I’m not sure what gets people to take a look at these things, but I’m going to guess that someone in Malaysia that was doing research on cancer cell lines was eating vanilla ice cream and some dropped into the dish and killed the cancer cells. However it happened, they ended up showing that Vanillin, which is the chemical in vanilla that is responsible for
the flavor and smell of vanilla, stops colon cancer replication. So they are now looking at the potential for vanilla in cancer prevention. Now I’m waiting for Steve to make a colon cancer prevention vanilla cookie or something. Please email him and get him to post a recipe on the blog
 
Cancer Epidemiol. 2009 Aug;33(2):155-60.

It seems that more people read our articles on pot than anything else, so I guess we are a market driven blog …. it turns out the latest is that a chemical in cannabis called Cannabidiol, was shown to be a strong anti-oxidant and prevented colitis in mice. In other words, if you have any kind of inflammatory bowel disease, you have a good reason to take a “trip” to your local cannabis prescribing physician. So now the list of reasons to get a cannabis prescription will likely include constipation, diarrhea, etc. However, if you’re targeting the colon, smoking cannabis is unlikely to help as much as eating it. And, in fact, this active ingredient is not psychotropic, so they are looking into making a pharmaceutical out of it.
 
J Mol Med. 2009 Aug 20.

If you just can’t do any more sit-ups but you still want to trim that waistline, acupuncture might be able to help. In this study, acupuncture was shown to be more effective than sit-ups in reducing weight and waist circumference.
 
Int J Obes (Lond). 2005 Nov;29(11):1379-84

Gluten sensitivity is a known risk factor for recurrent miscarriages. However, until recently we weren’t sure whether it was the gluten itself causing it or the some other factor associated with gluten sensitivity. In this study they investigated the effects of a gluten free diet on recurrent miscarriages and they found that you can greatly reduce your risk of pregnancy loss by avoiding wheat (and all gluten sources) if you have a gluten sensitivity.
 
Dig Dis Sci. 2008 Nov;53(11):2925-8

If you’ve been to one of our seminars on improving ovarian function, we frequenty recommend various vegetables and juices and we often incorporate carrots. There are many reasons for this, but in this study they showed that a vitamin A deficiency can prevent your eggs from maturing properly. Now if you plan on eating tons of carrots, keep in mind that carrots don’t directly supply much vitamin A, you have to be able to convert the b-carotene to vitamin A. If you directly take a vitamin A supplement, it’s easy to get poisoned in which case you end up damaging your reproduction among other things. So this is where we not only stress diet, but also improving absorption and metabolism and this is one of the places where acupuncture can be extremely useful.
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Biol Reprod. 2009 Jul 8.

In this study (perhaps funded by Folgers) coffee was shown to actually kill the herpes virus on contact (type 1 - can be cold sores or genital) and it also inhibits the replication of the polio virus. Now in case you are wondering why someone would test coffee against herpes and polio, you’re not alone. My guess is that the lead researcher probably has both. Or they were looking for funding and tested it out on a bunch of viruses first. At any rate, it kills herpes on contact. So if you’re going to a social event, or a family event, and people are really kissy … just carry around a cup of coffee and dunk your lips in it after you kiss someone
 
Oh. and if you thought polio was eradicated by the vaccine, perhaps it was actually Starbucks or McDonalds that are really responsible for the eradication in the Western world.
 
Food Chem Toxicol. 2008 Jun;46(6):1919-24. Epub 2008 Jan 26.

If you use mobile OR cordless phones for greater than 10 years you are up to 5 x more likely to get a brain tumor on the side of the head you use to talk more than 50% of the time. Bluetooth headsets are probably not going to help at all … if anything they may make things worse. I recommend speakerphone or car bluetooth.
 
Int J Oncol. 2009 Jul;35(1):5-17
Australas Phys Eng Sci Med. 2008 Dec;31(4):255-67

In this disturbing study, chicks exposed to mobile phone radiation had a 75% miscarriage rate. Chicks not exposed had only a 16% miscarriage rate. Now a chick is much smaller than we are, so we would have to use a mobile phone the size of a small elephant to get the same relative intensity of exposure. However, in this study their exposure was only for 21 days and our exposures are much longer than that. While this study certainly is far from being conclusive for humans, nonetheless it is very disturbing and if you are pregnant, I would recommend keeping your cell phones on airplane mode or off entirely. Turn them on when you need to make a call … that’s what I do. If you absolutely have to be reached then get a pager and keep it away from your belly.
 
Radiats Biol Radioecol. 2003 Sep-Oct;43(5):541-3.

Many people assume that their cell phones, laptops and all the other electronic gadgets they keep around them are safe. However, more and more, research is showing that there are a variety of hazards associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). In this study they demonstrated that EMFs can significantly increase the incidence of hyperploidy. Down Syndrome is one example of hyperploidy.
 
Mutagenesis. 1997 Sep;12(5):347-51.

A recent and quite large study involving over 9,000 women found that women with a diagnosis of clinical migraines have a 26% reduced risk of getting breast cancer. Migraines can be hormonally driven so there is a logical reason why researchers began looking at this. It will be interesting to see if there are other reasons, such as avoidance of alcohol (a common migraine trigger) or other factors. The authors did control for the use of anti-inflammatory drugs like tylenol and found that they did not contribute to the reduction in cancer rates. By the way, if you do suffer from migraines we have a very high success rate at getting rid of them, so you may want to set up an appointment with one of our practitioners.
 
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Jul;18(7):2030-4