While using marijuana for medicinal purposes is just fine, using the drug to the point where one starts exhibiting marijuana addiction signs could offer problems inside or outside the home.

Chemdog

The newest powerhouse of the Kush/Diesel family, Chemdog’s potency is the stuff of legend. Smell is Very fuely and strong, taste similar to how it smells, fuely with a lemony diesel kick. With glaucoma sufferers in particular praising its qualities for relieving eye pressure.
Price: 1 pound: $5500-6500

Island Sweet Skunk

The Island Sweet Skunk has been grown on Vancouver Island in BC for many years as a stabelized Sativa-Skunk cross.The ISS has sugary fat buds with long, thick hairs that turn golden orange after the 6th week. Tall vigorous growth with a dramatic increase n bud density for the last 3 weeks of it”s flower cycle. This strain has been tested at 19.6% THC when finished, making it a major favorite amongst the medical community, as it takes less to properly medicate. Admired for its strong Sativa like high, the ISS has a very unique taste and odour that stands out from any other strain we’ve ever come across.
Price: 1 pound: $3500-4200

Sour Diesel

One of the most potent marijuana strains that currently exists. It has won the cannabis cup several times and the High Times Plant of the Year award in 2005. Sour Diesel taste combined with its effects may be considered an “extreme sport” version of cannabis. The stone pulls smokers into the sky fast with a viscerally uplifting pleasure and lots of consciousness expansion in the direction of spirituality. This good-vibe variety may help alleviate chronic depression, as well as the ordinary blahs by encouraging a change in perspective.
Price: 1 pound: $5800-6800

Trainwreck

Trainwreck is a very strong sativa with a great head high. Sorta on the plain looking side but its pretty impressive, long red/orange hairs just covered in crystals, stinking with that great pine smell with a deep citrus kick. Taste is sour and piny. Patients suffering from nausea, headaches or chronic pain call it a godsend.
Price: 1 pound: $4000-4500

Jack Herer

Nice sized buds with lots of glands full of sweet THC.  The hairs are blood red. Smell is musky and extremely lemony, taste slight tingle in the back of the throat, but otherwise very smooth.  The smoke has a lemon flavor.  It is very enjoyable without being overpowering. Users claim this strain is a very good appetite stimulant.
Price: 1 pound: $4200-4800

Kali Mist

Kali Mist outdoor cannabis sativa seeds from Serious Seeds. With 90% sativa genetices, Kali Mist grows into tall, classically sativa plants with very few leaves. Actually smells somewhat like oranges. Users of the Kali Mist say it possesses increased mental upliftment yet a relaxed “body high,” qualities that sufferers of spasm and anxiety find very helpful.
Price: 1 pound: $4600-5000

Sweet Tooth

This is the ultimate Sativa/Indica hybrid. It’s a high yielding, sweet and powerful plant that gives a perfect blend of both a high and stoned effect. Thi train has become popular due to its high resin count and a sugary taste on the tongue. Users claim it provides relief from stress and tension.
Price: 1 pound: $3800-4600

NYC Diesel

NYC Diesel (New York City Diesel) is a new strain, fast becoming a classic, with its roots in the Big Apple.  NYC Diesel is famous for its exotic smell and taste. Buds are compact and produce a strong smell of grapefruits that can drown out other smells in a grow room.  The plants produce an almost diesel fuel smell, hence the name. Users claim the scent of ripe grapefruit with hints of cinammon and cardamom provide a calming aromatherapy.
Price: 1 pound: $4800-5400

Both men are now cancer-free and their doctors say their progress has exceeded all their expectations.

Dr Eugene Kwon, of the respected Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, said: ‘This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research.  We have been looking for this for many years.’

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men, with nearly 35,000 cases a year, 10,000 deaths and few treatments for advanced disease.

The two patients were taking part in a trial involving a drug called ipilimumab, a specially-engineered antibody that boosts the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.

Both had late-stage cancer, that had spread beyond the prostate, with one blighted by a  tumour the size of a golf ball.  Patients in such a condition may only have months to live and are usually offered only palliative care.

The pair were given conventional drugs to mop up the male hormones that fuel the growth of prostate cancer, followed by a single dose of ipilimumab.

So many cancer cells were killed off that the men were able to undergo surgery, and both have gone back to their normal lives.

Dr Michael Bute, the surgeon who operated on the men, said: ‘The tumours had shrunk dramatically.

‘I have never seen anything like this before. I had a hard time finding the cancer.

‘At one point the pathologist (who was working during surgery) asked if we had samples from the same patient.’

Dr Kwon, a urologist, said: ‘The candidates for this study were people who didn’t have a lot of other options.

‘However, we were startled to see responses that far exceeded any of our expectations.

‘We had thought we might get some incremental delay in the progression of the cancer.

‘It had not dawned on us that we might go from an inoperable tumour to an operable one. That just doesn’t happen.’

The two men were among 108 taking part in the trial, which is ongoing.

A third ‘inoperable’ patient underwent surgery last week and 20 more are showing improvements and are being monitored by the surgeons.

A second trial, using higher doses, is planned, but the researchers cautioned that the results would have to be confirmed in further, large-scale studies.

British experts described the results as ‘extremely encouraging’ -  but cautioned the work is still at an early stage.

John Neate, chief executive of The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: ‘The reported results of the experimental treatment of these two patients showed dramatic shrinkage of the tumour, allowing surgery to take place.

‘If these early and small-scale results are replicated in larger trials, this represents a potentially very exciting development.

‘We urgently need a wider range of treatment options for prostate cancer which has spread outside the prostate gland and this research is a welcome indication of potential progress in this area.

‘It must be remembered that this is a small trial, however, and the findings are preliminary results.

‘The Prostate Cancer Charity eagerly awaits further research and looks forward with anticipation to exploring the results.’

Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK’s prostate cancer expert, said: ‘These case reports are extremely interesting and encouraging.

‘But caution is needed, as earlier trials with this drug in other types of cancer were less successful than reported here.

‘The other cautionary note its that both men received hormone therapy, which in some instances causes dramatic reductions in tumour size by itself.’

The Chilean Sea Bass, also known as the Patagonian Toothfish, is a pretty popular fish at the nicer restaurants. However, it’s also one that is not only overfished, but also caught using damaging fishing practices like longlining – which kills sea birds – and bottom trawling – which damages delicate habitat. Plus, the high mercury content is a turn off. So while you might find some recipes that you’d love to try out that call for this fish, substitute it for something like Pacific Halibut or Striped Bass instead.

Fish oil

Fish oil contains two essential omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These fatty acids are known to block the production of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines and leukotrienes in the body, which are responsible for a range of painful conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, gout and sinusitis. Researchers found that eating 3 g of fish fats a day relieved the joint pain, inflammation, and morning stiffness associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and reduced the drug requirement. In another study of rheumatoid arthritis patients, daily supplementation with 2.7 grams of EPA and 1.8 grams of DHA resulted in striking reduction in the number of tender joints and increase in the time span before fatigue appeared. Various other studies have put forth that the same dosage of fish oil can reduce the severity of Crohn’s disease by more than 50 per cent and make it possible for many patients to stop anti-inflammatory medication and steroids.

Olive oil

Olive oil has been found to contain a natural chemical which acts like the anti-inflammatory pain killer ibuprofen. The active ingredient in olive oil is oleocanthal, which influences the same biochemical pathway as ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The researchers concluded that 50 gram of extra-virgin olive oil was comparable to about 10 per cent of the ibuprofen dose recommended for adult pain relief. Although headache will not be cured with this, yet regular olive oil consumption is expected to provide some of the long-lasting benefits of ibuprofen.

Tart cherries

According to researchers at Michigan State University, the eating about 20 tart cherries may relieve pain better than aspirin and may also exhibit antioxidant properties comparable to supplements like vitamin E. That number of cherries are said to contain 12-25 milligrams of the active ingredients, called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins inhibited cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 enzymes, which were the targets of anti-inflammatory drugs at doses more than ten times lower than aspirin. Thus daily consumption of cherries has shown the potential to reduce pain related to inflammation, arthritis and gout.

Saliva

Saliva has been found to generate a natural painkiller of up to six times more strength than morphine. The substance produced by human saliva is similar to opiorphin and has been said to generate a new class of natural painkillers that are far better than the traditional drug morphine, which has many addictive and psychosomatic side effects. The researchers demonstrated that the opiorphin acts in nerve cells of the spine and stops the usual destruction of the natural pain-killing opiates, known as the enkephalins.

White willow bark

White willow bark decreases pain by blocking the production of inflammatory prostaglandins. White willow bark is also a very effective fever reducer. It is said to contain a compound called salicylic acid and aspirin (acetyl salicylic acid) is a synthetic form of this compound. White willow bark provides all pain-relieving benefits of aspirin. Conventionally is safer then aspirin and other synthetically derived salicylate based anti-inflammatory drugs. No contra-indications and serious side effects have ever been reported by medical science. It is said to provide relief to headache, toothache, backache or even arthritis.
It is important to keep in mind that white willow bark should not be taken with aspirin, or by people who sensitive to salicylates. Though it is far less irritating to the stomach, yet it should be avoided by people with gastritis or ulcers, or could be used in suppository form only. It should not be used by children under 16, because of the associated possibility of developing Reye’s syndrome in children during a viral infection.

MSM

MSM (methyl-sulphonyl-methane) is a naturally-occurring sulphur compound. It is a powerful painkiller with anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic and analgesic properties, and it inhibits the transmission of pain impulses. In a double-blind study conducted at the UCLA School of Medicine in America, researchers showed that 80 per cent pain control was achieved within six weeks in degenerative arthritis patients receiving MSM, but only a negligible improvement was observed in the control group. It is available both as a dietary supplement and as a cream for topical application.
Glucosamine and chondroitin
Glucosamine and chondroitin are nutritional supplements that significantly reduce the pain of arthritic joints. In Europe oral glucosamine is a commonly used pain killer and is even approved as a prescription drug. They may also be effective in topical use. The results of a study put forth that a cream containing glucosamine, chondroitin and camphor decreased arthritic knee pain more than a placebo cream.

Boswellia

Clinical trials have proved that the Indian herb boswellia is as effective as conventional drugs for both chronic and minor pains. Boswellic acids, the active ingredients in boswellia, are more potent and less toxic than standard NSAIDs. Boswellic acids decrease the production of inflammatory compounds, the leukotrienes that are implicated in many chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Boswellia is available both as a supplement and as a topical cream. A comparative study conducted on 175 rheumatoid arthritis patients demonstrated that 97 per cent of these patients had moderate to excellent recovery from pain, swelling and morning stiffness after consuming 450 to 750 mg of boswellic acids daily for three to four weeks. These results were comparable to those for patients taking ketoprofen and phenylbutazone, but unlike the drug treatments boswellic acids produced no adverse effects.

Devil’s claw

Devil’s claw, native to South Africa is another herb that is best known for alleviating back pain and arthritis.  The active ingredients in this herb are called iridoid glycosides that are responsible for producing its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. A French trial found it as effective as, and safer than, the anti-arthritis drug diacerhein. One four-month study included around 120 people with knee and hip osteoarthritis and put forth that devil’s claw decreased pain and increased function as good as a regular osteoarthritis medicine, but with a lot fewer side effects. People with gastric ulcers should consume devil’s claw with caution since it increases the gastric acid production.

Curcumin

Turmeric contains the compound curcumin, which is a powerful painkiller known to block inflammatory proteins and enhance the body’s ability to suppress inflammation. Turmeric is used in place of NSAIDs without any side effects to the organs including stomach, heart, liver and kidneys. Various studies put forth that curcumin eases the chronic pain of rheumatoid arthritis. The pain relievers found in curcumin stop the neurotransmitter substance P from sending its pain signals to the brain. Curcumin also decreases inflammation by reducing prostaglandin activity. 400 to 600 mg of curcumin should be consumed three times daily. In order to improve absorption, it can be consumed with equal amounts of bromelain, an anti-inflammatory enzyme found in pineapples–20 minutes before meals.

With growing populations causing a continual rise in water demands, using less water and using it wisely has never been more important. The water issue is local as well as global; by implementing a few simple practices you can significantly reduce your water consumption and help to conserve one of your most precious natural resources.

Indoor Water Saving Tips

Outdoor Water Saving Tips

“We used a leapfrog strategy, bypassing the natural immune system response that was the target of all previous HIV and SIV vaccine candidates,” said study leader Philip R. Johnson, M.D., chief scientific officer at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Johnson developed the novel approach over a ten-year period, collaborating with K. Reed Clark, Ph.D., a molecular virologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Johnson cautioned that many hurdles remain before the technique used in this animal study might be translated into an HIV vaccine for humans. If the technique leads to an effective HIV vaccine, such a vaccine may be years away from realization.

Most attempts at developing an HIV vaccine have used substances aimed at stimulating the body’s immune system to produce antibodies or killer cells that would eliminate the virus before or after it infected cells in the body. However, clinical trials have been disappointing. HIV vaccines have not elicited protective immune responses, just as the body fails on its own to produce an effective response against HIV during natural HIV infection.

The approach taken in the current study was divided into two phases. In the first phase, the research team created antibody-like proteins (called immunoadhesins) that were specifically designed to bind to SIV and block it from infecting cells. Once proven to work against SIV in the laboratory, DNA representing SIV-specific immunoadhesins was engineered into a carrier virus designed to deliver the DNA to monkeys. The researchers chose adeno-associated virus (AAV) as the carrier virus because it is a very effective way to insert DNA into the cells of a monkey or human.

In the second part of the study, the team injected AAV carriers into the muscles of monkeys, where the imported DNA produced immunoadhesins that entered the blood circulation. One month after administration of the AAV carriers, the immunized monkeys were injected with live, AIDS-causing SIV. The majority of the immunized monkeys were completely protected from SIV infection, and all were protected from AIDS. In contrast, a group of unimmunized monkeys were all infected by SIV, and two-thirds died of AIDS complications. High concentrations of the SIV-specific immunoadhesins remained in the blood for over a year.

Further studies need to be conducted if this technique is to become an actual preventive measure against HIV infection in people, Johnson said. “To ultimately succeed, more and better molecules that work against HIV, including human monoclonal antibodies, will be needed,” he and his co-authors conclude. Finally, added Johnson, their approach may also have potential use in preventing other infectious diseases, such as malaria.

Grants from the National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health supported this study. Johnson’s collaborators, in addition to Clark, were Jianchao Zhang, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Eloisa Yuste and Ronald C. Desrosiers of the New England Primate Research Center and Harvard Medical School; and Bruce C. Schnepp, Mary J. Connell, and Sean M. Greene, of Children’s Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Johnson also is on the University of Pennsylvania faculty.

They did so by using a novel approach that delivered antibody-producing genes directly to the animals’ muscles. Typically, vaccines are aimed at ramping up the immune system to fight off infection, but this strategy eliminated that middle step.

“Traditional approaches toward developing an HIV vaccine that have worked for other viruses like influenza have just has not worked for HIV and, quite frankly, might not work for a long time or ever,” explained the study’s author, Dr. Philip R. Johnson, chief scientific officer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

“But Mother Nature has allowed us a few breaks, in that we know that in a very few cases, people who have been infected for a very long time have been able to naturally develop antibodies that neutralize a lot of the circulating virus,” he said. “So, we thought perhaps we could take the genes that represent these antibodies ‘off the shelf,’ so to speak, give them directly to patients and, in essence, bypass the immune system.”

“So, first we worked through mice and showed we could do it with mice,” Johnson explained. “And now we’ve shown that we can actually transfer these genes into monkeys and protect these animals from SIV.”

The findings are in the May 17 online issue of Nature Medicine.

The researchers’ efforts focused on preventing SIV infection in nine macaque monkeys who were “immunized” against SIV by inserting genes already known to express anti-SIV antibodies directly into the monkeys’ muscles.

Once the genes were injected, they prompted the muscles to produce antibodies that were released into the bloodstream and began attacking the SIV.

After being exposed to SIV four weeks later, six of the nine monkeys appeared to be fully protected from infection because they remained completely uninfected, and none of the nine immunized monkeys went on to develop AIDS or died from exposure to the virus, the researchers reported.

In contrast, six non-immunized monkeys exposed to SIV all became infected, and two-thirds died.

Johnson and his team concluded that their immunization strategy triggered the development of long-lasting and complete protection against SIV infection among monkeys.

“I’m not about to over-hype this,” Johnson cautioned. “But we are continuing our work with monkeys in parallel with moving forward to begin human trials in two years, if everything goes perfectly with our work with the FDA to develop safety preparations, which is absolutely appropriate. And if the immunization trials work, then you have another few years to gear up. So, in the best of all possible worlds, you’re looking at five years down the road for a practical benefit for patients. But, scientifically, we believe we are on the right track.”

Rowena Johnston, director of research at the Foundation for AIDS Research in New York City, described the work as “one of the most interesting and potentially promising concepts to come out of the vaccine field in quite a while.”

“They’ve cut straight to the chase and eliminated the middle man,” she explained. “That is the really exciting thing they’ve done. We already all know that the traditional approaches to a vaccine won’t work for HIV. And so HIV is a field where researchers are required to come up with ideas that nobody has needed to think about before, and that is where the challenge is. And here what they’ve done is to get antibodies to the virus themselves being produced directly, rather than waiting for the very slow-moving immune system to respond. And that is so elegant.”

“Of course, the caveat is that this paper is a concept, and not yet a solution,” Johnston noted. “But as concepts go, this is very, very interesting, even if it seems so obvious after you see it, like all good research.”

The same damage may occur in city dwellers exposed to normal air, the researchers say.

Particulate matter includes suspended, tiny bits of dust, metal, or soot in the air, which can lodge deep in the lungs. Exposure to the substance has been linked to respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and heart problems.

Scientists know little about how inhaling particulate matter can cause health problems, according to lead study author Andrea Baccarelli of the University of Milan.

But they did find that exposed workers’ DNA was damaged by a slowed rate of “methylation,” a biological process in which genes are organized into different chemical groups.

Fewer groups means that fewer genes are expressed—or made into proteins—a crucial process in the body’s regular maintenance.

Reduced-size gene groups like the ones observed in the new study have also been found in the blood DNA of lung

cancer patients.

Widespread Damage

In the study, the workers’ blood was sampled on the morning of the first day of their workweeks—before they were heavily exposed to the foundry’s air—and again a few days later.

Comparisons between the two samples revealed significant changes in the methylation of four genes that may suppress tumors, said Baccarelli, who presented his research May 17 at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego, California.

You might not have to be a steelworker to sustain this kind of genetic damage, Baccarelli added. It’s true that air near the steel foundry contains about ten times more particulate matter than ambient—or normal—air, and a larger fraction of foundry-air particles are metals.

But the team speculates that the same damage can occur in city dwellers—the effects, however, take weeks or months to show up.

For instance, Baccarelli has done previous research that shows elderly people in Boston had DNA damage from breathing in particulate matter.

But Baccarelli added that “our results need to be confirmed in air pollution studies before they can be extended to the general population.”

Take Your Vitamins?

John Heffner is professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University and a past president of the American Thoracic Society.

The new study strengthens the link between particulate inhalation and lung cancer, said Heffner, who did not participate in the research.

“Other investigators have shown that inhalation of particulate matter affects DNA through the methylation process,” he said.

“What these investigators have done is show that the genes affected are ones that are known to be related to the development of lung cancer.”

Related work by Baccarelli’s team also raises the possibility that methylation damage from particulate matter can be slowed or even reversed with folic acid, a vitamin naturally found in many foods.

The vitamin “may make methylation machineries more efficient,” lead study author Baccarelli said.

“We found that subjects with higher intakes of methyl nutrients were protected from some of the cardiac effects of particulate matter.”

* Says up to 30 pct of new bottle comes from plant material

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co said on Thursday it has developed a new plastic bottle that is partly made from sugar cane and molasses, raising the bar in the battle for the most environmentally friendly packaging.

Coke will test the new bottle in North America with Dasani bottled water and certain carbonated brands later this year. The test will expand to the vitaminwater brand in 2010.

Up to 30 percent of the new “plantbottle” will be made from a material derived from sugar cane and molasses, which is a by-product of sugar production, Coke said.

Plastic bottles are made from a non-renewable, petroleum-derived substance.

Many large food and drink makers are looking to make their packages smaller and more environmentally friendly, especially since retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc introduced a “packaging scorecard” to rate suppliers on their ability to cut waste and conserve resources by reducing packaging.

Rival beverage makers PepsiCo Inc and Nestle are also introducing lighter-weight bottles that use less plastic.