Health & Fitness

12/10/19

Gluten free? Here’s ten surprising foods you didn’t know you could eat

Why Do Scientists Defend Poison?

Why is there so much deceitful science published these days? Mainstream articles regularly assure people that glyphosate, vaccines and fluoride are safe, and that soft drinks and other junk food are not linked to obesity.

The answer is that virtually every major industry uses front groups and paid, corrupt researchers to spout their propaganda and package it like real science. Big Tech often abets this industry spin so that if you search for subjects like "vaccines" or "glyphosate" your results will be exactly what industry wants you to see.

I've previously exposed the true agenda of front groups such as the International Food Additives Council, the Coalition Against Costly Food Labeling Proposition, the Alliance to Feed the Future, the Genetic Literacy Project, GMO Answers, the American Council for Science and Health, the Center for Consumer Freedom and others.

These groups often give themselves names that no one would consider opposing, like Oregonians for Food and Shelter¹ or CommonGround² — unless you knew their industry backing.

The oil and gas industry, biotech and Big Food are not the only industries pushing "science" and "research" that conclude their products are not harmful. Big Pharma extensively uses front groups to get expensive and dangerous drugs in your medicine chest.

Billing themselves as real patients, these groups despicably coerce the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve new drugs and insurers to cover them through exuding their alleged suffering without the drugs. One such pharma front group is the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) — and there are many more.

Front Groups Defeated Prop 37 and a Soft Drink Tax

As many remember, front groups and paid, corrupt researchers defeated Prop 37 in 2012, a California ballot measure that would have required labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and prevented them from being called "natural."³

Monsanto, Nestle, Hormel, Pepsico, Cargill, the trade group Grocery Manufacturers Association and other food giants also formed groups against the proposition.⁴ Here is a press release titled "Academic Community Oppose Ballot Measure Mandating Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods," which pretends to speak for the scientific community when it is actually a paid message from industry:⁵

"Leading scientists and academics today issued a statement in response to the qualification of a measure on California's November ballot that would require mandatory labels of food grown or produced using genetic engineering.

Like the overwhelming majority of scientific and medical experts and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, these scientists believe that foods made with the benefit of modern biotechnology are safe and that labeling them as ‘genetically engineered’ would mislead consumers by creating the false impression that foods containing GE ingredients are less safe than foods made without the benefit of biotechnology."

Central to the food giants' success was a “study“ that seemed to show the proposition would greatly raise food prices.⁶ "Do you really believe the pesticide and junk food companies would spend $46 million trying to save you money?" asked Ocean Robbins of Food Revolution Network.

Similar front groups and "experts" were used to oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed ban on large soft drinks in 2014. New Yorkers for Beverage Choices,⁷ a faux grassroots group created by the American Beverage Association, defeated the measure. It was richly funded by industry, according to The New York Times:⁸

"After Mr. Bloomberg announced his plan in May 2012, the industry poured millions of dollars into an ad campaign that framed the proposal as infringing on consumer freedom. The industry later retained the law firm of Latham & Watkins to challenge the limits in court."

Four common arguments that front groups and their corrupt experts use in resisting regulation of harmful products are:

Costs will go up
Freedom of choice is under attack
Regulation will "confuse" consumers
There is no difference between natural and harmful food products.

Front Groups Defended Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone

Front groups and "experts" also sought to defeat opposition to Monsanto’s GMO recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) Posilac, which was the first GMO product used on American farms.⁹ Monsanto sold Posilac to Eli Lilly/Elanco in 2008.¹⁰

Cows injected with rBGH, aka rBST or recombinant bovine somatotropin, produce 5 to 15 additional pounds of milk daily,¹¹ making it lucrative for Eli Lilly/Elanco and dairy farmers. To sell a public that did not want to eat GMOs, front groups and paid researchers were quickly assembled including American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT).¹²

A "study" conducted at Cornell University, and picked up by media outlets, proclaimed that giving cows rBGH was downright "green."¹³ It said the cows"have a higher milk efficiency, which in turn lowers their carbon footprints … fewer cows are required to produce the same amount of milk." The lead author of the study, Judith Capper, took the claims even further and said:

" … the study found that if rbST was used on a population of 1 million cows, the carbon footprint would be equivalent to taking 400,000 cars off the road or planting 300 million trees."

Who were the study authors and what interest did they have in making that profound statement? Their connections tell the tale: Besides Capper, Cornell animal science professor Dale E. Bauman and former Cornell researcher Euridice Castaneda-Gutierrez, Monsanto helped frame this “study” through company employee Roger A. Cady.¹⁴

Interestingly, today Capper is a livestock sustainability consultant who keeps a blog defending and promoting industry-generated foods and industrial methods of producing them.¹⁵

Bauman is world-known as someone who works with Monsanto and who worked on the “Milk Is Milk” campaign, which argued that cows injected with Monsanto’s rBGH is identical to milk from untreated cows — despite scientific evidence that shows that’s not true.¹⁶ While Bauman’s insistance that milk from cows treated with rBGH is identical to natural milk, the American Cancer Society disagreed.¹⁷

"Of greater concern is the fact that milk from rBGH-treated cows has higher levels of IGF-1, a hormone that normally helps some types of cells to grow. Several studies have found that IGF-1 levels at the high end of the normal range may influence the development of certain tumors.

Some early studies found a relationship between blood levels of IGF-1 and the development of prostate, breast, colorectal, and other cancers, but later studies have failed to confirm these reports or have found weaker relationships."

The other study authors also continue to promote the industry: Castaneda-Guitierrez went on from her Cornell study to work for processed food giant and manufacturer Nestle for 12 years;¹⁸ Cady still works for both Monsanto, as technical products manager, and for Elanco, as senior technical consultant-marketing adviser.¹⁹

Despite their efforts to back rBGH milk, while still legal in the U.S., demand for rBGH-created milk decreased so dramatically that most grocery chains dropped it and²⁰ Eli Lilly/Elanco unloaded the GMO product in 2018.²¹

A New Book Addresses the Deceitful Science

David Michaels, Ph.D., served as assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from 2009 to 2017.²²

Since returning to his position as professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University, he has written a soon-to-be-published book that exposes the corporate science racket that results in the deceitful findings that are so common today.

“The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception,” to be available in 2020, looks at the bogus studies, think-tank policy documents and other manufactured science that date back to the tobacco industry's well-known deceit and now infect government, public policy, nutrition science and even professional sports.²³

Science-for-hire explains the ongoing epidemics of opioid addiction, obesity, climate change and even sports concussions which continue unabated despite their toll on public health, says “The Triumph of Doubt." According to Oxford University Press reviewer David Michaels, the book also reveals how:

" … corporations manipulate science not just to defend dangerous products and activities, but also to market them as safe … and how corporations 'work the referees' in the regulatory process to ensure their products are not labeled as cancer-causing — even when they are."

The book also looks at how Big Industry deliberately undermines scientific consensus to plant doubt about the dangers of tobacco, asbestos, lead, silica, pesticides, fossil fuels, food and drug products and more has long been the successful tactic of industry, writes Michaels.²⁴

It doesn’t take much to figure out just from book reviews, then, that the bottom-line goal is to help industry persist with its marketing of life- and healt-destroying products by convincing the government and the public that the science is unclear and inconclusive, therefore making regulation seem unjustified.²⁵

Not only that, in addition to the blatant scientific falsehoods disseminated by "bought" scientists, industry spin masters retaliate against those courageous enough to be whistleblowers.

How the Science of Deception Can Be Curtailed

"Science" concocted for no other reason than to keep selling harmful products can be curtailed through some commonsense measures, Michaels writes in Bloomberg Opinion:²⁶

"First, corporations shouldn’t be allowed to sequester important scientific findings about the harms of their products. Stiff penalties could be applied when case reports of disease or the results of health-effects studies are not made public. The few corporations that get caught hiding data, like DuPont and 3M did, eventually pay large amounts to settle claims. But this is too late for people made sick or whose environment was damaged.

Second, the public shouldn’t believe the results of studies done by product- defense consulting firms. After all, their business model is to provide clients with the ammunition to sway public opinion, slow regulation and defeat court claims. If they did otherwise, they would never be hired again."

While industry can still pay for research, it should no longer be able to control all aspects to the published research as it does now, Michaels adds:

"For the most part, corporations have been reluctant to fund research over which they have no control. We badly need a new model for production of the evidence necessary to protect the public. When government agencies consider potentially harmful exposures and activities, from vaping to opioids to glyphosate to payday loans, they should insist the regulated industries provide data produced by unconflicted scientists.

In this paradigm, the firms responsible for the potential harm would be required to pay for the research, but the studies would be conducted by scientists without conflicts of interest."

Since professors trade on the university reputations, universities should ban professors from putting their names and academic affiliations on research in which they did not control or publish the findings, but industry sponsors did.²⁷ Conflicts of interest should appear on university websites and be reported to the public. "The failure of academics to disclose financial conflicts should be treated as a violation of academic integrity," Michaels says.

from Articles https://ift.tt/2Pbxyw3
via IFTTT

Multiple Factors Liable for Daunting Death Rate in Midlife

The U.S. has recorded declining life expectancy and increasing mortality for people in midlife,¹ despite spending a disproportionate amount on health care per person relative to wealth than any other country.² Those in wealthy countries tend to spend more per person on health care yet, on average, the U.S. spends nearly double the amount that most other wealthy countries spend per person.

Per capita, in dollars, the U.S. spent $10,224 per person in 2017 as compared to the second-highest spender, Switzerland, at $8,009 per person. Following far behind is third-place Germany at $5,728 per person.

The gap between U.S. health care spending and that of other countries began to widen in the 1980s when comparable countries spent, on average, 7% of their gross domestic product (GDP) while the U.S. spent 9%. By 2015, comparable countries were spending 11% of their GDP while the U.S. was spending 17% of its GDP.

Yet, it appears the high financial burden of health care in the U.S. is not paying dividends in lengthening life expectancy or reducing rates of disease. For instance, the CDC reports the prevalence of diabetes rose from 0.93% of the population in 1958³ to 9.4% in 2015, with more than 100 million living with diabetes or prediabetes in 2017.⁴

Life Expectancy Rises in Other Countries; Falls in US

Under the premise that U.S. life expectancy has fallen behind other wealthy countries, researchers examined vital statistics and mortality rates to identify contributing factors.⁵ Life expectancy data from 1959 through 2016 and mortality rates from 1999 through 2017 were gathered for analysis.

The researchers focused on those who died during midlife, from ages 25 to 64 years. The data were broken down further by sex, socioeconomic status, geography, race and ethnicity. The researchers found a decline in life expectancy after 2014 for three consecutive years. From 2010 to 2017, all-cause mortality during midlife rose from 328.5 deaths per 100,000 to 348.2 deaths per 100,000.

The largest increases occurred in the New England states of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont as well as the Ohio Valley states of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The increase was estimated to produce 33,307 extra premature deaths, 32.8% of which were found in the Ohio Valley. The researchers believe major contributors have been from specific causes such as suicides, drug overdoses and organ system diseases.

Dr. Steven H. Woolf from Virginia Commonwealth University was lead researcher on the study. He believes many factors were at play and though the opioid epidemic is a major driver, it is far from the sole trigger, indicating there may be a broad erosion in health. Woolf commented to The Washington Post:⁶

“Some of it may be due to obesity, some of it may be due to drug addiction, some of it may be due to distracted driving from cellphones … it suggests that the cause has to be systemic, that there’s some root cause that’s causing adverse health across many different dimensions for working-age adults. It’s supposed to be going down, as it is in other countries. The fact that that number is climbing, there’s something terribly wrong.”

Past Choices Reflected in Current Health

Many risk factors manifest themselves in your health gradually. For instance, obesity is a significant part of the rising number dealing with metabolic related diseases. The authors of one study called the recent unprecedented rise in obesity in the developed world⁷ “perhaps the most rapid population-scale shift in human phenotype ever to occur.”

People do not become overweight immediately but, rather, through consistent lifestyle choices that reduce their activity level and increase the amount of energy they consume each day. A function of eating high-carbohydrate foods triggers rising hunger, ultimately feeding a diet of excesses.

Obesity⁸ can lead to Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Each of these conditions is triggered by past lifestyle choices linked to the risk of increased premature death.

Death Epidemic Planned by Manufacturer Doubles in One Decade

A group of scientists recognized that the rising number of Americans dying from drug overdoses was one of the underlying causes of a declining life expectancy in the U.S. The National Institute on Drug Abuse⁹ records the number of deaths from illicit drugs and prescription opioids and found a twofold increase in 10 years.

Overdose deaths involving any type of opioid rose from 8,048 in 1999 to 47,600 in 2017. In the face of a rising epidemic to addictive opioid painkillers, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2018 sanctioned the most powerful synthetic opioid painkiller released to date — Dsuvia (sufentanil).

The drug tests 1,000 times stronger than morphine, 50 times more potent than heroin and 10 times stronger than the synthetic opioid fentanyl. While this rapid increase in deaths from drug overdoses is overwhelming, it is heartbreaking to realize drug manufacturers may have planned this to feed their bottom line.

The underhanded dealings of one company were made public in early 2019 when a Massachusetts a judge ruled to release an unredacted account of a complaint filed with the state attorney general's office against Purdue Pharma.

The documents show how one owner of Purdue, Kathe Sackler, developed a confidential program called Project Tango to expand their business from the development and sale of opioids to include the treatment of opioid addiction. The goal was to become “an end-to-end pain provider” by spanning the pain and addiction spectrum, providing both the addictive drug and the treatment.

After finding profits had doubled from 2009 to 2014, they concluded the next opportunity was opioid addiction treatment to continue selling opioids and treatment drugs to a vulnerable population, feeding rising mortality rates.

The team mapped out how patients could first get addicted to opioids through prescription drugs or heroin, and then become consumers of the company's new drug. They noted even after patients were finished with a first round of treatment, up to 60% would relapse and need it again.

Accidental OTC Overdoses Killing Children and Adults

One common over-the-counter drug associated with accidental poisonings in young children is acetaminophen, brand name Tylenol. A review of poison control centers data showed a surprisingly high number of calls were made related to unintentional ingestion of acetaminophen.

Liver damage from acetaminophen is also problematic in adults. In one published study,¹⁰ researchers found hepatotoxicity from Paracetamol, the brand name of acetaminophen in the U.K., is the most common form of acute liver failure in the U.K. Staggered high doses were repeatedly used for pain control and were associated with a reduced survival compared to a single large overdose.

Delaying medical attention after a single overdose or a staggered overdose pattern is associated with adverse outcomes, increasing the risk of multi-organ failure. The antidote to acetaminophen toxicity is N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). It's worth knowing about or keeping in your home if you ever use acetaminophen.

The liver damage associated with acetaminophen may largely be due to a depletion of glutathione, an antioxidant secreted by the liver in response to toxic exposure. By keeping glutathione levels up, the damage from acetaminophen may be preventable.

Medication More Harmful Than the Condition

Data from a study published in 2017 showed 1 in every 6 Americans from 18 to 85 years were on psychiatric drugs in 2013; most of those drugs m were antidepressants. During that year, 84.3% reported using antidepressants long-term, having filled three or more prescriptions.

Unfortunately, while the drugs are routinely used as a first line of treatment for depression, studies show they are no more effective than placebo. They also come with serious side effects often ignored or purposefully hidden.

Among those is the risk of self-inflicted violent acts and/or violence against others. Further research shows antidepressants increase aggression in children and adolescents by two to three times. This is an important finding since in many school shootings the killer was on antidepressants.

An internal GlaxoSmithKline analysis of their own data showed “patients taking Paxil were nearly seven times more likely to commit suicide than those on placebo.” Eli Lilly, maker of Prozac, may have been behind the worst mass shooting in Kentucky history. Dr. Peter Breggin, scientific and medical expert for over 100 plaintiffs who sued Eli Lilly in the early ‘90s, wrote about the case:

"Joseph Wesbecker was on Prozac in September 1989 when he walked into his workplace, a Louisville, KY printing plant, shot dead eight colleagues, wounded 12 others, and killed himself. Survivors and relatives of the dead took Lily to court in 1994. They claimed that Wesbecker's violence was due to Prozac."

In his book about the trial, during which the jury decided in favor of Eli Lilly, he recounted how the judge later discovered Eli Lilly had “paid the plaintiffs to throw the trial by withholding damaging evidence.” The number of antidepressants prescribed across the U.S. continues to grow and contribute to a rising number of violent acts resulting in suicide and bystander death.

Common Liver Disease Raises Risk for Early Death

NAFLD, a side effect of obesity, is associated with an increased risk of overall death in those also suffering with diabetes. In a study¹¹ of 337 diabetic participants, those with NAFLD tended to be younger females who were obese. Those who also had NAFLD and diabetes suffered a mortality rate of 29%, with most common causes liver cancer or liver complications.

The prevalence of NAFLD is increasing, with approximately 25% across the world affected.¹² The condition places you at increased risk for severe and decompensated liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. One method reducing your risk of NAFLD is maintaining optimal levels of choline.

In one study researchers looked at the impact choline had on the severity of NAFLD and found a reduction in intake could significantly increase symptoms, including fibrosis of the liver tissue (thickening and scarring of connective tissue). Although your liver does produce small amounts, the rest must be supplied through the food you eat.

Unfortunately, it is estimated that 90% of Americans are deficient in choline. Healthy sources of choline include eggs, grass fed beef liver, wild-caught Alaskan salmon and organic pastured chicken.

While a dietary reference intake value has not yet been established for choline, the Institute of Medicine set an "adequate daily intake" value of 425 mg per day for women, 550 mg for men and 250 mg for children to help prevent a deficiency and potential organ and muscle damage.

from Articles https://ift.tt/2E7D1NW
via IFTTT

FDA Cracks Down on CBD Oil

The popularity of cannabidiol (CBD) — one of the nonpsychoactive components of cannabis and hemp — has exploded in recent years. As noted in a May 14, 2019, New York Times article:^1,²

“… cannabidiol is everywhere. We are bombarded by a dizzying variety of CBD-infused products: beers, gummies, chocolates and marshmallows; lotions to rub on aching joints; oils to swallow; vaginal suppositories … CVS and Walgreens each recently announced plans to sell CBD products in certain states.”

This mass emergence of CBD products came on the heels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s downgrading of CBD products from cannabis that contain no more than 0.1% tetrahydrocannabinols (THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis) from Schedule 1 to Schedule 5 at the end of 2018.³ Schedule 5 drugs are considered to have a lower potential for abuse than other controlled drugs.⁴

However, a vast majority of these CBD products are marketed illegally, as the FDA still does not recognize CBD as a nutritional supplement. Recent reports also warn that the FDA is now starting to crack down on CBD makers and sellers for illegal product claims.

As reported by Forbes⁵ November 25, 2019, for the first time in nearly four years, warning letters have been issued to 15 companies for CBD products sold in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). The FDA has also issued a general consumer update⁶ detailing various CBD safety concerns. Companies that received warning letters include:⁷

Koi CBD	Pink Collections Inc.
Noli Oil	Natural Native
Whole Leaf Organics	Apex Hemp Oil
Bella Rose Labs	Sunflora
Healthy Hemp Strategies (DBA Curapure)	Private I Salon
Organix Industries (DBA Plant Organix)	Red Pill Medical
Sabai Ventures	Daddy Burt (DBA Daddy Burt Hemp Co.)
Infinite Product Company

CBD Excluded From Dietary Supplement Definition

According to the FDA’s consumer update, dated November 25, 2019, there’s a lack of scientific information supporting the safety of CBD in food, stressing that “It is currently illegal to market CBD by adding it to a food or labeling it as a dietary supplement.”

In short, CBD is not legal for use in food, animal feed or supplements. The only FDA approved CBD product is a prescription drug for the treatment of two severe forms of epilepsy.⁸

In fact, the FDA’s downgrading of CBD with minimal THC content to a Schedule 5 drug was in direct response to its approval of Epidiolex, which is approved for the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

As mentioned, CBD can also be derived from hemp, which can now be grown and sold legally in the U.S. per the 2018 Farm Bill. In order to not fall within the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, however, the hemp must (under the Farm Bill) contain less than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis.⁹

With the legalization of hemp, hemp-derived CBD products grew fast and furious. However, it’s important to recognize that CBD isolates from hemp are still illegal as a dietary ingredient. By approving a CBD-only drug (Epidiolex), CBD cannot — per FDA rules — be sold as a supplement, even if it’s derived from legal hemp.

So, to clarify, whole hemp oil can be legally sold across the U.S., even if it contains naturally occurring CBD, but CBD isolates cannot be sold as a nutritional supplement, even if it’s derived from legal hemp.

What’s more, to stay within the legal framework, companies cannot advertise or list CBD on the label. Nor can they make any specific health or disease claims. As reported by Forbes, the 15 companies that received warning letters from the FDA:¹⁰

“… are using product webpages, online stores and social media to market CBD products in interstate commerce in ways that violate the FD&C Act, including marketing CBD products to treat diseases or for other therapeutic uses for humans and animals. Other violations include marketing CBD products as dietary supplements and adding CBD to human and animal foods.”

Considering the FDA’s strengthened position on CBD, it would be wise to leave any CBD products at home when traveling. In May 2019, a 69-year-old woman was arrested and spent 12 hours in jail after Disney World security found CBD oil in her purse.¹¹

The woman said she used it to alleviate arthritis pain. CBD is legal in her home state of North Carolina and is widely available in stores across Florida. The woman also had a doctor’s note for the CBD oil. While the drug charges against her were dropped, her case serves as a chilling warning to CBD-using travelers.

Valuable Health Benefits Ignored

In the 1980s, a St. Louis University Medical School scientist named Allyn Howlett identified the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) in the human brain. We now know there are two types of cannabinoid receptors throughout the human body, CB1 and CB2.

We also know the body produces endogenous cannabinoids that influence these receptors, and that this endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays an important role in human health, as it regulates homeostasis by orchestrating communication between your bodily systems, such as your respiratory, digestive, immune and cardiovascular systems.

According to Project CBD, at least 50 conditions¹² are believed to be improved by CBD, including pain, seizures, muscle spasms, nausea associated with chemotherapy, digestive disorders, degenerative neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, mood disorders, anxiety, PTSD and high blood pressure.

Importantly, CBD has also been shown to provide valuable benefits for those struggling with opioid addiction. To learn more about the benefits of CBD, see “The Endocannabinoid System and the Important Role It Plays in Human Health.”

FDA Overstates Risks

According to New Hope,¹³ the FDA’s updated consumer guidance “’raises significant concerns’ among the hemp CBD industry because the FDA undersells its benefits and overstates the risks …” Loren Israelsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance told New Hope:¹⁴

“This is a significant, concerted and highly orchestrated effort by FDA to put the brakes on the CBD market. The viewpoints and perspectives of the respective interests in this issue are becoming clearer as the anticipated struggle to determine the status of CBD and the other cannabinoids has begun …

The agency has yet to target companies that are not making claims, but it has expanded its concerns over common claims, such as stress, anxiety and pain.”

The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, which lobbies on behalf of the hemp industry, also expressed concern about the tone of the FDA’s consumer update document, stating the agency “severely overstates the health risks of hemp-derived CBD and … ignores much of the scientific evidence of CBD’s safety, in particular at dosage levels typically found in foods and dietary supplements.”¹⁵

Don’t Buy CBD Products on Amazon

Despite its overly negative tone, the FDA does raise an important issue in its consumer update, namely that of quality control. There are plenty of bad actors out there, looking to make a quick buck, so it’s important to do your research before buying.

The worst place to source your CBD is from Amazon. As reported by the Organic & Natural Health Association¹⁶ on October 15, 2019, Amazon’s policy prohibits the sale of CBD products, yet, when you search for “CBD” in its search engine, thousands of products match that search term.

The reason for this is because Amazon allows vendors to tag their products with whatever search words they want — including terms that are prohibited per its own policy, apparently.

Amazon also allows vendors to purchase advertising space for CBD products, again despite the fact that they don’t actually allow CBD products to be sold. To investigate this paradox, the Organic & Natural Health Association hired a third-party laboratory to test Amazon’s best-seller, New Age Premium Hemp Oil 1000 MG, for the presence of cannabinoids.

In what appears to be a clear violation of Amazon’s policy, the product was found to contain approximately 1% CBD¹⁷ (7.7 milligrams of CBD per 30 drops). It does not list CBD on the label, however.

As mentioned, companies are not allowed to list CBD content if they want to sell hemp oil legally, and this really puts consumers in a tough bind, as it’s impossible to know just how much CBD any given hemp oil might contain. In a statement, Karen Howard, CEO and executive director of Organic & Natural Health, said:¹⁸

“It’s really important for consumers to know that because Amazon doesn’t allow the sale of products with CBD, there are no reputable companies selling CBD on their site …

Amazon states it has banned the sale of CBD supplements on its site, but allows advertising and tagging of CBD instead, inviting an influx of products to consumers that the FDA has been warning about …

Essentially, the public is being defrauded twice. First, Amazon’s best-seller, New Age Premium Hemp Oil contains CBD even though its label does not list CBD. Second, those searching for CBD products are being misled into buying products containing zero CBD.”

The Case for Organic CBD

Also keep in mind that since CBD oil became a focus of popular holistic medicine almost overnight, effective quality control has not caught up yet and some products do not meet the claims made on the label.¹⁹ Until such a system is in place, it’s important you purchase your CBD products from a trusted source.

The need for more stringent quality control has already been demonstrated in studies²⁰ showing 26.19% of 84 CBD products tested contained less CBD than advertised, and 42.85% of them contained more. Only 30.95% were accurately labeled.

The FDA also rightly points out that heavy metal contaminants can be a concern. Indeed, heavy metal testing is particularly important component of quality control for hemp-based CBD products, as the plant is known to extract heavy metals from the soil.

Hemp is actually used for bioremediation purposes²¹ to clean heavy metals out of soils, which is great if the hemp is used for rope, fuel and other nonmedical uses. When made into medicine, however, this soil-cleansing feature could pose significant problems.

As a general rule, I recommend seeking out certified organic CBD products to ensure the least amount of contamination with pesticides and other harmful contaminants.

from Articles https://ift.tt/2E8wmTD
via IFTTT

'Loneliness epidemic' may be due to increasing aging population

Despite some claims that Americans are in the midst of a 'loneliness epidemic,' older people today may not be any lonelier than their counterparts from previous generations -- there just might be more of them, according to a pair of new studies.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2roHR6Y

What blocks bird flu in human cells?

Why doesn't deep-brain stimulation work for everyone?

Researchers have mapped nine functional networks in the deep-brain structures of 10 healthy people, an accomplishment that could lead to improvements in deep-brain stimulation therapy for severe cases of Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2REyZ7C

Water births are as safe as land births for mom, baby

Me, me, me! How narcissism changes throughout life

Justified and unjustified movie violence evokes different brain responses

In a study, researchers find that scenes of justified and unjustified violence in movies activate different parts of the adolescent brain. The research is the first to show that when movie characters engage in violence that is seen as justified, there is a synchronized response among viewers in a part of the brain involved in moral evaluation, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, suggesting that viewers see the violent behavior as acceptable for self- or family protection.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/343iHb6

Lighting up cardiovascular problems using nanoparticles

Eating more ketones may fight against Alzheimer's disease

The genetic signature of memory

Despite their importance in memory, the human cortex and subcortex display a distinct collection of 'gene signatures.' The work increases our understanding of how the brain creates memories and identifies potential genes for further investigation.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2LFbFDd

Eating more ketones may fight against Alzheimer's disease

Increasing food intake by swapping mitochondrial genomes

To uncover the relationship between variation in genes and phenotypic diversity, geneticists use a set of fully sequenced fruit-fly genomes. But little is known about the variation in the mitochondrial genome, for which mutations are linked to an array of diseases. Now, scientists have created a high-resolution map of mitochondrial DNA variants in the fruit fly, connecting mitochondrial genes to metabolic traits and diseases.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2sZCgEk

Lighting up cardiovascular problems using nanoparticles

Trouble with crossword puzzles? Improve your semantic memory

Can you distinguish the taste of a red wine versus a rosé? How about the look of a 1960s muscle car versus a foreign import? Do you prefer to grow lilies or tulips? Would you rather listen to Dark Side of the Moon or “Fly Me to the Moon”? To answer any of these questions, you need to use your semantic memory.

Your semantic memory is your store of factual knowledge of the world and the meaning of words. It’s how you know that a fork is for eating (not twirling your hair) and what color a lion is. It’s both the source of your vocabulary and how you know what something does even if you don’t know the name of it — like that little bit of plastic that covers the end of a shoelace (an aglet).

Use episodic memory to increase your semantic memory

To form new semantic memories, you need to use your episodic memory to learn new information. For a week, month, or year, you might remember where you were and what you were doing when you learned a new fact. Over time, however, you will forget the context and just remember the fact. Once only the fact remains, it is part of your semantic memory.

The left temporal lobe: Your brain’s dictionary

Several landmark papers have examined where semantic memory is stored in the brain. In 1996, two related studies were published in an article in Nature.

For the first, the researchers enrolled over 100 patients with strokes and other brain lesions in their left temporal lobe. (Put your finger on your left temple, just behind your eye — that’s where the left temporal lobe is located.) They asked these patients to name famous people, animals, and tools that were man-made objects. They found that the location of brain lesions affected recall. Patients with the most anterior lesions (close to their eyes) had the biggest difficulty naming persons. Patients with the most posterior lesions (toward the back of head) had the greatest difficulty naming tools. And those with lesions in between these areas had the most difficulty naming animals.

In the second study the researchers had healthy adults name famous people, animals, and tools while undergoing a positron emission tomography (PET) scan that showed brain activity. As expected, naming people yielded the most anterior activity, tools the most posterior activity, and for animals the activity was in between.

Dementia may erase words from the dictionary

More recent research links deterioration of the anterior temporal lobe to the difficulties understanding what a word means exhibited by people with some types of dementia. Although people with Alzheimer’s disease most commonly exhibit this abnormality, it is most prominent in a type of aphasia known as semantic dementia. When you speak with these individuals, they may start off sounding normal, but you will notice that they refer to all sorts of different items as the “thing” or a similar word. As you talk with them further, you will discover that they do not know what certain words mean, such as “medicine” or “shoe” — two examples from one of my patients.

Semantic memory in other brain regions

Just as our knowledge is not limited to words, neither is our semantic memory limited to the left temporal lobe. The right temporal lobe has been linked to knowledge of nonverbal information (such as the weight of a golf ball versus a ping-pong ball) and facial recognition. Other parts of the brain also participate in semantic memory. For example, what Frank Sinatra singing “Fly Me to the Moon” sounds like is stored in your auditory association cortex in your superior temporal lobe. Your image of a Chevrolet Camaro is stored in your visual association cortex in your occipital lobes. And the feeling of tulip petals resting on your cheek is stored in your sensory association cortex in your parietal lobe.

Semantic memory does not decline in aging

Can improving your semantic memory help you do a crossword puzzle? Yes. Not only does semantic memory store the meaning of words as well as nonverbal concepts, it also stores the relationships within and between words and concepts. For example, your semantic memory of the band Pink Floyd may be linked to the President of the United States in the following way: Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon may be connected in your semantic memory to moon landings, which is then connected to astronauts, to John Glenn, to senators, to politicians, and to presidents.

Lastly, a bit of good news: research suggests semantic memory does not decline in normal aging. As you continue to learn new information throughout your life, your vocabulary and your ability to solve crossword puzzles may actually improve with age.

The post Trouble with crossword puzzles? Improve your semantic memory appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

from Harvard Health Blog https://ift.tt/2LVQnRZ

Machine learning can help us understand conversations about death

Researchers have used machine learning and natural language processing to better understand what end-of-life conversations look like. Borrowing techniques used to study fiction, where machine learning algorithms analyze manuscripts to identify story types, the researchers identified several common elements in these conversations. That knowledge could eventually help healthcare practitioners understand what makes a 'good' conversation about palliative care.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/35953Vk

Labels

Technology

New Post