Health updates

The following is new information regarding strokes and the popular energy drink, Red Bull, plus an interesting lab test conducted by second-grade students to show the effects of GE food on mice.

Red Bull can cause a stroke

Energy drinks have become very popular in recent years and have overtaken bottled water as the fastest-growing category in the beverage business. But, not all the news is good. Just one can of the popular, stimulant energy drink, Red Bull, can increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. The effect was even seen in young people.

The caffeine-loaded beverage causes blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems, such as stroke. One hour after drinking Red Bull, the blood system becomes abnormal, as might be expected in a patient with cardiovascular disease.

Red Bull is banned in Norway, Uruguay and Denmark because of the associated health risks, but no less than 3.5 billion cans of Red Bull were sold last year in 143 countries.

School lab rats freak out on GE food

Schools in Wisconsin are showing kids the dangers of genetically engineered (GE) junk food with some unique science class experiments. Sister Luigi Frigo repeats the experiment every year in her second grade class in Cudahy.

Students feed one group of mice unprocessed whole foods. A second group of mice are given the same junk foods served at most school’s cafeterias. Within a couple of days, the behavior of the second group of mice changes — they develop erratic sleeping schedules and become lazy, nervous and even violent. It takes the mice about three weeks on unprocessed whole foods to return to normal.

According to Frigo, the second graders tried to do the experiment again a few months later with the same mice, but the animals had already learned their lesson and refused to eat the GE food.

Resources: Reuters August 14, 2008 and www.organicconsumers.org.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 27, Number 5, October/November 2008.