Curiously Awesome

Women who take strategic serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy are more likely to give birth prematurely. Some of the most popular antidepressants are SSRIs, including Prozac.

Researchers compared rates of premature birth between different women. They compared women who were depressed and taking SSRIs with those who were depressed but not taking SSRIs. Women who took SSRIs during pregnancy were twice as likely to give birth prematurely as those who did not take any antidepressants.

It is a confirmed fact that SSRIs can cross the placental barrier and enter into the fetal bloodstream. Research has also shown that babies born to women who used antidepressants during pregnancy often even suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

Women who take specific antidepressant drugs while pregnant may double their baby’s risk of developing a certain variety of heart defect.

Researchers compared the risks of birth defects in 1,370 children born to women who took at least one SSRI antidepressant while pregnant with the risk in 400,000 other children whose mothers had not taken SSRIs while pregnant. Drugs including Prozac, Zoloft and Celexa all significantly increased the risk that a child would be born with a defect in the septum (separates the right and left halves of the heart).

Septum defects may just be minor blood vessel problems at best or at worst this defect may involve holes in the heart. Researchers found that one extra septum defect would develop for every 246 pregnant women taking an SSRI — especially any time from 28 days before conception through 112 days after conception.

Taking more than one SSRI during pregnancy drastically increased the risk of these defects.

The least nutritious cereals are advertised to children the most frequently…right? In fact, the worst cereals are marketed the most aggressively to children.

The average American child sees 642 entertaining cereal advertisements per year…and advertising is created to fit the audience. The cereals with the most sugar are aimed at young children, and more nutritious cereals are aimed at adults.

Interestingly, cereal manufactures claim they are making their cereals more nutritious and at the same time are reducing their advertising to children. The fact remains that cereals marketed to children have 85 percent more sugar, 60 percent more sodium and 65 percent less fiber than adult cereals.

Not only is obesity a concern, but there are other health issues associated with diets high in sugar and starches. These diets cause blood sugar spikes that are common to diabetes. These diets also create more oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is connected with a rising number of health issues.

Opiate painkillers are often used to treat acute and chronic pain. Morphine, especially, is used to relieve the pain of cancer patients. New evidence from two new studies reveals that opiate-based painkillers may actually increase the growth and spread of malignancies.

The idea of opiate drugs contributing to cancer recurrence surfaced about eight years ago from several unrelated clinical studies.

In laboratory studies using cell cultures and mice, scientists found that morphine revved up the multiplication of tumor cells. In addition, it inhibited the immune response and promoted the growth of the blood vessels that help nourish tumors and help them to thrive.

It would seem prudent to block the cancer-fueling ability of opiates by using them for as short a time as possible (or not at all even).

A new report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine concludes that the more television three-year-olds watch, the more aggressive they are.

Approximately 65 percent of families participating in a study reported their three-year-olds watched over two hours of television every day. In addition to this personal viewing, the children were also exposed to an additional 5.2 hours of general household TV use each day. The researchers determined that both direct watching of TV and general household TV use were significantly connected to childhood aggression.

One explanation is that homes with higher rates of TV use most likely have fewer restrictions about what children can watch — so children are probably being exposed to unregulated television content.

The conclusion of the researchers: “Current American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations mainly suggest limitations for direct child exposure to TV and other media; however, our findings suggest that additional household TV use may also be an important predictor of negative childhood outcomes, such as early childhood aggression.”

There are 14 billion hamburgers consumed each year in the US. Current USDA regulations openly allow beef that is contaminated with E. coli to be repackaged and then cooked and sold as ready-to-eat hamburgers.

Another interesting fact…USDA regulations also allow chicken feces to be used as feed for cows. Do you see how this might be significant?

Farmers feed their cattle between 1 million to 2 million tons of chicken feces every year. Critics are concerned that this practice may lead to an increased risk of mad cow disease contaminating beef products. Many people are pushing for a ban of this practice of feeding of chicken litter to cows.

McDonald’s has actually joined this fight to ban the practice. CSPI and the Consumers Union have also joined the fight.

How could chicken feces create a mad cow infection risk to cows? Chickens are fed ground up parts of other animals, including cows, sheep and other animals. Some of this chicken feed spills during the feeding process and gets swept along with the chicken feces…and then fed to cows.

Make sense now?

So we have a situation where dead cows, sheep and other animals are fed to chickens, the chicken feed spills onto the floor where it is mixed in with chicken feces, it then gets swept up and manufactured into a cow feed and fed to cows. Spin this out and know then that some of those cows may even eventually get ground up and fed back to the chickens.

Grossed out yet?

Overfishing of smaller fish species is leading to widespread famine and even starvation among the ocean’s larger predators.

Scrawny dolphins, sea bass and whales are appearing on coastlines all over the world.

Fish-eating birds and other large mammal predators like seals and sea lions have also been found lacking food.

The starvation problem is being blamed to human depletion of these predators’ food stocks. Over the past several decades, fisheries around the world have collapsed, making it nearly impossible for large fishing operations to catch the large fish that most consumers want to eat.

Approximately 80 percent of all prey fish caught are not eaten by humans. Instead they are ground up into fish oil or meal as food for larger species in fish farms. It takes 11 pounds of food for a large fish to gain one pound of its own.

Researchers have discovered that diesel fumes can increase malignancies. Diesel exhaust causes new blood vessels to grow that feed cancerous tumors.

Researchers discovered that three types of blood vessel development takes place after exposure to the diesel fumes. There are three different processes that occur that are associated with the growth of cancerous tumors. Of these three, angiogenesis is the most lethal one that helps malignancies spread.

Exhaust exposure levels that are roughly equal to the levels that humans regularly receive if they reside in cities and/or commute in heavy traffic have been found to be potentially lethal. A tiny size of inhaled diesel particles is enough to allow the material to penetrate into the human circulatory system, organs, and tissues. This is enough to potentially causing damage to the sensitive human body.

Bottom line: bad air is bad for the babies’ developing brains and might even contribute to the dumbing down of Americans.

Scientists have determined that an expectant mother’s exposure to chemicals called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) may adversely affect a child’s intelligence level. PAHs are released into the air from burning coal and tobacco. The main source of PAHs is cars that run on diesel, oil and gas. A new study found that children exposed to high levels of PAHs in New York City had IQ scores that were over 4 points lower than children with less chemical exposure.

A 4-point difference on intelligence tests is thought to make a significant difference on school performance and standardized tests.

This is the first study to correlate PAH exposure and IQ. It should warn us of the need to reduce environmental exposures for everyone

The US is devolving and Massachusetts is charting our frightening course with a new bill called the “Pandemic Response Bill.” which just passed through the MA state Senate and is now waiting for House approval. This bill destroys almost every Constitutional right that Massachusetts citizens previously enjoyed and forces anyone that is “suspected” of being infected with H1N1 to submit to interrogations, decontaminations, and vaccinations…with subsequent quarantine camps for those who do not submit.

The bill also creates a fine of up to $1,000 per day for anyone who refuses to cooperate with the quarantines, vaccinations, and decontamination efforts.

Expect this to be only the beginning with other states following Massachusett’s lead in short order.