Zika Virus Transmission from French Polynesia to Brazil

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4593458/

Didier Musso

To the Editor: Campos et al. (1) reported a Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak in Brazil in 2015. This response adds complementary data related to the propagation of this mosquitoborne disease.

To date, the largest ZIKV outbreak occurred in French Polynesia during 2013–2014. The outbreak spread to other Pacific Islands: New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Easter Island, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands (2). The origin of introduction of ZIKV to French Polynesia remains unknown; introduction of ZIKV in New Caledonia was after imported cases from French Polynesia (3); introduction to Easter Island was suspected to have occurred among attendees of the annual Tapati festival, including those from French Polynesia (4). The virus was likely transmitted to New Caledonia, Cook Islands, and Easter Island when infected travelers from French Polynesia were bitten by vectors while on the islands. Frequent travel between New Caledonia and Vanuatu is likely related to the introduction of ZIKV in the latter country.

Phylogenetic studies showed that the closest strain to the one that emerged in Brazil was isolated from samples from case-patients in French Polynesia and spread among the Pacific Islands (1); both strains belong to the Asian lineage. It has been assumed that ZIKV was introduced to Brazil during a World Cup soccer competition in 2014 (5), although no ZIKV-endemic Pacific countries competed. However, in August 2014, the Va’a World Sprint Championship canoe race was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Four Pacific countries (French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, and Easter Island) in which ZIKV circulated during 2014 had teams engaged in this contest in several categories. These data combined with phylogenetic studies by Zanluca et al. (5) suggest that ZIKV introduction in Brazil may have been a consequence of this event. In areas where potential vectors are present, vigilance should be enhanced to detect imported cases of ZIKV, and laboratory capacity to confirm suspected ZIKV infections should be strengthened.

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Footnotes

Suggested citation for this article: Musso D. Zika virus transmission from French Polynesia to Brazil [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 Oct [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2110.151125

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References

1. Campos GS, Bandeira AC, Sardi SI. Zika virus outbreak, Bahia, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015. Oct [cited 2016 Jul 7]. [PubMed]

2. Musso D, Cao-Lormeau V, Gubler D. Zika virus: following the path of dengue and chikungunya? Lancet. 2015;386:243–4. 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61273-9 [PubMed] [Cross Ref]

3. Dupont-Rouzeyrol M, O’Connor O, Calvez E, Daurès M, John M, Grangeon JP, et al. Co-infection with Zika and dengue viruses in 2 patients, New Caledonia, 2014. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015;21:381–2. 10.3201/eid2102.141553 [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Cross Ref]

4. Schwan K. Zika virus—Pacific (07): Chile (Easter Island), French Polynesia (07). ProMedmail. 2014. Mar 9 [cited 2016 Jul 7]. http://www.promedmail.org, archive no. 20140309.2322907.

5. Zanluca C, de Melo VCA, Mosimann ALP, dos Santos GIV, dos Santos CND, Luz K. First report of autochthonous transmission of Zika virus in Brazil. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2015;110:569–72. 10.1590/0074-02760150192 [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Cross Ref]

I Knew Sugar Was Bad, But This Blew Me Away!   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNtjV3j3Tp4

Botanical Name(s): Artocarpus Heterophyllus
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Subfamily: Asteroideae
Tribe: Artocarpeae
Genus: Artocarpus
Species: A. heterophyllus
Popular Name(s): Jakfruit, Jaca, Nangka
Parts Used: Seeds, fruit, leaves
Habitat: Rainforests of India

Jackfruit

Description
The largest tree-borne fruit in the world, jackfruit (artocarpus heterophyllus) is grown on a species of tree in the mulberry family. The evergreen trees are large, often reaching a height of above 20 m. The jackfruits can sometimes weigh over 75 lbs. however, the average sized fruits are 1-2 feet long, and 9-12" wide. The exterior of the fruit is green-yellow, with small spiky knobs, while the flesh is custard yellow, with a banana-like flavor. The leaves are oblong, oval or elliptic, usually 4 to 6 inches in length and leathery, glossy and deep green in color.

There are two varieties of jackfruits: one that is small, fibrous, soft, and mushy and the carpels are sweet, with a texture like that of a raw oyster. The other variety is crisp and crunchy, but not very sweet. Jackfruits are believed to have originated in the rain forests of the Western Ghats in India. They are vegetated in other parts of India, South-east Asia, East Indies, Philippines, Brazil and Surinam also. Jackfruit is known as kanthal in Bangla, panasa in Sanskrit, katahal in Hindi, pala in Tamil and chakka in Malayalam.

Plant Chemicals
(+)- all-trans-lutein (24-44%), all-trans-beta-carotene (24-30%), all-trans-neoxanthin (4-19%), 9-cis-neoxanthin (4-19%), 9-cis-violaxanthin (4-10%)

Uses & Benefits of Jackfruit

• The leaves of jackfruit tree are useful for curing fever, boils and skin diseases. When heated, they prove useful in curing wounds.
• The latex of the fruit is helpful in treating dysopia, opthalmities and pharyngitis.
• The latex can also be mixed with vinegar to heal abscesses, snakebites and glandular swellings.
• The wood of jackfruit tree is widely used in manufacturing musical instruments, furniture, doors, windows and roof constructions.
• The seed starch is useful in relieving biliousness, while the roasted seeds are regarded as aphrodisiac.
• To heal ulcers, the ash of jackfruit leaves is burnt with corn and coconut shells and used either alone or mixed with coconut oil.
• The root of jackfruit tree forms the remedy for skin diseases, fever and diarrhea.
• The heartwood of the tree is used by Buddhist forest monastics in Southeast Asia, for dying the robes of the monks to light brown color.
• In China, the pulp and seeds of jackfruit are considered as a cooling and nutritious tonic. The fruit is useful in overcoming the influence of alcohol on a person’s body system.

Caution

• The wood of jackfruit tree has sedative properties, due to which its pith can result in abortion.
• Jackfruit can increase coagulation.
• People who are allergic to birch pollen can show signs of allergy towards jackfruit.
• www.iloveindia.com

1987: WHO Admits Its Smallpox Vaccine Caused AIDS - WHO Omits That It Requested The Virus

1987: WHO Admits Its Smallpox Vaccine Caused AIDS - WHO Omits That It Requested The Virus

"[A] 1972 report (Bulletin #47) issued by the World Health Organization .... referred to an immune virus requested [Emphasis added] which would selectively destroy the Human T Cell System, to be distributed in conjunction with a Nationwide vaccination program "to observe the results". This coincided precisely with the extensive Small Pox vaccination program in central Africa - shortly preceding the outbreak of Aids in Africa, America & elsewhere. The determining factor most common in Aids victims is the breakdown of the T Cell System in the body."

From http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/a-universal-declaration-of-resistance-to-mandatory-vaccinations/

 

Below is an article describing how the WHO attempted to deal with those who saw and questioned the obvious connection between the WHO's massive smallpox vaccine campaign and the outbreak of AIDS in all the places it gave it.

 

Before reading the following article about the WHO and the smallpox vaccine, please be aware of seven things. 

1.  People have seen that ebola suddenly broke out in each of the places the WHO (and UN and UNICEF and Doctors without Borders) recently ran vaccine campaigns in West Africa.

2.  Ebola is a man-made bioweapons owned and patented by the US government and the CDC.

3.  The WHO now, on the basis of ebola outbreaks that coincided with its own vaccine campaign,  now plans a massive vaccine campaign against ebola with untested vaccines that will contain the ebola virus (a bioweapon) that can cause ebola and mass deaths.

4.  The US is interested in the oil, diamonds and minerals in West Africa, has been stopped by people living there, but, because of an "ebola emergency" claimed by the WHO after there were outbreaks of ebola following the WHO vaccine campaigns there, now has 1000s of troops in West Africa.

5.  The US and other countries who contribute to the WHO were also interested in the mineral wealth of Central Africa prior to the WHO's smallpox vaccination campaign.

6.  The pharmaceutical industry which was the main supporters of Hitler and intensely interested in genocide, became the main supporters of the WHO, coincidentally formed immediately after WWII, was involved in killing millions with the smallpox vaccines.  They coincidentally made an immense fortune on AIDS drugs and research funding, all the while not revealing that the WHO had requested an AIDS-like virus just prior to the pharmaceutical industry making the small pox vaccine and AIDS breaking out immediately afterwards.

 

7.  This WHO vaccine campaign issue is not a historical issue because Bush's pandemic laws and the WHO International Health Regulations would make vaccines mandatory now if the WHO declares a  pandemic emergency (with no proof needed) and even if people believed they could cause more AIDS or cause ebola and deadly.  Then, it would be Americans, not just Africans hiding from vaccines or killing vaccine teams because the vaccines are killing tens of thousands of children. 

http://exopolitics.blogs.com/ebolagate/2014/11/1987-who-admits-smallpox-vaccine-caused-aids-who-omits-that-it-requested-it.html

From http://www.wanttoknow.info/870511vaccineaids

STROKE signs

Stroke has a New Indicator     They say if you email this to ten people, you stand a chance of saving one life. Will you send this along?  Blood Clots/Stroke - They Now Have a Fourth Indicator,  theTongue  I will continue to forward this every time it comes around! STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters.....S. T. R.   STROKE  IDENTIFICATION It only takes a minute to read this. A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.  RECOGNIZING A STROKE Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps - STR. Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a  bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions: S  *Ask the individual to SMILE. T  *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK    A SIMPLE SENTENCE  (Coherently)  (i.e.  Chicken Soup) R  *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue NOTE:  Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke. A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. I have done my part. Will you?

How Do Soft Drinks Affect Us?

How Do Soft Drinks Affect Us?

More and more, many of us exchange drinking regular water with soft drinks. But soft drinks are not a healthy alternative, as we well know. But how unhealthy is it really? What potential adverse effects can drinking a certain amount of soft drinks lead to? This infographic was prepared and summarized to get these important points across.

By Alexandra Sifferlin 

5 Things You Should Know About Chicken Pox and Shingles

The news raised questions about how likely adults are to get chicken pox and how chicken pox is related to a condition that’s more common among adults, shingles. So here are some quick facts about the infections.

If you never had chicken pox as a child, can you still get the infection as an adult?
Yes. Although most cases of chicken pox occur before age 10, adults who have never contracted the infection are still at risk.
Can chicken pox be more severe in adults?
Most people get chicken pox when they are young, but the symptoms can be more severe among people who catch the infection in an older age. They include loss of appetite, fever, headache, tiredness and rashes, all of which can be more taxing on the health of elderly adults.
What is shingles, and how is it different from chicken pox?
Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a painful skin rash caused by the same virus responsible for chicken pox: the varicella zoster virus. Even if you had chicken pox in the past, you can still contract shingles. That’s because the chicken-pox virus remains in the body, lying dormant in the roots of nerves, and can reactivate many years later. It’s not clear why the virus reawakens — in some people it never does — but researchers believe that the virus is triggered as the immune system weakens with age or in conditions of stress.
About 1 out of 3 people in the U.S. is affected by shingles at some point in their lives, with the majority of cases occurring in men and women ages 60 and older.
Shingles is less contagious than chicken pox and cannot be passed from person to person. However, the varicella zoster virus can be spread from a person with shingles to someone who has never had chicken pox. The unfortunate recipient might develop chicken pox, but not shingles.
How long is a person contagious with the chicken pox or shingles?
The infection can take anywhere from 10 to 21 days to develop after exposure to someone with chicken pox or shingles. People with chicken pox are contagious a couple days before their rash appears and remain so until all of their blisters have scabbed. A person with shingles, on the other hand, can only spread their infection while their skin rash is still blistering. They’re not contagious before the blisters occur, and are no longer contagious once the rash starts to scab.
What’s the best way to prevent chicken pox and shingles?
To avoid chicken pox, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends two doses of the chicken-pox vaccine — which is 98% effective — for kids, adolescents and adults who have not had chicken pox. Adults who have not had the disease and may be in close contact with young children who are likely to be infected should consider getting vaccinated. Children should receive the first dose when they are between 12 months old and 15 months old, and a second dose when they are 4 years old to 6 years old. The U.S. started chicken-pox immunizations in 1995, so Walters would not have been vaccinated as a child.
There is also a shingles vaccine. Zostavax is recommended for people ages 60 and older since they are most vulnerable to the infection. Currently, the CDC doesn’t have a recommendation for the vaccine in people ages 50 to 59, but the Food and Drug Administration did approve the shot for this age group as well. According to the CDC, shingles-vaccination rates among adults are low, but there was a 16% increase in people ages 60 and older who were immunized in 2011. While the vaccine cannot protect you completely from a bout with shingles, it can make the rashes less painful and help clear them up more quickly.
 http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/29/5-things-you-should-know-about-chickenpox-and-shingles/

Antibiotics and the Meat We Eat

By DAVID A. KESSLER

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/opinion/antibiotics-and-the-meat-we-eat.html?_r=2&

Published: March 27, 2013 

SCIENTISTS at the Food and Drug Administration systematically monitor the meat and poultry sold in supermarkets around the country for the presence of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. These food products are bellwethers that tell us how bad the crisis of antibiotic resistance is getting. And they’re telling us it’s getting worse.

But this is only part of the story. While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals. This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock these drugs breeds superbugs that can infect people. We need to know more about the use of antibiotics in the production of our meat and poultry. The results could be a matter of life and death.

In 2011, drugmakers sold nearly 30 million pounds of antibiotics for livestock — the largest amount yet recorded and about 80 percent of all reported antibiotic sales that year. The rest was for human health care. We don’t know much more except that, rather than healing sick animals, these drugs are often fed to animals at low levels to make them grow faster and to suppress diseases that arise because they live in dangerously close quarters on top of one another’s waste.

It may sound counterintuitive, but feeding antibiotics to livestock at low levels may do the most harm. When he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1945 for his discovery of penicillin, Alexander Fleming warned that “there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” He probably could not have imagined that, one day, we would be doing this to billions of animals in factorylike facilities.

The F.D.A. started testing retail meat and poultry for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 1996, shortly before my term as commissioner ended. The agency’s most recent report on superbugs in our meat, released in February and covering retail purchases in 2011, was 82 pages long and broke down its results by four different kinds of meat and poultry products and dozens of species and strains of bacteria.

It was not until 2008, however, that Congress required companies to tell the F.D.A. the quantity of antibiotics they sold for use in agriculture. The agency’s latest report, on 2011 sales and also released in February, was just four pages long — including the cover and two pages of boilerplate. There was no information on how these drugs were administered or to which animals and why.

We have more than enough scientific evidence to justify curbing the rampant use of antibiotics for livestock, yet the food and drug industries are not only fighting proposed legislation to reduce these practices, they also oppose collecting the data. Unfortunately, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as the F.D.A., is aiding and abetting them.

The Senate committee recently approved the Animal Drug User Fee Act, a bill that would authorize the F.D.A. to collect fees from veterinary-drug makers to finance the agency’s review of their products. Public health experts had urged the committee to require drug companies to provide more detailed antibiotic sales data to the agency. Yet the F.D.A. stood by silently as the committee declined to act, rejecting a modest proposal from Senators Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, both Democrats, that required the agency to report data it already collects but does not disclose.

In the House, Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Louise M. Slaughter of New York, also Democrats, have introduced a more comprehensive measure. It would not only authorize the F.D.A. to collect more detailed data from drug companies, but would also require food producers to disclose how often they fed antibiotics to animals at low levels to make them grow faster and to offset poor conditions.

This information would be particularly valuable to the F.D.A., which asked drugmakers last April to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics for these purposes. The agency has said it would mandate such action if those practices persisted, but it has no data to determine whether the voluntary policy is working. The House bill would remedy this situation, though there are no Republican sponsors.

Combating resistance requires monitoring both the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our food, as well as the use of antibiotics on livestock. In human medicine, hospitals increasingly track resistance rates and antibiotic prescription rates to understand how the use of these drugs affects resistance. We need to cover both sides of this equation in agriculture, too.

I appreciate that not every lawmaker is as convinced as I am that feeding low-dose antibiotics to animals is a recipe for disaster. But most, if not all of them, recognize that we are facing an antibiotic resistance crisis, as evidenced by last year’s bipartisan passage of a measure aimed at fighting superbugs by stimulating the development of new antibiotics that treat serious infections. Why are lawmakers so reluctant to find out how 80 percent of our antibiotics are used?

We cannot avoid tough questions because we’re afraid of the answers. Lawmakers must let the public know how the drugs they need to stay well are being used to produce cheaper meat.

David A. Kessler was commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997. 

FDA to crack down on antibiotics in animals reared for meat

Regulators announce new guidelines for drug firms to phase out some antibiotics as a growth enhancer in livestock.The Food and Drug Administration is taking steps toward phasing out the use of some antibiotics in animals processed for meat in the US, citing a potential threat to public health.

Many cattle, hog and poultry producers give their animals antibiotics regularly to ensure that they are healthy and to make the animals grow faster. Now, the agency has announced that it will ask pharmaceutical companies to voluntarily stop labeling drugs important for treating human infection as acceptable for that growth promotion in animals.
If the companies sign on — and one major company has already said it will — using those antibiotics to promote growth in animals would be illegal. Prescriptions would be required to use the drugs for animal illnesses.
The FDA has been debating how to address the issue of antibiotics in meat for several years as consumers have become more aware of the issue and are clamoring for antibiotic-free meat. McDonald's, among other companies, has moved to limit the drugs in their meat, pushing many animal producers to go along.
The FDA move is designed to limit antibiotic-resistant diseases in humans. Repeated exposure to antibioticscan lead germs to become resistant to the drug so that it is no longer effective in treating a particular illness.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health problem. In September the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released sobering estimates that more than 23,000 people a year are dying from drug-resistant infections.
The biggest risk is from germs spread in hospitals, and it's not clear how much of the problem is related to the use of drugs in meat. Still, the FDA says this is one step toward decreasing resistance.
"We need to be selective about the drugs we use in animals and when we use them," said William Flynn of FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. "Antimicrobial resistance may not be completely preventable, but we need to do what we can to slow it down."
The new guidance will give the companies three years to comply.
Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner of foods, said he believes asking industry to make the changes is the fastest way to help phase the drugs out. If the FDA made the process mandatory, he said, the agency would have had to move forward with a complex regulatory process that could take years.
"We have high confidence based on dialogue with industry that this initiative will succeed," Taylor said.
Drug company Zoetis, a leading manufacturer of animal antibiotics, has already said they will comply.
"This reflects our continued commitment to antibiotic stewardship and represents the many ways that Zoetis promotes the responsible use of antimicrobial drugs in animals," the company's statement said.
Animal agriculture groups will not have much of a choice in the matter if drug companies sign on and make the drugs' use illegal. But many antibiotics will still be available for those producers to use, just not those that the FDA has classified as most important for treating human infections. Some of the antibiotics that could not be used in animals are penicillins and tetracyclines, the FDA said.
Many animal groups signaled support for the FDA guidance after it was announced Wednesday, including the National Pork Producers Council. Still, Dr. Liz Wagstrom of the pork producers' group said the FDA action will mean "real change" in the way antibiotics are used on the farm, as some animals may not grow as quickly and producers may see more disease. She said she does not know how much it will cost the industry.
Some advocates pushing to rid the animal food supply of antibiotics said the FDA did not go far enough. Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, a microbiologist, said the FDA should have made the action mandatory. The guidance "falls woefully short of what is needed to address a public health crisis," she said.
Others hailed the agency move as progress.
"We commend FDA for taking the first steps since 1977 to broadly reduce antibiotic overuse in livestock," said Laura Rogers of The Pew Charitable Trusts' human health and industrial farming campaign. "There is more work to do, but this is a promising start, especially after decades of inaction."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/11/fda-crackdown-antibiotics-animals-meat

Are you an oyster lover?

Here are some benefits of eating oysters:

1. Oysters contain more zinc than any other food. Zinc is necessary for proper growth and development, strengthens the immune system and promotes healing.
2. Oysters are heart healthy. They are high in omega – 3 fatty acids, potassium and magnesium which can help reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke and lower blood pressure.
3. Oysters can help you lose weight! They are low in calories, low in fat and a good source of protein which makes you feel fuller after eating.
4. Oysters are a good source of other essential nutrients. These include vitamins A, E, and C, zinc, iron, calcium, selenium, and vitamin B12.
5. Oysters can help improve your energy. They are a good source of iron which helps the body transport oxygen to individual cells giving you more energy.
6. Oysters can help lower your cholesterol. A study done by the University of Washington found that eating oysters can help raise the HDLs (good cholesterol levels) and lower the LDL’s (bad cholesterol levels).

Other interesting tidbits about oysters:

1. Oysters taste better in cooler weather. Spawning, which occurs in the warmer months of May, June, July and August, affects the taste. They are not bad, just not as tasty as in the cooler months.
2. Oysters  are considered to be an aphrodisiac. American and Italian researchers found that they were rich in amino acids which trigger increased levels of sex hormones. Their high zinc content aids the production of testosterone.
3. Oysters can be safely eaten in non “R” months. The rule of thumb before refrigeration was not to eat oysters in months whose names have no “R”. This would be May through August when the hot weather would not allow for safe storage of the oysters. Thankfully, for all us oyster lovers, refrigeration makes it possible to eat them all year round!
4. Oysters are good for your garden. Oyster shells are high in calcium which helps balance your soil’s pH. Calcium also helps build strong cell walls which leads to healthier plants. BUT – don’t just throw your oyster shells in the garden though, they should be ground – or you could just purchase the ground oyster shell lime at the local garden center.
5. Oysters can contain harmful bacteria. Be sure of your source! Oysters are filter feeders meaning that they concentrate anything present in the surrounding water. In the gulf coast area, there would occasionally be warnings (after heavy rains causing the potential for water contamination), not to eat the bay seafood.
6. Shucking (opening) oysters is a competitive sport. Shucking oyster competitions are held worldwide. There is even a Guinness World Oyster Opening Championship in Galway, Ireland.
7. Eating oysters is environmentally friendly. They are on the Seafood Watch list as a “best choice”. This means that seafood in this category is abundant, well-managed and caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways.
I knew I liked oysters – now I have other reasons besides just the taste!

How about you – are you an oyster lover?

Homemade Moisturizing Body Scrub

Homemade Moisturizing Body Scrub, that I am going to share with you today, is probably my absolute favorite! It leaves your skin feeling SOFT and SMOOTH like you’ve never experienced before! (At least like I had never experienced before! ) It is meant to be used in the shower, and you honestly don’t even need to use any moisturizer when you get out. You will absolutely be glowing!

To get started on making the body scrub, you will only need four simple ingredients. If you don’t have some of these ingredients on hand, a great place to purchase them from is Mountain Rose Herbs. I highly recommend their products, and I know that Stacy does too. (And yes, all of these ingredients are edible, although I don’t think I have ever actually eaten shea butter!)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup Shea Butter
• 3 TBSP Olive Oil
• 3 TBSP Coconut Oil (melted, but not hot)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar

METHOD:

Begin by filling a 1/2 C measuring cup with shea butter, making sure to pack it down tightly. Transfer the shea butter to a small pan, and gently heat, using the double boiler method, until the butter is nice and soft. You don’t want to melt the butter, but just soften it to make it easier to work with.

Next, transfer the shea butter to a stand mixer, and beat on high speed until it has a whipped consistency and doesn’t feel grainy when rubbed between your fingers. This will take around 3-4 minutes. It should look like firm whipped cream when it is done. (If you think your tempted to eat it now, just wait till later!)

Combine the olive oil and melted coconut oil together in a small container with a spout. SLOWLY pour the oil into the bowl of shea butter, while beating on high speed. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides as you go.

Once all of the oil is incorporated into the shea butter, continue mixing on high speed for 1-2 minutes until it is nice and fluffy and looks like a soft, delicious whipped cream. If desired, you could also add some essential oils now. I usually don’t, because I like the smell of just the coconut oil and brown sugar, but you could experiment with adding some if you would like.

At this point, you really could just stop, and use this as an after-shower moisturizer. I have done this before, but my favorite way to use this is as an in-shower moisturizing body scrub. It is just so nice, and makes your skin feel AMAZING! (Have I already said that? Please excuse me if I’m repeating myself!)

To turn this into a body scrub, you just need to add something that will exfoliate. This step is very flexible, and there are many things that could be added here. My favorite thing to use is brown sugar. It gives it a wonderful smell, and it does a great job at exfoliating. Some other things that you could consider using instead of sugar would be salt, coffee grounds, ground up oats, etc. Anything that will provide you with a gentle scrub can be used in place of the sugar. You could even do a combination of exfoliators if you would like.

So add the brown sugar (or whatever you decide to use) to your whipped butter and gently mix it in. (If you use brown sugar, make sure that there are no clumps of sugar before you add it to your bowl. It will be a lot easier to mix in this way, and you will not end up with any big sugar clumps in your exfoliator.)

That is all there is to it! And although, you could eat this, I think it would serve it’s purpose better on your skin! To use, simply rub the body scrub all over yourself while you’re in the shower, rinse off, and dry. You don’t need to use a lot – a little bit will go a long way. When you get out of the shower, your skin will feel like silk, and you will be glowing!

This recipe makes around two cups of moisturizing body scrub. I like to store mine in glass ball jars. For a simple gift idea, fill up a 1 cup ball jar with your homemade body scrub, sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top (just for fun!), seal it with a lid, and decorate the jar with a cute ribbon and/or a homemade gift tag. Everyone loves receiving handmade gifts! I made some recently as a special treat for my friend who just had a baby, and she loved it! But make sure to save some for yourself, so you can have beautiful, glowing, soft, smooth, radiant skin too! Enjoy!

http://adelightfulhome.com/homemade-moisturizing-body-scrub/

The Olive Oil Hair Treatment

The Olive Oil Hair Treatment

Photo Credit

Olive oil isn’t just for cooking — it’s great for your hair, too! Olive oil has been proven to give hair a healthy sheen, help to repair split ends, and reduce frizz.
To give your hair a conditioning treatment, massage about 2 tablespoons of olive oil into your hair and scalp. The amount you’ll use should vary depending on the length and thickness of your hair. And remember to massage it in well – the massaging feels really nice on your scalp, but is also important to the treatment, as massage stimulates helps promote a healthy scalp.
Next, take a warm, damp towel and wrap it around your head and treated hair (“turban” it). Leave it on for about 30-45 minutes. This allows the olive oil to work into your hair to have the full effect.

Finally, rinse out the olive oil with shampoo. This might take a few shampoo-ings (when I tried it, it took 2 rounds.) Give your hair further rest by allowing it to air dry, if you have the time. Then say hello to your luscious locks!

http://www.collegefashion.net/beauty-and-hair/dorm-room-spa-3-easy-diy-beauty-recipes-to-try/

Home Remedies for Food Poisoning  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jn7-QONMNs

Most of us have suffered through food poisoning at one time or another. Food poisoning is caused by bacteria or other toxins in food. Some of the symptoms are nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Food poisoning should not be ignored.
When you are suffering from food poisoning, your body will lose more water than normal. So try to stay well hydrated by drinking at least eight glasses of water throughout the day. The water will help flush out the toxins and bacteria causing your symptoms. Along with water, you can also drink diluted fruit juice and broth. You can also start treatment immediately with simple and readily available ingredients from your kitchen.
Here are the top 10 home remedies for food poisoning.

1. Ginger

   Ginger is an excellent home remedy for curing almost all types of digestive problems related to food poisoning.
   
   • You can drink one cup of ginger tea after eating lunch or dinner to stop heart burn, nausea and other symptoms associated with food poisoning. To make ginger tea, boil one teaspoon grated ginger in a cup of water for a few minutes, add sugar and your tea is ready
   • Add a few drops of ginger juice to one teaspoon of honey and swallow it several times a day to reduce inflammation and pain.
   • Eating raw ginger increases the acid level in your stomach, which will help you digest your food more quickly.

2. Apple Cider Vinegar

   Due to its alkaline nature, apple cider vinegar can alleviate various food poisoning symptoms. Apple cider vinegar will soothe the gastro-intestinal lining and kill the bacteria, giving you instant relief.
   
   • Just mix two tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of hot water and drink it before eating any solid food to prevent acid indigestion.
   • Alternatively, you can drink two tablespoons of undiluted apple cider vinegar.

3. Fenugreek Seeds and Yogurt

   Yogurt is another anti-bacterial agent that can counter attack the bacteria that cause food poisoning. You can take one teaspoon fenugreek seeds along with a tablespoon of yogurt. You just need to swallow the seeds and need not chew them. The combining effect of fenugreek seeds and yogurt will give you an immediate relief from stomach pain as well as vomiting.

4. Lemon

   The anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antibacterial properties in lemons can give you much relief. The acid in lemons helps kill bacteria that cause food poisoning.
   
   • Just add a pinch of sugar to one teaspoon of lemon juice and drink it two to three times a day.
   • You can also sip on warm water with lemon juice to clean out your system.

5. Basil

   Basil is an excellent herb that can cure infections caused by food poisoning. You can get the benefits from basil in several ways.
   
   • Drink basil juice witha tablespoon of honey several times a day.
   • Put a few drops of basil oil in one liter of drinking water. Drink it slowly throughout the day to kill bacteria causing stomach pain and other problems.
   • Add basil leaves, some sea salt, and a pinch black pepper to three tablespoons of plain yogurt. Eat this three to four times a day until your symptoms are gone.

6. Garlic

   Garlic is also very effective in fighting food poisoning due to its strong antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties. It relieves symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal pain by destroying unhealthy microbes in the intestines.
   
   • Eat one fresh garlic clove, swallowing it with water. If you can tolerate the smell of garlic, you can also try garlic juice.
   • Alternatively, you can make a mixture of garlic oil and soybean oil and rub it on your stomach after eating.

7. Banana

   Bananas are a rich source of potassium that greatly helps reduce the various effects of food poisoning. Because bananas are very soft,they are easy on the stomach. Eating just one banana will also help restore your energy level. You can simply eat a ripe banana or make a tasty and healthy banana shake and drink it two to three times a day.

8. Cumin

   Cumin seeds can control stomach inflammation due to food poisoning.
   
   • Just crush one tablespoon of cumin seeds and swallow it, then drink a glass of water.
   • You can also make an herbal drink from cumin seeds, salt, and asafetida. Drink it two to three times a day. This will cleanse the system and relieve your symptoms.

9. Herbal Tea

   Sipping on different types of herbal tea can help soothe your disturbed system and keep your body well hydrated. Peppermint tea has a soothing effect on your stomach and can relieve stomach cramps. Comfrey root and meadow sweet tea will treat your stomach infection. If you are experiencing nausea, try licorice tea or chamomile tea as these teas will reduce inflammation and calm your stomach.

10. Honey

    Honey has both antifungal and antibacterial properties that can be effective for treating indigestion and other food poisoning symptoms. Honey as a natural remedy can be taken in its pure form or added to tea. A teaspoon of honey three times a day can do wonders to heal an upset stomach due to food poisoning and indigestion. It also controls the formation of excessive acid in the stomach.

These natural treatments are sure to alleviate the symptoms of food poisoning and help you get instant relief. However, if symptoms continue, consult a doctor immediately.

http://www.top10homeremedies.com/home-remedies/home-remedies-for-food-poisoning.html

The Evil Brain: What Lurks Inside a Killer’s Mind

As tragedies like Boston and Newtown mount, scientists and criminologists are trying harder than ever to understand the minds behind the crimes

By Jeffrey Kluger

Homicidal madmen don’t have much of a capacity for gratitude, but if they did, they’d offer a word of thanks to Charles Whitman. Whitman was the 25-year-old engineering student and former Marine who, in 1966, killed 17 people and wounded 32 in a mass shooting at the University of Texas, before being shot and killed himself by police. Earlier that day, he also murdered his wife and mother. Criminal investigators looking for a reason for the rampage got what seemed to be their answer quickly, in the form of a suicide note Whitman left at his home:

Read more: Evil Brains: Can Science Understand Them? | TIME.com http://science.time.com/2013/05/03/evil-brain/#ixzz2kluOU52O

"I do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts … please pay off my debts [and] donate the rest anonymously to a mental-health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type." Whitman

Whitman got his wish — after a fashion. With the approval of his family, an autopsy was conducted and investigators found both a tumor and a vascular malformation pressing against his amygdala, the small and primitive region of the brain that controls emotion. A state commission of inquiry concluded that the tumor might have contributed to the shootings, earning Whitman a tiny measure of posthumous redemption — and providing all killers since at least the fig-leaf defense that something similar might be wrong with them too.
For as long as evil has existed, people have wondered about its source, and you don’t have to be too much of a scientific reductionist to conclude that the first place to look is the brain. There’s not a thing you’ve ever done, thought or felt in your life that isn’t ultimately traceable to a particular webwork of nerve cells firing in a particular way, allowing the machine that is you to function as it does. So if the machine is busted — if the operating system in your head fires in crazy ways — are you fully responsible for the behavior that follows?

Even before Whitman made it into the medical texts, scientists were already familiar with the case of Phineas Gage, the 25-year-old railroad worker who, in 1848, was helping to blast a path for a new rail line in Vermont when an errant explosion drove an iron rod into the top of his head, through his left frontal lobe and out his cheekbone. Gage, incredibly, didn’t die and nor did he even exhibit much loss of function. But after the bar was removed, there was a sudden change in his personality. Always a peaceable man, he become volatile, combative and, after a lifetime of polite speaking, wildly profane. It was science’s first glimpse at the seemingly direct cause-and-effect connection between trauma to the brain and the very essence of personality. As our ability to image and repair the brain has improved, we’ve been able to detect far less obvious damage than a railroad spike through the skull — damage that nonetheless has every bit as great an effect.

In a celebrated 2003 case published in the Archives of Neurology, for example, a 40-year-old Virginia schoolteacher with no history of pedophilia developed a sudden interest in child pornography and began making sexual overtures to his stepdaughter. His wife reported his behavior, and he was arrested and assigned to a 12-step program for sex offenders. He flunked out of the course — he couldn’t stop propositioning staff members — and was sentenced to prison. Only a day before he was set to surrender, however, he appeared in a local emergency room with an explosive headache and a range of other neurological symptoms. Doctors scanned his brain and found a tumor the size of an egg in the right orbitofrontal cortex, the region that processes decisionmaking and other so-called executive functions. The tumor was removed and the compulsive sexuality vanished along with it. Less than a year later, the tumor returned — and so, almost in lockstep, did his urges.
“There’s no one spot in the brain for pedophilia,” says Stephen J. Morse, professor of both law and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. “But damage to the orbitofrontal region is known to be associated with disinhibition. We know that various forms of brain damage can contribute to difficulties in being guided by reason.”

Other, more recent studies are finding roots of criminality in other parts of the brain. As Maia Szalavitz reported in April, a team of researchers led by Kent Kiehl, associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which the brains of 96 male felons sentenced to at least a year in jail for crimes including robbery, drug dealing and assault were scanned in a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI). While they were in the fMRI, the men performed a task that required them to hit a key on a computer when they saw the letter X on a screen, but refrain when they saw the letter K. Since the X appeared 84% of the time and since the two letters look awfully similar to begin with, it was easy to get into the habit of overclicking. The ability to avoid hitting the key too much calls for a measure of impulse control, a faculty processed in a region of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The inmates who did worse on the test turned out to have lower levels of activity in the ACC; the ones who performed better had higher levels. Kiehl tracked all of the inmates for four years after their release from prison and found that those with the sleepy ACCs were also more than four times likelier to be rearrested than the others. If you can’t control your impulse to click, the study suggested, you might have equal difficulty controlling the impulse to run afoul of the law.
“There are more papers coming out that show how MRIs predict who reoffends,” said Kiehl in a follow-up e-mail with TIME. “We are examining treatments that increase activity in the anterior cingulate. The goal is to see if we can help identify the best therapies to reduce recidivism.”

Koenigs, who has collaborated with Kiehl, has conducted other work with inmates linking both the amygdala and a region known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex as possible accomplices in crime. The amygdala is the wild child of that pair, the brain’s seat of fear, suspicion, anger and more. Those are not always bad emotions, provided the ventromedial is able to do one of its assigned jobs, which is to keep the amygdala on a short leash. Working with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Koenigs was given access to two groups of volunteer prisoners at a medium-security facility: one diagnosed as psychopathic, one nonpsychopathic.
In the first of two tests, Koenigs scanned the men’s brains with a diffusion tensor imager, a type of MRI that detects how water molecules interact with tissue. In this case, he was trying to determine the soundness of the white matter — the fatty insulation — that protects the neural circuits connecting the ventromedial and the amygdala. In a second test, he used an fMRI to study more directly how clearly the two regions were communicating. In both cases, the brains of the psychopaths were in worse shape than those of the nonpsychopaths, with less robust white-matter insulation and the nerves beneath it doing a poorer job of transmitting signals.
“You can use the findings of this study as a proxy for the connectedness between these two structures,” Koenigs says. “The remorselessness and violence seen in psychopaths may be attributable to the regions not communicating effectively.”

Other studies make a similar case for the mechanistic roots of crime. Enzymes known as monoamine oxidases (MAO) are essential to keeping human behavior in check, breaking down neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine and ensuring that the brain remains in chemical balance. Babies born with a defect in an MAO-related gene — known colloquially as the warrior gene — have been shown to be at nine times higher risk of exhibiting antisocial behavior later in life. Adrian Raine, professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that infants under 6 months old who have a brain structure known as a cavum septum pellucidum — a small gap in a forward region between the left and right hemispheres — are similarly likelier to develop behavioral disorders, and face a higher risk of arrest and conviction as adults as well.
All of this makes the case for a neurological role in many violent crimes hard to deny, but all of it raises a powerful question too: So what? For one thing, brain anomalies are only part of the criminal puzzle. A rotten MAO gene indeed may play a role in later-life criminality, but in most cases it’s only when children have also been exposed to abuse or some other kind of childhood trauma. A child with a stable background and bad genetics may handle his warrior impulses just fine. Koenigs may have found cross-talk problems between the ventromedial and the amygdalae of psychopaths, but he also acknowledges that he didn’t get a look at the men’s brains until they were, on average, 30 years old, and a lot could have gone on in that time. “They’ve had a lifetime of poor socialization, drugs, alcohol, they’ve had their bell rung,” he says. “You don’t know what causes what.”
Even the case of the pedophile schoolteacher, whose pathology switched cleanly off and cleanly on depending on the presence of his tumor, was less clear than it seems. “He touched his stepdaughter only when his wife was not around, and his wife and co-workers had not noticed any problems,” says Morse. “Clearly he had some control or some rational capacity. You can’t say that just because the tumor caused him to have pedophiliac desires, he wasn’t responsible.”
That’s the zone in which science and the law always collide — the causation question that can’t simply be brain-scanned or tissue-sampled or longitudinally tested away. People like Morse believe where once we attributed all crime to moral laxity or simple evil, we’ve now overcorrected, too often looking to excuse criminal behavior medically. “I call it the fundamental psycholegal error,” he says. “The belief that if you discover a cause you’ve mitigated or excused responsibility. If you have a bank robber who can show that he commits crimes only when he’s in a hypomanic state, that does not mean he deserves excuse or mitigation.”
Koenigs takes a more forgiving view: “I’ve been part of a Department of Justice project to help inform judges about how to assess culpability,” he says. “The legal system currently goes about it the wrong way, relying on whether criminals know right from wrong. Maybe they do, but the kinds of things that would then give most people pause just don’t register on some of them.”
Where the two camps do agree is on the need to keep society safe from the predations of people whose raging brains — no matter the cause — lead to so much death and suffering. Here legal theory yields a little more easily to hard science. Scanning every inmate’s ACC before making parole decisions will surely raise privacy issues, but if the science can be proven and perfected, isn’t there a strong case for trying it — especially if, as Kiehl suggests, it might lead to therapeutic and rehabilitative strategies? Babies taken from abusive parents might similarly be scanned as part of a routine medical check, just in case a telltale gap in the brain hemispheres could exacerbate the trauma they’ve already endured, making therapeutic intervention all the more important.
Evil is far too complex and far too woven into our natures for us to think that we can always adjudicate it fairly. But the better we can understand the brains that are home to such ugliness, the more effectively we can contain it, control it and punish it. Now and then, with the help of science, we may even be able to snuff it out altogether.


Read more: Evil Brains: Can Science Understand Them? | TIME.com http://science.time.com/2013/05/03/evil-brain/#ixzz2klwBQODw