Archive for June, 2009
Pilot dies in flight, but well plane lands in U.S.
NEWARK, New Jersey, USA (AP) – The pilot of a Continental Airlines plane that left Newark to Brussels on Thursday, died in mid-flight over the Atlantic Ocean, but the aircraft with 247 passengers aboard landed smoothly under the command of two passengers.
Passengers aboard Flight 61 were not informed of the death of the pilot and surcharges will continue to serve snacks, but the crew requested assistance from a doctor on board. Several passengers approached the cockpit, including a doctor who told The Associated Press that the pilot appeared to have suffered a heart attack.
It is believed that the pilot of 60 years of age and 32 years of service with the airline, died of natural causes, reported Crip Kelly, spokesman for the airline based in Houston.
A pilot was on board for support during the flight and took the place of deceased colleague, said Crip. The Boeing 777 landed on time shortly before noon at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
“The flight continued in safety, with two pilots in command,” Crip said in a statement.
The doctor Struyven Julien, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels who was traveling on the flight, responded to the request for help, went to the cabin crew and the pilot considered.
“We no longer alive,” said Struyven. There was “no chance at all” to save him, he added.
Struyven said to believe that the pilot had a heart attack. He said he used a defibrillator to try to revive the driver, but it was too late.
Martha Love, a passenger from Greenwich, New Jersey, who was sitting in the front row of the plane, said he was never told the passengers what was happening exactly.
“Nobody knew,” he said. He said he was concerned that after the plane landed and saw several vehicles and fire emergency equipment to the aircraft along the runway.
In 2007, another pilot died Continental versus controls of an airplane after feeling unwell during a flight from Houston to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The aircraft landed without problems with a pilot in command after the plane was diverted to McAllen, in southern Texas
Stanford formally accused of fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) – Billionaire Texan R. Allen Stanford, was charged and put behind bars on Friday, for signs that the international banking empire was but a pyramid scheme built on lies, bribes and boasting that defrauded customers, including many Latin Americans.
The Department of Justice announced charges against Stanford and six other people allegedly linked to fraud by 7,000 million dollars. A federal judge accepted the request of prosecutors to order that Stanford remains in custody because she could try to escape. Stanford may not be released until the next hearing to be held in Houston.
The other defendants were directors of Stanford Financial Group and a former banking regulator Antigua, according to prosecutors, would have detected the fraud but instead was spent on bribes to get that extended.
Robert Khuzami, legal director of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC in English) said that investigators had established an “impressive criminal case from the rubble of this massive fraud.”
If found guilty of 21 charges of which he is accused, Stanford could have a sentence of up to 250 years, authorities reported.
Dick DeGuerin, the lawyer for Stanford issued a statement in which he said that his client “was confident that a jury would declare just what innocent of any criminal charge.”
The indictment filed Friday in Houston that Stanford and managers in his company falsely claimed to have increased assets were 1,200 million dollars in 2001 to nearly 8,500 million by the end of 2008. His fraudulent operation had almost 30,000 investors, according to authorities.
Stanford diverted more than 1,600 million dollars in loans that were granted to himself, according to researchers.
The court documents accuse Stanford and the Machinery Directive in a huge fraud to advise their customers to purchase certificates of deposit bank Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua.
Although Stanford was the less renowned fraudster Bernard Madoff, authorities point out that the businesses of both had the same principle: fake investment returns for their clients to attract others and thus maintain its operation.
“This case is typical of pyramid schemes, rob Peter to pay John,” said Gregory Campbell, the Postal Inspection Service.
Currently the authorities are investigating 100 other possible fraudulent transactions, although none of them is the size of Stanford or Madoff.
Since February, Stanford, 59, has tried to deny what his lawyer described as “false accusations against him.” DeGuerin said that this is not a fraud, insolvency on the Companies Stanford caused the Securities and Exchange Commission and its actions have destroyed excessive and even destroying much of the value of companies and investors.
The other defendants are Pengergest-Laura Holt, Gilberto Lopez and Mark Kuhrt. Another indictment in Florida filed charges against a fourth employee of Stanford, Bruce Perraud, to destroy records relevant to the investigation.
The prosecution also told Leroy King, a former director general of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission of Antigua, of conspiracy to obstruct the investigation of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Prosecutors say that King accepted more than $ 100,000 in bribes that allowed Stanford to maintain its operation.
Stanford at his best was a prominent figure in Antigua. Among its businesses on the island had a daily, two restaurants, a construction company and cricket fields.
The bank had offices in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Microsoft launches a free antivirus program available online
SAN FRANCISCO, USA (AFP) – The computer giant Microsoft announced Thursday it will launch an anti virus program that can be downloaded free from the Internet. The beta (test) software Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) will be publicly available on the internet from June 23 in Brazil, Israel and United States. For other countries will be available later in the year.
“The costs and management constraints prevent many consumers use the updated software to protect the security of their computers,” the firm said in a statement.
According to Microsoft, an effective computer anti virus protection is “essential” for users, since it is increasing the number and danger of attacks by cyber criminals.
The creators of computer viruses exploit any opportunity to mislead Internet users and encourage open documents or execute commands that allow stealth programs to install on their computers.
Obama calls on parents to get involved in their children’s live
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama on Friday revealed that growing up without a father at his side left a void in the heart, emotional statements before a group of young people in the White House for the Sunday, when it is celebrated Father’s Day.
Obama called on parents across the world – and the children listened, as a council to adulthood – which are involved in their children’s lives.
“This is not an obligation,” said Obama, who has two daughters, in a message to millions of parents. “It’s a privilege to be a father.”
Obama spent several hours in front of adolescents, young adults, community mentors and parents, hoping to start what he called a national dialogue on responsible parenthood. Each story was very personal, but one of them captured the attention of the president.
The president spoke at length about the ways in which Barack Obama father left the family home soon. The future president was only 2 years at the time and only saw his father on a later occasion, when he was 10 years, a fleeting visit that left him a lasting memory.
“I had a mother heroic and wonderful grandparents who helped criarme me and my sister, and it is for them that I’m here,” Obama told a group of young leaders and community organizations. “But despite all the extra love and attention they gave me, that does not mean that I have not felt the absence of my father. That is something that leaves a void in the heart of a child, a gap that a government can not fill. ”
Frankly, Obama said that he promised himself not to repeat the mistakes of his father.
“Just because a father was not there, there is also an excuse for being absent. It is the most important reason for this is that one,” Obama said to the young.
“One must break the circle and learn from those mistakes, and improve where parents themselves have shortcomings and do better than they did when you have your own children,” said Obama. “It’s what I tried to do in my life.”
Some 24 million U.S. children growing up without the presence of his father, and a disproportionate number of them are African Americans. These children are more at risk of living in poverty and crime, and become parents during adolescence.
White House seeks to address the problem by adding to its full agenda of internal affairs, but without seeking new legislation on policies. Sponsoring forums around the country this year to promote programs and see how the federal government can help parents and guardians.
Obama wants to be better parents than men that their own
WASHINGTON (AP) – During his childhood, Barack Obama received from his father, a basketball, his first name and ambitions, but little more than that. The president of United States now is asking Americans to be better parents to their own.
In contrast with the little he received from his father, his son gave him much more: a lifetime of memories and comments on the man who abandoned his family, a book entitled “Dreams of My Father” and the legacy of his daughters Sasha, for eight years and Malia, 10.
As a candidate and now president, Obama is repeating a ritual repeated every Father’s Day and is not ashamed of it. Advises the type of men to be father and calls on Americans to be better parents than it was hers.
The president said he understood the importance of fatherhood in his absence in households that grew, like some 24 million Americans who today are growing up without a father.
His wife, Michelle, has repeatedly how his father died, Fraser is its foundation and its referent.
Barack Hussein Obama father left a family in Africa to study in United States. He was pastor of a Kenyan goat transformed into intellectual who won scholarships and attended the University of Harvard.
He started another family in the United States and then abandoned his second wife and Barak when he was two years to return to Africa with another woman.
His fortunes faded into Africa after working for an oil company and the Kenyan government. He began to drink and died in a traffic accident when his son was 21 years and studied at Columbia University.
“I do not want to be the type of father I had,” said the agent to a friend as a new book about his life.
However, it is not considered a model father. No politician can do ambitious.
“I know I’ve been an imperfect father,” he wrote in the Sunday edition of Parade magazine. “I know I made mistakes. I lost my mind, over the years, the demands of my work away from my duties of a father.”
The world’s richest women
Abigail Johnson is the multi increasingly on the throne of Fidelity.
This month, the daughter of Edward “Ned” Johnson III, Lord of the largest investment fund managers in the world, has taken over the governing board of the investment funds of fixed income funds and asset allocation. He is currently responsible for 161 funds, representing over 650 U.S. $ 000 million in assets.
In pictures:
The world’s richest women
Thousand millionaire heiresses to take into account
Secret identities of the rich and famous
Actresses with more power
The Hollywood actors who earn more money
Many people who have long believed that having Fidelity “Abby” had been left out of the competition for the management of the company in 2005 after his father moved the division of the venerable investment funds dedicated to the pension division and the money market, more worldly. Johnson remain in the money market division, the division’s largest group, with 1.3 billion dollars in assets of their clients, but also will assume new responsibilities.
Fidelity spokesman did not want to talk about succession plans of the company. This was said, the logical step in the strategy of dividing the Governing Council in two, but Ned Johnson is not thought to withdraw for now.
Like most of the world’s multi-million dollar, Johnson has inherited his fortune. However, this does not mean that their influence and power in the company are not huge. Today, his fortune is valued at about 8 500 million U.S. dollars, which puts it in eighth position in the new Forbes list of richest women in the world.
Topping the list Christy Walton, whose “value” is 20 000 million U.S. dollars. Walton is the widow of John Walton, the Wal-Mart heir who died in a plane crash in 2005. Behind her in second place is Alice Walton, 19 with a fortune of $ 500 million.
Alice is the daughter of Sam Walton who, with his brother James, established a chain of department stores back in 1962 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world and controls nearly 8000 stores, employs 2 million people and has annual sales of around 400 000 million U.S. dollars.
This year, the combined wealth of 20 richest women in the world amounts to 160 000 million U.S. dollars. UU. And from different industries, from the production sector to finance, through the real estate industry and raw materials.
Almost all its earnings have suffered in greater or lesser extent in the past 12 months, but most of these women have managed to recover their money since the global stock market reached its soil. Since we published the list of world’s billionaires in March, this group has joined the elite 20 to $ 000 million to their combined fortunes.
After the Walton is the heir to L’Oreal, Liliane Bettencourt, whose fortune stands at 15 000 million U.S. dollars and just spend a year of scandal: his daughter-Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, filed a lawsuit against her after that the matriarch of cosmetics gift 1 300 million in assets and life insurance to the photographer Marie-Francoise Banier. Fraud investment Bernard Madoff has consumed part of the funds in the family.
The fourth richest woman in the world, Susanne Klatten (with a fortune amounting to 12 000 million dollars) has also been embroiled in scandals recently. Last January he had to go to the police after a former lover, Helg Sgarbi, allegedly threatened to publish on the internet videos from an intimate relationship. Sgarbi had videotaped in secret meetings with Susanne in various hotel rooms, and seeking millions of euros in exchange for his silence. In March, Sgarbi was sentenced to six years in prison for attempted blackmail.
Among the multi-million dollar that have not achieved among the top 20 are the creator of Harry Potter, the writer J. K. Rowling, eBay president, Margaret Whitman, Oprah Winfrey and the media. Oprah, whose fortune stands at 2 700 million dollars, has dropped to second place in the Forbes list of the 100 most famous of the world.
Want to lose weight? Remember breakfast
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Those who want to lose weight should reduce the likelihood skip breakfast, according to a new study recommends.
The investigation revealed that skipping the first meal of the day and it confuses the brain that generates the need for high calorie food for those on low in calories.
“When people are fasting, in this case skip breakfast because they feel hungry, which also increases the activity in certain brain areas involved in reward,” explained Dr. Anthony Goldstone, of Imperial College London, in the annual meeting of the Society Endocriniología in Washington.
“We found that when people are fasting, they prefer high-calorie foods over reduced-calorie products,” he added.
The results emerging from brain imaging studies conducted at 20 non-obese, healthy, who were shown pictures of foods with low caloric content (salads, vegetables and fish) and high caloric content (cakes, chocolate and pizza).
Participants had to describe how the affecting these images after a hearty breakfast or not eat the first meal of the day.
Previous studies had shown that people who skip breakfast tend to have more weight, to consume more calories from fat and increase in weight over time than those who eat breakfast regularly.
The new study suggests that there is a mechanism that could explain it.
“When you skip meals, especially breakfast, the brain reward system tends to prefer foods with high caloric content of the products reduced in calories (…), which would be a defensive response of the organism to sustain consumption calories, “said Goldstone.
“That could explain why people who skip meals to lose weight, which makes between 30 and 40 per cent of people who want to lose weight, end up attacking their intention to lose weight and actually cause the opposite effect , “added the expert.
These results explained the author, support the medical advice of eating a healthy breakfast to prevent weight gain and lose power.
Nap sleep, associated with psychological performance of children
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Not all children between 4 and 5 years sleeping nap and those who do not have lower psychosocial performance.
That is the conclusion of a team of researchers who presented results of a study in Seattle during SLEEP 2009 annual meeting of experts in sleep.
The study did not specifically answer why some children stop sleeping nap after serving 4 years, he explained via e-mail to Reuters Health lead author, Dr. Brian Crosby, of the Pennsylvania State University in University Park.
“As a story, the families of children who did not nap sleep were several reasons why it had stopped doing so. Some, for example, had done so naturally, several families did not like their children to nap because it interfered with sleep sleep Night and the agendas of other families were so loaded that there was no time, “he said.
The team analyzed the effect of siesta on a sample of 62 children, 23 percent had stopped sleeping.
Although the total sleep in 24 hours did not differ between children who were sleeping and not sleeping siesta, behavioral tests conducted revealed that caregivers who do not sleep in the afternoon had many more symptoms of hyperactivity, anxiety and depression.
“The study results are correlated and we can not draw conclusions about the causal direction of these relationships,” said Crosby.
“It could be that children are more hyperactive, irritable, and so on. Because they do not sleep nap, or do not achieve calm in order to take a nap because they are hyperactive, irritable, and so on. That is something that future studies should investigate,” he added the author.
However, according to Crosby nap might be important to improve the daytime performance in children in this period of development.
For now, the researchers recommended that pediatricians ask their parents if their children of preschool age and not sleep or nap to take into account the response to the total time for rest and sleep quality in studying potential problems sleeping or daytime performance.
For the first time a microbicide gel seems able to halt the spread of HIV
A clinical trial involving over 3000 women in the U.S. in Africa and demonstrates for the first time-the promise of the action of a vaginal microbicide gel can prevent HIV infection in women. According to the scientific results presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, 0.5% of a dose of microbicide designed to prevent the AIDS virus to “stick” to the cells in the female genital tract was found to be 30% effective.
These results are encouraging for the first time, because so far there had been positive numbers by using this method.
The researchers of the study, called HPTN 035, clarified that they still need many new studies to determine more accurately the effectiveness of this preventive system.
“These findings provide the first sign that a microbicide gel could be capable of preventing women from becoming infected by HIV,” said Salim Abdool Karim, professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University who along with colleagues from South Africa, carried out the multicenter study.
“For millions of women at risk for HIV, especially young African women, there is now a Glimmer of Hope. Of course we know that these results also indicate that more research is needed, since we can not say we have an effective microbicide.
What are microbicide
Microbicide molecules are designed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections when applied as a vaginal cream or gel.
There are several combinations that are being tested in clinical trials, but still nothing definitive. And indeed, the first trials of this type of prevention strategies have yielded little effect.
Currently in Africa and other regions of the developing world, which occurs in a large majority of cases, women become infected after having sex with an infected man.
And although it is known that the correct and consistent use of condoms has proven effective in preventing HIV infection, women often can not negotiate with their partners, condom use. Therefore, a substance effective microbicide that can be used in the vagina, could provide an effective method of prevention.
The new study was conducted between February 2005 and September 2008 and involved 3099 women in six cities in Africa and one in the United States.
Infidelity and divorce drugs argue Ingrid Betancourt
Bogota, June 18 (EFE) .- A true novel in that mix infidelity, insults and alleged drug use argue as grounds for divorce lawyers of the former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and Juan Carlos Lecompte publicist.
Betancourt, former hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), began last year, shortly after his rescue, the efforts of divorce under the claim of “separation of fact.”
It also indicates that another cause of the break would be the “breach of marital duties.”
The process is a discussion of dignity “and could be the case of Lecompte, Caras magazine says in its latest edition.
He explains, “after the offer exchanged by his wife, tattoo of her face in a shoulder and carry him around the country and the world, the only thing he received from her after her rescue, as was evident at the airport the day of his release, he was ungrateful. ”
He adds that in the process of separation “which at first seemed simple has become a process of claims and counterclaims of the parties.
After the initial pain of separation for the kidnapping are the happy days of the couple who decided on January 30, 1997, join in civil marriage on the island of Polynesia Mourea.
Betancourt, who was once released by the Colombian army in the famous Operation Jaque on July 2 last year along with three Americans and eleven soldiers and policemen, all hostages of the FARC, he moved to Paris without Lecompte.
The book of the three Americans, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, “Out of captivity,” spurring a Lecompte.
In the text of the Americans reported alleged infidelities with the politician Betancourt Luis Eladio Perez and Gonsalves.
“After all this, Juan Carlos felt that he had been exposed to public humiliation because of the wide dissemination of this information was both at home and abroad,” says Caras.
However, the publication added, “this is why Ingrid contrademandaría, as indeed it did.”
Just this fact, filtration Lecompte allegedly made to the national press of the arguments of its counterclaim, is what the attorney Ingrid considered “as an outrage that she has the right to his good name.”
But Ingrid “responded with the same currency Lecompte accused of having been unfaithful in the days when she was kidnapped, and added another argument: the alleged use of hallucinogenic substances from her husband.”
In the novel there are sections of a supposed romance with a Mexican journalist Lecompte and Betancourt also an accusation that the public attended, along with some friends to a house massage and sex services located in the Zona Rosa of Bogota.
Is a “hard pulse” between two of the most renowned lawyers in family law in Colombia: Gabriel Devis-Morales (attorney Betancourt) and Abel Helí Torrado (Lecompte lawyer), who “fought a tough battle to make the 15 family court ruled in favor of their clients, “adds the release.
“Even as things stand, given the quality of those involved, could be a Solomonic decision to declare shared blame for the divorce,” says Caras.
And if any party is not satisfied with the verdict, can appeal to the Family Court of the Supreme Court of Bogota, “says the publication.
Fiat closes purchase of Chrysler, appointed new leadership
The Supreme Court cleared on Tuesday night, the last obstacle to the sale, which gave victory to the United States Government, which has spearheaded the restructuring of Chrysler after the bankruptcy.
The CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, has the same position in Chrysler, while the current CEO of the U.S. automotive, Bob Nardelli, will leave the company.
Marchionne said on Wednesday that the new Chrysler face many challenges, but is confident that the company will successfully afloat.
“Chrysler is now a more focused and agile company that will benefit from its global strategic alliance with Fiat,” Marchionne said in a welcome message to employees.
“The new company will move forward with significant strategic advantages, including a healthy balance, a competitive cost structure and a network of dealers lightweight and efficient,” he said in the text sent by email.
The executive also said that Fiat will begin the process of transfer of technology, platforms and trains in front of the Chrysler plants in the coming months.
Fiat is accompanied by a group that includes the union and the governments of United States and Canada, which is taking control of the best assets of Chrysler. The initial Fiat Chrysler is 20 percent and could increase to 35 percent.
Shares of Fiat rose 0.1 percent to 7.798 euros.
The White House said he was encouraged by the Supreme Court decision to allow the transaction and expects that the process of General Motors, which is also in bankruptcy, it is also rapid.
FALLING SALES
Late last year, the Italian company began looking for partners to gain economies of scale, when car sales began to drop dramatically.
CSM Worldwide, an industry consultancy, has forecast a decline of 20 percent of global output this year to 52 million vehicles since the car fired employees and suspended production at the sharp drop in demand.
Others in the industry do not have the urgency to find partners. The CEO of Renault-Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, for example, said Wednesday that his group has no problem of scale.
In the case of Fiat, CSM Worldwide said he saw “a huge risk” in an attempt to revive Chrysler.
Not only had to renew an aging product line, but also to convince customers to buy cars from Chrysler.
Fiat has sent a team of executives and engineers to Detroit to work with Chrysler to cut costs and prepare for the launch in the United States Cinquecento (500), the popular small car from Fiat.
GERMANY
A Fiat was more difficult to convince the German government of its plans to create an automotive giant. His bid for Opel, the German arm of General Motors Corp., lost to the proposed auto parts maker Magna International Canada.
However, the German Government asked to enhance the offering.
The sale is part of the restructuring of GM, which called for the protection of Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1st. Chrysler had done on April 30.
Erich Merkle, an analyst at the independent sector United States, said the court decision on Chrysler was good news for GM, which uses a similar strategy, selling fast, to facilitate their passage through the bankruptcy.
iPhone, with a new feature to find
The World Conference of Apple developers, Scott Forstall, vice president of Software Development for iPhone, introduced on Monday the 3.0 platform phone, which contains more than 100 amendments, including the ability to copy, cut and paste text, messages multimedia (in collaboration with 29 mobile operators around the world) and the ability to rent or buy movies via iTunes, ideal for those waiting to address a long-duration flight.
“My favorite is to find my phone, which helps you to find your iPhone if you get lost,” said Forstall. Through MobileMe, you can locate your cell phone on a map, you can also send a message that activates a sound even when in silent mode, if you finally lost it by, you can erase all the information via remote.
Meanwhile, developers are working on creating new applications.
From 5 Asphalt, “the 3D racing game for a mobile device more real”, said Mark Hickey, president of Gameloft, to a medical application in which the doctors can monitor their patients and receive updates on his health analysis and other tests at the time.
In just 9 months to ensure that Apple iPhone users and iPod touch unloaded 1.000 million App Store applications on your Store.
Today 50.000 applications have been developed for the ‘gadgets’ sold.
“Our applications are already in over 100 hospitals,” said Cameron Powell, director of Technoliges Airstrip.
The 3.0 platform will be available from June 17, free for any iPhone, and 9.99 dollars for iPod touch.
Alternative Medicine: Alternative effective or pure story?
Both have a reiki session, a therapy which is believed to help the patient with invisible energy fields. The anesthesiologist Richard Dutton said it was “mystical tales”, but uses them.
“It autohiponotizan” and that helps to relax patients, he said. “If you tell yourself you do not hurt so much, then you do not hurt much.”
Alternative medicines are reaching the mainstream and are increasingly accepted by physicians formal, insurers and hospitals like the University of Maryland.
Appeals to people and herbal therapies to treat and sofocones from sleep problems to cancer and heart problems. Tends to mistrust the government and pharmaceutical companies, and preferred medications considered safe and more natural.
Often, however, is not what they receive. The attitude of the government and powerful sectors that make consumers vulnerable to misleading advertising and failed products.
Food supplements do not need to prove they are safe or effective to be sold. Some contain natural elements that you want to avoid, such as lead and arsenic. Other things that can interfere with a consumer, such as birth control pills.
“Herbs are medicines that can be good or bad reactions, said Bruce Silverglade of the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Many of these products are not scores of small operations, craft, but manufactured by major laboratories. Its ingredients and country of origin is a mystery to consumers. Are sold using techniques that manipulate the feelings, like a car or a garment.
It exaggerated the benefits of therapies that can help in certain conditions, such as acupuncture.
The AP analyzed dozens of studies and interviewed more than 100 people. Found that there is an underground system that operates in daylight, with principles other than those of traditional medicine and millions of people have a blind faith in these products.
Here are some of the things that The Associated Press found:
_ Large hospitals increasingly turn to alternative therapies. Many offer treatments that relieve stress, like meditation, yoga and massage, but some offer treatments with little scientific support to seriously ill patients and vulnerable.
_ Some medical schools give lessons to future doctors about alternative therapies and cures, sometimes paid by government funds. The idea is to educate them about treatments that people prefer to make sound recommendations and objective. More than one institution, however, has strong ties with people who practice or promote alternative methods.
_ Insurance companies are enabling firms to offer alternative medicine offer their products and services directly to members. I even recommend buying some food supplements in the internet portals.
There are herbal supplements that can affect health. A surprising number of products which are not advertised on their labels and may contain harmful substances such as lead or disguised versions of medications that require a prescription.
“In tests, one in four supplements have a problem,” said Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, an independent firm that analyzes such products.
Even when the components of medicine are not dangerous, the money spent on products whose benefit is not proven can not be a good investment, as well as risky.
There are cancer patients who miss their only opportunity to fight evil in betting on alternative medicine. People with clogged arteries may suffer cardiac arrest. Children can suffer injuries from the use of therapies whose effectiveness has not been checked, followed by parents who do not rely on traditional medicine.
Traditional medicines also have their problems and many have been taken out of circulation is found that the adverse reactions. These medicines, however, are subject to regulatory systems and are closely watched by surveillance bodies.
The monitoring of alternative medicine is much more limited.
Nevertheless, the use of alternative medicines and dietary supplements like vitamins, minerals and herbs, is widespread.
“We are annoyed when people say that we are a marginal resource,” said Steven Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition. He added that the supplements are a “reassurance” when people do not eat well.
Some are widely recommended by doctors, such as vitamins for pregnant women and calcium for adult women who can get osteoporosis. It is believed that such uses are safe.
Several studies indicate that a deficiency of vitamins can produce disease, but it is unclear whether consumption of supplements to solve the problem. Some studies suggest that it may cause inconvenience, according to Jeffrey White, director of the department of medicine of the National Cancer Institute.
White, however, believes that alternative medicine offers good opportunities. ” As does Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Alternative Medicine, an agency created by Congress.
“Most patients do not receive satisfactory treatment too. If we were successful and effective treatments will probably not need these other strategies,” he said.
That is why Mitchell Gaynor, a cancer specialist from the Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York, monitors nutrition and offers meditation and relaxation techniques in their treatments.
“There are people who think that ‘chemotherapy is pure poison,” said Gaynor, who tells the patient not think so. “Cancer is an evil that develops over decades, so that one can not say that will heal by changing the diet or doing meditation. Must be treated with conventional medicine.”
Many people buy supplements to treat minor problems such as sleep problems, sofocones caused by menopause, memory loss, excessive weight and sexual disorders.
Kathy Allen, dietitian of the Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, said that people should be skeptical about the term “natural.”
He stated that the supplements have not been shown to be safe and provide benefits. If you are wondering if you are willing to consume traditional medicine in those conditions, “most of us would say no,” he said.
“When the label says’ natural ‘, it is believed that it can not hurt and that is simply not true,” he said.
There are indications that El Ninoo is coming – forecasters say
El Niño is associated with increased rainfall in the eastern Pacific and central-eastern and drier conditions than usual in northern Australia, Indonesia and Philippines.
A summer with El Niño may mean more rainfall in the regions of intermontañosas United States and central Chile. There are usually more in the eastern Pacific hurricanes and fewer in the Atlantic.
Have recently been observed between El Niño-neutral conditions warmer than normal and another phenomenon known as La Niña, which is cooler and is characterized by cold temperatures and enduring.
The water below the surface of the sea was warmer than usual, said NOAA, which usually indicates impending El Niño, which alters the winds and weather around the world.
There are differences between different models of climate, the agency said: Some predict the arrival of El Niño and the continuation of current conditions.
Low-carb diet improved cholesterol levels
While diets low in carbohydrates based on animal proteins can promote weight loss, often fail when the decrease LDL “bad,” said team doctor David J. A. Jenkins, St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Meanwhile, if you had not been replaced by vegetable sources animals would be useful.
To investigate, the experts evaluated the weight loss and changes in cholesterol levels in 47 people with high cholesterol who were randomized to four weeks during a low carbohydrate diet based on plants or diets high in carbohydrates.
Dietary intervention, also called “Eco-Atkins” was a 26 percent carbohydrate, 31 per cent of vegetable protein and 43 percent vegetable oil.
The power of comparison showed a 58 percent carbohydrate, 16 percent protein and 25 percent fat. Both diets were low in calories.
Participants in each group lost similar amounts of weight, but the Eco-Atkins diet was better than the comparison to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol.
The low carbohydrate diet is also associated with greater decreases in blood pressure that the power of control, said the report.
While the new findings are encouraging, “it is premature to recommend the diet ‘Eco-Atkins’ diet as a choice to lose weight without the confirmation of its efficacy in larger studies on more diverse and individuals at higher risk,” noted editorialists.
