Hot MedFax

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Yes, Kelly Clarkson. Or is it everything that kills me makes me feel alive? Rap Genius. But what if what didn't kill you actually kept you alive?  And living longer? The reality is that it's not the antioxidants that allow us to age more slowly but the toxins.  That's right, toxins. According to newswise.com, "M any people believe that free radicals, the sometimes-toxic molecules produced by our bodies as we process oxygen, are the culprit behind aging. Yet a number of studies in recent years have produced evidence that the opposite may be true." Now a research team has found that  free radicals – also known as oxidants – act on a molecular mechanism that, in other circumstances, tells a cell to kill itself. McGill researchers found that this same mechanism -- which causes cells to die so they don't become cancerous or to kill off viruses that have invaded he cell -- when stimulated in the right way...

Yet another reason to get your sleep.  Now, too few hours may lead to Alzheimer's.  A new Johns Hopkins study has found shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality is linked to a biomarker for Alzheimer's. According to newswise.com, "Poor sleep quality may impact Alzheimer’s disease onset and progression." "Our study found that among older adults, reports of shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality were associated with higher levels of (a protein) measured by PET scans of the brain,” newswise.com quotes Adam Spira, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of Mental Health. “These results could have significant public health implications as Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, and approximately half of older adults have insomnia symptoms.” In the study , participants reported sleep that ranged from more than seven hours to no more than five hours. Those who slept the least...

Tuna. Caffeine. Canned foods.  Did you know these can be toxic to pregnant women? A new study has found that such common foods can cause developmental delays in fetuses.  I remember craving tuna while I was pregnant with my son and ate it almost every day, only to find out that tuna, along with some other fish, is not recommended during pregnancies because the mercury in it can harm brain function. Ttuna, salmon, canned foods, tap water, caffeine, alcohol and over-the-counter medications can contain substances known to cause birth defects. “Unlike alcohol and nicotine, which carry a certain stigma along with surgeon general warnings on the packaging, tuna, canned foods, caffeine, and a handful of other foods and beverages with associated developmental effects are not typically thought of as unsafe,” Sarah Santiago, a Ph.D. student in psychology at UCR, and part of the study, said at newswise.com. “Consumption of tuna, salmon, canned goods, sugary desserts, fast fo...

Relax. Not really. But there are disturbing amounts of lead in many lipsticks, according to trutv.com. The Web site reports that 400 brands of lipstick are laced with lead, though the amount in the lipsticks is less than you find in food. Still, some experts believe women eat between four and six pounds of lipstick in their lives. Of course, we don't (at least most of us) don't eat it, but anything that goes on our skin, especially near our mouths, winds up in our bloodstream. "The ingredients in lipstick have changed dramatically over the centuries," Carol Warwick writes. "In Cleopatra’s time a dye extracted from seaweed was also used to give lips a purple-red tinge - it also made women very unwell. In the 19th century lipstick didn’t come in a tube. Instead women painted their lips with carmine dye. But by the turn of the century ingredients like beeswax, castor oil and tallow (animal fat) were being combined to form the same kind of product we use today....

Did you know that healthy cantaloupe is on this list?  Or a cheese called Casu Marzu (more on that later)?  Or Silver Stripe Blaasop? Admittedly, many of these delicacies are not found in the US, but zagat.com recently outlined the 11 foods that kill, and here they are, in order. Fugu blowfish.  This is the fish Japanese executives are seen eating, and then dropping dead.  According to the Web site, fugu "contains a potent poison, tetrodotoxin (emphasis on ‘toxin’), that can cause either of those two scenarios when the fish is improperly prepared." Only licensed chefs are allowed to make it. Tainted cantaloupe (which killed almost 20 people in the last few years). Casu Marzu, or The Zombie Cheese, so-called because it's swarming with live maggots, and making the list because it can destroy your digestive system. Mushrooms with death in their names, or the panther mushroom, green gills and pink gills, man-on-horseback, and the scaly chanterelle. Sannakji (o...

Guess what causes the most food poisoning?  Not shellfish or egg salad left out all night.  It's what they tell us to eat to be healthy.  It's lettuce!  And its cousins, spinach and arugula and ...  You get the picture. Of course, all that needs to be done to make it safe is to wash it.  But if you're like my husband, who refuses to wash anything he eats -- and he consumes a mountain of fresh fruits and vegetables every day -- you'd better pray that no one with dirty hands has touched your greens. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/most-food-illnesses-come-from-greens/

Yes, you read it right.  Kansas City is making millions off its sewage sludge.  How?  Using it as fertilizer.  http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/how-kansas-city-is-making-millions-from-human-waste/9202?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660

Scorpions and tumors. They are working together to fight cancer. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/tumor-paint-scorpion-toxin-highlights-brain-tumors/9083?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660