The bliss of sleep

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By Andrew Hiller: I've been thinking a lot about the need for sleep recently. My mother suffers from sleep apnea, like many Americans, and I had been suffering from an uneasy sleep too over recent weeks. I attributed it to stress, but it also could be diet, an inconsistent bed time and a number of other factors. Like many Americans, I take sleep for granted even though I know how important it is cognitively and physically. Still, in the attempt to do what I need to, what I want to and meet my obligations for work, family, friends, and every so often self... I found myself losing zzz's. However, while the Prism was on hiatus I did something I haven't done for two years. Nothing. I went on holiday. I didn't take the cell phone... though I did take the lap top. I went to someplace warm and slept, wandered out with a sketchpad, and every so often emerged for a small adventure, but mostly... blissfully, I did nothing. Now, nothing included seeing some 1200 year old petroglyphs marked in dark red on the walls of a cave in Arikok National Park. It also included taking a trip in a non-yellow submarine to look at corals, critters, sea turtles, and an assortment of plants. But mainly, nothing means that I got to sleep in. Sometimes, all the way to 8am! And sketch and chat about silly things and forget about all the imminent nothings that are so crucial and immediate and desperate. There's something to be said for living a 20th Century life. Not having that virtual umbilical cord tied to you where people expect to call, text, IM, and email and get an immediate response was... well, it apparently was worth a few letters more than Z. I think I'm going to incorporate that into my life somehow because if I've learned anything while looking through the Prism on Radio VR, here in Washington, it's that sometimes the healthiest thing you can do for yourself is nothing. Source: Voice of Russia - US Edition

Read More........→October 04, 2016

“Natural” Foods Don’t Always Have Natural Ingredients

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Photo credit: © Thinkstock/Nakano Masahiro/AmanaimagesRF

By Lauren Murphy: WASHINGTON (VR) –Consumer Reports is campaigning to remove the label natural from food products. They say it’s deceptively used and “widely misunderstood” by consumers. While the FDA says products with the label shouldn’t include anything artificial, it has not issued any solid guidelines on what the products can and can’t contain. Melinda Hemmelgarn is a registered dietician and the host of Food Sleuth Radio. She said she thinks the campaign is a great idea. “Consumer Reports gets no advertising dollars, so all of their work is essentially nonbiased.” “We know that consumers oftentimes think that Natural labeling is superior to organic and nothing could be further from the truth.” Hemmelgarn said it is highly politically charged. “The food industry makes a lot of money based on consumer misunderstanding. Consumers will pay more for something that has a natural label on it even though it doesn’t confer any health benefits.” She said organic foods are better because they are regulated by the USDA and farmers have strict guidelines they have to adhere to to obtain approval. Source: Voice of Russia - US Edition

Read More........→February 24, 2016

Caught in dieting trap

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© Photo: freeimages.com

People lose track of who they really are amid piles of photoshopped images. Blinded by their body image ideal, they subject their bodies to all kinds of experiments. Dieting is a common choice. It's easy to fall for a fad that promises good looks with little effort.

Tosi Ivanova: According to Marci Anderson, a Cambridge-based nutritionist and dietitian, the medical community is also contributing to the modern diet craze. It has developed a “warn on obesity” and instead of working on people’s health it’s actually making a target out of people’s bodies, which feeds their obsession with appearance. Bingbing Xia, a San Francisco-based freelance writer who has contributed to rawbayarea.com, a web resource on raw food dieting, noted that people in the US readily switch between diets opting for ones that promise better looks: “A couple years ago everyone was all about veganism. And then there was this huge interest in low carb, like PALEO and PRIMO - they are two really popular communities, it’s a really different kind of lifestyle than vegan lifestyle, but so many people who used to be vegan started eating meat again, because they decided that it was more important to be low carb, because low carb was what made you lean and thin. It just shows how quickly someone might abandon their philosophy, whatever they think is moral, for something else, and then you wonder if that’s because it’s really just a covering for wanting to look really great,” Bingbing Xia said. People who don’t fit the modern beauty ideal are often subject to verbal abuse, criticism, and bullying. Leanne Thorndyke, Head of Communications at the UK-based Beat charity organization focusing on eating disorders, noted that there isn’t enough diversity across fashion, media, and advertising, so a lot of people aren’t aware of the fact that what’s considered good-looking is actually not healthy. Theresa Kinsella, a New York-based dietitian specializing in eating disorders, is certain that the human body has an innate ability to regulate itself in a healthy way but people forget about it because they constantly get distracted by dieting: “Usually people that are attracted to dieting are attracted to the rules of dieting because they don’t trust themselves and that frequently is a very scary thing for people. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of times people don’t really understand what comfortable hungry might feel like or the continuum of hunger but a lot of times people know the extremes. So people will know what starving feels like and stuffed feels like but they might not be familiar with the grey area. And so a lot of it is trusting that in-between place and learning what the physical sensations in the body around eating feel like,” Theresa Kinsella said. A lot of the diets make you feel great at the beginning, but two months fatigue and irresistible sugar cravings set in. Without yielding any substantial results, most diets harm people's health. Dieting and restricting food intake is actually one of the worst things a person can do to their body, according to nutritionist Marci Anderson. Cutting calories, going on cleanses or detox diets are some of the riskiest habits that could lead to the development of a full-blown eating disorder.  Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→January 22, 2016

Neurological disabilities... you are what you eat and breathe

Image credit: © Bowie15, iStock\Thinkstock

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A new study is finding that the origins of autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyslexia may have at least one of its roots in the exposure to pesticides, solvents and other neurotoxicants.

Phillipe Grandjean, an adjunct professor of environmental health at Harvard's School of Public Health in Cambridge, Mass., said that the risk of neurological dysfunction due to exposure to these toxicants is large and is occurring on a global scale. “I would say basically all children, all pregnant women in the world are at risk to some degree [to toxicants],” Grandjean said, “some of which can damage brain development.” While many of us are aware of the potential problems associated with lead and mercury, scientists just don't know what effects all the chemicals we put in the air, water, and our food may have. For example, Grandjean has found an association between manganese levels and impaired motor skills, while certain solvents have been linked to hyperactivity and aggressive behavior. The reason for that, he added, is that we are all exposed to industrial chemicals. Not all, though, are at equal risk. “It is true,” Grandjean admits, “that there are variations in the degrees of exposure. There are, for example, some developing countries with just enormous exposures to lead and pesticides, while [exposure] may be at least less in some Western countries." Some of these substances are well known. For example, DDT is a pesticide that has been banned in the United States and much of the Western world for decades, but after a period of disuse, it is once again making a comeback for malaria control in some developing countries according to Grandjean. This is not however exclusively a third world problem. “Since grapes” Grandjean explains as an example of an exposed food, “are then exported to say, Northern countries, that are not using it or where it is banned, the substance will enter the food from residues of the pesticide that originate from warmer countries where this pesticide is being used extensively.” One of the difficulties of neurotoxicants is that their effects are insidious. "This is not readily diagnosable,”Grandjean said, “but if you look at a whole population of children then there's a shift of the distribution so that there are fewer smart kids and there are more kids having problems and all of them are functioning at a lower level than they could have been... and I would think every single mother in this country and internationally they would not on behalf of their kids donate away IQ points." Nonetheless, there are a wide number of substances that many children are exposed to regularly. “Manganese is an example, and fluoride, and there are the brominated flame retardants that are being added or have been added to textiles to tents, sleeping bags, uh, sleepwear, furniture, etc. All of those, they are in our drinking water. They are in our house dust. They are in the air pollution.” “The real severe problem here is that there is no country in the world, certainly not the United States, where we are testing industrial chemicals to determine if the products are safe for pregnant women and children with regard to that extremely vulnerable organ the developing brain,” Grandjean stated. The impact of these chemicals may not manifest only in intelligence, but also in fine and gross motor skills, attention, and a variety of other functions regulated by the brain. “The human brain is such a complex organ that is uniquely sensitive to toxic chemicals and since a very large number of industrial chemicals can make it from the mother's bloodstream, through the placenta, into the fetus, and into the fetal brain... then we are essentially exposing a crucial part of our organ functioning to chemicals that can potentially damage the brain cells.” Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→December 14, 2015

How to enjoy your food and lose weight?

Photo: RIA Novosti

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Hundreds of millions of people would like to lose weight and become fitter. So what is stopping them? There is certainly no shortage of literature and information available on how to improve one’s diet. But could we be approaching this problem from the wrong point of view by trying to limit the amount of food we eat rather than by changing what we eat? Victor Michaelson, Managing Partner of Consulting Group Slow Food Ulitka shared with the Voice of Russia's Eco Plus his different point of view, and he is worth listening to.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/radio_broadcast/47136388/273262229/

By: John Harrison Can people like me change our eating habits? 

• Victor Michaelson: First and foremost, you have to change your mindset and don’t preach, on the one hand, and defend yourself that things that you do are because of your stressful life, because of the inability of good food around and so on. There is always a way to carry life that you are satisfied with. And I would say that there are two basic things. First is diversity, your food has to be diverse. You don’t have to stick to something specific, should it be Coca Cola, which I stress out completely, or chocolate, which is not so bad in limited quantities. The second thing is just to limit yourself, not to eat too much. We all know that we eat too much. And the first task that I would give to everyone who turns to me for an advice, is to try to limit the quantity of food you eat. But is it possible for people like me, who’ve been eating the way we eat?
• Victor Michaelson: I need to turn to my own personal story. I started looking at what I'm eating at the age of 45, which is not exactly the teenager or a toddler age. And my eating habits changed drastically, as well as the functioning of my body, my look, my health level and so on. And it wasn’t a revolutionary change, it was evolutional. I started to look what I'm eating, first. And started to try to eat less, especially in the second half of the day. It is not like you’d have to finish eating 6 hours before you go to sleep. And after the last eat for three hours you are fine, and then in the last three hours before you go to bed you are hungry and you struggling with it. It is not a good thing. You have to eat whenever you want to eat, just to eat less. Ideally, is eating six times a day. Is there a way that a layman like me can know where to get, let’s talk about dried fruit, which hasn’t got sugar in it?
• Victor Michaelson: I'm not a professional, I'm not a specialist, I'm just within this movement and spent a lot of time, even years in it, so I have some understanding. I visit markets. There are plenty of markets in Moscow, for example, and everywhere in the country. And in Moscow, we have these weekend markets. Pretty much every district would have one. There should be someone who is selling dried fruits. And you should go to this person and ask him what exactly you have sugar free. And you will be surprised how happy this person will be to show a real stuff. He would pull something and say – this is a real kuraga (dried apricots)from my mountains or brought by my friend. It looks ugly, it looks like brownish stones and you would never buy it in the supermarket, because it is not shining with the colour and so on. But if you take it home and put in a hot water for several minutes, you will have the most delicious thing in this period of your life. Do you need to become a health food fanatic?
• Victor Michaelson: Slow food is about enjoying life and enjoying food. You have to be a hedonist, but you have to be an enlightened hedonist, educated hedonist. You listen to your intuition, you listen to the general attitude and what people are saying, what people are writing about it.

You go to the market with someone who is more profound in this issue who would show that this is a good thing, this is not. You talk to the people who sell it, because at least half of them are pretty honest people who really want you to buy good stuff. And also, when you limit the quantity of food, you save money. And when you save money, you are able to buy something more expensive on the same budget. Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→December 13, 2015

Do children increase our happiness? Polls say 'maybe'

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Photo credit: © iStock/Andrey Kryuchkov

By Andrew Hiller: WASHINGTON (VR)—It is an argument that has taken place in bars, over Christmas, and with mother-in-laws across time. Do children create happiness? Now, a new study attempts not to answer the question, but to compare different nations as to how happy having children make them. After analyzing the responses from over 3 million people worldwide the answer was a qualified "maybe." The data collected between 2008 and 2012 concluded that economics had a large impact of having children on a person's perceived happiness, contentedness, and stress. Overall, parents reported more ups and downs than non-parents. Those with children at home reported higher levels of all the emotional responses, including happiness and stress, smiling and anger. But when researchers took into account other attributes that parents tend to have -- higher education, more income, better health and religious faith -- they found similar levels of life satisfaction as reported by non-parents. On the whole, both US groups rated their lives about a seven on a scale of one to 10. Adults of all ages with children at home rated their lives 6.82 while the childless came in at 6.84. When researchers looked solely at people in the prime child-rearing years (age 34-46) they found people with kids rating their lives at 6.84, just higher than those without kids at 6.51. In the rest of the world, the survey results told a different story: people with kids -- at least those outside the rich English-speaking world -- tended to be less content with their lives. Radio VR host Andrew Hiller spoke with Pat Fagan of the Family Research Council. Source: http://sputniknews.com/

Read More........→April 10, 2015

Exercise may prove as effective as drugs - study

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A new study has shown that exercise could be as effective as prescription drugs in the fight against many common illnesses. Researchers found that patients with conditions such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and those at risk of strokes reacted as positively to exercise as they did to medication. VoR's Simon Parker reports. 

Researchers found that patients with conditions such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and those at risk of strokes reacted as positively to exercise as they did medication. Academics from the London School of Economics and the Harvard Medical School say that further research is urgently needed. They believe exercise should be considered a viable alternative to some medicines and have stressed the need to lead a life that includes regular exercise. “We are all leading more sedentary lifestyles,” said Nikki Hill from the Stroke Association. “We often spend all day behind a desk so it can be hard for all of us to get the exercise we need to, but sometimes it’s just small changes that can help.” For stroke patients exercise was proven to be more beneficial than medicine – but for people with heart failure, diuretic drugs appear to be better than exercise. Medical experts have been quick to stress that patients should continue to follow their prescribed course of treatment and exercise is not always the best option. Katharine Greathead from Heart Research UK hopes the latest study will place more of an emphasis on illness prevention rather than merely relying on medicines as a cure. (Voice of Russia) Simon Parker, Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........→January 11, 2015

More young people suffering strokes - research

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The number of young and middle-aged people suffering from strokes around the world has soared over the past two decades, according to new research. VoR’s Tim Ecott spoke to Joe Korner, the director of external affairs at the Stroke Association.

A study in the Lancet found that between 1990 and 2010 - the number of strokes afflicting people aged 20 to 64 increased by a quarter - with this age group now making up 31 per cent of the global trend. “Not only do a large proportion of the people who have stroke come from a younger age bracket, but that age bracket seems to be increasing in terms of stroke, which is very alarming,” says Joe Korner. If this trend continues - disabilities, illnesses and premature deaths caused by strokes are expected to double worldwide by 2030. A lot of assumptions about the physical reasons for strokes are based one’s lifestyle, lack of exercise, sugar-based diet, smoking, and high blood pressure. “You can lower your risk by eating healthy, five bits of fruit and vegetables per day, take some exercise, don’t smoke and drink in moderation. Those are the main things you’ve got to do. And remember the stroke symptoms - face, arms and speech – they can all be affected and if that happens, get to the hospital as quickly as possible,” advices Joe Korner. (Voice of Russia), Tim Ecott, Source: Voice Of Russia

Read More........→January 11, 2015

Stress and how employers are tackling it - News

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A study released on Wednesday by the mental health charity MIND has found that more people are becoming stressed by the pressures of modern life. It looks at the way in which people are choosing to deal with their stress levels and the reasons for how they got to be so stressed. Simon Parker has been looking at the study in more depth. Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........→November 27, 2014

'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen

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Everything great has a way of perpetually fascinating us, and though it may seem hard to be fascinated by the same thing over and over again, it’s actually not. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, published in 1813, is fascinating in more senses than one. It’s not only because this novel remains relevant regardless of the huge gap between our world and Austen’s: after all, every great book is relevant despite having more or less nothing to do with our present condition. 

What’s really amazing is that the first draft of this novel was completed when Austen was 21. Things like that are capable of making us both depressed and glad; “Pride and Prejudice” may well be one of the books that shape our perceptions of love and dignity and social rules and culture. All that, and probably more, is embedded in a universally familiar story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darsy, who are destined for each other but have to come to realize and to accept it. 

From the very beginning— from the first moment, I may almost say— of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry. 

“Pride and Prejudice” was Austen’s second novel, published after the first one, “Sense and Sensibility,” had proved to be successful. The book was advertised, it was well received and it sold well; a second edition followed the same year. It was immediately translated into French, German, Danish, and Swedish. Yet almost nothing predicted that this novel would become one of the most influential works of fiction known to us. A modern critic argued that “Pride and Prejudice” was about that thing that all great novels considered, the search for self and it was the first great novel that taught us this search was as surely undertaken in the drawing room making small talk as in the pursuit of a great white whale or the public punishment of adultery. Scholars turned their attention to Austen around the 1940s, by which time she had enough distinguished admirers; the poet W.H. Auden wrote in 1937:

You could not shock her more than she shocks me,

Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.

It makes me most uncomfortable to see

An English spinster of the middle class

Describe the amorous effects of 'brass',

Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety

The economic basis of society.

“Pride and Prejudice” must reveal something else, not only the economic basis of society, otherwise it wouldn’t have become such a huge part of our life. 10 movies based on it are evidence enough, but even more impressive is the list of books influenced by it: there are hundreds of them. As one can imagine, not all of them seem to have much in common with “Pride and Prejudice”, nor do they have to: influence works in mysterious ways and sometimes produces curious results. Thanks to a crowd of imaginative Austen lovers, we can revisit her story altered by murder, sex, and zombies, to take a look at it from Mr. Darcy’s point of view, and to see what happens to his five daughters. Source: Article

Read More........→October 21, 2013

US ranks 30th in global infant mortality

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One million newborns die on the first day of their life around the world. The US is ranked 30th in the State of the World's Mothers report compiled by the Save the Children fund. Den Hewitt, campaigns director with Save the Children, talks about infant mortality in the world and in the US. In terms of risk, we're seeing the greatest challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of sheer numbers, you still got a number of countries in South Asia. Globally, I think it reminds us that a million children die on the first day of being born and it's a big challenge. We're actually seeing improvements globally on reducing child mortality, but particularly in the newborn phase we're not seeing as fast progress. So there is now 43% of all child mortality happening in that first month of life. We're seeing quite an impact through gender inequality, though malnutrition and the gap of health care between the richest and the poorest in many countries which is increasing. So you can see a country like India where you've got massive economic growth, but the benefits aren’t being shared equally. India has the highest number of newborns dying in the first day of life. When I was looking though the report one thing that really stood out to me was that the U.S. has the highest death rates for newborns in the

2010 Mothers' Index Rankings, via chartsbin.com

industrialized world. I think this statistic was 11,300 babies dying on the day they're born in the U.S. every year. Is that surprising for you? The report has highlighted that the U.S. ranks 30th which is very high compared to other industrialized countries and countries in Europe. There are a range of indicators within this report and so the U.S. performs quite well on education and economic status, but it's really lagging behind on maternal health and children's well-being. You're seeing this inequality and poverty and exclusion in the U.S. And we're actually seeing that in a number of countries around the world, in a country like Nigeria or India they’re ensuring that there's a health worker within reach of every child. And looking at underlying factors, gender inequality has a major implication on children's wellbeing and the wellbeing of the mother, the educational status of women in that country and also malnutrition. And particularly where the mothers are malnourished we're seeing more premature births and a higher mortality

World Child Development Index, via chartsbin.com 

rates on the first day. The intervention is needed. And the key thing is scaling those up across the country, making sure that all children and mothers have access to everything they need. Is that really what it is? It's just as simple as building the hospitals, making sure that people access to vaccination? Will that really turn the situation around? You do see great inequality in the report and so you see that between countries, but also within countries, if countries had more health coverage equally across the country, you'd see much more improved rights. And so we're looking for that investment in enduring that proven interventions are there for every mother and child. And that they're delivered by a trained supervised health worker, whether you're in the most remote area or an excluded area, just as much as a city center. Democratic Republic of Congo comes out at bottom of the table. Is there anything that could be done that would turn that situation around? The Democratic Republic of Congo is geographically a vast country. And also it's been ravished by war and corruption for many years. And I think what's needed there is investment in health care and providing nutrition across the whole country. And so there's still a very big challenge there, not just for the government, but also for international donors. It's absolutely crucial that they remain committed to the D.R. Congo and invest in education particularly for girls and health care for all, but health care that reaches all the community. So training a community health worker in every community would have a dramatic improvement in those countries. Source: Chartsbin, Source: The Voice Of Russia

Read More........→May 12, 2013