HEALTH AND WELLNESS

                                                  POISONED BABIES        A particularly tragic outcome of alcohol abuse is its effect on the unborn. Alcohol is far worse for the developing fetus than any other abuse drug. When a pregnant woman drinks, her developing child also drinks, and the toxic effect of alcohol is especially devastating at this formative stage of the fetus. Alcohol causes irreversible damage to its central nervous system. Neurons do not form properly. Cells are killed off. Other cells end up located in the wrong place.     The result, fetal alcohol syndrome [FAS], is the foremost cause of mental retardation in newborns. Difficulties encountered by FAS children include intellectual impairment, language problems, developmental delay, behavioral dysfunction or deficit, slow growth, hyperactivity, and hearing and sight disorders. Many FAS babies are also born with characteristic facial deformities.     In addition, children whose mothers drank even moderat

           The sixth sense; in primitive species, the only function of the limbic system is the regulation of the sense of smell. As the brain becomes more complex, the limbic system diversifies to regulate aspects of behavior, such as emotional expression, while retaining its tie to the olfactory system. It is interesting to note that ANUBIS- the jackalheaded god of Egypt, the guardian of the threshold, and symbol for the limbic system –had a particular acute sense of smell.       The limbic system’s ability to determine “this is it –this is truth,” is vital to creation of our mental realities. As “guardian at the inner threshold” it opens the heart to new understanding and facilitates the process of recollection and learning.     In the human mind, perceptions presented by the FIVE SENSES are compared to memory perceptions. Through its instrument, the limbic system, the faculty of imagination harmonizes inner and outer perceptions. The images created by imaginatio

                                                              LIFE-STYLE AND CANCER           Cancer is overwhelmingly caused by where you are, what you do, and what happens to you in life, rather than by what you are, a study of almost 90,000 twins has shown,” reports London’s newspaper The Guardian. Dr. Paul Lichtenstein of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute led the research team for his study. He says: “Environmental factors are more important than gene factors.” Scientists believe that smoking causes about 35 percent of cancers, while another 30 percent appears to be related to diet. Genetic factors play a part in prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer, but Dr. Tim Key of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Oxford, England, advises: “Even if you have….. a family history [of cancer] what you do with your life is much more important. You should not smoke; you should care of your diet. Those things do make a difference.                                                           

                    YOUR eyes are itching and watering, you sneeze all day, your nose keeps dripping, and you have difficulty breathing. What is happening? You might have a cold. But if these symptoms afflict you when you are around pollen, you may well be suffering from hay fever. If so, you have plenty of company. The number of people whose condition is diagnosed as hay fever keeps rising every year.         HAY fever is nothing more than an exaggerated reaction of our body toward a substance it considers harmful, reports the magazine Mujer de Hoy. The immune system of people with allergies rejects all agents it considers foreign –including pollen –even though these are not really dangerous. And when the immune system overreacts in this way, it causes the annoying symptoms described at the outset.     In 1819, English physician John Bostock described hay fever. He was the first to do so. Bostock detailed his own