Sunday, July 9, 2017

TILAPIA (Farm Raised) IS BAD BEWARE

This is why you need to STOP eating Tilapia -- ASAP
Eating seafood is a great way to get vital nutrients and vitamins. Tilapia is the most popular farmed fish in America because of its affordability. But health experts are warning consumers to stay as far away as possible from Tilapia.  Tilapia Contains Few Nutrients: Researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine released a report on the omega-3 fatty acid content in popular fish. Tilapia scored far lower than most other fish on the list. Omega-3 fatty acids give fish most of their benefits, including Alzheimer’s risk reduction. Tilapia contains a TON of omega-6 fatty acids, which are terrible for you. The quantity of omega-6 in tilapia is higher than a hamburger or bacon.
Tilapia Could Cause Alzheimer’s: One of the omega-6 fatty acids in tilapia goes by the name of arachidonic acid – a compound which significantly increases the type of inflammatory damage that precedes Alzheimer’s. So while eating healthy fish like mackerel, halibut and sardines would reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s, this fish actually increases it.

Most Tilapia Is Farmed: Tilapia is the second most commonly farmed fish in the world. This is largely due to the fish’s hardiness; it can eat just about anything. Good for farmers, bad for consumers. It means they don’t have to spend lots of money on fish food as they would were they raising salmon. Farmers commonly feed the fish chicken and pig poop. The fish are also stuffed with antibiotics and genetically modified to grow faster.

Tilapia May Cause Cancer: Tilapia can carry up to 10 times the amount of carcinogens as other fish. This is because of the food the farmers feed the fish – poop, pesticides and industrial-grade chemicals. One toxic chemical researchers have found in the fish is dioxin, which is linked to the development and progression of cancer.


What’s more, your body doesn’t actually flush out dioxin for a whopping 7-11 years. Make sure the SHARE this your friends  that MAY eat tilapia!

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Major progress accomplished in past several years with STEM CELLS


Canadian clinics begin offering stem-cell treatments experts call unproven, possibly unsafe

Clinics are treating arthritis, joint injuries, disc problems and even skin conditions with stem cells typically taken from patients’ fat tissue or bone marrow


Stem cell research Getty Images      Tom Blackwell       July 3, 2017
The pain, she recalls now, “took my breath away,” and played havoc with the avid hiker’s favourite pastime.
In desperation, Munsie turned to a Toronto-area clinic that provides a treatment many experts consider still experimental, unproven and of questionable safety.
The 63-year-old says the stem cells she received at Regenervate Medical Injection Therapy 18 months ago were transformational, all but eliminating the debilitating soreness and even allowing her to hike Argentina’s Patagonia mountains two months ago.
“For me it’s been a life saver,” Munsie says. “I’ve been able to do it all again … I don’t have any of that pain, at all.”   The arthritis in Maureen Munsie’s ankles was so intense until barely a year ago, she literally had to crawl on hands and knees to get upstairs.
Maureen Munsie received a stem-cell treatment in Toronto that she says has cured her debilitating arthritis pain Don Thompson
Canadians drawn to the healing promise of stem cells have for years travelled outside the country to such places as Mexico, China or Arizona, taking part in a dubious form of medical tourism.
But Regenervate is one of a handful of clinics in Canada that have begun offering injections of stem cells, satisfying growing demand but raising questions about whether a medical idea with huge potential is ready for routine patient care.
Especially when those patients can pay thousands of dollars for the service.
Clinics in Ontario and Alberta are treating arthritis, joint injuries, disc problems and even skin conditions with stem cells typically taken from patients’ fat tissue or bone marrow.
The underlying idea is compelling: stem cells can “differentiate” or transform into many other types of cell, a unique quality that evidence suggests allows them to grow or “regenerate” tissue damaged by disease or injury.
Researchers – including hundreds in Canada alone — are examining stem-cell treatments for everything from ailing hearts to severed spinal cords.
With few exceptions, however, the concept is still being studied in the lab or in human trials; virtually none of the treatments have been definitively proven effective by science — or approved by regulators like Health Canada.
The fact that Canadian clinics are now offering stem-cell treatments commercially is concerning on a number of levels, not least because of safety issues, says Ubaka Ogbogu, a health law professor at the University of Alberta.
Three U.S. women were blinded after receiving stem-cell injections in their eyes, while other American patients have developed bony masses or tumours at injection sites, Ogbogu said.
“Stem cells have to be controlled to act exactly the way you want them to act, and that’s why the research takes time,” he said. “It is simply wrong for these clinics to take a proof of concept and run with it.”  Ogbogu says Health Canada must crack down on the burgeoning industry but says the regulator has so far been conspicuous by its inaction. Other experts say the procedures provided here — typically for joint pain — are likely relatively safe, but still warn that care must be taken that the stem cells do not develop into the wrong type of tissue, or at the wrong place.
Alberta Health Services convened a workshop on the issue late last year, concluding there is an urgent need to develop a certification system for cell preparation and delivery to avoid “spontaneous transformation of (stem cells) into unwanted tissue.”
But one of the pioneers of the service in Canada says there’s no empirical evidence that such growths can develop, and suggests the treatment’s only real risk – as with an invasive procedure – is infection.
Meanwhile, patients at Regenervate have enjoyed impressive outcomes after paying fees from $750 to $3,900, says Dr. Douglas Stoddard, the clinic’s medical director.  About 80 per cent report less pain, stiffness and weakness within a few months of getting their stem-cell injection, he said. “I believe medical progress is not just limited to the laboratory and randomized double-blind trials,” Stoddard said. “A lot of progress starts in the clinic, dealing with patients … You see something works, you see something has merit, and then it’s usually the scientists that seem to catch up later.”
The Orthopedic Sport Institute in Collingwood, Ont., the Central Alberta Pain and Rehabilitation Institute and Cleveland Clinic in Toronto all advertise similar stem-cell treatments for orthopedic problems.
Edmonton’s Regen Clinic says it plans to start doing so this fall.
Ottawa’s Innovo says it also treats a range of back conditions with injections between the vertebrae, and uses stem cells to alleviate nerve damage.
Orthopedic Sport says its doctor focuses on “FDA and Health Canada approved stem-cell injection therapy for patient care.”
In fact, no treatment of the sort the clinics here provide has ever been authorized.  Health Canada says the vast majority of stem-cell therapies would constitute a drug and therefore need to be authorized after a clinical trial or new drug submission. A number of stem-cell trials are underway, but only one treatment — Prochymal — has been approved, said department spokesman Eric Morrissette. Designed to combat “graft-versus-host disease” — where bone marrow transplants for treating cancer essentially attack the patient’s body — it’s unlike any of the services the stem-cell providers here offer.
But as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aggressively pursues the hundreds of clinics in America, Health Canada says only that it’s committed to addressing complaints it receives.
It “will take action based on the risk posed to the general public,” said Morrissette, who encouraged people to pass on to the department information about possible “non-compliant” products.
Stoddard said the injections his clinics provide are made up of “minimally manipulated” tissue from patients’ own bodies and any attempt to crack down would be “regulation for the sake of regulation.”
But academic experts remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the treatments.
Scientific evidence suggests the injections may help alleviate joint pain temporarily, but probably just because of anti-inflammatory secretions from the cells – not regeneration, said Dr. David Hart, an orthopedic surgery professor at the University of Calgary who headed the Alberta workshop. “There’s a need for understanding what’s going on here and there’s a need for regulation,” he said. Most of the clinics say they use a centrifuge to concentrate the stem cells after removing them from patients’ fat tissue or bone marrow. But it’s unclear if the clinics even know how many cells they are eventually injecting into patients, says Jeff Biernaskie, a stem-cell scientist at the University of Calgary.
Munsie, on the other hand, has no doubts about the value of her own treatment, even with a $3,000 price tag.  The procedure — from extraction of fat tissue in her behind to the injection of cells into her ankles — took barely over an hour. Within three months, the retired massage therapist from north of Toronto says she could walk her dogs again. Last week, she was hiking near Banff.
“I’m a real believer in it, and the possibility of stem cells,” says Munsie. “I just think ‘Wow, if we can heal with our own body, it’s pretty amazing.’ ”
tblackwell@nationalpost.com