WHY EAT ORGANIC

According to Simone Gabbay, RNCP, registered nutritional consultant in Toronto, a person using a healthy lifestyle, good nutrition, and exercise will not need pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics, or immunization. Crops grown in fertile mineral-rich soil are strong and pest-resistant and will need no pesticides, fungicides, or fumigants, the natural state of good health in organic fruits and vegetables.

The organic movement is particularly well established in Europe, with 72 percent of Europeans supporting organic food production. A 20-year study by Swiss scientists, published in 2002, offers a clear endorsement of organic farming methods.

Standard agricultural practices are jeopardizing everyone's health by undermining the well-being of the planet that sustains us. Worldwide, several billion kilograms of pesticides are applied every year. Exposure to pesticides, farm workers and their families, for example, has been linked to various forms of neurological and degenerative disease. Many of the synthetic fertilizers used in intensive farming are highly soluble and readily enter ground and surface water, hazardous to human and environmental health. Consumers can register a vote fovoring organic farming practices each time groceries are purchased.
Simone Gabbay has written a number of books including "Visionary Medicine," "Real Hope for Total Healing," and "Nourishing the Body Temple."

MEDITATION IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

Workers practicing mindfulness showed important biological changes with important implications for health, according to a study recently reported in the journal, Psychosomatic Medicine.

In this controlled and randomized study, conducted by Dr. Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, Wisconsin, workers at a small biotech company had their blood tested and brains wired and measured before and after an eight-week period of meditation. Once a week for eight weeks those workers volunteering for the study, including scientists, marketing people, lab techs, and managers, would practice meditation for three hours.

Researchers found significant effects on activity in the front left portion of the brain, increases that lasted at least four months after the experiment. Those workers who showed the greatest brain effect also showed a greater ability to increase antibodies in response to getting a flu shot.

MIRROR THERAPY TREATS PHANTOM LIMB

Amputees often suffer from pain in the missing limb, a limb the amputee still experiences as being present. A new therapy that creates an illusion using mirrors is proving helpful to Iraq war veterans to eliminate this pain, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine and conducted at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In the mirror therapy, a special arrangement of mirrors allows the patient to "see" the reflected image of the remaining limb as being actually the missing limb. When the patient moves both limbs, it appears that both limbs move. Often the phantom limb pain occurs because the assumed position of the missing limb is one associated with pain. When the patient "moves" the phantom limb into a position that is more comfortable, the pain goes away in most cases,

The researchers believe that the source of the pain is the brain's confusion as to the existence and whereabouts of the phantom limb. The physical sensations and the visual sensations do not match up. The mirror illusion allows for an apparent alignment of physical sensation and visuals as the phantom limb is seen and felt to move into a more comfortable position.

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

* Webster's 1996 dictionary had 315 misspelled entries.
* On average, 12 newborns a day will be given to the wrong parents.
* Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because Donald doesn't
wear pants, just a skirt, a shirt, and a bow tie.
* Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
* Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at
the same time, inventing multi-tasking.
* The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never
a recorded Wendy before!
* If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $l.l9.
You also have the largest amount of money in coin without being able
to make change for a dollar.
* Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to digest a piece of
celery than the celery has in it (six) to begin with. It's the same with
apples!
* Guinness Book of Records holds the record for the book most often stolen
from public libraries.
* Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space, because
passing "wind" in a space suit damages it.

FLU SHOT WORKS BEST FOR HAPPY PEOPLE

If you are going to get a shot of flu vaccine, try to be happy about it before you get to the doctor's office. If you are in a depressed mood, your body may not be able to take advantage of the immunization. That's one implication of a recent study conducted at the University of Wisconsin and published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In this study, researchers asked students to think of either a very positive experience or a very negative one, and then write about it for five minutes.
Afterwards, they received a shot of flu vaccine. Blood tests later showed that the students in the positive group developed significantly greater amounts of immunity in response to the flu shot than did the students in the negative group. Brain scans during the experiment showed greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex, while the negative group showed greater activity in the right prefrontal cortex. Those in the positive group who showed the greatest left brain activity showed the greatest flu immunity six months later. Those in the negative group who showed the greatest right-brain activity showed the lowest flu immunity after six months.

GENETIC HERITAGE AWAITS ENVIRONMENTAL TRIGGERS

In the old nature/nurture debate, where scientists argue whether it is your inherited genes or your environmental context that determines your predisposition to disease, researchers have encountered a new level or complexity.

Scientists have discovered, according to a report published in "LiveScience", that genes have "epigenetic markers," or mechanisms that increase the gene's influence. These markers, it turns out, are controlled by environmental factors. It requires a certain environmental "trigger" to activate the epigenetic marker, which then fires up the gene to express itself.

VATICAN APPROVES UFOs

It is okay to believe in UFOs and alien beings, according to a statement released by the Vatican in Rome. "There could be alien life forms, and believing they exist isn't contradictory to having faith in God," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the top astronomer and director of the Vatican observatory. In an article entitled, "The extraterrestrial is my brother," the scientist-priest speculated that it is possible that life exists elsewhere in the universe and to believe so doesn't contradict any church teachings. "We cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God," he said, "and that since any life forms existing in the universe were created by God, then these creatures are our siblings."