Burnham: Mental Health Counseling On NHS Will Be A Right

Shadow health secretary highlights cuts and 'biggest unaddressed health challenge' as he pledges Labour solution

A Labour government will preserve the right to counseling for mental health problems in the NHS constitution, same goes with people have a right to drugs and treatment for mental illness, Andy Burnham promise October this year.

Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said at a conference on mental health and wellbeing in Shrewsbury, that mental health is the biggest unaddressed health challenge of the age, costing business £71m a day, or £26bn a year.

He laid blame on and accused the government of lessening the mental health budget and abandoning the national survey of investment in adult mental health services, which showed how much was spent yearly.

"There is growing evidence of highly vulnerable people being held in police cells and sleeping on camp beds in office space because no crisis beds are available," he will say. "The cost of living crisis is tipping many people over the edge and concerns have been raised over the suicide rate. It is imperative that the openness and transparency the secretary of state speaks of are brought urgently to mental health services so parliament can have a proper debate on what's happening to vulnerable people."

The suicide rate is increasing, Burnham reports, rising from 11.1 to 11.8 deaths per 100,000 populations between 2010 and 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Antidepressant prescribing is growing as well; there were 4,000 more prescriptions between 2010 and 2011, a 9.4% increase in a year.

Waiting times for counseling, or "talking therapies", are increasing, he said.  Between April and June this year, more than 80,000 of the 241,250 patients referred for counseling waited for longer than the 28-day target.

As an answer to a parliamentary question from Labour's Lord Hunt, the parliamentary under secretary of state Earl Howe confirmed last October that a national survey for 2012-13 had not been commissioned and said that current data on spending on adult mental health services in England was not available.

"We are currently working with NHS England to explore the use of data collected as part of the programme budgeting collection as a potential replacement," he said.

Burnham accused the government of hiding cuts to mental health spending.

Parliament voted for parity of esteem and we've now no way of knowing if that commitment has been delivered, he said.

"All the evidence we hear is that mental health services have been cut further this year and there's a crisis in mental health crisis care. Now the government is trying to hide the reality of what's happening."

A department of health spokesman said: "It's important to know how much the NHS spends on mental health. The old surveys only captured rough estimates of how much the NHS spent on mental health. We are currently working with NHS England to find new and better ways of capturing how much the NHS actually spends. This means there will be better information out there the local NHS can use to see how much they spend compared to other areas.

"We have clearly set out what services the local NHS must provide for people with mental health problems in our mandate to NHS England."


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Mental Health Services Usage by People with Depression

http://springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/10/07/mental-health-services-usage-people-depression/

A new study has found more than half the people in Ontario who reported they had major depression did not use physician-based mental health services in the following year.

"It's concerning to us that many Ontarians with mental health needs are not accessing clinician-based care," said Katherine Smith, the lead author and epidemiologist in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael's Hospital.

"Some people may seek non-medical types of support or care, such as clergy, alternative medicine, psychologists or social workers.  But we don't know for sure, so the gap remains of concern."

The study used OHIP data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. The findings appear in the journal Health.

A predictable one in four people undergo at one point in their lives from depression, which lessens quality of life, is linked with amplified disability and lower productivity at work.  More than twice as often as men women are diagnosed with depression.

Smith had set out to see whether gender plays a role in seeking mental health care.   As a general rule, about 10 per cent more than men women use mental health services, showing the fact they use health care services overall as much as than men.

More than half - 55.3 per cent - of people in Ontario with self-reported major depression had no contact with physicians for mental health reasons in the following year.  Additional research is needed to understand why, Smith said.

She said some ethnic groups may not be comfortable accessing physician-based mental health services or may prefer to use non-medical services. Stigma around mental illness may also deter some people, she said.

Men, as compared to women, have the tendency to delay seeing a doctor for minor mental health concerns, but will ask help as soon as a mental health problem reaches a definite threshold.

Among those with depression, she found the gender gap was small, only five percentage points.  Women were somewhat more likely than men to see a primary care provider for depression - 30.4 per cent vs. 24.6 per cent, except there was little gender difference in who sought specialty care, like from a psychiatrist.

Comparing to those people who could have had other mental health concerns without major depression, there was a significant gender difference: 21 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men had a mental health visit, a gender gap of 8 percentage points.

Teach Our Children Well

http://springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/09/04/teach-children-well/

There would come a time when you wish that every aspects of life is as easy as arranging the lines of seven-year-old students.  It is like kindergarten students are more behave than the outside world.  Does school really affect the way we behave when we get older and done with school?
Isn’t the concept of lining up, or waiting your turn, or listening while someone else is speaking, something that is supposed to be hard-wired from the age of five onward, thanks to attending school should be a basic and common etiquette for adults?  Are people “misbehaving” in the adult world was an effect of their schooling when they were younger.
If schooling does indeed have a significant impact on us up until our adult years, how does it manifest itself in the everyday world of being a “grown-up”? And perhaps more importantly, are we thinking of education as a means to a positively practical end as we leave school behind us?
Canadians were raising their children and how it was negatively impacting their ability to function once they’d left home to go to university or work. Do not “helicopter parent” your kid rather spend the entire time wondering if it was possible that some of the struggles being discussed weren’t a result of an education that had misfired in shaping these youngsters’ skills sets.
Years back, things are better.  Today, students were being pushed through despite not having passed exams then blames the education system for not being the same as it was years before is a bit too get-off-my-lawn.  Before schooling seemed rigid and wildly archaic, meaning learning is far more than any generation.  Perhaps it was just a case of an education still being a good fit for the society it hoped to produce at the time.  Or maybe education is an organism in a constant state of flux, and sometimes the growing pains of one generation will greatly benefit the one coming up behind.
It all comes down to what a country/people/group wants an education to be.  The students should be more confident and self-aware.  They must think critically to be able to utilize deductive reasoning, to problem solve and so on.  Teach them skills that soon will be able to grow with them, and will evolve into useful tools for navigating their adult lives.  Success is not measured out in numbers on a chart and letters across a table.  The problem is we are all misbehaved, we can all sit nicely in a circle, raise our hands, and wait for our turn to talk.

Teens with Social Anxiety Engage in Earlier Alcohol, Marijuana Use

According to a study conducted at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, among teens with substance use disorders, those who also have social anxiety disorder begin using marijuana at a mean age of 10.6 years — an average of 2.2 years earlier than teens without anxiety.
“This finding surprised us,” said principal investigator Alexandra Wang, a third-year medical student at the university. “It shows we need to start earlier with prevention of drug and alcohol use and treatment of social phobia [in children].”
The study was consisting of 195 teens ages 14 to 18 which 102 of them or 52 percent \ were teenage girls.  They met the current diagnosis of substance use disorder and had received medical detoxification if needed.
The researchers evaluated the participants’ history of drug and alcohol use and digged into whether they’d had any of three anxiety disorders: social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and agoraphobia.
Out of 195 teens, 92 percent had marijuana dependence and the most disturbing part was it is starting at the age of 13 years.  And on the other hand, 61 percent were alcohol-dependent, having started drinking at 13.5 years on average.  This shows that marijuana was the most popular drug of choice.
Teens with either social anxiety disorder or panic disorder were far more likely to have marijuana dependence, Wang said. Before marijuana dependence both of these disorders were more likely to occur.
More or less 80 percent of teens suffering from social anxiety disorder and 85 percent with panic disorder had symptoms of that disorder previous to the onset of their substance abuse.  In addition, panic disorder has a propensity to start before alcohol dependence and came about in 75 percent of alcohol-dependent adolescents.
According to the authors, there was no clear evidence showing whether agoraphobia came before or after either marijuana use or the first drink.
A limitation of the study, according to the research team, was that 128 (66 percent) of the teens were juvenile offenders who had received court-referred treatment for their substance abuse. These findings might not generalize to a less severely addicted population.
Yet again, interventions to lessen social anxiety might help avoid substance abuse in teens.
“We need to treat these young patients initially with non-pharmacologic means, such as cognitive behavioral therapy or mindfulness meditation,” said Christina Delos Reyes, M.D., a psychiatrist specializing in addictions at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
Patrick Bordeaux, M.D., a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Quebec, Canada, said that “comorbidities tend to be the rule in adolescents, not the exception.”
“Adolescents are more likely to have social and mental disorders that make them more likely to use drugs,” said Bordeaux, who was not involved with the study.

Anger Management: How To Deal With Anger

Everyone gets angry once in a while if we are mistreated or feel we have been “wronged” and it is a normal and healthy emotion, you have to handle it appropriately.  What we need to emphasized on is what we do with this anger.  It is time to seek help when you feel like your anger is not doing any good with your day to day life such as work, relationship, ability to achieve your goal and many more.  Anger management’s goal is to learn methods and new ways to control your anger.  Many people who suffer from this condition come to seek help to deal with their problem but most of the time, fear, resentment, and unmet expectations that are the root causes for their anger.  Trough counseling the problem is addressed and the anger soon dissipates.  After, the client is able to be aware that they do not have to be controlled by their anger.  One more thing is that they are not being the “victim” of others or society but rather they are responsible for their own actions and behaviors.

Some people just wouldn’t want to show their real self so they stick with the reputation of an angry person or sometimes it is their way to resent from other people from getting too close to them.  This may result to people afraid of you or if not disrespectful of you.  Communicating your needs and frustrations in an productive and respectful way people will tend to listen more just to learn about your needs and frustrations.

As stated earlier, anger is a normal emotion.  The objective is to deal with the underlying issues and feelings indentified with anger.  And the next goal is to learn healthy ways to deal with this emotion.  Some may think that letting the anger out is healthy until they realize that the have secluded themselves from the people around them like relationships to partners, children, co-workers and etc.  Added the fact that this can have a very negative impact on the way others see and treat you.

For some instances, this type of behavior might be modeled from past experiences from family members seen while growing up.  You can do something to cut the cycle before your children might end up having the same problem and before you isolate yourself from others.

Is it uneasy for you to compromise and acknowledge you’re wrong at times?

Accepting that you are wrong and compromising can be hard at first but consider that you cannot for all time get your way by being the loudest and most demanding. It does nothing but pushes people away.

Are you afraid to let your guard down and allow people to truly see you for who you are?
Other people are saying that if you wanted to achieve anything you must be aggressive, tough and in control.  Anger can have a repealing effect and sends you spiraling out of control.

Do you believe that no matter what, you always have to be right and opinions and viewpoints of others are a direct threat or challenge to you?  Oftentimes we get mad because we observe behavior in someone else that we see in ourselves.  This brings up sentiments that we do not desire to appear at or deal with.  Underneath the anger may be hurt, disappointment, trauma and resentments.  It’s vital to become aware of how your body is reacting to feelings of anger.

If you sense your self get tense, “see red”, find yourself clenching your fist and jaw, have trouble concentrating, find your breathing to be rapid and fast then maybe it is really time for you to seek help.  There are numerous other physical ciphers but these are a little you may notice.

Anxiety and Stress Benefits From Forced Exercise

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/05/02/anxiety-and-stress-benefits-from-forced-exercise/


According to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, being forced to exercise may still help reduce anxiety and depression just as exercising voluntarily does.
People who exercises are more secluded against stress-related disorders even past studies have shown this. And scientists know that the perception of control can benefit a person’s mental health.  But an open question has been the topic of some debates   whether an individual, who undergoes the feeling of a forced to exercise, getting rid of the discernment of control, would still gather the anxiety-fighting advantages of the exercise.

Benjamin Greenwood, an assistant research professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Integrative Physiology said people who may feel forced to exercise could include high school, college and professional athletes, members of the military or those who have been prescribed an exercise regimen by their doctors.
“If exercise is forced, will it still produce mental health benefits?” Greenwood asked. “It’s obvious that forced exercise will still produce peripheral physiological benefits. But will it produce benefits to anxiety and depression?”

To look for an answer to the matter Greenwood and his colleagues, as well as Monika Fleshner, a professor in the same department, designed a lab experiment using rats. Throughout a six-week period, a few rats stayed inactive, whereas some exercised by running on a wheel.

The experiment went this way; the rats that exercised were divided into two groups that ran a roughly equal amount of time while one group ran whenever it chose to, at the same time as the other group ran on mechanized wheels that rotated according to a predetermined schedule.  The motorized wheels turned on at speeds and for periods of time that mimicked the average pattern of exercise chosen by the rats that voluntarily exercised, for the study.

Then six weeks after, the rats were exposed to a laboratory stressor prior to testing their anxiety levels the next day.  The anxiety was measured by quantifying the length the rats froze when they were put in an environment they had been conditioned to fear.  It is likely what is happening to a phenomenon similar to a deer in the headlights.  Then the stress can be measured by, the longer the freezing time, the greater the residual anxiety from being stressed the previous day.  For assessment, some rats underwent to a test for anxiety without being stressed the day before.

“Regardless of whether the rats chose to run or were forced to run they were protected against stress and anxiety,” said Greenwood, lead author of the study appearing in the European Journal of Neuroscience in February. The sedentary rats froze for longer periods of time than any of the active rats.
“The implications are that humans who perceive exercise as being forced – perhaps including those who feel like they have to exercise for health reasons – are maybe still going to get the benefits in terms of reducing anxiety and depression,” he said.

Strengthening The Marriage

http://springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/05/02/strengthening-the-marriage/


Couples with thriving young children and struggling marriages aren’t a new sight in therapy office.  It can be a real challenge to shift from a married couple to married couple with kids.  Arguments and little fights can be healthy sometimes and couple without kids had the plenty of time to attend to their relationship while now that kid’s are present, their needs alone can leave both parents drained and exhausted. This could mean that at the end of the day couples will feel tired and no time for each other.

There are many reasons why divorce happen but one possible reason is parents tend to get overboard attending to their children while neglecting their responsibilities as a husband or wife.

Most of the parents can only have their alone time after the kids are in bed.  And what make things worse after your long day is both of you has barely the energy to even ask how each others day went because you cannot even pull up the covers.  When you reach this point maybe you are in the edge of your relationship.
It will help so much if couples will find time for each other; it is always a good idea to have a day for the parents alone.  Weekend mornings can be a good time whereas stress of the work week recedes and before the daily demands of the children start stacking up, couples sometimes find their best opportunity to shift into a mode where they can focus on each other.
It is also important to talk to your kids and explain that parents need time for each other too.  To make them busy, think of possible and safe way to make use of their time.  As soon as a couple acquires some uninterrupted time together, now other challenges appear to happen such as how are they going to use this alone time well.

Try not to do the following:

Never compare, do not weigh against whose life is harder
Do not complain and tell your partner the s/he doesn’t give you what you need
Expect your partner to instantly feel like being sexual
Give up on intimacy and plan the children’s week together
Some good ideas consist of:
Take turns listening to each other.
The listener tries to empathize and understand without trying to solve the problem
Massage each other while listening to nice music
Take turns appreciating yourself while your partner listens and smiles
Take a walk together in a beautiful place
Take a bath or hot tub together
Whatever you do, focus on being together
Pay attention to each other
And consciously try to say things that build a sense of connection.
Treating to your relationship in this technique is one of the most excellent things you can do for your children. And for sure you will enjoy it yourself!

Six Things Women Firsts Notice About Men

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/04/22/six-things-women-firsts-notice-about-men/


According to Dr Gordon Patzer, author ofLooks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined, and one of the world’s leading authorities on physical attractiveness, a lot of what women notice in the first few minutes is appearance-based. “A substantial portion of the six features of a man are apparent, in terms of height, weight and overall physical attractiveness,” he says. And when appearances don’t make the cut, the door slams shut on further interactions. Here’s a list of things to keep that door open.

Physical stature: Don’t be a hypocrite and admit it, this matter, after all everything starts with attraction then the getting-to-know part after.  And again yep, you knew this already, we all do: size really do matters.  Height and weight are right on top of the list of things women notice. “Too much or too little of either immediately classifies the man as unattractive to women, and closes the door before less physically obviously features (such as confidence) can be determined,” says Dr Patzer. Take heart though, the acceptable range is influenced by the woman’s own height and weight.

Appearances and attractiveness: All right, we all agree in some point that beauty is skin deep, but it’s going to get women to discover what lies beneath.  As mentioned earlier, everything starts with attraction then the getting-to-know part after.  Agreed, attractiveness does include what you were born with, thanks to your mom and dad huh, but your genes alone can’t scuttle your chances.  It is very important that you know what to do with your hair, clothes, grooming and basic hygiene, basically how you present and carry yourself.  Women surely are not going to work hard to learn more about you if you can’t even make the effort.

Smile: put a smile in those lips, smile can make anyone look good!  After the  women are finished evaluating your overall build, women will look at your smile. “The ability to smile, particularly within the first few minutes of meeting, sends a welcoming, non-hostile signal to women,” says Dr Patzer. There is one proviso though  and you must take a good consideration of this one because this can make or break it, the smile must show off sensibly good-looking teeth or at least presentable and hygienic teeth. So what are you still waiting for, go and fix an appointment with the dentist!

Humor: One more rationale to show off those pearly white teeth! Women want men who have the ability to laugh and even better have the talent to make the woman laugh. That instantaneously gets you plus points!

Confidence: but never be overdo it.  Women find confident men attractive. According to Dr Sameer Malhotra, head of psychiatry and psychotherapy department at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, within the first few minutes of meeting, women will not only suss out your level of confidence, they will also interpret the vibes you give out and how you think. “Women notice how clear or decisive you are and whether you approach things positively.” Just remember, like stated above, do not overdo it; cockiness and arrogance are not the same as confidence!

Conversation: Men have given the impression to womankind the characteristic of being strong and silent. Consequently women aren’t expecting you to have mad talking skills.  But instead, all you’ve got to do hold her attention. “We know (scientifically) that the more or longer that a woman gets to know a man, the more physically attractive he becomes in her mind,” says Dr Patzer. Forget the one-liners because women are looking for someone to keep up the conversation.

But the most advice is just be yourself, it is always great to be loved for who you are.

Everyday Life’s a Struggle for 25 Years and Younger

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2013/01/14/everyday-lifes-a-struggle-for-25-years-and-younger/


People under the age of 25 are ‘struggling to cope’ with everyday life, says the Prince’s Trust.  Their recent survey claims that one in ten young people are now struggling to deal with day-today life.

Over 2000 16-25 year olds were surveyed by prince’s trust across UK.  They have discovered that those who are jobless and out of school are the most discontented.  Due to this they are the most unhappy, these are the people who are likely to have grown up without anyone to talk to and converse their issues with.

“I used to apply for jobs but after getting knocked back, it hit my confidence. I’d wake up and just not know what to do with the 24 hours in the day”, says Leon White, 24.  He is currently living with his family but his father passed away ten years ago and he left school without receiving any qualifications.  He dreams of a career in music, but has only recently been able to secure a full-time job in a hotel, after taking a hospitality training course.

The survey indicated that almost three out of ten people that were questioned said they felt their career prospects had been permanently damaged by the recession.

Government said they are not satisfied with the rate of employment while the level of unemployment is at its lowest since 2009.

A spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Youth unemployment has fallen recently, and excluding full-time students, there are now 626,000 unemployed 16-24 year olds – the lowest figure since early 2009. But we are not complacent about the scale of the challenge we still face.

“Through our Youth Contract we’re offering nearly 500,000 work experience placements, wage incentives and apprenticeships over the next three years to help young people gain the skills and experience needed to get a job.”

CSE Seminar Idea on Three Topics That Continue To Be Misunderstood By The Wireless World | 1000 Projects

http://1000projects.org/cse-seminar-idea-on-three-topics-that-continue-to-be-misunderstood-by-the-wireless-world.html


The wireless communication technology is the leading one among all other technologies. The three wireless technologies are GSM, CDMA, and 3G. Between these three technologies CDMA vs. GSM and “What is 3G?” comes into conflict. The link among CDMA vs. GSM and 3G is discussed in this paper. Before the 3G technology there are two technologies namely AMPS and 2G in the market.

The AMPS is nothing but 1G and the Digital Cellular is named as 2G. In the present days some technologies have considered into 2G or 2.5G technology. One among them is GSM/GPRS. The 2G phones had developed in the early 90’s. The big conflict is that in the consumer’s point of view GSM, CDMA, 3G are three different technologies. The main intention of our paper is to solve this conflict.

For consumer a digital mobile phone means in the sense it is the phone which is Compaq in size and better battery backup along with multimedia features etc., but the main thing is that CDMA technology is differ from GSM technology. The applications used to develop CDMA technology are differ from the technology used to develop GSM technology. The consumer must not think like “What is 3G?” He can ask “What can 3G can do for everyone?” the GSM technology is the 2nd generation technology with some multimedia features.



The CDMA is also wireless technology that differs from GSM. The competition is running in between CDMA and GSM not in between CDMA, GSM, and 3G. 3G technology also comes under the GSM technology which has some additional features. The original name of 3G technology is 3GSM. It means the 3G technology is the third generation GSM technology which have video calling feature. Therefore, this paper will show the clear answer for the conflict about “CDMA vs. GSM” and “What is 3G?” This paper will show the clear wireless world.

Studies more firmly tie sugary drinks to obesity

A huge, decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person's risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone.

This means that such drinks are especially harmful to people with genes that predispose them to weight gain. And most of us have at least some of these genes.

In addition, two other major experiments have found that giving children and teens calorie-free alternatives to the sugary drinks they usually consume leads to less weight gain.

Collectively, the results strongly suggest that sugary drinks cause people to pack on the pounds, independent of other unhealthy behavior such as overeating and getting too little exercise, scientists say.

That adds weight to the push for taxes, portion limits like the one just adopted in New York City, and other policies to curb consumption of soda, juice drinks and sports beverages sweetened with sugar.

Soda lovers do get some good news: Sugar-free drinks did not raise the risk of obesity in these studies.

"You may be able to fool the taste" and satisfy a sweet tooth without paying a price in weight, said an obesity researcher with no role in the studies, Rudy Leibel of Columbia University.

The studies were being presented Friday at an obesity conference in San Antonio and were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The gene research in particular fills a major gap in what we know about obesity. It was a huge undertaking, involving three long-running studies that separately and collectively reached the same conclusions. It shows how behavior combines with heredity to affect how fat we become.

Having many of these genes does not guarantee people will become obese, but if they drink a lot of sugary beverages, "they fulfill that fate," said an expert with no role in the research, Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University in New York. "The sweet drinking and the fatness are going together, and it's more evident in the genetic predisposition people."

Sugary drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet, and they are increasingly blamed for the fact that a third of U.S. children and teens and more than two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight.

Consumption of sugary drinks and obesity rates have risen in tandem - both have more than doubled since the 1970s in the U.S.

But that doesn't prove that these drinks cause obesity. Genes, inactivity and eating fatty foods or just too much food also play a role. Also, diet research on children is especially tough because kids are growing and naturally gaining weight.

Until now, high-quality experiments have not conclusively shown that reducing sugary beverages would lower weight or body fat, said David Allison, a biostatistician who has done beverage research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, some of it with industry support.

He said the new studies on children changed his mind and convinced him that limiting sweet drinks can make a difference.

In one study, researchers randomly assigned 224 overweight or obese high schoolers in the Boston area to receive shipments every two weeks of either the sugary drinks they usually consumed or sugar-free alternatives, including bottled water. No efforts were made to change the youngsters' exercise habits or give nutrition advice, and the kids knew what type of beverages they were getting.

After one year, the sugar-free group weighed more than 4 pounds less on average than those who kept drinking sugary beverages.

"I know of no other single food product whose elimination can produce this degree of weight change," said the study's leader, Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health.

The weight difference between the two groups narrowed to 2 pounds in the second year of the study, when drinks were no longer being provided. That showed at least some lasting beneficial effect on kids' habits. The study was funded mostly by government grants.

A second study involved 641 normal-weight children ages 4 to 12 in the Netherlands who regularly drank sugar-sweetened beverages. They were randomly assigned to get either a sugary drink or a sugar-free one during morning break at their schools, and were not told what kind they were given.

After 18 months, the sugary-drink group weighed 2 pounds more on average than the other group.

The studies "provide strong impetus" for policies urged by the Institute of Medicine, the American Heart Association and others to limit sugary drink consumption, Dr. Sonia Caprino of the Yale School of Medicine wrote in an editorial in the journal.

The American Beverage Association disagreed.

"Obesity is not uniquely caused by any single food or beverage," it said in a statement. "Studies and opinion pieces that focus solely on sugar-sweetened beverages, or any other single source of calories, do nothing meaningful to help address this serious issue."

The genetic research was part of a much larger set of health studies that have gone on for decades across the U.S., led by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers checked for 32 gene variants that have previously been tied to weight. Because we inherit two copies of each gene, everyone has 64 opportunities for these risk genes. The study participants had 29 on average.

Every four years, these people answered detailed surveys about their eating and drinking habits as well as things like smoking and exercise. Researchers analyzed these over several decades.

A clear pattern emerged: The more sugary drinks someone consumed, the greater the impact of the genes on the person's weight and risk of becoming obese.

For every 10 risk genes someone had, the risk of obesity rose in proportion to how many sweet drinks the person regularly consumed. Overall calorie intake and lifestyle factors such as exercise did not account for the differences researchers saw.

This means that people with genes that predispose them to be obese are more susceptible to the harmful effects of sugary drinks on their weight, said one of the study leaders, Harvard's Dr. Frank Hu. The opposite also was true - avoiding these drinks can minimize the effect of obesity genes.

"Two bad things can act together and their combined effects are even greater than either effect alone," Hu said. "The flip side of this is everyone has some genetic risk of obesity, but the genetic effects can be offset by healthier beverage choices. It's certainly not our destiny" to be fat, even if we carry genes that raise this risk.

The study was funded mostly by federal grants, with support from two drug companies for the genetic analysis.

QUORA - SPRINGHILL GROUP - Shock therapy to avoid scams - web ample l mypage.rediff Lee Watanabe

http://www.quora.com/Lee-Watanabe/Springhill-Group/Shock-therapy-to-avoid-scams-web-ample-l-mypage-rediff

The annual list of the top 10 consumer complaints is out, and it features familiar scams. Once again, the report is a good reminder to be careful. Some of the scams have become more sophisticated, with more high-tech ways of stealing your money. Topping the list are auto complaints, including misrepresentations in advertising or sales, faulty repairs, and leasing and towing disputes. In second place are complaints about credit and debt. The category includes mortgage modifications and mortgage-related fraud, credit-repair schemes, debt-relief services, predatory lending, and illegal or abusive debt-collection tactics. The five fastest-growing complaints are about fraud, debt-collection abuses, do-not-call violations, mortgage-related issues, and problems that people have had with both legitimate and sham home-improvement companies. New to the list this year are real-estate-related complaints. Hard times have left many people wanting to dump their timeshares, or at least get out from under yearly maintenance fees they can no longer afford. This desperation on the part of timeshare owners has been a boon to schemers. In one such swindle, “timeshare resellers” tell folks they can help them unload their unwanted properties and ask for an upfront fee for the service. I’m sure you can guess what happens. No buyers are found, no help is really offered and people are out of their money, stuck with a timeshare they can’t afford. But then another timeshare crook swoops in to add insult to financial injury. Timeshare recovery companies offer to help owners get back the funds lost to resellers. They ask for an upfront fee. It’s a double financial whack because this, too, turns out to be a scam.

Engaging NK only option to resolve nuclear program: ex-US envoy

A policy of engagement with North Korea is the only viable option to resolve the North's nuclear weapons programs, but Seoul and Washington must set "strict standards" to prevent Pyongyang from backsliding and repeating its nuclear hide-and-seek, a former U.S. point man on North Korea said Tuesday. 

Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration's first special envoy for North Korea, also expressed skepticism that China, the North's key ally and economic benefactor, would wield an enough leverage to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambition. 

Washington's policy of deterring North Korea did not work, as Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test in 2009 and revealed a uranium enrichment program in 2010 that could give it another means of producing fissile material for nuclear bombs. In 2010, North Korea launched two military attacks on South Korea. 

"So, I think we have no choice but to re-engage ourselves (with North Korea)," Bosworth told a forum in Seoul. 

To bring about positive changes in Pyongyang's behavior, Bosworth said Seoul and Washington need "a very careful diplomacy, patience and willingness, not simply to give to North Korea, but to set strict standards." 

Bosworth was the top U.S. envoy for North Korea from March 2009 to October 2011. He also served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea and is now dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University. 

Diplomatic efforts to resume the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambition have been frozen since April, when North Korea defiantly launched a long-range rocket that failed moments after lift-off. 

The defiant launch drew strong condemnation from the U.N. Security Council as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology, and led to the collapse of the so-called "Leap Day" deal with the U.S., under which Washington would resume food aid to Pyongyang in return for a monitored shutdown of the North's nuclear activities.

Although North Korea reneged on the deal, Bosworth expected Korea and the U.S. to resume their engagement with Pyongyang after their presidential elections this year. 

U.S. President Barack Obama has been in a tight race for re-election in November against Republican rival Mitt Romney, while South Korea is set for its presidential vote in December. 

"I'm assuming that after our elections are over, we'll have newly elected governments in place here in South Korea and the United States. Then, attention will turn again to the question of how we will deal with North Korea," Bosworth said. 

Bosworth warned that destabilizing North Korea could have serious consequences for the global economy. 

"Northeast Asia is now becoming the center of the global economy," he said. "A severe disruption of stability in Northeast Asia will have profound consequences not just for this region, but the global economy." (Yonhap)

NY teen's death on party bus a warning to others

http://www.newson6.com/story/19440060/ny-teens-death-on-party-bus-a-%20warning-to-othershttp://www.newson6.com/story/19440060/ny-teens-death-on-party-bus-a-%20warning-to-others


Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - It's a familiar scene on city streets and in movies: dressed-up teenagers packed into a stretch limo, celebrating something important by jubilantly sticking their heads through the roof.
A bigger version of that is the rented party bus, which can pack in more guests. Renting such buses - some two stories high, offering such amenities as strobe lights and satellite TV - "is what kids call fun nowadays," said Emily DaRocha of the Silver Star Limousine company. "We're talking about kids in the 21st century; that's how it is."

But such trips also carry more risk, as in the case this weekend of a New York teenager who poked his head through a hatch that had been opened on a double-decker bus loaded with dozens of dancing teens on their way to a party. Daniel Fernandez, 16, was fatally struck when the bus went under an overpass, according to authorities.

"No matter how many times you tell clients this is an emergency exit - it's written on the glass - they still open it," DaRocha said. "It happens all the time."

Her company in suburban Westchester County only offers single-level buses, Mercedes-Benzes that rent for up to $500 an hour.

Safety precautions must be part of the package, though, too. For a group of 40 guests, Silver Star requires two adults be aboard if the group is made up of teens or children 18 or under.

"It's much more dangerous when you have a double-decker with 65 kids - because they're hard to control," DaRocha said.

In addition to the driver, a security guard was on board the bus Fernandez was riding on Friday that was taking the teens from New York City to a sweet 16 bash in New Jersey. Design Limousines of New York, which operated the double-decker bus, did not return calls seeking comment on whether other chaperones were on board.

The security guard told reporters he watched for all but a few minutes, when he'd gone downstairs. And that's when the hatch was opened, after the bus crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey.

Other private transportation companies have altogether given up trying to safely entertain a bus full of teens.

A short drive from The Venetian, the event center that was the bus' destination in New Jersey on Friday night, is the Garden State Limousine company. The company offers sweet 16 party packages, "but no more party buses, not for years," manager Joseph Ramsey said. "It's not easy to deal with kids."

Even in limos, especially during prom season, "they open the sunroof after you tell them not to do this," he says. "They don't listen."

Hi-tech wrinkle buster

http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/beauty/311843/hi-tech-wrinkle-buster

The age of your skin may not equal your chronological age. Hopefully it's a lower number, but if higher you may not like the fact that you are well ahead in accumulating wrinkles.

Can we really quantify signs of ageing? Yes, and cosmetic companies are offering to do so as part of beauty counselling that encourages you to buy time-stopping skincare to make you look young.

SK-II has come up with various measurement tools to gauge multiple signs of ageing and calculate the age of the skin.

Two years ago, the Japanese brand introduced a skin phone that pinches the skin and records how it responds to stress. The purpose of this compression imaging device is to measure the skin power quotient (SPQ), which is the ability to withstand stress and maintain its texture, radiance and firmness.

At its counters, a bigger diagnostic device is now being used to measure texture, radiance and firmness as well as spots and wrinkles. Called the Magic Ring, it provides a full-face analysis that produces scores in five criteria that contribute to a youthful-looking complexion.

SK-II has also developed a new measure, the Ageless Vector, to quantify radical firmness, which is determined by skin thickness, elasticity and the integrity of the shape of the basal layer (the bottom layer of the epidermis).

The measurement is based on the angle of fine lines and wrinkles _ the larger the angle, the greater the decline in radical firmness.

The Ageless Vector is applied in evaluating the effectiveness of SK-II new anti-ageing products: Essential Power and Essential Power Rich Cream. Applied on the skin as a double moisturiser, both of the two formulas feature Acanax Complex, containing an extract taken from the root of Siberian ginseng, harvested from an organic farm in South Korea's Jeju Island.

Springhill Group - Turkey l Knowhow - The-looser-it-s-me

“No one should be deceived by our cool-headed stance. Our acting with common sense should not be perceived as a weakness,” said Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey’s brief response to last week’s incident seems to show that a violent retaliation from their side is not happening, although Prime Minister Erdogan has warned that Syria must not test his resolve.
Prime Minister Erdogan announced that Turkey had altered its military policies of engagement toward Syria.
In his speech to the legislative body also attended by Arab diplomats, Erdogan said, “Every military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria in a manner that constitutes a security risk or danger would be considered as a threat and would be treated as a military target.”
Border violations is not something new as the Turks have claimed that Syrian helicopters themselves had repeatedly violated Turkey’s airspace, without the latter dealing a hostile response in return. The two nations are sharing a 910-kilometer frontier.
According to Syria, Turkey’s plane was flying at low altitude and high speed, thus violating their airspace so one of their officers shot it down using an anti-aircraft fire. On the other hand, Turkey claims that their plane was fired at over international waters following a brief and unintentional stay in the Syrian space. The two pilots of the Turkish aircraft are still missing.

Cultural and Diversity Issues in Counselling | In The News – Springhill Group Counselling

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2012/08/01/cultural-and-diversity-issues-in-counselling/ 

Suggested by Dr. Turnoi Turjakuunnen

There are a number of professional fields involving counseling – the medical doctor, a psychologist or even a psychiatrist. It is an essential part of their work to help their clients (patients) deal with their way of life with the major objective of physical and mental health in mind. They also help those suffering by counseling (among other things). It means caring for other people in a professional way. This is the essemtial “pastoral” element in their work – caring for the sake of well-being of others. There are two fields that come to my mind where this pastoral element of caring for others is involved – that of a pastor of a congregation involved in all aspects (Christian Counseling) that sometimes may also mean active crisis intervention in certain situations. The other field non-medical field is the work of a teacher – especially a teacher dealing with older and more “mature” students about to enter the hall of their own lives in preparing for it (ca.17 – 23/25 years aged students). While at college or university, they are taking basic decisions on which field to work in after graduation and what to do else in their lives ahead of them.

In the Western tradition, a teacher at that developmental stage of his/her students is mainly confined to his role of transmitting/transferring knowledge in a specialised area of study. This is a very limited and less “holistic” role as students in that period of their lives have to deal with a number of important issues in addition to mere knowledge acquisition – the first love; gradual emancipation from parental home and the parents, their views and values as well as many other existential issues of primary importance to them. In the Asian, and especially in the Confucian tradition, a teacher’s role is more than that of mere knowledge transfer and is also aimed at helping the student to grow as a person. In that sense, it is more “holistic”.

The process of self-growth and gradual maturing of a student as a person is a process effecting mind (knowledge, skills, competencies), heart (emotions/feelings) and hands (implementation of what has been learned, acting and behaving in challenges of daily life). A Western teacher not only in China but also in Korea, for example, may be expected to fill this more holistic role he is not used to in his own Western tradition. And if so, the Western teacher can only do a good job then if he/she knows to act within the cultural framework of his/her student/s – a framework that may be an alien one to him/her. The Foreword in this e-book clearly states: “Cultural identity requires new attitudes toward cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes” (p. vi, ibd). If I change this sentence slightly and say, “Cultural diversity requires new attitudes toward cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes (different from the teacher’s own culture)”, then the reason why foreign teachers in China and elsewhere should read the book becomes very clear: You as a teacher need toknow and undersand the basic cultural patterns and settings of your student if you really want to give some advice that is helpful in his part of the world!

Hence, the book is an introductory text to CROSS-CULTURAL COUNSELING. I hope it would help those among you who view their role as a teacher in a more holistic sense. You will win the hearts of your students if you meet them half the way in this important phase of first self-orientation in their lives.

Depression Can Worsen Knee Pain | In The News – Springhill Group Counselling

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2012/07/30/depression-can-worsen-knee-pain/ 

3/23/11 Depression could make symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, or OA, feel even worse. In fact, a study published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgerysays depression can have just as strong an effect on knee pain as physical damage.

“This was found to be particularly true in patients with radiographic findings of less severe – mild to moderate – knee osteoarthritis,” says lead author Tae Kyun Kim, MD, PhD, director of the division of knee surgery and sports medicine at the Joint Reconstruction Center at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in South Korea.

Dr. Kim’s research team studied data taken between 2005 and 2006 from 660 Korean men and women older than age of 65. They measured the severity of participant’s OA damage with X-rays, questioned patients about their pain and interviewed them to diagnose depressive disorders. Those with the most joint damage reported feeling the most pain, but more surprising was that patients with mild to moderate knee OA who were experiencing depression also reported severe pain, even if X-rays didn’t show the significant damage that typically indicates pain.

“Pain is a complex phenomenon which is influenced by many factors, including several physical and psychological factors,” Dr. Kim explains. “Concurrent pain and depression have a much greater impact than either disorder alone on multiple domains of functional status.”

Researchers say their findings highlight the need for doctors to be on the lookout for depression in their knee OA patients.

“We believe that one simple and practical option for an orthopeadic clinic would be to establish a consultation system with relevant psychiatrists who can identify and treat depression, if found, in patients who continue to complain of severe symptoms that are discordant with the radiographic severity of knee osteoarthritis and who do not respond to treatment modalities,” Dr. Kim suggests.

Jon T. Giles, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and rheumatologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, says this study adds further weight to the existing medical literature highlighting the effect of psychosocial issues on pain responses.

“Painful sensations are relayed through the brain in a very complex way, and can be modulated up or down,” he says. With stress, poor sleep, anxiety and depression, which are known to influence pain levels, “stimuli feel more painful than they would in someone without the adverse psychosocial factors. This probably explains in part why the largest effect of depression in the study was seen in those without much OA to see on X-rays.”

Because depression might amplify pain responses in OA and other musculoskeletal conditions, Dr. Giles says, clinicians should use antidepressants and other treatments if necessary to alter mood, rather than just prescribing medications designed to block pain.

“Antidepressant medications have been found to have analgesic as well as antidepressant effects,” agrees Dr. Kim.

Dr. Giles says it’s also important for caregivers who treat musculoskeletal conditions to screen patients for potential psychological aggravators of pain and refer them for treatment when needed.

Pension Obligations and Rights | In The News – Springhill Group Counselling

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2012/07/28/pension-obligations-and-rights/

Mandatory Pension Contributions:

Since 1999, all foreign workers between the ages of 18 and 60, regardless of the size of the workplace or the number of employees, have been included in the mandatory Korean National Pension Scheme with only a few exceptions. If you fall within one of the following categories, you do not have to be enrolled in the NPS and you do not have to pay the contributions:

1. You are a citizen of one of the 17 nations that do not mandate Korean citizens working in your country to pay into its pension plan: Armenia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Tonga, Vietnam.

2. You are in one of the following categories: culture & art, study abroad, industrial training, general training, religion, etc.

3. You are over 60 years of age

Calculation of Pension Contribution:

The law requires that Korean and Foreign workers be treated equally. According to the NPS, “…there is no discrimination in terms of the benefit amount and remitting benefit abroad, etc.” The contribution is calculated by multiplying the worker’s reported (by the employer) monthly income by the 9% rate (between minimum W220,000 and maximum W3,600,000). Both the employer and the employee each pay an equal amount of the required 9% contribution. The employer deducts 4.5% from the employee’s wage and must make the matching 4.5% contribution payment at the same time.

Pension Contribution Refund:

Although Korea’s NPS policy does not call for repayments of their pension contributions when foreign workers leaving the country. However, if you are a citizen of a nation that grants Koreans working in that country a lump-sum refund (see list below*) or one that has concluded an agreement with Korea to secure benefit rights by combining the insured period in each country: Canada, France, Germany, Hungary and the United States.

*Venezuela, Grenada, Nigeria, Barbados, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Congo, Thailand, Togo, Belize, Ghana, Malaysia, Bermuda, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, El Salvador, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Trinidad and Togo, Hong Kong, Turkey, Colombia, Philippines, and Vanuatu. (List valid as of June 2007 – duration of contributions requirements apply – for more details or up-to-date info visit National Pension Scheme).

For information on International Social Security Agreements click on http://www.nps.or.kr/ then click on English. Near the bottom of the English page, you’ll see Social Security Agreement/Contracting Countries. Click on your country (if it’s there).

Refund Procedure:

If you are a national from one of the country’s listed above and have met the requirements, you may be entitled to receive both your and your employer’s NPS contributions. (Conditions do apply so check with the Korean National Pension Scheme website and visit your own Embassy in Seoul’s website).

Documents required when you visit your regional NPS office**:

i)your passport;

ii)your alien registration;

iii)a copy of your bank book (Korean or Canadian bank – but unless the payment is made prior to your departure, you may to give a home bank or ensure that you can access your Korean account after you’ve left the country) and

iv)an airline ticket showing your one-way departure date (e-ticket should be OK).

Your employer will also have to report the termination of the contract to the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea upon your departure from the country. The NPS will deposit the refund in your bank account after it confirms your departure.

Note: It is also possible to apply for your refund either through an attorney in your home country and on your own, by mail, In both cases, you will have to provide a copy of your passport, a copy of your local bank book, and likely documents proving that you’ve made the payments and that you’re entitled to receive the refund (keep a copy of your alien registration card/number and receive a copy of the necessary documentation from your employer prior to your departure.

Application forms can be found on the National Pension Scheme website:

http://www.nps.or.kr/

For Korean Benefits:

http://www.nps.or.kr/html/download/social_security/korean_benefits.doc

For Overseas Remittance:

http://www.nps.or.kr/html/download/social_security/overseas_remittance.doc

Korean Pension Benefits:

Foreign contributors to the Korean National Pension Scheme may also choose to receive their benefits (if/when eligible) rather than take the lump-sum refund. The benefits can be remitted overseas if they have left Korea. However, those who have taken the lump-sum refund are no longer eligible to claim benefits.

**Addresses and Contact Details for the Seoul and Regional NPS offices can be found on the National Pension Scheme website http://www.nps.or.kr/. Click on English – on the English Page look to the right to the map of Korea, click on Go>> and the list of offices will appear. Click on the one you want and all the contact details will appear.

When visiting the NPS office look for the sign that says “Kuk min yeon geum(국민연금)

NPS Central Information Line: ‘dial’ 1355 (English-speaker usually)

Editor’s Note: The information above is based on the information K4E has available at the time of writing. Given how difficult it is to obtain clear and complete information in Korea as well as how quickly rules can change, please see this as a guide and do follow-up with the appropriate Korean government bodies to confirm its accuracy and/or to get the most current answers. K4E would appreciate your feedback should you find out that our information is out-of-date.

The Heart Disease Scam That Generates Over $100 Billion a Year… And May Cost You Your Life | In The News – Springhill Group Counselling

http://inthenews.springhillgroupcounselling.com/2012/07/26/the-heart-disease-scam-that-generates-over-100-billion-a-year-and-may-cost-you-your-life/ 

Find out why doctor-recommended heart treatments only benefit 3% of patients…and how you can slash your heart disease risk without drugs, surgery, or mainstream medical intervention

By Ian Robinson

Heart disease is America’s number one killer. One out of every two Americans over the age of

65 has atherosclerosis – a condition that damages or kills heart tissue and can lead to sudden heart failure and even death.

It’s likely that you or a loved one will face this killer head-on at some point in your life. So you need to understand exactly what you’re up against… and learn exactly how to protect your heart – and your life.

To do that you have to know how lifestyle choices affect your heart. And what’s going to damage it over time.

The big problem is… most of the things your doctor tells you about protecting your heart are based on flawed, out-dated theories. So each day you may be injuring your heart a little more… just by following your doctor’s advice. And because your doctor is proceeding from a false assumption… many of the things he does to treat your failing heart only make it worse.

Mainstream doctors typically address atherosclerosis with one of three treatments:

•             Coronary angioplasty, with or without stents

•             Coronary bypass or “open heart” surgery

•             Statin drug therapy

Each year over one million Americans opt for coronary angioplasty. 427,000 Americans have open heart surgery. And US doctors write 11.6 million prescriptions for statin drugs – each month…

But overwhelming research – from respected medical institutions like Stanford University and Harvard Medical School – reveals evidence that these treatments are money-making scams that do more harm than good.

When we found out that these multi-billion-dollar treatments were putting patients in harm’s way, we sought out answers. It was easy to understand why doctors would continue to prescribe these treatments. Combined, they generate over $100 billion each year for the medical industry.

But why aren’t these treatments effective?

It turns out that these traditional options don’t combat heart disease effectively because they don’t address the disease’s actual cause.

No studies prove that any of these options fix the root cause of heart disease.

But published studies do show:

•             Two big reasons why current medical thinking on heart disease is flawed. And why this approach doesn’t improve heart health…

•             That doctors overestimate artery narrowing to justify surgery, according to Harvard Medical School.

•             How 30 percent of all heart surgery is totally unnecessary…

•             How bypass surgery kills patients: the death rate has quadrupled in recent years – and continues to rise…

And that’s not all. Three different clinical trials showed coronary bypass surgery only benefits three percent of patients…

One Harvard doctor says, “For almost everyone else… there are no survival benefits at all.”

He believes “cardiology and heart surgery are the cash cows of the American health-care system.”

And his theory is supported by findings from Stanford. In a study of 900 bypass patients, researchers found that surgery helped at first… but didn’t fix the underlying problem. They found that these risky and costly surgeries buy some time… but the problem comes back. And it doesn’t take much time to return. In fact, health issues often reappeared in much less than five years.

Conventional Medicine Isn’t Tackling the Cause of Heart Disease

What all that research shows is that conventional medicine is not tackling heart disease the right way.

You may be doing everything your doctor tells you to do to keep your heart healthy. You may be cutting fat. You may be eating a low cholesterol diet. But if conventional thinking is wrong… then your doctor’s advice may be a surefire way to damage your heart and send you to the surgeon’s table.

Your average doctor will tell you that dietary cholesterol causes atherosclerotic plaque. And that’s what triggers heart attacks.

But one of the world’s foremost heart surgeons says that’s not true. He’s performed over 5,000 open heart surgeries and was Chief Resident at Yale University hospital.

He says that targeting cholesterol won’t help your heart… because it’s based on flawed assumptions.

That’s because atherosclerosis isn’t triggered by cholesterol.

Now, I’m not saying cholesterol should be ignored. Cholesterol buildup is the consequence of the realcause of heart disease… and that’s a serious problem. But once you treat the real cause… then lowering your bad LDL cholesterol is far simpler and more natural than conventional medicine would have you believe.

Misunderstanding cholesterol’s role in heart attacks is not the only mistake that average doctors make…

Heart Attacks Are Not Caused by Plaque Itself…

Instead, your own “defense system” is working against you.

I’ll explain more in a minute.

But first, I want you to be fully aware of the implications of what I’ve just told you.

If these commonly held beliefs about heart health are just plain wrong… And your doctor is likely prescribing methods that don’t work to resolve the underlying cause of heart disease… what doesprotect your heart? And how can you take action to protect yourself?

To answer these questions we’ve gone back to those respected institutions and reviewed their findings… And have discovered the true cause of heart disease.

We can now reveal the best and safest ways to combat it.

We’ve uncovered:

•             Research that shows how one all-natural supplement is 10 percent more effective at reducing heart-related death than statin drugs…

•             Findings from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research that prove one specific food group reduces heart disease risk by 15 percent in just three months…

•             A Harvard study that shows how one type of exercise drastically slashes heart disease risk…

The Safest Ways to Reverse Heart Disease

A medical professor from the University of California, San Francisco – the founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California – is the lead author of the revolutionary Lifestyle Heart Trialstudy. This study shows that a lifestyle regimen can stop coronary artery disease in its tracks. And not just that… it can actually reverse it.

He combined diet, exercise, and an ancient discipline to create a comprehensive lifestyle plan to combat artery disease.

Subjects in the study saw a reversal of their coronary atherosclerosis after just one year.

This professor is not alone in his work. The head dietician of the Cleveland Clinic’s Women’s Heart Center has come up with the exact foods you need to eat to lower your bad (LDL) cholesterol.

She says, “There really is an abundance [of foods] that are good for your heart.”

Her findings are backed up by a study on 4,000 people that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The best benefits come from foods in their natural state: as unprocessed as possible.

The foods on her list are all widely available and easy to get hold of. In fact, you’ll find them in the produce aisle at your local grocery store.

Then there’s one seed that offers a whole host of heart benefits. Researchers who were investigating high cholesterol put this seed to the clinical test. They gave the seed to patients with high cholesterol levels for 60 days.

At the end of the study, they found that the seed:

•             Drops total cholesterol by 17.2 percent

•             Decreases bad (LDL) cholesterol by 3.9 percent

•             Slashes triglycerides by 36.3 percent

The seed contains an essential fatty acid that been shown to improve heart health in several studies. Plus… it contains one vital compound that can lower blood pressure.

But that’s not all you can do to combat heart disease naturally, inexpensively, and easily.

Boost Heart Health with These 8 Essentials

A biochemist at the University of California has identified the eight essential antioxidants to combat heart problems. Antioxidants are a big factor in heart health. They neutralize free radicals and help to combat the oxidation of bad cholesterol that contributes to heart disease. Each of these eight antioxidants specifically strengthens heart health.

One of these antioxidants can be found in everyday foods like oils, nuts, and meat. It’s been shown to reduce heart disease rates by 40 percent.

Another antioxidant is produced in your own body and provides energy to your heart tissue. The problem is that you produce less of it as you age. Furthermore, some statin drugs actually deplete your levels of it. But you can make up the shortfall from eating certain organ meats… or taking it in supplement form.

A third antioxidant found in some fruits can lower bad cholesterol. A study conducted by the Natural Products Utilization Research Center showed it worked better than a prescription drug in combatting high cholesterol.

But heart health is not all about antioxidants.