Holy Shit, Really?

Salvia divinorum is a member of the Lamiaceae family, which makes it a cousin of the mint plant. When properly prepared, salvia can be smoked in order to bring on incredibly intense, at times paralyzing, hallucinations. Most salvia trips are short in duration, but very powerful and jarring. All side effects of salvia are gone within an hour, and it doesn’t show up on standard drug tests.

Depending on the amount of smoke inhaled, users of salvia may experience hallucinations on par in intensity with those caused by drugs like LSD or DMT. Since most users lose consciousness and drift off into a world of fractal shapes and green women as soon as they hit the pipe, it has not gained much popularity as a ‘party’ drug.

It kind of makes the world look like this for about six minutes.

Where Can I Get One?

Salvia is still legal in most US states. You can pick it up at most well-stocked ‘head’ shops, but the cheapest and highest quality salvia is usually found online. Make sure to check your local laws to see if you can legally purchase and possess it in your state. If not, at least you still have your flamethrower.

What Should I do With it?

Here at Cracked, the only “high” we’re interested in is the natural high we get from bringing comedy to the world (and sometimes crystal meth), so we have no advice here. However there are a number of educational videos that recommend gardening, writing letters to congressmen, and driving while on salvia.

Also, we do not recommend teaching while on salvia.

Holy Balls, Why is it Legal?

Salvia is actually pretty harmless, as intoxicants go. There have been a few accusations of its involvement in causing a suicidal mindset, but evidence is spurious at best. In fact a number of scientists believe that salvia may act as an anti-depressant, and its effective use in ending cocaine addiction has been noticed as well. Dr. Bryan Roth believes the drug has the potential to help those suffering from schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s and has urged the government not to ban salvia. With the potential to cure depression, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and cocaine addictions, it’s a wonder salvia isn’t a mandatory side dish in high school cafeterias across America. We’re going to go ahead and say that last one is a bad idea.

You Won’t Believe

You’re All Doing Wrong

By: C. Coville, Crystal Beran

April 04, 2011 3,268,922 views

If you’re like us, you might sometimes have a problem with complex tasks, like trying to drive an ambulance and send a text message at the same time. But hey, at least most of us have figured out the simplest things that get us through the day, right?

Except, you know, some of the simple things we’ve done every day of our lives, like …

#7.

Pooping

What could be simpler than taking a good crap? Even babies are good at it. You might be surprised, then, to find out that even those of us who can burp without throwing up get this wrong every single day.

The one who just threw up on the other one’s shoulder is better at pooping.

Chances are the pooping facility nearest you is a sitting toilet, a relatively recent invention that flushed its way into mankind’s heart with the advent of indoor plumbing in the 19th century. Indoor plumbing has turned out pretty well for the most part, but the pooping style that came with it definitely has not. Pooping on a modern sitting toilet is a big part of where hemorrhoids come from, and it can also cause diverticular disease, an age-related condition that pretty much only occurs in parts of the world where sitting toilets are used, and which can lead to a range of pleasantries up to and including colonic obstruction. And things aren’t getting better: The last few decades have seen a rise in popularity of “comfort height” toilets that sit two to four inches higher off the ground than older models and that make our pooping predicament even worse.

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Future toilets will exist just to kill us.

So how the hell are we meant to do it?

Luckily, there’s a relatively simple way to end this poop dilemma. A 2003 study observed 28 people pooping in three positions: sitting on a high toilet, sitting on a lower one and squatting like they were catchers at a baseball game (catcher’s mitt optional, but encouraged). After initially being mistaken for a German porn company, the researchers found that pooping took about a minute less when done squatting and that participants rated the experience as “easier” (God, we hope they were getting paid).

In fact, toilets that require you to squat that way have been the standard for most of human history and are still widely used in the non-Western world.

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And urban centers of the Western world.

According to proctologists, “We were not meant to sit on toilets, we were meant to squat in the field.” When you’re in a sitting or standing position, you’re forming an angle between the where the poop is and where the poop’s gotta come out. There’s even a muscle that’s purpose is to tighten things up when we’re sitting or standing to prevent accidents. Squatting straightens out this angle and removes the chokehold.

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For no reason, here’s an icing pipe.

If the thought of squatting awkwardly on top of your toilet seat isn’t for you, you can produce a similar poop-enhancing angle by resting your feet on a footstool (or anything handy) and leaning the top half of your body forward.

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Demonstrated here.

#6.

Bathing

From a young age, we’re taught that the daily use of a hot shower, copious amounts of soap and a scratchy washcloth are necessary to rid ourselves of dangerous microorganisms and the putrid smell of human skin. And if you aren’t squeaky-clean, you can forget about dating, career advancement and the promise of a future that doesn’t involve dying alone in a den of your own filth.

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That’s what college is for.

As it turns out, showering or bathing daily, while it may make us more socially acceptable, wreaks havoc on something hilariously called the horny layer. Hot water, soap and abrasive surfaces strip off the horny layer, exposing living cells to the elements. And although we’ve just used the words “strip,” “exposing” and “horny” in the same sentence, we assure you that this is not the making of a sexy situation. On the contrary, damaging this protective layer of skin makes us more susceptible to disease.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Sexy disease.

Before recent modern conveniences, people bathed less often, and frequently in the same water. Even nowadays, showering doesn’t kill bacteria or other microorganisms, though it does move them around. A colony of bacteria living on your shower wall might move to your leg; a colony from your leg might move to your head; a colony from your groin might even take up residence on your hands. For this reason, surgeons in many hospitals are not allowed to shower right before operating.

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Not even you, Doctor McPenishands!

Studies have shown that there are no measurable differences in the number of microorganism colonies a person is host to regardless of how frequently that person showers. Of course, using antibacterial soaps can kill microorganisms, though in an effort not to create too many super bacteria, medical experts generally recommend not using these soaps daily.

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“Say what you like, but you have to admit my bones are super shiny!”

So how the hell are we meant to do it?

The most important thing to do to keep the skin healthy is to preserve the horny layer. There’s no magic number of showers each week, though it’s generally agreed that the number would fall somewhat shy of seven. Skipping showers, or, if you’d like a fancy French term, celebrating sans douche days, gives your skin time to repair some of the damage that the last shower caused.

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Any more than a day and there’s no amount of French that’ll get rid of Eau de Sewer.

When you shower, use warm or cool water and a mild soap (if at all), and rehydrate the horny layer by rubbing on some moisturizer afterward. Better yet, convince an attractive friend to help with this. Once you’ve cleaned up, you’ll want to make sure you air dry. Ignore protesting roommates or family members and remind them, as you’re drip-drying at the breakfast table, that they should be grateful you’re showering only a couple of times a week.

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“Kids, ignore your father while I try to remember why I married him.”

#5.

Breathing

Congratulations: Chances are that if you’re reading this, and you’re not a ghost, you’ve managed to figure out breathing. On the other hand, chances are you’re also doing it wrong.

iStockphoto
You’re also suddenly aware that you’re breathing now.

Take a deep breath right now. We’ll wait. If you’re anything like most people, you raised your shoulders a little and puffed out your chest like a pigeon in heat. You probably don’t see anything wrong with using your chest to breathe, since after all, that’s where your lungs are. What the hell else are you going to use? Your thighs? Well, smartass, it turns out that the muscle you’re supposed to use to breathe, your diaphragm, is under your lungs and closer to your belly.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Shown here as the white mass on the bottom of this X-ray of Tom Cruise (may not actually be Tom Cruise).

When upright, most people are habitual chest breathers: We use a shallow form of respiration that makes use of only the top part of the lungs. In reality, most of the blood vessels that take up oxygen are in the bottom, neglected half. Since so much lung power is going to waste, we get less oxygen, and as a result, we’re all breathing more rapidly than nature intended us to.

Chest breathing also tends to upset the blood’s oxygen/carbon dioxide balance and can lead to headaches, fatigue, anxiety and even panic attacks. According to one expert, you’re also potentially suffering from sweaty palms, difficulty relaxing, heightened pain perception and general fatigue.

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Or as most people call it — a “first date.”

So how the hell are we meant to do it?

It turns out that breathing is one area in which babies are much smarter than you. Babies use a deeper type of respiration called abdominal breathing, which strengthens and makes full use of their diaphragms. It’s only as we grow older that we revert to the more inefficient style. Luckily, you can train your body to go back to breathing properly, and over time, you can even breathe abdominally in your sleep.

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Not to be confused with snoring, which is just breathing abominably.

To practice it, try to “inflate” your stomach as you breathe in, while keeping your chest relatively still. Then contract your abdominal muscles on the exhale. Not only will this give you more oxygen per breath, it will eventually strengthen the diaphragm. A stronger diaphragm means you get more oxygen with each breath, so your brain won’t need to divert any away from your muscles, meaning that you get tired less easily.

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Try this now at work, and observe as people kindly give you more breathing space!

A study on cardiac patients showed that this type of breathing leads to improved exercise performance and decreased shortness of breath, and it’s also been linked to lower blood pressure. This is the reason that so many coaches recommend breathing practice as a shortcut to sports-based superpowers.

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“I’ll have you know this exercise is recommended by my doctor.”

#4.

Sleeping

OK, so maybe you can’t handle pooping, breathing or much else that you’d think would come naturally. But surely just lying in bed every night is OK, right? So why the hell do you keep waking up at 3 a.m.? You lie there, wondering what the hell is wrong with you. Will I oversleep? you wonder. How will I find the time to sit down and poop in the morning?

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“I have to remember to breathe, too. I can’t deal with all this.“

If this happens to you often, you’re not alone. Chances are, if you mention waking up like this to your doctor, it’ll be diagnosed as a “sleep disorder,” and you’ll be given one of the tens of millions of prescriptions for sleeping pills handed out to Americans each year. You’ll pop some Ambien, only to awaken a few hours later beating up a police officer. What on earth went wrong?

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To be fair, you couldn’t have known that wasn’t a real truncheon.

So how the hell are we meant to do it?

In this case, you’re already doing it right. It’s your reaction that’s wrong.

The idea that an uninterrupted eight hours is the only sleep pattern natural to mankind is surprisingly recent. Before someone who wasn’t Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, people in areas with more than eight hours of darkness usually slept in segments: three to five hours of sleep, an hour of wakefulness and then another three to five hour nap. The hour or so of awake time was used for quiet reflection, sex, smoking and pretty much everything except staring at the wall terrified of insomnia. In fact, this small window of consciousness was renowned as the best time for boning, as the tranquility between the first and second sleep was known as being uniquely suited to getting up to mischief with the person lying bored beside you.

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This isn’t compulsory.

In recent times, artificial light has pushed our normal bedtime back later and later, and this segmented sleep has been compressed into a single eight hours. Still, our brains are naturally wired for pre-light-bulb days. In a monthlong experiment, healthy subjects were given a long artificial “night” lasting 14 hours. They quickly reverted to the segmented pattern, waking up for an hour or two of “peaceful wakefulness” between two three to five hour stretches.

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By the end of the experiment, all the women were pregnant.

So why do we still wake up even when we’ve been up until midnight watching Deadliest Warrior marathons? Well, some people tend to revert to this natural sleep cycle despite all the artificial light, especially during dark winter months. Fortunately, having this sort of technology-resistant superbrain doesn’t necessarily spell disaster. According to experts, if you stay calm and allow yourself to fall back to sleep naturally rather than lying there wondering why you’re awake, you usually won’t see any negative effects the next day.

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Unless you leave the TV on while you sleep.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Hiding in Your DNA

By: C. Coville

April 28, 2011 1,054,500 views

#3.

Grandparent-Based Death Time Bombs

We’ve mentioned before that your father’s smoking could have made you fat. What we didn’t mention, though, was that your grandparents’ actions could also have doomed you to a short and unhappy life. Man, what did you do to piss off all of history? ‘Cause it sure seems to hate the crap out of you.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Do you owe Napoleon money? Dude, just pay it already.

A study in Sweden revealed a strange pattern in a rural community that had gone through periods of both famine and abundance in the 19th century. The study found that the grandsons of men who’d had childhoods coinciding with abundant years — i.e., the ones who had stuffed their faces with grain for a season or two — had a life expectancy of 32 years less than the grandsons of those who had experienced famine, with the deaths caused mainly by diabetes, heart disease and presumably the shame of having extremely fat grandparents. Daughters with gluttonous grandmothers suffered a similar fate.

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Though we admit that eating enough to kill future generations is pretty damn impressive.

Luckily, this delayed-reaction DNA sabotage doesn’t always have to be negative: Mice exposed to “enriched” learning environments developed an improved memory that was passed on to offspring that had never experienced it. Man, it seems like just about anything you do with your life now has a serious impact on the genetics of later generations. So it’s a good thing you’re snacking on broccoli and stimulating your mind with such an esteemed source of learning on your way to save that orphanage, right?

iStockphoto

#2.

Bug Poop

The assassin bug of South America lands on the faces of sleeping humans and sucks their blood while pooping on them at the same time, proving once again that nature is a sick and murderous pervert. Wait, did you just have a seizure? Weren’t you reading an article on DNA? What the hell are we doing talking about bugs? Oh, God, there aren’t bugs in your DNA, are there?! Relax, relax, it’s nothing like that: It’s just a parasite that lives in the poop floating in your bloodstream.

Via CDC
Above: Ew.

See, when the bug’s victim scratches the bite, the crap sitting on the wound enters his system. And since assassin bugs carry the parasite T. cruzi, you get a free bonus prize with your shit-blood: Chagas disease. This condition can severely damage the heart and digestive system, producing, among other things, a symptom known as “enlarged colon.” It’s responsible for about 20,000 deaths a year, mostly in South America, but it occasionally pops up in the U.S. as well. Researchers who deliberately infected chicken eggs with T. cruzi and then tested the offspring of the infected chickens that emerged found that not only did those chickens have the parasite DNA, but so did their offspring, and so on.

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And all of their omelets tasted like shit.

But keep in mind that T. cruzi isn’t necessarily the only parasite in our DNA, just the first we’ve discovered. Your cells might literally be swarming with the stuff. Hey, it’s survival of the fittest. You know the old saying: If you can’t beat ‘em, take a dump in their veins and live forever in their children. If you don’t believe us, just ask Charles Darwin. Oh, wait, you can’t: Chagas disease is thought to have been the illness that killed him.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Also, he died over a hundred years ago

#1.

The Twin That You Murdered as a Fetus

Regular Cracked readers probably know by now that babies are capable of murder in the womb, because that’s our end goal: teaching you things that you can never un-know. But even womb murder isn’t the end of the story. In some cases, you can end up absorbing your newly dead twin and having its DNA live on inside you, a condition known formally as “chimerism” and informally as “what happens when God stays up late watching movies by David Lynch.”

Who just happens to be a Chimera himself.

In 2002, a woman named Lydia Fairchild submitted DNA tests for her three children as part of a welfare claim, only to have the results prove that genetically, she wasn’t the mother. Since DNA is considered the gold standard of medical evidence, she was accused of somehow stealing the children, even after the poor woman gave birth to another “nonrelated” child right in front of a social worker. Finally, more extensive testing unlocked the mystery: Her ovaries had a different set of DNA than her bloodstream. In other words, she’d given birth to her dead sister’s children. And then, presumably, she never stopped screaming.

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“And where’s your ‘friend’ at now, sweetie?” “She’s inside me, Mommy. She’s inside me.”

Again, that’s no fluke: In another case, a woman getting typed for a kidney transplant found out that one son was genetically hers, while two more belonged to her similarly dead sibling. A teenage boy being treated for an undescended testicle turned out to be carrying an ovary on that side from a twin sister — as if an undescended testicle wasn’t going to get him made fun of enough, now he’s half ghost-woman as well? Jesus, screw you too, genetics. Chimerism is thought to be rare but also massively underdiagnosed, since it’s undetectable outside of DNA testing, which doesn’t happen to normal folks all that often. Potential symptoms can include slightly different-colored eyes, uneven skin pigmentation and waking up at night to find ‘YOU KILLED ME’ written on the bathroom mirror just before being strangled by your own reflection.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

A recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry revealed that animals whose diet were enhanced with 8 percent wild blueberries encountered lesser blood vessel constrictions as compared to animals who were given a controlled diet.

The research study was undertaken by a team of researchers from the University of Louisville, Northwestern University and the University of Maine.  They said that the distinctive goal and approach of their study was to look at the dietary effect of consuming wild blueberries – not the isolated bioactive compounds – on the tone of the blood vessels of adult rats that are spontaneously hypertensive.

Researchers said that their data gives clear proof that the 8-week dietary inclusion of 8 percent wild blueberry in adult rats with spontaneous hypertension showing endothelial dysfunction has resulted in an important moderation of the increased vascular tone of the aorta.

It was proposed that the blueberries acted through the nitric oxide pathway.  Nitric oxide is a powerful chemical compound that dilates or relaxes the blood vessel thereby helping in the reduction of high blood pressure. Blueberries have long been popular because of its antioxidant properties which assist in preventing damage brought about by free radicals.

Study details

The team of researchers, led by Dorothy Klimis-Zacas from the University of Maine, supplied spontaneously hypertensive rats with wild blueberry or control diet for a period of 8 weeks.  The Wild Blueberry Association of North America (WBANA) provided the blueberries as a composite, and were then made to undergo freeze-drying and then powdered by FutureCeuticals of Illinois.

Following the 8-week intervention, the spontaneously hypertensive rats were exposed to a vasoconstrictor compound, l-phenylephrine, without or with l-NG-monomethyl arginine, another compound recognized to hinder an enzyme known as NO synthase (NOS), which is responsible for enhancing the transmission of impulses from one nerve cell to another.  It also helps in enhancing the functions of the immune system, and in dilating or relaxing blood vessels.

Results have shown that the vasoconstriction effects brought about by l-phenylephrine were reduced in the group whose diet was supplemented with wild blueberries, causing reduced vascular tone in basal conditions.  The said effect is credited to the Nitric Oxide pathway.  The researchers concluded that the result of their study documents the capability of wild blueberries to alter the pathways of vessel control and improve the tone of the blood vessels in adult rats that are spontaneously hypertensive with endothelial dysfunction.

The Health Benefits of Blueberries

Blueberries are said to be nature’s only true blue food.  These are excellent sources of antioxidants such as anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins and phenolic acids.  Blueberries have grown so popular over the years with more and more studies conducted regarding the positive health benefits one may derive from eating these fruits.  With the publication of scientific evidence supporting the health claims of blueberries and its antioxidant properties, consumers are raring to get their own dose of wellness.  The fruit is said to be effective in reducing high cholesterol levels and it also aids in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease as well as some forms of cancer.

Some of the health benefits of eating blueberries include:

1. Antioxidant Properties

Blueberries are very rich in antioxidants.  Aside from the already mentioned ones, blueberries also contain zinc, selenium, copper, vitamins A, B, C and E, and iron.  These enhance the function of the immune system and helps prevent infection.  A strong immune system would mean a healthier you.

2. Fights off Free Radicals

Blueberries, through its component called anthocyanin, help neutralize free radicals that are present in the body.  Free radicals cause damage to cells, brings diseases and is responsible for premature aging. Anthocyanins are pigments that give blueberries its blue tint. The vitamin C that is present in blueberries also plays a major role in the fight against free radicals.

3. Belly Fat reduction

A study from the Cardiovascular Center of the University of Michigan suggests that blueberry consumption aids in reducing belly fat – one of the risk factors of heart disease and metabolic syndrome.  The researchers used rats as test subjects where a powder enriched with blueberry was mixed with the rats’ food.  After a 90-day period, the rats whose diets were supplemented with blueberry enriched power had lesser abdominal fat, and lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

4. Prevents Urinary Tract Infection

Blueberries contain compounds which stops the growth of bacteria, such as b-coli, in the linings of the urinary tract walls, washing off the bacteria from the tract.  The fruit also exhibits antibiotic properties which also stops bacterial growth so that urinary tract infection is prevented.

5. Promotes Healthy Vision

Clinical studies have shown that anthocyanides that are present in blueberry extract help slow down, or prevent, the loss of vision caused by aging such as hypermetropia, myopia, cataract and macular degeneration. Other blueberry components such as vitamins A, C and E, phosphorus, zinc, flavonoids and carotenoids are also very helpful and important for healthy eyes.

A report published in the Archives of Ophthalmology suggests that consuming 3 or more blueberry servings each day may reduce a person’s risk for the development of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) by 36 percent compared to those who eat less than one and a half servings per day.

How to Increase Blueberry Consumption

There are many different ways with which you can increase your intake of blueberries, especially now that you are fully aware of its health benefits.  Here are some simple tips on how you could do just that:

• Blueberries for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner? Yes!

Slow cooked oatmeal topped with fresh blueberries is one of my favorites. For lunch, add blueberries to your salad.  At dinner, you can even have a side of blueberries!  This way, you’ll have blueberry ready to fight the battle with free radicals all day long.

For dessert, there are simply a wide array of options – be creative but in a healthy way. Skip the blueberry pastries and pies, which are loaded with artificial ingredients and refined sugars and try adding a handful of blueberries in your yogurt instead. That will do the trick.

• Drink it up!

There’s nothing more refreshing than sitting down to a cup of fresh blueberry tea, or a delightful smoothie made from blueberry. You may even do it at home.  Take out your blender and go make that smoothie all by yourself.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Hellfried Sartori … admitted lying to authorities.

TWO dozen cancer patients, including a six-year-old Sydney girl, died after treatment ordered by a doctor who is a convicted fraud.

Hellfried Sartori is the Austrian at the centre of an inquest into the deaths of five people in Perth in 2005.

Yesterday in the Coroner’s Court he was confronted with sensational evidence dealing with 25 people, all but one of whom are known to have died after treatment with his ”cure” for cancer.

The 25 people were treated in Darwin, Perth, Sydney, South West Rocks and at his clinic in Thailand. The fate of one is not known. The court heard police are investigating some of the deaths but most were never checked because it was assumed they were terminally ill.

It is not suggested that Mr Sartori’s treatments directly caused the 24 deaths. Instead, the proliferation of deaths, from late 2004 to 2006, was raised by counsel assisting the coroner to counter Sartori’s claim that he could cure 98 per cent of all cancer patients, including those with highly advanced metastatic cancer.

Celia Kemp suggested to Mr Sartori that he could only see success and not failure, that his clinical skills were deficient, that he had lied and exaggerated about his treatment as part of luring sick people into paying him for dubious treatments, and that his success rate for curing cancer was zero.

Mr Sartori replied that 50 per cent of the cure for cancer was positive thinking by the patient. He conceded he had exaggerated about the efficacy of his treatments, insisted he could cure cancer and admitted lying to Australian authorities. ”If any treatment has proved benefits, it is this treatment,” he told the court. ”And I have not violated my Hippocratic oath.”

Five patients died in Perth when Mr Sartori, who at the time was in Thailand and had been barred from entering Australia, directed two registered nurses, via email and telephone, to treat seven cancer patients.

All were given intravenous infusions of caesium chloride, magnesium and potassium, various vitamins and other chemicals. Coffee enemas were administered and there was a dietary regime of juices.

Sandra McCarty of Victoria, Pia Bosso of NSW and Deborah Gruber of New York were among those who died. Two others died of cancer some time after the treatment.

The court was told that the deaths of Lesley Bramston, Lila Notley and Anne Martin, who were treated personally by Mr Sartori when he was in Darwin in late 2004 and early 2005, were under investigation. It also heard Mr Sartori treated Jasmine Nikhoul, 6, of NSW, who had leukaemia, in early 2005. She died in May 2005.

Mr Sartori in some cases insisted he had cured them of cancer. In Mrs Bramston’s case, he claimed she was ”basically more than on her last legs” and as in some cases turned out ”to be too sick to care”.

He attributed some deaths to ”contributory factors”, including other underlying illnesses. In one case he blamed a patient’s partner, saying ”she had the misfortune to be an apparently well-off lady who had a companion who was hoping to get to her funds” and who neglected her care.

In another fatal case he blamed the patient for ”eating pizza and getting drunk every night”. Another was said not to have followed the treatment program.

Mr Sartori, a convicted fraudster who has been jailed at least twice in the US, recently spent two years in jail in Thailand for fraud and practising without a licence.

Appearing under summons at the Perth inquest, he asked for the evidence about the 25 patients to be struck from the record, saying it was ”unfair and utterly shocking” to be presented with a two-page list of cases ”without being given any warning whatsoever … this can only be described as an ambush”.

The Deputy State Coroner Evelyn Vicker declined his request, saying he had plenty of notice to attend and the court had heard during the opening address that mention would be made of the cases.

In other evidence yesterday, Mr Sartori admitted lying when he applied, unsuccessfully, to register as a doctor in Australia. He also conceded that academic articles about caesium chloride treatment, which he published in 1984 and which had been peer-reviewed, did not include crucial material that about 10 of 50 patients he treated with caesium in 1981-982 had it administered intravenously. Of the 50, 25 died within a year.

His evidence has contained sweeping references to statistics available on the internet, the laws of physics, and his claims that 10,000 people were alive because of his caesium chloride remedies.

The coroner described the medical records kept by the nurses at the Perth house during the treatments as ”appalling”. She said Mr Sartori condoned ”unethical” behaviour by one of his acolytes, Paul Rana of Melbourne, a disgraced alternative therapist who demanded thousands of dollars from terminally ill patients and who was jailed in 2008 for not co-operating with consumer affairs investigators.

Mr Sartori is due to return to Austria this weekend. Mr Rana is expected to give evidence next year.

Sourced & p[ublished by Henry Sapiecha

Food Chemist Develops Protein-Based

Batter for Healthier Frying

January 1, 2006 — Deep-fried fish could get healthier with a new protein-based batter extracted from the muscle of discarded fish parts. When coated onto the fish it forms a barrier, locking in taste and moisture while blocking out fat.

GLOUCESTER, Mass.–Low-fat, fried food sounds like a contradiction, but those types of products may soon be popping up at your local grocer.

Fish sticks slathered in oil and deep-fried are tasty, but the after-effects can take a toll on your waistline. The love affair with food usually ends when it’s time to weigh in. Now, a new discovery may tip the scales in your favor when it comes to eating some of your favorite fried foods.

Stephen Kelleher, a food chemist at Proteus Industries in Gloucester, Mass., says, “People like fried food, but there’s a lot of bad things associated with fried food.” Understanding the bittersweet fondness for fried cuisine, Kelleher invented a way to cook low-fat, fried food.

The protein solution is extracted from fish muscle. When coated onto the fish it forms a barrier, locking in taste and moisture, but blocking out fat and carbohydrates. “These protein molecules after we treat them and extract them the way we do, they form these very, very, micro-thin films that — when they are sprayed onto the surface — become this invisible, impenetrable, film that forms on the surface,” Kelleher says.

The protein molecules go through a treatment process. Water and other ingredients are filtered then added to the batter. Kelleher says the finished product has 25-percent to 75-percent less fat. Plus the added protein cuts down the carbohydrates by 15 percent.

When put to the test, comparing traditional fried batter to the special protein coating, both food tasters agreed there was nothing fishy about the low-fat, fried meal.

The process is FDA approved and can be used to fry low-fat chicken, too. They are also testing the application on other foods, like potato chips.

Aboriginal Multi-Purpose Healing Lotion & bush remedy.

This age-old healing lotion is a hydrasol. Now, a hydrasol is usually the byproduct of distilling leaf material to obtain an essential oil. We all know of essential oils, peppermint, lavender, eucalyptus etc. The usual process of obtaining essential oils assumes the essential oil is the primary product, and the hydrasol, the water, and the nutrients from the leaves, are left behind after distilling, is considered a by-product.

But what if the hydrasol itself is the primary product, rather than the by-product of distilling leaf material? That is the case with this amazing Aboriginal Multi-Purpose Healing Lotion. In most eucalyptus oil distillation processes, eucalyptus globulis, grown in plantations is used. Not so with this product. Other selected eucalypt species are collected, and distilled to provide this amazing hydrasol. The eucalyptus oil is discarded, and the hydrasol is retained.

The Aboriginal Multi-Purpose Healing Lotion retains and enhances the properties of the original leaf. Eucalyptus leaves have antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, expectorant, and antiviral properties. The leaves contain tannins (which are believed to help reduce inflammation), flavonoids (such as quercetin, which has antioxidant properties), and volatile oils.

Herbalist Patrick O’Brien is proud to have been chosen by Jolti (a small Aboriginal family company who make the lotion) to bottle and market this age-old healing lotion. At the request of Jolti, a charitable funding component has been built into the Healing Lotion to be donated to the Bulega Childrens Foundation of Bangalore. As well, another funding component has been added to donate to the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc to further their wildlife education and information projects to schools….a total of 15% of the price of the Healing Lotion goes to charity!

Aboriginal Multi-Purpose Healing Lotion is used for skincare, rubbing the lotion on the hands, arms, face, or body refreshes and tones the skin, and helps provide skin clarity and color. The Lotion also helps keep biting insects at bay, relieves the pain of sunburn, soothes bites and scratches, and relieves itching. It also has pain relief properties for aching muscles or joints. We use it ourselves regularly, and find it wonderful. Patrick O’Brien, HH(Dip)MH Herbalist.

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For more details and postage prices go to http://www.home-herb-garden.com/ and click on the healing lotion icon in the lefthand menu. for more information!

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Whenever we get too busy or stressed, we all tend to make poor food choices that will actually increase stress and cause other problems. To get the most of your healthy eating and avoid stress, follow these simple tips. Always eat breakfast, even though you may think you aren’t hungry, you need to eat something. Skipping breakfast makes it harder to maintain the proper blood and sugar levels during the day, so you should always eat something. Keeping some protein rich snacks in your car, office, or pocket book will help you avoid blood sugar level dips, the accompanying mood swings, and the fatigue. Trail mix, granola bars, and energy bars all have the nutrients you need. If you like to munch when you’re stressed out, you can replace chips or other non healthy foods with carrot sticks, celery sticks, or even sunflower seeds.

Although a lot of people prefer to eat fast food for lunch, you can save a lot of money and actually eat healthier if you take a few minutes and pack a lunch at home. Even if you only do this a few times a week, you’ll see a much better improvement over eating out. As important as it is to get the bad food out of your house, it’s even more important to get the good food in! The best way to do this is to plan a menu of healthy meals at snacks at the beginning of the week, list the ingedients you need, then go shop for it. This way, you’ll know what you want when you need it and you won’t have to stress over what to eat. *

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

On April 1, 2011, all members of the European Union will have to comply with a directive that demands all herbs — produced, manufactured, or sold — in the EU must be labeled as either foods or medicines. Herbal supplements will go through the same rigorous approval process as a prescription drug. Many small European companies worry that they will be forced out of business because of the formidable cost of getting each herb — and each herb in a compound product — tested and approved. The fear, says the German publication Deutsche Welle, is that the new rules will put the manufacturing of herbal remedies under the control of large pharmaceutical corporations, which would narrow the range of medicinal herbs available. Popular products such as ginseng, passionflower, and valerian would only be available in pharmacies, and many traditional Chinese, ayurvedic, and other herbal mixes would not be legally available. *

Sourced & published in Australia by Henry Sapiecha