Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade
Monday, August 9th, 2010Our personalities stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, from our early childhood years to after we’re over the hill, according to a new study.
The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.
“We remain recognizably the same person,” said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. “This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts.”
The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 – 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.
They examined four personality attributes – talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one’s importance).
Among the findings:
Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.
Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.
Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.
Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.
Changing personality
Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it’s not an easy undertaking.
Personality is “a part of us, a part of our biology,” Nave said. “Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well.”
Future research will “help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality,” Nave said.
Children’s Sleep Changes May Mean ‘Terrible Teens’ On the Way
Saturday, August 7th, 2010A new study by a researcher at Tel Aviv University has found that when children begin to change their sleep patterns, adolescence may not be far behind.
The findings of the study by Professor Avi Sadeh of the Department of Psychology were reported in a recent issue of the journal Sleep. The study was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.
Over a two-year period, sleep onset was significantly delayed by an average of 50 minutes in 72 children age 10 and 11 at the start of the study. Sleep time was significantly reduced by an average of 37 minutes. Girls had higher sleep efficiency and reported fewer night awakenings than boys, but for both, initial levels of sleep predicted an increase in pubertal development over time.
The children who participated in the study (94 at the start and 72 by the time the study ended) kept sleep diaries and wore an actigraph on the wrist to measure biological functions. An initial assessment was taken at the beginning of the study, with a second and final assessment taken at one-year intervals.
According to Sadeh, the findings suggest that the neurobehavioral changes associated with puberty may be seen earlier in sleep organization than in bodily changes. However, he adds, “psychosocial issues such as school demands, social activities and technological distractions can also lead to the development of bad sleep habits.”
“It is very important for parents to be aware of the importance of sleep for their developing children and to maintain supervision throughout the adolescent years,” he says. “School health education should also provide children with compelling information on how insufficient sleep compromises their well-being, psychological functioning and school achievements.”
Sadeh also notes that as children become adolescents, they tend to go to bed later and get up later as well. They also sleep less, which is associated with daytime sleepiness, sleep less during the week and more during the weekend to compensate.
Significant differences were seen between sleep on Friday nights and school nights given that Israel has a six-day school week, with Friday the only day not followed by school.
On Fridays, sleep onset was delayed, sleep time extended and sleep quality poorer than on other nights. There was no difference between puberty status or gender, suggesting that the tendency to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend is steady throughout early adolescence.
Sadeh says the findings may have other implications as well. “A deeper understanding of the interrelationships between sleep and pubertal maturation may provide new insights into the emergence of vulnerabilities for behavioral and emotional health problems in early adolescence. This could improve prevention and early intervention efforts.”
When Your Office Buddy Becomes Your Boss
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010(BEVERLY HILLS) – You have lunch together every day, grab an occasional drink after work, and have gotten each other through work-related crises. So wouldn’t it be strange if your office buddy became your new boss?
It’s more likely to happen in the current economic environment as hiring freezes force companies to promote from within, says Stephen Viscusi, a New York-based author and career consultant.
Meanwhile, employees are more willing to accept a new title even if it means doing two jobs for the price of one.
Becoming your friend’s subordinate may not be easy, but chances are he or she will be counting on your loyalty, Viscusi said. Still, the dynamic of your friendship at work will inevitably change.
“You may not want peers in the same department to even know you have a personal relationship,” Viscusi said. “It can get very sticky.”
Viscusi gives these rules for dealing with a friend you are now reporting to:
— Remember this is now your boss, and he has his own job on the line. Don’t flaunt your friendship or ask for special favors.
— Congratulate him or her first, then ask what you can do to make the job easier and transition faster.
— Let your friend, now your superior, take the lead on what his priorities are: your friendship, or the role of being boss.
— Hand over a copy of your resume. This would, of course, apply if the person is not your friend. But, often we are at a company for a long time, and even friends may not remember our experience. Having an up-to-date resume at all times helps people understand how you have grown. In this case, your friend may know your children’s birthdays and that your mother-in-law is a pain, but he or she may not know you have two master’s degrees and experience managing a team.
— If you notice a change in your friendship and still need and like your job, accept the change. New friends are far easier to come by today than new jobs.
Some Acceptable and Effective Way to Discipline Kids
Monday, June 14th, 2010There will probably always be a great deal of debate over the right and wrong way to discipline kids. Each parent has their own ideas and their own past experiences to draw upon and what you may do may not be the same as what your neighbor does when it come to discipline. However, there are acceptable and effective ways to discipline kids to teach them right from wrong.
Should You Spank Your Kids?
When you consider whether or not you should spank your kids, ask yourself whether or not you would like to be spanked when you do something wrong. How embarrassed would you be? How humiliated would you be? Would you learn anything from it?
Spanking is not the answer – and it never was. Kids are human. They have thoughts, feelings, and opinions – just like you. They should be treated with the same dignity and respect that you expect from others for yourself.
Do Time-Outs Work for Kids?
Time outs work for younger children. The idea is to separate the child from the group or the activity, where they will sit quietly alone. This gives them the opportunity to think about what they have done wrong.
Some people say that time outs are ineffective because the child will not spend time thinking about what he or she has done wrong. This isn’t exactly true. The child wants to get back to what they were doing or having fun. While there will be more timeouts, your child has learned that there is a consequence for what they’ve just done wrong.
How Much Punishment is the Right Amount?
There does come a point in time when timeouts no longer work effectively for kids. The age of the child varies when this stops being effective, based on the child. When timeouts stop working, other forms of punishment should be used. Children can be sent to their rooms or denied certain privileges. Grounding works well for teenagers. Taking away beloved objects or amusement also works. These objects may include the television, video games, computers, telephones, or favorite pastimes.
The point of any type of punishment should be to teach the child that he or she has done something that is unacceptable, and that this action should not be repeated. Kids will be kids – and they may repeat the action two or three more times before they get the picture, but if they are treated with respect and dignity, they do indeed eventually learn right from wrong.
Facial Structure Can Predict Propensity to Aggression
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010TORONTO – Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. A quick glance at someone’s facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression, according to the latest research.
Facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) is determined by measuring the distance between the right and left cheeks and the distance from the upper lip to the mid-brow. During childhood, boys and girls have similar facial structures, but during puberty, males develop a greater WHR than females, the website Science Daily reported.
Previous research has suggested that males with a larger WHR act more aggressively than those with a smaller WHR. For example, studies have shown that hockey players with greater WHR earn more penalty minutes per game than players with lower WHR.
Psychologists Justin M.
The photographs were very revealing: Volunteers’ estimates of aggression correlated highly with the actual aggressive behaviour of the faces viewed, even if they saw the picture for only 39 milliseconds. Even more interestingly, the volunteers’ estimates were also highly correlated with WHR of the faces — the greater the WHR, the higher the aggressive rating, suggesting that we may use this aspect of facial structure to judge potential aggression in others.
These findings indicate that subtle differences in face shape may affect personality judgments, which may, in turn, guide how we respond to certain individuals.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
Too Much Liquorice During Pregnancy may Affect Child’s IQ and Behavior
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009HELSINKI – A new study claims that a woman’s consumption of excessive quantities of liquorices during pregnancy could hamper her child’s intelligence and behavior.
The study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology saw a comparison between eight-year-old children and found that kids of mothers who ate large amounts of liquorices when pregnant did not perform as well as other youngsters in cognitive tests on vocabulary, memory and spatial awareness.
Sixty-four of the children who took part in the study were exposed to high levels of glycyrrhizin in liquorices, 46 to moderate levels and 211 to low levels.
Behavior was assessed using an in-depth questionnaire completed by the mother and also used by clinicians to evaluate children’s behavior.
The research concluded that women who ate more than 500mg of glycyrrhizin per week – found in the equivalent of 100g of pure liquorices – were more likely to have children with lower intelligence levels and more behavioral problems.
Some of the inadequacies in the kids, selected from Finland where consumption of the drink among women is common, were poor attention spans and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
The study, carried out by the University of Helsinki and the University of Edinburgh, suggested that a component in liquorices called glycyrrhizin may impair the placenta, allowing stress hormones to cross from the mother to the baby.
Apparently, high levels of such hormones, known as glucocorticoids, affect fetal brain development, which leads behavioral disorders in children.
SEE OUR POST “INTRODUCING-LICORICE”
Light, Photosynthesis Harmful to Fresh Produce
Thursday, November 19th, 2009TEL-AVIV – A study conducted by Israeli researchers suggests that exposure to light, and possibly photosynthesis, may help disease-causing bacteria to invade fresh produce, making them impervious to washing.
According to background information in a report published in journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, past studies have already shown that salmonella enterica attaches to the surface of fresh produce, and finds its way below the surface of the skin through pores called stomata, where it can hide from and resist washing and food sanitizers.
In the new study, researchers from the Agricultural Research Organization at the Volcani Center in Israel and Tel-Aviv University examined the role that light and photosynthesis might play on the ability of salmonella bacteria to infiltrate lettuce leaves via stomata.
They exposed sterile iceberg lettuce leaves to bacteria either in the light, in the dark, or in the dark after 30 minutes of exposure to light.
Incubation in the light or pre-exposure to light resulted in aggregation of bacteria around open stomata and invasion into the inner leaf tissue.
Incubation in the dark, on the other hand, resulted in a scattered attachment pattern and very little internalization.
According to the researchers, the increased propensity for internalization in the light may be due to several factors.
First, they say, in the absence of light plants enter a period of dormancy, where stomata are closed and no photosynthesis takes place. In the light, the stomata are open.
Additional findings also suggest that the bacteria are attracted to the open stomata by the nutrients produced during photosynthesis, which are not present in the dark.
“The elucidation of the mechanism by which Salmonella invades intact leaves has important implications for both pre- and postharvest handling of lettuce and probably other leafy vegetables. The capacity to inhibit internalization should limit bacterial colonization to the phylloplane and consequently might enhance the effectiveness of surface sanitizers,” say the researchers.
Facebook May Boost your Brain’s Working Memory
Thursday, November 19th, 2009LONDON – Some social networking sites, like Facebook, could help improve a person’s working memory, according to an expert.
Dr. Tracy Alloway, a psychologist at Stirling University, says that working memory – the ability to recall things over a short period of time – could be the key to success.
She believes that it may be possible to train the brain’s working memory just like an athlete trains muscles, reports the Independent.
Alloway said that some technological inventions, such as Facebook, might actually improve working memory because they require people to hold a lot of information in their heads.
However, other such websites, like spell-checks and Twitter, which requires only small bite-sized phrases, may work against improving working memory.
Instead, these websites could be contributing to some people’s lack of success, she suggested.
Alloway said that she had devised an on-line game that can improve working memory, which may help the young develop working memory skills as well helping to combat memory loss in the elderly.
Animals Using One Side of their Brains are More Successful
Thursday, November 19th, 2009According to a report by ABC News, the study suggests the brain operates like a dual processor in a computer, with each of the brain’s two sides kicking into action depending on the content or context of the information.
Dr Culum Brown of the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, and colleague Maria Magat, focused their research on several different types of Australian birds, such as gang-gangs, sulfur-crested cockatoos and Australian king parrots.
All of the birds participated in two tests designed to test their cerebral lateralisation, meaning how strongly each bird preferentially processes information using either hemisphere of the brain.
The first task was a simple pebble-seed discrimination test, where the birds had to pick seeds out of a background of similar sized pebbles.
The second task was more demanding.
The researchers attached food to the end of a suspended string that the birds had to manipulate with their beaks and feet in order to get the tasty reward.
Birds with a preference for using either of their eyes or either of their legs did better than birds that used both eyes and both legs equally.
This means that the most successful birds have a very strong cerebral lateralisation, which “is influenced by both genes and experience,” according to Brown.
He and Magat found that the pattern of lateralisation, left or right bias, did not predict success as much as the strength of the particular bias did.
Carrying the findings over to humans, this suggests, in part, that a right-handed person isn’t more successful than a left-handed one, and vice-versa.
But people who always favour a certain hand, foot or eye for certain tasks will likely perform better than those who don’t exhibit obvious preferences.
“Firstly, it means that a given hemisphere can become increasingly specialized at processing certain types of information,” he said.
According to Brown, assigning particular tasks to each side of the brain avoids conflict between the two hemispheres, and allows “multiple sources of information to be processed simultaneously, that is to say, animals can multitask like a dual processor in a computer.”
Frequent Nasal Irrigation May Increase Infections
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009NEW YORK – New evidence suggests that daily nasal irrigation may increase the risk of sinus infections.
Nasal irrigation with warm saline has been promoted as way to cleanse the sinuses and help prevent infections. However, using this therapy too often may not be beneficial.
The latest study, presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology (ACAAI) annual meeting, included 68 adults who used nasal irrigation frequently for one year and then stopped therapy for one year. The patients were compared to 24 control patients who did not discontinue nasal irrigation.
The researchers found that number of sinus infections decreased by 62.5 percent after the participants stopped using nasal irrigation. Additionally, after stopping nasal irrigation, they were 50 percent less likely to develop sinus infections than those who continued with daily therapy.
Mucus in the nose contains important immune system molecules that help the body fight against infections. Because nasal irrigation eliminates this mucus, the authors suspect that it may lead to an increased risk of infection.
Egyptian Mummies Had Clogged Arteries
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009CAIRO – Rich Egyptians living 3,500 years ago may have been walking around with the same clogged arteries that modern Americans now battle, according to a presentation Monday at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting.
A group of scientists said that, on a whim, they performed a computerized tomography (CT) scan on a collection of 22 mummies housed at the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo to see if they too suffered from the plaque build-up in arteries that lead to coronary artery disease.
“We didn’t believe it was going to be so intense,” said
The plaque was, of course, long gone. The mummies lived between 1981 B.C. and 364 A.D., and only 16 of the mummies had heart tissue left. However, doctors could see evidence of advanced atherosclerosis (plaque build-up that causes hardening of the arteries) by looking for calcium deposits in a CT scan used to diagnose people today.
Gene Therapy Raises Hope for the Color Blind
Monday, November 16th, 2009Using gene therapy, the boffins successfully treated a pair of squirrel monkeys that could not differentiate between red and green.
The development could bring new treatments for a variety of different diseases that are triggered by faulty cone cells at the back of the eye. The problem can lead to diseases such as macular degeneration, which often causes complete blindness.
The research, which was led by
“Beyond that, we hope this technology will be useful in correcting lots of different vision disorders.”
Trouble Thinking? Better See the Dentist
Friday, November 13th, 2009NEW YORK – A new study hints that good oral care – regular brushing and flossing and trips to the dentist — may help aging adults keep their thinking skills intact.
In a study, researchers found that adults aged 60 and older with the highest versus the lowest levels of the gum disease-causing pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis were three times more likely to have trouble recalling a three-word sequence after a period of time.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry this month, are based on more than 2300 men and women who were tested for periodontitis and completed numerous thinking skills tests as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III conducted between 1991 and 1994.
Overall 5.7 percent of the adults had trouble completing certain memory tasks and 6.5 percent failed reverse subtraction tests. Participants with the highest (greater than 119 units) versus the lowest (57 units or lower) pathogen levels were most likely to do poorly in these tests.
Research has already established a strong association between poor oral health and heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as Alzheimer’s disease. Gum disease could influence brain function through several mechanisms, the researchers note; for example, gum disease can cause inflammation throughout the body, a risk factor for loss of mental function.
In a related commentary,
SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, November 2009
Male and Female Chromosomes do Communicate with Each Other
Thursday, November 12th, 2009LONDON – Scientists in the University of Leicester’s Department of Genetics have for the first time revealed that the male and female do truly communicate -at least at the fundamental genetic level.
The research counters scientific theory that the X and Y chromosomes – that define the sexes – do not communicate at all.
In the study,
“Recently it was shown that the Y chromosome can talk to itself – swapping bits of DNA from one region to another, and potentially giving it a way to fix mutations that might affect male fertility. In this new research we’ve now shown that it actually maintains a genetic conversation with the X chromosome, potentially giving it a way to fix other kinds of mutations, too. So, maybe it’s not quite the dysfunctional loner we have always imagined it to be,” said
It is the Y chromosome in men that determines maleness by triggering development of testes rather than ovaries in the early embryo.
“These days the X and Y are a very odd couple, but long ago, before mammals evolved, they were an ordinary pair of identical chromosomes, exchanging DNA in a companionable way through the process of genetic recombination. However, once the Y chromosome took on the job of determining maleness, they stopped talking to each other. The X remained much the same, but the Y set out on a path of degeneration that saw it lose many of its genes and shrink to about one third the size of the X. Some scientists have predicted that it will eventually vanish altogether,” said Jobling.
“These new findings from the Department of Genetics of the University of Leicester now challenge this interpretation of the Y chromosome’s fate,” he added.
The researchers discovered that the conversation between the X and Y chromosome goes both ways, and it is also clear that mutations arising on a decaying Y chromosome can perhaps be passed to the X – the Y chromosome’s revenge.
In future, the researchers will assess how widespread X-Y exchanges have been during evolution, and what the likely functional effects might be.
The study has been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
War Talks Can Boost Older Adults’ Mental Health
Thursday, November 12th, 2009EXETER, UK – Encouraging elderly to talk about old times can actually improve their memory and limit effects of dementia, finds a new study.
The research team led by
During the study, the researchers recruited 73 people – aged between 70 and 90 and some with dementia – and split them into three groups.
The first group was made to sit around once a week in sets of five and reminisce about the old days such as childhood, weddings and family holidays, as well objects that could spark memories such as old-fashioned ink pots and hats.
After six weeks, the standard cognitive tests showed that the memory had improved by 12 per cent. Those suffering dementia saw an improvement of about eight per cent.
In contrast, the two other groups – one that was encouraged to play skittles – and another that was encouraged to have one on one chats showed very little improvement in their brain power.
“The people we were talking to were more than happy to bring up the war. It emerged as a very important part of their lives. As well as it improving their memory some people found it incredibly enjoyable,” the Telegraph quoted
“It doesn’t actually reverse dementia but it seems to make the most of their residual abilities,” she added.
“If you had a drug that could do that you would that you would make a lot of money. The drug in this case is the social group,” he said.
Measles Vaccine Inhaler Shows Promise
Thursday, November 12th, 2009DENVER – Scientists from University of Colorado have revealed that inhaling measles vaccine can be more effective in combating the disease that causes 197,000 deaths each year globally.
While a liquid vaccine using a hypodermic needle is presently the only way to prevent the disease, they are often difficult to store, costly to transport and may be prone to contamination when shipped to developing countries.
The study led by
In order to produce the inhalant, the weakened measles virus must be mixed with high-pressure carbon dioxide to produce microscopic bubbles and droplets, which are then gently dried to produce an inhalable powder.
The powder is then puffed into a small inhaler-like device and administered.
The aerosol vaccine was shown effective in test animals, and human trials are expected to begin next year in India, where more than half of the world’s measles cases occur.
Aridis Pharmaceuticals have been working to develop a room temperature stable measles formulation that can be easily inhaled using cost-effective dry-powder inhalers in collaboration with the non-profit foundation PATH.
“There is a need for technologies that could stabilize the measles vaccine, as this would facilitate mass vaccination in developing world countries where transport, storage, administration costs and other complexities have limited vaccine coverage by 70 percent,” said Dr Satoshi Ohtake, from Aridis and the study’s principal investigator.
Ohtake’s study used a combination of mild spray drying process conditions and unique stabilizers to produce stable dry powders with excellent preservation of vaccine activity.
The potency of the dried vaccine was then tested while being stored at different Temperatures over several week-long periods.
The results found that the dry-powdered aerosol was stable for at least eight weeks at 37 degrees Celsius.
“This new method could potentially offer safer, more affordable and effective treatments to patients that need them the most,” Ohtake added.
Pituitary Tumor Caused World’s Tallest Man’s Gigantism
Thursday, November 12th, 2009ISTANBUL – The Turkish man crowned as the world’s tallest man suffers from a pituitary tumor which has resulted in his gigantic height.
Sultan Kosen stands eight-foot-one-inch tall and was unveiled as the tallest man in the world by the Guinness World Records. Kosen’s height is a result of a tumor in his pituitary gland, which has led to an over production of growth hormones, reports the National Geographic News.
The condition called pituitary gigantism has also led his feet to grow to almost 15 inches, while his hands are larger than 10 inches. It was only after the tumor was removed last year, that Kosen stopped growing.
The 27-year old is forced to use crutches as his height has weakened his knee joints.
The now-famous Kosen wants to travel around the world and meet a woman who would like to marry him.
Teen-Age Good at Reasoning but Lack Emotional Maturity
Thursday, November 5th, 2009“Adolescents likely possess the necessary intellectual skills to make informed choices about terminating a pregnancy but may lack the social and emotional maturity to control impulses,” said
“It is very difficult for a 16-year-old to resist peer pressure in a heated, volatile situation,”
The participants took different tests measuring psychosocial (emotional) maturity and cognitive ability to examine age patterns in numerous factors that affect judgment and decision-making.
The maturity measures included tests of impulse control, sensation-seeking, resistance to peer influence, future orientation and risk perception. The cognitive battery included measures of basic intellectual abilities.
There were no differences among the youngest four age groups (10-11, 12-13, 14-15 and 16-17) on the measures of psychosocial maturity.
But significant differences in maturity, favouring adults, were found between the 16- to 17-year-olds and those 22 years and older, and between the 18- to 21-year-olds and those 26 and older. Results were the same for males and females, the authors said.
In contrast, differences in cognitive capacity measures increased from ages 11 to 16 and then showed no improvements after age 16 – exactly the opposite of the pattern found in the psychosocial measures.
The findings appeared in the October issue of American Psychologist.
Health Canada Warns of Health Risks Posed by Rating Raw Bean Sprouts
Thursday, November 5th, 2009OTTAWA – Cook those bean sprouts well, advises Health Canada, if you want to reduce the risk of exposure to food borne illness.
“Children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to these bacteria and should not eat any raw sprouts at all,” Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Wednesday.
“They should also avoid eating cooked sprouts unless they can be sure the sprouts have been thoroughly cooked.”
The agencies note that sprouts from alfalfa and mung beans are a popular choice for Canadians as a low-calorie, healthy ingredient for many meals. Onion, radish, mustard and broccoli sprouts, not to be confused with the actual plant or vegetable, are also options.
But they may carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli, which can lead to serious illness.
The largest recent outbreak in Canada linked to sprouts was in the fall of 2005, when more than 648 cases of salmonella were reported in Ontario.
Healthy adults who choose to eat sprouts are urged to ensure they buy crisp ones that have been refrigerated and avoid those that appear dark or smell musty. They should also use tongs or a glove to place the sprouts in a plastic bag.
Symptoms from salmonella usually occur 12 to 36 hours after eating contaminated food, while symptoms from E. coli can occur within two to 10 days.
Symptoms can include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps. People who experience these symptoms should contact a doctor immediately. In extreme cases, E. coli can lead to acute kidney failure or even death.
Truth About RGBH Milk Hormone – Again
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Note: This is a very old story – but, the threat of Milk produced by hormone treated cows, uncovered by two reporters in 1997, is still in our grocery dairy cases. Big business closed this debate – this is still good for everyone to know.
Two veteran news reporters for Fox TV in Tampa, Florida have been fired for refusing to water down an investigative report on Monsanto’s controversial milk hormone, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Monsanto’s rBGH is a genetically-engineered hormone sold to dairy farmers, who inject it into their cows every two weeks to increase milk production. In recent years, evidence has accumulated indicating that rBGH may promote cancer in humans who drink milk from rBGH-treated cows. It is the link between rBGH and cancer that Fox TV tried hardest to remove from the story.
In the fall of 1996, award-winning reporters
The Wilson/Akre lawsuit charges that WTVT violated its license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by demanding that the reporters include known falsehoods in their rBGH series. The reporters also charge that WTVT violated Florida’s “whistle blower” law. Many of the legal documents in the lawsuit—including Monsanto’s threatening letters—have been posted on the world wide web at http://www.foxbghsuit.com for all to see.
No one will be surprised to learn that powerful corporations can intimidate TV stations into re-writing the news, but this case offers an unusually detailed glimpse of specific intimidation tactics and their effects inside a news organization. It is not pretty.
It has been well-documented by Monsanto and by others that rBGH-treated cows undergo several changes: their lives are shortened, they are more likely to develop mastitis, an infection of the udder (which then requires use of antibiotics, which end up in the milk along with increased pus), and they produce milk containing elevated levels of another hormone called IGF-1. It is IGF-1 that is associated with increased likelihood of human cancers.[1] (See REHW #381, #382, #383, #384, #483, but especially #454.)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rBGH for use in cows in 1993, but the approval process was controversial because former Monsanto employees went to work for the FDA, oversaw the approval process, then went back to work for Monsanto. (See REHW #381.)
Monsanto is notorious for marketing dangerous products while falsely claiming safety. The entire planet is now contaminated with hormone-disrupting, cancer-causing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), thanks to Monsanto’s poor judgment and refusal to be guided by early scientific evidence indicating harm. (See REHW #327, #328.) The 2,4,5-T in Agent Orange—the herbicide that has brought so much grief to tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans—is another example of Monsanto’s poor judgment and failure to heed scientific evidence to prevent harm. Critics says rBGH is just one more example of Monsanto’s monumentally poor judgment. When
The Wilson/Akre rBGH series (a script of which is available on the web site www.foxbghsuit.com) makes the following points:
** rBGH was never properly tested before FDA allowed it on the market. A standard cancer test of a new human drug requires two years of testing with several hundred rats. But rBGH was tested for only 90 days on 30 rats. This short-term rat study was submitted to FDA but was never published. FDA has refused to allow anyone outside FDA to review the raw data from this study, saying it would “irreparably harm” Monsanto.[2] Therefore the linchpin study of cancer and rBGH has never been subjected to open scientific peer review.
** Some Florida dairy herds grew sick shortly after starting rBGH treatment. One farmer,
** The law required Monsanto to notify the FDA if they received complaints by dairy farmers such as
** Monsanto claims on camera that every truckload of milk is tested for excessive antibiotics—but Florida dairy officials and scientists on camera say this is simply not true.
** Monsanto says on camera that Canada’s ban on rBGH has nothing to do with human health concerns—but Canadian government officials speaking on camera say just the opposite.
** Canadian government officials, speaking on camera, say they believe Monsanto tried to bribe them with offers of $1 to $2 million to gain approval for rBGH in Canada. Monsanto officials say the Canadians misunderstood their offer of “research” funds.
** Monsanto officials claim on camera that “the milk has not changed” because of rBGH treatment of cows. As noted earlier, there is abundant evidence—some of it from Monsanto’s own studies—that this is definitely not true.
** On camera, a Monsanto official claims that Monsanto has not opposed dairy co-ops labeling their milk as “rBGH-free.” But this is definitely not true. Monsanto brought two lawsuits against dairies that labeled their milk “rBGH-free.” Faced with the Monsanto legal juggernaut, the dairies folded and Monsanto then sent letters around to other dairy organizations announcing the outcome of the two lawsuits—in all likelihood, for purposes of intimidation. (Conveniently, the FDA regulations that discourage labeling of milk as “rBGH-free” were written by
At the web site www.foxbghsuit.com, you will find the version of the Wilson/Akre rBGH series as it was re-written by Fox’s attorneys. It has been laundered and perfumed. Most importantly, nearly all of the references to cancer have been removed from the script. Instead of cancer we now have “human health effects”—whatever those may be.
The Wilson/Akre lawsuit comes at an especially good time to publicize the relationship between rBGH and human cancer because new evidence has come to light.
When a cow is injected with rBGH, its milk production is stimulated, but not directly. The presence of rBGH in the cow’s blood stimulates production of another hormone, called Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1, or IGF-1 for short. It is IGF-1 that stimulates milk production.
IGF-1 is a naturally-occurring hormone-protein in both cows and humans.[3] The IGF-1 in cows is chemically identical to the IGF-1 in humans.[4] The use of rBGH increases the levels of IGF-1 in the cow’s milk, though the amount of the increase is disputed. Furthermore, IGF-1 in milk is not destroyed by pasteurization. Because IGF-1 is active in humans—causing cells to divide—any increase in IGF-1 in milk raises obvious questions: will it cause inappropriate cell division and growth, leading to growth of tumors?
The Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association formally expressed concern about IGF-1 related to rBGH in 1991, saying, “Further studies will be required to determine whether ingestion of higher than normal concentrations of bovine insulin-like growth factor [IGF-1] is safe for children, adolescents, and adults.”[5]
Monsanto’s public position since 1994 has been that IGF-1 is not elevated in the milk from rBGH-treated cows—despite its own studies to the contrary. For example, writing in the British journal, LANCET, in 1994, Monsanto researchers said “…IGF-1 concentration in milk of rBST-treated cows is unchanged,” and “…there is no evidence that hormonal content of milk from rBST-treated cows is in any way different from cows not so treated.”[6] [Monsanto calls rBGH rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin), thus avoiding use of the word 'hormone.'] However, in a published letter, the British researcher
Does IGF-1 promote cancer? In January of this year a Harvard study of 15,000 white men published in SCIENCE reported that those with elevated—but still normal—levels of IGF-1 in their blood are 4 times as likely as average men to get prostate cancer.[1] The SCIENCE report ends saying, “Finally, our results raise concern that administration of GH [growth hormone] or IGF-1 over long periods, as proposed for elderly men to delay the effects of aging, may increase risk of prostate cancer.” By analogy, Monsanto’s current efforts to increase the IGF-1 levels in America’s milk supply raise the question: if little boys drink milk from rBGH-treated cows over long periods, will the elevated levels of IGF-1 increase their prostate cancer rates? This is not a question that should be answered by a wholesale experiment on the American people—but that is precisely what Monsanto is currently doing. It is difficult to put a happy face on this, try as
The Wilson/Akre story is one of talented, hard-working journalists trying to tell an important public health story, exposing lies and corruption by Monsanto and by the FDA. If nothing else, perhaps the courage of