Much has been made of the benefits of eating garlic, but often left out of the discussion is what kind of garlic to eat. Is fresh-crushed better than paste or pre-peeled cloves? What about garlic powder? How about just popping a garlic pill? A study by researchers at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine suggests that for certain elements of cardiac health, fresh-crushed is better than processed. Subhendu Mukherjee, Dipak K. Das and colleagues prepared garlic slurries containing about two ounces of garlic (10 to 20 cloves, depending on size) in about a cup and a half of water. Two slurries were made, one with fresh-crushed garlic and the other with garlic that had been crushed but left to dry for two days, allowing hydrogen sulfide and other volatile chemicals to dissipate. Small amounts of the slurries were force-fed to laboratory rats for 30 days, after which the animals were sacrificed and their hearts put through tests. The findings were published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The researchers found that while both slurries provided some cardioprotective benefits, the hearts of rats that had eaten the fresh-crushed garlic had less damage and better […]
WASHINGTON — Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday. About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 — 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found. ‘Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans,’ Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry. ‘Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions,’ they added. More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health. Drugs that affect the brain chemical serotonin like GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil, known generically as paroxetine, and Eli Lilly and Co’s Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressant. But the study found the effect in all classes of the drugs. Olfson and Marcus looked at […]
The U.S. unemployment rate may not peak until the second half of 2010, even as the broader economy shows signs of improvement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. Another extension in unemployment benefits ‘is something that the administration and Congress are going to look very carefully at as we get closer to the end of this year, Geithner said in an interview yesterday on ABC’s ‘This Week program. The U.S. economy contracted at a better-than-forecast 1 percent annual pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported July 31. Stabilization of housing markets and consumer spending, a lessening of financial turmoil and increased government spending all suggest the longest recession since the 1930s may be close to ending. ‘There are signs the recession is easing, Geithner said. ‘The broad consensus of private forecasters is that you are going to see positive growth in the second half of this year and expect that to continue. It is ‘not clear yet how strong growth will be, he said. Geithner’s appraisal was backed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan who said, ‘collapse, I think, is now off the table. ‘I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen the bottom, […]
Only weeks after the Episcopal Church ended a de facto moratorium on promoting gay men and lesbians into the church hierarchy, church leaders in Los Angeles nominated two openly gay priests as assistant bishops on Sunday. The move came a day after a church search committee in Minnesota announced that it had settled on three candidates, one of them a lesbian, for bishop. The decisions are certain to rekindle the hostilities between the liberal and conservatives factions within the Episcopal Church in the United States and between the church and the Anglican Communion, the generally conservative global network of churches to which the Episcopal Church belongs. The moratorium on ordaining gays and lesbians into the church hierarchy was adopted three years ago and helped calm conservatives in the Anglican Communion, which was nearly torn apart by the election in 2003 of the church’s first and only openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. But church members voted overwhelmingly on July 14 at a general convention in Anaheim, Calif., to reopen the door to bishops who are openly gay. The Diocese of Los Angeles, one of the largest and most liberal […]
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn drove quietly out of the Japanese automaker’s soon-to-open headquarters Sunday in the first public viewing of its new zero-emission vehicle. It was the first time the external design was shown of Nissan Motor Co.’s environmentally friendly electric automobile, set to go on sale in Japan, the U.S. and Europe next year. The blue hatchback had a sporty design and a recharging opening in the front. Designer Shiro Nakamura said the vehicle was designed to avoid a stereotypical futuristic design. ‘This is not a niche car,’ he said. ‘We didn’t make it unusual looking. It had to be a real car.’ Nissan has promised that the Leaf, which goes into mass-production as a global model in 2012, will be about the same price as a gas-engine car such as the 1.5 million yen ($15,000) Tiida, which sells abroad as the Versa, starting at about $10,000. Ghosn drove out on stage with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sitting next to him, and with a Yokohama governor and mayor in the rear seats. ‘This car represents a real breakthrough,’ Ghosn told reporters and guests at a showroom in the […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
