Max Planck Gesellschaft - Rare neurons discovered in monkey brains

Max Planck scientists discover brain cells in monkeys that may be linked to self-awareness and empathy in humans

The anterior insular cortex is a small brain region that plays a crucial role in human self-awareness and in related neuropsychiatric disorders. A unique cell type – the von Economo neuron (VEN) – is located there. For a long time, the VEN was assumed to be unique to humans, great apes, whales and elephants. Henry Evrard, neuroanatomist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, now discovered that the VEN occurs also in the insula of macaque monkeys. The morphology, size and distribution of the monkey VEN suggest that it is at least a primal anatomical homolog of the human VEN. This finding offers new and much-needed opportunities to examine in detail the connections and functions of a cell and brain region that could have a key role in human self-awareness and in mental disorders including autism and specific forms of dementia.

The insular cortex, or simply insula, is a hidden cortical region folded and tucked away deep in the brain – an island within the cortex. Within the last decade, the insula has emerged from darkness as having a key role in diverse functions usually linked to our internal bodily states, to our emotions, to our self-awareness, and to our social interactions. The very anterior part of the insula in particular is where humans consciously sense subjective emotions, such as love, hate, resentment, self-confidence or embarrassment. In relation to these feelings, the anterior insula is involved in various psychopathologies. Damage of the insula leads to apathy, and to the inability to tell what feelings we or our conversational partner experience. These inabilities and alteration of the insula are also encountered in autism and other highly detrimental neuropsychiatric disorders including the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Read More:

http://www.mpg.de/5808445/von_economo_neurons

Sayer Ji - Coconut Water: Far More Than Just A Refreshing Beverage

Few beverages on this planet are as biocompatible to the human body and its hydration needs as coconut water.  Indeed, coconut water has been reported to have been used forintravenous hydration and resuscitation of critically ill patients in remote regions of the world for over half a century. [1]  It is also an excellent preserving medium for avulsed teeth (andsemen!), besting even Hank's balanced salt solution, a commonly used medical solution. [2]

While some are concerned about the sugar content of this slightly sweet beverage,  recent research shows it actually exhibits blood sugar lowering properties in an experimental model of diabetes.[3]  Additional animal research shows coconut water prevents and reverses high blood pressure associated with fructose feeding-induced hypertension, as well being able to reduce oxidative stress and insulin resistance. [4]   

Perhaps one of the most amazing properties of coconut water is its superior lipid modulating activity in the animal model vis-à-vis the cholesterol-lowering statin drug known as lovastatin.[5]  Which means we can, in clear conscience, modify Hippocrates’ famous saying to: "Let What You Drink Be Your Medicine."

Other medicinal properties of coconut water include:

Read More:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/coconut-water-far-more-just-refreshing-beverage

Jon Rappoport - THE FDA IS A ROGUE CRIMINAL AGENCY

The day of the Smoking Gun has arrived.

The discovery of a page, on the FDA’s own website, proves the FDA is fully aware that:

the drugs it certifies as safe have been killing Americans, at the rate of 100,000 per year.

The FDA website page is currently available under the heading, “Why Learn About Adverse Drug Reactions,” and it can be Googled. (Click here to go directly to the FDA page.)

The implications of this Smoking Gun are hard to grasp in any rational way.

The FDA takes no blame, no responsibility for its actions, and yet it admits the death statistics are accurate.

As an investigative reporter, I have been tracking and writing about pharmaceutically-caused deaths for 10 years. I have, on numerous occasions, cited Dr. Barbara Starfield’s report in the July 26th, 2000, Journal of the American Medical Association, in which she presents the figure of 106,000 deaths per year, in America, as a result of these drugs. I have claimed that the federal government and, in particular, the FDA, are aware of these numbers.

And now the page on the FDA’s own website confirms the death toll. Yet, nowhere do we see the FDA taking one shred of responsibility for this ongoing holocaust.

Holocaust? Add up the figures. Medical drugs cause 100,000 deaths in America every year: that means a million Americans are killed every decade.

Understand this very clearly. No medical drug in America can be released for public use until and unless the FDA states it is safe. The FDA is the agency responsible for every such decision on every drug. The buck stops there.

Read More:

http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/hidden-in-plain-view-fda-murder/

Mike Bundrant - Give your psychiatrist a diagnosis of his own: Six disorders to choose from

Given the controversy over the legitimacy of the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual (DSM) used for psychiatric diagnosis, I thought I'd clear things up by submitting the following revisions. These carefully considered and researched new labels should do the trick, as they are intended to make the DSM more balanced by offering the patient an opportunity to diagnose the doctor.

If you are a doctor and are offended by these proposed DSM additions, then they certainly apply to you. If you are a patient or concerned citizen and are ready to bust one of these onto an unsuspecting doc, you can follow it with the remedy at the end of this article. Here are my six proposed additions to the DSM (others are being researched).

CRD: Compassion repression disorder 

Symptoms: When the doc is in the presence of human suffering, he pretends nothing is happening. He could be watching a chess match for all we know. When a patient reaches emotional extremes (as in extraordinarily depressed) he realizes it is time to initiate electro-convulsive therapy and send electric shocks through her brain, possibly wiping out much of her memory. The doc is fine with this and proceeds to go out for a sandwich.

GNTFY: Got no time for you syndrome 

Symptoms: Due to concerns about making his yacht payment and country club dues, the doc obsessively packs in 4-5 patients every hour. When you ask a question that takes more than 7.5 seconds to answer, the doc quickly regurgitates several medical terms, hands you a brochure and dashes for the door.

PCSD: Pervasive communication skills disorder 

Symptoms: When the doc holds sensitive information and needs to break the news to the patient, he hits the patient over the head with it in the most dismissive way possible. If the patient has cancer, for example, the doctor might say, "You have cancer. We can't operate. You are going to die. The exit is to your left just down the hall."

Read More:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035934_psychiatry_disorders_mental_health.html

Andrew W. Saul - Dispensing with Fluoride

Evidence-based medicine requires evidence before medicating. Fluoridation of water is not evidence-based. It has not been tested in well-controlled studies. Fluoridation of public water is a default medication, since you have to deliberately avoid it if you do not want to take it." ~ Andrew W. Saul

As a child, there was nothing I liked about going to the dental dispensary, with the possible exception of the large tropical fish aquarium in the waiting room. This was a distraction to what was coming: three hours in a vast hall containing a double line of black dental chairs and a matching double line of white-clad dental students. And that, as a six-year-old, is where I first met fluoride on a regular basis. After a free cleaning and checkup (the reason my cost-conscious parents had me go there, and the reason it literally took three hours to complete), fluoride was applied to my teeth with a swab.

I remember both the smell (acrid) and the taste (astringent). I actually looked forward to the fluoride treatment, simply because it was the last thing they did to me before I was allowed to leave. Did it work? Probably not. In addition to my regular topical fluoride treatments, I lived in a city with fluoridated water and was raised on fluoridated toothpaste. And I had a mouthful of amalgam by high-school graduation.

Read More:

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n16.shtml

Asthma Cases Continue to Rise in U.S., Affecting Millions

Asthma continues to take its toll on Americans, with almost 19 million adults (8.2 percent) suffering from the disorder in 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC analysis also found that more than 29 million (almost 13 percent) of adults have been diagnosed with the illness at some point in their lifetime.

Children are also being hit hard by the wheezing and discomfort of asthma. According to the report, in 2010 about 10 million children had been diagnosed with asthma in their lifetime and 7 million (9.4 percent) still had asthma.

Rates of asthma are rising, not falling, the experts noted. From 2001 to 2010, the proportion of people with asthma increased by almost 15 percent. And by 2009, asthma accounted for nearly 3,400 deaths, nearly 480,000 hospitalizations, 1.9 million emergency department visits, and 8.9 million physician office visits.

Read More:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_125190.html

Sugar makes you stupid

Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid.

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 and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "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.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/uoc--smy051512.php

Is the Federation of State Medical Boards Behind the Brutal Attacks on Integrative Medicine Practitioners?

The FSMB is an elite, highly influential, secretive private organization. We also believe that it is thoroughly corrupt.

Each of the fifty states, as well as the District of Columbia and the US territories, has laws that define the practice of medicine; each one delegates the authority to enforce those laws to a state medical board. State medical boards also adopt policies and create guidelines related to the practice of medicine. They have the power to revoke physician licenses for violating the state’s laws of the practice of medicine—subject to the boards’ interpretation of the law, which can be highly arbitrary.

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) is a private 501(c)(6) trade association ^[3] that purports to represent the seventy state medical and osteopathic boards of the US and its territories, and cosponsors the United States Medical Licensing Examination ^[4]. It is tremendously powerful: whatever it suggests in terms of medical care policies are often adopted by the state medical boards. A private trade association with no public funding, transparency, or accountability arguably has the power to interpret state medical law and grant or revoke medical licenses! Ever wonder why it’s so hard to find a doctor who will prescribe bioidentical hormones or administer chelation therapy? We believe it’s because the FSMB has made it such a career risk for the doctor to use his own independent judgment.

Read More:

http://www.anh-usa.org/fsmb-behind-the-brutal-attacks-on-integrative-practitioners/

Nutritionists Are Fighting for Their Rights in the States

The FSMB is an elite, highly influential, secretive private organization. Recent reports suggest it may also be corrupt. Action Alerts for Michigan and Wyoming!

Two of the biggest battlefields right now are the legislatures of Michigan and Wyoming. In both cases, laws preventing the best-trained nutritionists from practicing have been passed, but citizens are now attempting to get the Michigan law repealed and have the Wyoming law changed during a critical rulemaking period.

As we have reported previously ^[2], the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), which used to be the American Dietetic Association, is working state by state to create a legal monopoly and shut out certified nutritionists who may be more qualified. The organization sponsors bills which ensure that only AND-registered dietitians can offer key nutrition services to the public. This not only discriminates against many highly qualified nutritionists (including those who, unlike most Registered Dietitians, have Master’s degrees and PhDs). It also interferes with consumer choice. If trained nutritionists cannot become licensed, they can’t practice—and consumers can’t benefit from their expertise.

For a long time, the Dieticians’ HQ has worked to get their monopolistic bills passed quietly. Once the bills become law, they have held off on pressing for enforcement in order to fly under the radar and and get as many state bills passed as possible. Now that they know we know what is happening and are fighting hard, they are trying new tactics—though we find them equally underhanded.

Read More:

http://www.anh-usa.org/nutritionists-fight-for-their-rights/

Martha Rosenberg - How Big Pharma and the Psychiatric Establishment Drugged Up Our Kids

In his book Psychiatryland, psychiatrist Phillip Sinaikin recounts reading a scientific article in which it was debated whether a three-year-old girl who ran out into traffic had oppositional-defiant disorder or bipolar disorder, the latter marked by “grandiose delusions” that she was special and cars could not harm her.¹

How did the once modest medical specialty of child psychiatry become the aggressive “pediatric psychopharmacology” that finds ADHD, pediatric conduct disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, mixed manias, social phobia, anxiety, sleep disorders, borderline disorders, assorted “spectrum” disorders, irritability, aggression, pervasive development disorders, personality disorders, and even schizophrenia under every rock? And how did this branch of psychiatry come to find the answer to the “psychopathologies” in the name of the discipline itself: pediatric psychopharmacology? Just good marketing. Pharma is wooing the pediatric patient because that’s where the money is. Just like country and western songs about finding love where you can when there is no love to be found at home. Pharma has stopped finding “love” in the form of the new blockbuster drugs that catapulted it through the 1990s and 2000s. According to the Wall Street Journal, new drugs made Pharma only $4.3 billion in 2010 compared with $11.8 billion in 2005—a two-thirds drop.²

Doctors have a “growing fear of prescribing new drugs with unknown side effects,”³explains the Journal, and the government is cracking down on illegal marketing. But also, private and government insurers are less willing to “cough up money for an expensive new drug—particularly when a cheap and reliable generic is available.⁴

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/155459/how_big_pharma_and_the_psychiatric_establishment_drugged_up_our_kids