Daylight Savings Time and circadian health - NewsGrabs 28 October 2007

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for NewsGrabs every weekend.

In this issue:

Accumulation of sugar in neurons -
Gold eases pain of arthritis -
Sunlight cuts risk of cancers -
Cholesterol NOT The Cause of Heart Disease -
Raw Milk in California -
Daylight savings time disrupts circadian rhythm -
Dying for a diet drink -
Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching -
Prizes, Not Patents, For Drug Discovery -
THE FDA IS MARCHING -
8 More Deaths Linked to Gardasil -
‘Pharm-Free Week’ at Med Schools -
Experts Demand End to Child Drugging -
Guinea Pig Kids and the AIDS Mafia -
Lead's Effect on Violent Crime -
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch -
Regulate Vitamins down to ineffective doses -
Living in CAFO Country

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Accumulation of sugar in neurons may explain origin of neurodegenerative diseases
The breakthroughs on the mechanisms that trigger and block the production of glycogen may be of great use to address the study of other neurodegenerative and neurological diseases. “We have extended the hypothesis of the study to other pathologies in which glycogen has been detected in neurons because our results suggest that this molecule is a part of the problem” comments Guinovart.

How gold eases pain of arthritis
“Now that we have identified at least one of the ways gold can help arthritis sufferers, perhaps we can use that knowledge to build new and safer-acting, gold-based treatments,” says Pisetsky, a senior author of the study.

Sunlight cuts risk of many cancers
The researchers said: "Vitamin D production in the skin seems to decrease the risk of several solid cancers, especially stomach, colo-rectal, liver and gall- bladder, pancreas, lung, female breast, prostate, bladder and kidney cancers." Sunlight plays a vital role in the production of beneficial vitamin D in the body. Although food provides some vitamin D, up to 90 per cent comes from exposure to sunlight.

Most of us are working and see little of the sun, and some of us are living in countries that have extreme winter seasons - they can't see the sun even if they wanted, during the winter months. So it seems quite legitimate, and a bit of an omission by the journalist, to add that much the same effect can be achieved by just popping a pill with the nutrient that our skin produces when we do get into the sun.

Cholesterol Is NOT The Cause of Heart Disease
Importantly, many solid scientific studies have shown a mechanistic, causal effect of elevated insulin and leptin on heart and vascular disease, whereas almost all studies with cholesterol misleadingly only show an association. Association does not imply cause. For instance, something else may be causing lipid abnormalities such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and also causing heart disease. This "something else" is improper insulin and leptin signaling.

No More Raw Milk in California?
Assembly Bill #1735 (AB 1735) was signed by the Governor and becomes law on January 1st 2008. Contained in this law are new standards for raw milk. These new standards require 10 coliform bacteria per ml or less. This standard does not increase the safety of raw milk and it will make the production of organic raw milk in California nearly impossible. Under the old tried and true old standards that have been in existence for forty years or more, coliforms could be 50 or 500. It did not matter. Coliforms are not pathogenic. They do not cause disease. They actually act very effectively to protect raw milk against pathogens...

Daylight savings time disrupts humans' natural circadian rhythm
“While we generally think that the time changes enforced by the DST transitions are ‘only an hour,’ they have far more drastic effects if viewed in the context of the circadian clock’s seasonal changes,” Roenneberg said. “This seemingly small hour translates to a repeat of 10 weeks in the annual progression of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle and dawn—four weeks in spring and six weeks in autumn. In effect, it’s as if the entire population of Germany, for example, is transported to Morocco in spring and back again in autumn.”

Indeed, “after taking the seasonal adjustment into account, our results show that the human circadian clock does not adjust to the DST transition,” Roenneberg said. “This is especially obvious in the late chronotypes in spring when one looks at their daily activity patterns. Essentially, their biological timing stays on standard, winter time, while they have to adjust their social schedules to the advanced clock time throughout the summer.”

Dying for a diet drink
Aspartame is 180 times as sweet as sugar, with fewer calories and it's a 100 per cent certain bet that most New Zealand dieters and diabetics are consuming aspartame in some form with the full approval of their doctors and local diabetic club.

Animals and insects have a lot more natural intelligence than human beings when it comes down to food and they all avoid aspartame - cockroaches won't eat it, cats and dogs won't eat it, ants won't eat it and flies won't eat it - but politicians and food regulators worldwide consider it safe enough for us.

Aspartame, that synthetic, genetically engineered sweetener, is now found in everything from Coke and Pepsi diet drinks, Wrigley's sugarless chewing gum and Weight Watchers products to common drugs and dietary supplements available at your local pharmacy and "health food" shop. Labelled as additive 951 it has been available to the Western diet as a sweetener since 1981 under various brand names - Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, Benevia or Equal Measure.

Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching
There remains room for hope. As Greger states in the Introduction, "[if] changes in human behaviour can cause new plagues, changes in human behaviour may prevent them in the future." A radical change from factory farming to less intensive methods including free-range farming is needed, especially in the poultry industry, in which "humanity must shift toward raising poultry in smaller flocks, under less stressful, less crowded and more hygienic conditions, with outdoor access."

Prizes, Not Patents, For Drug Discovery
Here’s a way to achieve patent reform - blow up the system. And that’s what Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, is proposing in legislation he introduced late last week. The bill, which is, in part, the brainchild of consumer activists who follow patent issues, would eliminate market exclusivity for new drugs, but would give inventors or developers cash rewards from a new “Medical Innovation Prize Fund.” A key requirement - the products have to improve health outcomes.

THE FDA IS MARCHING
We now have a bizarre situation in this country that is considered “law.” Under first amendment protection Big Pharma can actively promote extremely dangerous drugs in glitzy ads in order to turn a new drug into a blockbuster – even though the risks are unknown and often include death. That’s right, deaths from drugs have doubled in the last five years mostly due to new drugs and FDA incompetence in tracking these drugs. On the other hand, dietary supplement companies cannot promote safe alternatives to these dangerous drugs even when backed by legitimate science, violating the first amendment rights of dietary supplement companies and consumers.

8 More Deaths Linked to Gardasil HPV Vaccine
Although the HPV virus is prevalent, it is estimated that only 1% of those infected with HPV will eventually get cervical cancer. However, Merck's aggressively promoted HPV vaccine has already been implicated in 11 deaths since its approval last year. Given the sparse safety data and minimal efficacy data, AHRP is on record in opposition to mandatory HPV vaccination because it is reckless and irresponsible to mandate exposing 11- to 12-year-old girls to the risks of harm o