Has The Ultimate Cancer Cure Organically grown herbs are just what the doctor ordered Fluoridation Chemicals Contribute Fine Gael has pledged to end the controversial compulsory practice Artificial sweeteners warning! Stevia is natural, sweeter than sugar -- and has no
calories. chilli, chickens and salmonella
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EU bid to list all food additives on labels Organic
Food Is Better For You, Darina Allen: sterilants. AIDS Comfrey: healing from weeds Reasons to be cheerful Research shows effectiveness of natural arthritis treatment Scientists Discover
Cure Chicken soup for colds Alternative for the head lice treatment New Study supports MS Ireland Hazardous
Chemicals Found |
Irish Indep. 7th Sept.
Food labels
Comprehensive food labels giving consumers better protection against allergenic ingredients are being proposed by the European Commission. The Commission's proposal means all ingredients intentionally added will have to be included on the label, with very limited exceptions "to avoid absurdities or over regulation". It also establishes a list of ingredients liable to cause allergies. Meanwhile the Food and Safety Authority warned yesterday that tighter regulations for fruit and vegetable produce are needed to protect consumer from pesticide poisoning. |
Organically grown herbs are just what the doctor
ordered organic dairy, David Storey
When it comes to herbal medicines, organic methods are accepted as the only system of growing. It makes no sense for an individual to be taking a special herb for some medical condition if that herb has been sprayed with potentially dangerous chemicals during its lifetime. One of the biggest selling herbal remedy in Ireland is echinacea. a perennial plant that grows one or two feet in height, its is reputed to strengthen the immune system and reduce the frequency and severity of colds and of the 'flu. It increases the number of white cells in the body. It is a easy crop to grow, says Ted Mole , who grows the crop in Co. Roscommon. Most of the echinacea drops taken in this country are from plants grown in Switzerland by Bioforce. |
Alcohol is used to extract the essence of the plant from the leaves and from the roots. After the process, there is a lot of the plant left over and this is composted and used to furtilise the next season's crop. Echinacea thrives on its own compost. In this it resembles the Tomato plant, Whatever a person might think about organic agriculture, it is in the production of health and medical products that organic production seems entirely logical. Plants grown with artificial fertiliser will only have up to four trace elements in their composition, yet there are 17 naturally occurring trace elements which you will get in organically grown plants or in plants growing in the wild. The other area where organically grown is becoming the consumer's first choice is in baby food. In Britain, it's the fastest-growing organic product. However, there are an increasing number of consumers who, though they are neither infants nor ill, believe they are entitled to organic food as well. |
Organic
Food Is Better For You, By
Elizabeth Piper 8-6-1
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Has
The Ultimate Cancer Cure The
Hindustan Times (6-3-01) 6-6-1 HYDERABAAD
- Indian cancer researchers have taken a giant step on the road to
discovering the ultimate cancer cure by developing a drug that
selectively targets the cancer cells without harming the healthy ones. While
Americans are going ga-ga with their new anti-cancer drug "Glivec"
- that was featured on the cover of May 28 issue of Time magazine - the
low-profile, cash-strapped Kolkata researchers have been working quietly
for over a decade shuning publicity until they obtained proof from human
trials nine weeks ago. For
instance, the condition of 11 out of the 19 patients treated - most of
them in a very advanced stage when the treatment began -- are now stated
to be in "excellent physical condition". Five are in stable
condition and only three died during the course of the study.Since the
submission of the paper, the number of patients treated has crossed 40
mark with more than 70 per cent success, according to Manju Ray.Those
whose health returned to "excellent" condition after treatment
with Methylglyoxal included patients in "a very advanced
stages" of colon cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, and cancers of ovary, breast, liver, lung, bone, gall bladder,
pancreas and oral cavity.
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Kerry's eye 19th July 2001 Kerry is on the road- make it a safe one by Padraig Kennelly Winning the
Minor and Senior Munster Football Championship gives a fillip to the
moral of the Kingdom. In football terms a year in which Kerry does not
get out of Munster to compete in Croke Park is not regarded as a good
year.
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Toxic
Playground - Play Structures Time
Magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,166726,00.html 7-9-1 If
there's one thing wood knows how to do, it's rot. Expose lumber to the
elements, and within as few as five years, sun, rain, termites and
fungus can reduce it to pulp. That's why builders were so enthusiastic
in the 1970s when the lumber industry introduced pressure-treated
boards--ordinary planks and posts injected with an extraordinary
preservative known as CCA that can extend the life of wood fivefold,
eliminating repairs and saving millions of trees annually. What got less
attention at the time is the fact that CCA stands for chromated copper
arsenate--a form of arsenic. And that's turned out to be a problem.
Though
CCA is infused deep into the fibers of wood under very high pressure,
the poison--which keeps the insects away--now seems to be leaching out.
It's bad enough if decks, docks and maybe even a few picnic tables begin
sweating arsenic, but the toxin was also widely used in children's
playgrounds, Last
week the Environmental Protection Agency announced that starting in the
fall, CCA-treated lumber sold in the U.S. will contain a warning label,
and stores will be provided with stickers and signs for their displays..
In Florida, dozens of playgrounds have been shut down, and Governor Jeb
Bush has ordered a state-run wood-treatment plant to switch to another
preservative. While adults wrestle with the politics of the problem,
however, it's kids who may be paying the ultimate price.
In
Florida alone, nearly 30,000 tons of arsenic are believed to be at
large. Investigators testing soil in the state's playgrounds have found
arsenic levels far higher than hazardous-waste experts consider safe.
Prolonged exposure can lead to nerve damage, dizziness and numbness, as
well as increased risk of bladder, lung and skin cancer.
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MS Ireland May 2001, Ms patients fail to get proper care, People with chronic neurological disabilities are being seriously overlooked and are not getting the level of care that they urgently require, it has been claimed. A startling report by the Irish Neurological Association has found that a large percentage of people with MS and motor neurone disease are refused medical cards and rarely receive tax exemptions for disabled drivers. It said the provision of care is totally inadequate.
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Saturday, May 19, 2001Darina Allen says sterilants allow bacteria to flourishBy Sean KeaneOne of the country's best known chefs and food writers, Darina Allen, said she would not allow sterilizing agents or antibacterial products to be used in her cookery school at Ballymaloe in Co Cork. "I have banned my staff from using them and have strongly advised them not to use them in their own homes either," she told an environmental health conference in Kilkenny yesterday. She claimed that by using the products, kitchen staff were killing good bacteria as well as bad bugs, and allowing highly resistant strains of bacteria which were untreatable to flourish. "In my opinion there is no substitute for plenty of hot water, soap and a good scrubbing brush." Environmental Health Officers' Association press officer, Ms Ann Marie Part said, however, the use of such sterilants was recommended by them but was not mandatory. "We have always recommended that people use hot water to sterilise equipment," she added. Ms Allen said, however, the use of sterilants and anti-bacterial products in UK hospitals had led to "a positive deterioration of hygiene standards". She added that plastic gloves were not used at Ballymaloe. "I'd rather insist that people wash their hands on a regular basis," she said. She claimed the current BSE crisis would look like a picnic compared to what was coming down the line. She said the use of antibiotics in food production as prophylactics (preventing disease) or as growth promoters would soon dominate the world food industry like no other issue. Ms Allen said these drugs were entering the food chain and were lowering natural human resistance to infection. The problem in her opinion was out of control. Small, successful food producers faced extinction if the "current mindless and politically motivated drive towards the ultimate regulation is allowed to go unchecked", Ms Allen said. She attacked the new risk management system operated by the health board. It was inefficient and in some cases counterproductive, she claimed. Criticising the new hazard analysis critical control point regulations, she said they were silly to the point of folly. |
Comfrey by Joe
Kennedy,
I first heard of Russian comfrey from a man whose skills are scarce in today's world. He taught me how to swing a scythe properly and my sons to shoot straight, paunch rabbits and make a wire trace to catch pike. In a ditch dug, drain-piped and leveled by a JCB, several exotic-looking plants had emerged in sturdy growth and were eventually to display clusters of blue or purple flowers drooping on hairy stems and which were, I was to learn later, vigorous self -seeders. The plant had traveled through that drain ditch for 100 years or more and from who knows where to a new soft bed at the end of what was to become a vegetable garden. Russian comfrey? What about Irish comfrey? A little patient research was required. When the hens showed interest in it and when I learned that a fairly strapped family had used it as a forage plant and had raised a handful of turkeys on it for the Christmas market I began to realise that here was something more than a mere weed.
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Its modern history goes back to none other
than the legendary Henry Doubleday who in Victoria's time imported
plants from Russia with the idea of making a type of glue from the gooey
roots for the postage stamps. This was not a great success so Henry fed
the comfrey to his livestock and wrote about it. To make a long story
short Laurence Hills in the fifties traced Henry's roots and old comfrey
and founded the Henry Doubleday Research Station to educate organic
gardeners about the potassium-rich properties of comfrey leaves.
I first had borage in a summer drink at a garden party given by a man who was an enthusiastic herbalist. A gin-and-comfrey, then. I learned that comfrey (symphytum officinale), of the gossamer hairs that catch the dew, is of the borage family and can be traced to Greek and Roman civilizations. Pliny mentions a healing water plant. Its name mean to "grow together" and that's the reason the ancient apothecaries used paste from it's root- to knit bones, flesh wounds and abrasions. It is still in use as a family remedy to this day. Inquire. I have discovered its inclusion in the British Parmaceutical Codex. Its properties include allantoin which promotes healing in connective tissue. All that and feeding fowl too. Not quite. Soak a bag of leaves in a bucket of water until it turns brown. There's no better green manure for tomatoes. |
Reasons to be cheerful It may be that students' depression is caused by poor diet, with stress( and medication) merely aggravating it. You might find that if you stop eating junk and processed foods and eat meals that are fresh prepared from organic food the depression will lift. it is a safer way of dealing with the problem than taking drugs, prescribed or otherwise. I say this as a "chronic depressive" who has not had a depressed day since I adopted this way of eating four years ago. |
At the hearth of people's experience of depression lie feeling of guilt and self reproach. This is because the depressed state features fantasies( not necessarily true) of having damaged or destroyed something that you love. Depression is therefore closely connected with aggression, anger and rage. our growing understanding that emotional and social experience are linked is very helpful here. Many groups in society have good reason to feel angry: poor people, those with health problems, workers in soul-destroying jobs and citizens appalled at what we are doing to the environment. You don't have to suffer directly to be angry at such collective problems. While we continue to see depression as a matter for individuals, the incidence of it will continue to rise. Prof. Andrew Samuels |
New Study supports St. John's Wort |
New research indicates the herb St. John's Wort, popular
as a remedy for depression, is as effective as conventional drugs and
has fewer side effects.
A report recently published in The British Medical Journal says doctors should prescribe the herb as a "first choice" treatment for patients with mild to moderate depression. St. Johns Wort is only available on prescription in Ireland due to Draconian Legislation introduced early this year. We remain the only country to take this action.
Ir.Times 11/7/01 The Irish Medicines board recently established a commitee, made up of medical experts and other interested parties, to investigate herbal remedies. Tom McGuinn, chef pharmacist at the department of Health, coincided with publications, which found that garlic, gingko and ginseng could cause bleeding when combined with commonly prescribed drugs used in surgery, ephedra could cause irregular heartbeat, ginseng may exacerbate low blood sugar, kava and valerian could exaggerate the impact of anaesthetics and st john's wort could speed up the metabolism and echinacea posed risk of poor wound healing and infection. |
It's important that people are not browbeaten into turning their backs on herbal medicine. They should inform themselves and make sure their GPs are also properly informed, which very few are, says TD Mr. Trevor Sargent.
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Hazardous
Chemicals Found
6-7-1 PVC's need for
chemical additives is only part of its hazard - its lifecycle has serious
environmental and health consequences. Together, PVC manufacture and
disposal represent one of the largest sources of dioxin. Dioxin is a
confirmed human cancer-causing substance, and one of the most potent
toxins known to man. For these reasons, Greenpeace advocates the phase-out
of all PVC plastics. FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Maureen Penjueli, Greenpeace
International, tel.+44 207 865 82 46 Ruth Stringer, Greenpeace Research
Laboratories, tel.+44 1392 263 917 Luisa Colasimone, Greenpeace
Communications, mobile +31 6 21 29 69 20 |
Spicy Chicken, The
answer to salmonella-contaminated chicken may lie in chilli pepper,
not antibiotics.
Audrey McElroy of Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, gave chickens feed laced with capsaicin, the chemical that gives chilli its bite. The birds were then dosed with Salmonella enteritidis. The spicy food almost halved the number of birds carrying the germs in their internal organs. Birds appear not to have the receptors to the hot, pungent part of the peppers. it appears not to affect them in any way. Fortunately for those averse to spicy food, a taste panel found the chilli flavour did not end up in the meat. |
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chicken soup contains a number of substances, including an anti-inflammatory mechanism, that could ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. |
A challenge outside of the normal realm of
scientific research, and curiosity about the long-touted folk medicine,
first led a University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)
physician/researcher to embark upon an off-beat study to see if the soup
may indeed have medicinal value
The study focus was to find out if the movement of neutrophils – the most common white cell in the blood that defends the body against infection – would be blocked or reduced by chicken soup. Researchers suspect the reduction in movement of neutrophils may reduce activity in the upper respiratory tract that can cause symptoms associated with a cold.
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Colds are the result of infection in the upper respiratory tract, which causes inflammation. Although colds are not completely understood, it is believed the inflammation contributes to cold symptoms. The researchers were not able to identify the exact ingredient or ingredients in the soup that made it effective against fighting colds but theorize it may be a combination of ingredients in the soup that work together to have beneficial effects. “All vegetables and the soup had activity,” Dr. Rennard said. “I think it’s the concoction.” Known as “Grandma’s soup,” the recipe includes chicken, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley, salt and pepper
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Alternative for the head lice treatment Marion
Moses, M.D., president of the Pesticide Education Center in San
Francisco, recommends "an enzyme-based shampoo that works by
loosening the 'glue' that attaches the nit (egg) to the hair and
destroys the exoskeleton (outside shell) of the nit by dissolving its
protective coating." The product called Not Nice to Lice, is
composed of; filtered and purified water and natural enzyme cleaners
including protease, lipase, cellulase and amylase. Since the insect
produces the same enzymes that are used in the product, lice cannot
develop a resistance to them. |
Fluoride "Children
under three should never use fluoridated toothpaste. Or drink
fluoridated water. In fluoridated areas, people should never use
fluoride supplements. For decades, anti-fluoride activists have blamed
fluoride (which is only slightly less poisonous than arsenic)
for a variety of problems, including osteoporosis, bone cancer, kidney
problems, arthritis, genetic damage and birth defects, premature aging,
lowered intelligence, and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Although there are numerous studies suggesting links between fluoride
and various illnesses, pro-fluoridationists have always contended -
correctly - that the exact effects of long-term fluoridation on our
bodies have not been established beyond a shadow of a doubt.
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