Researchers at Baylor University in Texas looked at the effect of fluoroquinolones, a commonly prescribed family of antibiotics that includes Ciproflaxin, on aortic aneurysms and dissections in mice. One group of mice was fed a high-fat diet while the control group was given a standard diet. Mice on a high-fat diet who were then given antibiotics experienced an increased likelihood of an aortic dissection developing. They also produced less of the enzymes needed to stabilize collagen and experienced nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage. According to the study,

Although ciprofloxacin alone does not induce spontaneous AAD (aortic aneurysms and dissections), it significantly increases susceptibility to challenge-induced aortic dissection and rupture in a mouse model of sporadic AAD. As a potent DNA topoisomerase inhibitor, ciprofloxacin may exert its adverse effects in human cells by inhibiting ECM (extracellular matrix) protein biosynthesis and stability and inducing MMP (metalloproteinase) activity and even cell death.”

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Should I be Worried?

An aortic aneurysm occurs when a tear develops in the inner layers of the aorta and is typically found in men in their 60s or 70s, although they can infrequently develop in pregnant women. You are not likely to get an aortic aneurysm without a previous heart condition or any signs. Symptoms include sudden severe chest, upper back, and abdominal pain; loss of consciousness; shortness of breath; and leg paralysis, among others. High blood pressure and hardened arteries are particularly important risk factors.

Repeat Offender

Fluoroquinolones, the antibiotics at the center of this study, already have FDA warning labels. The earliest version of the label was added in 2008 for an increased risk of tendonitis or tendon rupture. The family of drugs, which consists of levofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, moxifloxacin, ofloxacin, and gemifloxacin, was then associated with a potential increase in nerve damage and a rare neuromuscular disease called myasthenia gravis in 2013. In 2016, the FDA strengthened their warning based on reports of long-term nerve damage and ruptured tendons. Now, these drugs are linked once again to issues with nerve and tendon damage.

Related: How to Detoxify From Antibiotics and Other Chemical Antimicrobials

Science Settled…Wait For It…

We’ve been conditioned to think that antibiotics are safe and nothing to worried about, but antibiotics seriously disrupt our gut environment and have changed the way humans respond to pathogens. It hasn’t been for the better; the changes have left us dependent on stronger and stronger drugs and we are now running out of options. Scientists are beginning to analyze antibiotic use with the greater understanding we’ve acquired through years of trial and error. The lack of serious reflection has been at the expense of our health.

Sources:

• Effect of Ciprofloxacin on Susceptibility to Aortic Dissection and Rupture in Mice – JAMA Network
• Aortic dissection – Mayo Clinic
• Class of antibiotics gets stronger warning due to dangerous side effects – CBS News
• Fluoroquinolone Use in Food Animals – NCBI

No one mistakes hot dogs for health food, but a new study published in Molecular Psychiatry suggests that they might be even worse for you than previously thought, linking hot dog, beef jerky, salami, and processed meats to mania. Examining 1,101 individuals, researchers at Johns Hopkins noticed that the subjects who had been hospitalized for mania were 3.5 times more likely to have consumed cured meats. The same outcome did not occur with other untreated meats or fish. Researchers then fed rats nitrates in a dose equivalent to what a human would eat in a hot dog or beef jerky. The second part of the study confirmed that nitrates negatively impact gut bacteria and the brain. Dr. Robert Yolken, the lead author of the study and professor of neurovirology in pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says,

We looked at a number of different dietary exposures and cured meat really stood out. It wasn’t just that people with mania have an abnormal diet…There’s growing evidence that germs in the intestines can influence the brain…And this work on nitrates opens the door for future studies on how that may be happening.”

Related: How Farmed Fish Degrades Our Health and the Environment – Better Options Included

Needed Nitrates

This is not the first time nitrates have been mentioned in conjunction with serious health issues. Past studies have linked the compound with early death, an increased risk of cancer, and male infertility.

Nitrates are more complicated than that, though. Once they’re ingested, they’re turned to nitrites by your oral bacteria. From there these nitrites turn into nitric oxide or N-nitroso compounds. Nitric oxide is a free radical, protecting cell mitochondria, and relaxing blood vessels. Plants like celery, spinach, lettuce, onions, broccoli, and peas are excellent sources of naturally occurring nitrates that don’t turn into carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds, which are carcinogenic. This is because plants are excellent sources of vitamin c and polyphenols, which keep those compounds from forming.

Naughty Nitrates

Meat, on the other hand, has all the conditions needed for nitrites to turn into carcinogenic N-nitroso. There are no anti-oxidants or polyphenols. Meat also has higher quantities of protein and heme. Heme is an iron-containing compound found in hemoglobin and has been in the news recently as the ingredient responsible for the Impossible Burger’s meaty flavor.

Processed meats have nitrites added as a preservative and a coloring. They’re responsible for that pink color you see in so many lunch meats. The World Health Organization has classified processed meats as carcinogenic to humans since 2015. Cooking (especially over high heat) makes the numbers of carcinogenic chemicals worse, making hot dogs the worst (seriously, though, the worst).

Gut-Brain Connection

These researchers found a link between human mental illness and a food group. Then they manufactured the same conditions in rats to find an even deeper connection and a greater risk of long-term health conditions.

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

Much has been made of our increasing mental issues. Mania is most commonly associated with bipolar disorder, and diagnoses of that disorder have been on the rise for over a decade. Young people have been hit especially hard. Yet the exact cause of that is unknown.

However, not enough attention has been paid to how crucial the gut-brain connection is. The enteric nervous system controls the function of the gastrointestinal tract and has been referred to as the second brain. It follows that what you fuel the gut with profoundly affects both brains. We are losing our the diversity of our gut bacteria at an alarming rate. We are beginning to see what happens when those microbes are permanently lost.

Related: Does Meat Cause Cancer? Yes and no…

How can we take care of this world, of anything else when we’re constantly on the verge of losing control of our own sanity? We often hear about mental health coping strategies or mental health tools for dealing with situations. Why is diet not one of those tools, indeed the very foundation? The gut dictates brain function. What does your brain food look like?

Sources:

• Hot Dogs and Beef Jerky Linked to Mania in Study – Newsweek
• Nitrated meat products are associated with mania in humans and altered behavior and brain gene expression in rats – Nature.com
• Why Some Nitrates Are Healthy While Others Are Harmful – Dr. Mercola
• The Impossible Burger: Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that Bleeds – Wired
• WHO report says eating processed meat is carcinogenic: Understanding the findings – Harvard School of Public Health
• Bipolar disorder cases rise sharply in U.S. children – NY Times

For those of us who have been confused as to whether or not almond milk contains actual milk, the Food and Drug Administration under Trump’s leadership is here to help. According to the FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, the agency is planning on announcing a new guidance on the proper use of the term milk. In his own words,

If you look at our standard of identity—there is a reference somewhere in the standard of identity to a lactating animal…And, you know, an almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.”

If only all confessions were obtained so easily!

Standard of Identity

So what is standard of identity? These are regulations set by the FDA that dictate what a food is, may be called, and the ingredients that must be used, may be used, or must be listed on the label. Standards of identity don’t actually have anything to do with the quality of a product, though they do help protect against fraudulent versions of a product.

A great example of the standard of identity laws at work is Kraft Singles. These marvels of engineering are legally not allowed to be called cheese, as they are not made with at least 51 percent real cheese. Until 2002, Kraft Foods labeled them as Kraft Singles Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Food until that name also ran afoul of the FDA standard of identity for cheese food due to the inclusion of milk protein isolates. They are now sold under the name Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product.

Related: Homemade Vegan Nut Milk Recipes

Vegan Disruptions

There is a benefit to being able to set standards for what a product is. No one wants to bring home a package labeled cheese and open it to find Kraft Singles (cheap shot…sorry). But the way we eat has evolved rapidly, and what seemed ridiculous twenty years ago is now a worldwide phenomenon followed by more than a million people in the United States. When the FDA set into place the standards of identity, they did not forsee veganism.

The most notable disruption of these standards as of writing this occurred in 2014. Scrappy startup Hampton Creek, makers of popular vegan mayo Just Mayo, was reprimanded by the FDA for violating the mayonnaise standard of identity. Those circumstances are markedly different than these, as the FDA has not singled out a single specific company (likely because large businesses like Unilever haven’t complained this time).

There is still an important parallel between the two cases. Both of these products, vegan mayonnaise and non-dairy milk, threaten animal product industries struggling to cope with modern societies desire for plant-based foods and the fallout from their own unsustainable practices. In 2014, Just Mayo inadvertently capitalized on an egg industry reeling from an avian flu season that claimed nearly 40 million chickens. Meanwhile, a dairy industry in decline has been complaining about the use of the word milk since 2017, going so far as to recruit thirty-two members of Congress to advocate for them. In both of these cases, it appears that business is asking the government to step in and deal with this disruption for them.

Well Established Relationships

Based on the folksy, vaguely patronizing soundbite from the commissioner, it seems likely the FDA will come down on the side of the dairy industry. This is to be expected, though. The Trump Administration has proven itself to be extremely friendly to big business.

Gottlieb has been publically approving of big business friendly moves in the past. When the USDA moved its branch of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a collaboration of more than 180 countries responsible for international food safety standards, he was among those to publically congratulate USDA head Sonny Perdue. While it might sound like a great idea to have the U.S. Codex Office housed at the USDA, that move leaves the national positions on food safety open to manipulation by big food producers. Internationally, this causes the rest of the world to become increasingly mistrustful of our science and safety regulations as well as our ractopamine-laced pigs and chlorine-washed chickens.

Related: Best Cooking Oils – Health benefits, Smoke Point, Which to Use and Avoid

International Agreement

But international food governing bodies are in agreement with the dairy farmers here. In fact, the EU ruled that items labeled milk, butter, cheese, cream, and yogurt must contain animal milk. A label clarifying the products plant-based origins will no longer suffice. Except for coconut milk…and almond milk…and cream filled sweets. There is also room for exceptions to the rules.

It feels almost like a punishment for soy and vegetable products clearly labeled tofu butter and veggie cheese. Will the person purchasing these products be disappointed there is no milk or butter? They clearly don’t mind the tofu or veggie part.

Related: Hellmann’s Vs. Just Mayo – The Very Interesting Battle Within the Mayo Industry

At the same time, not everyone is informed when it comes to non-dairy alternatives. Soy milk and vegetable cheese are also fundamentally different from dairy milk and cheese, and that separation could have unintended benefits for vegan and non-dairy products. The EU no longer accepts certain animal products from the U.S. due to our lax animal welfare standards. Perhaps the FDA, in their desire to appease the dairy board and catch up with other worldwide legislation, are doing vegan companies an early favor.

Who Is Confused Here?

Vegan alternatives are everywhere. Removing the word milk from non-dairy alternatives won’t change the growing demand for them.

Here’s the biggest question. How are these products supposed to be labeled, and should their non-vegan counterparts be anywhere near that decision?

The real problem here is not the label.

Sources:

• “An almond doesn’t lactate:” FDA to crack down on use of the word “milk” – Ars Technica
• Standards of identity for food –Science Direct
• Kraft American Cheese Singles Have Been Labeled A Health Food By Professional Nutritionists (Not As A Joke) – Huffington Post
• Hellmann’s Vs. Just Mayo – The Very Interesting Battle Within the Mayo Industry – Organic Lifestyle Magazine
• A Food Fight Has Broken Out Between The USDA And FDA – Five Thirty Eight
• EU court bans dairy-style names for soya and tofu – BBC

The newest offender in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria epidemic is urgent care centers, where 46 percent of people who entered with conditions that don’t respond to antibiotics (viruses, etc…) left with a prescription anyway. That figure is significantly higher than emergency rooms (25 percent) and standard medical offices (17 percent). Those numbers are scary, as traffic to urgent care centers is on the rise and likely to increase as conventional healthcare becomes a luxury. Right now, urgent care centers and retail clinics account for 40 percent of all antibiotic prescriptions as well as a market share worth 26 billion dollars in the next 5 years.

Where the Numbers Come From

These numbers come from the 2014 Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database and are from individuals under 65 with employer-sponsored health insurance. The database only accounts for those with insurance though. A survey from ten years ago found that uninsured patients at urgent care clinics account for 12 percent of all visitors. Since then, the number of customers at urgent facilities to has increased by more than 20 percent. If nothing changes, that figure will continue to rise. The number of unnecessary and inappropriate antibiotic prescribed will likely continue along with the number of visitors.

Related: How to Detoxify From Antibiotics and Other Chemical Antimicrobials

Saying No

While many people know that doctors prescribe unnecessary antibiotics, not everyone knows how inappropriate some of those scripts are. These are a big deal. In the new era of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, this negligence is unacceptable.

Some conditions are more likely to be given an antibiotic prescription than others. Many of these are viruses or infections that attack the lungs, like viral upper respiratory infection, bronchitis/bronchiolitis, asthma/allergy, influenza, and viral pneumonia. Always do your own research, as this study makes it clear that even doctors are not always clearly informed as to what they are giving you.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

The Bottom Falls Out

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria will be one of the major causes of death by 2050 if something doesn’t change. There are no new antibiotic breakthroughs on the horizon. The meat industry will be crippled without antibiotics, as it relies on those medications to make up for diseases that flourish in animals with poor quality food and living conditions. The changes to the medical industry will be as, if not more dramatic.

Every time you turn around, it feels like there is another, previously uninvestigated source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. From the overuse of antibiotics in food animals, healthcare settings that serve as bacteria breeding grounds, a lack of new antibiotics, among other factors, this is a multi-faceted problem…and one that is here to stay.

That bell cannot be unrung.

Sources:

• Comparison of Antibiotic Prescribing in Retail Clinics, Urgent Care Centers, Emergency Departments, and Traditional Ambulatory Care Settings in the United States – JAMA Network
• Urgent care centers often prescribe unnecessary antibiotics – Reuters
• Urgent care center market on track to hit $26B by 2023 – Health Care Drive
• Urgent care centers in the U.S.: Findings from a national survey – NCBI
• Even Proper Use of Antibiotics Results in the Emergence of Superbugs – Mr. Said Blog
• Patients are flocking to urgent-care clinics. Now hospitals are, too – Modern Healthcare

Every year in the United States 2,500 infants die from SIDS, and sixty percent of those are boys. The origin of SIDS is generally treated as a great mystery. Some of the frequently suggested causes are respiratory failure, low birth weight, bed-sharing, vaccines, and/or abnormal brain cells. Boys are sixty percent more likely to be born prematurely, another risk factor, but a new paper from a researcher at the University of Sheffield suggests another reason SIDS disproportionally affects baby boys – neonatal circumcision.

How They’re Linked

Circumcision is trauma. We don’t know exactly how trauma will affect an infant, but we do know that trauma can halt development and interrupt other important processes in the body.

Related: Circumcision, the Primal Cut – A Human Rights Violation

Due to how quickly circumcisions are performed, most doctors opt out of anesthesia for the treatment, leaving the baby traumatized by the pain. The most common complication as a result of circumcision is bleeding, although shock, sepsis, circulatory shock, hemorrhage, and death can occur.

Dr. Eran Elhaik, the researcher behind the paper, addresses the effect of circumcision on the cardiovascular system and SIDS.

For instance, circumcision reduces the heart rate [20] and together with the loss of blood there is a danger of reducing the blood volume, blood pressure, and the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues [5, 77]. A reduced blood pressure has been associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition where the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing [77, 78]. Unsurprisingly, SIDS victims experienced significantly more frequent episodes of OSA [79].”

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

Culturally Speaking

The U.S. has one of the highest rates of SIDS in the world. We also have one of the highest rates of circumcision in the developed world, establishing a link between neonatal circumcision and SIDS. Once you break things down into further groups, the connection becomes stronger. There is one group in the U.S. that experiences lower rates of SIDS – Latinos like Mexican Americans, who circumcise 44% of boys at birth in comparison to the white rate of 90.8%. Unsurprisingly, rates of SIDS among Hispanic are 39% lower than whites in the U.S.

Related: 10 Circumcision Myths – Let’s Get the Facts Straight

The data in other countries also suggests that circumcision is a risk factor for SIDS. Japan is recognized for its famously low rate of SIDS. Neonatal circumcision is rarely performed there.

Unnecessary Procedure, Avoidable Deaths

This is by no means a comprehensive study. We still don’t know what causes SIDS. It is amazing that years of research have overlooked such a simple factor. Why have scientists considered sleeping arrangements a bigger issue than a life-altering instance of trauma?

Neonatal circumcision is an unnecessary procedure. Many circumcised adult men express regret regarding their circumcision, and science has determined that negative effects from circumcision persist later in life, reducing sexual pleasure and a greater likelihood of infection or cancer. The damage caused by genital mutilation is very much real and likely still not fully understood. There is no good reason to continue it.

Recommended:

• Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Trump’s Administration Is Not A Fan of Breastfeeding
• Galactagogues Foods, Herbs, and other Ways to Increase Breast
• Shaken Baby Syndrome – Child Abuse or Vaccine Injury?
• Common Bad Parenting Advice You Should Ignore
• New Study Suggests Women Could, and Maybe Should, Eat While In Labor

Sources:

• Is MGM a contributor to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, “cot death”)? – Justice for Men and Boys
• Adversarial childhood events are associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): an ecological study – Biorxiv
• Why Is SIDS More Common In Boys? Researchers Don’t Have All The Answers – Romper
• The long and short of male circumcision in Japan – Japan Times

Bisphenol-A, commonly known as BPA, has been banned from baby bottles and sippy cups for more than half a decade, but a new study published in Experimental Biology and Medicine journal finds that BPA is also a risk factor in developing inflammatory bowel disease. According to the Jennifer DeLuca, a graduate student in nutrition and the first author for the study,

This is the first study to show that BPA can negatively impact gut microbial amino acid metabolism in a way that has been associated with irritable bowel disease…” – Jennifer DeLuca, first author for the study

[Image explanation: Receipts are a common source of BPAs]

Bowel Disease and BPA

The term inflammatory bowel disease covers different digestive conditions like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. People with IBD can suffer from severe diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fatigue. The number of adults in the U.S. with Crohn’s has increased by 1 million people over the last two decades, and research hasn’t presented a cause. It’s highly likely that there isn’t a single cause for chronic illness. Dr. Clint Allred, a researcher from the nutrition and food science department at Texas A&M University, says,

The number of new cases of IBD are increasing, especially in nations that become more industrialized. While the causes of IBD have not yet been determined, several risk factors for developing it or worsening symptoms have been suggested. One such risk factor, the hormone estrogen, has been linked with an increased risk of IBD — and BPA can act as an estrogen. Furthermore, BPA has been previously shown to alter gut microbes similarly to the way the gut microbiota is altered in IBD patients.”

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

Digestive Disorders are Increasing

Digestive disorders of all varieties are now a fact of life for many people. Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis…even instances of colorectal cancer are increasing in younger populations worldwide. The diversity of our microbiome is a huge factor in that. The greater the range of microbes in the gut, the healthier the digestive system is. Diverse bacteria needs diverse fuel. Yet the modern, conventional diet is anything but, with rice, corn, and wheat accounting for two-thirds of all food consumed. We’re also passing down this lack of diversity to our children, and we’ve only begun to see the beginning of what a limited microbiome looks like. According to a study,

…changes in the microbiota of mice consuming a low-MAC (microbiota accessible carbohydrates) diet and harboring a human microbiota are largely reversible within a single generation, however over multiple generations a low-MAC diet results in a progressive loss of diversity, which is not recoverable upon the reintroduction of dietary MACs.” – Nature.com

We’re already seeing these effects, and they will continue to amplify. Our gut microbiota diversity goes away when we don’t take care of it.

BPA Isn’t Going Away

Meanwhile, BPA is not going anywhere. Even if the chemical is completely banned, it has already leached into water supplies around the world, and the plastics scheduled to replace it like bisphenol S are equally or more harmful. Conventional medicine is increasingly out of answers. In fact, a number of medical devices like catheters, surgical instruments, endoscopes, and pacemakers still contain BPA and other plastics.

Realted: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

Our natural defenses continue to drop, as we lose gut diversity. Our risk for diseases rises as we surround ourselves and our environment with problematic chemicals. Is it any wonder that this generation will be the first one where parents enjoy a longer lifespan than their children?

Sources:

• Study shows BPA risk factor for inflammatory bowel disease – Medical Xpress
• Texas A&M AgriLife study shows BPA risk factor for inflammatory bowel disease – AgriLife Today
• BPA-Free Plastic Containers May Be Just as Hazardous – Scientific American
• BPA a substance of very high concern – Implications for the Medical Devices Regulation – Health Care Without Harm
• Diet-induced extinction in the gut microbiota compounds over generations – NCBI

A new report in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise discovered that athletes who lost fluid equal to 2 percent their weight showed lower levels of cognition. Water loss at that level is considered a mild to moderate case of dehydration, but researchers still found symptoms impaired cognition, including difficulties focusing on tasks requiring attention and lowered motor coordination. Executive function, the processes that allow you to manage yourself and achieve goals, also declines when dehydration happens.

“We’ve known that physical performance suffers at a threshold of 2 percent of body mass, particularly when it’s from exercise in a warm environment,” said study co-author Mindy Millard-Stafford, a professor in the school of biological sciences and director of the physiology lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“So the question was, what happens in the brain with the same amount of loss, which is pretty common with people who are active or work outside in the heat. Just like a muscle cell needs water, so do the cells in our brain.”

Recommended: What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and For Drinking?

Drink

Water is still the gold standard of hydration. Eight glasses is the recommended daily amount of water. From there it can be difficult to sort through the latest and greatest hydrating hacks. These include but are not limited to coconut water, aloe water, fruit-infused water, and probiotic water. There are benefits to be had from these, but your best bet for hydration without side effects is filtered or spring water and cranberry lemonade (unadulterated cranberry juice, lemon juice, and stevia).

Caffeinated, alcoholic, and sweetened beverages like coffees, tea, beer, and sodas are classified as diuretics, which is thought to lead to dehydration in the body. Beverages with high sugar content leads to a feeling of dehydration, as water in the body rushes to blood left unbalanced by sugar. Interestingly, milk does not cause dehydration as the sugars in the lactose cause the body to retain the water from it for longer, but dairy causes phlegm and inflammation in the body. Avoid these.

Eat

What you’re eating is at least as important as drinking water. Fried and ultra-processed foods are high in sodium and notorious for drying out the body. Processed foods high in protein like cured meats are a doubly problematic, as they make your kidneys work harder.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are vegetables and fruit. You know, those foods you should be eating. Summer is the perfect time to eat for hydration, with water-heavy fruits and vegetables like melons, tomatoes, and cucumbers are abundant. Eating a salad daily will provide the body with nutrients it needs to function its best while also maintaining healthy water levels.

Recommended: Stop Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

You Can Do It

It’s only getting hotter, and this study confirms that dehydration can lead to serious issues. Even if you aren’t an athlete, proper hydration is an important part of staying healthy. Most of the food available at the grocery store can dehydrate you. If you aren’t peeing clearly, maybe it’s time to take a look at what you’re eating.

Sources:

• Dehydration may muddle your thinking – Reuters
• Here’s Why Sugar Makes You So Thirsty – Health.com
• How to Tell If You Are Dehydrated – Livestrong
• 9 Foods That Will Dehydrate You (Slideshow) – The Daily Meal