Public Health

Ethnobotany and human health. Ashwani Kumar From ancient times, plants and herbs have been used in almost all cultures as a major resource of herbal remedies. The widespread use of herbal remedies and healthcare preparations, as described in ancient texts, and obtained from traditional/folklore practices, has been traced to the incidence of natural products with medicinal properties (Anonymous, 2006). Medicinal Plants have served as a major source of new pharmaceutical products and inexpensive preparatory materials for the production of some known drugs. Many components with medicinal…

Thirteen percent of pregnant women in the United States have no health insurance. The president, when not worrying about the gun nuts, wants to cover them. One would think these facts alone might encourage some sanity,­even unity, ­in the ever-childish debate about healthcare reform. It’s a natural for the family values cult. Ditto for the meshugga anti-abortion crowd. Why, you can even imagine those terrible death panelists advocating for mommy Obammy care­, even if what they really want is to ensure a steady stream of future Soylent Green. But you don’t hear that­ and one wonders why. One…

High protein, low carbohydrate diets have been successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight but due to their recent popularity little is known about the diets' long-term effects on vascular health.  A new study provides some of the first data on this subject, demonstrating that mice placed on a 12-week low carbohydrate/high-protein diet showed a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart's arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues…

There's great news for movie lovers.   That popcorn slathered in butter at the movie theater may be only mostly bad for you. Snack foods like popcorn and many popular breakfast cereals contain "surprisingly large" amounts of healthful antioxidant substances called polyphenols, said chemist Joe Vinson, Ph.D., who headed a new study and presented the results at the ACS meeting today. Polyphenols are one reason why fruits, vegetables and foods like chocolate, wine, coffee, and tea have become renowned for their potential role in reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases…

100 years ago you had to be rich to be fat.  Now apparently you have to be rich to stay thin.  And women add more pounds being poor than anyone. A nationwide study that followed participants for 14 years correlates the U.S. Food Stamp Program to obesity among its users. Researchers found that the average user of food stamps had a Body Mass Index (BMI) 1.15 points higher than non-users. The link between food stamps and higher weight was almost entirely based on women users, who averaged 1.24 points higher BMI than those not in the program, the study found. For an average American…

Is organic food better for you than conventional food?   It's the second most asked question we get here about food, the first being 'What is the difference between organic and inorganic food?  (Also Lee Silver's What is the meaning of "organic" (and inorganic) food?)  If you like paying $15 a  dozen for eggs you aren't going to like the answer to the first one.   Even if you like paying $15 a dozen for eggs, you won't like the answer to the second one, since the list of inorganic ingredients allowed in organic food is as long as your arm. Systematic review of the…

It seems people still use the intelligence quotient (IQ) test even though minorities in America claim there is cultural bias that invalidates it as a measure of intelligence. Researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health have gone even further than cultural bias; they say prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can affect a child's IQ, according to their study of black and hispanic women living in New York City. PAHs are chemicals released into the air from the…

You want to live healthier and probably look better; that's a good start.  Diet popularity can either be a sign that something works or an indication that people believe in crazy stuff.   Either way, it can't hurt to spend 5 minutes reading an article on the Internet before you commit.A site called Realbuzz.com says it has put popular dieting approaches to the test - giving you the pros, the cons and each one has been rated on how they satisfy hunger, their ease to follow, expense and most importantly - the impact they can have on your overall health. Slimming World Diet …

For a baseball pitcher, control is critical but shoulder strength remains vital to remaining healthy during a long season. A new study presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Keystone, Colorado, suggested that testing a pitcher's shoulder strength through a series of exercises during the preseason may help prevent serious injury during the season. The study measured the preseason shoulder strength for all pitchers in a professional baseball organization over a five-year period (2001-2005). Over the course of the five-year period, 144 major…

In an article that makes us want to review the "Studies you won't need to read" section,  UC  San Diego School of Medicine researchers examined HIV infection among male clients of female prostitutes - in Tijuana, of all places - and decided and found that over half of male clients had recently had other risky sexual behavior, like unprotected sex. Unprotected sex with a tijuana prostitute  is what poker players would call a 'tell' when it comes to risky behavior.   They also reported a high prevalence of drug use.  Tijuana, located in Baja California directly across…