EVOLVE/LOVE: ANH-Intl T-Shirt campaign! 

For just 25 days you can purchase a unique, one-off, limited-time ANH-Intl designer t-shirt that communicates to others who you are and why you are. Check out our new, non-GM, 100% eco-friendly T-shirt campaign and support the work ANH-Intl does by purchasing one for yourself, members of your family and/or your friends! We’ve set a goal of 40 T-shirts, but we’d love to go way over! Please help us do so by buying one (or more!), wearing one, talking about them and spreading the link around. Encourage people to evolve their own diet and lifestyle and help us in our global mission to bring about a healthier and more natural future for all. Buy your T-shirt now!

Our new for 2014 EVOLVE/LOVE T-shirt

Vitamin C and E supplementation hinders athletes training 

This week Nutraingredients covered a new study published in The Journal of Physiology, which found that athletes supplementing with vitamins C and E experienced diminished improvement in their muscular endurance. The Norwegian researchers state that “…vitamin C and E supplements blunted the endurance training-induced increase of mitochondrial proteins, which are needed to improve muscular endurance.” Robert Verkerk PhD, ANH-Intl executive and scientific director, responded that, “Researchers are still hooked at looking at isolated vitamins as the key antioxidants when our evolutionary history and diets show that plant-derived phytochemicals and internally-generated antioxidants like glutathione are likely to be more important.” Read his full response in the Nutraingredients article.

Weston A. Price ‘Wise Traditions’ European Conference

Do you live in England? At a loose end this weekend and wondering what to do?  The Weston A. Price Foundation is hosting its annual conference at Sandown Racecourse in Esher, Surrey on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February. The expert stable of speakers includes the likes of Stephanie Seneff PhD, Dr Michael Antoniou & Sir Julian Rose (on GM), Sally Fallon Morell (on Nourishing Traditional Diets), Philip Weeks (on Treating Adrenal Fatigue) with many more presentations and workshops across a wide area. You can also treat yourself in one of the eight spa treatment rooms! Tickets can be purchased online and will cost more on the door. Workshop spaces are limited.

Australian government must change health focus to promote wellbeing

The Australian government is being encouraged to move away from a position of treating people once they have become unwell to one that promotes well being and prevention. The Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia (CHC) says the current model is “ailing and expensive” and “…costly in monetary terms and in the terms of the impact on productivity and quality of life.” Carl Gibson, chief executive of the CHC is keen to establish proven, more cost effective solutions that are commonly used in integrative medicine. An Access Economics report from 2010 looked at the cost-effectiveness of complementary supplements such as St John’s Wort and found that it would save Australians over A$50m (US$44m/£27m). The talk of ‘savings’ should also include the reduction in side effects from using natural rather than synthetic, new-to-nature pharmaceuticals.

How to avoid digital eye strain 

The use of screen-based technology is on the rise rather than decline and with it, so too is digital eye strain. The American Optometric Association reports that up to 75% of computer users suffer from eye and vision problems. However, there are some eye activities that can help to lessen the overload effect, such as blinking frequently and keeping the monitor at full brightness to reduce the blue light waves in particular.

Routine pre-surgery drug has 'killed 800,000 patients'

Beta-blockers (anti-hypertensives for lowering blood pressure) have routinely been given to patients before surgery to reduce stress on the heart. However professor of cardiology at Imperial College London, Darrel Francis, and his colleague, Graham Cole have authored a paper revealing that the research behind the administering of beta-blockers was falsified and has led to around 800,000 deaths. The research paper, published in the European Heart Journal, was apparently removed within hours with surgeons still continuing to give beta-blockers prior to surgery.

FSA launches raw milk consultation 

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published proposals which seek to allow continued sales of unpasteurised, or raw, milk from farms or farmers markets, whilst clarifying and potentially setting new controls. The UK stakeholder consultation on these proposals will run until 30 April 2014. The FSA acknowledges that “…there is a market for raw milk and strong support for consumers to be allowed to make informed choices” and they aim to “strike the right balance between allowing consumer choice and protecting public health.” Raw milk has been the subject of much controversy both sides of the Atlantic and is still under intense scrutiny in the US.

Séralini and others claim pesticide toxicity dramatically underestimated

The now well-known Giles-Eric Séralini has been involved in a research article titled “Major pesticides are more toxic to human cells than their declared active principles”. The study tested to what extent the active principle (AP) or adjuvants in present formulations account for the toxicity of 9 major pesticides: 3 herbicides, 3 insecticides, and 3 fungicides. Generally the safety of a pesticide is determined by testing only the major active ingredient on the assumption that this is responsible for giving the pesticide its pest- or weed-killing action. However the study found that the additives (adjuvants) used in these products increase the activity of the pesticide and yet the complete formulation doesn’t have to be tested as a whole. The study found that out of the 9 tested, 8 of the pesticides were up to 1000 times more toxic than the active ingredient assessed for safety by regulators.

Academic campaigners tackle UK obesity

After successfully campaigning to reduce the UK’s salt intake, a group of academics now plan to attack the obesity crisis in an attempt to save the UK NHS £50bn a year by reducing sugar intake as well. The group of academics is well aware of the enormous opposition it will face from the government and vested business interests, not to mention the difficulties generated by fragmented industry regulations. Further hindrance is the seemingly open-door access to government ministers and officials that Big Food giants, such as McDonald's, Pepsi, Mars, Nando's and Subway, currently enjoy. With the UK's health service buckling under lifestyle-mediated diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and osteoporosis, this kind of health campaigning needs all the support it can get.

Starving hives: Pesticides cause bees to collect 57% less pollen

A British study has revealed how bees exposed to "field-realistic" doses of insecticides gather less than 50% of the pollen than they would normally. The scientists found that the honeybees’ most basic function, the gathering of pollen, was affected by even near-infinitesimal doses of the neurotoxins found inagricultural neonicotinoids. Given the vital role that bees play in the ecosystem and the fact that pollen is imperative for the rearing of their young, this new research increases concern for the bee population, and the ongoing worry about the link between pesticides and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

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