Talk about health

How do you feel about genetic modification? Up to a few days ago I had no strong feelings about it in principle. I've read some of the arguments for and against and in general could agree with some points on both sides. My working view was that so long as there were proper precautions and careful regulation GM might be a solution to some problems with food production. You could say I've been firmly on the fence.

However, just recently I've come across an article that made my fence-sitting not so firm. Apparently in the USA the number of honey bees has been declining at quite a fast rate. So what? Well. many plants need honey bees to help pollination and fertilisation so that they can form seeds and fruits. It's an essential part of the life cycle of these plants. Bees transfer pollen from flower to flower.

No bees means no seeds or fruit. One estimate has it that seeds and fruit form as much as 33% of the average diet. So, it's hardly a trivial matter.

What has GM to do with all of this?

Scientists have been trying to discover the reasons for the decline in honey bee numbers and one possible source of the problem is GM crops. A German study allowed bees to feed from GM rapeseed and found that having been fed GM pollen, younger bees were affected. The GM pollem seemed to change the normal genetic material in the young bees guts. Normal gut bacteria had changed to match the genetic traits found in the GM cropand suvival goes down.

Clearly this is only one study and we need to have more evidence. But, can we allow honey bees to disappear from our lives? I think not.

Until there is a definitive answer to questions such as the loss of bees and the consequences of it, scientists should tread very carefully. There must be other ways to optimise food production without GM. Large companies are using GM to push their profits up while influencing politicians with their cash-rich lobbying. As with new drugs you don't need to adopt them just because you can.

GM could well have some benefits for the planet, but manipulating sensitive natural cycles for a quick buck could have devastating consequences for all of us. I have often wondered why we need more GM if farmers could improve yield with simple efficiency measures. Now I have serious doubts that there are enough controls on GM, and it is spreading under the radar.

If the media don't report problems such as the decline in honey bees, how will we know until it is too late. You could choose NOT to buy GM products in the shops - assuming the labelling is correct.

What will pollinate crops when there are no bees to do it? A man with a brush? How will that be a step forward? I think I am leaving the fence for the "against" side.

Do you agree? Post your opinions here.

Have you ever thought just how much influence stress has on your life? I know it plays quite a large part in mine. I went through a very stressful episode a few years ago when I was forced to take on extra staff just to keep my business running. The outcome was that my profit margin went down to almost nothing and undermined the whole thing.

I felt depressed and anxious all the time; I couldn't get to sleep at night and once I eventually fell asleep, woke up several times during the night; I was bad tempered and snapped at my family; I grew to hate going to work, and romance was certainly not on the agenda.

All of this and more was due to stress. At the time I was aware of stress but didn't really understand the health consequences of not tackling it head on. I thought that everything would work out in time and I could get back to a less stressful existence. As it happens I got out of the business and my health improved.

But, stress doesn't have to be due to that kind of major problem. It can happen at any time with an unexpected occurrence such as a near miss when driving to work, preparing for a vacation, moving house, getting married, arguing with a colleague and so on.

All of these will set your stress reaction in motion. It is based on the 'fight or flight response' that is part of everyone's makeup. Developed many thousands of years ago as a way of self preservation when faced wth a challenge, it has not evolved at the same speed that we have.

This means that when we experience change, large or small, our body triggers the same reaction. The flight or fight response kicks in if the challenge is an unexpected queue at the supermarket checkout or a life-threatening confrontation.

The bottom line is that the way we live today means we come across a stream of small changes that cause stress. Each may be small but added together the result is stress at a level that begins to affect your health. Your health suffers gradually, building up to many of the probelms that are widespread - heart disease, diabetes, cancer and much more.

What can you do? Well, you have to first of all accept that some things stress you out. Write a list of all the things you reckon cause you stress. Then start to work your way down the list to see if you can alter the stressors so you don't react the wrong way. Then you need to find a way to relax, to get control over your stress and begin to make things better.

After all, you owe it to yourself to fight stress so your health will improve; you'll live longer and healthier; and your friends and family will enjoy your company for many more years.

I appreciate I've not given you more than a brief overview of stress and how to control it. But, there's a lot more information and detail available in a new book called 'How to Conquer Your Stress' that you can get a a digital download straight to your computer or as a print version delivered by post.

The book is 160 pages of helpful information covering

• What stress is and where it comes from
• How you react to stress
• The symptoms and health effects of stress
• Simple relaxation techniques that work anywhere
• Breathing techniques for relaxation
• How to make insomnia a thing of the past
• Benefits of regular exercise
• Tips to fight stress at work
• Complementary therapies for stress
• How diet can help stress

And you also get a bonus booklet with 150 quick and easy tips for fighting stress.

Get this invaluable book and bonus today by visiting http://www.healthexplored.co.uk/eOrder/shop.php and scrolling down to the title. Ordering is by secure order page and access is by instant download of the PDF.

Wishing you the best of health.

Labels: health, stress

"No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof", Henry David Thoreau.

I found this quote the other day and I began to wonder at its relevance today when we talk about all things medical and medicinal. Whatever way we choose to go for help and sustenance, treatment and reassurance when we do something to help our health, the hope is that it is proven, tried and tested. Who wants to be a guinea pig and trial some unknown and perhaps unsafe treatment?

Not me, and I would suggest you don't either. From a conventional viewpoint, probably most alternative and complementary therapies would come into the unproven camp. Doctors tend to classify such therapies in the "nutty and extreme" file and hide it behing the sofa.

But, are they so sure they are not kidding themselves and you and me as well? Does it follow that drugs and conventional 'accepted' tests and treatmaents are proven just because they are allowed in today's medical bag of tricks?

I was struck by an article claiming to be the truth about mammograms. It's a process I've often wondered about ever since a patient of mine who became a friend told me that she was convinced that a series of mammograms she suffered during her fight against breast cancer had made the condition worse.

The simple truth was that she firmly believed she had felt something in her beast break during one of these tests. To her it was the cancer bursting and spreading the cancer cells all over her body. She told me of her beliefs on many occasions when I visited her and chatted about her health and feelings. She died shortly after.

What she told me raised doubts about the safety of mammograms, and this article confirmed them. First of all is the way the system works. The breast is compressed between two plates so that it can be scanned. The author mentioned the damage that could be done through compressing cancerous growths.

Then the author's opinion of the radiation used opened my eyes further. Apparently mammography uses low energy radiation that can be up to five times more harmful that x-rays. He concluded that ten years of annual screening will result in a 10 to 20% greater risk of causing breast cancer, and this risk is greater the younger patient on whom the tests are started.

What about the proof of safety here? Even an article in the Lancet said that mamography of pre-menstrual women had no significant reduction in breast cancer mortality. At best four women in every 10,000 might be saved. Not wonderful for the vast majority although the four saved would be eternally grateful.

And 1 in 10 women may be the victims of false positive results, and some may have unnecessary treatment including mastectomy as a result.

Finally, it is said that if women examined their breast carefully they would stand just as good a chance of discovering cancer as the complex and possible dangerous mammogram.

The alternative view is that a technigue called 'Thermography' or thermal imaging is less dangerous and more effective. It's in its infancy right now but if it clearly show a hot spot of cancer, then full diagnostic mammography would be a logical second step.

Whatever your view, it's by no means certain that mammography as a one-and-only tool is the best thing to do. Let's not get carried away and assume that just because governments accept it, it really is the way to go. Where is the proof? Just who are the guniea pigs being used to test the system?

It isn't good enough to quote statistics because as we all know you can use statistics to prove anything. What we need is an unbiased review of the good and bad of mammography, and a proper investigation of the results. Then we need research into the alternatives - which exist but are dismissed for lack of proof!

Women havenot been told the truth about mammograms. It's about time they were.

Let me know what you think.

Wishing you the best of health.