Pharmaceutical drugs come with risks, risks most users choose to ignore. We block out the risks when we hear about a drug on television or the radio. We either skim over the words in print or ignore them altogether. Due to trust that the federal government will protect us and a belief that pharmaceutical companies have our best interest at heart, we play Russian roulette, believing we would never be so unlucky as to suffer a serious side-effect. After all, they are so rare!

We are all aware that antibiotics can cause allergic reactions, even fatal ones. It is not so common knowledge to find an antibiotic can cripple or kill in other ways.

Chris Dannelly was in the prime of his life at age 41. His physical (two months prior to his death) showed he was in excellent health. He was an athlete who stayed in shape. When he came down with the flu and pneumonia, he was prescribed levofloxacin (brand name Levaquin) an antibiotic manufactured by Jansen Pharmaceutical, a division of Johnson and Johnson. This antibiotic was the best selling antibiotic in the United States in 2010.

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Just because something is published in a science journal or reported on the news doesn’t mean it’s true. You need to look at how a study is designed, as well as decide if it seems to make sense. There’s a lot of ways statistics can be used to make information seem true, when in fact it may not be.

In a scientific study that claims separation anxiety from your iPhone can actually make you dumber. That’s right — test subjects got so anxious when separated from their iPhones their heart rate and blood pressure went up, and their ability to solve puzzles went down. Did this actually make them less smart? Were they forgetting dates and ways to add? No way. Maybe they briefly had trouble solving a complicated puzzle, but I don’t think it really makes us stupid, despite what the headline might say.

Here’s some other health advice that you should think twice about.

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Oil pulling – swishing sesame or sunflower oil around the mouth without swallowing for 15 to 20 minutes every morning – is an Ayurvedic practice that is promoted as a way to prevent a host of health concerns related to the mouth. These include the prevention of:

• Tooth decay
• Bad breath
• Bleeding gums
• Dryness of the throat
• Cracked lips

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Lifestyle changes and medicines are equally effective in preventing men and women with prediabetes from progressing to type 2 diabetes, a new analysis finds.

Previous research has shown that lifestyle changes, such as a healthier diet and regular exercise, and use of medicines to lower blood sugar levels can delay or prevent the onset of full-blown diabetes in people with prediabetes.

However, it wasn’t known what effect, if any, gender might have on the effectiveness of these interventions, the researchers from Austria said.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review that assessed potential sex-specific differences in effects of preventive interventions in prediabetic people,” wrote Dr. Anna Glechner, of Danube University Krems, and Dr. Jurgen Harreiter, of the Medical University of Vienna, and colleagues.

People with type 2 diabetes don’t make or use the hormone insulinproperly. Insulin is needed to convert glucose from food into energy. Type 2 diabetes, the more common type, is linked to being overweight and sedentary.

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Everyone enjoys a good laugh. But, did you know that it is actually good for you? A little laughter on a regular basis can go a long way towards improving your life. Here are 4 scientifically backed reasons to lighten up and squeeze out a few giggles more often.      

Boost emotional health. Laughter releases the feel-good hormones dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. These little guys work to improve your moods, enhance your experiences, and even reduce stress and pain.

Appear more attractive. Catching someone’s eye may be as simple as offering their jokes a light chuckle. That’s right, laughing can actually make you more attractive to others. According to research, women tend to prefer a man with a sense of humor, while men prefer women who laugh at their wit.

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Here’s another good reason to consider choosing organic fruits and vegetables: the case of a 10-year-old girl who had an anaphylactic reaction to a slice of blueberry pie. Her clinical course has alerted allergists to the possibility that some people can have a severe allergic response to antibiotic residues in food. The young patient had a history of asthma and seasonal allergies as well as anaphylaxis to penicillin and cow’s milk, but she had no known allergy to the ingredients in the pie.

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Pesticides are an increasing concern among populations all across the world. Even organic food, which is grown without the use of chemical additions, are suffering from the effects of pesticide overexposure. Not only are they harming our food, our bodies, and our environment, many pesticides may be non essential when it comes to keeping crops safe from insects. Here are some of the shocking facts about pesticides that everyone should know.

Children Harmed by Pesticide Exposure, Yet EPA Says There isn’t an Issue

Three recent university studies, spanning up to 14 years in duration, have proven Chlorpyrifos as negatively impacting human health, including organ damage, mental disorders, learning disabilities, increased autism rates, and an average of 7 IQ point decline in children exposed. EPA continues to turn a blind eye.

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Instead of taking a pill, taking in such spine-tingling wonders as the Grand Canyon, Sistine Chapel ceiling or Schubert’s “Ave Maria” may give a boost to the body’s defense system, according to new research

Scientists from the University of California Berkeley have linked positive emotions – especially the awe we feel when touched by the beauty of nature, art and spirituality – with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins that signal the immune system to work harder.

“Our findings demonstrate that positive emotions are associated with the markers of good health,” said Jennifer Stellar, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study, which she conducted while at UC Berkeley.

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder that causes progressive destruction of the cartilage and bone of joints. The long-term prognosis of RA is poor, with as much as 80% of patients affected becoming disabled with a reduced life expectancy. There are lots of drugs one can take, but unfortunately they’re often associated with severe side effects including blood loss, bone loss and bone marrow suppression, and toxicity to the liver and eyes.

The efficacy of curcumin was first demonstrated over 30 years ago in a double-blind crossover study: curcumin versus phenylbutazone, a powerful anti-inflammatory that is used in race horses. Both groups showed significant improvement in morning stiffness, walking time, and joint swelling, with the complete absence of any side effects from curcumin (which is more than can be said for phenylbutazone, which was pulled from the market three years later after wiping out people’s immune systems and their lives).

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A compound found in green tea may trigger a cycle that kills oral cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, according to Penn State food scientists. The research could lead to treatments for oral cancer, as well as other types of cancer.

Earlier studies had shown that epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a compound found in green tea, killed oral cancer cells without harming normal cells, but researchers did not understand the reasons for its ability to target the cancer cells, said Joshua Lambert, associate professor of food science and co-director of Penn State’s Center for Plant and Mushroom Foods for Health. The current study shows that EGCG may trigger a process in the mitochondria that leads to cell death.

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