chemical laden products, here are 10 scrubs made using natural ingredients. Make them at home and use regularly to have clear skin.

Lentil or daal body scrub

Lentils are a common kitchen ingredient in every Indian home and you can use them to make scrubs. Red lentil or masoor ki daal makes an excellent scrub. To make this, take about 2 spoonfuls and grind it into a powder and then mix it with either honey or milk. Apply it before taking a bath and keep it for 15 minutes before washing it off. Another option is using moong ki daal. You need to keep it under the sun for a day before you can make the paste. Next, add rice (about one-fourth of the daal) and grind it. Add haldi and milk to it and make a thick paste. Apply it on your face and body for glowing and blemish-free skin.

Sandalwood or chandan face scrub

Make a chandan face scrub to get rid of dead skin cells and other impurities like dirt, oil which are hard to get rid of with face packs. Mix sandalwood with rice powder (chawal ka aata), gram flour (besan), milk and rose water. Remember, not to add too much milk or water as scrubs are thick in consistency. Apply this once in two weeks for the desired results.

Rice-curd-rose oil scrub

This is a creamy, moisturising scrub that gently removes dead cells leaving the skin soft. The scrub also helps remove tan and prevents cell damage by neutralising free radicals. It is suited for dry and sensitive skin. Add rice (you can grind it to make it less coarse), curd or dahi and two drops of rose oil. Apply this on the face and allow it to dry before washing it off with water.

Natural foot scrub

Combine the juice of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Massage the mix on your feet thoroughly and leave for 15 minutes, then rinse off and pat dry. This mixture scrubs and moisturises your feet and helps in eliminating the dryness. Make this a weekly ritual to pamper your feet and keep them looking good.

Pomegranate or anar lip scrub

Do your lips look too dark or chapped? One reason could be that you haven’t exfoliated the dead skin from it. Get back the natural pink of your lips with a scrub made from pomegranate seeds. Crush a few seeds and mix in some milk cream or malai. Apply this on your lips and rub gently. You can also combine crushed pomegranate seeds with sugar and olive oil for added beauty benefits. Wash with plain water and pat dry.

Chocolate scrub

Take some cocoa powder and add rose water or lime juice (if you have oily skin) in it. Now, grind some oatmeal and add to the mixture. Add some raw sugar and honey too. Mix well but make sure the paste is semi-solid. Rub it on your face, knees, and elbows in a circular motion. If you feel it is too harsh for your face, add olive oil to the paste to balance it out.

Baking soda scrub

Yes, this ingredient used in desserts can also come in handy to remove dead skin cells. Mix about quarter of a teaspoon of baking soda with rose water and rub it on your elbows and knees and even feet. Avoid using it on the face if you have very sensitive or dry skin.

Anti-ageing coffee scrub

Coffee is rich in antioxidants which makes it excellent for removing dead skin as well as preventing sagging skin and wrinkles to a certain extent. Take some coarse, ground coffee beans and add olive oil to it. Add raw sugar if required and then gently rub it on your face. Wash with warm water and pat dry.

Oatmeal and sugar scrub

Both the ingredients have a grainy texture. Soak oatmeal in water for 10 minutes and then mix it with a few granules of sugar. Add honey to the mixture and then apply it on your face. Avoid area around the eyes. Remember, it should not be too harsh on the skin.

Sea salt hand scrub

Since sea salt is slightly harsh, you should consider using it on areas such as hands or feet instead of the face. But you need to add oil to the scrub to mellow down the harshness. Opt for an essential oil such as lavender or you could also try extra virgin olive oil or sweet almond. Mix it together and then apply on your hands before washing it off with water.

Source: The health site

4G/LTE mobile network poses greater chronic health risks

4g-650x330

If you’re one of the people who has suspected cell phones/cell towers were bad news, get ready for the latest affront to our health: The 4G/LTE network. This is the latest scheme cooked up by the greedy telecommunications industry. It promises much faster bandwidth than the previous 3G incarnation, thereby providing lightning-fast mobile internet on your mobile phone or device (great for watching YouTube/Hulu). Unfortunately, there is a major downside to 4G technology (and all wireless technology that emits radiation for that matter), and it comes as a cost to our health and well-being.

Putting profits over people

The problem with many new, potentially dangerous technologies (such as tech/devices that output radiation of any kind) is that companies can make record profits off of them while the public remains ignorant of long-term chronic health risks. Corporations are obviously reluctant in these situations, as they know that researching side effects and informing the public will hurt their profit margins. That is why we’re not told anything negative about new technologies, only how great they are and how much better they are going to make our lives (How did I possibly live without this before?!?!).

The problem with 4G/LTE: The contrived need to have internet access with us at all times

As the internet age has evolved, cellular phones and devices have evolved along with it. Cell phones used to be for making calls on the go. Eventually, text messaging came onto the scene, and that was the new craze. Now, 4G mobile internet and mobile video streaming is the new novelty. Unfortunately, the bandwidth required for mobile internet and video streaming on a cellular device is greater than what can be provided over older, conventional 2G/3G cell phone tower networks. So for 4G, there have been many new high-powered cell towers erected around the world, with little thought about the adverse effects that the addition of more radiation-emitting technology will cause.

4G/LTE handset “smart” antennas

4G designers needed to increase bandwidth receiving capability in 4G handsets/devices, so they developed “smart antennas” – a series of 4 antennas in a single phone handset. This is like the equivalent of having four cell phones in one device rather than one (tumor, anyone?). The mobile telecom industry is fully aware of the potential carcinogenic effect of their products, but instead of searching for ways to reduce the potential threat to public health, they are multiplying it. This is just plain unethical business practice.

Radiation overload and wireless plankton

Over the last 10 years, physicians have noticed a continuous increase in the number of people with chronic complaints. Doctors have taken blood draws or saliva from patients, and determined in 2012 that one in three patients has radiation overload. In 2002, only one patient in 30 were radiation stressed. In 300 patients with chronic health complaints, 138 of them were caused by radiation (from wireless internet or cell phone tech). These numbers have gotten worse with 3G and ubiquitous Wi-Fi hot spots around the world. How bad are these numbers going to get with the 4G/LTE network?

Plankton were used in experiments to test the adverse properties of wireless signals in lab tests. In these experiments, the wireless-exposed plankton died or were deformed within several days of chronic exposure. With Wi-Fi it took 96 hours, 3G took 72 hours, and with 4G the plankton died within 48 hours. Since all living organisms ultimately escape the effects that unnatural radiation has on them, we must ask ourselves this: If wireless radiation is killing or deforming plankton, what is it doing to us?

Source: natural news

Smoking during pregnancy may raise heart defects risk in babies

Pregnant Woman Smoking

Researchers have shown that risk for congenital anomalies is highest among babies born to older women who smoke.

The authors of this study used birth certificate data and hospital discharge records from Washington state to determine if maternal smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy is linked to heart defects and if so, what types of defects.

Lead author Patrick M. Sullivan, MD, FAAP, clinical fellow in pediatric cardiology at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a master’s student in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health, said I care for kids with complex congenital heart disease on a daily basis, and I see these kids and their families enduring long hospitalizations and often sustaining serious long-term complications as a result of their disease.

Sullivan said usually, the cause of a heart defect is unknown. I saw this research as an opportunity to study what might be a preventable cause of congenital heart defects.

Using hospital discharge records, researchers identified 14,128 children born with a variety of heart defects from 1989-2011. They matched these cases to 62,274 children without heart defects born in the same year.

Then, they compared the proportion of children with heart defects whose mothers reported smoking during pregnancy to the proportion of children without heart defects whose mothers smoked. Mothers’ smoking status, as well as how much they smoked daily, was available from birth certificates.

Newborns whose mothers smoked were at about a 50 to 70 percent greater risk for anomalies of the valve and vessels that carry blood to the lungs (pulmonary valve and pulmonary arteries) and about a 20 percent greater risk for holes in the wall separating the two collecting chambers of the heart (atrial septal defects). All of these defects often require invasive procedures to correct.

Source: deccan chronicle