Food for Thought...dark chocolate lowers blood pressure! mmmm....

The next time you crave chocolate, give in. Besides lifting your mood, the flavonols in dark chocolate may protect against high blood pressure and stroke, in part by improving the elasticity of your blood vessels.



When choosing chocolate, go as dark as your taste buds can stand. Check labels for the percentage of cacao, which is the source of all that antioxidant goodness. Dark chocolate typically ranges from 60 percent to 80 percent cacao. Note.. eat a square or two, not the whole bar.


“When the external

begins to define the internal,

instead of the internal

defining the external,

one begins living as a mortal

rather than as a god.

Trust me, as a “god” is better.

Zing,

The Universe”

—	www.tut.com

Our Big Pig Problem!

The U.S. should follow Denmark and stop giving farm animals low-dose antibiotics.

For more than 50 years microbiologists have warned against using antibiotics to fatten up farm animals. The practice, they argue, threatens human health by turning farms into breeding grounds of drug-resistant bacteria. Farmers responded that restricting antibiotics in livestock would devastate the industry and significantly raise costs to consumers. We now have empirical data that should resolve this debate. Since 1995 Denmark has enforced progressively tighter rules on the use of antibiotics in the raising of pigs, poultry and other livestock. In the process, it has shown that it is possible to protect human health without hurting farmers.

Read the rest of the article here at Scientific American

Get cold sores? Treat them quickly!

Researchers Link Herpes to Alzheimer’s Disease; “Cold Sores” Connected to Cognitive Decline.

Researchers recommend people treat a cold sore as quickly as possible to minimize the amount of time the virus is actively traveling through a person’s nervous system. The faster a cold sore is treated, the faster the HSV1 returns to a dormant stage.

How prevalent is this virus? In developed countries such as the U.S., approximately 20 percent of children are infected with HSV1 prior to the age of five. By the second and third decades of life, as much as 60 percent of the population is infected, and late-in-life infection rate reaches 85 percent.

Here's the journal article:

Herpes Simplex Virus Dances with Amyloid Precursor Protein while Exiting the Cell.

Read it here.

Zovirax or acyclovir is an antiviral drug that slows the growth and spread of the herpes virus so that the body can fight off the infection. Zovirax contains an active antiviral ingredient called acyclovir. Acyclovir stops the herpes virus from spreading from one host cell to other normal cells. Acyclovir converts itself into a more active agent inside the infected cells of the body. Then, it blocks the action of an enzyme called DNA polymerase which copies the herpes virus’ genetic material from RNA to DNA. By blocking DNA polymerase, Zovirax prevents the multiplication and growth of the herpes virus. This allows the body to treat the existing outbreak and relieve the pain caused by cold sores.