In an era of hyper health consciousness, it helps to know what is or isn’t safe to eat — even it’s hard to keep track of. While artificial sweeteners have always been controversial in terms of their benefits or hazards to people’s health, a recent study has confirmed that the artificial sweetener Splenda may contribute to serious health complications like cancer.

According to NBC, a study published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health has found that mice who were regularly fed the artificial sweetener had a higher chance of developing leukemia and other blood cancers than mice who did not have Splenda in their diet.

As a result of the study, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is now formally recommending that consumers avoid Splenda. This comes as a surprise, especially when considering that up until 2013 Splenda was on the list of foods that were considered by the organization to be totally safe.

However, it is worth noting that the rats in the study who were given a serving of sucralose, the primary ingredient in Splenda, were given an amount which winds up being the equivalent of ten cans of diet soda per day.

“And even if you consume less, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem,” says Lisa Lefferts, senior scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). “When something causes cancer at high doses, it generally causes cancer at lower doses, the risk in just smaller.”

The CSPI recommends that everybody stay completely away from Splenda, and any other artificial sweeteners containers sucralose.

Chipotle has been undergoing a bit of a public relations nightmare these last few months. After an E. coli outbreak caused them to shut down a large portion of their burrito restaurants, they’ve been trying to find their footing. They’re not out of the woods yet, however: after a sick employee had to stay home from work, Chipotle ordered a closing and complete cleaning of the restaurant.

According to Reuters, price of Chipotle shares fell as much as 18 percent since October, the height of their recent E. coli fiasco. Critics remain unsure of whether the company will be able to regain their once prestigous position.

It seems, however, that they might be on the right track. After an employee of a Boston suburb was forced to stay home due to an illness, Chipotle ordered the restaurant be shut down and cleaned completely.

Critics and fans have commented that this can be taken as an indication that the company is on the right track. Between their new, health conscious stance and their recent marketing campaign, it seems that Chipotle is working double time to put itself back in the good graces of burrito fans.

Chipotle’s new marketing appears very much like damage control. After the E. coli scandal, the burrito chain began offering patrons free food via email, along with coupons for additional discounts.

Though the company has handled this illness situation in the most appropriate manner possible, critics still believe they will be negatively affected.

“The publicity around this news announcement will be another data-point that may affect consumer,” CRT Capital analyst Lynne Collier said in a note to clients.

 

 

This might be surprising for some: while vitamin D might often be thought of as potential relief for those who suffer from arthritis in the knees, a new study has found that a supplement of the sunshine vitamin might not reduce pain levels at all.

According to UPI, the study was conducted as a means of figuring out how doctors might combat osteoarthritis, a progressive disease that results in loss of cartilage in the knees. Along with this comes, you guessed it: chronic pain.

Clearly, this type of ailment is distressing and doctors have been trying to take a crack at relieving its more severe symptoms for a long while now. The use of vitamin D supplements to help reduce the pain levels in osteoarthritis sufferers is already controversial, but doctors deem a remedy necessary. Osteoarthritis can get so bad that it ends up requiring knee replacement surgery, says the team of Australian researchers behind the study.

“These data suggest a lack of evidence to support vitamin D supplementation for slowing disease progression or structural change in knee osteoarthritis,” said lead researcher Dr. Changhai Ding, a professor at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

Previous studies have lead to conflicting results, but the Australian research team in question hoped to find a conclusive answer to the validity of the use of vitamin D.

During random testing, it was found that vitamin D failed to have any beneficial effect on osteoarthritis sufferers.

However, that’s not to say that vitamin D has no benefits at all.

“That’s not to say that vitamin D doesn’t play a role in other aspects of bone health — because it does,” Roth said.

Little is known about Zika: scientists know it may be linked to the birth defect microcephaly, but new evidence suggests that it also has the potential to cause temporary paralysis. Zika survivors from an outbreak in Tahiti two years ago were recently the focus of a study that began to get to the bottom of just what Zika might be capable of.

According to ABC, the rapid spread of Zika has already been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization. This particular outbreak seemed to have originated in the South Pacific last year and has since spread, with several confirmed cases in the Americas. Not only might Zika infection lead to birth complications, it may also be linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological illness that, in most cases, lasts a few weeks.

Guillain-Barre occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the nervous system for seemingly no reason. It can lead to muscle weakness and respiratory problems. Around 5 percent of patients end up succumbing and dying to the disease. Not only that, but survivors of the illness claim that it can lead to temporary paralysis.

Researchers in Tahiti, one the virus’ starting points, sought to understand more about the virus an so began to analyze blood samples of people diagnosed with Guillain-Barre from the 2013-2014 Zika outbreak. The results show that almost every person examined showed signs of a previous Zika infection, leading scientists to believe Zika leads to the development of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

“The evidence that links Zika virus with Guillain-Barre syndrome is now substantially more compelling,” said Peter Barlow, an infectious diseases expert out of the Edinburgh Napier University who commented on the study.

Mexico has confirmed that out of its 121 total cases of Zika virus, 11 are pregnant women. The Zika virus is beginning to pop-up all around the world, and while its symptoms are not hugely problematic for everyone, it poses a big risk to pregnant women, whose babies can suffer from serious birth defects as a result of the virus.

According to Reuters, a health ministry report confirms that most cases of Zika in Mexico are centralized around the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. One of the infected pregnant women is form the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, indicating the virus is not contained to the southern states specifically.

The number of people infected with Zika has been on the rise since mid-February, when there were only 80 confirmed cases total. Six of these cases were pregnant women.

While little is known about Zika, it seems to have very few noticeable problematic symptoms in people who are not pregnant. However, there is a correlation between pregnant women with Zika and their children being born with microcephaly, a condition that results in the baby being born with an unusually small head.

This, of course, can lead to developmental problems later in the child’s life.

Given its relatively recent outbreak, it is still unknown whether or not Zika actually causes microcephaly or if there is some other factor at play here.

Whatever the case, there have been over 580 cases of microcephaly confirmed in Brazil. Most of them are currently considered to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is currently investigating 4,100 additional cases of microcephaly to look for a concrete link with Zika.