Sassafras Station Blog

Archive for March, 2010

In an effort to discourage young smokers from starting, the FDA is looking into whether to expand the ban on flavored cigarettes to menthol flavoring which is used by lots of new smokers because of its minty taste which makes the cigarette less harsh.  Previously, menthol was excempted, but there is new pressure to get rid of them as well as clove and other flavors that have already been banned.

This is truly a difficult concept because the FDA is getting further into regulating personal choices.   I am all for protecting people, but many people will argue that a person has a right to damage their own body.

I think we should all just get on a health kick and not smoke, but I know it is hard.  Check out the link below for the whole story.

When Congress passed a historic law last year that gave the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, it also banned candy and spice flavorings such as chocolate and clove, saying cigarette makers used those products to hook youngsters into a lifetime addiction. But it exempted menthol from the ban, saying it wanted the FDA to study the issue and report by 2012 whether restrictions on it would serve the public health.

FDA reviewing whether to ban menthol cigarettes – washingtonpost.com

Now this is the kind of news that chocolate lovers have been hoping for.  Now before you get too excited, the amount of chocolate you should eat is very small.

According to the article, eating 7.5 grams of chocolate every day can help you lower high blood pressure.  As mentioned above, the amount is small and the sugar and excess carbs in chocolate mean you should not eat more than the recommended amount if you plan to try this out.

Below is an excerpt with a link below that to the original article as reported by ABC.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope this helps!

consuming 7.5 grams of chocolate daily resulted in a significantly lower blood pressure than consuming just a sprinkle of it daily, according to Brian Buijsse of the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal, Germany, and colleagues.

They reported their findings online in the European Heart Journal.

Chocolate Protects Against High Blood Pressure, Stroke – ABC News

According to this article, there are scientific reasons for having a breast cancer screening program.  I didn’t even know it was in doubt, but according to this article on Reuters, there are potential problems.

Basically what the article says is that a good breast cancer screening program is twice as likely to help a woman as hurt so I guess the odds say it is a good thing.  Now if they could just cut down on the number of mis-diagnosis so the ration is better than 2 to 1.

Click the link after the excerpt to read the whole story.

The British researchers said their work, which contradicts some recent studies on screening programs but confirms others, showed the benefits outweigh the harm screening can cause by picking up tumors that would not have presented a problem.

UK study finds breast screen programs save lives | Reuters

A few words that would make people sit up and take notice today – green, eco-friendly, natural and organic – because they’re supposed to be in. We as a race have done everything possible to rape our planet of all its natural resources and are only now realizing that we are hastening our doom if we continue to lead this hedonistic lifestyle that we’ve become accustomed to. And so we’re now trying to mitigate our past actions and work towards a cleaner earth.

The same can be said for our bodies as well – we’ve effectively ruined them by eating all kinds of junk and are now looking to repair the damage we’ve done and save ourselves from illness and disease. This is why most people want to return to their roots and go organic and natural. They’re willing to spend more on products that are labeled with these words, but then, are they really getting what they’re paying for?

Are foods that are labeled natural or organic actually so, or are we being scammed by some very clever marketing? Did you know that products that are labeled “natural” are required by law to contain only natural ingredients? And did you know that natural food is not necessarily healthy food? Well, if you’re out shopping for foods that are good for you, you need to remember the following:

• Sometimes, natural is bad too: Salt is completely natural; yet too much of it is bad for you. So when you buy salted goods that are labeled natural, you’re actually paying for ill health, especially if you already have high blood pressure and other related ailments.
• Products labeled natural may not be completely natural: The FDA allows the use of the word natural on meat, poultry and other products that have been minimally processed, so don’t assume that the word natural means what it says on the label.
• Organic and natural do not mean the same: Organic food is good for you in that the vegetables and fruits have not been treated with pesticides and the animals (from whom the milk, eggs and meat are obtained) have been allowed to graze naturally (free range) instead of being stuffed with hormone-laden food that makes them grow unnaturally fast. It’s generally hard to ensure that your food is completely organic unless you grow it yourself or buy it from local farms where you know that organic methods are followed. Natural does not imply organic, so unless your package states that the product is organic, it is not.

It’s up to you to be wise about the food choices you make – don’t get taken in by the labels, cook your own food instead of eating out or buying pre-processed, ready-to-eat meals, and know where to draw the line in your quest for natural foods.

About the Author:
This guest post is contributed by Amy S. Cook, who writes on the topic of LVN to RN . Amy welcomes your comments at her email id: amy11s.cook@gmail.com .

If you have pets, you probably have used flea treatments.  One of the more popular methods is to put a medication onto the skin of the pet.  This medicine then absorbs into the skin and spreads through the blood stream to the entire body.  This medicine then causes the skin and/or hair to be toxic enough to kill fleas. 

Have you really thought about this?  I know fleas are small, but how much poison do we have to put into a pet in order to make its skin or hair toxic enough to kill anything.  Not surprisingly, the EPA has confirmed that this is, in fact, dangerous to the pet.  Well, duh?

I am just as guilty because I have used these treatments, but it is time to make a change.  We have purchased diatomaceous earth and are going to try using that.  It is organic and supposed to be very effective.  On top of that it is way cheaper than the dangerous chemicals in traditional flea treatments . . . wow cheaper and healthier.

Check out the article then do some research on diatomaceous earth.  It has lots of uses other than just a flea treatment.

Products intended to treat cats and dogs for fleas and ticks injure thousands of pets each year and kill hundreds more, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday as it outlined plans to make the products safer.

Flea products can sicken, kill pets :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Pets

HVP, or hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a flavor enhancer found in many processed foods.  It gives food a meaty or savory flavor.  It’s found in potato chips, salad dressings and many other foods we consume on a daily basis. 

The company where the majority of HVP is made (it makes 20 million pounds of this food additive annually) knew its products contained salmonella yet continued to ship it out for over five months.  

For more information on the outbreak, along with a link you can go to see what items have been recalled, click on the link below.

The company at the heart of a growing recall of processed foods knew that its plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued to make a flavoring and sell it to foodmakers around the country, according to inspectors at the Food and Drug Administration.

FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella – washingtonpost.com

A new study done at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore concludes that live kidney donors do not die sooner than they would have had they not donated the kidney.  The study followed over 80,000 live kidney donors for the last 16 years and compared them with 9,000 non donors.   “Surgical mortality did not change during the 15 year period (between 1994 and 2009), despite differences in surgical practice and donor selection, “ Dr. Dorry Segev states.

Click on the link below to read the whole article.

Healthy Americans who donated a kidney were not at higher risk of dying afterward, which may reassure potential donors and help shorten the long waiting list for an organ, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Live kidney donors do not die sooner: study | Reuters

Pregnancy related deaths have increased over the last decade.  The state with the highest number of childbirth deaths is California.  Out of 100,000 women, there were 16.9 maternal deaths.  The national average is 13.4 maternal deaths.  That number is nearly double what it was 10 years ago. 

The two most common reasons for the deaths were blot clots and hemorrhaging.  For more information click on the link below. 

Eleven days after her son Benjamin’s birth by C-section, Linda Coale awoke in the middle of the night in pain, one leg badly swollen. Just as her doctor returned her phone call asking what to do, she dropped dead from a blood clot.

Hoped-for drop in childbirth deaths not happening – Yahoo! News

Many wives blame their husbands poor hearing on selective hearing (only hearing what they choose to hear) but a new study has shown that poor hearing maybe the cause of common over the counter medication.  Pain relievers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen taken just twice a week is enough to increase your risk of hearing loss.  Click on the link below for the full article.

Plenty of women suspect their husbands of selective hearing loss, but it could be your spouse’s failure to respond to your overtures to help with the dishes might be more legitimate than it appears.

Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers Linked to Hearing Loss – AOL Health

Even though red wine has been associated with a lowered risk of heart disease and diabetes, diet book authors ban the drink because of a belief that it can stop your body from burning fat.  A new study is aiming to change their thinking.  A study that was published on March 8th shows that women wine drinkers who were at a healthy weight to begin with, gained  less than non drinking women over time.  For more information on this study click on the link below.

Women Who Drink Moderately Less Likely to Gain Weight – AOL Health