Meat Intake and the Dose of Vitamin B3 - Nicotinamide:Cause of the Causes of Disease Transitions, Health Divides, and Health Futures?

Meat and vitamin B 3 – nicotinamide – intake was high during hunter-gatherer times. Intake then fell and variances increased during and after the Neolithic agricultural revolution. Health, height, and IQ deteriorated. Low dietary doses are buffered by ‘welcoming’ gut symbionts and tuberculosis that can supply nicotinamide, but this co-evolved homeostatic metagenomic strategy risks dysbioses and impaired resistance to pathogens. Vitamin B 3 deficiency may now be common among the poor billions on a low-meat diet. Disease transitions to non-communicable inflammatory disorders (but longer lives) may be driven by positive ‘meat transitions’. High doses of nicotinamide lead to reduced regulatory T cells and immune intolerance. Loss of no longer needed symbiotic ‘old friends’ compounds immunological over-reactivity to cause allergic and auto-immune diseases. Inhibition of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide consumers and loss of methyl groups or production of toxins may cause cancers, metabolic toxicity, or neurodegeneration. An optimal dosage of vitamin B 3 could lead to better health, but such a preventive approach needs more equitable meat distribution. Some people may require personalised doses depending on genetic make-up or, temporarily, when under stress

Atomic Energy Commission Reports

Report investigating the possible relationship between fluoride and beryllium toxicity by exposing rats to either beryllium sulfate mist and/or hydrogen fluoride vapor. Materials, experimental methods, and results are described. Bibliography begins on page 23

Representations – A critical look at media’s role in cleanliness conventions and inconspicuous consumption

In post-industrialist societies, similar high standards of living are becoming not only desired but also expected the world over. Globalising processes ensure that every material desire is within the reach of ordinary citizens, and then flame these desires in order to sustain continuous growth narratives. But are increasingly resource-intensive lifestyles sustainable, or even desirable? This article investigates cleanliness using representations in media to understand how practices – including washing, disinfecting and sanitising – have become increasingly normal. Five popular Swedish magazines from 1985 to 2015 are used to track the representations of cleanliness. Idealisation, shame and medicalisation are the main themes arising from this data set. These themes aim to perpetuate higher cleanliness conventions and translate them into consumer goods. The article is inspired by a critical theoretical perspective which helps to reveal inequalities perpetuated by the way media represents cleanliness and suggests that the imperative to clean falls most heavily on those who lack the resources to resist. Processes of inclusion and exclusion are inherent in consumer culture and this attempt at using critical theory to understand consumption practices illuminates consumption’s role in not only increasing pressure on the natural environment but also amplifying social stratification