Gardening Provides Many Health Benefits

By Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Vegetable, herb, and seed sales are booming, courtesy of a new wave of consumers who are not only concerned about the quality of their food, but who also recognize the physical, mental, and even spiritual benefits of connecting with nature.

Modern living has driven a concrete wedge between us and the natural world, and many are starting to connect the dots, recognizing that a connection with the land is important for health, fitness, happiness, and overall wellbeing.

A previous CNN Health article lists a number of the health benefits associated with gardening, spanning from stress relief to improved brain health, better nutrition and, of course, exercise.

The Fitness Benefits of Gardening

As you'll see, there are numerous reasons why gardening is good for you. One is related to the fact that your body needs perpetual motion to function optimally, and gardening is one way to stay active at times when you might otherwise be sitting still. 

Research published in 2012 also found that those who engage in community gardening projects have considerably lower body mass index (BMI) than non-gardeners, suggesting an active lifestyle indeed translates into improved weight management.

Male and female community gardeners were 62 percent and 46 percent less likely to be overweight or obese respectively than their non-gardening neighbors.

Fitness researchers have also found that when you exercise outdoors, you exercise harder but perceive it as being easier than when exercising indoors, which can have significant health benefits as it will encourage you to work out harder than you might otherwise.   

World Bank: Tackling Climate Will Grow the Economy

By Suzanne Goldenberg
Fighting climate change would help grow the world economy, according to the World Bank, adding up to $2.6 trillion a year to global GDP in the coming decades.

The findings, made available in a report on Tuesday, offer a sharp contrast with claims by the Australian government that fighting climate change would "clobber" the economy.

The report also advances on the work of economists who have argued that it will be far more costly in the long run to delay action on climate change.

Instead, Tuesday's report found a number of key policies - none of which included putting an economy-wide price on carbon - would lead to global GDP gains of between $1.8 trillion and $2.6 trillion a year by 2030, in terms of new jobs, increased crop productivity and public health benefits.

Will GM Crops Collapse the Food System?

By Jim Goodman
When Genetically Modified (GM) crops were first planted commercially in 1996 they were just another technological innovation that fit well into the trend of larger farms and fewer farmers. Since weed control was a time consuming task, chemicals that killed the weeds without harming the crop struck farmers as a good idea.

Often when a technology is introduced one never considers why it was introduced or what future events and connections may be put in motion. Clearly the trend to global crop production and marketing has changed the face of agriculture. Now we are left to decide if it was a good thing, this world changing shift in crop production brought about by GM crops.

While GM has been very widely adopted and praised by some, particularly in the U.S., Canada and South America, results have been mixed, at best, in India and Africa. American farmers have used the technology to convert vast swaths of land from prairies, tropical rain forests and former mixed livestock/crop farms into a vast corn/soy mono-culture.

After nearly 20 years of GM crops, genetic modifications for herbicide resistance and pest resistance are still the only two commercially viable traits of any significance. There are no yield genes that will revolutionize farming, and weeds and insects are quickly developing resistance to the GM technologies.

When Monsanto and other corporations involved in seed research and development brought GM seed to the market, what was their reason? Obviously they saw an opportunity for profit, that is what corporations do.   

Can baking make you happier?

When does mental health become a problem? What is depression? "Getting treatment has not always been easy. Cooking and baking have, on occasion, very literally saved my life, giving me an outlet for emotions I couldn't handle. It has provided me with an alternative to self-harm."

East London NHS Foundation Trust is one mental health provider that has experimented in cooking therapies. Earlier this year they launched Recipes of Life, an integrated talking therapy with healthy cooking and eating sessions.

Dr Mark Salter, a consultant psychiatrist working in east London, says baking and cooking are good occupational therapies that help patients develop planning skills, short term memory and social skills - all of which suffer in mental illness. He says baking is particularly powerful because of its symbolism in our culture - associated with nurture and goodness.

But Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, cautions that it is difficult to measure the precise benefits of baking as a therapy.

"Any structured non-stressful activity will help depression and increase well-being. Traditional occupational therapies generally work on a physical or projection platform.

"For example, exercise sessions increase physical well-being and release endorphins that combat depression. Art therapy helps a patient project their depression through creating artwork; thereby helping a patient to better understand their condition. Baking can be seen as operating on both these platforms," he says.

There is a physical element to baking - kneading the dough or cutting out cookie shapes. But there is also a strong creative or artistic component - the intricate decoration of cakes or biscuits.

Continue reading the main storyCakes for good causes

Seeking inspiration for a charity bake sale? The Great British Bake Off returns to BBC Two on Tuesday at 20:00 BST.

Great British Bake Off Baking can be therapeutic in different ways. Denyer likes to give away her baked treats. She says the act of making other people happy helps lift her spirits.

But Whaite warns that eating too many baked goods can undo some of the benefits. "There are two sides to the coin. You need to be careful you don't consume too much sugar or else you get a sugar high and then a slump."

What to avoid when you're expecting

You don't need to cut out caffeine completely, but don't have more than 200mg a day... if you have, for example, one bar of chocolate and one mug of filter coffee, you have reached almost 200mg of caffeine. Don't worry if you occasionally have more than this amount - the risks are small.

To cut down on caffeine, try decaffeinated tea and coffee, fruit juice or mineral water instead of regular tea, coffee, cola and energy drinks.

Foods to avoid in pregnancy: Caffeine "When you look at more - at six or eight cups of coffee - there is some more evidence that that might be risky."

Oster, now the proud mother of a healthy two-year-old girl, has gathered together her work in a book, Expecting Better. She hopes that where the evidence is mixed, readers can consider the facts and make their own decision, based on what they are personally comfortable with.

It is difficult to draw firm conclusions, she says, because most of the studies are not randomised - it wouldn't be fair to divide pregnant women under study into two random groups and ask one group to drink coffee and the other to drink none.

Consequently, Oster says, the people involved in the studies differ in many ways that could affect the course of their pregnancies, not just in their coffee-drinking habits.

"The big issue is that caffeine consumption correlates very strongly with how nauseous you are. A lot of pregnant women are very sick, especially early on - the women who are sicker tend to drink less coffee.

"But we know that being sick is a sign of a healthy pregnancy. And so when we see that women who drink less coffee also have more successful pregnancies we don't really know if that's just about coffee or whether it's really a confounding factor from this nausea."

But coffee was just one item on a long list of forbidden, or semi-forbidden, items that Oster wanted to investigate.

NHS stop-smoking service 'a success'

84m a year - versus impact, it is well within the threshold used by the NHS to judge treatments, such as new drugs, the report on the British Medical Journal website said.

The service also seemed to be successful in reaching out to disadvantaged groups as more than half of the smokers taking part in the most recent year got free prescriptions, which are offered to those on low incomes among others.

'Cost-effective'

Prof Robert West, who led the team, said stop-smoking services could be considered the "jewel in the NHS crown".

"It has been a real success. These services are important because the people who are using them are the heaviest smokers who are the least likely to give up.

"But there is plenty of room for improvement. There was a two-fold variation between the best performing services and the worst. We need to address that."

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteThese services helping smokers to quit have been one of the most cost-effective services on the NHS”

End QuoteMartin DockrellAction on Smoking and Health He said one of the key factors of the service, which combines counselling with medication like nicotine replacement therapy, was having staff whose job was dedicated to the service rather than asking practice nurses and pharmacists to fit it in around their day jobs.

Prof West also said he was concerned about the future.

Stop-smoking services became the responsibility of local councils under the shake-up of the NHS earlier this year.

"Money is tight and there is a risk that services will be cut," he added.

Dave Jones, tobacco control delivery adviser at Public Health England, said support would be given to councils with the services.

"There is still more to do but it is great to have this reflection on the bedrock established over the last 10 years."

Measles clinic claims 'misleading'

Complaints were made about the Cheshire-based Children's Immunisation Centre during the measles outbreak centred on Swansea.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decided the clinic's language "could have caused fear and distress".

The centre said it had now complied.

One person died and a total of 1,219 suspected measles cases were diagnosed during the Swansea area measles epidemic, which was officially declared over in July.

As part of the response from public health officials, almost 76,000 unscheduled MMR vaccinations were given to people around Wales who had not been immunised in a bid to bring the epidemic under control.

The Children's Immunisation Centre offered single vaccines to parents, running a clinic in Swansea and others in England.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteWe told Children's Immunisation Centre not to promote prescription-only medicines and to remove claims not supported by objective scientific evidence”

End QuoteASA report In its response to the ASA, the centre said it offered a safe alternative for parents who needed to have their children protected from childhood diseases but did not wish to undergo government or NHS programmes such as the MMR vaccine.

It also argued its website information did not constitute advertising.

But the ASA said because the centre "promoted non-government recommended vaccination and because the overall context of the website focused on their claim that a single MMR vaccination was linked with autism, we considered the language used could have caused fear and distress without justifiable reason and we concluded the website was irresponsible".

Three complainants, including a GP, challenged whether the centre's 100% safety claim could be substantiated, while two said the advert was irresponsible and could cause fear and distress because it appeared during the measles outbreak in south Wales.

The ASA ruled that the website breached regulations because it advertised prescription-only medicines.

The centre told the ASA each of its 20,000 patients had a record card and not one had been hospitalised or had regression, autism or other health issues after vaccination.

Continue reading the main storySWANSEA MEASLES OUTBREAK Began in November 2012 There have been no laboratory-confirmed cases in the affected area since May and the outbreak was cleared over in July Some 75,868 unscheduled vaccinations were given to people around Wales who had not been immunised to control the epidemic In the outbreak area more than 30,000 doses of the MMR vaccine were given GP surgeries administered 16,500 and drop-in clinics have given more than 8,500 School and occupational health clinics administered more than 5,300 jabs But the ASA noted that a sample complaint log supplied by the centre confirmed some children had developed minor and major complications as a result of receiving a vaccination ranging from a rash and high temperature to emergency hospital admission.

The ASA said: "Because Children's Immunisation Centre did not have a 100% safety record, we concluded the claim was misleading."

It added: "We considered the website had probably been live for some time before the outbreak of measles in Wales, during April and May 2013.

"However, we noted two links referenced the Welsh measles outbreak."

The ASA said it had not seen robust evidence that linked a single MMR vaccine with autism, concluding that that website was misleading.

It ruled: "The ad must not appear again in its current form.

"We told Children's Immunisation Centre not to promote prescription-only medicines and to remove claims not supported by objective scientific evidence."

Dr Andrew Wakefield's research linking the MMR jab to autism was published in 1998 has since been entirely discredited.

In a statement to BBC Wales, Zoe Miller from the Children's Immunisation Centre said: "We're now fully ASA compliant, everything that was requested has been taken off the website."