Burn Calories, Banish Burnout

Adding to the numerous health benefits of regular physical activity, researchers from Tel Aviv University (Israel) report that employees who find the time for routine physical activity are less likely to experience work-related burnout and depression.

Sharon Toker and colleagues studied 1632 healthy private and public sector workers, monitoring for their personal, occupational, and psychological states, via questionnaires and checkups, for a period of nine years.

The team found that an increase in depression predicted an increase in job burnout over time, and vice versa. Importantly, the researchers determined that workers who exercised for four hours or more per week were half as likely to experience deterioration in their mental state, as compared to those who did no physical activity.

 The study authors suggest that physical activity in leisure time may be an effective stress management tool.

Article Posted on 2012-03-12 HealthWorld.net

Toker, Sharon; Biron, Michal.  “Job burnout and depression: Unraveling their temporal relationship and considering the role of physical activity.”  Journal of Applied Psychology, Jan 9, 2012.

Tomatoes May Be Winning Over Cancer

A nutrient in cooked tomatoes has been shown in laboratory studies to slow the growth of - and even kill - prostate cancer cells, scientists said today.

Dr Mridula Chopra and colleagues at the University of Portsmouth tested the effect of the nutrient lycopene on the simple mechanism through which cancer cells hijack a body's healthy blood supply to grow and spread.

Lycopene Molecule

They found that lycopene, which is what gives tomatoes their red colour, intercepts cancer's ability to make the connections it needs to attach to a healthy blood supply.
The researchers, from the university's School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, are now calling for tests to check if the same reaction occurs in the human body.

Director of the research Dr Chopra said: ''This simple chemical reaction was shown to occur at lycopene concentrations that can easily be achieved by eating processed tomatoes.''

Lycopene is present in all red fruits and vegetables, but its concentrations are highest in tomatoes and it becomes more readily available and biologically active when it comes from processed tomatoes with a small amount of cooking oil added.

Dr Chopra said: ''I stress that our tests were done in test tubes in a laboratory and more testing needs to be carried out to confirm our findings, but the laboratory evidence we have found is clear - it is possible to intercept the simple mechanism some cancer cells use to grow at concentrations that can be achieved by eating sufficient cooked tomatoes.''

Prostate Cancer Cells

In the laboratory experiments, lycopene was shown to disrupt the all important cancer cell linking process, without which cancer cells cannot grow. The researchers explained that all cancer cells use a similar mechanism (angiogenesis) to ''feed'' upon a healthy blood supply.


They said there was added importance of this mechanism for prostate cancer because lycopene tends to accumulate in prostate tissues.

Elgass S, Cooper A, Chopra M. “Lycopene inhibits angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and rat aortic rings.”  Br J Nutr. 2011 Dec 6:1-9.

Posted on 2012-02-27 WorldHealth.net   Anti-Cancer Mechanism of Tomatoes Revealed

Online Article by The Telegraph March 2012  Cancer ‘slowed by cooked tomatoes’

Dangers of Diet Soda



With escalating obesity rates, artificially sweetened soft drinks are marketed as healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages, due to their lack of calories. However, the long-term health consequences of drinking diet soft drinks remain unclear.

Individuals who drink diet soft drinks on a daily basis may be at increased risk of suffering vascular events such as stroke, heart attack and vascular death.

According to a new study by Hannah Gardener and her colleagues from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at Columbia University Medical Center. Data analyzed from 2,564 participants in the NIH-funded Northern Manhattan Study showed evidence that those who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have suffered a vascular event than those who drank none, after taking into account pre-existing vascular conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and high blood pressure.

As Gardener says…clearly there is a need for further research before any conclusions can be drawn.

Article Posted Online

 February 28, 2012

 WorldHealth.net

What Happens In Your Body When You Eat Processed Foods

In a video documenting what goes on in your body after consuming processed verses whole foods, small electronic devices reveal just how much your body struggles in digesting and utilizing processed foods laced with damaging ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup (which contains mercury) and aspartame. Oftentimes, the truth is quite dirty, and in the case of the video you may want to make sure you’re not eating while watching — especially not processed foods!

Using a tiny LED camera capsule, the video team was able to track the visual progress of food digestion. In the case of Gatorade, the harsh artificial ingredients preserve the blue coloring for quite some time, and Ramen Noodles are meant to survive Armageddon!

Created by video producer Stefani Bardin in conjunction with gastroenterologist Dr. Braden Kuo at Harvard University.

Click here to see video and read more: http://naturalsociety.com/shocker-what-happens-in-your-body-when-you-eat-processed-foods-video/#ixzz1nnSaT66Q

Article by: Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalSociety February 20, 2012

Posted on WorldHealth.net