New research is determining exactly how honey can help fight serious skin infections.  Although people have made use of honey's antibacterial properties for centuries, scientists are just now discovering how it works.  And what they are finding is that it might be even more effective than antibiotics.

After any skin injury, bacteria that live on your skin can infect the wound site. One particularly common type of strep can result in wounds that refuse to heal. But honey, especially the kind made by bees foraging on manuka flowers, was found to destroy this bacteria.

Scientific American reports:

“In lab tests, just a bit of the honey killed off the majority of bacterial cells -- and cut down dramatically on the stubborn biofilms they formed.  It could also be used to prevent wounds from becoming infected in the first place.”

A new study sought to evaluate the intensity of oxidative stress and the levels of neurotransmitters in the brains of fetal rats chronically exposed to radiation from to cell phones. Four groups of pregnant rats were exposed to different intensities of cell phone microwave radiation -- one group that was left unexposed, and three groups that were irradiated three times daily for either 10, 30, or 60 minutes at a time.

After three weeks, the fetal rats were examined for changes in their brains.  All of the irradiated groups exhibited significant neurological differences.

According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:

“Through this study, we concluded that receiving a certain period of microwave radiation from cellular phones during pregnancy has certain harm on fetal rat brains.”

For a period spanning 20 years, a Monsanto chemical plant in West Virginia produced the herbicide 2,4,5-T.   2,4,5-T is a component of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.  Monsanto now faces a class-action lawsuit, filed on behalf of people living where the herbicide was manufactured.

The suit was filed on behalf of tens of thousands of people who lived, worked and went to school in Nitro, West Virginia after 1949. It alleges the company spread toxic substances all over town, primarily carcinogenic dioxins.

According to NPR:

“At issue in this case: whether Monsanto will have to pay millions of dollars to monitor the health of everyone included in the case ... This is not the first time lawyers have sued Monsanto over health effects in Nitro.  In the 1980s a lawsuit was brought on behalf of seven former employees ... The cleanup issue is still being appealed. Meanwhile the medical monitoring case is headed to trial after settlement negotiations failed.”

Three common chemotherapy drugs cause DNA mutations.  But a study on mice found that the mutations did not just occur in the animals that received the treatment, but also in their offspring.

This may mean that the genome in treated mice became destabilized, creating new mutations long after exposure to the drugs had ceased.

Nature reports:

“The work emphasizes the importance of looking at the effects of chemotherapy not only on recipients, but also on their descendants ... In recent years, researchers have begun to investigate the ‘bystander effect’, in which cells that do not directly receive radiation show signs of radiation-induced changes. It’s possible that some of these effects ... could contribute to the heritable genomic instability seen in response to radiation and, now, chemotherapy”.

Pfizer has just recalled a million packs of birth control pills because a fault in their manufacture means they could actually increase your chances of getting pregnant.

The affected pills include Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets.  The pills were distributed only in the U.S., marketed by Akrimax Rx Products, and have expiration dates between July 31, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

Gizmodo reports:

“Normally contraceptive pills come in ordered sequence, with some containing active hormone and others being plain old placebo. Some of the faulty packs have no active hormone at all, while others don't have any placebos. Either way, you don't want to use them”.

In what amounts to an outrageous power-grab, the U.S. FDA is saying that the stem cells within your own body are drugs.  They further claim that stem cell therapy counts as interstate commerce because it affects the profits of FDA-approved drugs in other states.

These ridiculous arguments are the result of the FDA’s ongoing battle with the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Colorado over a non-surgical treatment called Regenexx-SD, which treats people suffering from moderate to severe joint or bone pain using adult stem cells.  The clinic takes your own blood and puts it into a centrifuge machine that separates out the stem cells, and then a doctor puts them back in your body where there is damaged tissue.

The Alliance for Natural Health reports:

“This time the FDA just nakedly says in court documents that the agency wants to protect the market for FDA-approved drugs. No more beating around the bush -- their agenda is right out in the open! This appears to be a novel interpretation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), as evidenced by the government’s failure to cite any judicial precedent for their argument ... The clinic has argued numerous times that stem cells aren’t drugs because they are components of the patient’s blood from his or her own body.”

A large number of Americans are currently suffering and dying avoidable deaths, directly as a result of the health care system.  Although America spends more per person on health care than any other country, it is not getting what it pays for.  The U.S. ranks 50th in life expectancy and 47th in infant mortality.

And doctors deserve some of the blame; many have little appreciation of the science of medicine and the scientific method.  They prescribe treatments they believe to be appropriate instead of therapies that are known to be appropriate based on objective evidence.

According to CNN:

“Too often, doctors fail to distinguish what is scientifically known from what is unknown, from what is believed ... There is often selective reading of the science, especially by those trained in a specialty wanting to advocate for it ... [B]lame also rests on hospitals, drug and device manufacturers, insurance companies, lawyers, politicians, government and even with patients ... The cold hard reality is America does not need to reform health care, we need to transform health care.”

Scientist Chris Shaw and his colleague Lucija Tomljenovic recently published a carefully researched and thoroughly peer reviewed paper on the topic of vaccine safety. But despite the cautious and professional tone of the paper, which describes possible causal links between vaccine adjuvants and neurological problems, it has provoked angry and punitive responses.

Dr. Paul Offit, a strong proponent of vaccines (and the developer of a vaccine that made him a multi-millionaire), said that the paper "should never have been published."   Green College is preparing to present a series of lectures on vaccine safety co-moderated by Chris Shaw, and one professor sent a letter to the organizers expressing dismay and disapproval that the discussion was going to be held at all.

According to the Vancouver Courier:

“These calls to silence critical discussion of a still open scientific question are troubling. Science progresses by investigation, debate and full discussion, not by fiat and censorship ... No area of research should be out of bounds for free minds, and received wisdom, whether positive or negative, about vaccine safety should never substitute for real research.“

The USDA has prepared the way for approval of a new product from Dow Agrosciences -- a corn strain that can withstand Dow’s herbicide 2,4-D. The company plans to sell the corn to industrial farmers whose fields are choked with weeds that have developed resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

If the corn is approved, it will undoubtedly mark the beginning of at least another decade of chemical-intensive farming concentrating on a few chosen crops pushed by big agribusiness.

According to Mother Jones:

“If it and other new herbicide-tolerant crops can somehow be stopped, farming in the U.S. heartland can be pushed toward a model based on biodiversity over monocropping, farmer skill in place of brute chemicals, and healthy food instead of industrial commodities ... The frustrating part is, there no reason to send a flood of this stuff onto U.S. farm fields, where it will likely run off into ground water, as both Roundup and Syngenta's toxic herbicide atrazine already has ... [A] simple program called Integrated Weed Management could rescue U.S. farm fields from Roundup-resistant superweeds without recourse to more herbicides.”

In a recent essay, researchers have pointed out that there is a major discrepancy in claims regarding the safety and efficacy of HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix.  One major concern is the claim that HPV vaccines are an important tool in preventing cervical cancer. But the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing cervical cancer has not been demonstrated because the study periods have been too short.

In fact, even persistent HPV infections do not generally lead to cervical cancer in the long term; most HPV infections resolve spontaneously within 2 years.

According to Medscape:

“HPV vaccines must maintain a near 100% efficacy for a full 15 years, at a minimum, for cervical cancer to be prevented ... So far, Merck has not conducted any studies, nor are any planned, to evaluate the long-term immunogenicity and efficacy of needed booster shots ... Reported serious adverse reactions associated with HPV ... include death, convulsions, paraesthesia, paralysis, Guillain–Barreì syndrome, transverse myelitis, facial palsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, anaphylaxis, autoimmune disorders, deep vein thrombosis, pancreatitis, and pulmonary embolism.”

A new study has shown that drinking diet soda results in an increased risk of vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death.  The researchers found that people who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event.

Previous research has already shown very serious long-term health consequences of diet soda consumption, primarily due to highly toxic additives and artificial sweeteners such as sodium benzoate, aspartame (NutraSweet), acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), sucralose (Splenda) and high-fructose corn syrup.

According to the study:

"Daily diet soft drink consumption was associated with several vascular risk factors and with an increased risk for vascular events. Further research is needed before any conclusions can be made regarding the potential health consequences of diet soft drink consumption."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors.  The monitored employees were ones who had warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that posed unacceptable risks to patients.

The surveillance took place over the course of two years.  A group of six of the monitored scientists and doctors have filed a lawsuit against the FDA.

According to the Washington Post:

“Information garnered this way eventually contributed to the harassment or dismissal of all six of the FDA employees, the suit alleges. All had worked in an office responsible for reviewing devices for cancer screening and other purposes.”

Bryan Ganey weighed 577 pounds when he collapsed on June 20, 2010.  He had suffered from a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that had traveled to his lungs, and was hospitalized for six days.

Several doctors tried to persuade Bryan to undergo weight-loss surgery while he was in the hospital, but he refused, as he had friends who had gone through such surgeries and were suffering from complications.  Instead, he vowed to lose weight on his own, changing his sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits.

According to CNN:

“He lost 130 pounds in the first six months, then dropped another 140 pounds over the course of the next year. At 5-foot-8, Bryan now weighs just under 300 pounds ... When Bryan returned to the doctor, the change in his blood work was almost unbelievable. He's off many of the medications he was on before; his blood pressure medication has been cut four times over the last two years ... Most importantly, at 577 pounds, Bryan was prediabetic. Now, he's looking forward to a bright, diabetes-free future.”

A new study has shown that exposure to sunlight boosts fertility in both men and women by increasing their levels of vitamin D.  Vitamin D balances sex hormones in women and improves sperm count in men, according to the research.

In women, vitamin D boosts levels of the sex hormones progesterone and estrogen, which helps to regulate menstrual cycles and make conception more likely.  In men, vitamin D is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell.

According to the Daily Mail:

“It also increases levels of the male sex hormone testosterone, improving a man’s libido ... The vitamin’s effect on both male and female sex hormones may explain why conception rates fall in the winter and peak in the summer in Northern European countries”.