Global Cooling? - NewsGrabs 9 March 2008

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NewsGrabs

Health Supreme's NewsGrabs - a selection of contrary and underprivileged news in health and (mostly) related sectors. Find what trends you may have missed - watch out for the weekly NewsGrabs.

Here is this week's selection for you:

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling (PDF)

There has been a one-year trend of cooling temperatures globally, as verified by the major temperature tracking stations, in 2007. It is too early to say if this is a reversal of the warming observed for the last decades, but it certainly is dramatic and it's unexpected.

Global warming is not as clear-cut a thing as we are expected to believe, nor is the theory that says the warming we observe is due to human-generated increase in atmospheric CO2. Evidently, the global warming debate is far from over.

But the important point is not whether there is, or not, global warming, neither is it whether that warming is caused by human activities. The really important point is that our industrial activities are polluting our environment (air and water) in a completely untenable way. Planet Earth is becoming slowly uninhabitable for human life, because of dirty technologies polluting the environment both chemically and electromagnetically. THAT is the problem, not global warming.

Kids tucked in with a dose of melatonin
Melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain, helps regulate the body's sleep-wake cycle, and its production is determined by light and dark. When darkness falls, the gland produces more melatonin, which promotes sleep.

Used with care and circumspection, melatonin can make a positive difference where someone has real trouble going to sleep. Certainly it would seem preferable to the chemical "tranqulizers" so freely prescribed today.

Magnesium - Epsom Salt Baths
Many people are deficient in magnesium, and by simply soaking in a relaxing bath with magnesium-rich Epsom salt we can boost our levels of this important element. Magnesium is the second-most abundant element in human cells and the fourth-most important positively charged ion in the body. Magnesium - the key component of Epsom Salt -- performs more functions in more systems of the human body than virtually any other mineral. Magnesium is an electrolyte, helping to ensure proper muscle, nerve and enzyme function. Magnesium is critical to the proper use of calcium in cells and it is an aid in helping to prevent heart disease and strokes by lowering blood pressure, protecting the elasticity of arteries, preventing blood clots and reducing the risk of sudden heart attack deaths. Magnesium also helps the body regulate over 325 enzymes, helps ease stress and improves sleep and concentration, plays an important role in organizing many bodily functions, like muscle control, helps regulate electrical (nerve) impulses, helps prevent artery hardening and blood clots, helps make insulin more effective, reduces inflammation to relieve pain and muscle cramps and helps improve oxygen use, energy production and the elimination of harmful toxins.

We tend to forget these simple things over our excitement of hearing about the latest and greatest discovery by pharma of the new medicine they promise will take care of our ills - until we find out that it actually killed a lot of people and is withdrawn from the market or sold with a stern "black box" warning.

So why not get back to basics - the very substances our bodies are made out of, the things they need to run properly. Like magnesium for instance.

Sugar: Too Sweet to be True
It's no secret that America has a love affair with sugar — and why not? It tastes great, gives you energy and can even elevate your mood. What's not to like? This is the crux of the problem. How can something that tastes so good be so bad for us?

Keep your laws off my germ-resistant hook - EPA versus the antimicrobial keychain
Apparently, the EPA thinks that, because of those pesky silver particles, the product may be considered a pesticide according to a 1947 law: "The law at issue the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, better known as FIFRA was conceived in 1947 to protect humans from agri-chemicals sprayed by the millions of gallons to kill weeds, plant viruses and bugs." Since nanoparticles are so new, they have not been thoroughly evaluated for safety...

Top Heart Expert Urges FDA to Retract Health Claim for Soy Protein
“We have filed this petition because there was never a sound basis for a soy health claim and the heavy marketing of soy as a 'miracle food' has put American men, women and children at risk.” says Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food and lead author of the 65-page petition filed this morning at the FDA offices in Rockville, Maryland. “The heart health claim gave soy a “healthy” image and quickly boosted sales from under one billion per year to more than $4 billion per year.”

BT Allergy in North India
Genetically engineered (BT) cotton planted widely in India is causing allergies in farmers and animals, in addition to having killed thousands of sheep in Andhra Pradesh, as they grazed on the cotton plants that remained in the fields after harvest.

"The itching started to appear during the Bt cotton season this year. The village Ayurvedic Hospital Compounder says that on average, 10 cases of skin allergy/itching symptoms in humans come to the hospital every day, and there is an increasing trend over the past three or so years. Even cotton factory workers in the area are complaining of itching problem. Itching is observed mainly on the skin and in reproductive organs. Animals are also affected. On average, 5-10 cases of skin allergy/itching in buffaloes are presented at the village veterinary hospital daily."

Yes, Monsanto and company, including government regulators tell us that GM has been researched to the hilt. They are plainly lying. The damage will only become obvious when people start dying en masse and it is too late to contain the modified plants as the genes pass into the environment to be expressed by weeds and contaminated traditional varieties...

Forcing Psychiatric Drugs Can Increase Violence
PsychRights’ President Jim Gottstein declared, “People’s rights in forced drugging proceedings are ignored as a matter of course, resulting in great harm to them and decreased public safety.” David Oaks, Director of MindFreedom International (MFI), noted, “Violence by a few individuals labeled ‘mentally ill’ has led to a backlash calling for a massive increase in forced psychiatric drugging.” Mr. Gottstein added, “Contrary to public perception, forcing people to take psychiatric drugs can often increase violence, rather than decrease it.”

UK Minister Wants All Antidepressant Trial Data
Drugmakers are going to be ’shamed’ into handing over their clinical-trial data on the effects of antidepressants, amid growing concern that the pills may not work as well as originally promised, The Guardian reports.

A government minister has taken the unprecedented step of calling on pharma to give the data to the body that will review the current depression guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or NICE. Ivan Lewis, the minister with responsibility for mental health, says that ‘a failure to do so would leave the inevitable impression they had something to hide.’

Congress: Hearing on Psych Drugging of Children
The irresponsible drugging of children in foster care is the subject of a hearing by the House Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the Ways and Means Committee, on Wednesday, March 12.

Psychotropic medications have been increasingly prescribed for children in recent years, but the use of these drugs appears to be particularly elevated for children in foster care. One recent study found that psychotropic drug treatment was three or four times more common for youth in foster care than for other children receiving health care services through the Medicaid program. Additionally, children in foster care are often prescribed multiple psychotropic medications, and sometimes these drugs are used for off-label purposes (i.e., meaning their effects have not been demonstrated in children). These medicines are most commonly used to treat depression, anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Alaska: Millions of dollars at stake in Zyprexa trial
The state of Alaska sued Eli Lilly in 2006, alleging the company failed to warn of serious health risks for people who take Zyprexa, including the risk of diabetes. It wants the company to cover treatment costs of Medicaid patients who suffered serious health problems after being on the drug.

But Eli Lilly says the state has two irreconcilable positions -- at the same time the state is suing the company, it continues seeking court orders to force mental patients to take the very drug it says is so harmful. Zyprexa has been prescribed for more than 23 million people since its initial approval in 1996, according to Lilly, and it still is being prescribed in the United States and more than 80 other countries. Global sales of Zyprexa last year topped $4.8 billion.

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