Headaches
Trigger Points are associated with many headaches, including tension headaches and migraines.
Those pain pills you think help your migraines? Take too many and you could make them worse. Overusing painkillers can spin migraine patients into a rut, spurring more headaches that in turn require more pain medication. A very unlucky fraction even get what's called chronic migraine, where they're in pain more days than not, and new research suggests certain prescription painkillers, including narcotics, increase that risk.[81]
Migraine sufferers often describe "seeing" showers of shooting stars, zigzagging lines and flashing lights, and experiencing loss of vision, weakness, tingling or confusion, followed by intense throbbing head pain, nausea and vomiting.
With one in eight Americans suffering from chronic migraines, and only 50 to 60 percent of migraine patients respond to traditional migraine drug treatments, Dr. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist and principal investigator of the study at Ohio State's Medical Center, says that the noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulator (TMS) device interrupts the aura phase of the migraine, often described as electrical storms in the brain, before they lead to headaches.
The TMS device sends a strong electric current through a metal coil, which creates an intense magnetic field for about one millisecond.
Of the 164 patients involved in the multi-center, randomized clinical trial receiving TMS treatment, 39 percent were pain free at the two-hour post-treatment point, compared to 22 percent in the group receiving "sham" pulses.[82]
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Muscle Physiology
Relating to the motor innervation of intrafusal muscle fibers by efferent neurons of the gray matter of the spinal cord,
the gamma efferents are of two functionally distinct kinds with different effects on the afferent fibres, especially on the primary ending. One type, the dynamic fusimotor axon, increases the normal sensitivity of the primary ending to movement; the other type, the static fusimotor axon, decreases its sensitivity, causing it to behave much more like a...
In addition to receiving specialized fusimotor fibres, the muscle spindle may also receive, though on a less-regular basis, branches of ordinary extrafusal motor axons. Called alpha efferents, these fibres have either a static or a dynamic effect. The physiologically important point is that most of the motor supply to the muscle spindles is largely independent of that of the ordinary muscle fibres, and only a small part is obligatorily coupled with them. The specific mechanisms by which the sensitivity of the spindle is regulated remain obscure; they may differ from muscle to muscle and for movements of different kinds.[66].
Muscle strains should be treated frequently during the first 48 hours.
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Muscle Dysfunction, Diseases, Conditions and Treatments
In 2003, musculoskeletal symptoms (including pain, ache, soreness, discomfort, cramps, contractures, spasms, limitation of movement, stiffness, weakness, swelling, lump, mass and tumors) were the number 2 reason for physician visits - almost 56 million physician visits for musculoskeletal injuries in 2003 - accounting for 56 percent of all visits for injury[44].
One in seven Americans has a musculoskeletal impairment, costing the United States $215 billion yearly[45].
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Fascia and Myofascial Release
The First International Fascia Research Congress, was held in 2007 at The Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
It was the brainchild of Thomas Findley, an M.D.-Ph.D. co-director of research at the VA Medical Center in East Orange, New Jersey. For 30 years, Findley has been studying the science behind rehabilitation medicine; he is also director of research at the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, Colorado, which trains and certifies Rolfers. He became convinced early on that fascia--which weaves its way through the body like a gossamer blanket, cradling organs, ensheathing bones, and providing structural support--plays a key role in how patients respond to treatment. He wanted to learn more, but there were no identifiable fascia researchers.
Findley also wanted to bring in clinicians, but he knew that M.D.s wouldn't cut it. Some researchers have speculated that fascial anomalies may be responsible for black box disorders like fibromyalgia and lower back pain, yet doctors have traditionally ignored the tissue. Medical books barely mention fascia, and anatomical displays remove it. "It's just not sexy," says Elizabeth Montgomery, a pathologist who specializes in soft tissue at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
It was 9:00 in the morning on the first day of the conference, and Paul Standley, a vascular physiologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, was describing his work on fibroblasts, the chief type of cell found in fascia. When Standley's team placed the cells on flexible collagen and stretched the collagen in ways that replicated repetitive motion strains on the body, many cells died. But when the team followed the strains by stretching the collagen in ways that approximate techniques like Rolfing, more cells survived. The audience erupted.
"It's rare to see such enthusiasm at a conference," says Grinnell, a cell biologist at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "I was really struck by it."
Cell biologists spoke about how fascial cells alter gene expression in response to force, while biomechanics researchers detailed how interactions between fascial cells and the extracellular matrix contribute to whole body mobility.
For their part, the scientists had some problems connecting with the clinicians. Huijing's fears of stigma seemed to be borne out when he interacted with one group of attendees. "They started talking about aura," he says. "I don't want my name associated with that." And Giulio Gabbiani, a cell biologist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who studies connective tissue and wound healing, acknowledged difficulty discussing some concepts with the practitioners. "It's like we were talking two different languages," he says.
"You need people who can do good basic science and clinicians who can inform them about their experiences," says the program officer with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), "It's the only way to advance the field."
"I heard clinicians talking about how manipulating fascial stiffness was key to their interventions," says UT Southwestern's Grinnell. Now he plans to study the cell biological basis of stiffness and how it might contribute to wound repair and scarring. Huijing says he also learned new things from the alternative therapists--and he found that he had something to teach them as well. Establishing fascia research as a legitimate field, he says, will guarantee that these interactions continue.[83]
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Fat and Adipose Tissue
Scientists have known for years that "brown fat" helps small mammals, human babies and small children generate body heat by burning calories.
Doctors are finally admitting that this "brown adipose tissue" could be a new way to attack the obesity epidemic.
Some people have always just assumed that the amount of this fat dwindles to nothing by the time people reach adulthood. But three studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that most adults could have enough brown fat to help lose weight.
Brown-adipose-tissue activity was observed in 23 of the 24 subjects (96%) during cold exposure but not under thermoneutral conditions. The activity was significantly lower in the overweight or obese subjects than in the lean subjects. The study concluded that the
percentage of young men with brown adipose tissue is high, but its activity is reduced in men who are overweight or obese, and that brown adipose tissue may be metabolically important in men[73].
Defined regions of functionally active brown adipose tissue are present in adult humans, and the amount of brown adipose tissue is inversely correlated with body-mass index, especially in older people, suggesting a potential role of brown adipose tissue in adult human metabolism[74].
"Using positron-emission tomography (PET), we found that cold-induced glucose uptake was increased by a factor of 15 in paracervical and supraclavicular adipose tissue in five healthy subjects. We obtained biopsy specimens of this tissue from the first three consecutive subjects and documented messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels of the brown-adipocyte marker, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Together with morphologic assessment, which showed numerous multilocular, intracellular lipid droplets, and with the results of biochemical analysis, these findings document the presence of substantial amounts of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in healthy adult humans"[75].
This means that people with brown fat were able to metabolize glucose at a rate 15 times higher than normal when exposed to cold.
This means that brown fat consumed energy rather than stored it-
this is a fat that helps you lose weight and stay warm.
Dr. Aaron Cypress of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, who led one of the studies and reviewed PET-CT scans of nearly 2,000 patients, said,
"Fifty grams of maximally activated brown fat accounts for 20 percent of your resting energy expenditure. If you add that up, that's 400 or 500 calories per day.
The people who had brown fat tended to be leaner and younger. The old and obese (and, interestingly, those taking prescription beta blocker heart drugs) weren't as likely to have brown fat.
Trisoma believes- "use it or lose it!" and "use it to lose it."
Not putting on a jacket whenever the temperature dips below 70 degrees, may train your brown fat and may help you keep warm and burn calories.
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Stress, Eustress, Destress
Stress is difficult for scientists to define because it is a subjective sensation associated with varied symptoms that differ for each person. Increased stress increases productivity – up to a point, after which things rapidly deteriorate, and that level also differs for each of us. Much like the tension on a violin string, not enough produces a dull, raspy sound, and too much an irritating screech or snaps the string – but just the correct degree of stress creates a beautiful tone. Similarly, we all have to find the right amount of stress that permits us to make pleasant music in our daily lives[39].
These days, stressors have become intangible, mental irritants that can't be cleansed by a sudden rush of kinetic energy.
Up to 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints, and stress accounts for $26 billion in medical and disability payments and $95 billion in lost productivity per year, and over 50% of lost work days are stress related which keeps about 1 million people per day from attending work[30].
Health care expenditures are nearly 50% greater for workers who report high levels of stress[32]
and 40% of job turnover is due to stress[33].
Medical school research indicated that a 15-minute chair massage results in decreased job stress, increased alertness and increased speed & accuracy on math computations, and that office workers massaged regularly were more alert, performed better and were less stressed than those who weren't massaged[31].
The effects of stress may alter the immune response and increase susceptibility to disease[34,35].
Stress can also play a role in the onset and course of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis[34,36].
In addition, stress may prompt changes in health behavior, such as taking up smoking or increased smoking, eating, alcohol consumption, and unhealthy weight gain are potential responses[35,37].
Job stress is estimated to cost American Industry $300 billion a year, more than the net profits of all the Fortune 500 companies combined and ten times the costs for all strikes; 40% of job turnover is due to job stress; 60% to 80% of on-the-job accidents are stress-related; 75% to 90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints or conditions; Health care expenditures are nearly 50% greater for workers who report high stress levels[40].
According to Statistics Canada, from 1992 to 1998, the proportion of "severe stress" reported by Canadians climbed 25% for men and
23% for women; and stress as a reason for work absence has increased 316 percent since 1995.
Data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS of Canada) show that feeling personal stress in 1994/95 was predictive of developing chronic conditions over the next four years, even when age, socio-economic status and several health-related behaviours (smoking, drinking, body mass index, leisure-time physical activity) were taken into account. Men who had experienced high personal stress in 1994/95 had about twice the odds of having been diagnosed with migraine, ulcers or arthritis by 1998/99, compared with those who had not reported high personal stress. For women, high personal stress in 1994/95 was associated with significantly high odds of a new diagnosis of chronic bronchitis/ emphysema, ulcers, asthma, back problems, or arthritis by 1998/99.
More generally, men and women who experienced high personal stress had significantly low odds of having "continuing good health"[38].
It is becoming increasingly clear that psychosocial stress can manifest as system-wide perturbations of cellular processes, generally increasing oxidative stress and promoting a pro-inflammatory milieu[11][12][13]. Stress associated changes in peripheral blood leukocyte expression of single genes have been identified[14][15][16]. More recently, chronic psychosocial stress has been associated with accelerated aging at the cellular level.
Specifically, shortened telomeres, low telomerase activity, decreased anti-oxidant capacity and increased oxidative stress are correlated with increased psychosocial stress[17] and with increased vulnerability to a variety of disease states[18].
Stress-related changes in GEP have been demonstrated by microarray analysis in healthy subjects, including up-regulation of several cytokines/chemokines and their receptors[19], and in individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, including inflammation, apoptosis and stress response[20] as well as metabolism and RNA processing pathways[21]. The pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-kappa B (NF-?B) which is activated by psychosocial stress has been identified as a potential link between stress and oxidative cellular activation[22].
The RR is clinically effective for ameliorating symptoms in a variety of stress-related disorders including cardiovascular, autoimmune and other inflammatory conditions and pain[23].
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Relaxation
Emerging medical research shows that the relaxation response (RR) by various forms of meditation, repetitive prayer, yoga, tai chi, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, biofeedback, guided imagery and Qi Gong for only 8 weeks actually changes genetic expression for the better, because unbalanced stress shortens the tip of telomeres, accelerating the death of the cells. This new research shows that relaxation techniques such as meditation, actually "turn off" the disease-promoting process that stress causes[1].
Over the years, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of research studies revealing many adjuvant health and healing benefits of regular relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer, visualization, and so on, including the picture of a much younger brain. Regions involved in memory and attention were thicker in people who meditated regularly. While these areas tend to shrink with age, older meditators were able to ward off some of this shrinkage[2,3].
In many research studies over three decades, meditation has been shown to help your heart, reduce anxiety, soften chronic pain, and increase longevity[2].
Other consistent physiologic changes observed in long-term practitioners of RR techniques include decreased carbon dioxide elimination, reduced blood pressure,
decreased oxygen consumption[8,9,10],
heart and respiration rate[24][6][7],
prominent low frequency heart rate oscillations[8]and alterations in cortical and subcortical brain regions[9][10].
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Sun - Vitamin D, Sunscreens...
For decades we’ve been told to cover our skin with chemical sunscreens to block out the rays of the sun — or else we might face skin cancer and premature aging.
Many sunscreens contain minute particles of the same chemicals found in diesel fuel. Researchers know that when these chemicals are inhaled by test animals, they penetrate every part of the brain and there is no way to remove them.
Scientists now believe there is a link between sunscreen chemicals and brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The worry is that the same chemicals in sunscreen can be absorbed by the skin and also end up permanently in the brain.
European researchers are about to begin a 3-year study to explore the links between sunscreen and brain diseases.
Jon Herring and Dr. Al Sears, authors of a groundbreaking book on the positive health benefits of sun exposure, advise to forego sunscreen, if at all possible. They say to get out of the sun if you are burning, or use shade, clothing or an umbrella to limit your exposure; and if you must use sunscreen, choose a physical sun block, like zinc oxide.
Dr. Herbert M. Shelton writes that many things told about the "dangers of the sun" are lies, and thousands of peer-reviewed medical studies show proof.
Vitamin D Is FREE from the Sun, and
Jon Herring and Al Sears, M.D., state that studies conclude that it protects humans from depression, diabetes, osteoporosis and bone loss, heart disease, breast cancer, autoimmune illness, athletic performance, brain function, neonatal health and more. They point out data that people whose occupation keeps them outside have LOWER rates of the deadly skin cancer, melanoma; that kids that grow up in sunny climates have fewer cavities, that vitamin D supplements given to babies in Finland reduced their risk of Type 1 diabetes by 85 percent; that even your risk of the deadly skin cancer melanoma could go up if you avoid spending time in the sun.
According to several experts, virtually 100 percent of the US population is deficient in this substance at least part of the year.
Years ago, did you hear anyone worrying about melanoma?
It's because fewer people had it.
Then, starting in 1973, melanoma cases began climbing -- right around the time we stopped going outside, living in fluorescent lighting and using sunscreen chemicals.
One study in Australia -- one of the sunniest places on earth -- found that office workers were more likely to get melanoma than lifeguards. Another found that melanoma is more common in Ohio than sun-soaked Florida.
Another study, published in Nature Genetics, found that the number of moles you have (another genetic condition) is one of the strongest risk factors for melanoma. Not the sun.
Most so-called professionals still refuse to make the connection -- probably because so many of them profit off our bizarre and unnecessary fear of bright afternoons.
Some studies show that this gunk can actually increase your risk of skin cancer. Then, be sure to spend a little more time in the sun. Get back inside before you burn, but not because you fear cancer -- but because sunburn hurts.
(From William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. on 30 Oct. 09)
In November 2009 it was confirmed that human sperm has a vitamin D receptor, and analysis also indicated that vitamin D is produced locally in the sperm. Dr. Anne Clark, a fertility specialist:, wrote that "Vitamin D and folate deficiency are known to be associated with infertility in women, but the outcomes of the screening among men in our study group came as a complete surprise. Men in the study group who agreed to make lifestyle changes and take dietary supplements had surprisingly good fertility outcomes."
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Diet habits and education begin in childhood, but schools seem to be taking control.
One Arizona school's hunt for Advil in 2003 led to a 13-year-old Savana Redding being strip searched by an assistant principal. The parents sued and lost, but after two rounds of appeal got victory from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit with a thin 6-5 margin.
A student in the South Middleton School District in Pennsylvania received a 10-day school suspension for taking vitamins to school, violating the school's drug policy.
Recently schools conducted witch hunts to find peanut butter sandwiches as though they were weapons of mass destruction.
New York University sociology professor Richard Arum cautions, "Do we really want to encourage cases where students and parents are seeking monetary damages against educators in such school-specific matters when reasonable people can disagree about what is appropriate under the circumstances?"
Meanwhile the FDA prepares to take control of supplements, so that a doctor's prescription may soon be necessery for buying vitamins.
Mainstream medicine erred for decades
by insisting and defending the cholesterol theory of heart disease to the detriment of countless people worldwide, is what Dr. Dwight Lundell, a thoracic surgeon who performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, stated.
Dr. Lundell's new book, "The Great Cholesterol Lie", states that, "It is time to right a grievous wrong. Everyone should question the cholesterol theory for after all, heart disease soared year after year despite millions of statin prescriptions dispensed worldwide. We must stop chasing a tragic, worn out and faulty theory." Dr. Lundell claims that he knows what causes heart disease- inflammation that he saw in arteries of every surgical patient. Unlike treating cholesterol with medication, inflammation is treated simply by elimination of foods that cause it with the addition of essential nutrients bringing inflammation to healthy levels.
Beta-carotene and vitamins C and E are three antioxidants that protect your eyes from vision-altering free-radical damage. "We know that these antioxidants help decrease vision loss in patients with age-related macular degeneration," says Peter Kaiser, M.D., a retinal surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.
Food and Feed.
The great edifice of variety and choice that is an American supermarket turns out to rest on a remarkably narrow biological foundation comprised of a tiny group of plants that is dominated by a single species: Zea mays, the giant tropical grass most Americans know as corn. Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature that the fish farmers are reengineering to tolerate corn. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn. Head over to the processed foods and you find ever more intricate manifestations of corn. A chicken nugget, for example, piles corn upon corn: what chicken it contains consists of corn, of course, but so do most of a nugget’s other constituents, including the modified corn starch that glues the thing together, the corn flour in the batter that coats it, and the corn oil in which it gets fried. Much less obviously, the leavenings and lecithin, the mono-, di-, and triglycerides, the attractive golden coloring, and even the citric acid that keeps the nugget “freshâ€
can all be derived from corn. To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn. Since the 1980s virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold in the supermarket have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient. Grab a beer for your beverage instead and you’d still be drinking corn, in the form of alcohol fermented from glucose refined from corn. Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and, provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find. For modified or unmodified
starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and xanthan gum, read: corn. Corn is in the coffee whitener and Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and TV dinner, the canned fruit and ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes, the frosting and gravy and frozen waffles, the syrups and hot sauces, the mayonnaise and mustard, the hot dogs and the bologna, the margarine and shortening, the salad dressings and the relishes and even the vitamins. (Yes, it’s in the Twinkie, too.) There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn[26].
“When you look at the (Carbon 13) isotope ratios,†Todd Dawson, a Berkeley biologist who’s done this sort of research, told me, “we North Americans look like corn chips with legs.†Compared to us, Mexicans today consume a far more varied diet: the animals they eat still eat grass (until recently, Mexicans regarded feeding corn to livestock as a sacrilege); much of their protein comes from legumes; and they still sweeten their beverages with cane sugar[26].
BPA is a chemical estrogen that seeps into the foods and drinks that are often found in containers made from these plastics - like baby formula, for example. It's been linked to all manner of hideous maladies: liver problems, brain disorder, heart disease, hormonal disruption, diabetes, and more. BPA can cause young kids to retain toxins in their bodies for abnormally long periods.
In all, over 130 studies in the last decade have connected the development of serious health issues with BPA. Recent studies have shown that it doesn't take much BPA to start having a negative impact on health – even doses lower than the FDA's standards can be harmful.
Developmental biologist Laura Vandenberg of Tufts University says that the dangers of BPA are "becoming undeniable."
The FDA still insists it's safe, based on two studies that were funded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) – an organization made up of the leaders of the very companies that profit from the manufacture of this dangerous chemical.
In fact, Rochelle Tyl, who authored BOTH the ACC studies backing up the safety of BPA, admitted that the report on which the FDA based its decision-making shouldn't be taken at face value. The ContraCostaTimes reported that Tyl admitted that "there were errors and inconsistencies in the 2008 report that the FDA used as the foundation for its findings." And she did this in front of the very international consortium that's working on a statement condemning the FDA's stance.
HFCS- HealthDay News reported on January 28, 2009 -- Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies. "Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement[27].
In the first study, published in Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS. IATP's Ben Lilliston also told HealthDay that the Environmental Health findings were based on information gathered by the FDA in 2005.
Renee Dufault, the lead author in the first study (â€Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar,†published today in Environmental Health [PDF; abstract here]), was working at the FDA when the commercial HFCS was tested. The IATF release reports, “While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testingâ€[28].
The second study, from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiment products "bought off the shelf in the autumn of 2008," Lilliston stated[29].
Recognize Hunger -
If you have a craving for sweets, imagine eating a large, sizzling steak instead. "If you're truly hungry, the steak will sound good, and you should eat," says Richard Feinman, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, in New York City. "If it doesn't sound good, your brain is playing tricks on you." His advice: Change your environment, which can be as easy as doing 15 pushups or finding a different task to focus on.
Class action lawsuits have been filed against some major grocery store chains for not clearly labeling the salmon "color added".The chains followed up quickly by labeling all such salmon as "color added". "However, Smith & Lowney persisted with the suit for damages, but a Seattle judge dismissed (...)(the case) , ruling that enforcement of the applicable food laws was up to government and not individuals."[25]
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Disease
This page is NOT medical advice! Refer to your health care provider for any questions about your health.
According to several published sources, we were teetering on the brink of a deadly pandemic in January of 2009 because
seasonal flu vaccines manufactured by US-based pharmaceutical company Baxter International had been contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus
called H5N1[69].
The contaminated vaccine made by a Baxter facility in Orth-Donau, Austria was shipped to numerous distributors in Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.
Were it not for the good sense of a lab in the Czech Republic that inoculated ferrets with the serum to check its safety, we might now be facing a global pandemic of avian flu - of which there is a 60% mortality rate.[70]
The fact that the ferrets died soon after they were given the vaccine raised a red flag to scientists and government authorities. Ferrets do not die when exposed to seasonal flu viruses.
What makes this situation even more chilling is that the avian flu virus by itself does not easily infect people. But when mixed with an easily transmissible strain like the seasonal flu virus, the hybrid strain can be just as contagious.
How could Baxter have let this happen? Was it intentional as some people believe? Even the respected Dr. Mercola has his suspicions[71].
A pandemic would certainly trigger a worldwide demand for the avian flu vaccine. Baxter happens to be one of only six international companies licensed to develop flu vaccines. If a pandemic occurred...well, you can do the math in terms of profits to be made.
The other possibility is that Baxter was not following its own stringent biosafety protocol to prevent cross-contamination of infectious materials. This protocol, called Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3), if followed, makes it virtually impossible for a situation like this to occur.[70]
Could a major pharmaceutical company really be so careless in handling an infectious agent that could possibly kill tens of millions of people? If so, should they even be allowed to remain in business?
Christopher Bona, Baxter's Director of Global Bioscience Communications said the cross-contamination occurred as "the result of a combination of just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure"[72]. He declined to say more because he did not want to reveal proprietary secrets about their production process.
The Western media seem to be helping them in keeping the story quiet. Has anyone really heard much about this terrifying near miss from the major news outlets in the US? Do we know if any Baxter employee or executive will be held accountable? Most importantly, can we be assured that this kind of mistake (if it was a mistake) can't and won't happen again?
Digtriad.com News reported that
A nationwide study of health care workers with Swine Flu found many didn't do enough to protect themselves against the virus.
According to the study, only half always wore gloves. Even fewer routinely wore other protection around patients who might have the virus.
Frequent hand washing with soap and water or alcohol based products also prevents spreading of infections like Swine Flu.
But specialists warn people are at risk in any place where there a large gatherings of people.
Swine Flu spreads from respiratory droplets from coughing or sneezing.
Infectious disease specialists say if you're unprotected and within six feet of a person with Swine Flu for roughly an hour you have a one in three chance of getting Swine Flu from those respiratory droplets.
from
http://www.digtriad.com/news/features/article.aspx?storyid=125934&catid=216
Scientists have discovered that exposure to a common pollutant may make people more likely to experience severe symptoms from swine flu — and it’s a pollutant emitted in large quantities by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities.
The culprit is arsenic, a highly poisonous semi-metal which, according to a new study by researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory and Dartmouth Medical School, compromises a person’s ability to mount an immune response to the H1N1 swine flu virus.
Most disturbingly, the study — published last month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives — found that arsenic can weaken the immune response to swine flu even in the low-level exposure levels that are commonly found in contaminated drinking water.
from http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/06/19/friday-roundup-june-19-2009/
April 14, 2009, the Minnesota Department of Health stated that a man, whose age and country of origin was not identified, with symptoms of polio disease, died last month. The officials said that he was infected with a strain of polio used in an oral, live-virus polio vaccine that was discontinued in the U.S. in 2000, suggesting that he caught the infection from someone else who had received the live vaccine before it was pulled from the US market, or from a vaccine used in some developing countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A new group called People for Immunization (PFI) will be traveling across the US in 2009 to reassure the public about the safety and necessity of vaccines. Before they give you their sales pitch, let them answer the questions raised in this article.
A study by Dr. Avni Y. Joshi, a fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found hospitalization rates higher in kids who get flu shots. The study showed that out of 263 children aged 6 months to 18 years who had visited the Mayo Clinic between 1999 and 2006 with laboratory-confirmed influenza, the children who received the annual inactivated flu vaccine were almost three times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were not inoculated. (Presented at American Thoracic Society's annual meeting 2009.)
William Campbell Douglass II, MD has written the book
The Health Benefits of Tobacco about the surprising health BENEFITS of smoking.
"For every inspiring story of a person cured from cancer made possible by early detection, there are untold stories of many more who suffer from the side effects of unnecessary invasive procedures stemming from false positive test results." (From USA Today, by primary care Dr. Kevin Pho.)
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Psychology, Psychiatry and Behavior
Trisoma does not provide psychotherapy, psychological nor medical services. Refer to your health care provider for any questions about your mental or physical health. One psychological phenomenon that is detrimental to physical rehabilitation is when the patient's condition is a characteristic of the social structure. When the patient's pain is reduced and function is increased, the patient's increased independence threatens his or her dysfunctional behavior and status in the social structure.
Watching TV Changes Your Brain Chemistry:
Dr. Mercola wrote that:
While much of the TV debate focuses on advertising messages and the impact of violent or sexually explicit programming on young minds, there's an even more disturbing aspect to television.
As it turns out, TV may be harmful no matter what programs your kids are watching or what ads they're exposed to!
Yes, television in and of itself is one of the most powerful brainwashing devices there is.
According to research by Dr. Aric Sigman, a British psychologist, watching TV actually causes physiological changes – mainly changes in your brain chemistry – and there's nothing beneficial about them.
These changes have little to do with the content you're watching, but rather the fact that when you're watching a TV or computer screen, you're in essence entraining your brain to function and process information differently.
Watching a TV (or computer screen) produces an almost narcotic effect on your brain, actually numbing areas that would be stimulated by other activities, like reading.
And, the longer you watch, the easier your brain slips into a receptive, passive mode, meaning that messages are streamed into your brain without any participation from you. This of course is every advertiser's dream, and accounts for much of the success companies achieve by putting ads on TV.
Watching TV also disrupts the production of the hormone melatonin, according to Dr. Sigman, which could be playing a role in sleep disturbances and even causing early puberty in adolescents.
The 15 Potential Side Effects of Watching TV
Through his research, Dr. Sigman has identified 15 negative effects that he believes can be associated with watching television:
1. Obesity
2. Trouble healing
3. Heart trouble
4. Decreased metabolism
5. Eyesight damage
6. Alzheimer's disease
7. Decreased attention span
8. Hormone disturbances
9. Cancer
10. Early puberty
11. Autism
12. Sleep difficulties
13. Increased appetite
14. Limited brain growth
15. Diabetes
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Dubious Claims, Quacks, Frauds
We believe that a major factor that damages the credibility of massage therapy is when some promote questionable theories or practices, such as claiming, "this will push the toxins out of your body and move your energy."
It is incredible how American voters have been led to believe that government can fabricate money and provide an efficient health care system. Many insurance companies, that cover millions of dollars in treatments for patients, have doctors leaving their programs in droves, due to decreasing compensation. Government-run Medicare may be the best example of this. Despite these facts, people seem to think that they will get "free" healthcare from the government.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), which is noted for pushing drugs as treatment for asthma, and won't even mention Buteyko or other eucapnic breathing therapies, is requesting readers to sign a National Health Council petition "for effective and affordable health care NOW!"
The NHC "Put Patients First" organization, which has a round, O-like logo, has
"Sign Our Petition for Change!" to "demonstrate to elected officials that the public believes we need a health care system that will Put Patients First."
However their goals are to:
Cover Everyone
Curb Costs Responsibly
Abolish Exclusions of Pre-Existing Conditions
Eliminate Lifetime Caps
Ensure Respect at the End of Life. (but not life-saving procedures?)
However there seems to me no discussion for how millions of illegal aliens can continue to receive free health care, and the average person can receive $3-million cancer treatments.
Barefoot compression massage is very effective, however there are many different barefoot modalities and techniques, so make sure that you find a qualified practitioner, and ask enough questions to your satisfaction. If they mention centrifugal or centripetal forces, then ask them what is spinning! When an aerospace engineer, educated in orbital mechanics, wrote to
Deepfeet, Ms. Hardee
and to Adri's video on youtube, to question their claims of
"Gravitational centripetal and centrifugal movements,"
these responses were received:
-2-
-3-.
Trisoma believes that embellished, improper use of technical terms may impress ignorant people, but it can greatly damage the credibility of the art and science of massage therapy and bodywork.
Aromatherapy is being researched with positive results, but it is difficult to assess various potions and nostrums. Use your sense before you spend much money or time on new methods.
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Massage Therapy Reduces Anxiety and Enhances Eeg Pattern of Alertness and Math Computations
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Good, good, good... good vibrations: the best option for better bones?
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This page is NOT medical advice!
Refer to your health care provider for any questions about your health.
This is only a tedious compendium for the curious of selected research that is accumulating about bodywork, massage and related preventive and complementary therapies.
Click at left to skip to sections:
Bamboo flute music from Czech Republic
The First International Fascia Research Congress was held in 2007 at The Harvard Medical School in Boston, and is now an annual conference dedicated to fascia in all its forms and functions.
