If you have ever told a friend that you are craving sugar and you can’t seem to be able to stop eating it, then you may actually be addicted to sugar.
Dr. Mark Hyman told CBS “This Morning” that in animal studies they found that rats go for sugar in a manner that was eight times more addictive than cocaine. Hyman said that Americans are addicted to sugar and that most don’t know it because they see sugary food and drinks as part of their daily diet.
Hyman says that sugary foods are “deadly” to the body. He said that sugar is a direct cause of diabetes and obesity.
Hyman told the New York Daily News that the average American eats 152 pounds of sugar a year.
In a diet study conducted by Hyman that encouraged healthier eating habits and helped people cut their sugar dependence, the average person found their blood pressure falling by about 10 points.
A new research study from Columbia University shows that fatal car accidents involving marijuana have tripled in the last ten years.
One of the co-authors of the study, Dr. Guohua Li, said that currently one in nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana.
“If this trend continues, in five or six years non-alcohol drugs will overtake alcohol to become the most common substance involved in deaths related to impaired driving,” Dr. Li said.
The study comes on the heels of states such as Colorado legalizing marijuana for use by the public. Alcohol related traffic fatalities held steady at 40 percent throughout the decade but drug related deaths climbed from 16 percent in 1999 to 28 percent in 2010. The scientists fear more legalization could continue to drive up the rate of drug related crashes.
“If a driver is under the influence of alcohol, their risk of a fatal crash is 13 times higher than the risk of the driver who is not under the influence of alcohol,” Li told Breitbart. “But if the driver is under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana, their risk increases to 24 times that of a sober person.”
A new technology claims to allow customers to pay for purchases by using a scan of their veins.
The program is called Pulse Wallet and the device is scanner similar to the point of sale devices where you slide your credit or debit card. Pulse Wallet links to a credit card or other payment methods so that a customer can leave all identifying information at home.
The founders say the technology has many benefits.
In addition to being used in retail locations, the device can be used by airlines as a new form of boarding pass. They say because the form and scan of veins is unique to each person…and people don’t really know what the pattern of their veins looks like…it gives them a password that no thief can steal.
The company says that there are no traces for someone to find like fingerprints and the person would have to be alive with the limb attached because blood flow is needed to perform the scan.
The Department of Health and Human Services will spend $90 million over the next five years for a drug that can help stop two bacteria which security officials believe could make a deadly bioterror weapon.
HHS officials have already released $19.8 million for the purchase of Caravance, a drug that is aimed as a countermeasure to melioidosis and glanders diseases.
According to a press release from HHS, both glanders and melioidosis are considered suitable for biological weapons. Untreated infections from the diseases have a mortality rate of 90%. The bacteria have also developed some resistance to current antibiotics meaning even if you are treated for an infection there is still a 40% mortality rate.
Glanders is a respiratory disease transmitted either airborne or when the victim comes in contact with contaminated animals. Melioidosis, which is often confused for other conditions like pneumonia, is also transmitted through air or contact.
The World Health Organization has released a report showing a dramatic increase in cancer is likely over the next 20 years and that most of the cancer cases will strike in the emerging world.
The World Cancer Report shows a jump in new cancer cases of 1.4 million in the four years between 2008 and 2012. Of the 14.1 million new cases in 2012, 58% of the patients died from their disease.
However, the most shocking part of the report is that the WHO predicts cancer rates will increase as much as 70% in the next 20 years reaching an expected level of 25 million a year. Using the 58% mortality rate from 2012, that would mean 14.5 million cancer deaths in 2032.
The biggest growth in cancer rates will not be in the countries that currently face the most cases and have the strongest medical systems. The WHO reports says emerging nations with poor economies will see surges from cancers triggered by infections like cervical cancer and from tobacco, alcohol and processed food use.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for men while breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for women.
Scientists at Stanford University and MIT have found a new way to predict earthquakes and possible damage in areas where seismologists have struggled with oceans causing small seismic waves.
The scientists have developed a way to use ocean waves as a model for earthquakes and its impact on different types of soil.
The study says that Los Angeles is very vulnerable to a large quake from the San Andreas Fault.
The study shows that because the city sits on what’s called a ”sedimentary basin” shock waves from quakes could be magnified as much as three times their usual level. A sedimentary basin is softer, sandier dirt surrounded by a ring of rock. The waves would bounce off the rock and increase in magnitude.
One member of the scientific team said it was similar to a large bathtub full of water. If you shake the tub, the tub does not shake much but the water within violently shakes along with anything on top of it.
The study says the new system will allow scientists to test the impact of an earthquake on buildings in areas that have not experienced an earthquake for many years.
“Not dead yet.”
That was phrase used by U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough in a study published in the journal Science saying the major fault in the middle of the United States is still open to a major earthquake.
The New Madrid Fault Zone covers parts of seven states: Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The study was in response to studies claiming the fault was dying down and that any seismic actions were aftershocks or results of the major 1811-1812 earthquakes that devastated the central Mississippi River valley. The fault is considered to be less understood than other major faults because unlike those faults, it is located in the middle of a continent away from plate edges.
Hough and a USGS geophysicist analyzed past quakes in the New Madrid region and through computer modeling determined they are not related to the big quakes 200 years ago.
The USGS estimates a 7 to 10 percent chance of a 7.0 or greater earthquake in the region within the next 50 years.
A new Loyola University study says that cancer patients who exercise can cut their risk of death in half.
The study of men who beat cancer and who burned more than 12,600 calories a week in some kind of exercise program showed a death rate half of those who did not exercise.
The study was conducted of over 1,000 men with an average age of 71.
The study also confirmed a previous study that showed cancer survivors who stayed physically active had a 38% less chance of death if the cancer were to return. They were also 48% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease after their cancer treatments.
“Physical activity should be actively promoted to such individuals to enhance longevity,” Dr. Kathlee Wolin said in the study.
A new report from the Commerce Department shows that half of the nation’s counties have still not recovered from the economic depression despite the overall nationwide economy indicating a recovery.
The Wall Street Journal reports that despite the good nationwide number the economic recovery is uneven at best.
One of the report’s authors said that the report shows why many Americans feel like the economy is not improving. Emilia Istrate said that Americans feel the economy locally and that if there’s no recovery in their area they don’t believe overall conditions are improving.
The report examined GDP, total number of jobs, unemployment rates and home prices.
A new study says that excessive television watching can actually cause physical harm to a child’s brain.
According to the researchers, the more time a child views TV the more significant the changes to the child’s brain.
MRI brain scans of children who spent the most hours in front of the TV in the study showed greater amounts of grey matter in the regions around the front of the frontal lobe. The build up was connected to lower verbal intelligence and that children with the highest IQs showed significantly less grey matter in that area of their brains.
The study showed both boys and girls brains were impacted equally by excessive television viewing.
The researchers said that part of the issue comes from television not requiring any advancement in brain function to view. In comparison, playing a musical instrument requires increased technical precision and allows for greater, higher levels of achievement.
The scientists could not say conclusively if missing activities such as reading, playing sports or interacting with other children were also to blame.