• New air quality regulations under consideration in China
• Say no to vodka, President tells Russians
• EU health chief proposes stricter laws on smoking

• Radiating orderliness in consciousness and physiology: Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems
• Continuing Medical Education credit approved for Maharishi Ayur-Veda Training Course in July - USA
• Wholeness on the move: Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems training course graduates bring new technology to their countries

• Japan approves first generic biotech drug
• US: FDA urges parents not to take children off ADHD drugs despite risk of sudden death
• Sinus infections may cause toxic shock in children

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

New air quality regulations under consideration in China
3 July 2009 - China is considering new air quality regulations as it looks to build on its success clearing Beijing's skies during the Olympics, environmental officials from the capital said on Friday. In the year since the Games the capital has enjoyed extended periods in which the skies have appeared their cleanest for years and officials say they are still pushing for further improvements even without the scrutiny brought by the Games. (more)

Say no to vodka, President tells Russians
3 July 2009 - President Dmitry Medvedev has told Russians they must kick the alcohol habit. Health Minister Tatyana Golikova has been ordered to devise an anti-alcohol strategy. The Russian government is also trying to wean Russians off gambling. From Wednesday, all gambling halls and casinos will shut and gaming will be allowed only in Las Vegas-style zones in four rarely visited regions of the country. (more)

EU health chief proposes stricter laws on smoking
2 July 2009 - The European Union's health chief proposed on Tuesday that uniform laws be drafted for all 27 countries in the bloc to regulate smoking more strictly in public areas and workplaces. 'Each and every European should be entitled to full protection from tobacco smoke,' EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said. Many EU countries have laws limiting exposure to second-hand, or passive, smoking. The rules are strictest in Britain and Ireland. (more)

Health: vegetarians seen less likely to get cancer
1 July 2009 - Vegetarians are 12 per cent less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters and the advantage is particularly marked when it comes to cancers of the blood -- where the risk of disease was 45 per cent lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters -- British researchers said on Wednesday. (more)

UK: Healthy alternative food made from Theobroma Cacao tree
26 June 2009 - A new business in Oxford, England claims to have found a healthy alternative to the sugar- and dairy-laden chocolate bars often blamed for contributing to a growing obesity crisis in the wealthy Western world. Nibchoc, a cacao bar, is said to be designed in a way that retains the nutritious properties of cacao that are lost in commercial dairy chocolate-making. It is made with cacao nibs, from the fruit of the Theobroma Cacao tree, which in their raw state contain over 300 chemical compounds that is said render them highly nutritious. (more)

Study: A few extra pounds can add years to your life
24 June 2009 - Carrying a little extra weight may actually be good for you, according to a Canadian study that showed a few pounds appear to protect people from an early death. Researchers found that while underweight and extremely obese people die earlier than people of a normal weight, people who are slightly overweight actually live longer than those of a normal weight. An earlier study, conducted in the United States and published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed similar results. (more)

Natural cosmetics maker in Germany swamped with demand around the globe
23 June 2009 - Natural beauty care products maker Dr Hauschka is turning down offers for new markets at a time when rivals are struggling to persuade consumers to pay up for cosmetics. WALA, a medium-sized company based in the sleepy German village of Bad Boll near Stuttgart, rose to fame after Hollywood celebrities discovered its Dr Hauschka natural cosmetics. WALA's products are now available in more than 30 countries and keep attracting interest from distributors across the world. (more)

US President Obama signs anti-smoking bill, cites own struggle
23 June 2009 - President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he got hooked on as a teenager as he signed the nation's strongest-ever anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for children. 'The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of tobacco has emerged victorious,' Obama said at a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. The bill marks the latest legislative victory for Obama's first five months. Among his other successes: a $787 billion economic stimulus bill, legislation to expand a state programme providing children's health insurance, and a bill making it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination. (more)

US President Obama signs landmark law to regulate tobacco
23 June 2009 - President Barack Obama, citing his own struggle to give up smoking, signed a law on Monday giving the US government broad regulatory power for the first time over cigarettes and other tobacco products. Obama said the law would curb the ability of tobacco companies to market their products to the young. 'Almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday,' Obama said at a White House ceremony before signing the bill. The law followed a campaign by tobacco industry foes in Congress for more than a decade to put cigarettes under the control of the US Food and Drug Administration. (more)

US: Questions and Answers about FDA-tobacco legislation
23 June 2009 - Firm controls over tobacco content and marketing, combined with other initiatives to discourage smoking, could significantly reduce the 400,000 people in this country who die every year from smoking-related diseases. The following is a look at legislation President Barack Obama signed into law Monday that gives the Food and Drug Administration regulatory controls over tobacco products. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Radiating orderliness in consciousness and physiology: Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems
2 July 2009 - Graduates of the Maharishi Light Therapy Practitioners Training Course in Holland were charged with bringing this profound knowledge about gems--'the most orderly structures in the universe'--to the whole world. They will enjoy the support of Maharishi College of Perfect Health, said Dr Walter Molk, Deputy Minister of Health for the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

Continuing Medical Education credit approved for Maharishi Ayur-Veda Training Course in July - USA
1 July 2009 - Category 1 Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit is now available for physicians taking the Maharishi Ayur Veda Health Professionals Training Course in July at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. Participants will develop practical skills from the Maharishi Ayur-Veda health program for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease that can immediately be applied in practice. (more)

Wholeness on the move: Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems training course graduates bring new technology to their countries
30 June 2009 - The graduation ceremony for the Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems course took place recently in MERU, Holland. Twenty-three course participants from 12 countries graduated and will be able to treat people in their own countries with this profound technology from Maharishi Ayur-Veda. (more)

New study warns against ADHD drugs; widely circulated news report underscores need for Transcendental Meditation
24 June 2009 - An article in the 16 June 2009 issue of the Washington Post, a major newspaper in the United States, reported on a new study highlighting potential dangers of prescription drugs commonly administered to children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A leader of the Global Country of World Peace commented that the study, and a resulting widely circulated news report, underscore the need for alternative ADHD therapies, such as the Transcendental Meditation Programme. (more)

Discover the new Maharishi Health Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA: Prevention, Rejuvenation, Revitalization
23 June 2009 - Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center (MAHC) in Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA, has been newly renovated and is delighted to welcome Lothar Pirc as its new President, as well as Dr Karen Pirc, along with a very dynamic and dedicated management team. (more)

Howard University magazine reports on Transcendental Meditation study on heart disease
22 June 2009 - New research on the Transcendental Meditation Programme and heart disease, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is currently underway at Howard University Medical School, in Washington, DC, USA. The research has recently been featured in a prominent university publication. (more)

Norway: Media report increases long-time success of Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centre
21 June 2009 - For 20 years the successful Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centre in Norway has been featured in many media reports. A recent six-page article in a nationwide magazine has inspired increased inquiries and more guests to come enjoy the nourishing and rejuvenating treatments there. (more)

Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems: A Vedic technology that is part of Maharishi Ayur-Veda
18 June 2009 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi described Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems as a Vedic technology that is part of Maharishi Ayur-Veda, said Dr Rainer Picha, Minister of Health for the Global Country of World Peace. Inaugurating a new course to train practitioners, Dr Picha also explained that 'it is pure cosmic light that enters the physiology, bringing order and helping in every way. Order in the physiology basically means health, and health is promoted through this approach.' (more)

Ask the Ayurvedic Doctor - Special live MAPI TV interactive webcast, Wednesday 17 June
17 June 2009 - MAPI TV offers its first free live interactive web broadcast Wednesday, 17 June at 8 p.m. (US Central Time). Dr Mark Toomey, director of Maharishi Ayur-Veda programmes at The Raj Ayurvedic Spa in Fairfield, Iowa, USA, will focus on topics including menopause and prostate health. Viewers will have the chance to ask questions and hear them answered live. (more)

Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems Training Course: Dr Bevan Morris addresses inauguration
17 June 2009 - 'Maharishi spent so much time thinking about what would be the perfect medical education and the ideal medical centre--where people could go for relief of any suffering and for the prevention of any illness. The result is a curriculum and design for all the programmes offered in Maharishi Centres for Perfect Health, that is so sublime and comprehensive, so effective and so useful--not only to our generation, but to all the future generations of the world,' said Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Japan approves first generic biotech drug
27 June 2009 - Japanese regulators approved a human growth hormone from Novartis AG, the first green light in Japan for a biosimilar or generic version of a biotech drug, the Swiss drugmaker said. Biotech drugs, used to treat everything from cancer to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, tend to be more expensive and complex than traditional chemical medicines because they are made from living cells. The first biosimilars have already been approved and are on the market in Europe. The United States, the world's biggest and most lucrative pharmaceuticals market, is still discussing a regulatory pathway for follow-on biotech treatments. (more)

US: FDA urges parents not to take children off ADHD drugs despite risk of sudden death
17 June 2009 - US federal health regulators are urging parents to keep their children on attention deficit drugs like Ritalin and Adderall, despite new evidence from a government-backed study that the stimulants can increase the risk of sudden death. Published Monday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study suggests a link between use of the stimulant drugs and sudden death in children and adolescents. The drugs, used to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, already carry warnings about risks of heart attack and stroke in children with underlying heart conditions, but researchers have questioned whether they pose the same risks to children without those problems. Healthy children taking the medications were six to seven times more likely to die suddenly for unexplained reasons than those not taking the drugs, according to the study from the National Institute of Mental Health. (more)

Sinus infections may cause toxic shock in children
16 June 2009 - Sinus infections may cause more than 20 per cent of all cases of toxic shock syndrome in children, US researchers said on Monday. They said doctors treating children for toxic shock syndrome should be aware of the risk. Dr Chan and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 76 children who had toxic shock syndrome between 1983 and 2000. They found 23 also had either acute or chronic sinus infections. Sinus infections were the primary cause of toxic shock in 21 percent of the cases -- many of which were serious. Ten of the children were admitted to the intensive care unit, four needed drugs to raise their blood pressure, and six needed surgery. (more)

Sleep disorders tied to mortality risk
13 June 2009 - Poor quality sleep - whether from insomnia, sleep fragmentation, or nightmares - is associated with increased risk of death, according to several presentations this week in Seattle at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. The study found that men with insomnia and a shorter duration of sleep had mortality risks that were up to 5-times greater than those who slept at least six hours. In addition, compared with women who slept at least 8 hours nightly, women who slept fewer than 5 hours had a significantly higher risk of death over 4.2 years of follow-up. (more)

Researchers uncover how nanoparticles may damage lungs
12 June 2009 - Researchers in China appear to have uncovered how nanoparticles which are used in medicine for diagnosis and delivering drugs may cause lung damage. Nanotechnology, or the science of the extremely tiny, is an important industry. One nanometer is one-billionth of a metre. Apart from medicine, it is used in products like sporting goods, cosmetics, tires, and electronics and has a projected annual market of around US$1 trillion by 2015. Concerns are growing that it may have toxic effects, particularly to the lungs. (more)

Smoking costs health £5.5 billion a year
12 June 2009 - Smoking costs the UKN national health system more than 5 billion pounds each year, an amount that is more than five times higher than most current estimates, researchers said. Their study published in the British Medical Journal's Tobacco Control also found smoking directly kills about 110,000 people die each year, a number that hasn't changed much over the past 10 years. The 5 billion pound figure was likely an underestimate because it does not include indirect costs such as lost productivity or the full range of conditions associated with tobacco use, such as passive smoking, the study found. (more)

FDA panel approves antipsychotic drugs for children
11 June 2009 - The US Food and Drug Administration's panel of outside experts backed wider use of certain antipsychotic medications to treat children and teenagers with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, but expressed concern over effects the medications may have. Several FDA's advisers questioned why the FDA seemed willing to accept the drugs for what could be years of use when some studies only looked at children and teenagers for as little as three or six weeks. They also said they were troubled not only about the potential increased use among even younger patients, but also the chance the drugs may be misused. According to these panelists, the question was whether over time there could be an impact on brain development and other reactions not seen in adults. (more)

Hormone experts worried about plastics, chemicals
11 June 2009 - Hormone experts said on Wednesday they are becoming worried by a chemical called bisphenol A, which some politicians say they want taken out of products and which consumers are increasingly shunning. They said they have gathered a growing body evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health. The Endocrine Society issued a scientific statement on Wednesday calling for better studies into its effects. Studies presented at the group's annual meeting show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources. (more)

Too little sleep raises blood pressure risk: study
9 June 2009 - Middle-aged adults who get too little sleep are more likely to develop high blood pressure, US researchers said on Monday. The study, among the first to directly measure sleep duration in middle-aged adults, found missing an average one hour of sleep over five years raised the risk of developing high blood pressure by 37 per cent. It also suggests that poor sleep may explain in part why black men have higher blood pressure risks. In children, lack of sleep has been shown to raise rates of obesity, depression, and high blood pressure. In older adults, it increases the risk of falls. And in the middle-aged, it raises the risk of infections, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. (more)

US lawmaker urges action on generic biotech drugs
9 June 2009 - A senior US Democratic lawmaker urged President Barack Obama on Monday to consider ways to speed access to cheaper versions of biotech medicines ahead of legislation aimed at achieving that goal. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, in a letter to Obama, asked his administration 'to consider what steps can be taken under existing authority to prepare and even begin to use a pathway for generic biologics.' Biologics are man-made forms of human proteins that are tougher to produce than traditional, chemical-based medicines. Companies aiming to sell copies of biologics include generic drugmakers such as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Mylan Inc. (more)