How To Treat Eczema the Natural Way

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Eczema affects around 1% of the population, and symptoms vary from mild itching to severe inflammation and flaking of the skin. Eczema can also be embarrassing, as it tends to appear on the face and chest (although it can break out on other areas of the body, including the elbows, knees and back). Food allergies and stress can cause or exacerbate eczema. If you want to avoid the mainstream approach to treating eczema - which usually includes cortisone and antibiotics - there are a number of dietary and lifestyle changes you can make:

• As unpleasant as this phase of your treatment may be, it is also the most important. Start with an elimination diet to test for certain foodstuffs, for example tomatoes. Eat ample amounts of tomatoes for a week to ten days, and monitor your skin closely. Then discontinue eating tomatoes for a week to ten days. If your skin shows a marked improvement, tomatoes may be causing or worsening your eczema. If there is no change, move on to the next item, such as wheat. Common allergens (ingredients that cause an allergic reaction) include: shellfish, cows' milk products (cheese, ice-cream, chocolate, etc.) eggs, soy, peanuts, wheat and even sugar.
• Natural oils have anti-inflammatory properties and are particularly good for the skin. Visit your local health store and pick up supplements of borage oil, fish oil OR primrose oil. Also increase your intake of Omega-6 rich foods, like olive oil, walnuts and oily fish, such as sardines and salmon.
• Reducing stress in your life has benefits beyond treating eczema, but it's easier said than done. Give yoga or meditation a try. One session of yoga a week can make a phenomenal difference to your mental state. If you find yourself stressing out because of bad traffic, change the radio from the rock channel to classical music. Get an iPod and load it with some of your favorite low-key music. Use it while you walk for 20 minutes in the evening after work, or while you work out at the gym. If you make de-stressing a priority in your life, you'll see the difference in your skin.
• Take zinc supplements (15mg per day). It plays an important role in both skin and hair health. Many people suffer a zinc deficiency because it's hard to get sufficient zinc in your diet. You should see a marked difference in your skin's condition within 1 - 2 months.
• Shower rather than bathe. If you do bathe, make sure the water is not too hot, and make it as quick as you can.
• Wear cotton pajamas and sleep between cotton sheets. In severe cases, you can try wearing gloves / socks on your hands at night, to prevent you from scratching your skin raw.
• Go outside and expose your skin to fresh air and sunshine - for SHORT periods of time. In one study, a small amount of UV treatment helped 80% of people with skin conditions.

There is no cure-all for eczema, but a lot can be done to control the condition. Commit to the strategies above, and you'll soon see a difference.

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Red wine grapes may help prevent tooth decay, research shows

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A study published online in November in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that specific polyphenols ---- chemicals present in large amounts in fermented seeds and skins that are cast away after grapes are pressed ---- interfere with the ability of bacteria to contribute to tooth decay.

The study may also hold clues for new ways to reduce life-threatening, systemic infections caused by bacteria.

The findings are the result of a collaboration between Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., and the University of Rochester Medical Center. "Overall, the phenolic extracts disrupt essential virulence traits for a widespread, destructive oral pathogen, but without killing it," said Olga I. Padilla-Zakour, associate professor of food processing at the experiment station. That pathogen is Streptococcus mutans , a bacterium that produces the substances most responsible for tooth decay.

Grapes are one of the world's largest fruit crops, with more than 80 percent of grapes used to make wine. Fermented winemaking waste contains at least as many polyphenols as whole fruit, so potential drugs could be made directly from the waste, she said. Red grapes have been shown to contain 40 percent more phenols than white grapes.

To examine the makeup of polyphenols in red-wine grape varieties and their ability to interfere with S. mutans , the researchers prescreened 2005 grape varieties from New York's Finger Lakes region and prepared polyphenolic extracts from them.

Hyun Koo, assistant professor of dentistry at the Rochester Medical Center, said the hope now is to isolate the key compounds within pomace that render bacteria harmless, perhaps by developing a new kind of mouthwash.
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Cutting caffeine may help control diabetes

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Researchers used new technology that measured participants’ glucose (sugar) levels on a constant basis throughout the day. Dr. James Lane, a psychologist at Duke and the lead author of the study, says it represents the first time researchers have been able to track the impact of caffeine consumption as patients go about their normal, everyday lives.

The findings, appearing in the February issue of Diabetes Care, add more weight to a growing body of research suggesting that eliminating caffeine from the diet might be a good way to manage blood sugar levels.

Lane studied 10 patients with established type 2 diabetes and who drank at least two cups of coffee every day and who were trying to manage their disease through diet, exercise and oral medications, but no extra insulin. Each had a tiny glucose monitor embedded under their abdominal skin that continuously monitored their glucose levels over a 72-hour period.

Participants took capsules containing caffeine equal to about four cups of coffee on one day and then identical capsules that contained a placebo on another day. Everyone had the same nutrition drink for breakfast, but were free to eat whatever they liked for lunch and dinner.

The researchers found that when the participants consumed caffeine, their average daily sugar levels went up 8 per cent. Caffeine also exaggerated the rise in glucose after meals: increasing by 9 percent after breakfast, 15 percent after lunch and 26 per cent after dinner.

“We’re not sure what it is about caffeine that drives glucose levels up, but we have a couple of theories,” says Lane, who is the lead author of the study. “It could be that caffeine interferes with the process that moves glucose from the blood and into muscle and other cells in the body where it is used for fuel. It may also be that caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline – the ‘fight or flight” hormone that we know can also boost sugar levels.”

Either way, he says, the higher sugar levels that result from caffeine are bad news for diabetic patients.

There are no current guidelines suggesting diabetics shouldn’t drink coffee, but Lane says that day may come, if further studies bear out their findings.

“Coffee is such a common drink in our society that we forget that it contains a very powerful drug – caffeine. Our study suggests that one way to lower blood sugar is to simply quit drinking coffee, or any other caffeinated beverages. It may not be easy, but it doesn’t cost a dime, and there are no side effects,” Lane says.
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Lead Linked to Aging in Older Brains

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The new work suggests long-ago lead exposure can make an aging person's brain work as if it's five years older than it really is. If that's verified by more research, it means that sharp cuts in environmental lead levels more than 20 years ago didn't stop its widespread effects.

"We're trying to offer a caution that a portion of what has been called normal aging might in fact be due to ubiquitous environmental exposures like lead," says Dr. Brian Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University.

"The fact that it's happening with lead is the first proof of principle that it's possible," said Schwartz, a leader in the study of lead's delayed effects. Other pollutants like mercury and pesticides may do the same thing, he said.

In fact, some recent research does suggest that being exposed to pesticides raises the risk of getting Parkinson's disease a decade or more later. Experts say such studies in mercury are lacking.

The notion of long-delayed effects is familiar; tobacco and asbestos, for example, can lead to cancer. But in recent years, scientists are coming to appreciate that exposure to other pollutants in early life also may promote disease much later on.

"It's an emerging area" for research, said Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. It certainly makes sense that if a substance destroys brain cells in early life, the brain may cope by drawing on its reserve capacity until it loses still more cells with aging, he said. Only then would symptoms like forgetfulness or tremors appear.

Linda Birnbaum, director of experimental toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said infant mice exposed to chemicals like PCBs show only very subtle effects in young adulthood. But more dramatic harm in areas like movement and learning appears when they reach old age.

Animal studies also show clear evidence that being exposed to harmful substances in the womb can harm health later on, she said. For example, rodents that encounter PCBs or dioxins before birth are more susceptible to cancer once they grow up.

Studying delayed effects in people is difficult because they generally must be followed for a long time. Research with lead is easier because scientists can measure the amount that has accumulated in the shinbone over decades and get a read on how much lead a person has been exposed to in the past.

Lead in the blood, by contrast, reflects recent exposure. Virtually all Americans have lead in their blood, but the amounts are far lower today than in the past.

The big reason for the drop: the phasing out of lead in gasoline from 1976 to 1991. Because of that and accompanying measures, the average lead level in the blood of American adults fell 30 percent by 1980 and about 80 percent by 1990.

That's a major success story for environmentalists. But work by Schwartz and Dr. Howard Hu of the University of Michigan suggests that the long-term effects of the high-lead era are still being felt.

In 2006, Schwartz and his colleagues published a study of about 1,000 Baltimore residents. They were ages 50 to 70, old enough to have absorbed plenty of lead before it disappeared from gasoline. They probably got their peak doses in the 1960s and 1970s, Schwartz said, mostly by inhaling air pollution from vehicle exhaust and from other sources in the environment.

The researchers estimated each person's lifetime dose by scanning their shinbones for lead. Then they gave each one a battery of mental ability tests.

In brief, the scientists found that the higher the lifetime lead dose, the poorer the performance across a wide variety of mental functions, like verbal and visual memory and language ability. From low to high dose, the difference in mental functioning was about the equivalent of aging by two to six years.

"We think that's a large effect," Schwartz said.

Hu and his colleagues took a slightly different approach in a 2004 study of 466 men with an average age of 67. Those men took a mental-ability test twice, about four years apart on average. Those with the highest bone lead levels showed more decline between exams than those with smaller levels, with the effect of the lead equal to about five years of aging.


Noone is claiming that lead is the sole cause of age-related mental decline, but it appears to be one of several factors involved, Hu stressed.

If so, it would join such possible influences as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, emotional stress and maybe education level, said Bradley Wise of the National Institute on Aging. Nobody knows exactly what causes mental decline with age, he said.

Although the studies by Hu and Schwartz suggest lead is involved, Wise and others say they don't prove the link.

"I think many things impact how we age, but I think right now it's maybe premature to be giving lead a huge role in our age-related cognitive decline," said Dr. Margit L. Bleecker, director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore. Still, she called the lead hypothesis "a very interesting idea" deserving more study.

Others were more impressed.

"The new evidence from these studies should concern people" said epidemiologist Andrew Rowland of the University of New Mexico. "These two research groups are finding adverse effects on the aging brain at low levels of lead exposure. More work needs to be done, but these studies are raising important questions.

" In any case, scientists still face some basic mysteries about the delayed effects of lead. For example, when does it actually harm the brain? Does a high level in the shinbone merely identify those who were the most harmed by chronic exposure decades ago? Or does lead in the bone continue to do its dirty work over a lifetime, leaching into the bloodstream and continuously hammering the brain?

"I think that both things are happening," Schwartz said, though he suspects most of the damage occurred in the past, during years of higher exposure. Hu's suspicions are similar.

Just how lead impairs brainpower is still a mystery. And so is the question of whether anything can be done to help people who have absorbed a lot of lead over a lifetime.

A medical procedure called chelation can remove lead from the body, but it wouldn't help in this case, said experts, who had few suggestions.

For younger people, prevention is a clearer strategy, Hu said. He called for tougher federal standards on lead exposure in the workplace.

And plenty of low-income neighborhoods could use a strong effort to remove lead from old houses, many of which still have lead paint, Rowland said. "It's there on the walls, it's on the radiators, it's underneath the top layers of paint. In places where the paint is crumbling, there's still exposure going on," he said.

Yet another question: Who really has to worry about long-ago lead affecting their brainpower? What about people born after the high lead levels of the 1970s were history?

Schwartz noted that most Americans younger than 30 have gotten much less lead from the environment than the men in his study did. And Hu hopes that the lead effect will peter out in the future.

However, Hu points out that there's still lead in the environment, and exposure remains especially high in many developing countries. And citing evidence that lead can cross the placenta, he says women who grew up in the 1970s might dose their fetuses with the metal.

"Kids who grew up in the 21st century have a lot less to worry about" than their elders, Hu said. But "it's hard for me to be totally optimistic the current generation is completely scot-free."

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Environmental pollution and diabetes may be linked

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In the most recent edition of the Lancet, Drs. Oliver Jones and Julian Griffin highlight the need to research the possible link between persistent organic pollutants (POPs, a group which includes many pesticides) and insulin resistance, which can lead to adult onset diabetes.

In their commentary, Dr Jones and Dr. Griffin cite peer reviewed research including that of Dr D Lee, et al, which demonstrated a very strong relationship between the levels of POPs in blood, particularly organochlorine compounds, and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

“Of course correlation does not automatically imply causation,” says Dr. Jones. “But if there is indeed a link, the health implications could be tremendous. At present there is very limited information. Research into adult onset diabetes currently focuses on genetics and obesity; there has been almost no consideration for the possible influence of environmental factors such as pollution.”

Interestingly, in the Lee study an association between obesity and diabetes was absent in people with low concentrations of POPs in their blood. In other words, individuals were more at risk of diabetes if they were thin with high levels of POPs in their blood than if they were overweight but with low levels of POPs.

Jones said: “I think research should be carried out to first test the hypothesis that POPs exposure can cause diabetes, perhaps using cell or tissue cultures, so we know for sure if this can occur. Assuming POPs can have this effect, the next step would be to try and develop a method of treatment for those people who might be affected.”

POPs came into prominence as effective pesticides with the introduction of DDT in the 1940s. However, many of these chemicals, including DDT, fell out of favour after they were blamed for the declining number of wild birds and other animals (brought to the public's attention in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring) and the possible negative human health effects. As the compounds biodegrade slowly, they continue to find their way into the food chain and ultimately into the blood streams of individuals even though many of these toxins were banned many years ago. Additionally, these compounds can persist in body fat for very long periods of time following exposure.
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NYC Mandates Calorie Counts on Menus

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NEW YORK (Jan. 22) - A city agency voted Tuesday to revive a plan to force chains to post calorie counts for their foods right on the menu, hoping the fat-filled truth will shock New Yorkers into eating healthier.

The regulation adopted by the city Board of Health takes effect March 31.

The city's original effort was struck down by a judge last September. That rule was reworked to make it comply with the court ruling.

The new regulation applies to any chain that operates at least 15 separate outlets, including those that don't currently provide any information on calories. Major fast-food chains make up about 10 percent of the city's restaurants.

Several chains, such as McDonald's and Burger King, have the information available, but don't list it on the menu boards that customers read before ordering.

City officials hope the rule would curb obesity by making people aware of the thousands of calories that can be packed into some of the meals. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Monday he hoped the chains would also respond by offering healthier options.

"I don't think we're going to see the 2,700-calorie appetizers that we see now," Frieden said.

New York City - which banned trans-fat-laden cooking oils from all restaurants last year - is believed to be the first U.S. city to enact a regulation requiring calories on menus. Since then, California lawmakers and King County in Washington, which includes Seattle, have considered similar bills.

The Board of Health original rule only applied to establishments that had already volunteered to post nutritional information about their products.

The judge who struck that regulation down in September indicated the rule would be acceptable if it were expanded to include the restaurants that had volunteered the calorie data as well as those that had not. Those chains would include International House of Pancakes and Hale & Hearty Soups, city officials said.The Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition of restaurants and food companies, had blasted the proposal.

"It doesn't take a PhD in nutrition, let alone a high school diploma to tell the difference between a 12-piece bucket of chicken and a salad," the group said in a statement, saying the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg is creating "nanny-state public health policies.

"Fast-food companies have said the calorie counts would clutter menus and irritate customers who didn't necessarily want to be confronted with the information.

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2007 Ties as 2nd Warmest Year in a Century

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NEW YORK, Jan 17, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. government climatologists said 2007 tied 1998 as the Earth's second warmest year in a century.

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York said the greatest warming last year occurred in the Arctic and its neighboring high latitude regions. They said global warming has a larger impact in polar areas, since the loss of snow and ice produce more open waters that can absorb more sunlight and warmth.

The climatologists said the large Arctic warming anomaly of 2007 is consistent with observations of record low geographic extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2007.

"As we predicted last year, 2007 was warmer than 2006, continuing the strong warming trend of the past 30 years that has been confidently attributed to the effect of increasing human-made greenhouse gases," said James Hansen, Goddard Institute director.

The eight warmest years in the GISS record have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years in the record have all occurred since 1990.

The 2007 temperature analysis is available at http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp

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Groups Challenge EPA Regulation that Allows Pesticide Testing on Humans

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NEW YORK (January 16, 2008) – The second circuit federal appellate court on Thursday will hear a challenge to an EPA rule that allows people to be used as guinea pigs in tests of toxic pesticides. The lawsuit, NRDC V. EPA was brought before the court by a coalition of environmental, farmworker and health groups in 2006. The groups contend that the agency's human testing rule violates a law passed by Congress in 2005 mandating strict ethical and scientific protections for pesticide testing on humans.

“Testing poisons on people is unethical and against the law,” said Shelley Davis, deputy director of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy and education center for migrant and seasonal farmworkers, based in Washington, D.C. “The EPA should stop accepting these industry funded tests.”

Previous human testing by industry produced serious ethical and scientific problems including one instance in which a company told participants they were eating vitamins, not toxic pesticides. In other instances citied in the lawsuit, researchers ignored the adverse health effects reported by the participants.

“The only people who get what they want out of these immoral tests are the chemical companies,” said Aaron Colangelo, a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior attorney representing the petitioners. “Their testing methods are questionable at best, the only purpose they serve is to weaken pesticide safety standards, and ultimately the people who grow and harvest our food suffer the consequences. This practice must end.”

In 2005, Congress passed a law strictly forbidding the use of pregnant women and minors in pesticide tests. A loophole in the new EPA rule will allow testing of pregnant women, infants and children. Low-income people and students are the most likely to participate in these dangerous experiments, for which they usually receive a few hundred dollars. However, participants injured in the studies are not guaranteed medical care outside of the testing period.

The groups contend the EPA rule violates international ethical standards enumerated in the 1947 Nuremburg Code by permitting the EPA to set safety standards based on tests conducted with only a handful of healthy people. In most tests, participants are not representative of the U.S. population, the test period is scientifically problematic, and group size is not large enough to detect potential harmful health effects.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the NRDC, the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Physicians for Social Responsibility, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Pineros y Campesinos del Noreste, and the Migrant Clinicians Network. Attorneys for the petitioners are NRDC, Farmworker Justice and Earthjustice.
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Depression and anxiety can double chances of heart ailments

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Matters of the mind can affect matters of the heart. A new study by McGill University and Université de Montréal researchers has found that major anxiety and/or depression, can double a coronary artery disease patient’s chances of repeated heart ailments. This is one of the first studies to focus on patients with stable coronary artery disease – not those who were hospitalized for events such as a heart attack.

The research team interviewed 804 people, patients with stable coronary artery disease who were still monitored by a physician, yet had been discharged from hospital two months prior. Frasure-Smith and Lespérance found 27 percent of interview subjects were affected by depression and 41 percent showed signs of anxiety. Major depressive disorder was diagnosed in roughly 7 percent of patients while about 5 percent had generalized anxiety disorder.

“Now that we know that anxiety and major depression are both markers of increased cardiac risk, it is imperative that these patients receive the best treatment for both their cardiac and psychiatric conditions,” concurred Frasure-Smith and Lespérance, “since both disorders may respond to antidepressants.”
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Revisting the Diaper Debate

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Another option to consider is a new flushable product called gDiapers, which consists of a colorful cloth pant and snap-in liner with inserts made primarily of fluffed wood pulp. The pants and liners are washed and reused and the inserts are flushed down the toilet. The ingredients are almost all natural, but do include super-absorbent polymers, or SAP -- which most disposable diapers use as well -- to increase the amount of liquid that the diaper can hold. SAP has been linked to toxic-shock syndrome from tampons, and some parents are concerned about its use in diapers, but studies have revealed no adverse health effects from exposure outside the body.

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A healthy smile may promote a healthy heart

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An article published in the December issue of the Journal of Periodontology (JOP), the official publication of the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP), suggests that periodontal patients whose bodies show evidence of a reaction to the bacteria associated with periodontitis may have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

“Although there have been many studies associating gum disease with heart disease, what we have not known is exactly why this happens and under what circumstances,” said JOP editor Kenneth Kornman, DDS, PhD. “The findings of this new analysis of previously published studies suggest that the long-term effect of chronic periodontitis, such as extended bacterial exposure, may be what ultimately leads to cardiovascular disease.”

Researchers at Howard University identified 11 studies that had previously examined clinically-diagnosed periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease. The team then analyzed the participants’ level of systemic bacterial exposure, specifically looking for the presence of the bacteria associated with periodontal disease, as well as measuring various biological indicators of bacterial exposure. They found that individuals with periodontal disease whose biomarkers showed increased bacterial exposure were more likely to develop coronary heart disease or atherogenesis (plaque formation in the arteries).

“While more research is needed to better understand the connection between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease, this study suggests the importance of taking of your teeth and gums and how that can help you take care of your heart,” said Susan Karabin, DDS, President of the AAP. “With the number of people with heart disease continuing to increase, it is important to understand that simple activities like brushing and flossing twice a day, and regular visits to your dental professional can help lower your risk of other health conditions.”
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New York City Passes Plastic Bag Legislation

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NEW YORK (January 9, 2008) – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) today welcomed New York City Council passage of new legislation that would encourage recycling of single-use plastic bags at large supermarkets and other retail outlets throughout the city.

The legislation, sponsored by Speaker Christine Quinn, council members Peter Vallone, Michael McMahon and others, would require large retail outlets in New York City to establish in-store plastic bag recycling programs, inform consumers of the availability of such programs and to offer for sale reusable bags.

“The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, clogging our cabinets, kitchen drawers and landfills. They’re hanging from trees, and littering our beaches,” said NRDC Urban Program co-director, Eric A. Goldstein. “The bill ensures that retailers will give customers a better choice than simply throwing away a product made from oil that will sit in a landfill for up to a thousand years.”

Every year, Americans use and dispose of 100 billion plastic shopping bags, according to the Wall Street Journal, and an estimated 12 million of barrels of oil are needed to manufacture that many bags. Plastic bags and other plastic film, which is also covered by the bill, represents 4 to 5 percent of the city’s residential waste load, the New York City Sanitation Department has found. No more than 5 percent of plastic grocery bags were recycled across the country in 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The proposed legislation will discourage the one-time use and throw-away of plastic bags, reduce energy consumption and global warming gases, and lead at least some New Yorkers to think about the cost to taxpayers and the city’s environment from wasteful packaging practices.”

“We commend Councilmember Vallone, Chairman McMahon, staffer Carmen Cognetta and Speaker Quinn for their continuing and comprehensive efforts to reform city solid waste policies,” Mr. Goldstein concluded.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing.
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Depressed Girls Can't Smell The Roses

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Scientists from Tel Aviv University have linked depression to a biological mechanism that affects the olfactory glands. It might explain, they believe, why some women wear too much perfume without realizing it.

"Our findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume," explains researcher Yehuda Shoenfeld. "We also believe that depression has biological roots and may be an immune system response to certain physiological cues." Shoenfeld draws his conclusions from lifetime research on autoimmune diseases, focusing on conditions such as lupus, arthritis and rheumatism.

Scientists today widely accept the fact that people with Alzheimer's disease lose their sense of smell. Shoenfeld's research is the first that links depression to smell in lupus patients, however. The implications are wide and can be applied to the general population, he says. "People who are depressed seem to respond well to aromatherapy. Certain smells seem to help them overcome the effects of the biological factors, suggesting that depression may have a biological cause."

Controversially, Shoenfeld believes that science is able to show that aromatherapy might not be just for quacks. " After all, some of these remedies have been used since the time of the Egyptians to treat organic diseases," he notes, suggesting that a standardized "smell test" could be used by doctors to help diagnose depression as well as autoimmune diseases.
Source: Tel Aviv University
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Mold and Moods

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No one likes mold. Yet the unsightly blight is present in an estimated 40 percent of American homes. And those rates may be higher in flood-ravaged areas like the Gulf Coast. The tiny fungi can irritate the upper-respiratory tract, causing coughing, wheezing and asthma symptoms in the 5 percent of the population with allergic antibodies to them.

But the effects of mold may be even more diverse than previously thought. A new study out this week in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that damp, moldy homes are associated with an increased incidence of depression. Why? "Some molds are toxins, and exposure to these toxins may hypoactivate parts of the brain that deal with emotions," says lead author Edmond Shenassa, assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I.

Shenassa and his colleagues looked at World Health Organization data from 5,882 adults living in eight cities in Europe, including Budapest, Geneva and Bonn, Germany. WHO interviewers asked residents if they had depressive symptoms such as decreased appetite, low self-esteem and sleep disturbances. Researchers found that those that said yes were more likely to live in damp, moldy homes. "[The study] suggests that healthy homes can lead to healthier lives. The take-home message is that housing conditions can influence health," says Shenassa. While the study did not provide a definitive reason for the link, study authors said that two factors are likely to be at play. One is the perceived lack of control over one's environment that mold can create and the other is mold-related health problems such as wheezing, fatigue and colds. (The team is conducting follow-up research to see whether mold directly causes depression.)

Not all the experts agree that there is any connection between mold and depression—despite this new research. Critics wish the study hadn't relied on self reports. "Having professionals do the inspection and rate homes for dampness or moldiness is much better than having people self report," says Pat Breysse, director of the division of environmental health engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Often people "point fingers at mold," but "the biological link between mold and a neurotoxic effect that might lead to depression is very tenuous, in my opinion," says Breysse.

But whether mold is linked to depression or not, many health professionals agree that homeowners need to fix their houses. The presence of mold doesn't just mean trouble for allergy sufferers, it also means a home is more likely to be infested with cockroaches, and it usually brings down property values.

So don't wait for an inspector, advises Breysse. "If you've got a leaky pipe and a big stain in the ceiling, you don't need to hire someone to say there's a big problem," he says. "It's an indication that the plumbing is leaking, the roof is leaking and the upkeep of the house is bad. Bad housing is not healthy for lots of reasons. That should be the message, not that mold causes depression."

To prevent the spread of the icky fungi, Shenassa recommends that you keep the bathroom and the kitchen as dry as possible and have space where one can get behind appliances to wipe out the water. He also suggests insulating around pipes, windows and maintaining good ventilation. After all, a dry home is likely to be a healthier home, even if it's not necessarily happier.
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FYI: news from the society for women's health research

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New research finds that women who drink one or more cups of coffee every day do not seem to have an increased risk of high blood pressure. However, the update from the Nurses' Health Study found that women who drank at least four cans of sugared cola a day had a 28-44 percent increased risk, compared with non-cola drinkers; diet cola drinkers had a slightly increased risk.

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People power to warm new building in Stockholm: project leader

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A project from the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset is planning to use the body heat from hundreds of thousands of people who pass through the Stockholm Central Station each day, to heat a new office building nearby.

"So many people go through the Central Station ... We want to harness some of the warmth they produce to help heat the new building," Karl Sundholm, of the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset, told AFP.

Some 250,000 people pass through the station each day, rushing to catch trains and subways or simply visit the many shops and stores inside.

"All people produce heat, and that heat is in fact fairly difficult to get rid of. Instead of opening windows and letting all that heat go to waste we want to harness it through the ventilation system," Sundholm said.

He said the body heat would warm up water that in turn would be pumped through pipes over to the new office building, which will also house a small hotel and a few shops and is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2010.

"This is old technology, but used in a new way. It's just pipes, water and pumps, but we haven't heard of anyone else using this technology in this way before," he said, adding that Jernhuset expects the system to bring down heating costs in the building by up to 20 percent.

Installing the heating system is not expected to be complicated or very costly, Sundholm said, pointing out that laying the necessary pumps and underground pipes might cost a some 200,000 kronor (21,200 euros, 31,200 dollars).

"For a large building expected to cost several hundred million kronor to build, that's not that much," he said.

© 2008 AFP
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What to Do About E-Waste

From Green Living by NRDC

Our increased reliance on personal technology -- laptops, cell phones, PDAs, computer monitors, printers -- has resulted in vast quantities of garbage in landfills that could have been reused or recycled. Two million tons of tech trash ended up in landfills in 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and only about 380,000 tons were recycled. Americans threw away more than 100 million cell phones in 2006. Recycling them could have saved enough energy to power approximately 194,000 U.S. households for one year.

Some of the materials in personal electronics, such as lead, mercury and cadmium, are hazardous and can release dangerous toxins into our air and water when burned or deposited in landfills improperly. And throwing away metal components, like the copper, gold, silver and palladium in cell phones and other electronics, leads to needless mining for new metals.

Consumers, manufacturers and retailers can all help ensure that older electronics find new homes or new uses. The resources below will help you recycle, donate or resell your unwanted gadgets and keep them out of the waste stream.

RECYCLE

Depending on where you live and the products you want to recycle, you can:

• Find an e-waste collection event in your town
• Send your used tech stuff back to the manufacturer
• Head to a nearby retailer that accepts old electronics

Most of these services are free, but some charge a fee (around $10) to take back a computer or a box of old electronics. See the following list of manufacturers, retailers and databases of local recycling services to find the best option for you. You may also want to contact your city or county solid waste management agency to find out about e-waste collection events near you.

E-Waste Recycling Organizations
Wireless...The New Recyclable (for used cell phones)
Basel Action Network
National Recycling Coalition
E-Cycling Central

Manufacturer Take-Back ProgramsThis list does not include every manufacturer that accepts used products. Check out your manufacturer's website to find out its recycling policy -- terms and conditions for take-back can vary widely between companies.
Apple (also provides free other-brand cell phone and battery recycling at retail stores)
Dell
Hewlett-Packard
Sony
Gateway
Nokia
Motorola

Retailers This list does not include every retailer that accepts used products. Check out your retailer's website to find out its recycling policy -- programs can vary widely between retailers.
Staples
Office Depot
Best Buy

KNOW WHERE IT GOES
The key to responsible tech recycling is knowing where your stuff will end up. Watch out for any recycler who ships discarded electronics to developing countries for processing. Avoiding sending our garbage overseas saves on greenhouse gas emissions and helps protect workers in developing countries. As reported in a 2006 OnEarth Magazine article, upwards of 80 percent of the world's e-waste is transported to Asia, and most of it winds up in China. Workers who disassemble consumer electronics by hand are exposed to toxic substances, which also contaminate groundwater. The Basel Action Network provides a list of recyclers who have pledged to recycle domestically and to follow environmental guidelines. You can also help ensure that local e-waste collection events are contracting with reputable recyclers by asking organizers to publicize the names of the recycling companies involved.

DONATE OR SELL
Giving away or selling used electronics are great ways to extend their use and keep them out of landfills. The EPA and eBay provide lists of organizations that accept donations of used electronics. Some services provide second-hand computers to schools or nonprofits, so your old computer could become a valuable tool for someone in need.

TAKE ACTION
NRDC, along with the Electronics Take Back Coalition, is working to establish e-waste recycling laws in states around the country. Right now nine states (California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas and Washington) have laws in place that mandate recycling of discarded electronics. Numerous other states and the City of New York are also moving towards enacting e-waste laws. Federal e-waste legislation is likely some years away.

NRDC backs e-waste laws that require manufacturers to assume responsibility for taking back and recycling their used products. Such laws -- which have been adopted by almost all states that have passed e-waste legislation to date -- encourage the design of less toxic, more easily recyclable gadgets. NRDC also supports strict manufacturer reporting requirements and other measures to limit the export of e-waste abroad.
Find out more about current state e-waste legislation.

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