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A report by the UN’s health watchdog cautions that new genes in the world’s food chain could have unexpected adverse effects. The World Health Organization is calling for individual risk assessments on each new GM food, with an eye to both human health and the environment.

The US and Canada’s carte blanche approach to the technology precludes such close monitoring. Japan and the EU have more restrictive traceability requirements. (more…)

The Alliance for Natural Health, a UK based group, recently commissioned its own expert panel to look at risk criteria for the use of food supplements. The new panel’s work, intended to help shape European policy directives, will attempt to show that food supplements do not pose a risk to consumers at current levels of use.

ANH was formed to oppose a 2002 European directive some say would regulate food supplements virtually out of existence, resulting in a de facto vitamin ban. (more…)

Anti-inflammatory properties of grapeseed extract may prevent cholesterol buildup in arteries, according to a recent University of California Davis study. Papers presented at an Experimental Biology conference this spring suggest inflammation is the underlying cause of artherosclerosis.

Guinea pigs fed a high fat diet along with grapeseed extract had significantly fewer arterial cholesterol deposits than animals on the same diet who did not receive grapeseed extract. Buildup of cholesterol is responsible for hardening of arteries, which can lead to stroke and heart attacks. Earlier studies with grape juice provided similar indications, but flavonoids in the grapeseed extract used at UCD are reported to have 1000 times the antioxidant capacity of grape juice.
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A little known autoimmune disorder rarely touches Asian seniors, but affects one third of elderly Americans. Investigating this mystery, Dr. Stephen Hsu of the University of Georgia discovered that green tea consumption, which begins in infancy in some Asian cultures, could affect all autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Hsu’s research may benefit individuals with type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Sjogrens disease, multiple sclerosis, allergies, Grave’s disease and many others. A deranged immune response, in which the body attacks its own tissues, is the common unifying factor in autoimmune disease. (more…)

A one year trial of high dose Vitamin D showed a dramatic 28% increase in bone density. Pharmaceutical drugs used for osteoporosis average an 8% increase in bone density.

The study was conducted in Romania, because US approvals for the high doses of Vitamin D were not forthcoming. Research was conducted jointly by Canadian and Romanian medical researchers.

The Vitamin D dosage used, 5000 IU, far exceeds the EU/US approved safe maximum level of 2000 IU. The more conservative dose is based on the fear that Vitamin D will increase circulating calcium and result in hypercalcaemia. But the Romainian patients did not excrete excess calcium.

Planning a trip to the beach? No worries…the American Cancer Society’s warning that sunshine poses a cancer risk could be revised. Exciting new data spotlights remarkable benefits from Vitamin D, formed in the skin in response to sunlight.

A Harvard professor of medicine and nutrition recently told a group of cancer researchers they were thirty times more likely to die from Vitamin D deficiency than from sun-caused skin cancer. Speaking at a meeting in Anaheim, California, Dr. Edward Giovannucci challenged the American Association for Cancer Research to find another factor with as much anti-cancer benefit as Vitamin D. (more…)

Autistic children have low blood levels of Omega 3 fatty acids, according to a Scottish research team. Supplementation with these key brain nutrients improved sleep patterns, learning and social interactions in both autistic and Aspergers children observed in the study.

Researchers found evidence that autistic children metabolize fatty acids more rapidly than other children. Omega 3 DHA and Omega 6 ARA fats appear to be more rapidly utilized in schizophrenia patients as well.

Further research into blood fatty acid levels in children will be aimed at determining whether the deficiency is unique to autism or also characteristic of children with developmental delay. (more…)

Want a way to get natural Vitamin D from sunshine, avoid carcinogenic chemicals in topical sunscreens, and still dodge the melanoma bullet as it careens through the thinning ozone layer? You may be able to protect yourself from UV radiation by taking antioxidant supplements.

French researchers demonstated that an antioxidant supplement can provide dramatic protection against sunburn. (more…)

GeneWatch UK and Greenpeace International have launched the first on-line world wide register of GM contamination incidents. The online searchable database is at gmcontaminationregister.org

Although GM crops were grown on over 80 million hectares in 2004, until now there has been no global monitoring system. Only publically documented illegal or undocumented contamination incidents will be included in the database. (more…)

Numerous studies show green tea protecting against cancers of breast, liver, bladder and prostate. Research now shows green tea works by depriving cancer cells of proteins they need to invade surrounding tissues.

A PhD student at the University of Rochester discovered the cancer fighting mechanism in green tea, trumping drug researchers who had targeted the same mechanism for drug development. (more…)