More on Exercise
Satan and his angels are laying their snares for souls. They are working upon the minds of teachers and students to induce them to engage in exercises and amusements which become intensely absorbing, and which are of a character to strengthen the lower passions, and to create appetites and passions that will counteract the operations of the Spirit of God upon human hearts. {MYP 371.2}
All the teachers in a school need exercise, a change of employment. God has pointed out what this should be,--useful, practical work. But many have turned away from God's plan to follow human inventions, to the detriment of spiritual life. Amusements are doing more to counteract the working of the Holy Spirit than anything else, and the Lord is grieved. . . . {MYP 371.3}
The continual craving for pleasurable amusements reveals the deep longings of the soul. But those who drink at this fountain of worldly pleasure will find their soul-thirst still unsatisfied. They are deceived; they mistake mirth for happiness; and when the excitement ceases many sink down into the depths of despondency and despair. O what madness, what folly, to forsake the "Fountain of living waters" for the "broken cisterns" of worldly pleasure!-- "Fundamentals of Christian Education," p. 422. {MYP 370.2}
Cooking on Sabbath
On Friday let the preparation for the Sabbath be completed. See that all the clothing is in readiness and that all the cooking is done. Let the boots be blacked and the baths be taken. It is possible to do this. If you make it a rule you can do it. The Sabbath is not to be given to the repairing of garments, to the cooking of food, to pleasure seeking, or to any other worldly employment. Before the setting of the sun let all secular work be laid aside and all secular papers be put out of sight. Parents, explain your work and its purpose to your children, and let them share in your preparation to keep the Sabbath according to the commandment. {6T 355}
The Lord is no less particular now in regard to his Sabbath than when he gave the foregoing special directions to the children of Israel. He required them to bake that which they would bake, and seethe (that is, boil,) that which they would seethe on the sixth day, preparatory to the rest of the Sabbath. Those who neglect to prepare for the Sabbath on the sixth day, and who cook food upon the Sabbath, violate the fourth commandment, and are transgressors of God's law. All who are really anxious to observe the Sabbath according to the commandment, will not cook any food upon the Sabbath. They will, in the fear of that God who gave his law from Sinai, deny themselves, and eat food prepared upon the sixth day, even if it is not as palatable. God forbade the children of Israel baking and boiling upon the Sabbath. That prohibition should be regarded by every Sabbath-keeper, as a solemn injunction from Jehovah to them. The Lord would guard his people from indulging in gluttony upon the Sabbath, which he has set apart for sacred meditation and worship. {3SG 253}
Nonflesh Diet to Modify the Disposition
The Lord plainly told His people that every blessing would come to them if they would keep His commandments, and be a peculiar people. He warned them through Moses in the wilderness, specifying that health would be the reward of obedience. The state of the mind has largely to do with the health of the body, and especially with the health of the digestive organs. As a general thing, the Lord did not provide His people with flesh meat in the desert, because He knew that the use of this diet would create disease and insubordination. In order to modify the disposition, and bring the higher powers of the mind into active exercise, He removed from them the flesh of dead animals. He gave them angels' food, manna from heaven. {CD 375.2}
Those ministers who feel at liberty to indulge the appetite are falling far short of the mark. God wants them to be health reformers. He wants them to live up to the light that that has been given on this subject. {CD 138}
Flesh foods are injurious to the physical well-being, and we should learn to do without them.{CD 130}
By departing from the plan divinely appointed for their diet, the Israelites suffered great loss. They desired a flesh diet and they reaped the results. They valued the earthly above the spiritual. {CD 375}
It is possible for one to spoil his spiritual experience by an ill-use of the stomach. {CD 126}
Junk Food and Cancer
Daily Telegraph
EATING junk food raises women's risk of developing a range of cancers, researchers say.
Two studies demonstrate the dangers of a diet that has high levels of fat and processed foods. A large European study shows that women with high levels of blood sugar face a significantly higher risk of cancer of the pancreas, skin, womb and urinary tract.
And, according to a US study, older women with the fattiest diets have a 15 per cent greater chance of developing breast cancer. It found fat-intake levels of 40 per cent put women most at risk. This was close to the British average of 38 per cent.
High blood-sugar levels have been linked to unhealthy diets containing fatty and processed foods, and can lead to Type 2 diabetes. Previous research has shown an increased risk of cancer in patients with this form of diabetes, which usually occurs in middle age.
But the latest findings demonstrate that rising blood sugar also increases cancer risk in women. They show that women with the highest blood-sugar readings have a 26 per cent greater chance of developing cancer.
Too Obese For X-rays
NZ Herald
WASHINGTON - More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for x-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists say.
With 64 per cent of the US population either overweight or obese, the problem is worsening, but it represents a business opportunity for equipment makers and hospitals, said Dr Raul Uppot, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"We noticed over the past couple of years that obesity was playing a role in our ability to see these images clearly," Dr Uppot said.
Radiologists have their own term for it when writing up reports: "These images are limited due to body habitus."
Overdosing Our Kids
Daily Telegraph
April 10, 2006
MORE than half of parents are inadvertently overdosing their children with off-the-shelf medications such as paracetamol, potentially causing them long-term health problems.
A "pill-popping culture" is encouraging mums and dads to over-medicate children and panicked parents are also mixing medication, Australian research found.
A nursing academic says feverish children are being given excess doses of paracetamol and ibuprofen by their parents, who are unaware of the dangers of some non-prescription medications.
The report also found that parents were plying their child with one brand and then trying another if the first did not work.
A Queensland University of Technology review discovered the number of parents overdosing their children has risen from 12 per cent in 1987 to 33 per cent in 2002.
Abortion Drug Continues to Kill Women
TWO more women in the US have died after taking the abortion pill RU486 but officials do not know if the drug played a role in their deaths, US regulators said today.
U486, also known as Mifeprex or mifepristone, is approved for terminating a pregnancy of 49 days or less. Another drug, misoprostol, is given two days later to complete the abortion.
About 560,000 women have taken RU486 since its approval in September 2000.
The drug label warns about the possibility of serious or even fatal infections in rare cases, which also can happen after surgical abortions.
More...
Bad Chicken
Choice report unveils "crook chook" findings
11 June 2002
From hatchling chicken to roast chook ... this speedy growth process takes just 40 days and is made possible through controlled breeding, special feed and antibiotics. But a new study shows that use of antibiotics in animal breeding could have dire consequences for human health. ACA reports ...
The Australian Consumers' Association, Choice, purchased 141 chickens from supermarkets and found that more than one in 10 contained the antibiotic-resistant bug, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
A type of "super-bug" formed when bacteria build up a resistance to antibiotics, VRE is the type of bug modern medicine cannot defend against.
And while Choice found VRE in 13 percent of chickens tested under strict laboratory controls, Choice spokesperson, Gail Kennedy, says the danger is that VRE can be passed onto humans who eat infected chicken.
"VRE can potentially be harmful for immuno-suppressed humans if they're hospitalised. Their immune system is down, they have invasive surgery and they may develop some sort of bacterial infection," says Gail.
According to the Choice report, VRE presents a particular problem in hospitals, as vancomycin is often used as a last line of defence to treat infection. If you already have VRE, the bugs usually sit in your body quite happily doing no damage - if you're healthy and stay that way, there's no problem.
But if you have to go to hospital for invasive surgery, for example, or if you're already seriously ill, that's when even more serious problems can arise.
In Australia, no-one has died specifically from VRE, but a number of deaths have occurred where VRE has been a complicating factor and experts are worried because the bug is spreading fast.
Diet First Line of Defence
Study confirms cell damage by oxidised fats.
Our Modern World is full of health Hazards. US firm Usana Health Sciences have collaborated with scientists at the Cardiology Research
Institute in Moscow in cytotoxicity studies of oxidised fats (lipids). With the aid of the Moscow Institute's ultra-centrifuge, they were able to observe significant cell damage
caused by chylomicron fractions containing oxidised lipids. When antioxidants were added to the cultures damage was greatly reduced,
but concluded that our first line of defence should be healthier eating habits.
Cancer link with Meat
Study confirms meat and cancer link
By Jacqueline Maley
June 16, 2005
Sydney Morning Herald, June 16
People who eat two portions of meat a day increase their risk of bowel cancer by more than a third compared to those who eat it once a week, according to researchers who say this confirms the link between meat and cancer.
European researchers studied the eating habits of about half a million people, monitoring the diets of men and women in 10 countries over five years.
Of those studied, 1329 were diagnosed with bowel cancer. Researchers found those in the high-risk group were eating more than 160 grams of meat - lamb, beef, pork and veal - a day, equivalent to having a bacon sandwich for lunch and a steak for dinner every day.
However, eating fish had a protective effect: those who had fish every other day reduced the risk of bowel cancer by 30 per cent compared to those who ate fish less than once a week.
The findings, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also showed that eating fibre in the form of fruit, vegetables and whole grains lessened the cancer threat, even for those who eat a lot of meat. There was no risk associated with poultry.
The head of the Cancer Institute of NSW, Professor Jim Bishop, said the research added to the growing body of evidence linking cancer to nutrition. "Up until now there has been a vague link between diet and cancer, but there's been no good solid evidence," he said.
Dr Tim Crowe, a lecturer in nutrition at Deakin University, said the study confirmed what doctors had suspected for some time.
Bowel cancer is the second-most prevalent cancer in Australia, after prostate cancer. About 4200 new cases are diagnosed in NSW each year and the five-year survival rate is about 60 per cent.
Although there has been a 22 per cent drop in death rates from bowel cancer in NSW since 1995, the NSW Cancer Institute predicts there will be a 25 per cent increase in bowel cancer rates by 2011. On average, Australians eat 73 grams of meat daily, well below the high-risk threshold.
Poison in Queensland Fish
Ciguatera fish poison is a neurological toxin that can result in serious disease symptoms in people who eat fish from nearshore tropical oceans. Ciguatoxin is produced by a microscopic dinoflagellate algae (Gambierdiscus toxicus) and passed up the food chain. It can take 15 years for the body to rid itself of the poison. In the meantime one suffers mild to severe chronic fatigue, and an unusual symptom where cold feels hot and hot feels cold. Sever sufferers have remarked that they have 'no life' at all and beg the government to insist on warnings being placed in fish shops. When a Queensland Fishery representative was asked why people were not warned when buying the fish, he replied that the Queensland fishery business would collapse overnight and that the public would have to take their chances. Queensland fish are sold on the entire eastern seaboard.
Alcohol
Sobering study says even one drink can do you harm
By Angela Cuming
March 27, 2005
The Sun-Herald
Alcohol does more damage to a person's health than previously thought, a new study has revealed.
Researchers from the University of California found that people who drank five or more standards drinks in one session the previous month were twice as likely as moderate drinkers to show early signs of heart disease. The study is the first to show a link between drinking when young and the hardening of the arteries.
It also shows that binge drinking puts individuals at higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The researchers looked at more than 3000 people aged between 33 and 45, checking their health for the first signs of heart disease and the hardening of arteries.
They found that drinking even one pint of beer or a glass of wine a day in a person's 20s and 30s might be increasing the risk of the condition.
Paul Dillon of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre said he was not surprised by the study's results. "It challenges the concept that alcohol in moderation is good for you," he said.