Have you ever wondered if your mobile phone is giving you cancer? Legally speaking, there is a link. Of course, that’s only true if you live in Italy.

Studies of the effects that cell phones have on the brain or examinations of the link between phone usage and certain cancers don’t have the same clarity. Where many studies find regular cell phone usage contributes greatly to the risk of cancer and brain tumors, other research finds the device benign. The Italian verdict is one of the first positive acknowledgments of that link. Much of that can be attributed to the Italian court’s refusal to consider studies funded by telecom industries,  but realistically there are too many variables to specifically link cellphone use to a specific condition. It is incredibly likely that cellphones are making us sick. However, they are only one aspect of a modern life designed without human health in mind.

Precedence Has Been Established

The court in the Italian town of Ivrea released an April 11th ruling ordering that a businessman receive a state-funded pension after too much phone use for work caused him to develop a benign brain tumor and resulted in the loss of his hearing. Rumors and theories surrounding the dangers of cell phone usage has swirled for years, and this is a big deal. The Italian courts had previously accepted the case of a sales manager who was on a cellphone five or six hours a day, that was subsequently rejected by a trial court. This paved the way for this ruling, as lawyers for the plaintiff, Stefano Bertone and Renato Ambrosio, pointed out “For the first time in the world, a court has recognised a causal link between inappropriate use of a mobile phone and a brain tumour…” While the court ruling is still subject to an appeal, the plaintiff in the case, Roberto Romeo, will receive 500 euros per month to be paid by INAIL, a national insurance scheme covering workplace accidents.

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So How Much is Too Much?

Cell phones have been woven into the fabric of modern life and telling people to avoid them at all costs is not realistic. But there has to be a point at which more damage has been done that the body can recover from. In the case of the plaintiff in the Italian case, Roberto Romeo, he was required to use his company mobile phone for 3 to 4 hours of every working day for 15 years. A rat study found that rats exposed to cell phone radiation nine hours a day for a two year period were more likely to develop malignant brain tumors. Another paper found that a mere 30 minutes a day of cell phone over a ten year period increased the risk of gliomas (a malignant tumor in the brain that occurs on the side of the head) by 40 percent. Yet several other significant studies have found no causal link between cellphones and brain damage, although both the U.S. and the U.K. are in the process of conducting further long-term studies.

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Why Don’t We Have A Definitive Answer

There are many things that modern society will ignore in the name of progress, even past the point at which something needs to be done. Cell phones are an area with lots of fingers in lots of pies, and the conflicting narratives presented by these studies reinforce that. There is also science’s inability to keep up with phone technology. Before researchers have time conduct long-term studies, phone configurations have changed enough for either side to proclaim the findings of any study out of date.

Is there a clear link between cell phones and brain tumors? After eliminating all telecom funded studies, an Italian court decided there is.

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Sources:

• Do Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer or Not? – The Atlantic 
• How Safe Are Cell Phones? – Toronto Sun
• Mobile phones cause lethal type of brain cancer, major study expected to declare – What Doctors Don’t Tell You
• Brain Tumour Charity cautious about Italy mobile phone ruling – BBC
• How Cellphones Can Cause Brain Tumors and Trigger Chronic Disease – Dr. Mercola

American eggs are federally required to be washed and sanitized and then refrigerated. There are a few reasons for this, but the main reason is that our factory farms are disgusting. In Europe, eggs sold in supermarkets are not legally allowed to be washed.

I live in Mexico and one of the first things I noticed at the grocery stores here is that they do not refrigerate the eggs. They’re sold on a shelf with dry goods generally, like sugar or canned milk products. There are many options from tiny spotted ones to big brown ones, but they’re unwashed and unchilled. – Lily Da Vine

The FDA states that eggs must be sterilized and chilled to reduce the likelihood of salmonella infections. Much of the world focuses on, and/or legislated to place emphasis on, producing cleaner eggs. American chicken factories, on the other hand, are legendarily filthy, and we don’t seem motivated to change that.

Abysmal factory farming conditions are what create the problematic salmonella superbug (the same is true for eColi). Eggs become contaminated with salmonella in one of two ways, by either contaminating the egg internally upon production (due to a chicken with infected ovaries), or when the egg becomes in contact with contaminated chicken manure, and salmonella sticks to the porous shell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbqv1SuQJ0s

So the United States, in typical fashion, has decided that instead of regulating the farms to produce healthier food, we need to wash, sanitize, and cook our eggs. If you like raw eggs, be sure they aren’t factory farmed, and especially not American factory-farmed!

So what about real farm fresh eggs from a healthy farm where the eggs have room to run around, and they all get a healthy natural diet? Those eggs should be gently cleaned off, but not washed or made wet. There is a protective coating around the eggs that you want to preserve. If the eggs do get washed they should then be refrigerated or used shortly thereafter.

If you can’t produce your own eggs try finding a local farmer who does not wash or chill their eggs, and simply leaves them on the counter when you get home. Wash them just before you use them (if you want).

Other Common Egg Questions: Shell and Yolk Color

The color of the yolks are determined by diet and the freshness of the egg. Hens that get a variety of foods including lots of plants, alfalfa, bugs, for instance, are healthier than hens that have a restricted diet.  Healthy chickens have a darker yellow-orange yolk. Factory farmed chickens in the United States typically have diets of wheat, barley, or white corn which produces pale yellow yolks.

Shells are different colors because different chickens lay different eggs.

…egg color is determined by the genetics of the hens. The breed of the hen will indicate what color eggs she will produce. For example, Leghorn chickens lay white eggs while Orpington’s lay brown eggs and Ameraucana produce blue eggs. An Olive Egger, a chicken that lays olive green eggs, is the product of a cross between a hen and rooster that are from a brown egg and a blue egg laying breed. An interesting tip is to look at the chicken’s ear lobes; typically those with white ear lobes produce white eggs.” – Michigan State

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Sources:

• Why American Eggs Would Be Illegal In A British Supermarket, And Vice Versa – Forbes
• Why Are Some Egg Yolks and Eggshells Different Colors? – Food and Nutrition

How much would a chocolate company pay to know exactly when you or the lady in your life is experiencing PMS symptoms in an effort to more effectively target ads? If that level of corporate involvement in your medical records upsets you, you’re not going to like the new digital ingestion tracking system approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

This new tracking system is designed to address the issue of nonadherence, where patients do not follow through on prescribed medical treatments. The treatment, in this case, is called Abilify MyCite and it’s made by Japan-based Otsuka Pharmaceuticals. The actual medication portion of the Abilify MyCite system is brand-name aripiprazole, an antipsychotic drug used for treating schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and as an add-on treatment for depression in adults. “Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for mental illness may be useful for some patients,” said Mitchell Mathis, M.D., director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The FDA supports the development and use of new technology in prescription drugs and is committed to working with companies to understand how technology might benefit patients and prescribers.”

How It Works

The pill part of the system is the simple part. Abilify MyCite comes with a web-based dashboard that allows a patient to track their actual drug ingestion, daily activity level and self-reported mood and sleep. The sensor that tracks that is roughly the size of a grain of sand and activates upon contact with fluid in the stomach. It detects and records the date and time the pill was taken and relays that to a patch worn by the patient. The patch then sends all of that to the patient’s smartphone. When the patient gives consent, caregivers or medical professionals are able to see all of this data, though the system does not register the ingestion in real time or emergencies. The patient is able to revoke those permissions at any time.

Is It Worth It?

The system itself does not actually increase drug compliance. Both Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and the FDA take care to note that the product does not fix nonadherence, and it remains to be seen if the patients with the first illnesses targeted by this medication will respond positively. While nonadherence is an expensive issue, schizophrenics and those with bipolar frequently skip medications because they don’t like the way they feel when on them or dislike the feeling of being controlled or manipulated. A pill that tracks their compliance is probably not going to change that.

Who Does This Product Work For?

Imagine a system where medical compliance is a condition of benefits without a way around it. Can a digital ingestion tracking system create a situation where your insurance charges you more for choosing not to take a prescription?

The more connected we become, the more difficult it is to keep information private. How secure will this data be? According to Kimberly Whitfield from Otsuka Pharmaceuticals public relations department, “the data is encrypted while it is stored in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant cloud environment, and the cloud service provider does not have a decryption key.” While all of these makes this information much more secure than your average social media profile, information leaks happen across every sector.

The company is clearly taking precautions, but can the information be stopped once it’s out there?

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Sources:

• FDA Approves First Digital Pill That Can Track Whether You’ve Taken It – NPR
• FDA approves pill with sensor that digitally tracks if patients have ingested their medication – FDA
• FDA approves ‘trackable’ pill – BBC
• Experts raise eyebrows at digital pill to monitor patients with schizophrenia – Ars Technica

The Trump administration is reported to be reversing the Obama administration’s ban on bringing heads of elephants killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the U.S.

Imports will be allowed for elephants killed between Jan. 21, 2016 and the end of 2018. The decision has been cheered by many hunting and gun rights organizations. The United States and international authorities say the African elephant is an endangered species, and the Obama administration argued that allowing trophy imports of the elephants would harm the animals by encouraging the killing and poaching of them.

Even though elephants are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a provision in the act allows the government to give permits to import these trophies if there is evidence that the hunting actually benefits conservation for that species. The official said they have new information from officials in Zimbabwe and Zambia to support reversing the ban to allow trophy hunting permits.” – ABC News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghr1oldTVJc

Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation.” – FWS spokesman

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump’s sons, are known to be fans of large game hunting.

What good reason could Donald Trump have for reversing the Obama administration ban on import of elephant trophies from Africa? https://t.co/chjsbeA1J3 pic.twitter.com/puFh3ev6Bc

— Andrew Weinstein (@Weinsteinlaw) November 16, 2017

Newsweek states that the elephant population has declined since 2001 in Zimbabwe and in some regions in Zambia.

Hunters often choose the healthiest or strongest members of animal populations, to have a more impressive trophy, but this can have negative effects on the species overall.

This 2015 poll showed that 86 percent of Americans are opposed to big-game hunting, and 60% of respondents said that it should be illegal.

Update!

Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts. Under study for years. Will update soon with Secretary Zinke. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2017

Nice work everyone!

The first scientific study to test the effects of food preservatives on beneficial bacteria has been published, and the results do not bode well for our health. Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i Maui College have found that sulfites in food preservatives, generally recognized as safe for consumption at levels of 5000 ppm (parts per million) or less, killed or inhibited the growth of beneficial bacteria at levels of 3780 ppm or less. In the words of lead researcher Dr. Sally V. Irwin,

Studies show a significant increase over the past 40 years in food allergies, obesity, and metabolic disorders that have a direct correlation to disbiosis, or changes in the microbiome…In trying to understand what in our environment may be causing this change, the use of many food preservatives and their effects on beneficial bacteria came to mind.”

What They Found

Sulfites are a food preserver found in dried fruits, wine, beer, bottled lemon and lime juices, processed meats, canned goods, and occur naturally in sauerkraut and its brine. Common sulfites include sulfur dioxide, potassium bisulfite, sodium sulfite, and sodium bisulfite. They are frequently used to stop fermentation, which is why they are most commonly associated with fermented beverages like wine.

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For this study, researchers chose four known beneficial bacteria, Lactobacillus species casei, plantarum and rhamnosus, and Streptococcus thermophilus, and tested their reactions to two different preservatives, sodium sulfite and sodium bisulfite. The sulfites were in concentrations from 10 to 3780 ppm and exposed to the bacteria for six hours. After only two hours of exposure to sulfites concentrated at 250-500 ppm, all four types of bacteria tested showed no increase or a substantial decrease in cell numbers when compared to the sulfite-free control.

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These results should not be surprising, as this is what sulfites are designed to do. They are added to stop fermentation, the development of bacteria. Many modern innovations do what they are designed to do, but there is often a resistance to believe that what they do could also be harmful. Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are on track to kill more people than cancer by 2050, a result of our indiscriminate love affair with antibiotics, that miracle of modern medicine.

The Implications

This is a preliminary study in that its subjects are lab-grown bacteria and were exposed to the sulfites for a fraction of the time that occurs during real-world digestion. Yet the damage to that beneficial bacteria was clear.

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We depend on our beneficial bacteria. Without it, we are more vulnerable to serious infections, autoimmune disease, obesity, and numerous other damaging health conditions. This study solidly links what is in our food with one of the most serious health issues we face – the decline of our gut microbe diversity. It’s also the only study directly dealing with the effect of food additives on beneficial bacteria.

But there used to be one guy talking about the damage antibiotics do. Now we have a wealth of information confirming just how much damage messing with the gut microbiome can do.

Sources:

• UHMC Study: Common Food Preservatives Kill Beneficial Bacteria – Maui Now
• Sulfites inhibit the growth of four species of beneficial gut bacteria at concentrations regarded as safe for food – Plos One
• Gut Bacteria in Health and Disease – NCBI
• Probiotics, Bacteria, and Our Health – Organic Lifestyle Magazine

There are a variety of things that can impact a man’s sex drive: stress, performance anxiety, relationship problems, health conditions, and food consumption are just a few.

Some libido inhibitors are difficult to manage, but fortunately, the majority of situations call for quick, simple, and natural methods to increase sexual appetite.

For example, a couple of changes to your diet can greatly enhance your libido.

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How Food Affects Sex

Food has a very powerful influence on our bodies. It can either help or hinder the body’s functionality.

When it comes to sex, there are a couple of significant ways your diet will impact your performance:

• Blood flow: Erections are caused by relaxed muscles that allow for greater blood flow to the penis. Therefore, it is important to look for foods that increase, not decrease, blood flow.
• Testosterone: Testosterone is one of the primary ingredients in a man’s libido. Any foods that impact hormone levels will also impact sex drive.
• Emotions: Stress and anxiety often inhibit libido. Foods that have a calming effect on the brain will improve the quality of sex.

Foods That Increase Libido

If you are looking for a natural way to ignite the spark, add these delicacies to your shopping cart.

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Foods That Decrease Libido

If you want the most healthy sex life possible, avoid these foods whenever possible.

Related:

Eating a nutritious diet is essential for maintaining overall health, and sexual health is no exception.

What are your favorite libido-enhancing foods? What do you try to stay away from? Sound off in the comments section!

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Sources:

• 20 Foods to Supercharge Your Sex Drive – Eat This, Not That!
• Low Sex Drive? Hair Loss? Fatigue or Muscle Mass Loss? – Low T Medical Clinic
• The Cancer Risk of Microwave Popcorn – Livestrong
• Soy foods ‘reduce sperm numbers’ – BBC News
• Licorice reduces serum testosterone in healthy women. – US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health
• Foods that are killing your sex drive – Fox News

We are watching the end of the antibiotics era, and experts are busy examining all of the usual suspects, but in looking at all of the overprescribing from doctors and veterinarians we’re ignoring another source of antibiotic saturation – the dental industry.

The Quiet Ones

A recent study from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) found that 36 percent of dentists report prescribing antibiotics in situations not recommended by the American Dental Association. In 2015, dentists general and specialist combined to issue more than 24.5 million antibiotic prescriptions. Dentists most commonly prescribe penicillin, amoxicillin, and other related antibiotics in that family. Many of these antibiotics are already ineffective against several major bacteria, including E. coli and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

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The consequences of antibiotic overuse are one of the most serious health problems facing the world today, but not everyone recognizes that. Most studies and articles concerning antibiotic resistant-bacteria fails to mention dentists as a factor in that. That is also reflected in the MDH study, where 34 percent of people who recently received antibiotics from a dentist did not have those pharmaceuticals listed on their medical charts. Another worrying trend? Dentists appear to be increasing their rate of prescribing these treatments.

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Is Anyone Listening?

As a kid, no one wants to go to the dentist, and it’s clear as an adult that a visit to the dentist for mouth problems is likely to end in a prescription for antibiotics. Dentists are usually ignored or pushed to the side when it comes to discussing health. They are their own insurance category, have an entirely different governing body to report to, and have easily been able to separate the health of the mouth from the health of the rest of the body. We now know that separation does not exist. Holistic dentistry is on the rise but until it’s more accepted, getting a dentist to listen to your concerns about how antibiotics and other procedures could impact your overall health is like…pulling teeth (lolz!).

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So what do you do?

• There are two things that all dentists recommend that are essential: brush and floss. Stop cheating. Routine is your friend.
• Look up oil pulling and start doing it. At first, this is easier said than done. The oil feels slimy, and the average person’s jaw is simply not ready for twenty minutes of sustained swishing. Work up to it.
• Getting in front of an infection is super important. If you’re feeling any kind of pain, assume it’s an infection and chew on raw garlic for as long as you can before spitting it out. Even if you don’t technically have an infection yet, a round or two of that will knock it right out.
• Sugar does not cause cavities. But sugar feeds the less desirable bacteria in the mouth and gut, allowing infections to more easily take root. Replacing sugar with fresh raw produce feeds the beneficial bacteria and maintain a healthy homeostasis. Diet is the key to holistic health, and we often forget to include the mouth in that.

Health Comes First

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria will kill 10 million people a year by 2050 if things stay the same. Many medical journals, doctors, and researchers are sounding the alarm. Though dentists don’t seem to be as concerned, they are the issuers of 24.5 million antibiotic prescriptions a year, and they need to be part of the conversation.

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Sources:

• Antibiotics for dental procedures linked to superbug infection, study shows – Eureka Alert
• Superbugs could kill more people than cancer, report warns – CBS News
• Heal Cavities, Gum Disease, Naturally with Organic Oral Care – Toothpaste Recipes Included – Organic Lifestyle Magazine
• It’s time to break down the wall between dentistry and medicine – Stat News