• Russian official calls for night-time alcohol sales ban
• South Africa: New nutrition centre to study African diet opens in Cape Town )
• US traffic deaths down

• Maharishi's programmes in education, architecture, health expanding in Lebanon
• Stress dissolved by 'the quiet and soothing experience of inner being': Dr Steele Belok
• Highly effective for managing women's health issues: Physician recommends Transcendental Meditation

• Research shows link between stock market and heart attacks
• US children turn to inhaling to get high: study
• US doctors overtesting, overtreating

---

Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Russian official calls for night-time alcohol sales ban
15 March 2010 - Russia's top public health official called on Sunday for a ban on retail sales of alcohol after 9 pm as part of a Kremlin-led campaign to crack down on alcohol abuse, state-run news agency RIA reported. President Dmitry Medvedev last year ordered tough measures to curb alcohol abuse. (more)

South Africa: New nutrition centre to study African diet opens in Cape Town )
15 March 2010 - Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, launched the HSRC (Human Science Research Council) Centre for the Study of the Social and Environmental Determinants of Nutrition in Cape Town on Monday. Amongst other goals, the new facility will undertake innovative and collaborative research into the social and environmental factors of nutrition which will lead to the global improvement of nutrition knowledge and nutritional status. (more)

US traffic deaths down
12 March 2010 - US traffic deaths in 2009 hit their lowest level in since the mid-1950s. The Transportation Department said on Thursday it expects the fatality count to drop 8.9 per cent to its lowest level since 1954. The projected fatality rate also fell to a level that would be the lowest on record. (more)

Scientists find why 'sunshine' vitamin D is crucial
8 March 2010 - Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, and that there is a link between levels of the vitamin and some diseases. Danish researchers found that immune systems' killer cells, known as T cells, rely on vitamin D to become active and remain dormant and unaware of the possibility of threat from an infection or pathogen if vitamin D is lacking in the blood. (more)

UK: Tobacco tax hikes 'good for the health' - report
6 March 2010 - Raising tobacco taxes by 5 percent above inflation in Britain would help 190,000 smokers to kick the habit and save the nation's health system over 20 million pounds a year, campaigners said. A report by an independent economist for the anti-smoking group said tax hikes would also cut smoking-related absence from work, saving 10 million pounds a year, and boost annual government tax revenues by more than 500 million pounds. (more)

General Electric plans new American export -- outdoor smoking ban
5 March 2010 - General Electric Co is known for exporting American products like washing machines and jet engines, and the biggest US conglomerate is getting ready to ship out another American trend -- the outdoor smoking ban. The Connecticut-based company told employees that it plans to ban smoking on all GE property -- both indoors and out -- worldwide starting in March 2011. GE's ban also applies to chewing tobacco and other so-called smokeless products. (more)

Health project helps North-South Korean ties: WHO
5 March 2010 - North Korea has reduced deaths from surgery and among women in childbirth under a programme funded by South Korea that is building trust across the divided peninsula, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Four provincial hospitals -- two pediatric and two maternity -- have been renovated and supplied with medicines and laboratory equipment, a WHO statement said. Hospitals in 80 of the 220 counties and rural clinics have also been upgraded. (more)

France: Grass, flowers, trees for Paris' Champs-Elysees
4 March 2010 - Paris' Champs-Elysees will be cleared of traffic and blanketed with grass, flowers, and trees for three days in May -- giving Parisians a chance to picnic there or stroll down the famous avenue barefoot. The press officer for the 22-24 May event, said it aims to increase people's awareness about sustainable development and celebrate farmers' work. 22 May is the International Day for Biological Diversity. (more)

US study: Marriages last longer than living together
3 March 2010 - US marriages last longer than unions where couples live together outside matrimony, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Tuesday. About 78 per cent of marriages lasted five years or more, compared with less than 30 per cent of what the CDC called cohabiting unions, or couples living together outside marriage. The study also showed about 75 per cent of marriages between men and women 26 years old or older last at least 10 years, compared with only about half of teen marriages. (more)

Industry crackdown on salt could save US billions
2 March 2010 - Working with the food industry to cut salt intake by nearly 10 per cent could prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks and strokes over several decades and save the US government $32 billion in healthcare costs, US researchers said on Monday. Several governments including the United States are looking for solutions to curb salt intake as a way to head off future heart attacks and strokes that help drain healthcare systems. A programme in Britain to cut salt intake in foods has resulted in a 20 to 30 per cent decline in salt in processed foods sold in stores since 2003. (more)

---

Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Maharishi's programmes in education, architecture, health expanding in Lebanon
13 March 2010 - New steps of progress in health, education, and architecture are being implemented in Lebanon through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes. (more)

Stress dissolved by 'the quiet and soothing experience of inner being': Dr Steele Belok
13 March 2010 - Steele Belok, M.D., is a clinical instructor of medicine at Harvard University Medical School, and a physician in internal medicine and nephrology at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA--a regional teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard. He has been a practising physician in Boston for over 30 years. On the website tmwomenprofessionals.org, he recommends Transcendental Meditation for dissolving stress and anxiety. (more)

Highly effective for managing women's health issues: Physician recommends Transcendental Meditation
12 March 2010 - Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, is a graduate of Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A nationally renowned specialist in natural health and women's health, she is also author of The Ageless Woman: Natural Health and Beauty After Forty and has been featured frequently in the US national media. Dr Lonsdorf highly recommends Transcendental Meditation in the treatment of women's health issues, especially since many are related to stress; her statement, along with those of other physicians, appears on the website tmwomenprofessionals.org. (more)

Patient gains through Transcendental Meditation: Increased emotional stability, intuition, self-confidence, mind-body integration'
11 March 2010 - Joanne Frankel, MD, graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed her residency in psychiatry at UC San Diego in 1985, where she is now clinical faculty in psychiatry. In a statement on the tmwomenprofessionals.org website about recommending Transcendental Meditation in her private practice, she says that she 'feels fortunate that such a powerful yet easy technique is available to my patients'. (more)

Transcendental Meditation: 'Most effective wellness program' to promote health, reduce health care expenses
10 March 2010 - In a statement on the new website tmwomenprofessionals.org, Dr Kulreet Chaudhary comments that by 2017, health care spending in the United States is projected to reach just over $4.3 trillion and comprise 20 per cent of GDP. 'The only permanent solution to the health-care crisis is to prevent disease from happening in the first place,' she says. Dr Chaudhary adds that the Transcendental Meditation Technique has been shown to be the most effective wellness programme for promoting health and reducing health-care utilization and medical expenses. (more)

New published study shows 'Transcendental Meditation resets the brain'
9 March 2010 - A new EEG study, published in the journal Cognitive Processing, discovers that the practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Technique helps the brain 'reset' to a natural state of restful alertness. The three-month randomized, controlled study was conducted on college students at American University, in Washington, DC, USA. (more)

Reduction of stress and deep relaxation during Transcendental Meditation practice 'benefit all women': Dr Rebecca Beuchert
9 March 2010 - Rebecca Beuchert, MD, received her doctorate in medicine from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in the United States. She has had fifteen years experience as a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist in private practice in Washington, DC. On the website tmwomenprofessionals.org, Dr Beuchert states that 'both personally as a woman, and professionally as a physician, I have found that the reduction of stress and deep relaxation during Transcendental Meditation practice benefit all women.' (more)

Two new publications offer profound knowledge of health through VedAroma essential oils
9 March 2010 - Two new publications offer profound knowledge of the qualities and diverse uses of purest, highest quality VedAroma essential oils. (more)

Transcendental Meditation 'a potential critical strategy' for treatment of cardiovascular disease: Dr Abraham Bornstein
8 March 2010 - A statement by eminent American cardiologist Dr Abraham Bornstein about the value of Transcendental Meditation for the treatment of cardiovascular disease is featured on the new website tmwomenprofessionals.org. Dr Bornstein, a board-certified cardiologist and Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, holds a faculty appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Dr Bornstein has done cardiovascular research in the areas of electrophysiology, pacemaker insertion and congenital heart disease, and also spent time on the pediatric cardiology service. (more)

Twenty-five years of success in Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care: Dr Robert Schneider
8 March 2010 - Dr Robert Schneider recently presented a synopsis of the progress and achievements in the United States in the field of Maharishi Ayur-Veda natural health care. The same presentation was also given to the Board of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) of the Government of India, as part of the Board's initiative to spread knowledge of Ayurvedic medicine outside of India. (more)

---

Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Research shows link between stock market and heart attacks
13 March 2010 - Stock market slides may hurt more than your savings. New research suggests they might prompt heart attacks. Duke University researchers found a link between how a key stock index performed and how many heart attacks were treated at their North Carolina hospital shortly after the recession began in December 2007 through July 2009, when signs of recovery emerged. 'This is an intriguing study and yet another example of how stress can affect a person's heart health,' researchers said. Earlier studies have found higher rates of heart problems after World Cup soccer matches, earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina, and other stressful events. (more)

US children turn to inhaling to get high: study
12 March 2010 - More 12-year-olds in the United States admit to using potentially deadly inhalants to get high than have used marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogens combined, US health officials said on Thursday. Among this age group, alcohol was the only intoxicating substance used more than inhalants. Sniffing common household products, such as gasoline, nail polish, bleach, paint solvents, and cleaning spray, is like taking poison and many people do not understand the risks or consequences, the health officials said. Inhaling vapors to get high, or 'huffing,' can cause cardiac arrest. It can lead to brain, heart, liver, and kidney damage, and can be addictive. About 7 per cent of 12-year-olds have used an inhalant to get high, compared with about 5 per cent who have taken prescription drugs for nonmedical use, the surveys showed. About 1.4 per cent of 12-year-olds have used marijuana and fewer than one per cent have used cocaine or hallucinogens. (more)

US doctors overtesting, overtreating
12 March 2010 - Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggest that too many Americans are being overtreated. Experts dispute how much routine cancer screening saves lives. Experts dispute how much routine cancer screening saves lives. It also sometimes detects cancers that are too slow-growing to cause harm, or has false-positive results leading to invasive but needless procedures -- and some risks. Treatment for prostate cancer that may be too slow-growing to be life-threatening can mean incontinence and impotence. Angiograms carry a slight risk for stroke or heart attack. Doctors also often order tests or procedures to protect themselves against lawsuits -- so-called defensive medicine -- and also because the fee-for-service system compensates them for it. (more)

US: Pharmaceutical group spent $6.3 million lobbying in Q4
11 March 2010 - The pharmaceutical industry's main trade group spent $6.3 million in the fourth quarter lobbying Congress, the White House, and multiple government agencies on health care provisions and related issues, according to a quarterly disclosure report. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America include drug giants Pfizer Inc, Merck and Co, Johnson and Johnson, and more than two dozen other US and foreign companies. PhRMA lobbied on multiple aspects of the health care overhau. Besides Congress, PhRMA lobbied the Department of Health and Human Services and several of its agencies, including the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The trade group also lobbied the White House, Congressional Budget Office, Office of Management and Budget, Patent and Trademark Office, Federal Trade Commission, US Trade Representative, and the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, and State. (more)

Panel: US women need chance to avoid repeat C-section
10 March 2010 - Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of 'once a C-section, always a C-section.' Fifteen years ago, nearly 3 in 10 women who had a first C-section were able to deliver their next baby naturally. Now that rate has dropped to 1 in 10, in part because a third of hospitals and half of physicians ban women from attempting a regular birth. Overall, nearly a third of US births are by cesarean, an all-time high. Cesareans can be lifesaving but they come with certain risks -- and the more C-sections a woman has, the greater the risk in a next pregnancy of problems like placenta abnormalities or hemorrhage. (more)

US says 'drugged driving' growing threat
10 March 2010 - Motorists under the influence of drugs are a growing threat on US roads, while the number who drink and drive has fallen thanks to education and law enforcement, a top US drug control official said on Tuesday. The United States is calling for discussions at United Nations level to tackle 'drugged driving' and says it wants to collect data to gauge the scale of the problem among public sector drivers and commercial truckers. 'If you think about driving on an American road on a Friday or Saturday evening about 16 per cent of the vehicles -- one in six of the cars -- (the driver) will be under the influence of an illicit or licit drug,' Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, said. (more)

US: Study suggests too many invasive heart tests given
10 March 2010 - A troublingly high number of US patients who are given angiograms to check for heart disease turn out not to have a significant problem, according to the latest study to suggest Americans get an excess of medical tests. The researchers said the findings suggest doctors must do better in determining which patients should be subjected to the cost and risks of an angiogram. The test carries a small but real risk of causing a stroke or heart attack, and also entails radiation exposure. Angiograms are sometimes done on people who may have unclear symptoms, or no symptoms but some risky traits, like high cholesterol and an abnormal result on another heart test. This group accounts for about 20 to 30 per cent of angiogram cases. In the study, nearly two-thirds of the patients in this second group were found to have no serious blockages. (more)

US blacks, Hispanics losing more sleep over worries
9 March 2010 - Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely than whites and Asians to lose sleep over job and money worries, a sleep survey released on Monday found. Black Americans have long suffered from higher jobless rates than white Americans, a phenomenon that in recent years spread to Hispanics. Three quarters of each group associated poor sleep with health problems, while one fifth reported missing events at least one day in the past month because they were too sleepy or had a sleep problem. Whites and Asians were more likely than blacks and Hispanics to blame a lack of sleep for harming their job performance, hindering their ability to carry out household duties, and care for their family. (more)

Cambodia drug-resistant malaria stirs health fears
7 March 2010 - A New England Journal of Medicine study last year showed that conventional malaria-fighting treatments derived from artemisinin took almost twice as long to clear the parasites that cause the disease in patients in Pailin and others in northwestern Thailand, suggesting the drugs were losing potency in the area. That is echoed by US development agency USAID, which says artemisinin-based combination therapy is 'now taking two to three times longer to kill malaria parasites along the Thai-Cambodian border than elsewhere.' The agency has helped to monitor the situation in the area for years. (more)

Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females
2 March 2010 - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday. The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world. The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. More than a half million pounds (227 tonnes) of atrazine are precipitated in rainfall each year in the United States. Syngenta AG, one of several companies that makes atrazine, has long defended its safety. (more)