Virtual Health Center

MONTREAL — Boys will be boys, as the adage goes, with their rough-and-tumble boisterous play so stereotypically male.

Is it the doings of a primary sex hormone called testosterone, long associated with social dominance, virility and strength?

Many scientists have explored the role of hormones and conduct, whether in school playgrounds, sports, war or bedrooms.

Now a Universite de Montreal study of five-month old twins is among the first to tease out the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to circulating levels of this chemical.

Studies in human and animal models over the past 50 years have confirmed an association between aggression, dominance and testosterone in adolescence, said lead author Richard Tremblay of UdeM’s research unit on children’s psychosocial maladjustment.

“The question is, when does that association start?” asked Tremblay, whose team looked at newborn babies of both sexes.

“So if testosterone levels are genetically determined, then the identical twins would be more alike than the fraternal twins,” Tremblay explained.

Researchers found that testosterone levels in infancy are not inherited genetically but rather are affected by environmental factors.

Study results contrast with earlier findings in the field that in adolescents and adults, testosterone levels are inherited, Tremblay said.

But what kind of environmental factors? Th

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March 16, 2012 — “Pink slime” may soon be off the menu at many schools.

The USDA says it will offer school lunch program participants a choice between purchasing ground beef with or without the controversial product known as “lean finely textured beef” by the meat industry and “pink slime” by its opponents.

The product is a filler created by combining beef trimmings, heating them to remove most of the fat, and treating them with ammonia hydroxide gas to kill potentially dangerous bacteria like and salmonella.

Although the price has not yet been disclosed, the USDA’s filler-free ground beef will likely cost schools more.

On average, schools in the National Lunch Program purchase about 20% of their food from the USDA and the other 80% comes from private vendors.

The decision comes months after fast food chains like McDonald’s and Taco Bell publicly announced they would no longer use lean finely textured beef products in their restaurants.

The USDA says its decision to offer a choice in beef products was “in response to requests from school districts across the country.”

But it also follows an aggressive online campaign calling for the agency to rid school lunches of the controversial filler.

An online petition started by blogger and former lawyer Bettina Siegel urging the USDA to get “pink slime” out of the school lunch program has generated more than 230,000 signatures.

“I oppose pink slime because it comes from a highly pathogenic source, it is a cheap filler which is not ‘ground beef’ as consumers commonly understand that term, because it is thought to be less nutritious than regular beef, and because it is widely used in our food supply without any disclosure to consumers,” Siegel writes today on her blog, The Lunch Tray.

Siegel and other critics have argued that meat trimmings are more likely to harbor bacteria and that including them as filler in ground beef increases the risk of infection.

But the USDA says it “continues to affirm the safety of lean finely textured beef products” for all consumers.

The meat industry contends that lean finely textured beef is a nutritious product that meets federal safety standards.

“The fact remains that lean finely textured beef is a 100% beef product produced from beef trimmings that yields an additional 10-12 pounds of lean, nutritious beef from every beef animal,” J.D.

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Tags: Beef, Ground Beef, Pink Slime

During pregnancy week 12, as you about to enter the second quarter and your baby is growing fast, it’s time for you to take more calcium-rich foods. You should seriously consider eating and exercise, not only for yourself but also for the benefit of your baby.

You probably will not be able to recognize its movements until you are further along in your pregnancy. However, some women who have been pregnant before may begin to feel the baby’s movements earlier in their pregnancy.

At the time of 12 weeks your baby is growing and developing very quickly. Read full post…

Tags: pregnancy week 12

Nature’s pharmacy: 8 foods found in the produce section that will keep you healthy Digg Stumble Upon Fark Reddit Here’s some food for thought: Many of your favorite fruits, vegetables and herbs do double duty as nutritious and delicious sustenance and antidotes for common ailments.
  Enlarge Staten Island Advance Nature’s Pharmacy gallery (8 photos)   
That onion in your soup? It may help a child’s cough. The ginger in your favorite tea? It can ease cold symptoms and nausea. And the parsley garnish on sandwiches you typically discard? Pop it in your mouth in place of a multivitamin.
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Tags: Foods Found, Healthy, Produce Section

With eight of 10 men under 70 years old experiencing male-pattern baldness during their lifetime, a surprisingly small amount is understood about why it actually happens at the biological level.

Although many assume it’s simply genes, a hereditary trait men can blame on their ancestors, a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, has found that stem cells and their relation to proteins play a surprising role in explaining what happens in a balding scalp.

The new insights could lead to cell-based treatments for male-pattern balding that would involve isolating individual stem cells, expanding them, then adding the enlarged cells back into the scalp.

The team, led by Dr.

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Tags: Baldness, Baldness Shows