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Recalled Eggs May Be in Your Next Meal
Eggs linked to salmonella recall may still land on your table. Millions of eggs from the Iowa farms at the heart of a massive salmonella recall are destined not for the garbage but for a table near you.
The recalled eggs that were already shipped to grocery stores and restaurants are being dumped by the truckload. But the eggs still being laid by potentially infected chickens will be pasteurized to kill any bacteria. Then they can be sold as liquid eggs or put in other products such as mayonnaise or ice cream.
It's a common if little-known practice in the food industry - salvaging and selling products that may have been tainted with disease.
After pasteurization, the bacteria "are all going to be dead, and if they're dead, they're not going to hurt anybody," said University of Illinois food science professor Bruce Chassy.
Is it the Chicken or the Egg?
How does salmonella get inside eggs? Although the average egg looks innocent enough, it can harbor dangerous foodborne bacteria called Salmonella. It's these bacteria that led to the ongoing nationwide recall of Wright Country Eggs. But how do the bacteria get in there?
The bacteria, Salmonella enteritidis (also referred to as S. enteritidis), can invade an egg in several ways. One way is by the contamination of egg shells with fecal matter. The bacteria are present in the intestines and feces of infected humans and animals, including chickens, and can be passed to the eggs when chickens sit on them.
The Dark Side of Sunscreen?
A new study by an eco-consumer group finds that some sunblocks may increase the growth rate of skin cancer cells. Is yours among them?
Think SPF 50 sunscreen will keep you completely safe from the sun's rays? Don't bet on it. According to a new study by the Environmental Working Group - a nonprofit that seeks to "expose threats to your health and the environment...
Okinawa’s Centenarians
The word "centenarian" means people who have lived one hundred years or more, in other words, people who have lived a "century." Centenarians are important to study because they are living examples of successful aging. According to the Okinawa Centenarian Study, their work suggests that most centenarians have been remarkably healthy and experienced a rapid terminal decline late in life, resulting in a compression of morbidity to their final years (Bernstein et al., J Gerontol Biol Sci. 2004; Willcox DC et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatr. 2007).
Okinawa's elders (aged > 70 years) and centenarians in particular, also seem to have experienced a slower age-related decline and markedly delayed or avoided entirely the chronic diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer's Disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
How Many Centenarians are There?
According to recent estimates there are approximately 80,000 centenarians in the United States, or about 10-20 centenarians per 100,000 population, although this is difficult to estimate precisely since there was no national birth registration system in the U.S. until 1940. However, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates these numbers will top one million by the year 2050. Although regional differences exist these rates are similar to other developed nations. In Okinawa, centenarian ratios may be the world's highest at approximately 50 per 100,000 population representing 740 centenarians in a population of 1.3 million of which 90% are women (Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2006).
Do Super-Centenarians Exist in Okinawa or Elsewhere?
Reports that came from the former Soviet state of Georgia and surrounding states in the Caucasus Mountains, Hunza Valley in Pakistan or Vilcabamba in Ecuador claimed unprecedented concentrations of centenarians, with many living beyond the age of 120 years. In-depth studies of these populations have shown that age-exaggeration is rampant and life expectancy is actually shorter than in the U.S., nor are there high concentrations of centenarians.
However, there is another geographic area where there is an unusually long life expectancy and a high prevalence of centenarians-Sardinia, Italy.
Sardinia has higher prevalence of centenarian than elsewhere in Italy (Caselli et al., 2003) and many of them are concentrated in a small area, with a particularly high prevalence of male centenarians. The existence of a greater prevalence of centenarians in Sardinia largely depends on reduced mortality risk between 80 and 100 years, in particular, there appears to be reduced mortality for circulatory diseases (Deiana et al., 1999; Passarino et al., 2002; Caselli et al., 2003; Poulain et al., 2004).
Thus, lower mortality for the major causes of death-circulatory disease and cancer accounts for much of the high centenarian prevalence in Sardinia. This combined with relatively higher female mortality, appears to account for the relatively high prevalence of male centenarians in Nuoro province, which are half as prevalent as their female counterparts, as compared to about one fifth in most countries.
Why Did We Only Recently Hear About the Okinawan Longevity Phenomenon?
You'd have thought such a fascinating discovery would have been big news in the West, but it went largely unnoticed for a number of reasons. First, only a few small research reports made it into the English-language scientific literature. Most of the interesting findings (more than 100 peer-reviewed studies) were published in the Japanese scientific literature always in Japanese, making them fairly inaccessible to Western scientists. Second, gerontology and preventive medicine research were relatively new in the 1970s, and baby boomers were not old enough to get the diseases of premature aging. Research dollars were only just beginning to flow into this area of investigation. Finally, Okinawa's role as a battleground in World War Two and its continuing problems with U.S. and Japanese military bases tends to overshadow its role as an area of extreme longevity.
The Reason for the Dramatic Increase in the Number of Centenarians in Okinawa and Around the World:
Centenarians are the fastest growing demographic group in many developed nations including the USA and Japan. In 1963, when the Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare began tabulating the centenarian population, there were only 153 centenarians in the whole of Japan. By 2006 this number had grown to 28,395 and women made up 85% of the total. Likewise, in Okinawa the first centenarians did not appear until the mid-1960s yet their numbers have mushroomed to 740 and this figure will double within the next five years. This increase in the number of centenarians worldwide is mainly due to larger and healthier birth cohorts who have had access to better medical care, public health infrastructure, housing, income, and nutrition than previous cohorts.
© Okinawa Centenarian Study. All Rights Reserved.
What can you do right now to reach better health and longevity? Get Healthy, Stay Healthy!
Discover just two simple steps by tuning in for Part III in our “Life Expectancy Series” titled “Do One Thing, Take One Thing” on HealthQuest Radio LIVE, this Saturday, April 6 at 11:00 am CST on AM560WIND and at 1:00 pm on AM1410WRMN with your host, Dr. David C. Kolbaba.
Missed Part I and Part II? Visit our blog at www.AdventuresinHealth.com or follow the links below.
http://www.adventuresinhealth.com/podcasts/do-one-thing-take-one-thing-1.mp3
http://www.adventuresinhealth.com/podcasts/do-one-thing-take-one-thing-2.mp3
"It’s Never Too Late to Begin Your Adventure in Health”
Breaking News - 83,000 Heart Attacks Due to Popular Diabetic Drug
Breaking News!
The popular diabetes drug Avandia is linked to 83,000 heart attacks from 1999 - 2007.
A 334-page report released February 18th by the Senate Finance Committee found the FDA overlooked or overrode safety concerns found by its staff, pertaining to the drug Avandia. Drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline knew of the risks for years but hid them from the public.
An inquiry was begun after the New England Journal of Medicine published a study in May 2007 warning of possible cardiovascular risk of those taking Avandia. We're reporting on it here at HealthQuest Radio!
"Americans have a right to know there are serious health risks associated with Avandia and GlaxoSmithKline had a responsibility to tell them," said US Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat and committee chairman. "Patients trust drug companies with their health and their lives and GlaxoSmithKline abused that trust."
The Senate report was based on review of hundreds of thousands of pages of internal GlaxoSmithKline documents and concluded: The totality of evidence suggests the GlaxoSmithKline was aware of the possible cardiac risks associated with Avandia years before such evidence became public...Based on this knowledge, GlaxoSmithKline had a duty to sufficiently warn patients and the FDA of its concerns in a timely manner. Instead, GlaxoSmithKline executives intimidated independent physicians, focused strategies to minimize findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular risk and sought ways to downplay findings that the rival drug ACTOS (pioglitazone) might reduce cardiovascular risk.
The findings are frightening because two-thirds of the people with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form, die of heart complications, without a compounding effect of taking a heart attack-causing drug like Avandia. Even considering the distribution of such a dangerous drug is ridiculously hazardous for these diabetic individuals!
Here's the real stinger! When the drug was approved, evidence of its benefits were "at best" mixed. Avandia's label already warns about possible heart failure and other heart problems when taken with insulin. The drug elevates LDL or bad cholesterol, and causes fluid retention and weight gain. Glaxo also reported some patients suffered more bone fractures, swelling of the legs and feet, and rare reports of swelling in the eye that caused vision problems. (Even with these known hazardous side-effects, Glaxo still contends that the safety and efficacy of Avandia is reasonable as an important diabetic medicine.)
This raises questions.... how many deaths were caused as a result of taking Avandia and what kind of bodily damage occurred with its use? According to The New York Times, in a report from the Institute for Safe Medication Practice, Avandia was linked to 304 deaths in the third quarter of 2009 alone, the highest for any prescribed drug in that time period. The report does not mention a collective number of deaths in this 8 year time period or deaths and/or heart attacks that may have occurred from 2007 to the present. Also missing, are any of the toxicity factors relating to the use of Avandia or the damage incurred.
If we were to put this concept in perspective...83,000 heart attacks occurred in 8 years. That's approximately 10,375 heart attacks a year or 864 heart attacks a month, caused by a prescriptive medication given to you by your doctor!
These heart attacks, if experienced in a given population of a city equal to what occurred nationwide...would be Arlington Heights or Waukegan or Cicero or Evanston and the college town of Champaign, Illinois. OR ...the combined populations of North Aurora, Prospect Heights, Round Lake, Sycamore and Country Club Hills.
That's equivalent to popular tourist destinations in Florida such as Miami Beach. Been to see Mickey Mouse lately? That would be everyone living in Kissimmee, Home of Disney World and Key West combined, experiencing heart attacks...with some turning fatal...as in death by Avandia!
Here at HealthQuest...we believe every prescription medication is an overdose...no exceptions! If you're going to take a prescription drug...you better strap yourself in for the ride!
Provoked by a diabetes drug named Avandia, just in heart attacks alone, this is the equivalent of more than 276 jumbo jets containing 300 trusting patients strapped in on Avandia. We should be outraged that drugmakers as well as the governmental agency responsible for protecting the public, the FDA, has put so many at risk!
These statistics are certainly frightening. Here at HealthQuest, we're all about making choices and taking steps toward better health & longevity. We can help you get there by using a targeted integrative healthcare approach using natural therapies. Quality of life and a quality of living is our goal for you. Explore our website to find more about us and alternatives to taking prescription drugs. Listen to our HealthQuest Radio broadcasts on our blog site at www.AdventuresinHealth.com.
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