June 9 - 12, 2009
Low antioxidant intake could play a role in male infertility
LIFE EXENSIONS June 03, 2009
In an article published online this year in the journal Fertility and Sterility, Spanish researchers report that reduced intake of antioxidants is associated with low semen reproductive capacity. Increased intake of nutrients that have an antioxidant activity, such as vitamin C, help lower dam aging oxidative stress, which affects semen quality.
Jaime Mendiola of the University of Murcia in Espinardo, Spain and his associates compared the diets of 30 fertility clinic patients with reproductive problems due to poor quality semen to the diets of 31 control patients with normal semen. Men in the control group were found to have a significantly greater intake of fiber, carbohydrates, vitamin C, folate, and lycopene and a lower intake of protein and fat than the men with reproductive difficulties.
"Our previous research study, published in March, showed that men who eat large amounts of meat and full fat dairy products have lower seminal quality than those who eat more fruit, vegetables and reduced fat dairy products,” Dr Mendiola stated. “In this study, we have found that people who consume more fruits and vegetables are ingesting more antioxidants, and this is the important point."
"We saw that, among the couples with fertility problems coming to the clinic, the men with good semen quality ate more vegetables and fruit than those men with low seminal quality," he noted. "A healthy diet is not only a good way of avoiding illness, but could also have an impact on improving seminal quality. What we still do not understand is the difference between taking these vitamins naturally and in the form of supplements. In the studies we are going to carry out in the United States (where the consumption of vitamins in tablet form is very common) we will be looking at the role of supplements."
http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2009_06.htm#low-antioxidant-intake--male-infertility
Plant proteins key to weight loss, healthy cholesterol, suggests study
Nutraingredients.com, 10-Jun-2009
A diet low in carbohydrates and high in plant-based proteins could improve blood cholesterol levels while promoting weight loss, according to a new study.
In a paper published this week in the JAMA journal Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists suggested that popular low-carb diets with meat protein, which are often promoted for weight loss, may contain high levels or saturated fat and cholesterol, which could lead to the “potential for adverse effects”.
"This lack of a benefit for LDL-C control is a major disadvantage in using this dietary strategy in those already at increased risk of coronary heart disease,"write David Jenkins, M.D., of St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues.
"A plant-based low-carbohydrate diet high in vegetable proteins and oils may be an effective option in treating those with dyslipidemia for whom both weight lossand lower LDL-C concentrations are treatment goals," wrote the authors, adding that more research was needed to confirm the benefits.
‘Eco-Atkins’
Their study, which was supported by the soy protein manufacturer Solae, found that overweight individuals who ate a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet high in plant-based proteins for four weeks lost weight and experienced improvements in blood cholesterol levels and other heart disease risk factors.
The researchers randomly assigned 25 participants to this diet, which they term the ‘Eco-Atkins’ diet, for a period of four weeks. The vegetable proteins in this diet were derived from gluten, soy, nuts, fruits, vegetables, cereals and vegetable oils.
Another 25 participants were given a high-carbohydrate, lacto-ovo vegetarian control diet, which was based on low-fat dairy and whole grain products. The diets provided 60 per cent of participants’ estimated calorie requirements.
After four weeks, both groups recorded similar levels of weight loss – around 4kg or 8.8lbs. However, reductions in LDL-C levels and improvements in the ratios between total cholesterol and HDL-C were greater for the low-carbohydrate diet compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, wrote the researchers.
“The low-carbohydrate diet also appeared to produce beneficial changes in levels and ratios of apolipoproteins, proteins that bind to fats. In addition, small but significantly greater reductions were seen in both systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure for the low-carbohydrate vs. the high-carbohydrate group.”
‘Debatable’ benefits
The authors said their study provides insight into “debatably more effective and possibly safer tactics” for designing higher-protein diets for weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction.
“However, it is premature to recommend the 'Eco-Atkins' diet as a weight loss diet of choice without confirmation of its efficacy in larger studies of more diverse and higher-risk individuals. Long-term studies are also essential to ascertain both sustainability and safety," they concluded.
The Effect of a Plant-Based Low-Carbohydrate ('Eco-Atkins') Diet on Body Weight and Blood Lipid Concentrations in Hyperlipidemic Subjects Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169 (11): 1046 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.115 Authors: David J. A. Jenkins; Julia M. W. Wong; Cyril W. C. Kendall; Amin Esfahani; Vivian W. Y. Ng; Tracy C. K. Leong; Dorothea A. Faulkner; Ed Vidgen; Kathryn A. Greaves; Gregory Paul; William Singer.
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Plant-proteins-key-to-weight-loss-healthy-cholesterol-suggests-study
Omega-3 science review supports DRI for heart benefits
Nutraingredients.com, 09-Jun-2009
A comprehensive review of studies on the benefits of omega-3 consumption has led scientists to recommend the establishment of a Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for EPA and DHA to reduce the risk of heart disease.
The strength of evidence linking eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease was“remarkable”, they said, prompting them to recommend a DRI of between 250 and 500mg/day.
In 2002, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that there was insufficient evidence to define DRIs for EPA and DHA. The current review, based on a workshop organized last year by the Technical Committee on Dietary Lipids of the International Life Sciences Institute of North America, was designed to examine new data that have emerged since 2002.
The workshop aimed to examine evidence of the benefits of EPA and DHA on coronary heart disease (CHD), cancer and cognitive decline.
In a supplement published this year in The Journal of Nutrition and based on the workshop conclusions, the scientists stated that while evidence was clear for the benefits of EPA and DHA for reducing the risk of CHD, there was not enough consistent evidence on the benefits of the omega-3s for cognitive health and cancer reduction.
These findings add momentum to the drive to establish an omega-3 DRI, a move that has long been supported by the research community and the food and dietary supplement industries.
Heart disease
The scientists reviewed over 15 prospective cohort studies in generally healthy populations, a retrospective case-control study of sudden cardiac death, four large randomized controlled trials with fish or fish oil in patients with and without known heart disease, and several in vivo and animal experimental studies.
This evidence indicates that modest EPA and DHA consumption “markedly”reduces the risk of cardiac death, they said.
“The quality, strength, and concordance of this evidence are remarkable, meeting and indeed generally exceeding those for any other dietary factor for which a DRI has been set based on reducing risk for chronic disease, including saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, salt, and dietary fiber,” they wrote.
“For primary prevention of cardiac death, the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States and nearly all other developed nations, current evidence supports a DRI for EPA1DHA between 250 and 500 mg/d.”
However, the scientists found that evidence was “more modest” for the effects of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on other cardiovascular risks, including blood pressure, resting heart rate, triglyceride levels and heart rate variability.
Cognitive and cancer benefits
The review also included emerging data on the cognitive and cancer benefits of EPA and DHA.
The evidence for protective effects of omega-3 long chain PUFA from fish on risk of dementia is “promising but limited”, said the scientists.
Epidemiological evidence suggests positive benefits of one fish meal per week on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and cognitive decline. In addition, the animal evidence and biologic plausibility support a protective relation of omega-3 long-chain PUFA on neurodegeneration of the brain with aging. However, tissue DHA levels do not seem to be consistently lower in Alzheimer’s disease or any form of cognitive decline associated with aging, said the scientists.
“Several primary and secondary prevention trials are in progress in the United States and Europe that will greatly inform the field. Further research is necessary to examine the effects of different dose levels, benefits of DHA, EPA, and ALA, and the importance of relative intakes of [omega-3] vs. [omega-6] fatty acids”.
In relation to the cancer benefits of omega-3s, the researchers concluded that“there are no clear relations between dietary intakes of EPA and DHA and risk for cancer.”
Source:
Towards Establishing Dietary Reference Intakes for Eicosapentaenoic and Docosahexaenoic Acids
The Journal of Nutrition
First published online February 25, 2009; doi:10.3945/jn.108.101329.
Authors: William S. Harris, Dariush Mozaffarian, Michael Lefevre, Cheryl D. Toner, John Colombo, Stephen C. Cunnane, Joanne M. Holden, David M. Klurfeld, Martha Clare Morris, and Jay Whelan
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Omega-3-science-review-supports-DRI-for-heart-benefits
New collaboration for GM-free wheat traits
Nutraingredients.com, 05-Jun-2009
Dow AgroSciences and World Wide Wheat (W3) have teamed up to develop new wheat traits for “advancements in productivity and quality” of crops, without using genetic modification (GM).
The reason for the collaboration is to combine Dow AgroScience’s experience in commercializing seed traits and W3’s expertise in plant breeding research to bring the “next generation” of wheat to markets in North America, South America, Europe and Australia, the companies said.
Spokesperson for Dow Agrosciences Robyn Heine told FoodNavigator-USA.com that the company could not be more specific at present about what traits the collaboration is looking to develop.
She added that although this first generation of traits will be GM-free, the company would not rule out the possibility of marketing GM traits in the future.
GM wheat debate
Controversy surrounding the development of GM wheat traits has been stirred up recently after a group of wheat industry representative organizations from the US, Canada and Australia signed a joint statement vowing to synchronize their efforts to commercialize GM wheat last month.
This led to a corresponding tri-national statement from organizations opposed to the commercialization of GM wheat, with arguments centering on a lack of consumer acceptance as well as a lack of agronomic benefits from currently available GM crops, such as greater nutritional value or increased yield.
There are currently no GM wheat varieties commercially available.
Chairman and CEO of W3 Sheldon Richardson said: "With Dow AgroSciences as our partner, we can leverage customer relationships within the food chain and their marketing and commercialization expertise. Our four decades of plant breeding experience brings a wide diversity of germplasm offering of high yielding varieties developed for markets around the world."
W3 works to develop new traits for wheat, barley and oats and does not use any GM technology.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Science-Nutrition/New-collaboration-for-GM-free-wheat-traits
Black Pepper Offers a Powerful Boost to Overall Health at a Very Low Cost
Barbara Minton, NaturalNews.com June 9, 2009
(NaturalNews) Black pepper does a whole lot more than hang around with salt. Researchers have recently found that black pepper can reduce the perception of pain, reduce inflammation, and combat arthritis. These discoveries follow other studies showing black pepper can block complications from diabetes, act as a powerful antioxidant and fight off colon cancer. Black pepper has been shown to substantially increase the bioavailability of nutrients from food and supplements, providing more nutrients for each dollar spent. All this makes sprinkling black pepper on food one of the easiest and most economical interventions people can make to boost their overall health status.
Piperine, the active phenolic compound in black pepper extract, was studied to determine its anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects as well as its ability to reduce the perception of pain. Piperine inhibited the expression of pro-inflammatory interleukin 6, and MMP13, a gene involved in the promotion of arthritis and metastasis. It reduced the production of a pro-inflammatory prostaglandin, even at a very low dose. When given to arthritic rats, piperine significantly reduced perception of pain and arthritis symptoms. Histological examination showed that piperine significantly reduced theinflammation in their joints. (Arthritis Research and Therapy, March 30)
Protein glycation is a process in which sugar molecules bond to protein molecules without enzymatic control. The result is the accumulation of end products that speed aging and the degeneration caused by diabetes. Scientists from the National Institute of Nutrition in India evaluated the ability of extracts from various plant-based foods to prevent the accumulation of advanced glycation end products. Black pepper, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, and green tea where the only extracts tested what showed significant ability to inhibit these end products. (British Journal of Nutrition, November 6, 2008)
The same research team investigated the ability of plants to modify aldose reductase activity, one of the mechanisms implicated in the development of various secondary complications of diabetes. Although various synthetic inhibitors of aldose reductase have been created, none of them has been effective when used clinically. Extracts from 22 plants were tested and 10 showed considerable inhibitory potential, with the greatest potential shown by black pepper, spinach, cumin, fennel, lemon, and basil. (Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
Black pepper is an antioxidant powerhouse
Antioxidants protect against hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Polyphenols are potent antioxidants found in plants. The research group from the National Institute of Nutrition in India worked to generate a database on the antioxidant activity and phenolic content of plant foods commonly consumed in India, and to assess the contribution of the phenolic content to their antioxidant activity. They tested plant foods belonging to different food groups such as cereals, legumes, oil seeds, oils, green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, spices, roots and tubers. They found that of all the foods tested, black pepper had the highest level of antioxidant activity and also the highest phenolic content. Antioxidant activity and phenolic content were the lowest in sunflower oil. A significant correlation was observed between antioxidant activity and phenol content in the plant foods studied. (International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, June, 2007)
Black pepper inhibits colon cancer cell proliferation
A study at St. Louis University in Missouri was designed to determine if black pepper, resveratrol from grapes, and cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon have anti-prolific effects on colon cancer. Quantitative effects of each substance on concentration responses and time courses of proliferation of cultured human colon cancer cells were assessed. Black pepper showed significant anti-proliferative activity at 24, 48 and 72 hours following administration. (Clinical Laboratory Science, Summer, 2008)
Digestion and intestinal health are improved by black pepper
Hydrocloric acid is necessary for digesting proteins and other food components. Most digestive difficulties are the result of a lack of hydrochloric acid rather than too much. Black pepper stimulates the taste buds and alerts the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion, improving digestion. Without adequate amounts, undigested food can sit in the stomach for prolonged periods, leading to heartburn and indigestion. Undigested food may also pass into the intestines where it can become a food source for unfriendly bacteria, producing gas, irritation, diarrhea or constipation.
Black pepper can act as a diuretic, reducing bloating in the intestinal tract where it promotes digestive health through its antioxidant effects. The outer layer of the peppercorn can even stimulate the breakdown of fat cells, releasing energy and keeping you slim.
Piperine increases bioavailability of nutrients from food and supplements
While black pepper improves digestion and frees nutrients for absorption its piperine compound operates through several other pathways to increase the bioavailability of nutrients from food and supplements. It stimulates amino-acid transporters in the intestinal lining, regulates enzymes that metabolize nutritional substances, and inhibits the removal of substances from cells. Each of these actions allows nutrients to enter and remain within their target cells for longer periods of time than would normally be the case.
Through these actions, piperine can turn a marginally effective therapeutic substance into a highly effective one by increasing its intracellular residency time. Curcumin, a compound from the herb turmeric, is known for fighting cancer, pain, inflammation and infection. The action of curcumin, and thereby its effectiveness, is increased twenty-fold when it is taken with piperine. (Planta Medica, May, 1998)
Chlorophyll in Wheatgrass Proven to Fight Cancer
Sheryl Walters, NaturalNews.com June 9, 2009
(NaturalNews) Wheatgrass is an amazingly nutrient dense food. Dr. Earp-Thomas once said that, "15 pounds of wheatgrass is the equivalent of 350 pounds of carrots, lettuce, celery and so forth." Wheatgrass contains no less than thirteen vitamins and all 20 essential amino acids. It also contains chlorophyll which has some proven health and anti-cancer properties.
A prominent researcher on wheatgrass, Dr. Thelma Arthur has done research showing that the consumption of wheatgrass juice can help in detoxifying the blood and strengthening the immune system. Chlorophyll plays a key role in detoxifying the liver which is where the blood is purified.
Wheatgrass is mostly chlorophyll - about 70%. Chlorophyll has a very similar molecular structure to hemoglobin, the molecule which carries the oxygenin the human blood stream. Chlorophyll has been shown to help boost hemoglobin production and thus help the body carry more oxygen in the blood. Chlorophyll also has been shown to provide some protection from carcinogens by strengthening the cells. "In a study reported in the Journal Mutation Research comparing the anticancer effect of chlorophyll to beta-carotene, and vitamins A, C and E, chlorophyll was proven to be a more effective antimutagen than any of them." Chlorophyll also has anti-bacterial properties and can help decrease the growth and development of unhealthybacteria in the body.
Benjamin Gruskin, M.D., in 1940 was published in The American Journal of Surgery recommending that chlorophyll be used for its antiseptic benefits. Dr. Gruskin`s article suggested numerous clinical uses for chlorophyll including: "to clear up foul-smelling odors, neutralize strep infections, heal wounds, hasten skin grafting, cure chronic sinusitis, overcome chronic inner ear inflammation and infections, reduce varicose veins and heal leg ulcers, eliminate impetigo and other scabby eruptions, heal rectal sores, successfully treat inflammation of the uterine cervix, get rid of parasitic vaginal infections, reduce typhoid fever and cure advanced pyorrhea in many cases."
A recent study in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that supplementing with the natural antioxidants found in wheatgrass "holds great promise in overcoming the ill effects of oxygen toxicity," and that it decreases oxidative stress. In addition both wheatgrass and chlorophyll ointment have successfully been used to treat skin disorders such as skin ulcers, impetigo, and eczema.
Wheatgrass is considered a "super food" by some and has a large number of beneficial aspects. The health benefits of wheatgrass and chlorophyll appear to be tremendous with scientific study and research continually finding more benefits.
http://www.naturalnews.com/z026418_chlorophyll_wheatgrass_blood.html
FDA panel to vote on antipsychotic drugs for kids |
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
ADELPHI, Md. — A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will vote Wednesday on whether the makers of three blockbuster antipsychotic drugs — already widely prescribed "off-label" to children and teens — should be allowed to market them to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in young people.
AstraZeneca's Seroquel, Pfizer's Geodon and Eli Lilly's Zyprexa are approved for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults. Two other antipsychotic drugs, Risperdal and Abilify, already are approved for treating bipolar disease and schizophrenia in patients under 18.
"We generally are in agreement that the sponsors (the makers of Seroquel, Geodon and Zyprexa) have provided adequate support to suggest effectiveness" for treating those conditions in children and adults, said Thomas Laughren, director of the FDA's Division of Psychiatry Products, in a memo to committee members before the two-day meeting began here Tuesday.
In addition, Laughren said, the drugs' safety profiles appear to be "qualitatively similar to those observed with these drugs in adult patients." Adverse reactions that can occur with these "atypical" antipsychotics, he said, include sedation, weight gain, increases in blood fats and sugars and tardive dyskinesia, a condition characterized by involuntary repetitive movements.
Although the FDA isn't required to follow advisory committee recommendations, it usually does.
After listening to scientific presentations by FDA staffers and representativesfrom the three drug companies, panel members heard testimony from the public. No matter whether the speakers felt the companies should get the FDA's approval or not, virtually all agreed that more research is needed into the drugs' long-term safety and effectiveness in children and teens.
"Serious questions have not been answered," said Ronald Brown dean of the College of Health Professions at Temple University-Philadelphia. Three years ago, Brown chaired an American Psychology Association panel work group on psychiatric medications for children and adolescents.
Doctors prescribe the three antipsychotic drugs to about a million Americans ages 13 to 17 every year, says Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families in Washington, D.C. "Unfortunately, the studies are inadequate," Zuckerman said. "They provide really no useful information about the long-term risks of tardive dyskinesia, sudden death or diabetes."
Christina Bagno of Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., says a combination of Seroquel and lithium have enabled her 7½ -year-old daughter, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, to live a normal childhood. "Antipsychotics saved my child," Bagno said.
But Liza Ortiz, of Austin, Texas, says Seroquel killed her 13-year-old son in January. He started hearing voices when he was 11 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia last year, Ortiz told the panel. Doctors prescribed a "cocktail" of antipsychotic drugs, she said, and he died four days after Seroquel was added to it.
David Fassler, a Burlington, Vt., psychiatrist who serves as secretary-treasurer of the American Psychiatric Association, says schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are "very real illnesses" in children and adolescents.
"In actual clinical practice, these medications are not used on a short-term basis," Fassler said of Seroquel, Geodon and Zyprexa. "We don't yet have sufficient data on longterm safety and efficacy in pediatric populations."
If the advisory committee recommends approving the three drugs for the treatment of children and teens, Fassler said, it should do so only for short-term or on-again, off-again use and only if manufacturers don't advertise their use in young people directly to consumers.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-09-antipsychotic-children_N.htm
Being Treated for Cancer? Skip the Antioxidant Supplements
The jury's still out on whether antioxidants interfere with treatment, so doctors advise holding off
US News & World Report, June 8, 2009
The message isn't getting out: Oncologists say there's a chance that antioxidant supplements reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but patients are still taking them. That's according to a new study, which found that 61 percent of breast cancer patients receiving chemo, radiation, or anti-estrogen drug therapy were taking supplements of antioxidants like vitamins C and E, beta carotene, or selenium.
It's not that doctors have shown conclusively that these antioxidants are bad. But there's some evidence that the supplements may protect the very cancer cells that chemo and radiation are attempting to destroy. It's a controversial issue; other researchers think that antioxidants protect the healthy tissues but don't interfere with—and may even help—chemo and radiation in their assault on cancerous cells.
There simply aren't enough data to settle the question, says Heather Greenlee, assistant professor of epidemiology and medical oncology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Cancer. Nor do we know what dose might be problematic, if indeed there is some level of antioxidant use that people undergoing treatment shouldn't exceed. Her study found that among those using antioxidants, 69 percent were using doses higher than are found in a Centrum multivitamin.
Because the major questions about antioxidant use and cancer treatment are unanswered, some doctors, such as Gabriella D'Andrea, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, tell their patients to avoid supplementation entirely unless it is specifically prescribed by a doctor. "That means no Centrum, no Flintstones," she says. Others, like Brian Lawenda, clinical director of radiation oncology at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, tell patients that a multivitamin isn't likely to hurt them but that they should put aside high-dose supplements until treatment is completed.
This doesn't mean, however, that people undergoing cancer treatment should avoid fruits and vegetables, which naturally contain antioxidants. There's clear evidence that medicine and food can interact—women takingtamoxifen, for example, are advised not to drink too much grapefruit juice—but little evidence on do's and don'ts for specific treatments. "People ask me, 'What should I eat?' And we just don't know," says D'Andrea. For now, a balanced diet is the best recommendation.
Most important is to tell your doctor what medications and supplements you're taking, even things that seem "natural," like green tea extract. Earlier this year, a study found that a certain plant chemical it contains can interfere with the effects of the anticancer drug Velcade.
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/cancer/2009/06/08/being-treated-for-cancer-skip-the-antioxidant-supplements_print.htm
Let Me Sleep On It: Creative Problem Solving Enhanced By REM Sleep
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Research led by a leading expert on the positive benefits of napping at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. The findings may have important implications for how sleep, specifically REM sleep, fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.
The study by Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, and first author Denise Cai, graduate student in the UC San Diego Department of Psychology, shows that REM directly enhances creative processing more than any other sleep or wake state. Their findings will be published in the June 8th online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"We found that – for creative problems that you've already been working on – the passage of time is enough to find solutions," said Mednick. "However, for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity."
Mednick added that it appears REM sleep helps achieve such solutions by stimulating associative networks, allowing the brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas. Importantly, the study showed that these improvements are not due to selective memory enhancements.
A critical issue in sleep and cognition is whether improvements in behavioral performance are the result of sleep-specific enhancement or simply reduction of interference – since experiences while awake have been shown to interfere with memory consolidation. The researchers controlled for such interference effects by comparing sleep periods to quiet rest periods without any verbal input.
While evidence for the role of sleep in creative problem-solving has been looked at by prior research, underlying mechanisms such as different stages of sleep had not been explored. Using a creativity task called a Remote Associates Test (RAT), study participants were shown multiple groups of three words (for example: cookie, heart, sixteen) and asked to find a fourth word that can be associated to all three words (sweet, in this instance). Participants were tested in the morning, and again in the afternoon, after either a nap with REM sleep, one without REM or a quiet rest period. The researchers manipulated various conditions of prior exposure to elements of the creative problem, and controlled for memory.
"Participants grouped by REM sleep, non-REM sleep and quiet rest were indistinguishable on measures of memory," said Cai. "Although the quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups received the same prior exposure to the task, they displayed no improvement on the RAT test. Strikingly, however, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances."
The authors hypothesize that the formation of associative networks from previously unassociated information in the brain, leading to creative problem-solving, is facilitated by changes to neurotransmitter systems during REM sleep.
Additional contributors to the study include Sarnoff A. Mednick, University of Southern California, Department of Psychology; Elizabeth M. Harrison, UCSD Department of Psychology; and Jennifer Kanady, UCSD Department of Psychiatry and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, Research Service. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608182421.htm
Meditation May Be An Effective Treatment For Insomnia
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Meditation may be an effective behavioral intervention in the treatment of insomnia, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 9, at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Results indicate that patients saw improvements in subjective sleep quality and sleep diary parameters while practicing meditation. Sleep latency, total sleep time, total wake time, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, sleep quality and depression improved in patients who used meditation.
According to principal investigator Ramadevi Gourineni, MD, director of the insomnia program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Ill., insomnia is believed to be a 24-hour problem of hyperarousal, and elevated measures of arousals are seen throughout the day.
"Results of the study show that teaching deep relaxation techniques during the daytime can help improve sleep at night," said Gourineni.
The study gathered data from 11 healthy subjects between the ages of 25 and 45 years with chronic primary insomnia. Participants were divided into two intervention groups for two months: Kriya Yoga (a form of meditation that is used to focus internalized attention and has been shown to reduce measures of arousal) and health education. Subjective measures of sleep and depression were collected at baseline and after the two-month period.
Both groups received sleep hygiene education; members of the health education group also received information about health-related topics and how to improve health through exercise, nutrition, weight loss and stress management.
Abstract Title: Effects of Meditation on Sleep in Individuals with Chronic Insomnia
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609072719.htm
What Causes Irritability In Menopause?
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Irritability is frequently the main presenting complaint of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women; yet, studies specifically researching on irritability in this population are lacking.
As it remains controversial whether mood symptoms related to menopause are independently associated with hormonal changes or whether they are secondary to vasomotor or other bothersome symptoms of menopause, such as insomnia. This study aims to assess irritability in either perimenopausal or postmenopausal women, to look for possible associations with vasomotor symptoms, insomnia and chronic disease, and to explore possible hormonal links with sex steroids, gonadotrophins, prolactin and thyroid hormones. A total of 163 peri- and postmenopausal women, non-hormonal therapy or tibolone users, attending a menopause clinic were included in this cross-sectional study.
The subjects completed the Irritability, Depression, Anxiety Scale, which is an 18-item self-report scale that assesses irritability as a temporary psychological state. Irritability is divided into ‘outwardly directed’ if it is expressed toward others and ‘inwardly directed’ if it is directed toward oneself. Climacteric symptoms were evaluated by Greene’s scale, which provides subscores for vasomotor symptoms. Insomnia was measured by the Athens Insomnia Scale. Chronic disease refers to the existence of hypertension, cardiac disease, diabetes mellitus or thyroid disease.
The study sample consisted of 163 women, with a mean age of 55.1 years (SD = 5.7). Of the total sample, 124 women were postmenopausal and 26 perimenopausal. Fifty-four women suffered from chronic disease. The mean score for inward irritability was 5.1 (SD = 2.4) and 5.9 (SD = 2.7) for outward irritability. The mean scores for inward and outward irritability, insomnia and vasomotor symptoms were not different between peri- and postmenopausal women (analysis of covariance, p > 0.05). A significant positive correlation was found between outward irritability and FSH (r = 0.25,p = 0.005) and LH levels (r = 0.26, p = 0.006). There was no significant association between inward irritability and hormonal levels. No significant relationships were detected between vasomotor symptoms, insomnia and menopausal status and the 2 subscales of irritability.
Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that women with chronic disease had a significantly higher score on both the inward and the outward irritability scales, with effect sizes equal to 44.6 and 40.0%, respectively. Furthermore, in the multivariable model outward irritability was associated both with increased levels of FSH and LH, with effect sizes for a 20-unit increase equal to 22.2 and 37.0%, respectively. Outward and inward irritability of peri- and postmenopausal women was found to be related to chronic disease, a factor that is not specific to menopause but may be partially influenced by the older age of menopausal women. Outwardly directed irritability was found to be related to FSH and LH levels.
There are no data supporting a possible direct association between FSH and LH and the expression of outward irritability. However, as FSH and LH are markers of ovarian aging and menopause, the results of this study may give an indication of a link between outward irritability and menopause.
Spyropoulou et al. Irritability in Menopause: An Investigation of Its Relation to Menopausal, Hormonal and Physical Factors. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2009; 78 (2): 128 DOI: 10.1159/000203120
Can Omega-3 Fatty Acids Prevent Depression In Coronary Heart Disease?
ScienceDaily (June 9, 2009) — Depression is an established risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) in healthy patients and for adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with existing CHD. Dietary factors resulting in lower levels of omega–3 fatty acids not only increase CHD risk, but may also be involved in the pathophysiology of depression.
The investigators measured red blood cell levels of two omega–3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and assessed depressive symptoms in a cross-sectional study of 987 adults with CHD. Omega –3 fatty acids were blindly measured in fasting venous blood samples using capillary gas chromatography to measure the fatty acid composition of red blood cell membranes. Red blood cell levels of EPA and DHA are presented as a percentage composition of total fatty acid methyl esters.
The investigators assessed current depression using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire. They evaluated the association between omega –3 fatty acid levels and depressive symptoms as continuous variables using linear regression.
The investigators also examined the association of omega–3 fatty acid tertiles with depression as a dichotomous variable using X2 analysis and logistic regression. All statistical tests were two-sided, and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The prevalence of depression ranged from 23% in participants in the lowest tertile of omega –3 fatty acids (< 3.1% of total blood fatty acids) to 13% in participants in the highest tertile ( >4.3% of total blood fatty acids; p for trend = 0.004). Each unit decrease in EPA + DHA was inversely associated with depressive symptoms as a continuous variable, and these associations persisted after adjustment for age, sex and race. Similarly, each SD decrease in EPA + DHA was associated with significantly greater odds of depression as a dichotomous variable (Patient Health Questionnaire score >10).
However, in both analyses, omega–3 fatty acid levels were no longer associated with depression after adjustment for education and household income level. This study extends this existing literature by finding a strong association between low omega–3 fatty acids and depression in outpatients with stable CHD, a population distinct from sicker, hospitalized patients with acute coronary syndrome. In addition, the investigators examined the role of several important potential confounders and measured erythrocyte membrane levels of fatty acids rather than using less accurate serum measurements or dietary questionnaires. However, the cross-sectional nature of this study precluded the investigators from making any definitive comments on causality.
Additionally, the cohort participants were mostly older, urban men and thus are not entirely reflective of the general population. To better understand the potential efficacy of omega –3 fatty acid supplementation for improving depressive symptoms in patients with CHD, future studies should carefully consider the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in this association.
Ali et al. Association between Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Depressive Symptoms among Patients with Established Coronary Artery Disease: Data from the Heart and Soul Study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2009; 78 (2): 125 DOI: 10.1159/000203118
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090609073022.htm
Oil and Islam. Will America Shift Away from Its Past Unilateralist Policies?
Obama's Cairo Speech
By Prof. Peter Dale Scott |
Global Research, June 10, 2009 |
In his remarkable speech at Cairo University on June 4, President Obama promised “a new beginning.” In the words of the Israeli commentator Uri Avnery, the speech offered “the map of a new world, a different world, whose values and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language -- a mixture of idealism and practical politics, vision and pragmatism.”1
Much of what Obama had to say was new, and warmed the hearts of observers like myself, who had become increasingly concerned about the new president’s fidelity to the financial and military policies of the previous Bush-Cheney administration. But while Obama broke new ground on Israel-Palestine issues, he glossed over troubling issues pertaining to the US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also glossed over one of the fundamental issues alienating the Muslim world: America’s relentless efforts to preserve its threatened financial status by moves to dominate the region’s oil resources. Here his careful ambiguity was ominously reminiscent of the Bush era.
The speech reaffirmed a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by 2012, as the U.S. committed itself to do in a signed agreement last December. In addition Obama asserted that "we do?not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan... We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and now Pakistan.”
But Obama’s remarks did not address the statement on May 26, 2009, by Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, that, despite the agreement with Iraq, the United States would continue to have fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond 2012. The reality, Casey said, is that ““we’re going to have 10 Army and Marine units deployed for a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.”2
Nor is it clear that Obama’s promise to withdraw “troops” from Iraq would also cover private military contractors (PMCs) . Jeremy Scahill, author of a book on the notorious firm Blackwater, said on the Bill Moyers show that what we're seeing in the Cairo speech “is sort of old wine in a new bottle. Obama is sending one message to the world," he told Moyers, "but the reality on the ground, particularly when it comes to private military contractors, is that the status quo remains from the Bush era."3
Even more ominous is the president’s oblique reference to America’s controversial oil policies. It was significant that he apologized for the CIA’s ouster in 1953 of Iran’s democratically elected government – the first of America’s many operations against Islam on behalf of the oil companies. With respect to Iraq, he said he had made it clear to the Iraqi people that America pursues “no claim on their territory or resources.” His solitary reference to America’s hated oil policies was oblique and evasive: “While America in the past has focused on oil and gas when it comes to this part of the world, we now seek a broader engagement.”
In stating that the American presence in Iraq has nothing to do with oil, Obama is following in the footsteps of the Republicans before him, such as Donald Rumsfeld, who on November 14, 2002 told CBS News that the U.S. plans for Iraq had “nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil." As it became increasingly clear in 2003 that America would invade Iraq, neither Bush's State of the Union Message nor Colin Powell's address to the United Nations Security Council mentioned, even once, the word "oil."
But we now know that in March 2001 Cheney's Energy Task Force developed a map of Iraq’s oil fields, with the southwest divided into nine “Exploration Blocks.” One month earlier a Bush National Security Council document had noted that Cheney’s Task force would consider “actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields.”4
What Obama means by “no claim” on Iraq’s resources is ambiguous. For eight years the Bush-Cheney administration, in a number of ways, pushed for the Iraq Ministry of Oil to eliminate state control of oil and negotiate contracts giving Chevron and other multinationals access to Iraqi oilfields.5 These negotiations have continued under Obama, and Bloomberg reported in April that the Iraqi government might give foreign companies 75 percent stakes in new oil developments.6 Observers are concerned that oil companies, when their contracts are secured, may continue to employ PMCs like Erinys, which has employed 14,000 guards in the Iraqi oil fields.7 Jeremy Scahill talked on Bill Moyers’ Journal of “a scenario where you have corporations with their own private armies….a devastating development.”8
“No claim on resources” is ambiguous in another respect. At no point has America been an important market for Iraqi oil. But since World War Two Washington has fought, in two cases literally, to main U.S control over the disposition of Middle Eastern oil. A little background is necessary to explain the importance of this distinction.
The Historical Importance to America of Dollar-Denominated Oil
For over three decades, as I have argued elsewhere, America has propped up the dollar by ensuring that all OPEC oil payments would be dollar-denominated, thus creating an artificial need for dollars in oil-deprived nations around the world.9 But this system may become less relevant, as more and more oil deals, such as China’s $10 billion oil deal with Brazil, are made outside of the American and OPEC orbits.10
Iran has been selling its oil for euros for quite some time. A lot of its international deals are denominated in euros. As are Russia's, China's and Brazil's. Adding Brazil to the mix strengthens the movement away from the dollar in our own hemisphere. Brazil has been moving in this direction since 2005, Venezuela has been pushing this since 2007.11
Most Americans are unaware that in 2003 Saddam Hussein had begun to sell Iraqi oil for euros as well as dollars, and that Bush, two months after invading Iraq, enacted an emergency order which, with the misleading title of “ Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq,” secretly ended Iraq’s euro sales of oil. The U.S. press, unlike the Irish Times and the UK Financial Times, took no notice of this.
As I wrote in The Road to 9/11,
The United States acted swiftly to ensure that oil would remain dominantly a dollar commodity, by an executive order empowering Iraqi oil sales to be returned from euros to dollars. Bush’s order of May 22, 2003, declaring a “national emergency,” did not directly mention the dollar as such; but it directed all oil earnings into a central fund, controlled by the United States, for reconstruction projects in Iraq.[12] The Financial Times, on June 6, 2003, confirmed that Iraqi oil sales were now switched back from euros to dollars.13
Most Americans are also unaware that on May 20, 2009 Obama explicitly renewed, rather than canceled, Bush’s emergency order 13303 for the use of the dollar in Iraq’s oil dealings. Once again, the language of Obama’s emergency order concealed its implications.14
Obama’s reluctance to abandon America’s traditional Middle Eastern oil policies has to be understood in the light of the dollar’s increasing precariousness at this time. In recent weeks the U.S. Treasury has had to pay more to attract foreign purchasers of its securities. The basic US Treasury rate has risen to 5.29 percent, with indications that it will go higher.15 China, a major purchaser of U.S. Treasury instruments, has recently switched from long-term to short-dated U.S. Treasuries. Meanwhile it has become increasingly focused on currency swaps with its neighbors in Southeast Asia, a development only to be expected.16
An increase in interest rates will of course threaten the Obama program for relief to distressed homeowners, which, as he told Congress in his February speech, was a program to help Americans take advantage of the lower interest rates then prevailing. It will also threaten the timeline he projected for American economic recovery.
The Choice Between Unilateralism and Multilateralism in Central Asia
No doubt in Washington this weakness of the oil-dependent dollar is seen by hawks as reinforcing the case for persistence in both Iraq and in Afghanistan (where a decade ago the US firm Unocal hoped to build an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan).17 But increasingly multilateralists in Washington are arguing that America, instead of proceeding unilaterally to sustain Bush-era policies for dominating the oil of Central Asia, could do better by reaching out to cooperation with Russia and China.
The obvious venue for such a multilateral approach would be the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will meet in Yekaterinburg on June 15-16. As U.S. diplomat Lynn Roche has written,
The SCO grew out of the Shanghai Five founded in 1996 to coordinate border security between five nations of Central Asia – Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – and added Uzbekistan in 2001. It has usually been viewed as an attempt to counterbalance NATO and therefore, suspect. That outlook is short-sighted. Focusing on mutual security issues such as counter-terrorism and drug trafficking in this thorny part of the world, the SCO provides a valuable function that the West hasn’t taken advantage of so far….It’s the right time to enlist the SCO’s input and assistance on Afghanistan. It’s an opportunity to work with Russia and China in a multilateral forum, hopefully leaving some of our bilateral baggage at the door.18
SCO’s initial opposition to NATO has shifted with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This led a SCO meeting in May 2009 to express the view that “the NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan must pay more attention to the problems of Pakistan.”19 And although SCO in 2005 opposed a U.S. military presence on the territory of its member states, Kyrgyzstan’s expulsion of the U.S. from its base at Bishkek, scheduled for August of this year, will be reconsidered by Kyrgyz President Bakiyev and Afghan President Karzai at the June SCO meeting. These developments are symptomatic of the interest the SCO countries share with America in reducing violence and narcotics in the region.
Even though the United States was denied SCO observer status in 2005, the United States was invited by SCO to participate in a Moscow meeting on Afghanistan on March 27 of this year. (It was on the sidelines of this meeting that Patrick Moon, U.S. envoy for South and Central Asia, held talks with Mehdi Akhundzadeh, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister.) Later on March 27, in Washington, Obama announced that his new Afghanistan policy “will include a new contact group for Afghanistan involving the United Nations, NATO allies and other partners from the Central Asian states, the Gulf nations, Iran, Russia, India and China.”20
This outreach to SCO was more noticed abroad than in the U.S. press. But a Council on Foreign Relations podcast commented that SCO’s
first invitation to the United States to attend its March 27 meeting in Moscow has aroused interest about a potential partnership for stabilizing Afghanistan. President Barack Obama announced a shift in U.S. policy emphasis on the same day as the SCO summit, and greater consultation with Afghanistan's neighbors is a part of the new template.21
The new template could possibly lead to multilateral consultations on oil as well. In 2007 SCO member states agreed to establish a "unified energy market" for oil and gas exports, while also promoting regional development through preferential energy agreements.22 With India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan attending SCO’s next meeting as observers, SCO attendees will represent more than half of the human race.
The so-called BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, China, and India, will also meet separately in Yekaterinburg in June, and Brazil will attend the SCO meetings as well. A Goldman Sachs research paper has predicted that the four BRIC countries, by their synergy, may become among the four most dominant economies by the year 2050.23 And as has been pointed out, BRIC also represents “the world’s fastest and most consistently growing economies with the largest foreign currency and gold reserves.”24
Clearly SCO has emerged as a venue for the resolution of issues in Central Asia – including oil – with or without the United States. Thus one can expect continuing debate in Washington as to whether America’s interests in the region will be better served by unilateral or multilateral approaches.
In the waning days of the British 19th Century, two memorable, archetypical novels appeared whose mythic plots could be used to express the moral dichotomy of the British Empire. I am referring to Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1990). A century later they express the moral dichotomy of America as well – evil and ugly as the wager of a preemptive war in Iraq, but still attractive and beneficent as one of the most successful multicultural civil societies in the world.
As Amy Chua has written in her book Day of Empire,
If America can rediscover the path that has been the secret to its
success since its founding and avoid the temptations of empirebuilding, it could remain the world’s hyperpower in the decades to come – not a hyperpower of coercion and military force, but a hyperpower of opportunity, dynamism, and moral force.25
America’s real strength, and ultimately its best defense, is as a civil society to which other societies are drawn. One of the tragedies of the last decade has been the way the democratic core of that civil society has been grossly weakened. In the name of security, a noisome fog of secrecy has obscured the workings of government from public view, in a declared “state of emergency” which has been continuously renewed since 9/11 – and which Congress is required by law to review, yet refuses to.26 Democratic institutions are like garden plants: to prosper they need sunlight.
America’s moral dichotomy was summarized some years ago by Michael Klare as an ongoing struggle between its Prussians and its traders. That is too simple a dichotomy to epitomize America’s choices in Central Asia: there the oil companies, nominally traders, have helped drive the urge for unilateral U.S. military dominance in remote countries like Georgia and Uzbekistan.
But it catches the choice America faces in Central Asia. Either America can struggle militarily for “full-spectrum dominance” of the region – an absurd but official Pentagon doctrine calling for the ability “to control any situation across the range of military operations."27 Or it can cooperate with other major and local powers for multilateral negotiations of shared problems.
Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. His new book of poems (including political poems) is Mosaic Orpheus, from McGill-Queen's University Press. To order it, click
http://www.amazon.com/Mosaic-Orpheus-Hugh-Maclennan-Poetry/dp/0773535063/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238610374&sr=1-45
Scott’s website is http://www.peterdalescott.net.=
NOTES
1. Uri Avnery, Media With Conscience News, June 7, 2009, http://mwcnews.net/content/view/31074/26/.
2. Tom Curley, AP, Army Times, May 28, 2009, http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_army_casey_iraq_052609/.
3. Michael Winship, “The Privatization of "Obama's War, " Bill Moyers Journal, June 5, 2009,http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/06/michael_winship_the_privatizat.html.
4. Scott, Road to 9/11, 188-89; citing Linda McQuaig, Crude Dudes,” Toronto Star, September 20, 2004; Jane Mayer, “Contract Sport,” New Yorker, February 16-23, 2004.
5. David R. Baker, “Chevron reportedly in talks to tap Iraq's oil,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/25/BU5PVPNP8.DTL.
6. Bloomberg, April 6, 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aoiUCMua8AMM&refer=us.
7. David Isenberg, “A Fistful of Contractors,” BASIC Research Report,http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Research/2004PMC.htm (Erinys).
8. Michael Winship, “The Privatization of "Obama's War, " Bill Moyers Journal, June 5, 2009,http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/06/michael_winship_the_privatizat.html.
9. Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 190-91; David E. Spiro, The Hidden Hand of American Hegemony: Petrodollar Recycling and International Markets (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell, 1999), x, 103-12, 121.
10 Stephanie Ho, “China, Brazil Sign Oil Deal,” Voice of America, May 20, 2009, http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-20-voa10.cfm.
11. Henry Porter, “A new vocabulary word: De-dollarization,” Daily Kos, June 02, 2009, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/3/738258/-A-new-vocabulary-word:-De-dollarization.
12. Federal Register, Vol. 68, No. 102, May 28, 2003 , Presidential Documents, 31931, Order 13303 of May 22, 2003.
13. “Executive Order Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has an Interest,” Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, Federal Register, 31931, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/ 2003/05/20030522-15.html. The order was issued ten days after Paul Bremer arrived in Iraq to head the Coalition Provisional Authority that would enforce it. The Irish Times had correctly predicted the outcome on April 17, noting Washington was making dollars the short-term currency within Iraq and putting the Iraqi oil industry under U.S. direction: “This makes it certain that the future sale of Iraqi oil will be in dollars, the international currency for oil transactions, once the UN lifts anti-Saddam sanctions that provide that only the UN can approve Iraqi oil sales” (Conor O’Clery, “Dollar to Replace Dinar, for Now,” Irish Times, April 17, 2003).
14. White House, May 20, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Message-from-the-President-and-Notice-of-Continuation-regarding-Iraq/: “THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, For Immediate Release, May 20, 2009: TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision, I have sent the enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication. This notice states that the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, as modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13438 of July 17, 2007, is to continue in effect beyond May 22, 2009.” The VanderbiltOrbis website has called Order 13303 one of “Bush's nine worst executive orders:” Bushs.Nine.Worst.Executive.Orders-3588937.shtml.
15. Julie Haviv, “U.S. mortgage rates surge to highest level since December,” Reuters, June 4, 2009,http://www.reuters.com/article/newsone/idustre5535ao20090604: “U.S. mortgage rates surged to their highest in almost six months in the latest week, despite government efforts to keep rates at low levels that will help the hard-hit housing market begin to recover. Interest rates on U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages soared to 5.29 percent for the week ending June 4, up from 4.91 percent in the previous week, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac. The higher rates reflected an increase in yields on U.S. government bonds, which act as a benchmark for the mortgage market.“
16. MarketWatch, June 1, 2009, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dark-days-for-the-dollar: “According to U.S. Treasury data, from August 2008 to March 2009, China shifted more of its purchases to short-dated U.S. Treasuries from long-term agency debt. The general trend is for less buying of long-term U.S. Treasuries. It's as if China is giving Uncle Sam a vote of no confidence. So if China is moving away from the dollar, what does it want to use instead? China has signed $95 billion in swap agreements with Argentina, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Belarus in recent months. The more that countries trade in their own currencies, the less they have to rely on the U.S. dollar. Other countries besides China are making similar agreements.”
17 Scott, Road to 9/11, 166, 170.
18. Lynn Roche, “SCO Offers Neutral Venue for Engagement,” Atlantic Council, March 19, 2009, http://www.acus.org/new_atlanticist/sco-offers-neutral-venue-engagement.
19. Vladimir Radyuhin, “Shanghai forum concerned over Pakistan’s nuclear arms,” The Hindu, May 21, 2009,
http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/21/stories/2009052160441000.htm.
20. “Obama Announces New Strategy for Afghanistan, Pakistan,” America.gov, March 27, 2009,
http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/March/20090327121642dmslahrellek0.5016443.html.
21 Council on Foreign Relations Podcast, “The SCO Role in Afghanistan,” March 26, 2009,
sco_role_in_afghanistan.html?breadcrumb=%2Fbios%2F5263%2Fevan_a_feigenbaum.
22. Andrew Scheineson, “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization ,” Council on Foreign Relations, Backgrounder, March 24, 2009,
shanghai_cooperation_organization.html?breadcrumb=%2Fregion%2F264%2Fcentral_asia.
23. “Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050,” Goldman Sachs, Global Economics Paper No: 99, https://www.gs.com.
24. Rick Rozoff, “Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Prospects For A Multipolar World,” dandelionsalad, May 22, 2009,
shanghai-cooperation-organization-prospects-for-a-multipolar-world-by-rick-rozoff/ .
25. Amy Chua, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 342.
26.Peter Dale Scott and Dan Hamburg, “ To All Readers: Help Force Congress To Observe the Law on National Emergencies!!!” 911Truth.org, March 24, 2009,
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20090324183053848#r7.
27. Joint Vision 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense blueprint for the future, endorsed on May 30, 2000, by General John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Saturday 30 May 2009
by: Hervé Kempf | Visit article original @ Le Monde
nbsp; Since its beginnings, ecology has thought of itself as a political movement and highlighted the degree to which the excesses of technological power weaken democracy. That line of analysis reasserted itself during the 1970's with respect to nuclear energy: the rejection of nuclear energy focused not only on its intrinsic danger, but equally on the character - presented as incontestable - of the "experts'" knowledge.
The centralization of power involved in nuclear energy and the extension of the police state justified by the imperatives of nuclear energy security were other grounds for protest.
The sequel to those events has confirmed the relevance of these diagnoses, since nuclear power has imposed itself - when it could - by side-stepping the rules of public debate and information transparency. The criticism leveled against nuclear power was later generalized to cover other apt technical systems and devices, such as genetically modified organisms (GMO), nanotechnologies and ever-more-sophisticated systems of social control.
Later, another way of analyzing the connection between democracy and ecology was proposed by philosopher Hans Jonas: in "The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age," he discussed the ability of democracies to choose the measures necessary to avoid the apocalyptic prospect shaped by the ecological crisis.
Could "public idealism" - in other words, the virtue of citizens - pursue that "dull objective: humanity's self-moderation?" In the absence of which, that "responsibility" would have to be assumed by an "elite." However, the picture has unfolded for about a decade, and it seems ever more clear that, in capitalism's recent development, it's the oligarchy that threatens democracy by clinging to the relations of inequality on which its power is based, all the while maintaining the ecological crisis by its refusal to question the ideology of material growth.
A good witness to this reversal of perspective is Julien Coupat in his Le Monde article of May 26, the pivot of which follows here: "What we have before us is a fork in the road, at once historic and metaphysical: either we go from a paradigm of government to a paradigm of inhabiting the government at the price of a cruel, but deeply moving revolt, or we allow this climatic disaster to impose itself at a planetary level, a disaster in which will coexist under the strict control of "e-complex" management, an imperial elite of citizens and plebian masses kept on the outside."
We will talk about the "cruel, but deeply moving revolt;" we will stress the importance of the relations of inequality that determine the position of the "imperial elite," but the spirit of political ecology is definitely there: democracy is threatened less by the difficulty of the responses to be brought to the ecological crisis than by the oligarchy's actual behavior.
Surging Unemployment in the US
Unemployment at 10% to Depress Consumer Spending, Survey Shows
Global Research <http://www.globalresearch.ca> , June 10, 2009
Bloomberg
By Bob Willis and Alex Tanzi
June 10 (Bloomberg) -- Surging unemployment in the U.S. will delay a recovery in consumer spending and mute the rebound when it does materialize, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
The jobless rate will climb to 10 percent by the end of 2009, 1.6 percentage points higher than projected at the start of the year, according to the median forecast of 62 economists surveyed from June 1 to June 8. Household purchases will drop this year more than previously estimated.
Fewer jobs, lower home values, limited credit and shrinking retirement funds will prompt Americans to save, blunting the Obama administration’s stimulus efforts. Still, government infrastructure projects, smaller stockpiles and stabilization in residential construction will help the economy start growing in the second half of this year.
“Consumer spending will come back grudgingly, slowly,” said John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s Capital Markets Group in New York. “The unemployment rate should continue to rise and remain stubbornly high.”
Lonski forecast the jobless rate will reach 10.2 percent in early 2010, higher than he previously estimated.
Personal spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will fall at a 0.6 percent annual pace in the current quarter and rise at an average 1.1 percent pace in the last six months of the year, down from last month’s projections. For all of 2009, purchases will drop 0.7 percent, the worst performance since 1974.
Spending ‘Muted’
“Consumer spending does look to be more muted in this recovery than typically after a deep recession,” said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. “We would attribute that to the negative wealth effects from housing and stock market declines. There will only be a modest rebound in the next couple of quarters.”
The world’s largest economy will contract at a 2 percent pace this quarter, before growing 0.5 percent in the July-to- September period and
1.9 percent in the final three months of the year, according to the survey. For all of 2009, the economy will contract 2.7 percent, the biggest drop in the post-World War II era.
The jobless rate will average 9.2 percent in 2009, higher than the 8.9 percent worst-case scenario the government used in tests to determine whether a deteriorating economy would require the 19 largest banks to boost capital. The results last month showed 10 of those firms needed more funds. Unemployment climbed to 9.4 percent in May, the government reported last week.
The survey also showed unemployment will average 9.8 percent in 2010, compared with the 10.3 percent the government used in its stress test.
Stress Tests
The weakening in the labor market is one reason the panel overseeing the financial bailout yesterday said regulators should repeat the tests.
Restructuring efforts in the auto industry mean more job losses are on the way. AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. new- vehicle retailer, plans to close seven showrooms, while Visteon Corp., the former parts-making unit of Ford Motor Co., and chassis manufacturer Metaldyne Corp. have joined General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC in declaring bankruptcy.
“Businesses have been very aggressive in cutting costs relative to declines in output,” said Robert Mellman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. “It could be because of financial difficulties and uncertainties about access to capital and unwillingness to borrow.”
Stimulus Plan
Already, the economy has lost 6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, the most of any slump since the Great Depression.
That’s nearly double the 3.5 million jobs President Obama seeks to save or create with the $787 billion recovery plan passed in February.
The president last week announced 10 projects, including improvements in parks, highways and veteran medical facilities, intended to save or create more than 600,000 jobs over three months in an effort to stem the damage. “We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way,” Obama said in a statement.
The jump in government spending will cause the budget deficit to swell to 12 percent of gross domestic product this fiscal year, the highest since monthly records began in 1968, according to the survey median.
Still, government efforts to thaw credit are starting to pay off, making it easier for companies to borrow.
“Capital markets have largely healed,” General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said at a conference yesterday. “As a company you have to invest now. You have to invest when things are darkest.” Still, the economic recovery will be slower than that following the 1982 recession, he added.
A subdued expansion means Federal Reserve policy makers will hold the benchmark interest rate near zero until the second half of 2010, according to the survey median.
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