Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby's Total Health Newsletter #12. Week ending Aug 9th, 2009 Please feel free to forward this to friends who might be interested in reading it.
I think most people know that so-called "brown fat" burns calories and keeps us slim. Brown fat is GOOD; white fat is BAD!
Brown fat is "good" fat because it burns energy, acting as a furnace, to help regulate body temperature by generating heat. The more of this fat you have, the leaner you tend to be.
White fat, on the other hand, stores calories and contributes to obesity.
So if we could somehow pile on the brown fat instead of the white stuff, obesity would soon be a thing of the past. "Get fat! But make sure it's brown fat!" would be the motto.
Unfortunately, we can't choose. But soon we may be able to. One of the problems (as usual) was scientific dogma! Scientists "knew" that brown fat was only found in children and rodents. They were wrong, according to a new study published in the prestigious journal NATURE (July 29)!
"Several papers found that humans have a lot of brown fat, contrary to previous reports," said study senior author Dr. Bruce Spiegelman, a professor of cell biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
The study team also found a special protein PRDM16 that could transform immature cells into brown fat, in conjunction with another protein C/EBP-beta. Don't worry about these idiotic names; they won't appear on the box when it's being sold.
But it will be big business if the experiments with rodents can be translated into human terms. And why not, since we have the brown fat?
The plan would be to take cells from an actual patient, "treat" them with the PRDM16 and C/EBP-beta combination, then inject them back into the patient with the hope that it would promote the creation of brown fat.
Another possibility would be to create a drug that would make brown fat. Big Pharma will be drooling at that possibility.
2. FDA's Final Ruling On Mercury Fillings Comes As An Outrage
Last year the FDA surprised us all by declaring mercury used in dental amalgam fillings was dangerous, especially to children and pregnant women. Now they have done an about face!
Was this earlier announcement merely an incitement by officers to attract bribes from those who stood to lose if mercury was ruled dangerous? "This is what we are going to do if you don't pay us off"?
Seems likely it was. There is NO OTHER possible scientific reason to ignore the oceans of toxicology studies on mercury and declare there was "no evidence" of health hazard-- this is one of the most toxic substances on planet Earth, mind!!
The FDA should stand firm and demand that the amalgam and dental industry prove that fillings are safe; not just hide behind the fact there is "no evidence" of harm. Once again the FDA is protecting business, instead of the public.
But this is a sad ruling because some countries will copy it. Only brave independent countries like Sweden have taken a stand and banned deadly amalgam fillings. They are leading the world. America's shame is that it does not lead but skulks behind barriers of dogma and deceit.
At a media advisory to announce the final rule, the FDA's Susan Runner, DDS, said, "The best available scientific evidence supports the conclusion that patients with dental amalgam fillings are not at risk for mercury-associated adverse health effects.
Meanwhile dentists have to have elaborate extraction systems (by law) and are forbidden to dump this "harmless" substance into the drainage system!
Doesn't make sense (except as evidence of bribes).
SOURCES: LFDA Media Advisory, July 28, 2009. WebMD Health News: "FDA: Possible Risk From Dental Fillings.
3. Fish Oil During Pregnancy Dramatically Lowers Allergy Risk For Children
Omega 3–rich fish oil supplementation during pregnancy and lactation may reduce the risk of food allergy and eczema in children, according to a new study from Sweden published in the journal Acta Paediatrica [Acta Paediatr. 2009 Jun 1 ePub ahead of print] .
It was a classic randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, following 145 pregnant women who had allergies or had partners or other children with allergies [this makes them a high risk group for having allergic children.
Starting in the 25th week of pregnancy and continuing after birth for between 3 and 4 months of breastfeeding, the women were randomly assigned to receive either:
daily fish oil supplements providing 1.6 g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 1.1 g of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
or placebo.
The result was children born subsequently with only a 2% prevalence of food allergy in the omega-3 infant group, compared to 15% in the placebo group. That's a SEVEN-fold reduction!
Furthermore, the incidence of allergic eczema was reduced by 2/3rds (8% in the omega-3 infant group, compared to 24% in the placebo group).
The mechanism is easy to follow: omega-3 fatty acids compete with the omega-6s, the ones which lead to nasty arachidonic acid (AA) and inflammatory prostaglandins.
A pretty robust trial that should (but won't) hammer home to pediatricians and other doctors that nutrition is the first thing to correct, not last on the list -- or something you FIGHT tooth and nail!
4. FDA To Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced this month that it intends to restrict many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in an effort to curb the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Joshua Sharfstein, MD, principal deputy commissioner at the FDA (and a pediatrician), recommended that the food industry cease feeding antibiotics to healthy livestock.
We have the ridiculous situation, true of many other Western countries, that nearly 70% of antibiotics used in the United States is administered to HEALTHY chickens, pigs, and cattle -- to encourage their growth or to prevent illnesses.
Predictably, the agriculture crooks fight back-- they are not in the least concerned for human health, only profits. They claim that there are no studies connecting antibiotic-resistant diseases to antibiotic use in food-animal production. Ridiculous - it's their job to prove that science is wrong and cannot create antibiotic resistance in animals, as it does in humans.
Unfortunately, the farming lobby is so powerful here, it will win against common sense. What is the skilled knowledge of an experienced pediatrician to them? They will go on polluting the food supply and threatening the lives of our children and grandchildren.
I have detailed the misery and dangers they are causing in my new report: "How To Survive In A World Without Antibiotics". It tells you what to do against all bacterial infections, not just MRSA and other resistant forms. You need to get a copy NOW, to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
This is a suprise book review. But I just enjoyed it so much I had to share! The last book that gripped me so much that I could not put it down (literally) was "Jurassic Park"; I couldn't sleep till I finished it. This was nearly as much a thriller but it's non-fiction.
David Bodanis has written an account of the lives of everyone involved in the final emergence of this most famous of all equations. And he doesn't start with Einstein! Oh no. This goes back to Newton, Lavoisier, Faraday; and rolls forward beyond Einstein to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Fred Hoyle; it includes the despairing but necessary assassination of innocents in Norway, to foil the Nazis attempts to get heavy water back to Germany to build the first A-bomb.
It truly is a life history of e=mc2.
Most surprising are the women. Lise Meitner and Cecilia Payne have found their place in the annals of fame and greatness but the paltry treatment they received at the hands of jealous male colleagues is shameful to read about.
I knew little about Emilie du Chatelet until this book. As the aristocratic lover of the famous French satirist writer Voltaire she may be entitled to some regard. But the truth was that in her own right she shone almost as bright as Newton and proved his calcuations on mass and velocity to be flawed. She came up with the correct figure that has been part of the standard canon of science since the 18th century. She carried out a version of Lavoisier's famous "phlogiston" experiment before Lavoisuer was even born and if her equipment had been better, she would undoubtedly have taken priority.
Du Chatelet had an unbelievable quick and brilliant mind and if I add "for a woman" you know I only mean that the age and the culture she lived in did everything to oppress such outstanding talent in a woman. She was also a fencer and a mathematician, who used her number skills to win at gambling. Some lady!
Sadly, du Chatelet became pregnant and died in childbirth. Her last letter is very moving (she knew she had little chance to survive a baby at age 40). Ironically, she did survive the birth but died a few days later of childbed fever, caused by doctors who didn't wash their hands or their instruments. The child died too, so it was all for nought.
Is it going to be too technical for the average person to enjoy? I don't think so at all. But remember the mystique that surrounds relativity! There are plenty of books that try to explain it, but who can honestly say they understand them? Even first-hand instruction doesn't always help, as Chaim Weizmann commented when he took a long Atlantic crossing with Einstein in 1921:
'Einstein explained his theory to me every day,' Weizmann said, 'and on my arrival I was fully convinced that he understood it.'
What's In A Word?
Candid.
An interesting word family here! Candid means impartial, fair, just, honest, open, frank, sincere (speak your mind, no faking, no prejudice). I try to be candid in my medical advices!
But it comes from the Latin word candidus, which means pure, white and sincere and is related to the Latin candere, which means candescent. We meet that in our more common word incandescent, which means glowing with intense light. It is sometimes used metaphorically, when we say an actor gave an "incandescent performance" (I remember it being said of Emily Watson in the strange 1996 movie "Breaking The Waves").
The word candidate is related. It comes from the fact that those in office in ancient Rome wore white robes! Political candidates in most territories, however, would not qualify as white, pure, sincere, open or honest!
Candida (Thrush) also shares the same origin. It's white sticky stuff, in the mouth or vagina.
Not to be confused with candied, which means cooked or crystallized in sugar or syrup; as "candied peel".
This Week's Quote:
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul."
John Muir (talking about national parks)
So, that's all for this week!
Be well; find the sacred in all you do, otherwise don't do it!
Prof.
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