Paris (AFP) - Ever felt like your neighbour's antics could drive you to an early grave?

Well, there may be reason for concern, said researchers who reported a link Tuesday between having good neighbours and a healthier heart.

"Having good neighbours and feeling connected to others in the local community may help to curb an individual's heart attack risk," said a statement that accompanied a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Heart and blood vessel diseases are the number one cause of death globally, claiming some 15 million lives in 2010, according to the latest Global Burden of Disease study.

Source and more: http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/top-pharma-brand-childrens-vitamins-contains-aspartame-gmos-hazardous-chemicals.html

For many parents, there is a concern that their children are receiving adequate nutrients and vitamins. It can be a challenge to get children to eat all the foods which would naturally supply vitamins and many parents are concerned that their child is not receiving the correct amount of vitamins to ensure that they maintain healthy growth and development.

Therefore, a great many parents turn to vitamin supplements. Specially designed supplements for children would appear to be a healthy choice and the best way to ensure your child’s development. However, a recent report has highlighted the startling chemicals contained in the top pharma brand of children’s vitamins.

(HealthDay News) --Although the vast majority of kids with autism have abnormal sensory behaviors, their brains are still wired very differently from children who have trouble processing sensory stimuli, researchers report.

Children with sensory processing disorders (SPD) can be overly sensitive to sound, sight and touch. They can also have poor motor skills and show a lack of concentration.

(NEWSER)– Antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are "just about as bad as it gets," as one study author puts it, are spreading quickly in the Southeast, with a fivefold increase in detected cases between 2008 and 2012, a new study warns. The carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, can defeat even last-resort antibiotics and have been dubbed "nightmare bacteria" by the CDC. The study's authors say they are "trying to sound the alarm," and experts say the findings are especially worrying because it appears some of the cases were not connected to a hospital setting, the Smithsonian reports.

Maryn McKenna at Wired explains another alarming note: Many cases were found at community hospitals instead of the academic medical centers where the sickest patients are, which "is a signal that it is probably moving through what medicine calls 'the community,' which is to say, anywhere outside health care. Or, you know, everyday life," she writes. Experts blame overuse of antibiotics and infection control lapses for the spread of CRE. If the spread can't be stopped, "we'll be in a post-antibiotic era," an infection-control activist tells USA Today. "And the danger is not going to go away unless we change the course of how we do things." (In an ominous first, last month the CDC said antibiotic-resistant bacteria had been found in food for the first time.) .....

More and source: http://www.newser.com/story/191828/antibiotic-resistant-nightmare-bacteria-rising-in-southeast.html

Abstract: Metagenomics, or sequencing of the genetic material from a complete microbial community, is a promising tool to discover novel microbes and viruses. Viral metagenomes typically contain many unknown sequences. Here we describe the discovery of a previously unidentified bacteriophage present in the majority of published human faecal metagenomes, which we refer to as crAssphage. Its ~97 kbp genome is six times more abundant in publicly available metagenomes than all other known phages together; it comprises up to 90% and 22% of all reads in virus-like particle (VLP)-derived metagenomes and total community metagenomes, respectively; and it totals 1.68% of all human faecal metagenomic sequencing reads in the public databases. The majority of crAssphage-encoded proteins match no known sequences in the database, which is why it was not detected before. Using a new co-occurrence profiling approach, we predict aBacteroideshost for this phage, consistent withBacteroides-related protein homologues and a unique carbohydrate-binding domain encoded in the phage genome.

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More and source: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140724/ncomms5498/full/ncomms5498.html

Research has shown that environmental factors likely play a role in autism. Studies also indicate that genetics contribute to the disorder.  The National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) supports research to discover how the environment may influence autism. This important environmental research offers real promise for prevention — because you can’t change your genes, but you can change your environment. ....

More and source: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/autism_and_the_environment_508.pdf