Receipts which use ink that fade over time are made with ‘thermal paper’ which contains BPA (bisphenolA). Studies have shown the chemical can lead to hormone-dependent cancers, and has previously been linked to infertility, autism, ADHD, obesity, type 2 diabetes, premature births and early onset of puberty.

There are already concerns about the public being exposed to BPA, which is often found in plastics. We should avoid storing receipts in purses, wallets, or cars, according to Professor Nicolás Olea, from the University of Granada, Spain. BPA is added to receipts to make their writing darker without using ink, and is also found in plastic water bottles and food containers.
International researchers, led by...

http://haleplushearty.org/2019/01/16/receipts-contain-cancer-causing-chemicals/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

According to a new new book, marijuana causes aggression, psychosis, suicides, violence – and that its legalization triggered a sharp rise in murder rates. Public health officials are hesitant to conclusively the influence of marijuana on human behaviour.

The evidence of ‘marijuana’s link to psychosis and violence is so strong, the issue so misunderstood, and the consequences so severe. It wrecks havoc in the brain, and all the evidence points that way.
The National Academy of Medicine still...

http://haleplushearty.org/2019/01/08/marijuana-causes-mental-illness-and-violence/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

When gonorrhoea is resistant to one of two antibiotics recommended to treat it, it is known as super gonorrhoea.

All types of gonorrhoea historically called ‘the clap’ are caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
The sexually transmitted infection (STI) is becoming increasing difficult to treat, able to fight off three common...

http://haleplushearty.org/2019/01/07/super-gonorrhea-is-becoming-more-resistant-to-antibiotics/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

A London-based nutritionist says most keen on beating the bulge are keen to lose fat around the middle, body fat is different from body weight. Studies show that eating dinner by mid-afternoon alters you body’s fat and carbohydrate burning patterns, which could help you lose fat.

There are various forms of time-restricted feeding including the popular 5:2 (fast for two days on 500 calories, eat healthy but normally for five) or 16:8 (finish eating by 8pm and start eating again at midday the next day leaving 16 hours between last night’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast) diets.
In fact, researchers have concluded that eating between 8am and 2pm, followed by an 18-hour daily fast kept appetite...

http://haleplushearty.org/2019/01/04/how-to-lose-body-fat/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

For common birthmarks, doctors should abandon the traditional wait-and-see approach, a leading group of pediatricians says.

Instead, physicians should try to identify those that could cause scarring or medical problems and begin immediate treatment, according to a new American Academy of Pediatrics...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/26/some-birthmark-warrant-quick-treatment/

As legal access to marijuana continues expanding across the U.S., more scientists are studying the effects of its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in teens, adults and pregnant women.

New research from Duke Health suggests men in their child-bearing years should also consider how THC could impact their sperm and possibly the children they conceive during periods when they’ve been using the drug.

Much like previous research that has shown tobacco smoke, pesticides, flame retardants and...


http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/19/exposure-to-cannabis-alters-the-genetic-profile-of-sperm/

Researchers have discovered a human protein that helps fight the Ebola virus and could one day lead to an effective therapy against the deadly disease, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

The newly discovered ability of the human protein RBBP6 to interfere with Ebola virus replication suggests new ways to fight the infection. As viruses develop and evolve proteins to bypass the body’s immune defenses, human cells in turn develop defense mechanisms against those viruses — an evolutionary arms race that has been ongoing for millions of years. This particular defense mechanism has therapeutic potential,...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/14/ebola-fighting-protein-discovered-in-human-cells/

When infants are playing with objects, their early attempts to pay attention to things are accompanied by bursts of high-frequency activity in their brain. But what happens when parents play together with them?...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/14/parents-brain-activity-echoes-their-infants-brain-activity-when-they-play-together/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

A low-salt diet may be more beneficial in lowering blood pressure in females than males, report scientists who found that while actual salt retention isn’t higher in females, there is still an effect that drives pressure up.

Females also might benefit most from drugs that directly block aldosterone, a hormone and blood vessel constrictor that is naturally higher in females and is further elevated by a high-salt diet,...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/11/new-evidence-that-females-might-benefit-most-from-a-low-salt-diet/

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Nature is so complex that natural molecules used for i.e. cancer treatment still can’t be produced by chemical synthesis. Today, major chemical and pharmaceutical companies harvest large amounts of rare plants and seeds in order to extract valuable substances.

But the production methods based on extracts from natural resources are environmentally damaging and often give rise to extensive piles of chemical waste. In addition, there is a great danger that these rare plants will go extinct. The need to find new and more sustainable production methods for these types of medicines has grown since the UN...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/08/scientists-to-produce-anti-cancer-drugs-in-yeast/

Currently, uterus donation is only available for women with family members who are willing to donate. With live donors in short supply, the new technique might help to increase availability and give more women the option of pregnancy. The first baby has been born following a uterus transplantation from a deceased donor, according to a case study from Brazil published in The Lancet. The study is also the first uterine transplantation in Latin America.

The new findings demonstrate that uterus transplants from deceased donors are feasible and may open access for all women with uterine infertility, without...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/05/first-baby-born-via-uterus-transplant-from-a-deceased-donor/


[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

It sounds too good to be true, but a novel approach that might allow you to eat as much food as you want without gaining weight could be a reality in the near future.

When a single gene known as RCAN1 was removed in mice and they were fed a high fat diet, they failed to gain weight, even after gorging on high fat foods for prolonged periods.

The international team behind the study are hopeful a similar approach that inhibits this gene...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/12/04/gene-that-lets-you-eat-as-much-as-you-want-holds-promise-against-obesity/

Caesarean birth prevents important bacterial functions from being passed on. This change impacts immune stimulations during the first days of life and may explain why caesarean-born children suffer more frequently.

Credit: Linda Wampach / University of Luxembourg

Together with colleagues from Sweden and Luxembourg, scientists from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have observed that, during a natural vaginal birth, specific bacteria from the mother’s gut are passed on to the baby and stimulate the baby’s immune responses.

This transmission is impacted in children born by caesarean section. “This may explain why, epidemiologically speaking, caesarean-born children suffer more frequently from chronic, immune system-linked diseases compared to babies born vaginally,” says the head of the study Associate Prof. Paul Wilmes. His team has now published its results in the open access...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/30/altered-microbiome-after-caesarean-section-impacts-babys-immune-system/

A team of researchers led by Jonathan Stamler, MD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, has discovered a pathway for enhancing the self-repair efforts of injured kidneys The finding may pave the way for new drugs to stop or even reverse the progression of serious kidney disease in humans — and other potentially lethal conditions of the heart, liver, and brain as well.

Kidneys filter waste and excess fluid from the blood, excreting the unsafe molecules in urine. As kidneys are injured or fail, waste builds up, potentially resulting in death.

The newly-discovered pathway involves reprogramming the body’s own metabolism in order to save damaged kidneys. Normally, a process called...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/29/re-programming-the-bodys-energy-pathway-boosts-kidney-self-repair/

Exposure to police violence is increasingly recognized as a public health issue in the United States. In this survey study of 1,000 adults in Baltimore, Maryland, and New York, New York, exposure to police violence was reported by many residents, especially those who were racial/ethnic and sexual minorities.

The frequency of exposure to police violence over 12 months ranged from 3 percent for sexual violence (i.e. inappropriate sexual contact including during a body search) to 7.5 percent for physical violence without a weapon (i.e. hit, punched, dragged) and 4.6 percent for physical violence with a weapon (i.e. use of gun, baton, taser) to 13 percent for psychological violence (i.e. threats, intimidation, being stopped without cause) and nearly 15 percent for neglectful policing (i.e. police were called for help but never responded or responded too late or inappropriately).

These exposures were associated with a greater likelihood of mental health issues, including psychological distress, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and psychotic experiences. The authors note causal inferences cannot be drawn from the findings and more research is needed to understand the effect over time of exposure to violence by police.
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

The tissues in our bodies largely are made of fluid. It moves around cells and is essential to normal body function.

But in some cases, this fluid may be doing more harm than good.

In people who have glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer, this fluid has a much higher pressure, causing it to move fast and forcing cancer cells to spread. And a common cancer therapy, which inserts a drug directly into the tumor with a catheter, can make this fluid move even faster.

A team of researchers at Virginia Tech, led by Jennifer Munson, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering, may have found a solution to stopping this inevitable cancer cell...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/22/new-drug-discovery-could-halt-spread-of-brain-cancer/

Men with a greater range of personality traits, especially those deemed extraverted, emotionally stable, agreeable or conscientious, have sex more often and produce more children, according to a new QUT study.

QUT behavioural economists Dr Stephen Whyte, Dr Ho Fai Chan and Professor Benno Torgler have undertaken the largest ever behavioural economics study conducted in Australia looking into personality, sex and offspring.

Their paper — Do certain personality traits provide a mating market competitive advantage? Sex, Offspring & the Big 5 — has just been published in the international journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Dr Whyte said they collected their data from the online Australian Sex Survey of 2016 in which participants were asked a range of socio-demographic questions, as well as given a mini-marker BIG 5 personality test.

“Throughout history, competitive...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/21/when-it-comes-to-love-personality-matters/

New research demonstrates that ‘good’ bacteria in the live probiotic SymproveTM can successfully reach and colonise the gut, where they go on to change the existing gut flora. They are also capable of modifying immune response.

Researchers found that all bacteria in Symprove survived the stomach acid to reach and colonise the gut. The activity of the bacteria in this study were observed using a novel Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) and used donor bacteria from healthy humans. This allows researchers to closely monitor bacteria through in-vitro simulation of the human gut, without the need for invasive procedures and measurements.

The bacteria in Symprove were tested to see if their colonisation would help feed the gut microbiome through the production of lactate. The microbiome has been identified as a disease modifier and an essential part of immunity.

Simon Gaisford, Professor of...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/20/live-probiotics-can-re-balance-the-gut-microbiome-and-modify-immune-system-response/

People who are bullied at work or experience violence at work are at higher risk of heart and brain blood vessel problems, including heart attacks and stroke, according to the largest prospective study to investigate the link, which is published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Monday).

Although the study is observational and, therefore, cannot show that workplace bullying or violence cause cardiovascular problems, only that there is an association, the researchers say their results are robust and have important implications for employers and national...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/19/bullying-and-violence-at-work-increases-the-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease/

Spanking may be increasingly harmful for children on a more global scale than previously known, a new University of Michigan study indicates. Most research on how spanking affects children has involved studying families in high-income countries, such as the United States and Canada, but less was known about how spanking affects children in low- and middle-income countries–or developing countries.

Spanking is one of the most common forms of child discipline used by parents worldwide. The new international research used data collected by UNICEF in 62 countries–representing nearly one-third of the world’s countries–and demonstrated that caregivers’ reports of spanking were related to lower social development among 215,885 3- and 4-year-old children.

A parent or caregiver was asked in person if the child gets along well with other children; if the child hits, kicks or bites others; and if the child gets distracted easily. The question about spanking concerned the physical discipline used within the last month with the child or their sibling.

One-third of the respondents indicated they believed physical punishment is necessary to bring up, raise or educate a child properly. Among the children studied, 43 percent were spanked, or resided in a home where another child was spanked.

A child’s social development suffered in both cases in which he or she was spanked or during times when a sibling had been spanked, the study showed.

“It appears that in this sample … spanking may do more harm than good,” said Garrett Pace, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student of social work and sociology.

Pace also noted that “reductions in corporal punishment might do a great deal to reduce the burden of children’s mental health and improve child development outcomes globally.”

More effort to create policies that discourage spanking has occurred globally. In fact, 54 countries have banned the use of corporal punishment, which can only benefit children’s well-being long term, Pace and colleagues said.
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Diabetes can lead to ulcers that patients don’t even feel or notice until the sight of blood. And because ulcers can’t heal on their own, 14 to 24 percent of diabetics in the U.S. who experience them end up losing their toes, foot or leg.

Purdue University researchers have developed a shoe insole that could help make the healing process more portable for the 15 percent of Americans who develop ulcers as a result of diabetes.

“One of the ways to heal these wounds is by giving them oxygen,” said Babak Ziaie, Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering. “We’ve created a system that gradually releases oxygen throughout the day so that a patient can have...

http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/18/ulcers-from-diabetes-new-shoe-insole-could-provide-healing-on-the-go/

A new study has established that excessive use of social media, in particular the posting of images and selfies, is associated with a subsequent increase in narcissism.

Published in The Open Psychlogy Journal, researchers from Swansea University and Milan University studied personality changes of 74 individuals aged 18 to 34 over a four-month period.

They also assessed the participants’ usage of social media – including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat – during that same period.

Narcissism is a personality characteristic that can involve grandiose exhibitionism, beliefs relating to entitlement, and exploiting others.

Those who used social media excessively, through visual postings,...
http://haleplushearty.org/2018/11/11/excessive-posting-of-selfies-is-associated-with-increase-in-narcissism/

Few things can delight an adult more easily than the uninhibited, effervescent laughter of a baby. Yet baby laughter, a new study shows, differs from adult laughter in a key way: Babies laugh as they both exhale and inhale, in a manner that is remarkably similar to nonhuman primates.

The research will be described by Disa Sauter, a psychologist and associate professor at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, during a talk at the Acoustical Society of America’s 176th Meeting, held in conjunction...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Millions of couples who have trouble conceiving may get relief from new research led by scientists at The University of Texas at San Antonio. The researchers have developed a high-resolution genetic map showing how men produce sperm cells. Their effort could help address genetically based challenges with male fertility, a major cause of conception problems.

The researchers’ findings reveal detailed information about which genes are turned on or off in stem cells that ultimately grow into sperm cells. This data could give doctors crucial insight into the development of sperm in a patient, a perspective that was lacking up until now.

UTSA researcher...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Engaging in musical activities such as singing and playing instruments in one-on-one therapy can improve autistic children’s social communication skills, improve their family’s quality of life, as well as increase brain connectivity in key networks, according to researchers at Université de Montréal and McGill University.

The link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and music dates back to the first description of autism, more than 70 years ago, when almost half of those with the disorder were said to possess “perfect pitch.” Since then, there have been many anecdotes about the profound impact music can have on individuals with ASD, yet...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

A study in Biological Psychiatry has shown that exposure to violence early in life – such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse – is associated with faster biological aging, including pubertal development and a cellular metric of biological aging called epigenetic age. In contrast, children exposed to forms of early life adversity involving deprivation – such as neglect and food insecurity – showed signs of delayed pubertal development compared with their peers.

“[The findings] demonstrate that different types of early-life adversity can have different consequences for children’s development...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Infants born at home have more diverse bacteria in their guts and feces, which may affect their developing immunity and metabolism, according to a study in Scientific Reports. Understanding why babies born at home have more diverse microbiota for at least a month after birth, compared with those born in a hospital, could help prevent disease later in life.

The human microbiome consists of trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses that live on and in our bodies, many of which benefit our health and prevent chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, asthma and gut inflammatory disorders. Microbes transmitted from mother to baby help prevent chronic disease.

“The reasons for the differences between infants born at home versus in hospitals are...

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Having a big brain may cause cancer. That’s what doctor and PhD candidate Even Hovig Fyllingen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has determined with his research colleagues. “Aggressive brain cancer is a rare type of cancer, but once you have it, the chance of survival is relatively low,” he says.

For some types of cancer, lifestyle makes a big difference. People who smoke have a greater risk of lung cancer than non-smokers, for example. A person’s lifestyle matters less for brain tumor development. A large brain means more brain cells. And the more cells you have, the more cell divisions that can go wrong and create mutations that lead to cancer.

“Several studies have shown...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

An experimental vaginal ring meant to prevent pregnancy and HIV looks safe, according to an early stage study. The dual-purpose ring releases the antiretroviral drug dapivirine and the contraceptive hormone levonorgestrel, said researchers led by Dr. Sharon Achilles, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“We are very encouraged by our findings in this first-in-human study of the dapivirine-levonorgestrel ring,” said Achilles, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences.

The ring is designed to provide 90 days’ protection at a time.

This small, 14-day trial involving 24 women who were not pregnant and not infected with HIV was the first clinical study of the ring. Its use resulted in sufficient levels of levonorgestrel to...

[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Where air pollution is high, the level of transportation noise is usually also elevated. Not only air pollution negatively impacts on health, but also car, train and aircraft noise increases the risk for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, as previous research has demonstrated.

Studies investigating the effect of air pollution without sufficiently taking into account the impact that noise exhibits on health, might overestimate the effect of air pollution. These are the results of a comprehensive study conducted by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), which was published today in the peer-reviewed European Heart Journal.

The study looked at the combined effects of air pollution and transportation noise for heart attack mortality, by considering all deaths...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]

Currently, the medicinal use of cannabinoids, extracted from cannabis, is a subject of debate around the world. In Switzerland, more and more people are advocating for increased research into cannabis. Today, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is used in the medical field to deal with certain types of pain, muscle cramps, dizziness and loss of appetite.

However, it is an illegal narcotic and, accordingly, can trigger side effects. THC in its pure form was first isolated from cannabis in 1964 by Raphael Mechoulam at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Until now, it was thought that cannabis was the only plant that produces THC. However, as early as 1994, Japanese phytochemist Yoshinori Asakawa had discovered a substance in the liverwort plant Radula perrottetii which was related to THC and had named this natural substance “perrottetinene.” In this natural product, the individual atoms are linked together...
[url]haleplushearty.org[/url]