The Plain Truth's: Your Health Today ONLINE

Women 'have potentially endless supply of eggs'

(TELEGRAPH) — Women could have the opportunity to give birth with their own eggs later in life thanks to the discovery that they possess a potentially “unlimited” supply of them, scientists have discovered.

Their ovaries contain stem cells which can “spontaneously” generate into immature eggs in the laboratory, according to the American team.

The prevailing wisdom has been that women have a finite number of eggs, that gradually diminish in number and quality until the menopause.

But British experts said the findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, “re-write the rule book” on this point and amounted to “a potentially landmark piece of research”.

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Fasting stops dementia, heart disease?

One day in the not-so-distant future, you may find yourself receiving some unusual health advice from your GP: fast two days a week to prevent your brain shrinking with age.

You might be given the same advice to lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes — and even tackle cancer.

Fasting was a common medical treatment in the past, but now new research suggests there may be good reason for it to make a comeback. This is because it seems to trigger all sorts of healthy hormonal and metabolic changes.

Researchers have long known that cutting back animals’ calories over an extended period can make them live up to 50 per cent longer — it’s been harder to prove benefits in humans because few people can stick to this restrictive regimen.

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Mild dehydration can have serious effects on health

Water levels determine how good we feel

Test results show no difference between taking a 40 minute walk or sitting at a desk. Lawrence E. Armstrong, professor of physiology at University of Connecticut, lead study researcher and hydration expert with over 20 years experience, stressed on the importance of staying hydrated throughout the day, regardless of the level of physical activity one is engaged in.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035062_dehydration_health_effects_moods.html#ixzz1nm3Xvr4y

The great cereal scandal: One of Britain’s leading consumer experts reveals the shocking truth about sugary breakfast cereals

The food industry’s biggest con trick is one you’re probably falling for every day of the week. Even worse, the victims are your children.

Visit any supermarket and wander down the aisle of breakfast cereals. The message from the packets couldn’t be more encouraging.

This one is ‘the sunshine breakfast’. That one is made from ‘wholesome corn, oats, rice and wheat’. Pretty much all are ‘fortified with vitamins and minerals’. The contents of the attractive colourful boxes can form ‘part of a balanced diet’.

Health hazard? According to Which? many breakfast products are laden with so much sugar they ought to be sold alongside chocolate biscuits

For decades, we have been sold the story that a bowl of cereal is one of the healthiest things a caring mother could feed her children every morning.

But many cereals hide a horrible secret: the large amounts of sugar the manufacturers have pumped into them.

Common Paint-Stripping Chemical Linked to at Least 13 Deaths

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post

Common paint-stripping products containing a little-known chemical known as methylene chloride could not only be posing serious risks to the health of home improvement workers, but home owners and the general public as a whole.

Now linked to at least 13 deaths, the true negative effects of these methylene chloride-containing products are only now fully coming to light thanks to an investigation by researchers at Michigan State University.

Launched in 2011, the scientists conducting the research found that at least 13 deaths have occurred from the usage of paint-stripping products containing methylene chloride since the year 2000. Widely used as a degreaser and paint stripper in over-the-counter products that any consumer can take home, methylene chloride is a highly toxic chemical. Colorless and highly volatile, the chemical inhabits many home improvement products sold at popular “DIY” store chains.

Hypoglycemia Affects Productivity at Work

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A survey of type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany indicates that more than one in every five have arrived late at work or not shown up at all because of a hypoglycemic episode the night before.

The survey, sponsored by Denmark-based drug maker Novo Nordisk, asked 1,404 people aged 18 and older if hypoglycemic incidents affect their productivity at work. About 22.7 percent said that episodes the night before had forced them to arrive late at work or miss an entire day. An almost equal percentage-18.3 percent--said that at-work hypoglycemic episodes have forced them to leave work early.

In a hypoglycemic episode, blood sugar plummets to dangerously low levels, bringing on trembling, sweating, confusion, and rapid pulse. If left untreated, the patient can slip into a coma. Treatment calls for a rapid infusion of glucose to bring blood sugar levels back up. Such incidents can be exhausting, causing patients to require observation and rest that can cut into their normal work day. Read more...

Diet Soda Tied to Heart Attack Risk

Diet soda may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke.

The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet soda every day were 44 percent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don't prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame.

There may be other things about diet-soda lovers that explain the connection, researchers say.

"What we saw was an association," said lead researcher Hannah Gardener, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "These people may tend to have more unhealthy habits."

Read more: Study: Diet Soda Tied to Heart Attack Risk
Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.

The secret to long life? Starve yourself on alternate days to boost brain power and shed weight

Starving yourself can prolong your life

Starving yourself on alternate days can make you live longer, according to scientists.

A group of Americans have said that fasting on and off can boost brain power and help to lose weight at the same time.

The National Institutes for Aging said their research was based on giving animals the bare minimum of calories required to keep them alive and results showed they lived up to twice as long.

The diet has since been tested on humans and appears to protect the heart, circulatory system and brain against age-related diseases like Alzheimer's.

'Dietery energy restriction extends lifespan and protects the brain and cardiovascular system against age-related disease,' said Mark Mattson, head of the laboratory of neurosciences at the NIA and professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

'We have found that dietary energy restriction, particularly when administered in intermittent bouts of major caloric restriction, such as alternative day fasting, activates cellular stress response pathways in neurones,' he said to the Sunday Times.

Having a curry could help ward off dementia

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Tests on fruit flies found that those given curcumin, the key chemical in turmeric, lived 75 per cent longer.

The findings, published in the journal PLoS One, could help explain why rates of dementia are lower among the elderly in India than in their Western peers.

Alzheimer’s is linked to the build-up of protein in the brain called amyloid plaques damaging the wiring.

Curcumin did not dissolve the plaque, but accelerated the formation of nerve fibres by reducing the amount of their precursor forms, known as oligomers, from which they were formed.

Prof Per Hammarstrom, of Linkoping University in Sweden, said: “The results confirm our belief that it is the oligomers that are most harmful to the nerve cells.”

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Calm down dear, with a sip of water: Dehydration can alter mood and ability to think

People who feel like losing their temper might find a glass of water calms them down, researchers claim.

Mild dehydration can alter a person’s mood, energy level and ability to think clearly, according to studies at America’s University of Connecticut.

‘Even mild dehydration – 1.5 per cent loss in normal water volume in the body – that can occur in the course of our ordinary daily activities can degrade how we are feeling, especially for women, who are more susceptible to the adverse effects of low levels of dehydration,’ said Harris Lieberman, one of the studies’ co-authors.

Drink up: Mild dehydration can have an adverse effect on the mood especially in women

Tests showed that it didn’t matter if a person had just walked for 40 minutes on a treadmill or was sitting at rest, the adverse effects were the same.

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How eating too much could double risk of memory loss

Lawrence Armstrong, one of the studies’ lead scientists, added: 'Our thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until we are one per cent or two per cent dehydrated.

By then dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how our mind and body perform.

'Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners, who can lose up to 8 percent of their body weight as water when they compete.'

Research: Test subjects who were dehydrated experienced more difficulty when performing mental tasks

Subjects were put through a series of tests measuring vigilance, concentration, reaction time, learning, memory, and reasoning.

Their results were then compared against those of individuals who were not dehydrated.

In young women, mild dehydration was found to cause headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating.

Female subjects found tasks more difficult although they suffered no substantive reduction in cognitive ability.

Young men experienced some difficulty with mental tasks, particularly in the areas of vigilance and working memory and also experienced fatigue, tension, and anxiety.

Changes in mood and symptoms were 'substantially greater in females than in males, both at rest and during exercise'.

Experts recommend drinking two litres of water a day.