Did you know that lefties typically have better hearing than righties? Or that presidents are more likely to be left-handed? Both true. But chances are you’re more familiar with the less exciting side effects of being a southpaw. Case in point: the nickname southpaw. Here, 18 things only left-handed people understand.
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The black spots on old banana peels may unlock a faster, easier diagnosis of human skin cancer, boosting survival chances, scientists said Monday.
When bananas ripen, their skin is covered in small, round black spots caused by an enzyme known as tyrosinase.
The same enzyme is present in human skin, and in greater quantities in people suffering from melanoma — a potentially deadly form of skin cancer.
A team of scientists used this observed commonality to build a cancer scanner, which they then refined and tested at length on banana peels before moving on to human tissue.
First, researchers at the Laboratory of Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry in Switzerland concluded that the enzyme is a reliable marker of melanoma growth. (Read more from “This Fruit May Help Detect, Cure Skin Cancer” HERE)
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When most people see cheap prices at the gas pump, they only think of how it benefits their wallet. Full Measure correspondent Scott Thuman notes gas prices are the lowest since 2009, but there’s a price to pay for saving at the pump.
“Gas prices in the U.S. are averaging $1.80 a gallon, more than a dollar less from the peak last year,” says Thuman. “In many American households, cheaper gas goes a long way toward balancing the family budget; but for hundreds of thousands of families tied to the industry, they’re paying a high price for low-cost oil.”
The gauges at the gas pump are spinning lower and lower. Current prices are under $2 a gallon in most states. The jaw-dropping cheap prices even became a major bragging point in President Obama’s recent state of the union address. “Gas under two bucks a gallon ain’t bad either,” the president quipped . . .
The current oil bust is rattling stock markets around the world. U.S. stocks produced their weakest start in January since 2009. Patron says cheap oil could also impact the banking sector; and that, too, is contributing to a jittery stock market.
“Particularly the independent companies that are active in the U.S shale,” said Patron, “that borrowed heavily to finance their production. Prices have dropped, revenue has dropped, and so they could default on these loans. If that happens, banks could be left with billions of dollars of bad loans. The bond holders could lose their investment; and this increases the risks associated with investing and markets at a time when there’s already heightened concern about China.” (Read more from “The Untold Problems of Cheap Gasoline” HERE)
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), charged with the mandate to protect the public’s food supply, openly admits its liability in the deaths of Americans, mostly in the form of heart attacks. That is far from the full story. What the giant government agency hides is its culpability in the recent rise in brain diseases that continue to claim both memory and lives.
A broad alert from the FDA should read:
· Research links processed foods to a proliferation of deadly brain diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
· Studies reveal a food ingredient is connected to memory loss that impacts learning acuity in schoolchildren and lessened productivity in the workplace among adults.
The FDA concedes that under its watch it has allowed so-called “Frankenstein oils” to permeate Americans’ processed food supply. On public record, the FDA states that partially hydrogenated oils (and their derivatives, trans fats), have caused thousands of heart attacks and deaths annually. The FDA would like it to be old news, swept under the rug. What the FDA hopes to bury from public knowledge is that the “killer oils” have proven to be more deadly than disclosed.
The bad oils that have been fed to Americans for over five decades have now been linked to the increase in deadly brain diseases. In an official release, the FDA admits that the laboratory-engineered oils cause “memory loss” without telling the full story to the American public of a scientific link to long-term, physical damage to the brains of people of all ages. The FDA’s admittance of wrongdoing evades full disclosure. The agency remains conspicuously mute on the recent scientific link of the oils to the sudden increase of incurable brain diseases. An early symptom, of which, is memory loss.
Among the scientists interviewed in the newly released book, “AGING: WARNING – Navigating Life’s Medical, Mental & Financial Minefields,” Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb, a renowned researcher at the University of California, San Diego, provides insight:
Q. Are “partially hydrogenated oils” and their derivatives, trans fats, toxic?
A. If “toxic” is defined by the ability to confer harm, then yes, overwhelmingly evidence indicates that trans fats/partially hydrogenated oils are “toxic”.
Q. These oils are notorious in scientific circles for being bad for the body; what is the mental impact?
A. The brain has a few important functions. One is regulation of mood. One is regulation of behavior (e.g. to control irritability/aggression). One is regulation of cognition [ability to think]. Our data have found trans fat [partially hydrogenated oil] consumption to be adversely linked to each of the three.
Q. Does this loss of memory indicate loss of brain cells?
A. Evidence shows that trans fats increase inflammation (brain inflammation is bad for memory) and increase oxidative stress, the kind of damage that antioxidants protect against – which is bad for memory – it can kill cells, and it can impair cell energy which can kill cells. But these effects can also impair function without killing cells.
Q. How does memory loss in young, working Americans, due to their consumption of these fats, [partially hydrogenated oils] impact their lives?
A. That was not an aspect of our study. But certainly, less favorable memory function is expected to translate to less favorable performance in school and in the workplace. Less favorable performance can constrain career choices, affect job performance, and thus influence career trajectories.
Q. What is the value, if any, for using industrially-fabricated oils in our processed food supply?
A. I used to tell my patients that trans fats improve the shelf life of the food, but reduce the shelf life of the person.
Of critical note is that the deadly oils will remain in the American processed food supply until mid-2018. An excerpt from the aforementioned book, provides further details on how these oils are linked to the build-up of a sticky and deadly protein scientifically known as beta-amyloids. Beta-amyloids wreak havoc as they flow through the cardiovascular system to the brain and eventually attack brain cells:
“A build-up in the brain and blood vessels of a protein plaque called beta-amyloids may be spurred or exacerbated by a build-up of bad cholesterol. Bad cholesterol is accelerated by – how does the FDA put it – by an ‘industrially produced’ food ingredient that the FDA allows to permeate the food supply. Converted in laboratories, they are known as partially hydrogenated oils or PHOs. When deadly beta-amyloids attack and disintegrate brain cells, ‘memory loss’ first occurs, then overtime, oxygen flow is diminished, limbs become incapacitated, bodily functions shutdown and eventually death occurs.”
It is the classic description of death due to most forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s.
Though brain diseases have existed over time, the documented increase per capita in memory related disorders has sounded alarms. Research points the finger at the very ingredients that, for decades, have permeated processed foods: partially hydrogenated oils. These oils have long been banned in other nations from Europe to Asia. Yet, the FDA looked the other way as major processed food manufacturers glutted the American food supply with the “killer oils.”
An outcry by health advocates forced the FDA to announce a total ban of the oils effective as of June 18, 2018. Until mid-2018, buyer beware. The “phantom oils” remain in a vast array of processed foods as an active ingredient that is being fed daily to American families.
Though a staggering 1 in 3 seniors reportedly dies with dementia, the loss of mental capacity, whether dementia or Alzheimer’s, does not automatically occur with aging according to experts.
“Alzheimer’s [dementia] is not a normal part of aging.” — Alzheimer’s Association.
If not age, researchers queried, what is mentally derailing increasing numbers of people? It is jokingly said when a person’s body goes physically or mentally awry: “Was it something I ate?”
Diseases are caused by either genetics or the environment. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, family-inherited, early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease accounts for less than 5% of Alzheimer’s cases worldwide. Based on those extremely low statistics, researchers zeroed in on an environmental cause. In their sights are industrially-modified oils.
For almost twenty years, food activists voiced alarms that the laboratory-contrived oils remain stuck in arteries and veins far longer than oils from natural food sources. Under assault, the FDA has begrudgingly initiated a ban to slowly withdraw from processed foods the numerous forms of the oils that still saturate the marketplace. While not identified as the cause of Alzheimer’s, partially hydrogenated oils are linked to the acceleration of the build-up of the cell and nerve killing, sticky proteins — beta-amyloids — that turn into plaque and clog the brain. Beta-amyloids are the hallmarks of Alzheimer disease. Findings of top scientists are detailed in the book.
As a government agency, the FDA fails to “use reasonable care” on behalf of the American people. For decades, its inactions resulted in deaths and mental and bodily harm to millions. By law, the inactions by the FDA would be categorized as “depraved indifference” or “gross negligence.” At minimum, it is a “reckless disregard” for human life.
The damage imposed by the FDA proves costly, especially for middle-income families. The rapid increase in dementia and other brain diseases is occurring at a time when middle-income American’s discretionary spending is being tapped out. For growing numbers of families nationwide, long-term health care costs, both inside and outside of the home, are unsustainable.
The FDA functions under outdated laws that give wide leeway to corporate food giants. Charged with overseeing the overseer, it is Congress that must act to plug the loopholes:
“Corporations that are supposed to be regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may also be aided and abetted by the FDA as food corporations are allowed to ‘self-regulate’. The FDA allows major processed food manufacturers to designate their products as being ‘Generally Recognized As Safe.’ It is known by the acronym GRAS. Under the practice of GRAS, the FDA depends on the processed food industry to be its own overseer, its own inspector. Essentially, what that means is that the processed food industry is on the ‘honor system’. It is eerily akin to the tobacco industry when cigarettes were once promoted as being good for your health.”
In addition to PHOs that are consumed daily, the U.S. FDA allows other ingredients and toxins into the American food supply that are banned in other parts of the globe. Processed food manufacturers continue to pack the processed food supply with chemically manipulated ingredients that negatively impact young and old alike.
Taste biotechnology companies today have chemicals aimed at binding artificial flavors to taste bud “receptor cells” on the tongue. They are meant to ‘manipulate and trick’ the mind as substitutes or catalysts for heightened sugar, salt or other flavor sensations. With more patents in the pipeline, competition to stimulate your taste buds through both chemical and natural ingredient-alterations is expected to be fierce.
Will taste bud modifiers that reportedly “trick the mind” have a damaging impact on the developing systems of the very young and the fragile systems of aging Americans? Will the FDA do sufficient testing to determine if mind-altering chemicals will have a long-term, negative impact on consumers’ health regardless of age? If the past indicates the future, the FDA may again remain on the periphery as processed food companies continue to spoon-feed chemically-modified food and drink to unsuspecting consumers.
The charge against the FDA is malfeasance against the American public. As one major toxin is slow-walked out of the processed food supply, a stream of new, laboratory-engineered chemicals and toxins are set to permeate the marketplace. Why is the FDA loath to alert U.S. families that many of the chemicals and ingredients found in the food on their dinner tables, in children’s school menus, in fast foods, on grocery shelves, and in hospitals and nursing homes — are banned elsewhere around the world?”
Recent findings of the damaging impact of lab-modified partially hydrogenated oils come decades too late for the afflicted, dying, and loved ones lost to brain and heart diseases. Instead of a full explanation of the harm done and harm still to come, the FDA’s message remains: “Sorry about that memory loss and all of those heart attacks.” Having admitted guilt without consequence, it remains business as usual as the FDA continues to bow to corporations’ profits over citizens’ health. The determining question is — do Americans care?
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Sharon Sebastian, author of the book, “AGING: WARNING– Navigating Life’s Medical, Mental & Financial Minefields,” is a columnist, commentator, and contributor in print and on nationwide broadcasts on topics ranging from healthcare, culture, religion, and politics to domestic and global policy. Sebastian’s political and cultural analyses are published nationally and internationally. Website: www.AgingWarning.com
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A simple blood test which detects five of the most deadly types of cancer is being developed by scientists.
Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute in the US have discovered that when breast, bowel, lung, womb or stomach cancer is present in the body, one particular gene changes its chemical signature.
The scientists think that change occurs when the body starts to lose the fight against the disease.
British charities said it could work like a ‘warning klaxon,’ sounding the alarm that cancer is present, at a time when treatments are likely to be most effective.
The crucial signature was linked to a gene called ZNF154. Researchers found that when a tumour was present, the gene showed increased signs of ‘methylation’ – a biological process which tells genes to switch to the ‘off’ position. (Read more from “Blood Test to Spot Five Deadly Cancers Could Prevent Thousands of Deaths” HERE)
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Scientists have discovered an insect that went extinct for more than 120 million years and featured many of the traits associated with modern butterflies including markings on the wing called eye spots.
Known as Kalligrammatid lacewings, paleobotanists for the past century have known they lived in Eurasia during the Mesozoic. But it’s taken recent discoveries of well-preserved fossils from two sites in northeastern China to demonstrate how similar they were to modern butterflies. Thanks to extensive lakes that limited oxygen exposure in these areas during mid-Jurassic through early Cretaceous time, paleontologists have been able to recover exquisitely preserved fossils that retain much of their original structure.
“Poor preservation of lacewing fossils had always stymied attempts to conduct a detailed morphological and ecological examination of the kalligrammatid,” Indiana University’s David Dilcher, who was part of the team that made the discovery published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, said in a statement. “Upon examining these new fossils, however, we’ve unraveled a surprisingly wide array of physical and ecological similarities between the fossil species and modern butterflies, which shared a common ancestor 320 million years ago.”
Dilcher, who also discovered the first flower last year, found that this insect from the Jurassic period survived in a manner similar their modern sister insects by visiting plants with “flower-like” reproductive organs producing nectar and pollen. They probably used their long tongues to probe nectar deep within the plant and also possessed hairy legs that allowed for carrying pollen from the male flower-like reproductive organs of one plant to the flower-like female reproductive organs of another. (Read more from “Scientists Discover Prehistoric ‘Jurassic Butterfly'” HERE)
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In a quest to reinvent its image, McDonald’s is on a health kick. But some of its nutrient-enhanced meals are actually comparable to junk food, say some health experts.
One of McDonald’s new kale salads has more calories, fat, and sodium than a Double Big Mac.
Kale, a leafy green vegetable chock-full of vitamins, has become a trendy superfood. In Canada, the global fast food chain recently tossed the green into a breakfast wrap and a line of salads.
McDonald’s boasts on its site that the “Keep Calm, Caesar On” chicken salad contains “real parmesan petals” and “a nutrient-rich lettuce blend with baby kale.”
But once you plop the accompanying Asiago Caesar dressing on the “crispy chicken” version, the salad’s nutritional profile doesn’t look so good. According to McDonald’s own numbers, the salad tops up at 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of salt. (Read more from “Healthy Fast Food? McDonald’s Kale Salad Has More Calories Than a Double Big Mac” HERE)
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The UK government is facing demands to reveal the details of a secret flight through Scottish airspace which was at the centre of a plot to capture whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The plane, which passed above the Outer Hebrides, the Highlands and Aberdeenshire, was dispatched from the American east coast on June 24 2013, the day after Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow. The craft was used in controversial US ‘rendition’ missions.
Reports by Scottish journalist Duncan Campbell claim the flight, travelling well above the standard aviation height at 45,000 feet and without a filed flight plan, was part of a mission to capture Snowden following his release of documents revealing mass surveillance by US and UK secret services.
That the flight passed over Scotland, airspace regulated by the UK, has raised questions over UK complicity in a covert mission to arrest Snowden and whether any police, aviation or political authorities in Scotland were made aware of the flight path.
Alex Salmond, the SNP foreign affairs spokesman and Scotland’s First Minister when the flight took place, has called for full transparency from the UK Government over the case. (Read more from “Secret US Flight Flew Over Scottish Airspace ‘to Capture Snowden'” HERE)
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By Fox News. A person in Texas has become infected with the Zika virus through sex, the first case of the illness being transmitted inside the United States, health officials confirmed Tuesday.
Dallas County health officials said the unidentified patient had sexual contact with an infected individual who had returned from Venezuela and fallen ill with Zika. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement saying lab tests confirmed the non-traveling patient was infected with the virus.
“Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others,” Zachary Thomson, director of DCHHS, said in a statement. “Next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against any sexually transmitted infections.”
The virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators had been exploring the possibility it could be sexually transmitted. There was a report of a Colorado researcher who picked up the virus in Africa and apparently spread it to his wife back home in 2008, and it was found in one man’s semen in Tahiti. (Read more from “Zika Virus Now in US, Here’s How It Was Transmitted” HERE)
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How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus
By Dr. Clifford Bassett. Here are some tips on how to do it:
• Stay in places with air conditioning or that use window and door screens to keep mosquitoes outside.
• Remove sources of standing water, which can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
• Remember that mosquitoes that spread Zika virus may be more likely to bite during daytime hours.
• Apply insect repellents and reapply as directed. Check with your doctor about what kinds of repellents are safe to use in pregnancy.
(Read more from “How to Protect Yourself From Zika Virus” HERE)
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GMO skeptics like myself have been warning for years of the unintended consequences of genetic pollution. Even when genetically engineered organisms are released into the world with the best of intentions, such actions can wreak havoc on the ecosystem and human civilization in ways that simply can’t be foreseen by the world’s most well-meaning scientists . . .
Now we may be seeing the first wave of the horrific destruction that can be unleashed by self-replicating genetically modified organisms. The Zika virus, now spreading with unbridled ferocity, appears to have been caused by the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes that scientists hoped would sharply reduce malaria infections.
“The Zika virus outbreak currently gripping the Americas could have been sparked by the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in 2012,” reports The Mirror. “The insects were engineered by biotechnology experts to combat the spread of dengue fever and other diseases and released into the general population of Brazil in 2012… The Aedes aegypti mosquito sub-species that carries both the Zika virus and dengue was the type targeted with genetically modified mosquitoes” . . .
As pointed out in this fantastic article by AntiMedia.org, the genetic engineers running this massive open-air experiment with mosquitoes and humans failed to consider the impact of antibiotics in the environment caused by their heavy use in agricultural (animal feed) operations. (Read more from “Zika Virus Outbreak Linked to Release of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes… Disastrous Unintended Consequences Now Threaten Life Across the Americas” HERE)
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