http://www.wddty.com

The story this month exposes the shocking revelation
that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a ubiquitous sweetener used in
everything from cola to 'healthy' snacks, is heavily laced with mercury
that has inadvertently been added during its manufacturing process.

So widespread is HFCS, and so contaminated by mercury in the manufacturing
process, that most of us-even those consuming so-called
'natural' or 'organic' processed foods and snacks-could be ingesting
some 28.5 mcg of mercury every day. Indeed, the average American is
eating more than 42 lb (19 kg) of it every year.

What's more, new evidence suggests that the use of HFCS may be behind the rise in
obesity in Western countries such as the US and UK.

Naturally, the corn industry, which was more or less saved from extinction by the discovery
in the 1970s of an enzyme that could convert the glucose in corn syrup to fructose, counters
that HFCS is 'natural'-derived entirely from natural substances with no artificial additives
or ingredients.

But that begs the question of what exactly we mean by 'natural'. Of the two types of highfructose
corn syrup being widely used, HFCS-55 is 55-per-cent fructose and HFCS-42 is 42-
per-cent fructose. The remainder percentages of each sweetener is largely made up of glucose
plus approximately 6 per cent of higher saccharides.

The manufacture of HFCS is an involved process. The first step is to extract the corn starch
from corn, which is then treated with the enzyme alpha-amylase, a natural enzyme present
in human saliva and pancreatic fluids but, in this instance, produced commercially from
bacteria. The resulting polysaccharides produced from the chemical interaction of corn
starch and this enzyme are treated with yet another enzyme called 'glucomylase'-harvested
through a process that uses fungi from the Aspergillus family.

The third step in this process involves passing the mixture over a third enzyme called
glucose isomerase. This enzyme is entirely synthetic, and this is what is responsible for doing
most of the work-that is, converting part of the corn glucose into fructose so that the
resultant HFCS is 42 per cent fructose, 6 per cent other saccharides and 52 per cent glucose.
To produce HFCS-55, the HFCS-42 is put through liquid chromatography, which helps
manufacturers to separate out only the fructose, resulting in a liquid that is 90-per-cent
fructose. Then the HFCS-42 and HFCS-90 are blended together and the result is HFCS-55,
with a higher concentration of sweetness and the sweetener of choice for most soft drinks.
Some 90 per cent of the soft drinks produced in the US are made with HFCS-55.

In a number of plants (all of the HFCS plants in the UK and one-third of those in the US),
the manufacturing process exposes this 'entirely natural' product to caustic soda (sodium
hydroxide), which requires the use of mercury in the process.

This means that this all-singing, all-dancing, 'natural' substance is produced through a
three-stage enzyme-conversion process, including one totally synthetic enzyme and, in the
manufacturing process at some plants, exposed to a good deal of mercury, which mysteriously
'disappears'.

All this mixing, dividing and refining may be why there is increasing evidence that this
sugar derivative could be causing massive weight gain. As with most food that is manipulated
in any major way, the body simply doesn't recognize it or, indeed, know what to do with it.
I don't know about your dictionary but, to my mind, HFCS is to natural sugar what a saline
implant is to female breasts-a weird approximation that can never be called an equivalent
to the real thing.

http://www.newscientist.com

AID workers in Zimbabwe need all the help that they can get, so a website that enables them to share information could be a big boost. Although Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is finally showing signs of abating, the site could help relief groups as they attempt to rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure.

Launched this month, WikiMapAid will use collaborative wiki software to enable humanitarian workers and others to add health, welfare and education information to a version of Google Maps that can be viewed by anyone. The hope is that by circumventing official information channels, a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground can develop.

As went to press, a total of 89,649 cases of cholera and 4041 deaths had been reported in Zimbabwe since the outbreak began in August. But new cholera cases have fallen from around 8000 a week at the start of the year to 2151 in the first week of March. A central control centre was also recently set up in Harare with help from the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health.

Nevertheless, collecting data is still proving difficult, says Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization. "A crucial element for the control of cholera in Zimbabwe is the need to improve access to information, and the monitoring of new cases and suspected cases in the country," he says. "Any system that improves data collecting and sharing would be beneficial."

That's where WikiMapAid could help. Users can create markers to show the location of places such as schools, hospitals or refugee centres, and they can attach links to video or photos of that place, or post a report of the current situation in the area. Similar services, such as the website HealthMap, have recently been developed to map disease outbreaks around the world.

At the moment, WikiMapAid is focusing on Zimbabwe, and as well as schools and suchlike, the tool lets you create other categories of marker to show not only the location of cholera outbreaks but also places like food and water distribution centres, says Rupert Douglas-Bate of Global Map Aid, the organisation leading the project. Users can also create new marker categories to show, say, public buildings, or to mark disease outbreaks in other countries.

The website is based on a Brazilian project called Wikicrimes, launched last year, in which members of the public share information about crime in their local area. It is designed to provide an alternative source of crime figures to official statistics, which some suspect of government manipulation, according to Vasco Furtado at the University of Fortaleza in Brazil, who developed the software for Wikicrimes and WikiMapAid. "Wikicrimes is a way of showing citizens that a particular area is a problem and to push the government to do something about it," he says.

Douglas-Bate hopes a similar approach in Zimbabwe could help ensure that aid is distributed correctly. "If we've all got the same situation report then we're all singing from the same hymn sheet," he says. Also, if people feel they will attract attention from the authorities by posting information, they could perhaps get friends on the outside to post information for them, he says.

As with all wikis, the integrity of the data will depend on the people supplying it. Although moderators will edit and keep track of postings, Douglas-Bate admits unreliable reporting could be a problem. To lessen this risk, Furtado is developing an algorithm that will rate the reputation of users according to whether the information they post is corroborated, or contradicted. "But even if we're just 80 per cent perfect, we will still have made a huge step forward in terms of being able to galvanise public opinion, raise funds, prioritise need and speed the aid on those who need it most," Douglas-Bate says.

Standard drug treatment after a heart attack may actually be hastening the patient's death, a new study has discovered.

Heart patients are routinely given a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drug with Plavix (clopidogrel), an antiplatelet drug, but the combination could be increasing the risk of death by nearly 30 per cent if it's prescribed after a heart attack, say researchers from the Denver VA Medical Center.

PPIs are given to reduce acid production and for stomach problems and, on their own, are not known to cause death. 

But the reaction with clopidogrel appears to be lethal, and the researchers suggest that they should be given only to those patients with a history of stomach bleeding.

(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2009; 301: 937-944).

http://www.1-800homeopathy.com

This universal 'debuzzer' for babies, kids and adults, derives from a mineral compound critical to nerve and brain cells (though also in muscles, blood and intercellular fluids). Its many applications for both pain and emotional symptoms has made it one of our best selling single remedies. Buzzing ears, study headaches, agitated nerves and nerve weary fatigue can regroup and relax once this cell salt brings nerve cells back into balance. Dr. George Carey summed up the role of potassium phosphate: "this salt unites with protein and by the addition of oxygen creates nerve fluid, or the gray matter of the brain." (Scheussler's deficiency symptoms noted below #4.)

When loss of nerve power or agitation result from injury, illness, stress, mental strain or sadness, potassium phosphate levels are challenged, thus Kali phos helps nerves recover, relax and regain strength. Kali phos' pain relief begins with nervous headaches caused by study, stress, grief or nerve injury. Backache, sciatic pain and other neuralgic pains respond well to Kali phos, especially if they result in weakness and cold heavy-feeling limbs. Stress or pain related nausea with empty feeling and bitter belching settle down quickly with Kali phos. It can even quiet buzzing or ringing in the ears.

On the emotional plane, Kali phos has restorative, calming powers over temper tantrums, pangs of grief, anxiety or dread, hypersensitive nerves, and night terrors. Whenever work, worry, study, stress or illness leave you weary but restless, sad, nervous, gloomy, dreading what might be next, and unable to get up and do something about it Kali phos is a worry-free option worth trying.

It may be the person's nature or it may be a temporary state, but the patient who benefits most from Kali phos may be shy, nervous, hypersensitive, weak, easily startled, easily wearied and sometimes quite pessimistic. Other symptoms include nightmares, sleeplessness and cravings for sweets and ice water.

We too often overlook the chemical/nutritional factors affecting our mental emotional states and the options available for getting us back in balance. Next time you are down, let Kali phos show you just how chemical sadness and anxiety can be.

MARRYING within the family not only ups the risk that your children will have a genetic disorder, but also makes them more susceptible to some infections.

William Amos at the University of Cambridge and colleagues analysed genetic data from communities in Gambia and India, where marriage within the extended family is common. In Gambian families where children had TB or hepatitis B, parents were significantly more likely to be related than in families with healthy children (Biology Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0133). Amos says this is probably because the children have less diversity in the genes giving rise to the immune system.

Trees and our toilet paper

Earth friendly toilet paper tips

Do we *really* need that super soft, fragranced white toilet paper with the floral print? Our butts really don't care :).

The mind boggles at how many trees are cut down each year just so we can wipe our bums.

While toilet paper from recycled materials is quite common here in Australia and in many other countries, I was rather shocked to learn that in the USA, tissue made from 100 percent recycled fibers is still under 2 percent of the domestic use market among conventional and premium brands.

I'd like to warmly encourage folks in the USA (and to anyone using the virgin fiber sourced paper) to please ignore the marketing that says you *need* the super-fluffy blinding white paper and to at least have a try of the recycled stuff.

It might not be quite as soft, but millions of people I'm sure would agree when I say that it's not exactly sandpaper either. There's certainly no pain involved, I assure you :).

Toilet paper made from recycled material does the job, does it comfortably, does it well and really, isn't this an area of our lives where we really don't need over-pampering - particularly when otherwise what we'd be wiping our butts with is made from live trees?

One of the most commonly used type of tree can produce around 1,000 rolls of toilet paper. Given that Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per person per year, let's do some rough number crunching:

23.6 x 303,824,640 (USA population at July 2008)
= 7,170,261,504 rolls of toilet paper a year

98% of that figure (the market share of toilet paper from virgin fiber)
=  7,026856,273 rolls a year

now divide that by 1,000 (what each tree can produce in rolls)
= 7,026,856 trees per year

Even if you should take out the "hybrid" brands that contain some percentage of recycled content, this would still amount to millions of trees.

Whether it's plantation timber or not, this represents millions of trees that could be cleaning up carbon dioxide, not sh..! Then there's all the other very important functions that trees perform in our ecosystem. At the very least these trees could be put to far better use in more semi-permanent applications such as furniture or building materials.

Recycled content toilet paper traps
Buying toilet paper made from recycled materials is great but even this can present some challenges.

Recycled paper needs to be deinked before it is pulped and processed. This deinking process may involve chlorine to bleach the paper. Chlorine based chemicals can react with paper fibers to create toxic compounds such as dioxin and organochlorines.

Dioxins cause cancer, learning disorders, decreased immune response, diabetes and all sorts of other nasty problems in the environment. By the way, the same chlorine issue is prevalent when using virgin-fiber based toilet tissue too.

When shopping for earth friendly toilet paper look for statements such as "unbleached", "processed chlorine-free" or "totally chlorine free"

Toilet paper from recycled materials costs around the same. If you're really in savings mode, you can also save on paper (and save yourself some cash) by opting for 1 ply paper. While a roll of 1 ply can be more expensive, there's more usable paper and studies have shown that people tend not to use more of it. 1 ply also breaks down faster, which is particularly a good thing in septic systems. Less paper, less pumping out, less cost.

Choosing recycled chlorine-free paper is something we can all do. If your local supermarket doesn't stock it, demand that they do!