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The bra business is an $11 billion a year industry, but bras may not be all that effective against back pain and sagging, according to a 15-year study of over 300 French women. In fact, researchers found that bras may contribute to breast sagging, and discontinuing their use can actually strengthen the breast, although after too many years of bra use, the effects may not be reversible. Yahoo! reports:

Researchers spent 15 years studying the breasts of over 330 French women, and concluded that wearing a bra does not prevent sagging or ease back pain as commonly thought. “Medically, physiologically, anatomically—breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity, Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, from the University of Besançon, told France Info Radio. “On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra.”

Taking measurements with a caliper, the researchers found that by not wearing a bra, muscles around the breast actually strengthened and the “nipple raised 7mm per year toward the shoulder.” However, the scientists did not recommend all women abandon their bras since their muscles had probably already degraded.

Check out the full article here.

This year, the focus of the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting was on the chemistry of energy and food. Fittingly enough, the meeting was held in one of the culinary capitals of the country: New Orleans. At the meeting, one group of researchers announced the results of their disturbing report on the levels of lead in rice from Asia, Europe and South America, where Americans get 7% of all their rice. Lead exposure can cause a whole number of dangerous problems, especially for children, but for adults as well.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

According to the report:

The levels ranged from six milligrams/kilogram to 12 milligrams/kilogram; factoring in average consumption, that added up to estimated lead exposure levels 30 to 60 times greater than the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) provisional total tolerable intake (PTTI) levels for children and 20-40 times greater than the standard exposure levels for adults.

And:

Because Asian populations in the U.S. tend to consume the most rice, the researchers also calculated exposure levels for these groups, and estimated that  Asian infants and children in the U.S. could be exposed to lead at 60 to 120 times higher than the FDA’s PTTI. And young children under six years old can be especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can impair mental and physical development and, if the exposure is sustained, can be fatal…

While lead exposure can negatively affect cognitive development and performance in kids, adults with high lead exposure can also experience problems with blood pressure, heart disease and calcium deficiency.

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Bad news for allergy sufferers: thanks to climate change, those warm winters we have been seeing are here to stay. That means longer growing seasons, and more time for plants to produce all that pollen that is giving you sneezing fits. Fortunately, Time has a few remedies for those of you looking to alleviate your symptoms without loading up on medications like antihistamines and decongestants.

Here are 5 things you can try for allergy relief:

1. Allergy drops – Drops of a small bit of allergen under the tongue can help boost your immune system’s tolerance to allergies. Unfortunately this remedy is not yet available in the states, because it still needs to be approved by the FDA.

2. Herbal remedies and supplements – According to Time there are several natural remedies found in some health groceries and pharmacies that may be worth trying.

3. Exercise – Also an immune system booster. If exercising outside triggers your allergies, try working out indoors, or at least avoid exercising between 5:00 am and 9:00 am, when pollen levels are highest.

4. Foods high in antioxidants, natural antihistamines and omega-3 fatty acids – These foods include apples, red onions, grapes, raspberries, salmon and tuna.

5. Acupuncture – While traditionally viewed as a pain reliever, acupuncture may help to alleviate allergy symptoms, too.

Click here to read more about these remedies

Here is an interesting piece on how due to the lack of pollution controls and environmental protections, 1.2 million people died prematurely in China in 2010. According to a new analysis first published by Lancet based on 2010′s Global Burden of Disease Study, air pollution caused 3.2 million deaths worldwide with more than a third in China. The New York Times reported:

Chinese officials cut out sections of a 2007 report called “Cost of Pollution in China” that discussed premature deaths. The report’s authors had concluded that 350,000 to 400,000 people die prematurely in China each year because of outdoor air pollution.

And:

There has been growing outrage in Chinese cities over what many say are untenable levels of air pollution. Cities across the north hit record levels in January, and official Chinese newspapers ran front-page articles on the surge—what some foreigners call the “airpocalypse”—despite earlier limits on such discussion by propaganda officials.

Click here to read the article and watch the video

According to an article on Mercola.com, Russia has issued a ban on US meat after discovering it contains ractopamine – a beta agonist drug that increases protein synthesis, to make the animal more muscular. This ban is reported in a very good article called “American Foods Chockfull of Ingredients Banned in Other Countries” which recently came out on Mercola.com.

The article says that more than 3,000 food additives; preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to foods in the United States. Many have been deemed too harmful to use in other countries. This is shown by the Russian ban on US meat due to the feed additive ractopamine in the meats. Ractopamine is a growth stimulant banned in several countries, including Russia, according to the article.

From the article:

“Processed Foods Depend on Additives — When foods are processed, not only are valuable nutrients lost and fibers removed, but the textures and natural variation and flavors are also lost. After processing, what’s left behind is a bland, uninteresting “pseudo-food” that most people wouldn’t want to eat.

So at this point, food manufacturers must add back in the nutrients, flavor, color and texture to processed foods in order to make them palatable, and this is why they become loaded with food additives.”

Click here for the full story

Alcohol Linked to Cancer – An interesting article on Yahoo Shine titled “Even Moderate Drinking Linked to Increased Cancer Risk” reports research that indicates drinking even a single alcoholic beverage per day can increase your risk of various types of cancer. The research was reported in the American Journal of Public Health titled “Alcohol-Attributable Cancer Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost in the United States”

The article concludes with a quote summarizing nicely the study’s conclusions – “In general, drinking less is better than drinking more, and for people who drink excessively it’s something to think about,” Naimi said. “Alcohol is a big preventable cancer risk factor that has been hiding in plain sight.”

Click Here for the full article Even Moderate Drinking Linked to Increased Cancer Risk

There was recently a great article on the effect of WiFi on men and how radio waves could be detrimental to male health in Dr. Robert Rowen’s Second Opinion Health Alert.

According to the article:

“Researchers collected semen samples from 29 healthy men in Argentina. They exposed the samples to Wi-Fi radiation from an Internet connected laptop. After four hours, 25% of the sperm cells were no longer swimming, compared to 14% in controls. Worse, the researchers found more DNA damage in the Wi-Fi sperm than sperm they didn’t expose. The authors concluded that proximity of a laptop to testicles might decrease male fertility. Of course, the opposing side said that this is not a real life case, since the sperm had been removed from the body before exposure.”

This seems pretty compelling. Are the effects real? Dr. Rowen goes on to say:

“Hello? Is anyone in government with a brain listening? Here is evidence that exposure to something invisible, and relatively low energy can damage DNA. It’s not even so much the energy. A hot water bottle contains more energy. It’s the frequency of the radiation. DNA vibrates (frequency). Adding foreign frequency to natural oscillations of DNA is bound to alter its function.”

Read the whole article by clicking here.

How Well Can You Sit Down on the Floor and then Get Back Up?

Don’t be surprised if your doctor asks you to sit on the floor at your next checkup. A new study says testing a person’s ability to sit down and then rise from the floor could provide useful insight into their overall health and longevity.

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