Wellness Update: Europe: Germany confirms source of E.coli outbreak

AFP: Germany confirms source of E.coli outbreak:

"German officials said Saturday that bean sprouts had led to a deadly bacteria outbreak across Europe, but that the farm producing the toxic vegetable was not to blame.
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirmed test results announced on Friday that identified bean sprouts from an organic farm in the northern village of Bienenbuettel as carrying the virulent E. coli strain EHEC-0104, ending a frantic two-week probe.
Although the farm has since closed down, regional farm minister Gert Lindemann said that it 'had, according to his knowledge, done nothing wrong'.
'It has high hygiene standards,' he told the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung daily.
The killer bug claimed at least 33 lives and has left some 3,000 people ill across 14 countries and led to several bans on vegetables grown in Europe, which have cost farmers millions of euros (dollars) in losses."

Wellness Update: Asia: Healthcare Sector concern: June 10, 2011 Swine Flu up in Asia

Healthcare Sector Update: June 10, 2011 | FINANCIAL NEWS NETWORK ONLINE: "BioCryst (NASDAQ:BCRX) is up after media reports said a novel variant of swine flu has emerged in Asia with a genetic adaptation giving some resistance to Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE:GSK) Relenza, the two mainstay drugs used to tackle the disease. However, there was no significant reduction in sensitivity to peramivir, an experimental flu drug from BioCryst."

Wellness Tip: "Expand Emotional Elasticity thru deep breathing & meditation

smmirror.com | Dr. Mao’s Wellness Central: Five Ways to Balance Emotions:

"Expand Emotional Elasticity

Use deep breathing and rest to restore your metabolic equilibrium. Sometime during your busy day find time to close your eyes and take ten deep breaths. Even better, meditate on a daily basis to head off emotional extremes before they start. Studies show that people who meditate are calm, slower to anger, and better able to find their way through problems to good outcomes. Try spending 10 to 15 minutes in meditative relaxation each day and watch your emotional elasticity expand! There are many meditation guides and CDs that can help you learn the practice. You may want to try my guided meditation CD called Meditation for Stress Release."

Wellness Tip: Learn to Balance Emotion by Recognizing them

smmirror.com | Dr. Mao’s Wellness Central: Five Ways to Balance Emotions:

"The Chinese healing tradition groups emotions into five predominant states: joy, rumination (including worry), sadness, fear, and anger. Experiencing these emotions is a normal part of life, and you usually shift naturally from one to the next in reaction to events that pop up in your day. However, when one single emotion dominates, it brings your entire body out of balance and can produce illness. Learning to manage your emotions is essential for your happiness, health, and longevity."

Wellness Tip: A healthy body starts in what we put in our mouth

A healthy body starts at the top - SentinelSource.com: Little Kids: child, health, tooth, pediatric dentistry, tooth brushing: "Healthy snacks for your child, along with proper brushing and flossing, promote health and greatly reduce the chance of tooth decay, or cavities.

Sweet, sticky snacks, like soda, candy or raisins, contain a lot of sugar which causes acid to form in the mouth. The acid then breaks through the tooth surface and causes a cavity.

Starchy snacks, like crackers and pretzels, tend to stick to the teeth and also can cause cavities. The more snacking your child does (frequent sipping or nibbling throughout the day), the greater the chance of cavities forming.

Think of each snack as a 20-minute acid attack on the teeth. So limit the frequency of snacks, supervise your child's brushing twice a day and choose healthy snacks whenever possible."

Wellness Tip: Eat fermented foods like soy beans, produce good bacteria, prevent cancer

Arirang | Korea for the World, The World for Korea - Arirang.co.kr: "'People who live in farming villages tend to have good bacteria which come from the regular intake of fiber. But city people generally have more of the bad bacteria that grows from eating fat.'

Eating fermented foods, including soy bean paste, produces good bacteria and increases activity in the large intestines which can help prevent cancer and obesity.
But consuming too much greasy food stimulates bad bacteria growth.


[Interview : Kim Eun-jung
Korea Food & Drug Administration] 'If you eat greasy food, the stomach can't absorb the food properly and this disrupts the stomach's healthy food absorbing pattern.'

So the answer to a healthy body is quite simple, just start from padding out your meals with food such as soy bean paste, red pepper paste and kimchi.
Lee Ji-yoon, Arirang News."

Health Foods more accessible at AHS Canada

AHS to make healthy food more accessible - Edmonton - CBC News: "Alberta Health Services is taking steps to make it easier to eat healthier foods in the province's hospitals, clinics and personal care homes.

AHS is bringing in a healthy food policy province-wide, but won't ban salty or sugary foods.

AHS vice-president Sharon McKay said they will gradually make it easier to find salads, fruit and low-salt foods in vending machines and cafeterias, as well as in the meals of patients.

'There's lots of work that needs to be done. There's also lots of opinion about how far should we go and how much junk food should be available within the facilities,' she said.

'That's why we're going to engage our public and our staff and physicians about what they would like to see in the facilities that would support healthy eating.'"