Happy Nirvana

What’s your gluten-free whole grain IQ?  As more of us discover we’re sensitive to gluten or wheat, it’s valuable to realize the choices we have to meet recommendations for whole grain intake.  So many of the gluten-free choices available today are highly refined.  Whole grains, on the other hand, are packed with a wide variety [...]

Photo: IllinoisHorseSoldier A study done at Portsmouth University shows prawns found in contaminated English waters were under the influence of antidepressants which altered their marine behavior. Scientists are becoming more aware of how an overabundance of pharmaceuticals are seriously polluting our bodies of water. … Read the full story on TreeHugger Credits to:TreeHugger

Scientists have managed to successfully engineer small functioning livers from human liver cells in a laboratory setting. They say this is the first step towards creating functioning livers for transplantation. They now plan to determine whether the livers will function properly when transplanted into an animal model. This research was presented by scientists from the [...]

Consumers are warned to steer clear of shellfish, some crustacean parts, or small fish that have been sport-harvested offshore of the Channel Islands, Southern California, because they might contain elevated levels of domoic acid – a toxin. The Channel Islands of California consist of eight islands along the Santa Barbara Channel, five of them – [...]

I’m sure you’ve experienced this before. Yesterday I was feeling tired by the day’s end and I still hadn’t gotten my workout in. I’d had a busy day filled with meetings and before I knew it the clock read 7:00pm. At this point I could have either skipped my workout or tried to muster up [...]

Image: Scientific American You probably already know there are many chemicals in the everyday products that we use — but do you know how many of them have actually been tested for consumer safety? As this telling infographic over at Scientific American shows, this number is startlingly miniscule thanks to a old legislative loophole. They [...]

photo: Ivan Walsh/Creative Commons The first global assessment of the environmental impacts of industrial-scale fish farming has found, even when current best practices are implemented, environmental degradation is increased. The University of Victoria’s Dr John Volpe, who headed the research team, says, “Scale is critical.”… Read the full story on TreeHugger Credits to:TreeHugger

A 44-year old patient with inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT), a sarcoma that predominantly develops in the abdomen or chest of young adults and children, was found to respond surprisingly well to a new oral medication with “dramatic shrinkage” of tumors, researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute wrote in the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine). [...]

I recently learned about a relatively new company called Zafgen, which describes itself as “…the world’s first biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing novel obesity therapeutics that directly target and shrink fat tissue to help the body regain and sustain a lean, healthy state.” Zafgen derives its name from the Yiddish word “zaftig,” which means pleasantly [...]

Image Source: PakTech Dear Pablo: I have recently seen a new kind of six-pack ring. It seems like it uses more material so I wonder what the environmental impact is. You have probably seen a packaging solution by PakTech that is growing in popularity among craft brewers. Likely, you’ve already seen their TwinPack handles when [...]