Apples Are The New Miracle Fruit

Super-Bugs Are Spreading.
Antibiotic resistant superbugs are spreading around the globe, warns the World Health Organisation.
Thousands are dying from E.coli, tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia and cholera as drugs no longer work.
The World Health Organisation says that it is a “Nightmare scenario” and wants a global plan to fight back before even common infections become incurable.
While their spread is due to poor sanitation in nations such as India, an estimated 25,000 Europeans die from superbugs each year, a 2007 study showed.
A 2010 survey found 88% of tourists to India picked up a tough strain of E.coli.

Cigarettes Stink And Spoil The Atmosphere.
I never believed stories about second-hand smoke, and still don’t.
Cigarettes stink and spoil the atmosphere, and anyone who smokes them near others who are eating is inconsiderate and rude.
But I think the evidence that they give cancer to anyone apart from the people actually smoking them is very thin indeed.
( Peter Hitchens )

Cancer Is Getting More Common.
Pregnant women smoke and drink too much and live on a diet of chemical-rich, fatty food.
Children eat the same type of microwave grub, watch endless TV, live with mobile phones glued to their ears and are vaccinated heaven knows how many times in their early, vulnerable years.
It is hardly surprising that diseases and cancer is getting more common.
And, sadly, unless we change the way we live it will continue to do so.

HIV Has Almost Doubled.
Health Protection Agency data shows new HIV infections in the UK rose from just under 2,000 cases in 2001 to nearly 3,800 in 2010.
Most of these new cases are among men who have sex with men.

Smallpox Vaccination.
An aristocrat and writer, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689 – 1762) is most famous for her observations about Eastern life in her Turkish Embassy letters – following her husband’s posting as ambassador in Istanbul.
Most importantly, she observed Ottoman doctors at work and brought back to the UK knowledge of how to vaccinate smallpox.
This work was then later developed by scientist Edward Jenner – but Montugu should really get the credit for kick-starting the vaccination programmes that continue to save so many lives today.

Marie Curie is among the most famous scientists of all time and won a Nobel Prize twice.
Born in Warsaw, she investigated radioactivity with French husband Pierre.
They discovered polonium in 1898 and radium six months later.
The first studies were then carried out into treating cancer using radiotherapy.
Her discoveries were also crucial in developing x-rays.
She died of leukaemia in 1934 aged 66.

Healthy Ice-Cream And Chocolate With No Calories.
Imagine a world where ice cream is as healthy as a celery stick, chocolate has no calories and one bar of it fills you up.
Where crisps are packed with vitamins and the carton knows when the eggs inside it are turning bad.
We are only a few years away from nanotechnology – which involves the manipulation of tiny particles – being used to create a food nirvana.
It could even help tackle our rising obesity problem by massively reducing fat, salt and sugar and adding goodness to snacks.
While futuristic nano-food uses science to change the building blocks in processed food, nobody is sure how it will affect us long term.
Nanotechnology is already used to make stronger tennis rackets and golf clubs, is employed in waterproof coatings and vitamin supplements.

Apples Are The New Miracle Fruit.
An apple a day really can keep the doctor away – by lowering cholesterol levels in older women.
Post-menopausal females who ate a dried apple every day saw their levels of “bad cholesterol” slashed by 23% in six months – while “good cholesterol” spiked 4%, Florida State University found.
Study leader Professor Bahram Arjmandi said apples are the new “miracle fruit”.

Vegetarians Are Fitter Than Meat Eaters.
Researchers claim vegetarians are a third less likely to get heart disease, diabetes or a stroke than meat eaters.
That is because they have a 36% lower rate of metabolic syndrome, the combination of cholesterol and blood pressure – related symptoms that lead to greater health problems later on.
Even just giving up red meat slightly lowers the risk of developing these conditions, said Loma Linda University, California, from a long term study.

Coffee Lowers The Risk Of A Stroke.
Women who have more than one cup of coffee a day could be 25% less likely to have a stroke.
While coffee is normally linked with negative health effects, researchers found that those with little or no intake were actually more likely to suffer a stroke.
This coffee connection held true regardless of the person’s weight, whether they smoked, consumed alcohol or had a family history of diabetes.
Swedish scientists claim coffee could also lower the risk of other diseases by improving insulin sensitivity and having other beneficial effects.
The findings of the 10-year study of 35,000 women, aged from 49 to 83, were published in U.S. journal Stroke.

Staggering Rise In STIs.
For the past few years the Health Protection Agency, which monitors infectious diseases in Britain, has been warning about the staggering rise in Sexually Transmitted Infections among middle-aged men and women.
It’s latest figures show Chlamydia infections have increased by 9% in the past year, and by 138% since 2001.
Genital herpes is up 15% in the past year and 142% in ten years, while gonorrhea is up 8% in one year and 14% since 2001.
Cases of genital warts, caused by human papillomavirus, which is linked to a range of cancers, have risen by 62% in the past ten years and by 3% in the past year.
And the diseases themselves are becoming more ferocious.
Swedish scientists have announced the discovery of a strain of gonorrhea that has become resistant to antibiotics.
Of course, in numbers, infections among young adults and men who have sex with men are still far greater.
But STIs do not discriminate between 16 or 60-year-olds.

10 Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide.
Let us hope and pray that some good comes from the unbearable death of ten-year-old Harry Hucknall, found hanged at his Cumbria home last September (2010).
Somebody had ‘diagnosed’ this little boy with clinical depression and ‘ADHD’ and had prescribed an antidepressant and Ritalin.
The poor child had been horribly bullied at school.
His parents were separated.
He had moved home 14 times.
It is hardly surprising that he was unhappy.
Why on earth would anyone think that drugs were the answer?
West Cumbria Coroner Ian Smith said that Harry had been given ‘two powerful, mind-altering drugs’.
He urged doctors to be ‘extremely careful in prescribing such medication’.
I congratulate him on his understatement.
Harry’s case became known because his cousin is a rock star.
How many other tragedies like this are going unreported?
We are long overdue for a proper inquiry into the prescribing of such drugs, especially to children.
Let it come soon, please.
( Peter Hitchens )