“This is the first study to show that apigenin, which can be extracted from celery, parsley and many other natural sources, is effective against human breast cancer cells that had been influenced by a certain chemical used in hormone replacement therapy,” said co-author Salman Hyder, the Zalk Endowed Professor in Tumor Angiogenesis… [...] In the study, Hyder and his colleagues implanted cells of a deadly, fast-growing human breast cancer, known as BT-474, into a specialized breed of mouse. Some of the mice were then treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a type of progestin commonly given to post-menopausal women. A control group did not receive MPA. Later one group of MPA-treated mice was treated with apigenin. Cancerous tumors grew rapidly in the mice which did not receive apigenin. In the apigenin-treated mice, breast cancer cell growth dropped to that of the control group, and the tumors shrank.

“We do know that apigenin slowed the progression of human breast cancer cells in three ways: by inducing cell death, by inhibiting cell proliferation, and by reducing expression of a gene associated with cancer growth. Blood vessels responsible for feeding cancer cells also had smaller diameters in apigenin-treated mice compared to untreated mice. Smaller vessels mean restricted nut

The relationship between coffee drinking and health has been a hot topic in recent years, but research has produced mixed results. Some studies have linked coffee consumption to better health and a lower risk of premature death, while others suggest that coffee — or rather caffeine — might contribute to heart disease through negative effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, and heart rate.

The new study is by far the largest of its kind to date. As part of a joint project with the AARP, researchers from the National Institutes of Health followed more than 400,000 healthy men and women between the ages of 50 and 71 for up to 13 years, during which 13% of the participants died. Overall, coffee drinkers were less likely than their peers to die during the study, and the more coffee they drank, the lower their mortality risk tended to be. Compared with people who drank no coffee at all, men and women who drank six or more cups per day were 10% and 15% less likely, respectively, to die during the study.

Even moderate coffee consumption was linked to better survival odds. Drinking a single cup per day — which was much more common than a six-cup-a-day habit — was associated with a 6% lower risk of dying among men and a 5% lower risk among women.

6 Reasons Low Thyroid Function Goes Undiagnosed
1. Your doctor may not be trained to diagnose hypothyroidism.
2. Your doctor may not have time to listen to you.
3. Your doctor may be unaware of the various clinical symptoms.
4. Your doctor may not recognize the physical signs of hypothyroidism.
5. Your body temperature is overlooked as a symptom.
6. Your doctor may rely solely on a blood test.

If you have the symptoms of low thyroid function, such as fatigue, unexplained weight gain, depressed moods, and difficulty sleeping, then the best thing you can do for your health is  to find a doctor who will listen to you and evaluate you by your symptoms.

Zithromax, or azithromycin, is more expensive than other antibiotics, but it’s popular because it often can be taken for fewer days. But the results suggest doctors should prescribe other options for people already prone to heart problems, the researchers and other experts said.

Vanderbilt University researchers analyzed health records and data on millions of prescriptions for several antibiotics given to about 540,000 Tennessee Medicaid patients from 1992 to 2006. There were 29 heart-related deaths among those who took Zithromax during five days of treatment. Their risk of death while taking the drug was more than double that of patients on another antibiotic, amoxicillin, or those who took none. The results suggest there would be 47 extra heart-related deaths per 1 million courses of treatment with Zithromax, compared with amoxicillin. A usual treatment course for Zithromax is about five days, versus about 10 days for amoxicillin and other antibiotics. Zithromax is at least twice as expensive as generic amoxicillin; online prescription drug sellers charge a few dollars per pill for Zithromax.

Zithromax, marketed by Pfizer Inc., has been available in the United States for two decades. It’s often used to treat bronchitis, sinus infections and pneumonia. Wayne Ray, a Vanderbilt professor of medicine, decided to study the drug’s risks because of evidence linking it with potential heart rhythm problems. Also, antibiotics in the same class as Zithromax have been linked with sudden cardiac death.

A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning — and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology publishes the findings in its May 15 edition.

“Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA [...] ”Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage.” While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

The UCLA team zeroed in on high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid six times sweeter than cane sugar, that is commonly added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes more than 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We’re not talking about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants,” explained Gomez-Pinilla, who is also a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center. “We’re concerned about high-fructose corn syrup that is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.”

Step 1: Flush Fat - Besides its main ingredient of water, the Fat Flush contains grapefruit that’s loaded with vitamin C to help your body turn fat into fuel. The tangerine increases your sensitivity to insulin, stabilizes blood sugar, and stimulates genes to burn fat. Cucumber helps you feel full and acts as a natural diuretic, which means less bloating and water retention. And lastly, it has peppermint [...]. Drink at least one 8 ounce glass three times a day before each meal for 10 days straight.

Step 2: Choose Green Carbs Over Brown – It’s healthy to eat whole grain “brown” carbs, but to lose fat fast, get your carbs from green vegetables for 10 days. Verdant veggies such as spinach, broccoli, green beans, lettuce and zucchini are loaded with fiber, minerals and vitamins.

Step 3: Super Spice Your Protein – Mix up a delicious fat-burning rub containing three super spices that also add great flavor to your favorite protein dishes. This tasty mixture combines chili powder which fights fat with capsaicin, the substance that gives chili peppers their spicy kick. The turmeric contains curcumin to suppress the growth of fat tissue, and mustard seed is shown to speed up metabolism. Enjoy for 10 days.

Step 4: Snack Skinny - Snack yourself skinny with Kim Lyons’ Cauliflower Popcorn. This tasty nosh is actually roasted cauliflower fashioned into “popcorn” bites. Eat twice a day to satisfy midmorning and late afternoon cravings.

It’s a little-known secret, used in the kitchens of many restaurants. Meat glue is the nickname for the white powder called transglutaminase enzyme. It allows people to take small bits of meat – the size that would normally be used for stew – and bond them together in a way that makes the smaller pieces appear to be a solid steak. Rancher Nigel Tudor said meat glue is made by “taking the clotting agents out of pigs’ and cows’ blood” and using it “to clot together chunks of meat.” Not even an expert could tell the difference, even seeing the steak made with meat glue side by side with a real filet mignon. “Look at that. It’s amazing huh?” he said.

The packaging of meat sold at grocery stores must be labeled as “formed” or “reformed.” But restaurants have no such labeling requirement, leaving consumers in the dark if their steak has been glued.

But Steve Steingart, of the Allegheny County Health Department in Pennsylvania said glued meat could also pose a health risk if smaller pieces of meat that have been handled, and possibly contaminated, end up in the center of a steak served rare. He said glued steaks “would have to be cooked, because if you ordered this rare, there’s a possibility that this steak, there could be growth on it.”

Drugs such as Prozac are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (or SSRIs). Their objective is to boost the level of this ‘feel-good’ chemical in the brain. And now a controversial research points out that serotonin is like a chemical Swiss Army knife, performing a very wide range of jobs in the brain and body. And when we start deliberately altering serotonin levels, it may lead to a wide range of unwanted effects. These can comprise digestive problems, sexual difficulties and even strokes and premature deaths in older people, according to the study’s lead researcher Paul Andrews.

[...] Earlier research has suggested that the drugs provide little benefit for most people with mild and moderate depression, and actively help only some of the most severely depressed. Eminent psychologist Irving Kirsch has found that for many patients, SSRIs are no more effective than a placebo pill.

Two years ago, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported a 68 per cent increase in risk of miscarriage in women on antidepressants. And research in 2009 on Danish children found a small, but noteworthy, increase in the risk of heart defects among babies whose mothers had used SSRIs in early pregnancy. There is also increasing evidence that long-term use in adults is associated with bleeding in the gut and increased risk of stroke.

Patients have previously been treated with chemotherapy drugs containing another metal, platinum. In a head-to-head comparison against a leading platinum-based chemo drug, cisplatin, a silver-based drug was found to be just as effective—and far less toxic to normal cells than platinum. Dr. Charlotte Willans, the lead researcher, calls the research an important step in the quest for effective, non-toxic cancer treatments.

Silver also happens to be the world’s oldest known antibiotic. There’s written evidence that the ancient Egyptians made use of it; the ancient Greeks and Romans stored their water, wine, and other liquids in silver vessels to prevent spoiling and contamination [...].

In the 1800s and early 1900s, colloidal silver compounds were widely used to fight infections, though silver fell out of favor in the 1930s with the development of the first modern antibiotics. Even so, silver is still popularly used today to treat water, purify air, and is used in medical dressings prevent infection in burn victims. Very importantly in today’s world, germs cannot develop a resistance to silver. The big problem with antibiotic drugs, we now know, is that bacteria can become resistant to them, adapting into “superbugs” that are very difficult to treat. A study published earlier this year demonstrated that bacteria are now mutating to evade vaccines for childhood pneumonia and meningitis. So we not only have antibiotic-resistant superbugs, we have vaccine-resistant ones as well. This is just the latest indication that the “miracle drugs” and vaccines of the mid-to-late 1900s are not standing the test of time. Contrast this with colloidal silver, which has been used as a bactericide for over a millennium—and has never produced silver-resistant bacteria!