Public remains stunningly ignorant about residential solar

After months of wrestling with the County Building Department about permits and codes, excruciating financial gymnastics and down and dirty back-breaking spadework, we finally got our solar installation up. It’s a massive 3 kw (stc) photovoltaic pole mount. We feel…

Wrongfully accused in L.A.: ID glitches see hundreds jailed who shouldn’t be

Cops hear it all the time: “I didn’t do it!” “You’ve got the wrong guy!” “It wasn’t me!” And yet, hundreds of times over the past five years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has arrested the wrong people, with scores spending several days in jail, over identification…

Large southwest dairy farm to lose organic certification following USDA investigation

(NaturalNews)The first dairy to ever become US Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic in the State of Arizona is now set to lose that certification following an investigation spearheaded by the Cornucopia Institute (CI), a small-scale organic farm advocacy group. Shamrock…

FDA issues warning to 8 bariatric surgery centers following multiple confirmed fatalities

After four confirmed fatalities since 2009, the FDA is finally taking action against eight California surgical centers and a marketing firm for providing misleading information while advertising lap-band surgery. Death and advertising The L.A. County Department of…

Study confirms benefits of tanning, sun exposure for the production of health-promoting vitamin D

(NaturalNews) Exposing your unprotected skin to natural sunlight and even using a tanning bed are not necessarily the highly dangerous, cancer promoting activities that many in the government and media would have you believe they are. A new study out of Oslo University Hospital (OUH) in Norway confirms what we here at NaturalNews have been saying for a long time — regular exposure to moderate levels of sunlight promotes good health through the healthy production of vitamin D in the body. Johan Moan, a scientist and researcher from the Department of Radiation Biology at OUH’s Institute for Cancer Research found that the benefits derived from exposure to vitamin D-producing UV rays far outweigh the miniscule risk of developing cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). In fact, it is primarily overexposure in the form of sunburns that is responsible for UV-related cancer risk. “Sun exposure is commonly supposed to be the main cause of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) in most populations. However, the matter is disputed,” said Moan and his research team in conjunction with their findings. “It can be estimated that increased sun exposure to the Norwegian population might at worst result in 200-300 more CMM deaths per year, but it would elevate the vitamin D status by about 25 nmol/l (nanomoles per liter) and might result in 4,000 fewer internal cancers and about 3,000 fewer cancer deaths overall.” But the risk of getting skin cancer from exposing skin to natural sunlight or a tanning bed, might even be less than that. Ivan Oransky, editor of Reuters Health and treasurer of the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), wrote last year in a blog that the actual risk of getting skin cancer from using a tanning bed is about 0.2 percent, and this risk likely only includes those that overexpose themselves (http://www.naturalnews.com/029895_skin_cancer_tanning_beds.html). Russian health authorities also recognize the benefits of tanning beds, as they last year installed tanning beds in Russian prisons to help improve inmate health (http://www.naturalnews.com/030416_tanning_beds_prisoners.html). Vitamin D deficiency is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, endocrine dysfunction, infections, autoimmune disorders, kidney problems, neurological disease, respiratory illness, skin problems, and cancer, among other things (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/). Sources for this article include: http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/sunbed-cancer-risk-may-be-worth-it-study/5/106749

Eating certain foods alters expression of heart disease genes

(NaturalNews) Did your mother or father have a heart attack? Did your grandfather and a couple of aunts and uncles or maybe a brother or cousin die from heart disease? Do you feel doomed that having a bad ticker “runs” in your family? Actually, you may have good reason to worry if several of your relatives have suffered from cardiac problems. There is a gene passed down in families that researchers say is the strongest marker for heart disease. But now there’s breaking news that shows you can actually change that genetic heritage. No, we aren’t talking about some gene zapping drug or high tech genetic medical therapy. Instead, you simply need to eat a lot of raw natural fruit and veggies. This isn’t a joke and it isn’t an unsubstantiated “health nut” claim. Instead, it’s the result of a study headed by an international team of scientists and directed by researchers at McMaster and McGill universities. These researchers have made an amazing discovery, which was just published in the journal PLoS Medicine : the gene responsible for much heart disease can be modified by eating generous amounts of fruits and raw vegetables. “We know that 9p21 genetic variants increase the risk of heart disease for those that carry it,” Dr. Jamie Engert, joint principal investigator of the study, who is a researcher in cardiovascular diseases at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and associate member in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University, said in a media statement. “But it was a surprise to find that a healthy diet could significantly weaken its effect.” Huge study investigated gene and diet link The research represents one of the largest gene and diet interaction studies ever conducted on cardiovascular disease. It involved studying more than 27,000 individuals(European, South Asian, Chinese, Latin American and Arab) to see if what they ate had an effect on the 9p21 gene. The results showed that individuals with the high risk genotype who ate a diet rich in mainly raw vegetables, fruits and berries, had no more risk of heart attack than people who lacked the heart disease-linked gene. “We observed that the effect of a high-risk genotype can be mitigated by consuming a diet high in fruits and vegetables,” stated Sonia Anand. She is the joint principal investigator of the study, and a researcher at the Population Health Research Institute and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University. Sonia also commented, “Our results support the public health recommendation to consume more than five servings of fruits or vegetables as a way to promote good health.” According to the study’s lead author Dr. Ron Do (who conducted this research as part of his PhD at McGill and is now based at the Center for Human Genetics Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston), the new study suggests there may be an important interplay between genes and diet in cardiovascular disease. “Future research is necessary to understand the mechanism of this interaction, which will shed light on the underlying metabolic processes that the 9p21 gene is involved in,” Dr. Do said. Sources for this article include: http://www.plosone.org/home.action http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/media /media_mcmaster_mcgill_greens_genes_20111011.htmlhttp://www.genetichealth.com/HD_Genetics_of_Coronary_Artery_Disease.shtml

Farmers Seek to Raise Standards for Berries

Exactly what makes an organic strawberry organic? Three California growers are urging the Department of Agriculture to clarify matters.

How ethnicity and inherited genes contribute to breast cancer risk — best approaches to prevention and treatment

A woman’s ethnicity as well as her genetic makeup are two of the main risk factors for hereditary breast cancer. Research into understanding and treating hereditary breast cancer is being presented at the Era of Hope conference, a scientific meeting hosted by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program.

Research links diet during pregnancy to breast cancer risk reduction in female offspring

Research being presented at the Era of Hope conference, a scientific meeting hosted by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP), reveals findings suggesting that if an expectant mother increases her consumption of foods high in certain fatty acids or nutrients during her pregnancy, she can potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer in her female offspring.

Dental surgery causes American woman to speak with British accent

(NaturalNews) “When I talk now people ask me where I got my accent from. Well, I got it from a dentist in Toledo.” jokes Karen Butler. Butler believes she has foreign accent syndrome, a condition so rare that there are only 60 known cases worldwide. Butler, a 56-year-old tax consultant who grew up in Toledo, Ore., woke up with the strange accent, which could be taken for anything from Eastern European to Swedish or British, after dental surgery in November 2009. Butler had the surgery to remove her top teeth and front bottom teeth due to gingivitis. After the swelling went down the following week, she had still not regained her original accent. Her dentist told her that it was a matter of getting used to the new teeth. But a year and a half later the accent remains. “I had just had surgery, so at first we assumed it was because of all of the swelling, but within a week the swelling went down and the accent stayed,” said Butler. The accidental accent is usually fleeting and goes away within weeks or months, said Dr. Ted Lowenkopf, a neurologist and medical director of Providence Stroke Center in Portland, Ore. But the longer it lasts, the more likely it is to stick for good. The syndrome is often the result of brain injury, but Butler believes she hasn’t had a stroke or any brain trauma. She said she has not been able to get a brain scan because her medical insurance will not cover it. “We don’t know exactly how or why it happens, but it simply affects rhythm of language,” said Dr. Helmi Lutsep, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health and Science University. He says that in some cases the speech just sounds a bit “off” while other cases are far more extreme. “I’m absolutely convinced this is a real phenomenon. These people are not making it up.” “Although we think it sounds like a British accent, if you had a language expert listening to her, they would say that’s not an English accent,” said Lowenkopf. “It’s sort of an amalgam of different-sounding speech that sounds like a foreign accent. But it’s not truly typical of any one foreign accent.” Butler said she can’t hear her own accent when she speaks, but can feel herself forming words differently. She talks about her daughter, Jamie, as a “twenty-VUN” year old. Although speech therapy could help Butler regain her old accent, she said she is used the new one. “I appear to be completely normal otherwise and I’m quite OK with [the accent],” she said. “With a sense of humor, you can face anything.” She feels the accent is a benefit to her in a way. “I used to be painfully shy,” she said. “And now there’s always something to talk about” Sources for this story include: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/foreign-accent-syndrome-oregon-woman-wakes-surgery-accent/story?id=13518030 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FOREIGN_ACCENT_SYNDROME?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-06-05-16-55-04

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