environmental health

Archived Posts from this Category

April 17, 2009

A Doctor Writes

Posted by buberfan under environment, environmental health
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This post, Our Moral Obligation to Act by Lise Van Susteren, M.D., was first published on HuffingtonPost and has also appeared on the Climate Progress blog.

I find this an encouraging sign that awareness of climate change is reaching beyond the “green” and “environmentalist” sectors. Politicians started to take it seriously when an economist, Lord Stern, wrote about the impact of climate change on the economy. If the medical professions start to take this threat seriously it can only help move things forward. After all, we are all concerned about our health and are willing to put our dollars – whether directly or through taxes – into looking after our health.

Once the health sector starts telling us that climate change is a serious threat to our health, perhaps we might consider investing in things like solar panels and insulation alongside our other health expenditure.

Here is the article:
(more…)

 

March 25, 2009

Food That’s Good For The Planet

Posted by buberfan under diet, environment, environmental health, health, organic | Tags: , , , , , |
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A while back when I checked my carbon footprint I was surprised to see that my eating habits are one of the biggest factors in the 1.8 planets it would take if everyone lived like me.  And this is despite the fact that we eat hardly any processed foods.  Nevertheless, I do want to live more sustainably and this means making some changes.

The good news is that foods which are good for the planet are also the healthiest for us! Here are some guidelines to eating sustainably. (more…)

 

April 2, 2008

Mobile phones – fried brain anyone?

Posted by buberfan under children's health, environmental health | Tags: , , , , |
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The dangers of mobile phone use are becoming better known and, thank God, more and more mainstream media are reporting it. The latest has Melbourne’s The Age reporting on a 15-month critical review by one of Australia’s top neurosurgeons who says that the widespread use of mobile phones could turn out to be a bigger threat to public health than asbestos or even smoking. (more…)

 

March 20, 2008

Must Read – the Autoimmune Epidemic

Posted by buberfan under environmental health, health | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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I’ve just read this article on Alternet Health – and I think it is a must-read, so please spread the word.

In a nutshell, there is a growing epidemic of autoimmune diseases affecting the Western world which almost nobody has heard about! To give some idea of the scale, one in 12 people in the USA (24 million) develop an autoimmune disease, and the figures are even higher for women – one in nine!

In fact, women are eight-times more likely to develop an autoimmune disease than develop breast cancer. EIGHT TIMES! (more…)

 

March 5, 2008

Probiotics – the Swiss Army Knife of health products

Posted by buberfan under children's health, diet, environmental health | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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The name ‘probiotic’ was coined about a hundred years ago by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Prof. Ilya Mechnikov who researched why it was that some people managed to live extraordinarily long lives. But it is only in recent years that there has been an explosion of scientific interest in the ‘friendly bacteria’ which seem to be crucial to our health.

In 1908 Mechnikov proclaimed that ‘Death begins in the colon.’ The March 1st issue of Science News surveys some of the bleeding-edge research currently going into probiotics which explain why this is may be the case. Scientists are finding amazing evidence that probiotics can help with

  • obesity
  • osteoporosis
  • food-allergies and other auto-immune diseases
  • irritable bowel syndrome
  • fungal infections such as Candida ablicans
  • the common cold
  • poor diet

(more…)

 

February 27, 2008

Cheer Up! (without Prozac)

Posted by buberfan under environmental health, mental health | Tags: , , , , |
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Research reported in The Guardian and elsewhere gives the surprising news that Prozac and similar commonly prescribed anti-depressants DON’T WORK!

Actually that is not true. They do work, but are no more effective than sugar pills (placebo), with the small exception of severely depressed people (and in these cases it is probably because the placebo is less effective rather than because the drugs actually work). The research comes from new analysis of the data obtained by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thanks to Freedom of Information laws in the US, an international team of scientists were able to obtain the results of trials conducted by the drug manufacturers but which they chose not to publish (I wonder why!). (more…)

 

August 9, 2007

Gender Bender Chemicals Exposure Widespread

Posted by buberfan under environmental health | Tags: , , |
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Most people are exposed to a wide variety of ‘gender bender’ chemicals which mimic the female hormones and cause a variety of health problems. In recent years there has been an unexpected drop in the ratio of male births in the USA and Japan – up to a quarter of a million less boys over the last 30 years. Now scientists are linking this to our exposure to hormone-mimicing chemicals in food and cleaning products.

These pollutants include pesticides, dioxin, methyl mercury and bisphenol A. Seafood and fish oil is particular problem because pollutants dumped into rivers and the sea are accumulated and concentrated in fish – especially those nearer the top of the food chain. Food containers are another problem. Bisphenol A is used in food and drink cans, as well as in dental cements. Levels of Bisphenol A were found to be three times higher in women who suffered miscarriages and disfunction of the ovaries than in other women.

Another group of chemicals, nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), are widespread in detergents and cleaning products. These are potent endocrine disruptors and are thought to be responsible for the phenomenon of male fish turning into female fish which is observed in waterways throughout the world. European and Canadian regulators have banned NPEs in domestic laundry detergents and other cleaning agents, but they are still widespread elsewhere.

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July 22, 2007

Women absorb up to 5lb of chemicals per year from beauty products

Posted by buberfan under beauty, environmental health | Tags: , , , |
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Various blogs have quoted a story in Britain’s Daily Mail (June 2007) reporting that women absorb up to 5lb (that’s about 2.3kg) of chemicals through their skin by using cosmetics and skin-care products. The article quotes a biochemist, Richard Bence, who says that the effects of absorbing these chemicals is much more dangerous than swallowing them. “If your lipstick gets into your mouth, it is broken down by the enzymes in saliva and in the stomach. But if the chemicals get straight into your bloodstream, there is no protection.” The chemical cocktail commonly found in these products includes known irritants and chemicals linked to cancer. The irritants, and industrial-strength cleaners (sodium laurel sulphate and related surfactants) strip the skin of its natural defences making it even more susceptible to letting chemicals through.

Although the kidneys do their best to flush these chemicals out (it helps to drink lots of water) it seems that we are absorbing toxins faster than they can be removed – the net effect is a gradual build-up in the body.

This is why we only use Miessence skincare and beauty products.

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