Thursday, January 01, 2009

8 Most Important Health Stories from 2008

Much as I'd love to believe everyone follows every bit of health advice we publish in Daily Health News, I know that's unrealistic and impractical. I realize that you will pick and choose, based on your own health priorities -- just as I do for my own family. However as we start a new year, certain stories -- and strategies -- stand out as particularly crucial, based on the newest and most important research. Though some of this advice seems obvious -- exercise and eat right, for instance -- it's clear from the state of health care affairs in this country that many people either don't know what's healthy or don't choose to make good choices. It all starts with awareness, so here's my take on the most important health advice to take into the New Year...

Lifestyle changes are inexpensive and effective. Not only are we deeply into an economic crisis, but a health crisis as well -- much of which is due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. Prevention is the most cost-effective solution to both escalating health care costs and rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

A better way: It's very simple -- eat healthfully, choose whole foods as opposed to high-fat, high-sugar processed products, exercise, get adequate sleep and keep stress at bay. Don't smoke and don't drink excessively.

Balance gut bacteria. The digestive system shapes the body's health in more ways than most people realize. It is considered the center for immune system function. When it gets thrown off balance -- for instance, from regular use of acid-suppressing medications, taking too many antibiotics and/or using antimicrobial products for personal hygiene and cleaning -- the gut gets thrown into chaos. The resultant lack of good bacteria allows unhealthy bad bacteria and other "critters" to take hold and wreak havoc on our entire immune system.

The solution: Trust your body to get healthy if you give it the right tools -- healthy food, perhaps probiotics -- and don't throw any wrenches into the works, especially in the form of unnecessary drugs. Fix indigestion by eating right... get rest when you're sick so your body can fight infection naturally... and don't get taken in by marketers who want you to believe a sterile environment is always better.

Medicine is a business, after all. Not only drug companies, but hospitals and doctors need to generate revenue. Even researchers and the academic medical centers they work for need funding, which they often obtain from those who stand to benefit from a particular kind of research finding.

Key: Weigh the profit motive behind all advice you receive -- for diagnostic tests, drugs and even, sad to say, articles published in medical journals. That caution is not meant to invalidate what you're told, but don't just assume "they" have your best interests in mind -- it's not always the top priority. Avoid new drugs, if possible, as the older ones are not only usually less expensive but also have a longer history of safety. When your doctor refers you for diagnostic testing, make sure there is a real potential benefit to finding out the results. When you hear about new research affirming a breakthrough drug or treatment, evaluate with healthy skepticism and the awareness that someone, somewhere probably stands to make money on it. If that's who funded the study... well, keep that in mind.

Be a liver lover. Incidence of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, believed to be a direct result of a diet high in sugar, processed, fast and fatty foods, is on the rise... it can lead to serious liver problems. As the gatekeeper to health, responsible for so many aspects of healthy functioning (including digestion, metabolism and filtering waste), the liver is finally getting the long overdue respect it deserves.

Advice: Following a healthy diet and exercising regularly are the best strategies for maintaining a healthy liver, along with a healthy everything else. Avoid excessive alcohol, fatty and processed foods and fried anything. Remember that even OTC drugs can have a negative impact on your liver. If you need to take any drugs on an ongoing basis, be sure to check with your doctor.

Sleep is not a luxury. In our age of too-much-to-do, going to bed early seems self indulgent -- yet research findings link sleep problems to obesity, heart disease, memory problems, diabetes, depression and even cancer. One study found a link between poor sleep (too much or too little) and early mortality -- if that's not a wake-up call, what is?

Strategy: Give yourself permission to put getting enough sleep near the top of your list of priorities. Aim for six to eight hours per night.

Vitamin D is vital. Vitamin D is the "do-it-all vitamin." Research links insufficient D to an ever-longer list of diseases, medical conditions and health complaints -- among the ones we covered in Daily Health News last year are kidney disease, back pain and a tendency to fall, and there's more, including colon cancer and Parkinson's disease. Our D-deficit is part dietary, part the result of an indoor lifestyle -- and, ironically, our diligence in applying sunscreen. By filtering sun rays, doing so can reduce the body's natural ability to manufacture vitamin D.

What to do: Spend time outdoors -- aim for 10 minutes a day, with no sunscreen. If you have any reason to think you might not be getting enough vitamin D, ask your doctor to test your levels and for advice on whether you ought to be taking a supplement.

Move more. This perennial health advice rings as true now as ever, if not more so. Lack of activity is quite literally killing Americans, as we continue to eat more and do less. Obesity, even among small children and the elderly, is growing and contributing to rising rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, orthopedic injuries... and on and on. Research shows that even a little bit of movement makes a difference
-- short bursts of intense energy add up and can be as effective as longer workouts... arguably, with less stress to the body. Also, losing as little as 10% of your body weight can have a measurable impact on your health.

Action plan: Make a conscious effort to build as much activity into your life as you can. Catch up with a friend by walking instead of going out for lunch. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Establish a regular schedule for workouts and stick to it.

West meets East. Daily Health News went global in 2008, with stories covering a variety of international health traditions from India to China. Each has fascinating insights into what contributes to getting sick, as well as how to attain optimal health and wellness. From the Chinese medicine focus on energy... to the Tibetan way of integrating environmental elements... to the Ayurvedic tradition of modifying lifestyle based on physiological types, each has wisdom to contribute to and complement the Western way of practicing medicine.

Best bet: Be open to incorporating assorted medical methodologies to help you maximize wellness -- there's wisdom in every approach. Find people you trust and respect, who are experts in their field. Keep everyone involved in your care informed. And don't ever forget, ultimately the person responsible for your health and well-being... is you.

January is a fresh beginning and the year ahead will undoubtedly bring more exciting health news, which I'll continue to track, evaluate and interpret. Though we don't know what dangers and concerns will be revealed, nor what breakthrough knowledge will lead to treatments and cures, we can be very, very sure that you can't go wrong -- and you'll be doing just about everything right -- by following these very basic rules for good health.

Source(s):

Daily Health News, 2008.

HowStuffWorks "Will there be farms in New York City's skyscrapers?"

HowStuffWorks "Will there be farms in New York City's skyscrapers?": "The key to vertical farming is space. The Vertical Farm Project, led by Dr. Despommier, claims that one indoor acre of farming is equal to 4 to 6 outdoor acres [Source: The Vertical Farm Project]. They cite a farm in Florida that was converted into an indoor hydroponic farm where strawberries grow in stacks. That farm now grows the equivalent of 30 acres of strawberries in a one-acre greenhouse.

By converting from 'horizontal farming' to vertical farming, humanity would never have to worry about running out of arable land. By operating indoors, crops could be grown all year, free of concerns about bad weather, drought or natural disasters. If the building is sealed and carefully monitored, there would be no need for pesticides to eliminate invasive insects or parasites, a particularly devastating problem in the developing world. All food would be organically grown without fertilizer and free of disease. Vertical farmers wouldn't have to worry about conflicts over land, water and other natural resources or contend with genetically modified foods, unwanted strains of plants or wandering animals."

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

1992 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity | Union of Concerned Scientists

1992 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity | Union of Concerned Scientists:

1992 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity

Scientist Statement
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (1992)

Some 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including the majority of Nobel laureates in the sciences, issued this appeal in November 1992. The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity was written and spearheaded by the late Henry Kendall, former chair of UCS's board of directors.

INTRODUCTION

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The environment is suffering critical stress:

The Atmosphere
Stratospheric ozone depletion threatens us with enhanced ultraviolet radiation at the earth's surface, which can be damaging or lethal to many life forms. Air pollution near ground level, and acid precipitation, are already causing widespread injury to humans, forests, and crops.

Water Resources
Heedless exploitation of depletable ground water supplies endangers food production and other essential human systems. Heavy demands on the world's surface waters have resulted in serious shortages in some 80 countries, containing 40 percent of the world's population. Pollution of rivers, lakes, and ground water further limits the supply.

Oceans
Destructive pressure on the oceans is severe, particularly in the coastal regions which produce most of the world's food fish. The total marine catch is now at or above the estimated maximum sustainable yield. Some fisheries have already shown signs of collapse. Rivers carrying heavy burdens of eroded soil into the seas also carry industrial, municipal, agricultural, and livestock waste -- some of it toxic.

Soil
Loss of soil productivity, which is causing extensive land abandonment, is a widespread by-product of current practices in agriculture and animal husbandry. Since 1945, 11 percent of the earth's vegetated surface has been degraded -- an area larger than India and China combined -- and per capita food production in many parts of the world is decreasing.

Forests
Tropical rain forests, as well as tropical and temperate dry forests, are being destroyed rapidly. At present rates, some critical forest types will be gone in a few years, and most of the tropical rain forest will be gone before the end of the next century. With them will go large numbers of plant and animal species.

Living Species
The irreversible loss of species, which by 2100 may reach one-third of all species now living, is especially serious. We are losing the potential they hold for providing medicinal and other benefits, and the contribution that genetic diversity of life forms gives to the robustness of the world's biological systems and to the astonishing beauty of the earth itself. Much of this damage is irreversible on a scale of centuries, or permanent. Other processes appear to pose additional threats. Increasing levels of gases in the atmosphere from human activities, including carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel burning and from deforestation, may alter climate on a global scale. Predictions of global warming are still uncertain -- with projected effects ranging from tolerable to very severe -- but the potential risks
are very great.

Our massive tampering with the world's interdependent web of life -- coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change -- could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.

Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threats.

POPULATION

The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth's limits. Current economic practices which damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.

Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth. A World Bank estimate indicates that world population will not stabilize at less than 12.4 billion, while the United Nations concludes that the eventual total could reach 14 billion, a near tripling of today's 5.4 billion. But, even at this moment, one person in five lives in absolute poverty without enough to eat, and one in ten suffers serious malnutrition.

No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.

WARNING

We the undersigned, senior members of the world's scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.

WHAT WE MUST DO

Five inextricably linked areas must be addressed simultaneously:

We must bring environmentally damaging activities under control to restore and protect the integrity of the earth's systems we depend on.

We must, for example, move away from fossil fuels to more benign, inexhaustible energy sources to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our air and water. Priority must be given to the development of energy sources matched to Third World needs -- small-scale and relatively easy to implement.

We must halt deforestation, injury to and loss of agricultural land, and the loss of terrestrial and marine plant and animal species.

We must manage resources crucial to human welfare more effectively.

We must give high priority to efficient use of energy, water, and other materials, including expansion of conservation and recycling.

We must stabilize population.

This will be possible only if all nations recognize that it requires improved social and economic conditions, and the adoption of effective, voluntary family planning.

We must reduce and eventually eliminate poverty.

We must ensure sexual equality, and guarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions.

DEVELOPED NATIONS MUST ACT NOW

The developed nations are the largest polluters in the world today. They must greatly reduce their overconsumption, if we are to reduce pressures on resources and the global environment. The developed nations have the obligation to provide aid and support to developing nations, because only the developed nations have the financial resources and the technical skills for these tasks.

Acting on this recognition is not altruism, but enlightened self-interest: whether industrialized or not, we all have but one lifeboat. No nation can escape from injury when global biological systems are damaged. No nation can escape from conflicts over increasingly scarce resources. In addition, environmental and economic instabilities will cause mass migrations with incalculable consequences for developed and undeveloped nations alike.

Developing nations must realize that environmental damage is one of the gravest threats they face, and that attempts to blunt it will be overwhelmed if their populations go unchecked. The greatest peril is to become trapped in spirals of environmental decline, poverty, and unrest, leading to social, economic, and environmental collapse.

Success in this global endeavor will require a great reduction in violence and war. Resources now devoted to the preparation and conduct of war -- amounting to over $1 trillion annually -- will be badly needed in the new tasks and should be diverted to the new challenges.

A new ethic is required -- a new attitude towards discharging our responsibility for caring for ourselves and for the earth. We must recognize the earth's limited capacity to provide for us. We must recognize its fragility. We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great movement, convincing reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.

The scientists issuing this warning hope that our message will reach and affect people everywhere. We need the help of many.

We require the help of the world community of scientists -- natural, social, economic, and political.
We require the help of the world's business and industrial leaders.
We require the help of the world's religious leaders.
We require the help of the world's peoples.

We call on all to join us in this task.

David Suzuki Foundation: Our Mission

David Suzuki Foundation: Our Mission: "Our Mission

The David Suzuki Foundation works through science and education to protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for the future.

With a goal of achieving sustainability within a generation, the Foundation collaborates with scientists, business and industry, academia, government and non-governmental organizations. We seek the best research to provide innovative solutions that will help build a clean, competitive economy that does not threaten the natural services that support all life.

An independent charity, the Foundation does not accept government grants and is supported with the help of some 40,000 individual supporters across Canada and around the world."

Bruce Mau Design - Incomplete Manifesto

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project.

Allow events to change you.You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
Forget about good.Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.
Process is more important than outcome.When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
Go deep.The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
Capture accidents.The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
Study.A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
Drift.Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
Begin anywhere.John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
Everyone is a leader.Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
Harvest ideas.Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
Keep moving.The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
Slow down.Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
Don’t be cool.Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
Ask stupid questions.Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.
Collaborate.The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
____________________.Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.
Stay up late.Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.
Work the metaphor.Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.
Be careful to take risks.Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.
Repeat yourself.If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.
Make your own tools.Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.
Stand on someone’s shoulders.You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.
Avoid software.The problem with software is that everyone has it.
Don’t clean your desk.You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.
Don’t enter awards competitions.Just don’t. It’s not good for you.
Read only left-hand pages.Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."
Make new words.Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.
Think with your mind.Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.
Organization = Liberty.Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'
Don’t borrow money.Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.
Listen carefully.Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.
Take field trips.The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.
Make mistakes faster.This isn’t my idea -- I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.
Imitate.Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.
Scat.When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.
Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
Explore the other edge.Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.
Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.
Avoid fields.Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.
Laugh.People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.
Remember.Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.
Power to the people.Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free.

We Can Take It

We Can Take It: "The original CCC program mobilized our military and put millions of young single males and war veterans as government issue or G.I.'s to work on conservation projects and other public works projects on US property throughout the United States. Government USCCC workers reforested timberlands (planted 4 billion trees), fought forest fires, controlled soil erosion, built public roads, developed and maintained public parks, and provided disaster relief.

Environmental and infrastructural issues long have been ignored on a social and governmental level. Reactivation would solve those issues and energize young adults and veterans who would stimulate our economy and our rescue our neglected environment. The CCC program should also be considered as a national service and an alternative to military service but have access to the GI Bill. CCC enrollees would then enable our nation with a more confident, competent and reliable workforce ready for employment with real world work experience.

On March 21,1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote these prophetic words in a message to Congress, 'More important, however, than the material gains from their labors will be the moral and spiritual value of such work."

Audio Archives and More | electromagnetichealth.org

Audio Archives and More | electromagnetichealth.org:

What is Happening to Patients?

Click to listen 45:08

Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD
Director, Klinghardt Academy of Neurobiology
Expert in the health consequences of electromagnetic fields and leading
educator of physicians.

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