Food package chemicals

Scientists query health risk of food package chemicals

The health risks of chemicals in plastic bottles are the subject of some debate

Scientists say "far too little" is known about the health risks of chemicals used in food packaging, and some could cause cancer.

Research is needed to understand the effect on the human body and embryonic development of at least 4,000 chemicals used in packaging, they said.

Links between packaging and obesity, diabetes and neurological diseases need to be explored, scientists warned.

But critics have said that the call is alarmist.

Scientists Jane Muncke, John Peterson Myers, Martin Scheringer and Miquel Porta called for an investigation into the health risks of food packaging in a commentary piece published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

'Lifelong exposure'

They noted that chemicals such as formaldehyde, which they said can cause cancer, were used in many materials, such as plastics used for fizzy-drink bottles and tableware.

Substances could leach into food, and they added that the risks of "lifelong exposure" to such chemicals were not documented, said the researchers.

"Whereas the science for some of these substances is being debated and policymakers struggle to satisfy the needs of stakeholders, consumers remain exposed to these chemicals daily, mostly unknowingly," they said.

But carrying out analysis would not be easy, they said, as there are no unexposed populations for comparison.

The call for research has attracted criticism.

Dr Ian Musgrave, senior lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, said it was "very hard to take seriously" the claims that formaldehyde in plastic bottles could cause cancer.

He said it was present in many foods naturally, and to consume as much formaldehyde as that in an apple someone would have to drink "at least" 20 litres of plastic-bottled water.

Dr Musgrave added: "Obviously the concern about formaldehyde from food packaging is significantly overrated, unless we are willing to place 'potential cancer hazard' stickers on fresh fruit and vegetables."

'High levels of fat'

Jon Ayres, Professor of Environmental and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Birmingham, said the scientists painted an "alarmist" picture.

He said there was "no denying" that ingesting lower doses of some substances could "in principle" be harmful, but the issue was how to recognise and quantify any effect.

Prof Ayres added: "But can these effects really be anything other than modest at worst when few have been recognised to date?"

He said that simply calling for a different approach to the chemicals "does not really help".

Dr Oliver Jones, lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said: "More research is always welcome from a scientist's point of view.

"But I would hazard a guess that the high levels of fat, sugar and salt in a lot of today's processed food are more of a health concern than any migration of chemicals from the packaging."

Cooking meat 'may be dementia risk'

Browning meat in the oven, grill or frying pan produces chemicals which may increase the risk of developing dementia, US researchers suggest.

Advanced glycation end (AGE) products have been linked to diseases such as type-2 diabetes.

Mice fed a high-AGEs diet had a build-up of dangerous proteins in the brain and impaired cognitive function.

Experts said the results were "compelling" but did not provide "definitive answers".

AGEs are formed when proteins or fats react with sugar. This can happen naturally and during the cooking process.

Researchers at the Icahn school of medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York, tested the effect of AGEs on mice and people.

The animal experiments, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that a diet rich in AGEs affects the chemistry of the brain.

It leads to a build-up of defective beta amyloid protein - a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The mice eating a low-AGEs diet were able to prevent the production of damaged amyloid.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

This subject has so far not been well studied in people, and we don't yet know whether the amount of AGEs in our diet might affect our risk of dementia”

Dr Simon RidleyAlzheimer's Research UK

The mice performed less well in physical and thinking tasks after their AGEs-rich diet.

A short-term analysis of people over 60 suggested a link between high levels of AGEs in the blood and cognitive decline.

'Effective treatment'

The study concluded: "We report that age-related dementia may be causally linked to high levels of food advanced glycation end products.

"Importantly, reduction of food-derived AGEs is feasible and may provide an effective treatment strategy."

Derek Hill, a professor of medical imaging sciences at University College London, commented: "The results are compelling.

"Because cures for Alzheimer's disease remain a distant hope, efforts to prevent it are extremely important, but this study should be seen as encouraging further work, rather than as providing definitive answers.

"But it is grounds for optimism - this paper adds to the body of evidence suggesting that using preventative strategies might reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in society and that could have very positive impact on us all."

Dr Simon Ridley, from the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Diabetes has previously been linked to an increased risk of dementia, and this small study provides some new insight into some of the possible molecular processes that may link the two conditions.

"It's important to note that the people in this study did not have dementia. This subject has so far not been well studied in people, and we don't yet know whether the amount of AGEs in our diet might affect our risk of dementia."

Importance of SLEEP

25 Horrible Things That Happen If You Don't Get Enough Sleep

In our 24/7 culture, sleep loss is a major problem. Back in 1942, we averaged almost 8 hours of sleep a night — now that's down to 6.8. (Seven to 9 hours per night are what's generally recommended.)
Almost 40% of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep a night, a recent Gallup poll found, and an estimated 70 million Americans have a sleep disorder. 
Everyone knows that it's important to get enough sleep — but you may not realize just how many things can go wrong when you don't.
Here are 25 unfortunate risks of partial and total sleep deprivation, some more common than others.
1. Irritability
"Complaints of irritability and [emotional] volatility following sleepless nights" are common, a team of Israeli researchers observed. They put those complaints to the test by following a group of underslept medical residents. The study found that the negative emotional effect of disruptive events — things like being interrupted while in the middle of doing something — were amplified by sleep loss.
Source: Sleep, 2005
2. Headaches
Scientists don't yet know exactly why sleep deprivation leads to headaches — but it's a connection doctors have noticed for more than a century. Migraines can be triggered by sleepless nights, and 36 to 58% of people with sleep apnea wake up with "nondescript morning headaches."
Source: Headache, 2003; Headache, 2005
3. Inability to learn
Sleepiness has long been an issue among adolescents. One study of middle school students found that "delaying school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30, increases standardized test scores by at least 2 percentile points in math and 1 percentile point in reading."
But it's not just kids. Short-term memory is a crucial component of learning, and sleep deprivation significantly impaired the ability of adult volunteers to remember words they'd been shown the day before. In another study, researchers found that while people tend to improve on a task when they do it more than once, this isn't true if they are kept awake after they try it the first time — even if they sleep again before doing it again.
Source: Nature, 1999; Nature Neuroscience, 2000; Education Next, 2012
4. Weight gain
People who are underslept seem to have hormone imbalances that are tied to increased appetite, more cravings for high-calorie foods, a greater response to indulgent treats, and a dampened ability to control their impulses — a very dangerous combination. It's true that you burn more calories when awake, but not nearly enough to cancel out the many excess calories you consume when exhausted.
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2012; PLOS Medicine, 2004; Nature Communications, 2013; PNAS, 2013
5. Poor vision
Sleep deprivation is associated with tunnel vision, double vision, and dimness. The longer you are awake, the more visual errors you'll encounter, and the more likely you are to experience outright hallucinations.
Source: International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 2010
6. Heart disease
When researchers kept people awake for 88 hours, their blood pressure went up — no big surprise there. But even subjects who were allowed to sleep for 4 hours a night had an elevated heart rate when compared to those getting 8 hours. Concentrations of C-reactive protein, a marker of heart disease risk, increased in those fully and partially deprived of sleep.
Source: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2004; PLOS ONE, 2009; Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2012
7. Slowness
Your reaction time is severely impeded when you don't get enough sleep. When researchers gave West Point cadets two tests that require quick decision-making, some were allowed to sleep between the tests, while others were not. Those who had slept did better the second time — those who had not did worse, and their reactions slowed down. A study in college athletes found similar results.
Source: Sleep, 2009; Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 2012
8. Infection
You know that great thing your immune system does, where when you get an open wound of some kind it doesn't always get infected immediately? Prolonged sleep deprivation and even one night of sleeplessness can impede your body's natural defenses against microorganisms.
Source: American Journal of Physiology, 1993; The FASEB Journal, 1996
9. Economic risk-taking
Planning to make some changes to your portfolio? You might want to make sure you're well-rested. "A single night of sleep deprivation evoked a strategy shift during risky decision making such that healthy human volunteers moved from defending against losses to seeking increased gains," researchers concluded.
Source: The Journal of Neuroscience, 2011
10. Overproduction of urine
When people sleep, the body slows down its normal urine production. This is why most people don't have to pee in the night as much as they do during the day. But when someone is sleep deprived, this normal slowdown doesn't happen, leading to what researchers call "excess nocturnal urine production." This condition may be linked to bed wetting in children and, in adults, it's tied to what's called nocturia — the need to use the bathroom many times during the night.
Source: American Journal of Physiology, 2010; American Journal of Physiology, 2012
11. Distractedness
Having trouble paying attention to what you're reading or listening to? Struggling with anything that requires you to truly focus? "Attention tasks appear to be particularly sensitive to sleep loss," researchers have noted. If you want to stay alert and attentive, sleep is a requirement. Otherwise, you enter "an unstable state that fluctuates within seconds and that cannot be characterized as either fully awake or asleep," and your ability to pay attention is variable at best.
Source: Archives of Italian Biology, 2001; Seminars in Neurology, 2009
12. Less effective vaccines
Vaccines work by spurring your body to create antibodies against a specific virus. But when you don't sleep, your immune system is compromised, and this doesn't work quite as well. In one small study, 19 people were vaccinated against Hepatitis A. Ten of them got 8 hours of sleep the following night, while the rest pulled an all-nighter. Four weeks later, those who had slept normally had levels of Hepatitis A antibodies almost twice as high as those who'd been kept awake.
Another study found that a sleepless night did not have a long-term effect on immunity after a flu vaccine, it concludes that the effect might be specific to certain diseases. "Sleep should be considered an essential factor contributing to the success of vaccination," the Hep A researchers wrote.
Source: Psychosomatic Medicine, 2003; Journal of Immunology, 2011; BMC Immunology, 2012
13. Impaired speech
Severe sleep deprivation might make you sound like a bumbling idiot — much like having way too much to drink. "Volunteers kept awake for 36 hours showed a tendency to use word repetitions and clichés; they spoke monotonously, slowly, [and] indistinctly," one study noted. "They were not able to properly express and verbalize their thoughts."
Source: Sleep, 1997; International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 2010
14. Colds
If you're wondering why you're sick all the time and seem to pick up every bug that travels around the office, it's probably because you're not getting enough sleep. When a group of 153 people were exposed to a common cold, those who had gotten less than 7 hours of sleep in the two weeks prior were almost 3 times more likely to get sick than those who'd had 8 or more hours of sleep. How well you sleep is also a factor – those who had spent 92% of their time in bed actually asleep were 5.5 times more likely to catch a cold than those who had been peacefully slumbering 98-100% of the time they were in bed. 
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009
15. Gastrointestinal problems
One in 250 Americans suffer from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and sleep deficiencies make its symptoms much worse. Regular sleep loss also makes you more likely to develop both IBD and inflammatory bowel syndrome, which affects an estimated 10-15% of people in the U.S. And patients with Crohn's disease were twice as likely to experience a relapse when they weren't getting enough sleep.
Source: World Journal of Gastroenterology, 2013
16. Car accidents
Drowsy driving is often compared to drunk driving: You really shouldn't do either.  "Motor vehicle accidents related to fatigue, drowsy driving, and falling asleep at the wheel are particularly common, but often underestimated," one review concluded. Pilots, truck drivers, medical residents, and others required to stay awake for long periods of time "show an increased risk of crashes or near misses due to sleep deprivation."  
Source: Seminars in Neurology, 2009
17. Depleted sex drive
Testosterone is an important component of sexual drive and desire in both women and men. Sleeping increases testosterone levels, while being awake decreases them. Sleep deprivation and disturbed sleep, consequently, are associated with reduced libido and sexual dysfunction, and people suffering from sleep apnea are at particular risk.
Source: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2007; Behavioral Brain Research, 2009; Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2009; Sleep Medicine, 2010; Brain Research, 2011 

18. Pain
People in pain — especially those suffering from chronic pain — tend not to get enough sleep. This makes sense: Pain can wake you up in the night and make it hard to fall asleep in the first place. But recently, researchers have begun to suspect that sleep deprivation may actually cause pain or at least increase people's sensitivity to pain. One study found that after research subjects were kept awake all night, their pain threshold — the amount of painful stimulus they were able to endure — was lower.
Source: Journal of Sleep Research, 2001; Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2006 
19. Diabetes
Being awake when your body wants you to be asleep messes with your metabolism, which in turn increases your risk for insulin resistance (often called "pre-diabetes") and type 2 diabetes. "Interventions to extend sleep duration may reduce diabetes risk," one study in adolescents concluded. And four large studies in adults found a strong association — though not a cause-effect relationship — between regular sleep loss and the risk of developing diabetes, even after controlling for other habits that might be relevant.
Source: Journal of Applied Physiology, 2005; Sleep, 2012; Annals of Internal Medicine, 2012
20. Sloppiness
Most people notice that when they're sleepy, they're not at the top of their game. One study found that one sleepless night contributed to a 20-32% increase in the number of errors made by surgeons. People playing sports that require precision — shooting, sailing, cycling, etc. — also make more mistakes when they've been awake for extended periods of time.
Source: The Lancet, 1998; Physiology & Behavior, 2007
21. Cancer
Scientists are just beginning to investigate the relationship between sleep and cancer, and different kinds of cancer behave differently. But since disrupted circadian rhythm and reduced immunity are direct results of sleep deprivation, it's no surprise that preliminary research seems to indicate that people who don't get enough sleep are at increased risk for developing certain kinds of cancer, most notably colon and breast cancers.
Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2003; Pathologie-biologie, 2003; Cancer, 2011; AAOHN Journal, 2011 
22. Memory problems
Sleep disruptions in the elderly can lead to structural changes in the brain that are associated with impaired long-term memory — and sleep-related memory deficits have been observed in the general adult population as well. As early as 1924, researchers noticed that people who slept more forgot less. Poor sleep and not enough of it have also been linked to higher levels of β-Amyloid, a biomarker for Alzheimer's.
Source: Cell Signal, 2012; Nature Neuroscience, 2013; JAMA Neurology, 2013
23. Genetic disruption
A 2013 study shed some light on why sleep is tied to so many different aspects of our health and wellness. Poor sleep actually disrupts normal genetic activity. After one week of sleeping less than 6 hours per night, researchers found that more than 700 genes were not behaving normally, including some that help govern immune and stress responses.
Some genes that typically cycle according to a daily (circadian) pattern stopped doing so, while others that don't normally follow a daily pattern began doing so. What does this mean? Just one week of less-than-ideal sleep is enough to make some of your genetic activity go haywire.
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013
24. Unhappiness and depression
In a classic study led by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a group of 909 working women kept detailed logs of their moods and day-to-day activities. While differences in income up to $60,000 had little effect on happiness, a poor night's sleep was one of two factors that could ruin the following day's mood. (The other was tight deadlines at work.)
Another study reported higher marital happiness among women with more peaceful sleep, although it's hard to say whether happy people sleep better, better sleep makes people happier, or — most likely — some combination of the two. Insomniacs are also twice as likely to develop depression, and preliminary research suggests that treating sleep problems may successfully treat depressive symptoms.
Source: Science, 2004; Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 2009; Journal of Affective Disorders, 2011
25. Death
Many health problems are associated with sleep deprivation and poor sleep, but here's the big one: People who consistently do not get 7-8 hours of sleep are more likely to die during a given time period. Put more simply: We all die eventually, but sleeping too little — or even too much — is associated with a higher risk of dying sooner than you otherwise might. 
Source: Sleep, 2010; Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2010

ANTIBIOTIC Facts

The present generation can by no means think of the times when antibiotics were not available to mankind. But there actually were times when humans were treated without the aid of antibiotics. The first antibiotic appeared on the scene in the 1930’s and was termed as a wonder drug - a panacea for all infectious diseases. Antibiotics acted quickly and destroyed bacteria very effectively.

As human beings went about destroying the environment in the race for advancement, newer strains of bacteria developed. New toxins that polluted the environment gave rise to new diseases that lead to further research and the development of new antibiotics. The process continues even now, and we create conditions for new diseases to occur and only later realize that we need to now search for their cures.

As life became fast paced, so did the need to get back to work as soon as possible. The antibiotic alternativegradually ceased to be the last resort for treatment. Actually it became the first resort for treating even the common cold. Initially there was no information on micro-organisms that were resistant to antibiotics and their side effects. As new information started pouring in, it was already too late - neither doctors nor patients had time to waste on slow acting herbal antibiotics.

In the present day scenario, it is difficult to avoid disease. Antibiotics, however, should always be used discriminately. Antibiotics may be indispensable in some cases, but they should not be used as long as they can be avoided safely. Antibiotics have some very undesirable properties, such as:

1. They have side effects that can sometimes prove to be more difficult to manage than the ailment they are meant to cure.
2. They destroy friendly bacteria along with disease-causing bacteria. The body needs friendly bacteria for a number of processes like detoxification, easy elimination of wastes and cleansing of the blood and the liver.
3. Over-use of antibiotics lead to their becoming ineffective due to bacterial mutation. Simply stated, it means that certain bacteria get used to a particular antibiotic and start using it for their own benefit. Penicillin and tetracycline are classic examples of how antibiotics become redundant for killing some bacterium.

Frankly speaking, we have lost track of the meaning of true health. A truly healthy person is one whose immune system health is perfectly capable of handling attacks from viruses and bacteria. Have you ever wondered how a minor cut from shaving cures by itself? Or how the common cold mostly vanishes in seven days even when you do not treat it with antibiotics? It is the immune system that is at work, which activates on recognizing foreign substances and releases chemicals to destroy them.

Before antibiotics were discovered, silver and colloidal silver were used as regular treatments. The properties of silver are mentioned in ancient therapies like Ayurveda. It treats silver as a rejuvenating elixir. Homeopathy uses silver in its various forms to encourage vitality and promote immune system health. Herbs for immune system like pau d'arco and the time tested natural remedies can help in keeping antibiotics the last resort for treating ailments that cannot be handled naturally.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotics