Growing numbers of young people have been hospitalised with caffeine poisoning after consuming energy drinks, suffering symptoms such as hallucinations and seizures, a new study has found.

Researchers have called for the caffeine-laced drinks to be regulated by health authorities with additional labelling and warnings about the potential danger of overdosing.

Energy drinks such as Red Bull, V and Mother are popular with young people and often contain ”energising” extracts such as guarana or ginseng alongside caffeine and sugar.

Researchers Naren Gunja and Jared Brown analysed data from the  Poisons Information Centre, which fields 110,000 poison-related calls a year. They looked at 297 calls related to energy drinks over a six-year period and found the number of people seeking help for caffeine poisoning leapt from 12 in 2004 to 65 in 2010.

Nearly half of the victims – 46 per cent – had mixed their energy drinks with other substances, such as alcohol, drugs or caffeine tablets, while 43 per cent had symptoms that were serious enough to need treatment at a hospital emergency department.

Victims were often young, with a median age of 17, and more than half were men.

Most people experienced stomach trouble or anxiety but a minority, about 7 per cent, suffered severe poisoning symptoms such as hallucinations, seizures or heart problems.

”The phenomenon of mixing energy drinks with alcohol, stimulants and other co-ingestants is clearly occurring and is a serious concern,” the authors wrote.

The report, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia, said a typical can of energy drink could contain up to 300mg of caffeine.

”Consumers are likely to be unaware of the variation in chemical composition and caffeine dosage in energy drinks, and with little or no warnings on products the potential for overdose remains ever-present,” the report says.

Another concern was the 68 young children, including babies as young as seven months, who accidentally consumed the energy drinks over the period studied and suffered symptoms such as hyperactivity.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Debbie Frederick hopes that her father’s death in last September in one of the most lethal outbreaks of food-borne illness in U.S. history will force the federal government to increase the safety of the country’s food supply.

It took more than ten years, a series of deadly outbreaks tied to foods like peanuts, spinach and ground beef, as well as a coalition of odd bedfellows — victims, public health advocates and food industry reps — to push through the first major restructure of food safety laws since the 1930s.

Advocates and other experts say the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed by U.S. President Barack Obama last January still has shortcomings and ware concerned that it will be watered down through a lack of finances.

The United States by all account has some of the safest food in the world. Still, approximateley one in six people get sick from eating tainted food products each year, according to the  Disease Control and Prevention groups.

“The whole system was built to react to people getting sick” or to discoveries of contaminated food, said Erik Olson, the Pew Health Group’s director of food programs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates allmost all of the U.S. food supply, including melons and other produce, requires major structural changes to become primarily focused on prevention, as FSMA envisions. While lawmakers recently have given FDA more money for food programs, it still has a lot of catching up to do, Olson said.

Eighty-seven-year-old William Beach, Frederick’s father, lived in Oklahoma and was one of the 28 people killed by listeria infection after eating cantaloupe contaminated in what regulators called an “unsanitary” Jensen Farms packing plant in Colorado.

“My father was terrified … nobody should have to go like that,” said Frederick, a Phoenix aesthetician and newly minted activist who is the driving force behind her family’s lawsuit against Jensen Farms. “The system broke down. It shouldn’t have happened. This is very much a preventable thing.”

Herb Stevens, of suburban Denver, also became ill after eating tainted cantaloupe, but had survived. The World War Two veteran, 84, lived at home with his wife before falling ill and now requires full-time care.

“We’d like to see better food safety laws and more inspectors,” Jeni Exley, Stevens’ daughter, said in an interview. Her family is suing for current and future medical expenses.

THE TIGER HAS NO TEETH?

FSMA aims to be a step in the right direction.

The law requires FDA to set standards for produce safety and mandates more frequent inspections of domestic and foreign food processing facilities. It also gives FDA stronger enforcement tools, such as mandatory recall authority and the ability to cancrl the registration of a processing plant.

While inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture must be present at meat and poultry plants they regulate during operating hours, FDA had no frequency mandate for inspections prior to FSMA. As a result, lapses of as long as 10 years were not uncommon.

All high-risk domestic facilities, or those that handle foods with a high potential to cause harm, must be inspected within five years of enactment and no less than every three years thereafter, according to the FDA. In addition, the law rapidly steps up the number of required inspections for foreign facilities.

Jeff Almer and Randy Napier, who lost their mothers to the salmonella outbreak blamed for killing nine people and sickening 700 others who ate contaminated products from Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) in 2008 and 2009, fought to get FSMA passed and now are pushing more FDA funding.

“The needs are substantially greater than what is covered by current funding,” said Steven Grossman, deputy executive director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA, which said FDA’s food funding rose $52 million to $836 million in fiscal 2011.

The U.S. House of Representatives wants to cut that funding to $750 million in fiscal 2012, while the Senate is proposing increasing funding to $867 million. It is still not known where the final number will come out.

The issue is personal for Almer and Napier, who frequently work with reporters and button-hole lawmakers.

PCA, now bankrupt, is accused of knowingly shipping contaminated products in violation of federal law. The men want to see company President Stewart Parnell criminally charged & convicted.

Handing down an indictment of Parnell would “send a loud and clear message to producers of food to literally clean up their acts,” Almer said.

“We believe there is absolutely no basis for criminal prosecution,” said Parnell’s attorney Bill Gust, a partner at – Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore.

Napier said he has made at least six trips to Washington, D.C., since his mother’s death. Almer testified before Congress in 2009 and said he met with federal law enforcement representatives regarding the PCA criminal case.

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It’s not as easy as you think. It’s important to know how and when to eat.

What is the correct way of eating fruits?

IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS! * FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.
If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let’s say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil….

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining — every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc — actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!

Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will NOT happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.

There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice – drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don’t even drink juice that has been heated up. Don’t eat cooked fruits because you don’t get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.

But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!

KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.

APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

ORANGE : Sweetest medicine. Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene — the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content.. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.

Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer! Can u believe this?? For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this ‘sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

A serious note about heart attacks HEART ATTACK PROCEDURE’: (THIS IS NOT A JOKE!) Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. Sixty percent of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

We are what we eat. Some of us were fortunate enough to have been brought up in an age when mothers were homemakers and prepared meals of real food that tasted like real food.

Today, we are (most of us) being slowly poisoned by the food industry. Flavour enhancers, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and a host of toxic chemicals are now packaged into just about everything we eat.

Simply look at the ingredients list on any package of processed food – disodium EDTA, BHA, propylene glycol, dimenthyl sulfate – to name but a few. Years ago people never needed to add such dangerous toxins to their pies, soups, and stews, and they tasted a whole lot better than anything today.

Even our water supplies are deliberately contaminated with harmful fluoride – Fluoride is a known rat and cockroach poison. Another dangerous toxin – aspartame – is used extensively as an artificial sweetener. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is added to just about everything in packaged food – and especially in fast-food restaurants.

Why is this happening? MONEY, pure and simple, and the all-powerful pharmaceutical industry (heavily linked with the food industry) makes more money when people are unhealthy – the greatest profit when people are ill comes from the treatment, NOT the prevention or cure.

Sourced from Natural Health by Henry Sapiecha

YOU DRINK TEA AND OTHER BEVERAGES

After all, tea comes packed with healthy antioxidants — and the researchers say there’s clear evidence that three or four cups a day will lower your heart risk. Other studies have linked tea to better bones, lower cancer risk, and even longer lives.

Drinking cancer

‘Probable carcinogen’ found in water supply

It’s cancer in a cup: U.S. drinking water is contaminated with a toxic chemical that your own government calls a “probable carcinogen.”

So what’s that same government doing about it? Same thing it always does: Nothing!

Drink up, everyone.

The chemical is called hexavalent chromium, and if the name sounds a little familiar then you’ve probably seen the film “Erin Brokovich.” It’s the toxic compound that set off her battle with Pacific Gas & Electric after it was found in the groundwater of Hinkley, California.

Now, we all may as well be living in Hinkley — because tests by the Environmental Working Group on water in 35 cities across the country found the chemical in 31 of them.

Twenty-five of those cities had hexavalent chromium levels in excess of limits being proposed by California. And if you’re in Norman, Oklahoma, congratulations — you’re drinking 200 times that proposed limit.

We have to go by California’s proposed limit because the EPA doesn’t have one — proposed or otherwise.

And that’s where this gets really bizarre… because while the EPA doesn’t set limits for hexavalent chromium, it does care about total chromium levels.

In other words, it lumps this toxic compound into the same category as the essential mineral trivalent chromium.

One is needed by the body to control blood glucose levels, the other might give you cancer, wreck your kidneys and liver, and maybe even kill you — but it’s all the same to Uncle Sam.

Why sweat the details?

But let’s look on the bright side here: Hexavalent chromium probably isn’t the worst thing in your water right now.

Heck, it’s positively healthy next to the rocket fuel, cocaine, aspartame, hormone drugs, and more regularly found in U.S. drinking water — and I’m not talking about isolated incidents here.

From coast to coast, our water is toast — and if you want to know more about WHY these chemicals are turning up, read the September, 2009 issue of The Douglass Report.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Red wine battles cavities

Any reason to drink is a good one as far as I’m concerned, so here’s one more for the list: Red wine is good for your teeth.

No, I’m not drunk and I haven’t gone crazy – I know wine can darken your pearly whites if you’re not careful.

But the polyphenols in a good red can also stop the process that leads to cavities and tooth decay.

As you learned in kindergarten, sugar kicks this party off. But the sugar alone doesn’t do all the damage – it gets help from Streptococcus mutans, bacteria that basically eat the sugar and poop out glucans.

The glucans form a film on your teeth that then allow the bacteria to cling and cause decay and rot – and next thing you know, you’re screaming 7 kicking in a dentist’s chair.

But researchers have found that the polyphenols in fermented grape stems, skins, and seeds actually render S. mutans impotent, at least when it comes to all that glucan- making.

The researchers also found a similar effect with cranberries. And if you can eat or cook with plain cranberries, more power to you. But since most people have never seen a cranberry that wasn’t drowned in sugar and then sauced or juiced, let’s stick to the wine.

Researchers say the two best wines for bacteria-blocking polyphenols are Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. But they don’t recommend actually drinking those wines – oh no. That would be too easy.

These killjoys point out that wine can stain teeth, so instead they want to isolate the polyphenols and add them to toothpaste and mouthwash.

And that’s where this turns into hogwash – because you just know that rinse will be loaded with fluoride, too.

Since the benefits of wine go far beyond cavity prevention, don’t be afraid to drink up. And if you’re worried about stains, be sure to rinse with 3 percent hydrogen peroxide at the end of your evening.

Just remember to swallow your wine and spit your peroxide, and you’ll do just fine.

Wining and dining,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling came up with this odd-sounding natural remedy, and it was soundly retested by a British research group. In just 3 short weeks, the folks who used oranges were smoking an average of 79% less — and many had kicked the habit completely!

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha