Highly toxic BPA linked to high blood pressure

© GETTY

New research reported in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension, points to cans and bottles lined with Bisphenol A (BPA) as a precursor to raised blood pressure - but the problem goes beyond that.

When the chemical used as an epoxy lining for cans and plastics entered the market it was deemed safe. Although there were claims that small amounts ingested from food and beverages wouldn't be harmful - low levels are indeed harmful. In fact, research shows that BPA causes 100 times the amount of damage previously claimed.

So are you extra stressed? Fatigued? Under pressure and feeling dizzy? Is it a random blood pressure problem or is the BPA?

While BPA has been associated with blood pressure rate and heart rate changes before. Korean researchers decided to put mostly female subjects to the test...

Researchers conducted a randomized crossover trial recruiting 60 adults over the age of 60 from a Korean community center. Each trial member visited the study site three times and was randomly provided with soy milk in either glass bottles or cans. Soy milk was chosen because, according to them, there are no know components in it to raise blood pressure.

Later, urine was collected and tested for BPA concentration, blood pressure and heart rate variability two hours after consumption of each beverage. Urinary BPA concentration increased by up to 1,600 percent after consuming canned beverages compared to after consuming the glass-bottled beverages.

Study author Yun-Chul Hong, M.D., Ph.D said:

A 5 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure by drinking two canned beverages may cause clinically significant problems, particularly in patients with heart disease or hypertension. A 20 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Thanks to the crossover intervention trial design, we could control most of the potential confounders, such as population characteristics or past medical history. Time variables, such as daily temperatures, however, could still affect the results.

The researchers wish for decision-makers, doctors and the public to be aware of the heart risks associated with BPA exposure.

Hong adds:

I suggest consumers try to eat fresh foods or glass bottle-contained foods rather than canned foods and hopefully, manufacturers will develop and use healthy alternatives to BPA for the inner lining of can containers.

BPA is not considered an ingredient, even though it is certainly ingested because it's well established that it leaches into food and drink - especially through toxic food packaging. Other sources are ATM-like receipt paper and resins used in dental procedures.

It has been linked to obesity, infertility and reproductive disorders in both genders, breast cancer, behavioral problems, low sperm counts and more. Last year, its damaging effects on neuro-development were scrutinized and it was shown to cause brain impairment. Two years ago, a Harvard study found a whopping 1200% spike in BPA levels in the urine of people who had recently eaten canned soup.

So of course the EPA would drop the substance from their list of concerns on the heels of those findings...

Do you ever think industry researchers applaud things as safe - to get it approved - just so they have something to study for the next 30 years? Only to come back and say - "Oh, oops, turns out - it's not safe at all, but more research is needed..."

Here are 7 ways to drain substances like BPA out of the body.

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Kentucky congressman exposes Obamacare architect as an economic eugenicist

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky laid into Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber at today's OGR Hearing in Congress, exposing him fully as an economic eugenicist.

Massie referred to Gruber's economic paper on how giving free abortions to the poor would reduce the population burden for the better people, and how he endorses rationing end-of-life care for the poor for the same reason.

He even got Gruber to agree that he was "condescending" to the American people, that he lied to the public for their own good like they were children. Incredible exchange.

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2011 Film: One Family in Gaza

© Jen Marlowe

One Family in Gaza

Just months after the 2008/9 Israeli assault that killed 1,390 Palestinians, filmmaker Jen Marlowe visited Gaza. Among dozens of painful stories she heard, one family stood out. She spent several days with Kamal and Wafaa Awajah, playing with their children, sleeping in the tent they were living in, and filming their story.

Wafaa described the execution of their son, Ibrahim. As she spoke, her children played on the rubble of their destroyed home. Kamal talked about struggling to help his kids heal from trauma.

Palestinians in Gaza are depicted either as violent terrorists or as helpless victims. The Awajah family challenges both portrayals. Through one family's story, the larger tragedy of Gaza is exposed, and the courage and resilience of its people shines through.

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2014 Update: One Family in Gaza

In Jen Marlowe's 2011 film "One Family in Gaza," the Awajah family recounts the story of their home being destroyed and their nine-year old son killed. Since then, the family has lived through two more wars in Gaza. This video is a 5-minute update on the continued trauma endured by the Awajah family, like so many other families in Gaza.

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10 things you didn't know about spiders

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Just saying the word "spider" can elicit responses of fear or awe from people, but regardless of which side you fall on, there's a good chance that there is quite a bit you don't know about eight-legged arachnids. That's because, simply put, spiders are amazing creatures. There are 40,000 different species of spiders living on every continent except Antarctica, and nearly every one of those species is poisonous. Spiders can range in size from tiny to nearly the size of a small puppy. Here are some other amazing facts about these curious creatures.

Black Widow Spider

1. There are about 40,000 types of spiders in the world, but scientists estimate that just as many remain to be discovered.

2. 50% of women and 16% of men suffer from arachnophobia, an irrational fear of spiders.

3. Most spiders have 6-8 eyes.

4. Strongest known natural fiber. Spider silk is made of protein. Its tensile strength - the greatest stress a material will tolerate before breaking - is greater than bone and half the strength of steel.

5. The bites of the Brazilian Wandering spider can cause long and painful erections in human males, along with other symptoms.

© reddit

Giant Huntsman Spider

6. The Black Widow is the most venomous spider in North America.

7. Spider guts are too narrow to take solids, so they liquidize their food by flooding it with digestive enzymes and grinding it up with short appendages.

8. Fossilized spiders have been found in carboniferous rocks dating back 318 million years.

9. Longest spider: Giant Huntsman's leg span can measure up to 12 inches (30 cm).

© managementscience100

Goliath Birdeater Spider

10. Largest spider: Goliath Birdeater can weigh more than 6 oz. (170 grams) - about as much as a young puppy.

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Biochemist captures images of liquid, crystallized DNA

© bibliotecapleyades

Liquid crystal DNA

These fascinating images, that on first inspection look like a Grateful Dead gatefold, are actually liquid DNA molecules crystallizing. They were captured by the artist and biochemist Linden Gledhill for a new project called MSSNG.

MSSNG is an ambitious program launched by the advocacy organization Autism Speaks. As scientists sequence the DNA of 10,000 families affected by autism, all the data collected will be made available as open source to other researchers around the world in an attempt to fill in the missing pieces surrounding the condition.

In his studio, Gledhill uses a research microscope that can magnify up to 1000 times. The beautiful colors are the result of using polarizing light which is then twisted by the DNA crystals, causing an interference in the light spectrums. The patterns you see are the visual result of that interference, captured by a camera set up on an extra port on the microscope.

As water evaporates from the edges of DNA samples placed between two glass slides, the structure gradually crystallizes. The dark areas are where there is liquid and no structure but as the molecules become better aligned we see these vivid colors. These timelapse films capture this stunning process.

The common visual understanding of DNA is the double helix. But that is actually an atomic model. If you had a microscope that could magnify 1000 times, you'd also know that what you are seeing is not the atomic level but the much larger molecular structure as it aligns.

"It's actually very cool because few people have really seen images like these before our research groups," explains Gledhill. "When people see them they ask me, 'What is that?' They have no idea and are quite surprised it's DNA."

The colors and patterns in these photos look like they must be computer generated, but the only photoshopping Gledhill has done for project has been stitching multiple images together to form big panoramas for individual posters. These posters will be sold to raise money for the MSSNG campaign.

Over the course of a month, Gledhill took over 15,000 images in whatever spare time he could find. He said that often this kind of hardcore science, something as technical as crystallizing DNA, gets buried in academia, never seeing the light of day. Creating these powerful images is his way of opening up this process, to get more people talking about autism and collaborating on finding the missing answers.

To see more of these striking images and donate visit mss.ng.

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Ukrainian SBU general: No Russian agents or officers detained in Ukraine

The only Russians capture by Kiev's SBU.

Lies always come out (but sometimes when no one is listening.)

I remember in the spring and summer the population of Ukraine was threatened with seemingly hundreds of FSB detainees. Dozens of officers of GRU. Turned out that the number of those and the others detained is ZERO (BIG ROUND ZERO):

Kiev, December 8 ( , Victoria Litovchenko):

The head of the main investigation department of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Vovk announced that there are no FSB generals or officers of the GRU detained by SBU. He said this during a broadcast of "Freedom of Speech". According to him, there are more than 200 people detained associated with Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. "There is no difference in relation to a particular person depending on his nationality," - he said, answering to a question whether there are representatives of other States, or only citizens of Ukraine.

Noodles are needed only during lunch. Now no one wants these noodles, and the Ukrainian people entirely missed the truth about the 'spies' (and I'm angry, I will remind Gebbels junta about their lies). And the truth is simple - THERE WERE NO RUSSIAN AGENTS AND OFFICERS. This is what was announced by the head of the main investigation department of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasily Vovk.

P.S. Judging by the responses, there are no Russian citizens there either. But he was just too shy to say that (already it looks pretty bad. Let this one intrigue remain).

P.P.S. What will Maidanites come up with to cover the words of the SBU General? Agree that they lied?

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Thanks to biotech-government ties: 81% of GMO crops approved without adequate safety studies

What's a recipe for environmental mayhem and the destruction of human health? The approval of genetically modified organisms by governments worldwide without any scientific safety studies. A new study published by the risk-assessment journal states that of the GM crops approved for planting and marketing globally, 81% were not studied for possible health and environmental safety risks.

Nevertheless, the biotech industry keeps touting GMO 'benefits' like a narcissistic madman on steroids. This chest beating continues - despite a complete lack of published, peer-reviewed research supporting the safety of genetically modified organisms.

The researchers of the risk-assessment study looked at GM crops engineered either for tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) or engineered to produce pesticides in their tissues due to the expression of cry1Ab or cry3Bb1 genes. Of all the bioengineering tricks up Monsanto and Syngenta's sleeves, these are the most commonly used in commercial GM crops.

A whopping 47 GM crop varieties meet these conditions and have been given approval by agencies like the USDA, the FDA, and other regulatory bodies around the world.

When the researchers did a search for peer-reviewed studies on these crops prior to their approval so that they could tell if the agencies were relying on published vs. secret, industry-led studies, their findings were indeed telling.

The approval of these crops was based entirely on industry-biased data.

Only 18 peer-reviewed studies could be found which assessed the safety of any of the 47 GM crops that have been given a rubber stamp, and only 9 of the 47 crop varieties were studied. This means that the remaining 38 GMO varieties were approved with zero credible scientific evidence of their safety.

This is an incontrovertible piece of evidence that Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, Bayer, Cargill, the Grocery Manufacturer's Association, and others have completely swayed government opinion about GMO safety based on manufactured to appease 'experts.' Experts who are supposed to assess the possible toxicity of any food or beverage we consume. This means that GMOs got the green light without safety assessments by independent scientists. No government-appointed shills should be making decisions about our food supply with such little risk assessment conducted.

The new study does suffer from one major limitation, however, since it looked only for published studies involving feeding rats the GM crop in question and then monitoring them for health effects. There are obviously other ways to conduct safety tests, but these were not conducted either.

Furthermore, these companies did indeed test their own crops and hid the results from regulators, even when they knew their toxic GMO products could cause serious health risks. The biotech industry has called these tests a 'commercial secret' even when they knowingly promote GMOs while they causes harm.

The pesticides and herbicides marketed to go hand-in-hand with GM crop sales are subject to the same 'scrutiny' as GMO crops themselves. A 2014 study in the journal found that the pesticide-approval process has been very similar.

Risk assessment is compromised when relatively few studies are used to determine impacts, particularly if most of the data used in an assessment are produced by a pesticide's manufacturer, which constitutes a conflict of interest. Although manufacturers who directly profit from chemical sales should continue to bear the costs of testing, this can be accomplished without [conflicts of interest] by an independent party with no potential for financial gain from the outcome and with no direct ties to the manufacturer."

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