Jon Barron’s Natural Health Blog

When Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey sang the Wayne's World theme song, "Party time....excellent," they probably didn't have swine flu parties in mind. Who could even imagine such a thing? But sure enough, that's the newest craze sweeping the world, with Mom's across the globe discussing the benefits of bringing their kids to just such a shindig. And why? Because they hope that exposing their children to the bug will build immunity against future exposures, when more virulent strains might possibly appear.

Here's a shocker to mull over the next time you sip your glass of heart-healthy cabernet: alcohol consumption causes one in 25 deaths worldwide, according to new research. The study, published in The Lancet, found that the mortality rate in Europe and particularly in Eastern Europe, was actually far higher, with one out of every 10 deaths directly related to alcohol. Alcohol also causes up to six percent of all disability worldwide.

While the medical establishment has been patting itself on the back because colon cancer rates in the US have declined in the past 20 years, an insidious trend has been brewing. A new study shows that young people under the age of 50 have experienced rising rates of colon cancer in every age category; it's only the older folks who are getting it less. 

Back in 2003, depressed people had something other than bad parenting to blame for their mental malaise. At that time, a well-publicized study announced that a link had been found between a gene called 5-HTTLPR and depressive illness. The research postulated that people with a variant of that gene didn't carry serotonin to their brain cells effectively. Since serotonin seems to allay depression, the scientists suspected that those with the gene variant would get depressed when life became difficult. And sure enough, the study found that those subjects who had the gene did get more profoundly depressed after traumatic life events than the subjects lacking the gene.

No matter the side effects and the fact that it's illegal: an article on the British Medical Journal website advocates the use of Ritalin to help adults think more clearly. Using the "if Johnny can do it, why not me" argument, the author, Dr. John Harris of the University of Manchester, says that Ritalin has been deemed safe enough for hyperactive kids, so it must also be safe enough for adults. Even better, he believes they should have free access to the stuff. In fact, he asserts that it is "unethical" to stop healthy people from taking the drug and that it's relatively safe. "Safe always means safe enough," he says, "and since no drugs are free of side effects, that always means the consumer has judged the risks of adverse effects worth taking, given the probable benefits."

One sure sign that you're cresting the hill is the appearance of wrinkles on your face. A recent survey of 1200 baby boomers found that 58 percent of the respondents agreed that wrinkles are the surest way to determine a person's age.  And since few people want to look old, the business of eradicating wrinkles remains a huge industry, with anti-wrinkle cream sales soaring even as the economy tanks.

Back in the 1100's, gonorrhea became so prevalent that British Parliament enacted a law to control the epidemic. One hundred years later, Louis IX of France decreed that those with the disease needed to leave the country.  The disease continued to be a scourge through the centuries. In the 1700s, healers favored mercury injections as the treatment of choice -- which perhaps destroyed gonorrhea -- but only in the process of also destroying the brain, lungs, kidneys, and other organs (a medical model still in favor today). So the introduction of antibiotics in the 20th Century was an historic miracle, finally cutting rates of new infections dramatically. Between 1975 and 1996 alone, rates of infection fell by 72 percent.

If any industry should know the statistics verifying the deadly impact of smoking, that industry would be the life insurance industry. Insurers know that smokers have double to triple the mortality rate compared to non-smokers -- which is why companies like Prudential won't even grant life insurance to those who smoke, or else they charge smokers exorbitant premiums. And yet, demonstrating an extraordinary degree of cynicism, some of the world's largest life insurance companies invest heavily in tobacco. In fact, insurance company investments in tobacco industry stocks amount to $4.5 billion.

As of 2006, United States citizens spent $27 billion annually on alternative and complementary treatments. According to a New York Times survey, 48% of adults in the United States used at least one alternative or complementary treatment in 2004 -- and that percentage has probably climbed in the intervening years. And most insurance companies now reimburse alternative practitioners.  But despite the popularity of alternative medicine, the press persists in trying to persuade readers to avoid alternatives at all costs.

If you've seen the movie Supersize Me, you might think you know all there is to know about the evil effects of gorging on fast-foods -- but here's yet another factor to consider. Researchers at the University of Toronto found potentially carcinogenic chemicals from food wrappers -- the type of wrappers that burgers and subs come in, for instance -- at high concentrations in the blood of all the subjects they tested.