Convenience VS. Ecology
Stop Plastic!

Plastic bags were just outlawed (first in California, where else?) from the supermarkets. Then from drugstores. Plastic bags have come to be no more, no longer used, no longer manufactured for California. Now, it’s soon for your state. Why?

Why it’s for the good of the environment, Honey! Plastic doesn’t decompose in landfills. It lasts and outlasts. California (always first) has put a “stop” law on these bags to keep them out of landfills, out of the ocean. Have you ever seen the news reports of this gigantic doughnut of plastic stuff in the ocean that’s continuously and permanently circling upon itself, goosed by ocean currents?

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We have answers!

The Holidays are over. All that food and drink. All that candy and cake. You fear the bathroom scale. You even throw a towel over it to hide this device of sheer terror. You know, though, you must get a reading off the scale. You do the pinch-flab test, but you need more than that. You need a weight reading. Do you think you could have your other half or roommate or friend get on the scale and you take their weight reading as yours. A psychic weight, so to speak. Hell no!

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Snipped from PhysOrg.com.

Short answer: maybe. It seems that physicians are not taking placebos as lightly as we once thought. The placebo effect, “a therapeutical effect based solely on the power of suggestion” that has showed up in all clinical trials and is commonly used scientifically in pharmaceutical research, is said to be used by 45% of Chicago internists when prescribing to patients.

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Snipped from NewScientist.com.

I have to admit something. I am obsessed with spicy food. Some may say addicted. I don’t know why, but I always have been. Thai food, Mexican food, Indian food … it doesn’t matter. The hotter the better. Oh, and one more thing. I am never sick … ever. Well, except that silly little meningitis episode I got a long time ago, but that is another story. So, one could ask, “Does all the spicy food lend some assistance to my healthy state of existence?” Umm, good question.

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Snipped from BMJ.com.

Are you ever standing around and happen upon a conversation where people are perpetuating inane myths, urban legends or folk tales as true. It gets you off your rocker, doesn’t it? Well, here is a list of some medical myths, and the science to back up why it is, and always will be, a myth.

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Snipped from SciAm.com.

Finally, an interesting article that addresses our larger brain, and its ties with our diet. In many other articles, I have attempted to link our diet with our evolution. Whether it was our ancestor’s desire for high calorie, carbohydrate dense foods, or how our they perfected cooking starches which allowed for more dietary versatility and therefor a better chance at survival, I have linked our diet to our evolutionary success. Here Richard Wrangham, a chimp researcher, has come up with a theory that helps indirectly argue the points I have been making about our ancestral diets.

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Snipped from New Scientist.

Some of the more recent articles on Blog4Brains have been about ancient remedies or alternative medicine, so I thought this fascinating article about how the Egyptians may have beaten the Greeks to discovering the first “medicine”, would help further the discussion.

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Snipped from SciAm.com.

Wow, has honey got some press to be proud of?! It seems that there really is some truth to the old wives tales that honey really is a cure all. In November, honey seemed to get some very late, but not forgotten, recognition that it can be successfully used as an antibiotic ointment for small cuts, abrasions and sores. The in December, it got the recognition for being a better nighttime cough medicine for children (older than 1 year old of course).

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Snipped from AP.com.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when there was a big uproar about reprogramming skin cells into stem cells. Well, here is something quite interesting that they have done with such reprogrammed cells. In this article the scientists discuss how they have “cured” mice with sickle cell anemia — a deadly genetic disease that distorts the shape of the red blood cells, limiting the amount of oxygen that they can “carry”.

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Snipped from NYTimes.com.

Want to stop your chronic headaches or migraines? Then you may want to stop medicating them. New research is showing that the very medications that are designed to treat pain, can actually cause it. It is called a rebound episode and is similar to a hangover. Unfortunately, people too often grab that same medication that caused it to treat it, furthering its cycle.

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