Thursday, August 28, 2008
How Governmental Vaccine Policies Made Cancer Contagious
(NaturalNews) Most people have been told over the years that you cannot catch cancer from someone else. Unlike the fear of AIDS conjured up by the cleverly contrived media blitzes of the 1980's, cancer has generally been seen as often incurable, quite frequently ultimately fatal, yet whilst a terrible disease that strikes too many, we have always been thankful that it is not contagious. But, if you have not done so already, it is now time to re-evaluate this belief and all because of the misguided medical machinations of profit-seeking pharmaceutical companies in cahoots with inexcusably ignorant politicians throughout the last half century.
It is intriguing to take a look over the statistics of mortality over the last century or so for countries such as the U.S. and U.K. The figures imply that certain major diseases have greatly contributed to the death-toll over the years. In the main, these illnesses have gradually been "conquered" largely due to improved sanitation. Advances in science and medicine may also have played a part, but their role has been substantially over played by the media, politicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers for their own questionable reasons.
The conventional wisdom of recent times has been that unlike most of the other major diseases, cancer is booming. Hence the justification for billions of dollars to be ploughed into supposedly furthering the understanding of this disease with "many faces". Billions, by the way, that largely come via direct support for research from Governments (i.e. our money!) and from immense sums in gifts and donations (i.e. our money!) wrung out of us by today's media-and-marketing-savvy, multi-billion dollar charitable organizations (that are actually simply "business wolves" dressed in "charitable-sheep's" clothing, of course.)
The Mythical Cancer Boom
The reality, however, is that rather than exactly "booming" (in the sense of rising inexorably), the cancer mortality statistics confirm that the number of deaths caused by cancer, per 1000 head of population, has pretty much remained static throughout the last century. True, this means that, by comparison with other formerly "killer" diseases, such as tuberculosis (T.B.), little progress seems to have been made. Here again such an observation is really too simplistic to have much value, but treading the "mine-laden" ground that is the interpretation of statistics is not the main thrust of this particular article.
Let's just say that cancer is such a recognized threat these days that, we are told, around 1-in-3 women and as many as half of all men (in the developed Western countries, at least) will suffer some kind of cancer at some time in their lives. It also seems that (thanks to advances in diagnostic capabilities) the types and varieties of cancer that Homo sapiens now suffer are legion; albeit that the majority of cases of cancer are represented by a handful of major forms –- these being breast, cervix, colorectal, lung, prostate and skin cancers.
It has long been thought that cancers are not per se "contagious". That is, cancer cannot be passed from person to person by contact of any kind. But nowadays it appears that things may not be so simple or clear when it comes to the spread of some cancers. A case in point was articulated within an article published in Medical Veritas a while ago by Neil Z. Miller. The following discussion revisits Miller's fascinating paper, for those who may have missed it.
The Other Vaccination Debacle
There has been disturbing news in recent years regarding the possible dangers of vaccines and the negative impact on long-term health that ill-conceived and scientifically dubious mass-vaccination campaigns might be having. One example that has hit the headlines is the issue of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that contains mercury, and its possible role in contributing to the dramatic rise in autism in the U.S. in particular. Few "natural health" oriented readers will have failed to pick-up on this topic over recent years. But long before thimerosal became a hot topic there were already dire tidings emerging about the impact of questionable vaccination programs instigated four or five decades ago.
Neil Z. Miller authored a fascinating and detailed paper a little while back that deserves revisiting, if you did not pick up a copy of Medical Veritas back in 2004. In this case the particular vaccination that appears to have introduced new and harmful factors into the bodies of many people, particularly in the U.S., is the Polio vaccine hailed and lauded in its day and injected into between 30 and 100 million Americans between 1954 and 1963.
Amongst numerous startling revelations, Miller notes that as early as 1959 a respected U.S. Government researcher first suggested that the 'famous' polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk, was contaminated with an infectious agent that had the potential to trigger cancers in humans. The researcher, Bernice Eddy was silenced and later demoted in the oft-recorded fashion of a panicking authority.
Later on two other scientists were credited with confirming that polio vaccines were indeed contaminated by a viral agent found in diseased monkey glands such as those used to culture the shots administered to multi-millions of Americans and others around the world. This time it was the pink-sugar cube vaccine, developed by Salk's contemporary and vaccine-development competitor Albert Sabin and which became the vaccination-norm in the 1960's (to the glee of many schoolchildren of the time, including the author of this article) that was the problem.
It was Doctors Ben Sweet and M.R. Hilleman, at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research, who confirmed that a simian (monkey) virus, code name SV-40, had been identified in diseased Rhesus monkey kidneys which had been used for polio vaccine production. The virus, it appears, was not destroyed during normal vaccine processing and hence was likely to have been pumped into millions of human recipients. A major problem was that almost all Rhesus monkeys had this widespread virus and SV-40, it was further confirmed, had the potential to trigger cancers. Particular concern was expressed by the researchers at the time about this likelihood if the vaccine was administered to babies.
Naturally it was too late to do anything about the many millions who had received polluted Salk vaccines and it would have been commercial and political suicide to renege upon the polio vaccine program in 1960 and withdraw the new Sabin vaccines. Consequently masses of folks were unwittingly 'seeded' with a potential cancer-causing time-bomb, it seems.
The Evidence Mounts
Evidence has since emerged that this carcinogenic virus may indeed be doing its worst amongst the vaccinated population. During the 1990's various studies confirmed the presence of monkey virus SV-40 in the tumors of many cancer victims. One such study conducted at the highly regarded Loyola Medical Center in Chicago, showed that almost 4 out of 10 patients with bone cancer, and close to 6 in every 10 mesothelioma victims also had the SV-40 virus. It seems that SV-40 can interfere with a cell's ability to resist malignancy due to blocking a key protective protein.
Further data also emerged from a U.S. national database in 1998. It became clear that in those American states that the contaminated vaccines were used most heavily there were considerably higher levels of certain cancers. Statistics indicated that bone cancers were up by 17 cases in 100, there were also one fifth more brain cancers, and 178 percent more cases of mesothelioma in the areas where SV-40 laced vaccines had been used. Further research has also revealed that bone cancer rates in the areas where contaminated vaccines were used were an incredible 1000-percent higher than the average in States where monkey virus affected vaccines had been used the least.
The Zip-Code Cancer Lottery
For interest sake, the American States where the highest levels of polluted vaccines were administered include:
* Connecticut
* District of Columbia
* Delaware
* Iowa
* Illinois
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Michigan
* Minnesota
* New Hampshire
* New York
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Utah
* Vermont
* Washington
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming
Even More Bad News
But with respect to the theme of this article the bad news gets worse. It seems that studies have shown that SV-40 has been found in almost one quarter of blood samples and close to half of all semen samples taken for analysis. It has also been confirmed that the SV-40 virus can pass between mother and baby in the womb. So the conclusion is that this virus, known to be cancer causing, can be passed on by sexual contact and inherited by babies from mothers. Just as it spread through the Rhesus monkey population, the SV-40 virus is evidently establishing itself in humans and has the potential to spread from person to person, and generation to generation -- all thanks to vaccination.
So although cancer has always been thought to be a disease that cannot be passed between humans it would seem clear that medical science in its wisdom has created the potential for this to change. Notably, in recent times, more and more stories are making their way to the media about viruses that have been shown to be able to cause cancer. This fact has of course been used to further substantiate the need for yet more billions to be pumped into cancer research. Naturally, little has been said about the fact that the promulgation of such cancer causing viruses throughout humans has been massively helped along by flawed and questionable vaccination policies. Indeed, far from lessons being learned it also seems that ever greater numbers of vaccines are being developed and already being planned to be unleashed upon a still largely under-informed public. Some soon to be widely-administered vaccines are even "supposed" to address the threat of potentially cancer causing viruses (such as Human Papilloma Virus, HPV). The validity of the claims for, and safety of such vaccinations are even now being challenged vigorously by certain informed sources.
It should be noted that the spread of cancer caused by contaminated polio vaccines is only one of the possible major health threats that the polio vaccination program may be responsible for. For those who can't wait to find out more about how polio vaccination in the 1950's, 60's and 70's is implicated in causing millions of cases of polio and the development and spread of AIDS amongst other horrors, the original reference by Neil Z. Miller is provided below. For those who can wait, further summaries will follow.
Source:
The polio vaccine: a critical assessment of its arcane history, efficacy, and long-term health-related consequences by Neil Z. Miller, Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute, (www.thinktwice.com)
Medical Veritas 1 (2004) 239–251.
It is intriguing to take a look over the statistics of mortality over the last century or so for countries such as the U.S. and U.K. The figures imply that certain major diseases have greatly contributed to the death-toll over the years. In the main, these illnesses have gradually been "conquered" largely due to improved sanitation. Advances in science and medicine may also have played a part, but their role has been substantially over played by the media, politicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers for their own questionable reasons.
The conventional wisdom of recent times has been that unlike most of the other major diseases, cancer is booming. Hence the justification for billions of dollars to be ploughed into supposedly furthering the understanding of this disease with "many faces". Billions, by the way, that largely come via direct support for research from Governments (i.e. our money!) and from immense sums in gifts and donations (i.e. our money!) wrung out of us by today's media-and-marketing-savvy, multi-billion dollar charitable organizations (that are actually simply "business wolves" dressed in "charitable-sheep's" clothing, of course.)
The Mythical Cancer Boom
The reality, however, is that rather than exactly "booming" (in the sense of rising inexorably), the cancer mortality statistics confirm that the number of deaths caused by cancer, per 1000 head of population, has pretty much remained static throughout the last century. True, this means that, by comparison with other formerly "killer" diseases, such as tuberculosis (T.B.), little progress seems to have been made. Here again such an observation is really too simplistic to have much value, but treading the "mine-laden" ground that is the interpretation of statistics is not the main thrust of this particular article.
Let's just say that cancer is such a recognized threat these days that, we are told, around 1-in-3 women and as many as half of all men (in the developed Western countries, at least) will suffer some kind of cancer at some time in their lives. It also seems that (thanks to advances in diagnostic capabilities) the types and varieties of cancer that Homo sapiens now suffer are legion; albeit that the majority of cases of cancer are represented by a handful of major forms –- these being breast, cervix, colorectal, lung, prostate and skin cancers.
It has long been thought that cancers are not per se "contagious". That is, cancer cannot be passed from person to person by contact of any kind. But nowadays it appears that things may not be so simple or clear when it comes to the spread of some cancers. A case in point was articulated within an article published in Medical Veritas a while ago by Neil Z. Miller. The following discussion revisits Miller's fascinating paper, for those who may have missed it.
The Other Vaccination Debacle
There has been disturbing news in recent years regarding the possible dangers of vaccines and the negative impact on long-term health that ill-conceived and scientifically dubious mass-vaccination campaigns might be having. One example that has hit the headlines is the issue of thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that contains mercury, and its possible role in contributing to the dramatic rise in autism in the U.S. in particular. Few "natural health" oriented readers will have failed to pick-up on this topic over recent years. But long before thimerosal became a hot topic there were already dire tidings emerging about the impact of questionable vaccination programs instigated four or five decades ago.
Neil Z. Miller authored a fascinating and detailed paper a little while back that deserves revisiting, if you did not pick up a copy of Medical Veritas back in 2004. In this case the particular vaccination that appears to have introduced new and harmful factors into the bodies of many people, particularly in the U.S., is the Polio vaccine hailed and lauded in its day and injected into between 30 and 100 million Americans between 1954 and 1963.
Amongst numerous startling revelations, Miller notes that as early as 1959 a respected U.S. Government researcher first suggested that the 'famous' polio vaccine created by Jonas Salk, was contaminated with an infectious agent that had the potential to trigger cancers in humans. The researcher, Bernice Eddy was silenced and later demoted in the oft-recorded fashion of a panicking authority.
Later on two other scientists were credited with confirming that polio vaccines were indeed contaminated by a viral agent found in diseased monkey glands such as those used to culture the shots administered to multi-millions of Americans and others around the world. This time it was the pink-sugar cube vaccine, developed by Salk's contemporary and vaccine-development competitor Albert Sabin and which became the vaccination-norm in the 1960's (to the glee of many schoolchildren of the time, including the author of this article) that was the problem.
It was Doctors Ben Sweet and M.R. Hilleman, at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research, who confirmed that a simian (monkey) virus, code name SV-40, had been identified in diseased Rhesus monkey kidneys which had been used for polio vaccine production. The virus, it appears, was not destroyed during normal vaccine processing and hence was likely to have been pumped into millions of human recipients. A major problem was that almost all Rhesus monkeys had this widespread virus and SV-40, it was further confirmed, had the potential to trigger cancers. Particular concern was expressed by the researchers at the time about this likelihood if the vaccine was administered to babies.
Naturally it was too late to do anything about the many millions who had received polluted Salk vaccines and it would have been commercial and political suicide to renege upon the polio vaccine program in 1960 and withdraw the new Sabin vaccines. Consequently masses of folks were unwittingly 'seeded' with a potential cancer-causing time-bomb, it seems.
The Evidence Mounts
Evidence has since emerged that this carcinogenic virus may indeed be doing its worst amongst the vaccinated population. During the 1990's various studies confirmed the presence of monkey virus SV-40 in the tumors of many cancer victims. One such study conducted at the highly regarded Loyola Medical Center in Chicago, showed that almost 4 out of 10 patients with bone cancer, and close to 6 in every 10 mesothelioma victims also had the SV-40 virus. It seems that SV-40 can interfere with a cell's ability to resist malignancy due to blocking a key protective protein.
Further data also emerged from a U.S. national database in 1998. It became clear that in those American states that the contaminated vaccines were used most heavily there were considerably higher levels of certain cancers. Statistics indicated that bone cancers were up by 17 cases in 100, there were also one fifth more brain cancers, and 178 percent more cases of mesothelioma in the areas where SV-40 laced vaccines had been used. Further research has also revealed that bone cancer rates in the areas where contaminated vaccines were used were an incredible 1000-percent higher than the average in States where monkey virus affected vaccines had been used the least.
The Zip-Code Cancer Lottery
For interest sake, the American States where the highest levels of polluted vaccines were administered include:
* Connecticut
* District of Columbia
* Delaware
* Iowa
* Illinois
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Michigan
* Minnesota
* New Hampshire
* New York
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Utah
* Vermont
* Washington
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming
Even More Bad News
But with respect to the theme of this article the bad news gets worse. It seems that studies have shown that SV-40 has been found in almost one quarter of blood samples and close to half of all semen samples taken for analysis. It has also been confirmed that the SV-40 virus can pass between mother and baby in the womb. So the conclusion is that this virus, known to be cancer causing, can be passed on by sexual contact and inherited by babies from mothers. Just as it spread through the Rhesus monkey population, the SV-40 virus is evidently establishing itself in humans and has the potential to spread from person to person, and generation to generation -- all thanks to vaccination.
So although cancer has always been thought to be a disease that cannot be passed between humans it would seem clear that medical science in its wisdom has created the potential for this to change. Notably, in recent times, more and more stories are making their way to the media about viruses that have been shown to be able to cause cancer. This fact has of course been used to further substantiate the need for yet more billions to be pumped into cancer research. Naturally, little has been said about the fact that the promulgation of such cancer causing viruses throughout humans has been massively helped along by flawed and questionable vaccination policies. Indeed, far from lessons being learned it also seems that ever greater numbers of vaccines are being developed and already being planned to be unleashed upon a still largely under-informed public. Some soon to be widely-administered vaccines are even "supposed" to address the threat of potentially cancer causing viruses (such as Human Papilloma Virus, HPV). The validity of the claims for, and safety of such vaccinations are even now being challenged vigorously by certain informed sources.
It should be noted that the spread of cancer caused by contaminated polio vaccines is only one of the possible major health threats that the polio vaccination program may be responsible for. For those who can't wait to find out more about how polio vaccination in the 1950's, 60's and 70's is implicated in causing millions of cases of polio and the development and spread of AIDS amongst other horrors, the original reference by Neil Z. Miller is provided below. For those who can wait, further summaries will follow.
Source:
The polio vaccine: a critical assessment of its arcane history, efficacy, and long-term health-related consequences by Neil Z. Miller, Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute, (www.thinktwice.com)
Medical Veritas 1 (2004) 239–251.
Your diet can change your genes!
(NaturalNews) Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, is a well-known author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health. Dr. Ornish is also affiliated with the University of California at San Francisco. He recently reported on the Gene Expression Modulation by Intervention with Nutrition and Lifestyle (GEMINAL) study. This study indicated that making positive changes in one's diet, exercise, and stress management can affect more than a person's weight. Dr. Ornish's study was published in the June 16, 2008 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study followed 30 men who had opted out of conventional treatment for low-risk prostate cancer. The men decided, before they were recruited to take part in the study, not to undergo treatments such as surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy normally advocated for the disease. The men were closely monitored for tumor progression through the duration of the study.
Instead, for three months, they made changes in their lifestyle: They ate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products. They exercised moderately, walking for half an hour a day. Each day they spent an hour practicing stress management methods such as meditation. Additionally, the men participated in support group sessions.
As the study progressed, the men lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and cholesterol, and generally saw improvements in their health. Previous studies gave evidence of lowered prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels with dietary changes.
Biopsies taken at the beginning and end of the study demonstrated some more significant changes. About 500 genes evidenced changes in activity at the end of the study. 48 disease preventing genes were turned on. 453 genes which promote disease, like breast and prostate cancers, were turned off.
Dr. Ornish expressed excitement over the results in a Reuters interview. The implications of this study go beyond men and prostate cancer. People are not doomed by their genetics. They can make positive changes fairly quickly. In three months, genetic changes can be made through the choices we make in food, exercise, and the way we handle stress.
This is an area of study that merits further investigation, the researchers concluded.
Resources:
((http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080617/hl_...)
((http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/10...)
((http://ict.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abst...)
((http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1609...)
The study followed 30 men who had opted out of conventional treatment for low-risk prostate cancer. The men decided, before they were recruited to take part in the study, not to undergo treatments such as surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy normally advocated for the disease. The men were closely monitored for tumor progression through the duration of the study.
Instead, for three months, they made changes in their lifestyle: They ate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products. They exercised moderately, walking for half an hour a day. Each day they spent an hour practicing stress management methods such as meditation. Additionally, the men participated in support group sessions.
As the study progressed, the men lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and cholesterol, and generally saw improvements in their health. Previous studies gave evidence of lowered prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels with dietary changes.
Biopsies taken at the beginning and end of the study demonstrated some more significant changes. About 500 genes evidenced changes in activity at the end of the study. 48 disease preventing genes were turned on. 453 genes which promote disease, like breast and prostate cancers, were turned off.
Dr. Ornish expressed excitement over the results in a Reuters interview. The implications of this study go beyond men and prostate cancer. People are not doomed by their genetics. They can make positive changes fairly quickly. In three months, genetic changes can be made through the choices we make in food, exercise, and the way we handle stress.
This is an area of study that merits further investigation, the researchers concluded.
Resources:
((http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080617/hl_...)
((http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/10...)
((http://ict.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abst...)
((http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1609...)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Milk Thistle
(NaturalNews) Milk thistle has long been a staple of natural healers who use it to promote liver health. Taken as a spring and fall tonic, milk thistle strengthens the liver, protects liver cells from incoming toxins and allows it to process and release toxins that are already there. It also acts as an anti-depressant, helping to move stagnant liver energy. Milk thistle also soothes and moistens mucous membranes, offering remedy for kidney and bladder irritation as well as inflammation of the skin. This lubricating effect makes milk thistle a mild natural laxative as well.
Supplementing with milk thistle has a long history among Europeans who have used it to protect their livers from the effects of alcohol and environmental pollution. It is approved by the German Commission E Monographs to treat alcoholic cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, drug and alcohol induced liver damage, and other diseases such as acute viral hepatitis.
The milk thistle ingredient that most people believe to be responsible for its medicinal properties is the flavonoid complex called silymarin. Silymarin is found in the fruit of the milk thistle plant. Silymarin from milk thistle is also an extremely effective antioxidant, fighting the destructive processes of oxidation in the body. Studies suggest that silymarin can prevent free radicals from damaging liver cells.
Silymarin is also an active agent against cancer. Recent investigations and molecular studies have established the cancer chemopreventive role of silymarin in both in vivo and in vitro models.
According to a study published in the May 8, 2008 edition of Cancer Letter, silymarin modulates imbalance between cell survival and apoptosis. Apoptosis is the programmed death of cells. When cells do not die as programmed there is risk of tumor formation. Silymarin carries out its role by interfering with the expression of cell cycle regulators and proteins involved in apoptosis. In addition, silymarin shows anti-inflammatory as well as anti-metastatic activity. Further, the protective effects of silymarin and its major active constituent, silibinin, studied in various tissues, suggest a clinical application in cancer patients as an adjunct to established therapies, to prevent or reduce chemotherapy as well radiotherapy induced toxicity.
A study from the European Journal of Cancer, April, 2008 found that silibinin possesses cancer chemopreventive properties in rodent models of carcinogenesis. Researchers tested the hypothesis that silibinin, or silibinin formulated with phospholipids would delay tumor formation in mice with genetic models of prostate or intestinal malignancies respectively. Intervention with silibinin formulated with phospholipids reduced the size of well differentiated adenocarcinomas by 31%. Silibinin and silibinin formulated with phospholipids decreased the incidence of poorly differentiated carcinomas by 61% compared to mice on control diets. The silibinin formulation decreased plasma levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 by 36%.
Another study, from the March 15, 2008 Journal of Cancer Research investigated in vivo efficacy and associated biomarkers and mechanism of silibinin against human colorectal carcinoma xenograft growth. Mice implanted with the growth and treated with silibinin, showed tumor growth inhibition of 48% compared to controls. A combination of silibinin and phytosome resulted in decreased proliferation by 40%, increased apoptotic index by nearly double, and reduced micro-vessel density by 36% compared to controls.
How milk thistle works
Milk thistle, provides protection to liver cells by stabilizing and guarding the cell membranes. It alters the structure of the outer cell membrane so as to prevent the penetration of liver toxins into the interior cell. By reducing the rate at which the liver absorbs harmful substances, toxins are excreted through the kidneys before they are able to damage the liver. A dramatic example of this is the ability of milk thistle to block poisons from the deathcap mushroom, a notorious liver toxin.
In a study, physicians rated the results after a group of 49 patients with deathcap mushroom poisoning were given injections of silibinin (20 mg/kg daily). All of the treated patients survived, even though they were treated from 24 to 36 hours after their poisoning, when liver and kidney damage had already occurred. The usual death rate from deathcap poisoning is 30 to 40 percent of patients. In a similar manner, Milk thistle detoxifies chemicals that enter our bodies from environmental sources, alcohol consumption, heavy metals, medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, and drugs.
Silymarin exerts its powerful antioxidant properties by combining and neutralizing harmful free radicals resulting from metabolic processes and from the process of detoxification. Silymarin also helps increase levels of glutathione and superoxide dismutase (SOD), two antioxidants made naturally in the body. Silymarin may increase the content of glutathione in the liver and intestines by as much as 50 percent. It also increases the activity of SOD in red and white blood cells. In the stomach and intestines, silymarin has a role in the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as colitis and ulcers.
Milk thistle helps repair damaged cells and generate new ones when needed. It accomplishes this by stimulating vital protein synthesis through the enzyme RNA polymerase I. Silibinin may be the agent of this process, functioning by imitating a steroid hormone. In a study, silybin increased protein synthesis by up to 25 to 30 percent compared to controls. This is important since protein is a basic building block of cell walls, cell structures, and the creation of enzymes vital to body processes. This ability of Milk thistle to promote regeneration is why it is a chosen treatment for chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and fatty liver.
Milk thistle for kidney disease, diabetes, and skin health
In the kidneys, silymarin concentrates in the cells to aid in repair and regeneration by increasing protein and nucleic acid synthesis by as much as 25 to 30 percent. It has been tested in animals for its ability to protect kidneys from damage due to drugs. Results of this research were promising for people taking chemotherapy.
The ability of milk thistle to improve liver function and regulate the utilization of insulin leads to improved control for diabetes. A study reported in the August, 2002 Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolism Journal noted that in patients with diabetes and associated chronic liver disease, plasma levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides are high, lipid peroxidation is increased, and natural antioxidant reserves are low. Researchers hypothesized that better liver function could result in a better glucose and lipid metabolism.
A randomly selected group of 60 patients with diabetes caused by liver cirrhosis who were being treated with insulin were assigned to receive silymarin 600 mg/day or no treatment with silymarin for a period of 6 months. All the patients were receiving insulin therapy and had elevated endogenous insulin levels indicative of insulin resistance. Other criteria for inclusion in the study were age between 45 and 70, insulin therapy stable for at least 2 years, and liver cirrhosis determined by biopsy less than 4 years previously. Metabolic control, serum lipid levels and liver function was assessed throughout their treatment period.
Treatment with silymarin produced benefits in terms of control of diabetes, including significant reduction in daily and fasting blood glucose confirmed by urine glucose measurement, significant improvement in glycosylated hemoglobin values, and a significant drop in insulin requirement and fasting insulinemia. The status of the patients not treated with silymarin declined during the trial. The outcome in the silymarin recipients was significantly superior compared to the control group.
In the treated patients, the measured values of the end product of lipid peroxidation decreased significantly, from 2.2 umol/dl at baseline to 1.6 umo/dl 6 months later. In the control group, a slight increase in lipid peroxidation was observed over the 6 month period.
Researchers concluded that the clinical benefits of silymarin observed in the study probably involve restoration of the plasma membrane of the liver cells and an increase in insulin receptor sensitivity as a result of reduction in lipid peroxidation of liver cell membranes. Researchers noted the need to administer silymarin for longer periods of time in order to identify the end point of the biochemical amelioration caused by the silymarin treatment. All of the study participants chose to continue with silymarin following the 6 month study.
Along with moistening and soothing mucus membranes, Milk Thistle is effective at softening and moisturizing the skin, and it produces a noticeable glow and radiance to skin quality. Skin problems are quite responsive, particularly acne and eczema. Milk Thistle also aids in the healing of redness and inflammation of the skin.
Supplementing with milk thistle has a long history among Europeans who have used it to protect their livers from the effects of alcohol and environmental pollution. It is approved by the German Commission E Monographs to treat alcoholic cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, drug and alcohol induced liver damage, and other diseases such as acute viral hepatitis.
The milk thistle ingredient that most people believe to be responsible for its medicinal properties is the flavonoid complex called silymarin. Silymarin is found in the fruit of the milk thistle plant. Silymarin from milk thistle is also an extremely effective antioxidant, fighting the destructive processes of oxidation in the body. Studies suggest that silymarin can prevent free radicals from damaging liver cells.
Silymarin is also an active agent against cancer. Recent investigations and molecular studies have established the cancer chemopreventive role of silymarin in both in vivo and in vitro models.
According to a study published in the May 8, 2008 edition of Cancer Letter, silymarin modulates imbalance between cell survival and apoptosis. Apoptosis is the programmed death of cells. When cells do not die as programmed there is risk of tumor formation. Silymarin carries out its role by interfering with the expression of cell cycle regulators and proteins involved in apoptosis. In addition, silymarin shows anti-inflammatory as well as anti-metastatic activity. Further, the protective effects of silymarin and its major active constituent, silibinin, studied in various tissues, suggest a clinical application in cancer patients as an adjunct to established therapies, to prevent or reduce chemotherapy as well radiotherapy induced toxicity.
A study from the European Journal of Cancer, April, 2008 found that silibinin possesses cancer chemopreventive properties in rodent models of carcinogenesis. Researchers tested the hypothesis that silibinin, or silibinin formulated with phospholipids would delay tumor formation in mice with genetic models of prostate or intestinal malignancies respectively. Intervention with silibinin formulated with phospholipids reduced the size of well differentiated adenocarcinomas by 31%. Silibinin and silibinin formulated with phospholipids decreased the incidence of poorly differentiated carcinomas by 61% compared to mice on control diets. The silibinin formulation decreased plasma levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 by 36%.
Another study, from the March 15, 2008 Journal of Cancer Research investigated in vivo efficacy and associated biomarkers and mechanism of silibinin against human colorectal carcinoma xenograft growth. Mice implanted with the growth and treated with silibinin, showed tumor growth inhibition of 48% compared to controls. A combination of silibinin and phytosome resulted in decreased proliferation by 40%, increased apoptotic index by nearly double, and reduced micro-vessel density by 36% compared to controls.
How milk thistle works
Milk thistle, provides protection to liver cells by stabilizing and guarding the cell membranes. It alters the structure of the outer cell membrane so as to prevent the penetration of liver toxins into the interior cell. By reducing the rate at which the liver absorbs harmful substances, toxins are excreted through the kidneys before they are able to damage the liver. A dramatic example of this is the ability of milk thistle to block poisons from the deathcap mushroom, a notorious liver toxin.
In a study, physicians rated the results after a group of 49 patients with deathcap mushroom poisoning were given injections of silibinin (20 mg/kg daily). All of the treated patients survived, even though they were treated from 24 to 36 hours after their poisoning, when liver and kidney damage had already occurred. The usual death rate from deathcap poisoning is 30 to 40 percent of patients. In a similar manner, Milk thistle detoxifies chemicals that enter our bodies from environmental sources, alcohol consumption, heavy metals, medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, and drugs.
Silymarin exerts its powerful antioxidant properties by combining and neutralizing harmful free radicals resulting from metabolic processes and from the process of detoxification. Silymarin also helps increase levels of glutathione and superoxide dismutase (SOD), two antioxidants made naturally in the body. Silymarin may increase the content of glutathione in the liver and intestines by as much as 50 percent. It also increases the activity of SOD in red and white blood cells. In the stomach and intestines, silymarin has a role in the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as colitis and ulcers.
Milk thistle helps repair damaged cells and generate new ones when needed. It accomplishes this by stimulating vital protein synthesis through the enzyme RNA polymerase I. Silibinin may be the agent of this process, functioning by imitating a steroid hormone. In a study, silybin increased protein synthesis by up to 25 to 30 percent compared to controls. This is important since protein is a basic building block of cell walls, cell structures, and the creation of enzymes vital to body processes. This ability of Milk thistle to promote regeneration is why it is a chosen treatment for chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and fatty liver.
Milk thistle for kidney disease, diabetes, and skin health
In the kidneys, silymarin concentrates in the cells to aid in repair and regeneration by increasing protein and nucleic acid synthesis by as much as 25 to 30 percent. It has been tested in animals for its ability to protect kidneys from damage due to drugs. Results of this research were promising for people taking chemotherapy.
The ability of milk thistle to improve liver function and regulate the utilization of insulin leads to improved control for diabetes. A study reported in the August, 2002 Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolism Journal noted that in patients with diabetes and associated chronic liver disease, plasma levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides are high, lipid peroxidation is increased, and natural antioxidant reserves are low. Researchers hypothesized that better liver function could result in a better glucose and lipid metabolism.
A randomly selected group of 60 patients with diabetes caused by liver cirrhosis who were being treated with insulin were assigned to receive silymarin 600 mg/day or no treatment with silymarin for a period of 6 months. All the patients were receiving insulin therapy and had elevated endogenous insulin levels indicative of insulin resistance. Other criteria for inclusion in the study were age between 45 and 70, insulin therapy stable for at least 2 years, and liver cirrhosis determined by biopsy less than 4 years previously. Metabolic control, serum lipid levels and liver function was assessed throughout their treatment period.
Treatment with silymarin produced benefits in terms of control of diabetes, including significant reduction in daily and fasting blood glucose confirmed by urine glucose measurement, significant improvement in glycosylated hemoglobin values, and a significant drop in insulin requirement and fasting insulinemia. The status of the patients not treated with silymarin declined during the trial. The outcome in the silymarin recipients was significantly superior compared to the control group.
In the treated patients, the measured values of the end product of lipid peroxidation decreased significantly, from 2.2 umol/dl at baseline to 1.6 umo/dl 6 months later. In the control group, a slight increase in lipid peroxidation was observed over the 6 month period.
Researchers concluded that the clinical benefits of silymarin observed in the study probably involve restoration of the plasma membrane of the liver cells and an increase in insulin receptor sensitivity as a result of reduction in lipid peroxidation of liver cell membranes. Researchers noted the need to administer silymarin for longer periods of time in order to identify the end point of the biochemical amelioration caused by the silymarin treatment. All of the study participants chose to continue with silymarin following the 6 month study.
Along with moistening and soothing mucus membranes, Milk Thistle is effective at softening and moisturizing the skin, and it produces a noticeable glow and radiance to skin quality. Skin problems are quite responsive, particularly acne and eczema. Milk Thistle also aids in the healing of redness and inflammation of the skin.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
DIE rBGH DIE!!!
(NaturalNews) I recently received great news from the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that after a long fourteen year battle between OCA, public interest and family farmer groups against Monsanto's Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), Monsanto has announced on August 6th that they will sell off their controversial rBGH. This is very good news since rBGH has been fed to cattle since the early 1990's and has been implicated in a wide array of health issues, some very serious ones for both the animals themselves and anyone who consumes anything from the animals who are fed rBGH.
rBGH is said to be responsible for a number of health issues ranging from premature puberty in children to colon, prostate and breast cancer to increased antibiotic residues and elevated levels of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1.
rBGH is a genetically engineered variant of the natural growth hormone produced by cows. It is manufactured by Monsanto and sold to dairy farmers under the trade name Posilac. This hormone forces cows to increase milk production by about 10%, but it also increases the incidences of mastitis, lameness as well as reproductive issues.
Another health concern, especially in regards to women is how this genetically modified hormone can interfere with a woman's sensitive hormonal system and could also affect human reproduction as it is currently doing to cow's reproductive systems. Could rBGH be at least partly responsible for the greatly increase in human fertility in the past thirty years? It certainly seems possible given the current evidence of reproductive issues in cows fed rBGH. Countries like Canada and many European nations have banned the import of U.S. milk unless it specifically says "No rBGH"
The fight is not over yet as Monsanto has been pressuring state legislatures to force dairies to use Posilac (rBGH). They also want to prevent these dairies from telling the public that they're rBGH free.
Here is an announcement from the Organic Consumers Association:
"Monsanto has been lobbying state legislatures and departments of agriculture around the country to harass dairies that won't use Posilac. Monsanto wants to take away dairies' right to tell consumers they're rBGH-free. Please go to the following OCA state action centers to learn more and take action: (http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.cfm) ."
Man made chemicals and genetically modified foods pose very serious health issues to your family. This is why it's very important to learn what chemicals and ingredients are being put into packaged and processed foods in order to take greater control of your health and life and to help avoid serious health issues.
My Chinese Health and Fitness video goes into more details about some other dangerous food ingredients and chemicals that are being put into packaged and processed foods that you definitely want to avoid and keep out of your body as much as possible. It also contains much more information on nutrition, breathing, meditation, physical training and more. Click on the link below to visit the video website and learn more about other chemicals to avoid and more.
rBGH is said to be responsible for a number of health issues ranging from premature puberty in children to colon, prostate and breast cancer to increased antibiotic residues and elevated levels of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1.
rBGH is a genetically engineered variant of the natural growth hormone produced by cows. It is manufactured by Monsanto and sold to dairy farmers under the trade name Posilac. This hormone forces cows to increase milk production by about 10%, but it also increases the incidences of mastitis, lameness as well as reproductive issues.
Another health concern, especially in regards to women is how this genetically modified hormone can interfere with a woman's sensitive hormonal system and could also affect human reproduction as it is currently doing to cow's reproductive systems. Could rBGH be at least partly responsible for the greatly increase in human fertility in the past thirty years? It certainly seems possible given the current evidence of reproductive issues in cows fed rBGH. Countries like Canada and many European nations have banned the import of U.S. milk unless it specifically says "No rBGH"
The fight is not over yet as Monsanto has been pressuring state legislatures to force dairies to use Posilac (rBGH). They also want to prevent these dairies from telling the public that they're rBGH free.
Here is an announcement from the Organic Consumers Association:
"Monsanto has been lobbying state legislatures and departments of agriculture around the country to harass dairies that won't use Posilac. Monsanto wants to take away dairies' right to tell consumers they're rBGH-free. Please go to the following OCA state action centers to learn more and take action: (http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.cfm) ."
Man made chemicals and genetically modified foods pose very serious health issues to your family. This is why it's very important to learn what chemicals and ingredients are being put into packaged and processed foods in order to take greater control of your health and life and to help avoid serious health issues.
My Chinese Health and Fitness video goes into more details about some other dangerous food ingredients and chemicals that are being put into packaged and processed foods that you definitely want to avoid and keep out of your body as much as possible. It also contains much more information on nutrition, breathing, meditation, physical training and more. Click on the link below to visit the video website and learn more about other chemicals to avoid and more.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Smelling bad is ok ladies!
Dear Sisters and wives of my gentlemen friends,
I was informed by the Moderator of Women's workcom. that one of her rep.
had been diagnosed with
breast cancer and she is concerned that we should inform our friends
about this.
Ladies - some awareness!!! Gentleman - pass on to the ladies in your
life, to all the women you know.
Some time ago, I attended a Breast Cancer Awareness seminar put on by
Terry & A period.
I asked why the most common area for Breast Cancer was near the armpit.
My question could not be answered at that time. This e-mail was just sent
to me,
and I find it interesting that my question has been answered.
I challenge you all to rethink your every day use of a product that could
ultimately lead to a terminal illness.
As of today, I will change my use. A friend forwarded this to me.
I showed it to a friend going through chemotherapy and she said she
learned this fact in a support group recently.
I just got information from a health seminar that I would like to share.
The leading cause of breast cancer is the
use of anti-perspirant.
What? A concentration of toxins and leads to cell mutations, a.k.a.
CANCER .
Yes, ANTI-PERSPIRANT. Most of the products out there are an
anti-perspirant /deodorant combination,
so go home and check. Deodorant is fine, anti-perspirant is not.
Here's why:- The human body has a few areas that it uses to purge toxins;
behind the knees ,
behind the ears, groin area, and armpits. The toxins are purged in the
form of perspiration.
Anti-perspirant , as the name clearly indicates, prevents you from
perspiring,
thereby inhibiting the body from purging toxins from below the armpits.
These toxins do not just magically disappear. Instead, the body deposits
them in the lymph nodes below
the arms since it cannot sweat them out. Nearly all breast cancer tumors
occur in the upper outside quadrant
of the breast area. This is precisely where the lymph nodes are located.
Additionally, men are less likely (but not completely exempt) to develop
breast cancer prompted by
anti- perspirant usage because most of the anti-perspirant product is
caught in their hair and is not
directly applied to the skin. Women who apply anti-perspirant right after
shaving increase the risk
further because shaving causes almost imperceptible nicks in the skin
which give the chemicals
entrance into the body from the armpit area.
I was informed by the Moderator of Women's workcom. that one of her rep.
had been diagnosed with
breast cancer and she is concerned that we should inform our friends
about this.
Ladies - some awareness!!! Gentleman - pass on to the ladies in your
life, to all the women you know.
Some time ago, I attended a Breast Cancer Awareness seminar put on by
Terry & A period.
I asked why the most common area for Breast Cancer was near the armpit.
My question could not be answered at that time. This e-mail was just sent
to me,
and I find it interesting that my question has been answered.
I challenge you all to rethink your every day use of a product that could
ultimately lead to a terminal illness.
As of today, I will change my use. A friend forwarded this to me.
I showed it to a friend going through chemotherapy and she said she
learned this fact in a support group recently.
I just got information from a health seminar that I would like to share.
The leading cause of breast cancer is the
use of anti-perspirant.
What? A concentration of toxins and leads to cell mutations, a.k.a.
CANCER .
Yes, ANTI-PERSPIRANT. Most of the products out there are an
anti-perspirant /deodorant combination,
so go home and check. Deodorant is fine, anti-perspirant is not.
Here's why:- The human body has a few areas that it uses to purge toxins;
behind the knees ,
behind the ears, groin area, and armpits. The toxins are purged in the
form of perspiration.
Anti-perspirant , as the name clearly indicates, prevents you from
perspiring,
thereby inhibiting the body from purging toxins from below the armpits.
These toxins do not just magically disappear. Instead, the body deposits
them in the lymph nodes below
the arms since it cannot sweat them out. Nearly all breast cancer tumors
occur in the upper outside quadrant
of the breast area. This is precisely where the lymph nodes are located.
Additionally, men are less likely (but not completely exempt) to develop
breast cancer prompted by
anti- perspirant usage because most of the anti-perspirant product is
caught in their hair and is not
directly applied to the skin. Women who apply anti-perspirant right after
shaving increase the risk
further because shaving causes almost imperceptible nicks in the skin
which give the chemicals
entrance into the body from the armpit area.
Friday, August 15, 2008
HARDY HARDY HAR HAR
(NaturalNews) Are you enjoying watching the fake Olympics? By "fake," of course, I'm referring to all the fabrications that have emerged since the opening of the event. Each day, it seems, brings news of yet another fabrication by China. Here's a short list of the fabrications that have been discovered so far:
• The weather is fake: Beijing is usually a smog pit with air so polluted that city-dwellers there almost never see the sun. To artificially clean up the air and create the image that Beijing is a clean city (it isn't), Chinese officials ordered the shutting down of virtually all manufacturing plants, coal-fired power plants, and automobiles. They've basically shut down Beijing to create the impression that it's a clean city, and when there's still smog, they just call it, "mist." (Tony Snow couldn't have spun it better, huh?)
• The free speech is fake: All the freedom protestors who might have spoken out against China during the Olympics have been arrested and imprisoned, thereby creating the impression that there is no public dissent in China. (Need a kidney, anyone? Organs are suddenly available...)
• The opening ceremony was faked: The fireworks displayed during the opening ceremony were faked using pre-programmed computer generated images. Instead of watching live fireworks, viewers around the world were actually watching 3D computer animation.
• The Internet access is censored: Reporters from around the world have all had their internet access censored by Chinese authorities, restricting them from accessing websites that might be "dangerous" (like sites on religion or meditation).
• The singing was lip-synced by a pretty girl to replace an ugly girl: It turns out the beautiful voice singing the opening song of the ceremony did not belong to the face of the girl who was lip-syncing it. The actual singer, it turns out, was a bit too ugly to represent China, so they faked it and replaced the girl's face with a cuter-looking girl who lip-synced the whole performance. Millie Vanilli, anyone?
• Swimmer Michael Phelps' food is fake: Consuming a whopping 12,000 calories a day, Michael Phelps is a junk food junkie powered by empty calories. While you can get away with that when you're 23 and exercising six hours a day, if Phelps continues his ingestion of fake food beyond his peak training years, he'll soon have REAL diabetes and obesity. Fat makes you float, by the way, so it might actually provide real buoyancy to his swimming career...
• The ages and passports are faked: The Chinese gymnastics team won gold, helped in part by a tiny gymnast who, according to China's own media, was 13 years old just nine months ago. Amazingly, she is now 16 years old, which just happens to be the minimum age to compete in the Olympics. This astonishing acceleration of aging is, of course, fully denied by Chinese authorities who provided forged passports for the girl to "prove" she was really 16. The IOC apparently has no interest in investigating this apparent fraud.
So I hope you're enjoying the fake Olympics. Most of the athletes are real, of course. Their remarkable feats of human artistry, strength, endurance and athleticism are real, but the whole show surrounding it is fake, fake, fake! It's all a fabricated show to keep the world occupied while your money, your health and your future is stolen from you by the criminal institutions of the world (governments, corporations, etc.), many of which are actually sponsoring the Olympics.
• The war on terrorism is fake: It was all fabricated to keep the population in a state of fear so they wouldn't notice their freedoms being stolen away.
• The mainstream media is fake: The news is largely fabricated or selectively edited to brainwash American consumers into thinking they live in a free country. Corporate press releases are run as "news" and any real news that threatens big advertisers is routinely censored.
• The money supply is fake: The U.S. is running on monetary fumes, borrowing trillions from countries like China that actually have REAL money, all while claiming the national debt doesn't matter anymore. (It does.)
• The housing bubble was fake: As publicly predicted here on NaturalNews nearly two years ago, the housing bubble was fake, creating false wealth that created the impression that the economy was doing well. The whole thing was a charade, of course, and now housing values are plummeting and consumer spending is in a tailspin.
• Health care is fake: There's no "health" in health care, and the entire disease industry in the United States is based on keeping people sick, ignorant and bankrupt.
• The corporate green movement is fake: Corporations love to act like they're really "green" even as they continue polluting the planet.
• Even the breasts are fake! The U.S. is the plastic surgery capital of the world, where moms are now giving their teenage daughters breast augmentation surgery as a high school graduation present.
It's quite fitting, then, that American viewers who live in a fabricated American reality can watch the fake Olympics by tuning into a fake television network where they can watch a fake opening ceremony that celebrates competition among fraudulent Olympics participants who compete for the only thing that's still real in this global economy: GOLD!
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
• The weather is fake: Beijing is usually a smog pit with air so polluted that city-dwellers there almost never see the sun. To artificially clean up the air and create the image that Beijing is a clean city (it isn't), Chinese officials ordered the shutting down of virtually all manufacturing plants, coal-fired power plants, and automobiles. They've basically shut down Beijing to create the impression that it's a clean city, and when there's still smog, they just call it, "mist." (Tony Snow couldn't have spun it better, huh?)
• The free speech is fake: All the freedom protestors who might have spoken out against China during the Olympics have been arrested and imprisoned, thereby creating the impression that there is no public dissent in China. (Need a kidney, anyone? Organs are suddenly available...)
• The opening ceremony was faked: The fireworks displayed during the opening ceremony were faked using pre-programmed computer generated images. Instead of watching live fireworks, viewers around the world were actually watching 3D computer animation.
• The Internet access is censored: Reporters from around the world have all had their internet access censored by Chinese authorities, restricting them from accessing websites that might be "dangerous" (like sites on religion or meditation).
• The singing was lip-synced by a pretty girl to replace an ugly girl: It turns out the beautiful voice singing the opening song of the ceremony did not belong to the face of the girl who was lip-syncing it. The actual singer, it turns out, was a bit too ugly to represent China, so they faked it and replaced the girl's face with a cuter-looking girl who lip-synced the whole performance. Millie Vanilli, anyone?
• Swimmer Michael Phelps' food is fake: Consuming a whopping 12,000 calories a day, Michael Phelps is a junk food junkie powered by empty calories. While you can get away with that when you're 23 and exercising six hours a day, if Phelps continues his ingestion of fake food beyond his peak training years, he'll soon have REAL diabetes and obesity. Fat makes you float, by the way, so it might actually provide real buoyancy to his swimming career...
• The ages and passports are faked: The Chinese gymnastics team won gold, helped in part by a tiny gymnast who, according to China's own media, was 13 years old just nine months ago. Amazingly, she is now 16 years old, which just happens to be the minimum age to compete in the Olympics. This astonishing acceleration of aging is, of course, fully denied by Chinese authorities who provided forged passports for the girl to "prove" she was really 16. The IOC apparently has no interest in investigating this apparent fraud.
So I hope you're enjoying the fake Olympics. Most of the athletes are real, of course. Their remarkable feats of human artistry, strength, endurance and athleticism are real, but the whole show surrounding it is fake, fake, fake! It's all a fabricated show to keep the world occupied while your money, your health and your future is stolen from you by the criminal institutions of the world (governments, corporations, etc.), many of which are actually sponsoring the Olympics.
Much in America is fabricated, too...
Now, just in case you think China is the only country engaged in fakery, let me remind you that the United States is just as fake, but in different ways. In the U.S.:• The war on terrorism is fake: It was all fabricated to keep the population in a state of fear so they wouldn't notice their freedoms being stolen away.
• The mainstream media is fake: The news is largely fabricated or selectively edited to brainwash American consumers into thinking they live in a free country. Corporate press releases are run as "news" and any real news that threatens big advertisers is routinely censored.
• The money supply is fake: The U.S. is running on monetary fumes, borrowing trillions from countries like China that actually have REAL money, all while claiming the national debt doesn't matter anymore. (It does.)
• The housing bubble was fake: As publicly predicted here on NaturalNews nearly two years ago, the housing bubble was fake, creating false wealth that created the impression that the economy was doing well. The whole thing was a charade, of course, and now housing values are plummeting and consumer spending is in a tailspin.
• Health care is fake: There's no "health" in health care, and the entire disease industry in the United States is based on keeping people sick, ignorant and bankrupt.
• The corporate green movement is fake: Corporations love to act like they're really "green" even as they continue polluting the planet.
• Even the breasts are fake! The U.S. is the plastic surgery capital of the world, where moms are now giving their teenage daughters breast augmentation surgery as a high school graduation present.
It's quite fitting, then, that American viewers who live in a fabricated American reality can watch the fake Olympics by tuning into a fake television network where they can watch a fake opening ceremony that celebrates competition among fraudulent Olympics participants who compete for the only thing that's still real in this global economy: GOLD!
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
What's in your tap water?
(NaturalNews) The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental action organization, recently conducted an in-depth study into the quality of drinking water across the United States. Reviewing the tap water quality data for 19 major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, they compiled their findings and made them available to the public in June of 2003. 11 contaminants were labeled to be of "high concern" or "some concern" for the LA area's water supply. Since much of Los Angeles and Orange County drinking water comes from the same two sources, the Colorado River and Northern California, this information should be of note to those living in the Orange County area.
Five contaminants fell under the "high concern" category, including Lead, Perchlorate, Radon, Haloacetic Acids (HAAs) and Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs).
Lead
Lead is a heavy metal that generally enters the drinking supplies due to the corrosion of pipes, plumbing or faucets. Often, the lead levels of the water at your home are much higher than the levels from the water's source. This is usually the result of contamination that may be occurring at your home, due to old or corroded pipes. The national standard (NS) for lead, as determined by the EPA, is 15 ppb.
Health Effects: Infants, young children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of lead. In serious cases, poisoning can cause permanent brain damage and, in less severe cases, can cause children to suffer from decreased intelligence and problems with growth, development and behavior. In adults, lead can increase blood pressure, harm kidney function, adversely affect the nervous system and damage red blood cells.
Perchlorate
Perchlorate in the water usually comes from rocket fuel spills or leaks at military facilities. Additionally, perchlorate is used in a variety of products and applications, including electronic tubes, vehicle airbags, leather tanning and fireworks. The NS is 4 ppb, however no level has been determined to be safe.
Health Effects: Perchlorate disrupts the thyroid function and is a suspected carcinogen. Changes in thyroid hormone levels can result in thyroid gland tumors. In children, thyroid disruption can adversely affect proper development and in adults it can interfere with metabolism regulation. Disruption of the thyroid in pregnant women may impact the fetus and result in delayed development and decreased learning ability.
Radon
Radon is a radioactive gas that results from the natural breakdown of uranium in the ground. The NS is an average of 300 pCi/L.
Health Effects: Radon is known to cause lung cancer. No level is considered to be safe and a single particle of radon can cause cancer. The EPA estimates that radon in drinking water causes approximately 168 deaths from lung and stomach cancer each year (89% from lung cancer caused by breathing radon released to the indoor air from water, 11% from stomach cancer caused by consuming water that contains radon). Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., after smoking.
Haloacetic Acids (HAAs)/Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs)
HAAs and TTHMs are volatile organic contaminates often referred to as disinfection by-products or organochlorines and result when chlorine used to disinfect drinking water interacts with organic matter in the water. The EPA has classified some TTHMs as probable human carcinogens. The NS for HAAs is an average of 60 ppb and for TTHMs, an average of 80 ppb.
Health Effects: Disinfection by-products have been linked to cancers of the bladder, pancreas, colon, rectum, brain, and childhood leukemia.
The following six contaminants fall under the category of "some concern":
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium is a waterborne parasite that lives and reproduces by the millions in both animal and human intestines until it is shed in the feces. The NS is 0.
Health Effects: Cryptosporidium can cause severe diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping and fever for up to 2 weeks. Currently there is no antibiotic that can kill the parasite. It poses a significant health risk to children and those with weakened immune systems.
Total Coliform Bacteria (TCM)
TCM is a broad class of bacteria, many of which live in the intestines of humans and animals. Most coliform bacteria are harmless, however their presence indicates that the water may contain harmful bacteria such as E. coli. The NS for TCM is 0.
Arsenic
Arsenic found in drinking supplies comes from mining, industrial processes, past use of arsenic containing pesticides, and natural leaching erosion from rock. Currently the NS for arsenic is 50 ppb but will be lowered to 10 ppb in 2006.
Health Effects: Arsenic is toxic to humans and a known carcinogen. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has determined that arsenic in drinking water is known to cause cancer of the bladder, skin and lungs. An NAS report published in 2001 stated that a person who drinks 2 liters of water a day (containing 10 ppb arsenic) has a lifetime total fatal cancer risk greater than 1 in 333.
Chromium
Chromium is a naturally occurring metal used in industrial processes, including metal plating for chrome bumpers and making stainless steel, paint, rubber and wood preservatives. The NS for chromium is 100 ppb.
Health Effects: Chromium ingestion can cause a host of health problems, ranging form skin irritation to damage to kidney, liver and nerve tissue.
Gross Alpha Radiation (GAR)/Gross Beta Radiation (GBR)
GAR and GBR generally result from the decay of radioactive minerals in underground rocks and are sometimes by-products of the mining and nuclear industries. The NS for GAR is an average of 15 pCi/L and for GBR, an average of 50 pCi/L.
Health Effects: No level of exposure to GAR or GBR is considered safe as they are both radioactive and can cause cancer.
Uranium
Uranium is released from minerals in the ground, often as the result of mining or as a by-product of the nuclear industry. The NS for uranium is 30 micrograms/L.
Health Effects: Uranium is radioactive and known to cause cancer when ingested. The EPA has determined that it causes serious kidney damage at levels above 300 mcg/L.
While Orange County has strict regulations on the quality of drinking water, you should still be aware of what is coming out of your tap. The EPA established national standards are determined to be the highest level of contaminants allowed in the water. The NRDC however, maintains that no level of any of these contaminants is safe.
So what can you do? First, contact the EPA for a list of state-certified labs that can test the water at your home. Finding out what is in your tap water can help you to determine what kind of filtration system is right for you. Your water standards should be higher than the EPA's to ensure the safety of your family.
When choosing a water filtration system, I recommend a unit that also regulates the pH level of your water like Jupiter Melody by Ion Life available through perfectlyhealthy at (www.perfectlyhealthy.net) . Proper pH levels can further protect you from any contaminants that you might come in contact with and also ward off disease and infection. You want to drink water that reaches a pH level of approximately 9.0 while trying to maintain a blood pH level of 7.43.
For a list of state-certified labs, call the EPA's hotline at 800-426-4791 or go online at (www.epa.gov/safewater/privatewells/labs.html) . To review the entire report by the NRDC, visit their website at (www.nrdc.org) . I recommend the Jupiter Melody Ionizer available through perfectlyhealthy, it excludes contaminants from your drinking water as well as providing a pH level of approximately 9.0. Visit (www.perfectlyhealthy.net) for more information.
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D. and her medical staff strives to look at the whole person while exploring the effects and relationships among nutrition, psychological and social factors, environmental effects and personal attunement. Out of frustration of trying to find the right products to help her patients she formulated the perfectlyhealthy brand of products. All perfectlyhealthy products are clinically tested. For more information on recommended products, please visit www.perfectlyhealthy.net or www.perfectlyhealthy.com.
Five contaminants fell under the "high concern" category, including Lead, Perchlorate, Radon, Haloacetic Acids (HAAs) and Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs).
Lead
Lead is a heavy metal that generally enters the drinking supplies due to the corrosion of pipes, plumbing or faucets. Often, the lead levels of the water at your home are much higher than the levels from the water's source. This is usually the result of contamination that may be occurring at your home, due to old or corroded pipes. The national standard (NS) for lead, as determined by the EPA, is 15 ppb.
Health Effects: Infants, young children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of lead. In serious cases, poisoning can cause permanent brain damage and, in less severe cases, can cause children to suffer from decreased intelligence and problems with growth, development and behavior. In adults, lead can increase blood pressure, harm kidney function, adversely affect the nervous system and damage red blood cells.
Perchlorate
Perchlorate in the water usually comes from rocket fuel spills or leaks at military facilities. Additionally, perchlorate is used in a variety of products and applications, including electronic tubes, vehicle airbags, leather tanning and fireworks. The NS is 4 ppb, however no level has been determined to be safe.
Health Effects: Perchlorate disrupts the thyroid function and is a suspected carcinogen. Changes in thyroid hormone levels can result in thyroid gland tumors. In children, thyroid disruption can adversely affect proper development and in adults it can interfere with metabolism regulation. Disruption of the thyroid in pregnant women may impact the fetus and result in delayed development and decreased learning ability.
Radon
Radon is a radioactive gas that results from the natural breakdown of uranium in the ground. The NS is an average of 300 pCi/L.
Health Effects: Radon is known to cause lung cancer. No level is considered to be safe and a single particle of radon can cause cancer. The EPA estimates that radon in drinking water causes approximately 168 deaths from lung and stomach cancer each year (89% from lung cancer caused by breathing radon released to the indoor air from water, 11% from stomach cancer caused by consuming water that contains radon). Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., after smoking.
Haloacetic Acids (HAAs)/Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs)
HAAs and TTHMs are volatile organic contaminates often referred to as disinfection by-products or organochlorines and result when chlorine used to disinfect drinking water interacts with organic matter in the water. The EPA has classified some TTHMs as probable human carcinogens. The NS for HAAs is an average of 60 ppb and for TTHMs, an average of 80 ppb.
Health Effects: Disinfection by-products have been linked to cancers of the bladder, pancreas, colon, rectum, brain, and childhood leukemia.
The following six contaminants fall under the category of "some concern":
Cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium is a waterborne parasite that lives and reproduces by the millions in both animal and human intestines until it is shed in the feces. The NS is 0.
Health Effects: Cryptosporidium can cause severe diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping and fever for up to 2 weeks. Currently there is no antibiotic that can kill the parasite. It poses a significant health risk to children and those with weakened immune systems.
Total Coliform Bacteria (TCM)
TCM is a broad class of bacteria, many of which live in the intestines of humans and animals. Most coliform bacteria are harmless, however their presence indicates that the water may contain harmful bacteria such as E. coli. The NS for TCM is 0.
Arsenic
Arsenic found in drinking supplies comes from mining, industrial processes, past use of arsenic containing pesticides, and natural leaching erosion from rock. Currently the NS for arsenic is 50 ppb but will be lowered to 10 ppb in 2006.
Health Effects: Arsenic is toxic to humans and a known carcinogen. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has determined that arsenic in drinking water is known to cause cancer of the bladder, skin and lungs. An NAS report published in 2001 stated that a person who drinks 2 liters of water a day (containing 10 ppb arsenic) has a lifetime total fatal cancer risk greater than 1 in 333.
Chromium
Chromium is a naturally occurring metal used in industrial processes, including metal plating for chrome bumpers and making stainless steel, paint, rubber and wood preservatives. The NS for chromium is 100 ppb.
Health Effects: Chromium ingestion can cause a host of health problems, ranging form skin irritation to damage to kidney, liver and nerve tissue.
Gross Alpha Radiation (GAR)/Gross Beta Radiation (GBR)
GAR and GBR generally result from the decay of radioactive minerals in underground rocks and are sometimes by-products of the mining and nuclear industries. The NS for GAR is an average of 15 pCi/L and for GBR, an average of 50 pCi/L.
Health Effects: No level of exposure to GAR or GBR is considered safe as they are both radioactive and can cause cancer.
Uranium
Uranium is released from minerals in the ground, often as the result of mining or as a by-product of the nuclear industry. The NS for uranium is 30 micrograms/L.
Health Effects: Uranium is radioactive and known to cause cancer when ingested. The EPA has determined that it causes serious kidney damage at levels above 300 mcg/L.
While Orange County has strict regulations on the quality of drinking water, you should still be aware of what is coming out of your tap. The EPA established national standards are determined to be the highest level of contaminants allowed in the water. The NRDC however, maintains that no level of any of these contaminants is safe.
So what can you do? First, contact the EPA for a list of state-certified labs that can test the water at your home. Finding out what is in your tap water can help you to determine what kind of filtration system is right for you. Your water standards should be higher than the EPA's to ensure the safety of your family.
When choosing a water filtration system, I recommend a unit that also regulates the pH level of your water like Jupiter Melody by Ion Life available through perfectlyhealthy at (www.perfectlyhealthy.net) . Proper pH levels can further protect you from any contaminants that you might come in contact with and also ward off disease and infection. You want to drink water that reaches a pH level of approximately 9.0 while trying to maintain a blood pH level of 7.43.
For a list of state-certified labs, call the EPA's hotline at 800-426-4791 or go online at (www.epa.gov/safewater/privatewells/labs.html) . To review the entire report by the NRDC, visit their website at (www.nrdc.org) . I recommend the Jupiter Melody Ionizer available through perfectlyhealthy, it excludes contaminants from your drinking water as well as providing a pH level of approximately 9.0. Visit (www.perfectlyhealthy.net) for more information.
About the author
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D. has specialized in Integrative Medicine for over twenty years, using conventional and natural methods to determine and discover the "root of the cause" in her clinic, South Coast Medical Center for New Medicine in Irvine, California, each and every day. Many people come in to the clinic from all over the world with severe chronic illnesses that conventional medical protocols have been unsuccessful treating. She realized early on that she can truly change lives through education as well as treatment protocols.Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D. and her medical staff strives to look at the whole person while exploring the effects and relationships among nutrition, psychological and social factors, environmental effects and personal attunement. Out of frustration of trying to find the right products to help her patients she formulated the perfectlyhealthy brand of products. All perfectlyhealthy products are clinically tested. For more information on recommended products, please visit www.perfectlyhealthy.net or www.perfectlyhealthy.com.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Ice cream - yummy no more!
(NaturalNews) On a swelteringly hot summer day, there's nothing that comes to mind better to cool things down than some old-fashioned ice cream. Just some wholesome ingredients like cream, egg yolks, a sweetener, and some vanilla extract, right?
How about propylene glycol, ethyl acetate, and yellow dye #5? Seems the recipe has changed a bit since Dolly Madison's day (she served this new delight to visitors during White House functions).
Many commercial ice creams today are simply chemical concoctions presented in appealing packaging designed to sell a product that is not fit for human consumption. Everything from hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and dry milk solids are used to produce something still allowed to be called ice cream.
Many ice creams are also filled with air to double the volume. Not a dangerous practice, just less fulfilling.
Some pretty frightening sounding chemicals like caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams. How about some diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.
Aldehyde C-17, flavoring for cherry ice cream, is an inflammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber. Piperonal, used in place of vanilla, is a lice killer. Ethyl Acetate, a pineapple flavor, can also clean leather and textiles.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work out to be like any natural substances like lemon that can be both eaten and used as a powerful cleaner. Ethyl Acetate's vapor has been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.
There are quite a list of other unsavory ingredients littering many of today's most famous grocery store ice creams. Here are just some of them: Mono and diglicerides, disodium phosphate, benzyl acetate, mono stearate, propylene glycol, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, modified corn starch and soy lecithin.
Now, just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful and besides, the real question is: Are any of these ingredients desirable or even necessary to an originally wholesome treat? Remember, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients. Oh, boy.
Ice cream can be a delicious way to get healthy fat, calcium, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals (if using real raw cream, egg yolks, and pure maple syrup) into children that are sometimes not big milk drinkers. Making your own ice cream is relatively simple with an electric ice cream maker... and the kids love to help make it!
Even if you don't have the time, or desire, to make your own ice cream, reach for the best high quality ice cream you can. Look for the ones that use simple, wholesome ingredients (cream as a first ingredient is a good sign). The cost may be a bit more, but you can't beat the taste.
And stop worrying about the fat content; it's some of those dubious vegetable oils you should be concerned about. Next time, fore go the antifreeze, oil paint, leather cleaner, and lice killer for something that resembles food. Food is supposed to taste good, just keep it simple and healthy!
Here's a recipe borrowed from "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon:
* 3 egg yolks
* 1/2 cup maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon arrowroot
* 3 cups heavy cream, preferably raw, not ultrapasteurized
Beat egg yolks and blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to instructions. (Remember to choose the highest quality ingredients you can find like raw cream, eggs from pastured chickens, or at least organic eggs, and organic (grade B, if you can find it) maple syrup. Pure vanilla extract and arrowroot powder or flour can be found in most health food stores.)
How about propylene glycol, ethyl acetate, and yellow dye #5? Seems the recipe has changed a bit since Dolly Madison's day (she served this new delight to visitors during White House functions).
Many commercial ice creams today are simply chemical concoctions presented in appealing packaging designed to sell a product that is not fit for human consumption. Everything from hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and dry milk solids are used to produce something still allowed to be called ice cream.
Many ice creams are also filled with air to double the volume. Not a dangerous practice, just less fulfilling.
Some pretty frightening sounding chemicals like caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, and amyl acetate are additives in some commercial ice creams. How about some diethyl glycol -- a cheap chemical used to take the place of eggs, which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers.
Aldehyde C-17, flavoring for cherry ice cream, is an inflammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber. Piperonal, used in place of vanilla, is a lice killer. Ethyl Acetate, a pineapple flavor, can also clean leather and textiles.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work out to be like any natural substances like lemon that can be both eaten and used as a powerful cleaner. Ethyl Acetate's vapor has been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.
There are quite a list of other unsavory ingredients littering many of today's most famous grocery store ice creams. Here are just some of them: Mono and diglicerides, disodium phosphate, benzyl acetate, mono stearate, propylene glycol, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, modified corn starch and soy lecithin.
Now, just because most of these additives are on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list by the FDA, doesn't prove they aren't harmful and besides, the real question is: Are any of these ingredients desirable or even necessary to an originally wholesome treat? Remember, the FDA does not require ice cream makers to label all of their ingredients. Oh, boy.
Ice cream can be a delicious way to get healthy fat, calcium, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals (if using real raw cream, egg yolks, and pure maple syrup) into children that are sometimes not big milk drinkers. Making your own ice cream is relatively simple with an electric ice cream maker... and the kids love to help make it!
Even if you don't have the time, or desire, to make your own ice cream, reach for the best high quality ice cream you can. Look for the ones that use simple, wholesome ingredients (cream as a first ingredient is a good sign). The cost may be a bit more, but you can't beat the taste.
And stop worrying about the fat content; it's some of those dubious vegetable oils you should be concerned about. Next time, fore go the antifreeze, oil paint, leather cleaner, and lice killer for something that resembles food. Food is supposed to taste good, just keep it simple and healthy!
Here's a recipe borrowed from "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon:
* 3 egg yolks
* 1/2 cup maple syrup
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon arrowroot
* 3 cups heavy cream, preferably raw, not ultrapasteurized
Beat egg yolks and blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to instructions. (Remember to choose the highest quality ingredients you can find like raw cream, eggs from pastured chickens, or at least organic eggs, and organic (grade B, if you can find it) maple syrup. Pure vanilla extract and arrowroot powder or flour can be found in most health food stores.)
About the author
Nancy Piscatello is the author of a website and newsletter on feeding our children at www.seedlingsnutrition.com, is studying Holistic Nutrition at Clayton College of Natural Health, an accomplished singer for the New York based band Millennium (www.millenniumtheband.com),and mother of three children living on the east end of Long Island with her husband.Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Manitoba and Saskatchewan for the WIN!!
Manitoba and Saskatchewan, not Alberta and British Columbia, will be the country's hottest areas economically in 2008, the Conference Board of Canada predicted on Tuesday.
The two lower-profile prairie provinces should post the highest gross domestic product growth rates in Canada this year, the Ottawa-based business think tank said.
The Conference Board released its latest economic forecast this week.
Red-hot Saskatchewan will grow at a 4.2 per cent clip, while Manitoba's economy will expand by 3.6 per cent in 2008, the Conference Board estimated. Their results are being driven by high oil and gas prices and soaring demand for those provinces' grain crops.
"Attention this year has shifted away from Alberta to Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as high prices for nearly all of their natural resources will make them the two fastest-growing economies in Canada,” said Glen Hodgson, the Conference Board of Canada's chief economist.
The former kings of the Canadian economic mountain, Alberta and British Columbia, will see economic activity moderate this year, the board said.
A poor oil drilling season and labour shortages have slapped a ceiling on Alberta's growth potential. The Conference Board figured that the oil-rich region will expand its economy by 2.6 per cent in 2008.
British Columbia is getting stung by forestry sector woes and Canada's sluggish manufacturing industries. That should lead to the western-most province growing only 2.2 per cent.
Both provinces should bounce back somewhat in 2009. The Conference Board estimates that British Columbia will grow by 2.9 per cent, while Alberta's economy will bounce even higher, at 3.3 per cent next year.
Similar to the western-most provinces, Canada's economy will expand slowly this year, by only 1.7 per cent, improving to 2.7 per cent next year.
The Conference Board has one of the more optimistic forecasts for the Canadian economy. Its own survey of economic predictions placed the consensus at GDP growth of 1.2 per cent this year.
Nationally, the biggest millstones hobbling Canada's economy are Ontario, where the ongoing manufacturing slump is having the greatest impact, and Quebec, whose export industries have been hit by the high loonie.
Overall, the Conference Board forecast that Ontario will grow by a paltry 0.8 per cent this year before rising to the national average for economic growth in 2009.
Quebec should fare even worse in 2008, as its economy is expected to shrink by 1.4 per cent.
Further east, the economies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island will all post expansions in the two per cent range this year, according to the Conference Board.
Finally, Newfoundland, which grew by more than nine per cent in 2007, will barely push the economic needle into positive territory this year, with an expected growth rate of 0.2 per cent in 2008.
http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/06082008/3/finance-business-man-sask-lead-canada-growth.html
Hemp it up!
(NaturalNews) It seems as though hemp is not only an answer to our global health problems, both for people who don't have enough to eat and for people in the western world who are malnourished from eating the wrong foods, but also an answer to our environmental crisis.
The healing properties of hemp
Hemp seeds are perhaps the purest, most nutritionally dense food on our planet. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, and are also the only edible seeds with gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is an essential fatty acid. In fact, its essential fatty acid ratio is absolutely perfect for our bodies.
Many people think that it is impossible to be a vegan because protein comes from animal products such as meat and cheese. In actual fact, hemp seeds are a highly nutritious source of protein that is easily digested by the body in its natural raw state.
Some of the benefits of regularly including this potent and delicious super food in your diet are:
* Heart Health and Lowered Blood Pressure - High blood pressure is a sign that the heart is being overworked from having to constantly force blood through sluggish blood vessels. Clinical studies indicate that hemp products reduce inflammation and improve circulation, which means that the blood can flow and take the pressure off the heart.
* Better Digestion – The fiber and fats work wonders for our bowels.
* Losing Weight Naturally - Hemp will fill you up so you don't feel hungry and crave foods that put on the pounds. Getting enough essential fats and other nutrients that are provided by hemp is one of the best ways to stay slim and healthy.
* More Energy - In our world we need all we can get!
* Healthy Cholesterol Levels - The natural fats and nutrients in hemp help us to maintain balanced cholesterol levels.
* Harmonious Blood Sugars levels - One of the most important ways to defy age and prevent disease is to maintain even blood sugar.
Hemp has a Wide Range of Environmentally Friendly Uses
Hemp offers a way to live in harmony with the environment and ecosystems we depend on.
Hemp is the world's oldest and most versatile crop. In fact there are more than 25,000 known uses for it.
Hemp has the potential to replace all major non-renewable raw materials. Hemp fibre is stronger and more versatile than any other plant derived fibre, including cotton and wood. Hemp could also potentially replace petroleum products including plastics.
Deforestation is occurring at around 3% per year, and hemp is a far superior resource since it can be grown to maturity in 100 days. Hemp paper is far stronger and durable than paper made from trees.
Hemp is used in the world's major currency banknotes because it is so strong and water resistant. It is also a sustainable replacement for concrete.
Hemp can grow anywhere and doesn't require pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Evidence suggests that it can lift heavy metals from polluted soil. It also adds nutrients to soil by tapping into sub-soil nutrients other plants cannot access.
Hemp biomass fuel produces no sulphur and can be effectively used as a relatively clean power source due to its 95% fuel to feed ratio.
At the end of the day, we need to recognise that protecting our environment and our health go hand in hand.
Her website www.younglivingguide.com provides the latest research on preventing disease, looking naturally gorgeous, and feeling emotionally and physically fabulous.
The healing properties of hemp
Hemp seeds are perhaps the purest, most nutritionally dense food on our planet. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, and are also the only edible seeds with gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is an essential fatty acid. In fact, its essential fatty acid ratio is absolutely perfect for our bodies.
Many people think that it is impossible to be a vegan because protein comes from animal products such as meat and cheese. In actual fact, hemp seeds are a highly nutritious source of protein that is easily digested by the body in its natural raw state.
Some of the benefits of regularly including this potent and delicious super food in your diet are:
* Heart Health and Lowered Blood Pressure - High blood pressure is a sign that the heart is being overworked from having to constantly force blood through sluggish blood vessels. Clinical studies indicate that hemp products reduce inflammation and improve circulation, which means that the blood can flow and take the pressure off the heart.
* Better Digestion – The fiber and fats work wonders for our bowels.
* Losing Weight Naturally - Hemp will fill you up so you don't feel hungry and crave foods that put on the pounds. Getting enough essential fats and other nutrients that are provided by hemp is one of the best ways to stay slim and healthy.
* More Energy - In our world we need all we can get!
* Healthy Cholesterol Levels - The natural fats and nutrients in hemp help us to maintain balanced cholesterol levels.
* Harmonious Blood Sugars levels - One of the most important ways to defy age and prevent disease is to maintain even blood sugar.
Hemp has a Wide Range of Environmentally Friendly Uses
Hemp offers a way to live in harmony with the environment and ecosystems we depend on.
Hemp is the world's oldest and most versatile crop. In fact there are more than 25,000 known uses for it.
Hemp has the potential to replace all major non-renewable raw materials. Hemp fibre is stronger and more versatile than any other plant derived fibre, including cotton and wood. Hemp could also potentially replace petroleum products including plastics.
Deforestation is occurring at around 3% per year, and hemp is a far superior resource since it can be grown to maturity in 100 days. Hemp paper is far stronger and durable than paper made from trees.
Hemp is used in the world's major currency banknotes because it is so strong and water resistant. It is also a sustainable replacement for concrete.
Hemp can grow anywhere and doesn't require pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Evidence suggests that it can lift heavy metals from polluted soil. It also adds nutrients to soil by tapping into sub-soil nutrients other plants cannot access.
Hemp biomass fuel produces no sulphur and can be effectively used as a relatively clean power source due to its 95% fuel to feed ratio.
At the end of the day, we need to recognise that protecting our environment and our health go hand in hand.
About the author
Sheryl is a kinesiologist, nutritionist and holistic practitioner.Her website www.younglivingguide.com provides the latest research on preventing disease, looking naturally gorgeous, and feeling emotionally and physically fabulous.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Caffeine = Bad for preggies
(NaturalNews) Drinking as little as 10 ounces of coffee per day may double a pregnant woman's risk of miscarriage, according to a new study conducted by Kaiser Permanente researchers and published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Researchers interviewed 1,063 pregnant women, including 102 who had already suffered a miscarriage, about their caffeine intake. The median length of pregnancy for the women at the time of interview was 71 days. Another 70 women miscarried before the end of their pregnancies, bringing the total to 172, or about 16 percent - a fairly normal miscarriage rate.
Women who said that they never drank caffeine had a 12.5 percent chance of miscarriage, while women who reported drinking 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day had a 24.5 percent miscarriage rate. This represented nearly twice the miscarriage risk of the non-caffeine drinkers. The effects of caffeine on miscarriage remained even after researchers adjusted for other risk factors, including age and smoking habits.
Previously, some researchers have suggested that a connection between caffeine intake and miscarriage rate is illusory, and is caused instead by the fact that women who experience morning sickness tend to have healthier pregnancies due to hormonal changes in the body. Because women with morning sickness are less likely to drink caffeine, it then appears that reducing caffeine intake reduces miscarriage risk.
But the current study found that the association between caffeine and miscarriage remained strong even after adjusting for different rates of morning sickness.
Lead author De-Kun Li recommended that pregnant women give up caffeine for at least the first three to four months of pregnancy. "If, for whatever reason, they really can't do it, think of cutting to one cup or switching to decaf," Li said. "Stopping caffeine really doesn't have any downside."
Two hundred milligrams of caffeine is approximately the amount found in 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea.
Researchers interviewed 1,063 pregnant women, including 102 who had already suffered a miscarriage, about their caffeine intake. The median length of pregnancy for the women at the time of interview was 71 days. Another 70 women miscarried before the end of their pregnancies, bringing the total to 172, or about 16 percent - a fairly normal miscarriage rate.
Women who said that they never drank caffeine had a 12.5 percent chance of miscarriage, while women who reported drinking 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day had a 24.5 percent miscarriage rate. This represented nearly twice the miscarriage risk of the non-caffeine drinkers. The effects of caffeine on miscarriage remained even after researchers adjusted for other risk factors, including age and smoking habits.
Previously, some researchers have suggested that a connection between caffeine intake and miscarriage rate is illusory, and is caused instead by the fact that women who experience morning sickness tend to have healthier pregnancies due to hormonal changes in the body. Because women with morning sickness are less likely to drink caffeine, it then appears that reducing caffeine intake reduces miscarriage risk.
But the current study found that the association between caffeine and miscarriage remained strong even after adjusting for different rates of morning sickness.
Lead author De-Kun Li recommended that pregnant women give up caffeine for at least the first three to four months of pregnancy. "If, for whatever reason, they really can't do it, think of cutting to one cup or switching to decaf," Li said. "Stopping caffeine really doesn't have any downside."
Two hundred milligrams of caffeine is approximately the amount found in 10 ounces of coffee or 25 ounces of tea.
Plant based diets (like Adam and Eve)
(NaturalNews) The common question surrounding plant-based diets concerns the source of protein. Although food calories also consist of carbohydrates and fats, protein is typically considered the most essential of the three groups. In fact, Americans have long been dogmatic in their regard for the quality and quantity of this nutrient since its discovery in 1839.
Protein is made up of amino acids -– the "building blocks" with which our bodies construct and repair tissue. Among the twenty or so different amino acids are at least eight which are considered essential because they must be obtained from foods.
Animal sources –- especially beef –- are commonly thought to be the most efficient means of obtaining the nutrient since they provide "quality" proteins similar to human flesh and contain all of the essential amino acids. In the recent past it was believed that each daily meal should include complete proteins –- containing all the amino acids, and even though science has since disproved this notion, the misconception persists. This has led to an over consumption of animal protein in most western diets and the mistaken belief that plants are an inferior source of the coveted nutrient.
Protein is responsible for tissue development. Growing infants, among all humans, have the highest requirement of the nutrient. Approximately 6% of the calories in mother's milk come from protein, which adequately meets the infant's needs (1). A wealth of research indicates that more than 10% of calories from protein –- especially when the bulk of it is from animal sources –- leads to many chronic illnesses, including cancer. On average, Americans consume more than this amount, yet a collective fear of not getting enough "quality" protein persists.
Virtually all plant food provides protein, in addition to their other health benefits. In his essential book The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. discloses undisputed evidence that plant protein is the healthiest source of this nutrient.
With heart disease, cancer and diabetes on the rise many individuals have discovered the health benefits and wisdom of a plant-based diet. As they seek healthier lifestyles however, they may be confused by conflicting information and surprised by the various options to the Standard American Diet.
The Plant-Based Diet Spectrum
Among the many plant-based diets that have helped individuals reverse chronic illness and disease are the macrobiotic; natural foods; fruitarian; raw foods; vegetarian; vegan, raw vegan and low-fat raw vegan diets. This report will not give space to any of the calorie reducing, nutritionally unsound fad diets such as the Atkins and the South Beach.
Knowledge of the various plant-based diets' basic aspects is necessary before deciding which is best for one's health and healing. Further individual research and application is the only way to determine which diet will be most feasibly incorporated into one's lifestyle.
Macrobiotic
Whole grains, green leafy vegetables and root vegetables –- primarily locally grown –-
are the bases of the macrobiotic diet. Soybean products and other beans are consumed often, if not daily. Among the occasional foods are fruit; seeds and nuts; fermented condiments; sea vegetables, and fish which are typically consumed two or three times per week. Beef, poultry, dairy products, sugar and processed foods are avoided.
Macrobiotic meals are combined with the principals of balance in mind, with consideration of season, climate, gender and the general health of the individual. Natural foods are preferred over refined foods, and light foods are favored over heavy foods that drain the body of energy.
This low-fat, high fiber diet involves careful planning and provides many health benefits, at least in the short term. Opponents suggest that the diet is too restrictive and results in nutritional deficiencies over time. While there are numerous accounts of healing from cancer by following a macrobiotic diet, several long-term practitioners, teachers and authors espousing the lifestyle have ironically succumbed to the disease (2).
Natural Foods
A diet that includes fresh fruits, vegetables and other whole foods while eliminating or severely restricting processed foods is considered a natural foods diet. Refined grains; sugar; table salt; carbonated beverages; hydrogenated oils; chemical additives, and food coloring are considered harmful to the body and are generally avoided. Healthier choices include whole grains; honey; herbal teas; olive oil; sea salt and culinary herbs and spices. Wild or ocean-caught fish as well as pasture-fed beef and poultry are preferred over the factory-farmed varieties.
Clearly, a natural foods diet provides superior nourishment than the Standard American Diet and is useful for health maintenance and disease prevention; however, it is not considered a cleansing diet. When optimal health is the goal, or if a life-threatening disease occurs, a more restrictive diet may be necessary to allow the body to cleanse and heal itself.
Fruitarian
The original human diet seems likely to have been one consisting solely of fruits, and this concept is the basis of the fruitarian philosophy. Fruitarians maintain a diet of whole raw fruits, including the non-sweet varieties such as cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados, and embrace this diet and lifestyle as the most natural to our existence. Unlike other natural food sources, fruit is harvested without killing the plant and is therefore considered by the fruitarian to be the most sustainable, natural and humane diet.
The purist consumes only raw fruit and believes that the consumption of nuts, seeds and grains are unnatural, although some fruitarians include small amounts of these foods in their diets. A fruitarian diet is extremely cleansing and useful for short-term detoxification; however, existing solely on fruit for the long-term may be difficult and detrimental to health as some practitioners eventually experience severe food cravings and unpleasant symptoms signaling nutritional deficiencies.
Vegetarian and Vegan
Many individuals opt for a vegetarian or vegan diet due to health, concern for animals and the environment, and/or philosophical reasons. A vegetarian diet excludes all animal flesh but does not restrict animal by-products. For instance, a lacto-ovo vegetarian eats dairy and eggs while refraining from meat. A vegan diet on the other hand excludes all animal products, including honey. There are no restrictions from any of the other food groups, nor are their limitations on the method of food preparation. Food may be raw, cooked, whole or processed.
Simply eliminating meat, fish and animal by-products does not necessarily ensure good health; in fact, many vegetarians regularly consume a high-fat, highly processed diet of refined grains, sugar, coffee, alcohol and other empty calorie foods. However, the vegetarian and vegan diet is conducive to good health when it consists of a wide variety of natural foods. According to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada "appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases".
Vegetarians run the risk of developing a vitamin B-12 deficiency since plant foods don't provide adequate amounts of this essential nutrient. Among its many functions B-12 is responsible for growth in children, a healthy nervous system, and the formation of red blood cells. Prolonged deficiencies may lead to anemia and neurological damage.
Spirulina and sea vegetables are thought to contain B-12, yet studies show that these food sources actually contain a form that is structurally similar to B-12 (a B-12 analog), which is not utilized by the body and may in fact compete with the vitamin for absorption (3).
Vitamin B-12 is made by microorganisms in the soil, (as well as in animal intestines), and research indicates that plants will absorb the vitamin if grown in healthy organic soil containing a concentration of B-12 (4). Nevertheless, to avoid the possible risk of a deficiency, vegetarians and vegans should have their levels checked periodically and supplement with a sublingual form of methylcobalamin, if necessary.
Raw Foods
Any diet that excludes cooked animal or plant food is considered a raw foods diet. Cooking food at high temperatures reduces its nutrient value and destroys enzymes that would otherwise aid the body in the digestion and absorption of food. Common practices among raw foodists include warming, drying, and dehydrating food up to approximately 115 degrees Fahrenheit as this low heat will not compromise enzyme activity. Countless studies have revealed that cooking food produces toxic by-products, and once consumed, the body reacts by generating white blood cells to attack the foreign debris.
Raw Vegan Diets
In 1878, Louis Pasteur published his "germ theory of disease" which led to the widespread fear of germs and the popular belief that all foods must be cooked to protect health (1). Diets that once contained very little cooked food and an abundance of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables were switched to a predominance of cooked food. Today the concept of a high raw diet is foreign to most people, although it continues to regain popularity and credibility as its advocates and practitioners increase globally and exponentially.
A raw food diet may contain fish, eggs, unpasteurized milk and other raw animal products; however, a raw vegan shuns all animal flesh and by-products in favor of raw fruits, vegetables, (including seaweeds), sprouts, juices, herbs, nuts, seeds and their unprocessed oils.
Raw vegan preparations often include dehydrated and fermented foods. Fat content can be extremely high on a raw vegan diet when nuts, seeds, avocados and oils comprise the largest percentage of calorie intake.
80-10-10 Raw Diet
The low-fat raw vegan diet known as the 80-10-10 diet is thoroughly explained in the book by the same name, written by Dr. Douglas Graham. The numbers refer to the recommended ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the diet. Graham, who has followed this lifestyle for nearly thirty years, asserts that a minimum of 80% of total caloric intake should come from carbohydrates, a maximum of 10% from protein and up to 10% from fat. The concept may seem radical and unacceptable to many but it nevertheless takes the raw vegan diet to the next level of health.
With science to back him up Graham makes a convincing case for a diet of whole, fresh, ripe, raw and unprocessed fruit, tender greens, and small amounts of nuts and seeds, as the most natural to our anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. If left to fend for ourselves in nature with our bare hands and without the convenience of stoves, utensils, refrigeration and other modern devices we would seek out and thrive on this dietary model.
Fruit sugar provides energy to cells within a matter of minutes as long as there is a relatively small amount of fat in the diet. Without excess fat to slow it down, the natural sugar travels easily from the digestive tract through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream where it then makes its way to nourish cells.
Fats on the other hand take twelve to twenty-four hours to finally reach the cells. An excess consumption causes the bloodstream to remain congested with fat which in turn slows sugar from reaching the cells. The resultant elevated blood sugar contributes to candida, diabetes and many other illnesses.
Excess dietary fat (more than 10% of total caloric intake), not natural sugar, is the offender as it holds up digestion and adversely affects blood sugar levels. According to Graham, high fat intake "contributes not peripherally, but directly and causally to all the misleadingly named 'blood-sugar metabolic disorders.'
Graham maintains that fruit is the most nutritionally-complete food and should be the basis of a healthy diet. Vegetable fruits (cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.) and tender greens are also cleansing and alkalizing, and are an important component of the 80-10-10 diet as well.
Transition
For most people addicted to the Standard American Diet the transition to any one of the healing diets may be difficult. Instead of eliminating foods it may be easier to initially begin adding raw vegetables and fruits to one's daily diet. This may take a period of several days or weeks, but once this has become habit some of the health-damaging foods may be easier to release. The next level might be a natural foods diet before attempting a further restrictive cleansing diet. The strategy is to follow an incremental path to the optimum dietary lifestyle, regardless of how long it takes.
Many chronically ill individuals have made their transitions literally overnight in an effort to end their suffering or save their lives. These individuals endured the symptoms of detoxification until finally arriving at renewed health, and many have subsequently published their remarkable accounts of healing. Among the scores of noteworthy testimonies are The Raw Family: A True Story of Awakening by Victoria, Igor, Sergei and Valya Boutenko, (http://rawfamily.com/index) , A Way Out by Matthew Grace, (http://www.matthewgrace.com) , and Dying to Get Well by Shelly Keck-Borsits (http://www.rawandjuicy.com) .
Transitioning to a plant-based diet for optimum health is a lifestyle adjustment rather than a temporary phase, and determining the best option is an individual investigation that takes time. We tend to eat for reasons having less to do with nutrition and more to do with comfort, emotional attachment and tradition, and it's been said that changing one's diet is more difficult than changing religions. Nevertheless, once the addictive and highly processed foods are eliminated and the restorative powers of healing foods are realized it becomes easier and more desirable to stay the course.
References:
1. Graham, Dr. Douglas N.: The 80-10-10- Diet. Key Largo, FL: FoodnSport Press,
pp. 100; pg. 106; pg. 54, 2006
2. (http://macrobiotics.co.uk/foodlist.htm)
3. (www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html)
4.Campbell, PhD., T. Colin and Campbell II,Thomas M.: The China Study. Dallas, Texas: Benbella Books, pg. 232. 2006
Protein is made up of amino acids -– the "building blocks" with which our bodies construct and repair tissue. Among the twenty or so different amino acids are at least eight which are considered essential because they must be obtained from foods.
Animal sources –- especially beef –- are commonly thought to be the most efficient means of obtaining the nutrient since they provide "quality" proteins similar to human flesh and contain all of the essential amino acids. In the recent past it was believed that each daily meal should include complete proteins –- containing all the amino acids, and even though science has since disproved this notion, the misconception persists. This has led to an over consumption of animal protein in most western diets and the mistaken belief that plants are an inferior source of the coveted nutrient.
Protein is responsible for tissue development. Growing infants, among all humans, have the highest requirement of the nutrient. Approximately 6% of the calories in mother's milk come from protein, which adequately meets the infant's needs (1). A wealth of research indicates that more than 10% of calories from protein –- especially when the bulk of it is from animal sources –- leads to many chronic illnesses, including cancer. On average, Americans consume more than this amount, yet a collective fear of not getting enough "quality" protein persists.
Virtually all plant food provides protein, in addition to their other health benefits. In his essential book The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. discloses undisputed evidence that plant protein is the healthiest source of this nutrient.
With heart disease, cancer and diabetes on the rise many individuals have discovered the health benefits and wisdom of a plant-based diet. As they seek healthier lifestyles however, they may be confused by conflicting information and surprised by the various options to the Standard American Diet.
The Plant-Based Diet Spectrum
Among the many plant-based diets that have helped individuals reverse chronic illness and disease are the macrobiotic; natural foods; fruitarian; raw foods; vegetarian; vegan, raw vegan and low-fat raw vegan diets. This report will not give space to any of the calorie reducing, nutritionally unsound fad diets such as the Atkins and the South Beach.
Knowledge of the various plant-based diets' basic aspects is necessary before deciding which is best for one's health and healing. Further individual research and application is the only way to determine which diet will be most feasibly incorporated into one's lifestyle.
Macrobiotic
Whole grains, green leafy vegetables and root vegetables –- primarily locally grown –-
are the bases of the macrobiotic diet. Soybean products and other beans are consumed often, if not daily. Among the occasional foods are fruit; seeds and nuts; fermented condiments; sea vegetables, and fish which are typically consumed two or three times per week. Beef, poultry, dairy products, sugar and processed foods are avoided.
Macrobiotic meals are combined with the principals of balance in mind, with consideration of season, climate, gender and the general health of the individual. Natural foods are preferred over refined foods, and light foods are favored over heavy foods that drain the body of energy.
This low-fat, high fiber diet involves careful planning and provides many health benefits, at least in the short term. Opponents suggest that the diet is too restrictive and results in nutritional deficiencies over time. While there are numerous accounts of healing from cancer by following a macrobiotic diet, several long-term practitioners, teachers and authors espousing the lifestyle have ironically succumbed to the disease (2).
Natural Foods
A diet that includes fresh fruits, vegetables and other whole foods while eliminating or severely restricting processed foods is considered a natural foods diet. Refined grains; sugar; table salt; carbonated beverages; hydrogenated oils; chemical additives, and food coloring are considered harmful to the body and are generally avoided. Healthier choices include whole grains; honey; herbal teas; olive oil; sea salt and culinary herbs and spices. Wild or ocean-caught fish as well as pasture-fed beef and poultry are preferred over the factory-farmed varieties.
Clearly, a natural foods diet provides superior nourishment than the Standard American Diet and is useful for health maintenance and disease prevention; however, it is not considered a cleansing diet. When optimal health is the goal, or if a life-threatening disease occurs, a more restrictive diet may be necessary to allow the body to cleanse and heal itself.
Fruitarian
The original human diet seems likely to have been one consisting solely of fruits, and this concept is the basis of the fruitarian philosophy. Fruitarians maintain a diet of whole raw fruits, including the non-sweet varieties such as cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados, and embrace this diet and lifestyle as the most natural to our existence. Unlike other natural food sources, fruit is harvested without killing the plant and is therefore considered by the fruitarian to be the most sustainable, natural and humane diet.
The purist consumes only raw fruit and believes that the consumption of nuts, seeds and grains are unnatural, although some fruitarians include small amounts of these foods in their diets. A fruitarian diet is extremely cleansing and useful for short-term detoxification; however, existing solely on fruit for the long-term may be difficult and detrimental to health as some practitioners eventually experience severe food cravings and unpleasant symptoms signaling nutritional deficiencies.
Vegetarian and Vegan
Many individuals opt for a vegetarian or vegan diet due to health, concern for animals and the environment, and/or philosophical reasons. A vegetarian diet excludes all animal flesh but does not restrict animal by-products. For instance, a lacto-ovo vegetarian eats dairy and eggs while refraining from meat. A vegan diet on the other hand excludes all animal products, including honey. There are no restrictions from any of the other food groups, nor are their limitations on the method of food preparation. Food may be raw, cooked, whole or processed.
Simply eliminating meat, fish and animal by-products does not necessarily ensure good health; in fact, many vegetarians regularly consume a high-fat, highly processed diet of refined grains, sugar, coffee, alcohol and other empty calorie foods. However, the vegetarian and vegan diet is conducive to good health when it consists of a wide variety of natural foods. According to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada "appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases".
Vegetarians run the risk of developing a vitamin B-12 deficiency since plant foods don't provide adequate amounts of this essential nutrient. Among its many functions B-12 is responsible for growth in children, a healthy nervous system, and the formation of red blood cells. Prolonged deficiencies may lead to anemia and neurological damage.
Spirulina and sea vegetables are thought to contain B-12, yet studies show that these food sources actually contain a form that is structurally similar to B-12 (a B-12 analog), which is not utilized by the body and may in fact compete with the vitamin for absorption (3).
Vitamin B-12 is made by microorganisms in the soil, (as well as in animal intestines), and research indicates that plants will absorb the vitamin if grown in healthy organic soil containing a concentration of B-12 (4). Nevertheless, to avoid the possible risk of a deficiency, vegetarians and vegans should have their levels checked periodically and supplement with a sublingual form of methylcobalamin, if necessary.
Raw Foods
Any diet that excludes cooked animal or plant food is considered a raw foods diet. Cooking food at high temperatures reduces its nutrient value and destroys enzymes that would otherwise aid the body in the digestion and absorption of food. Common practices among raw foodists include warming, drying, and dehydrating food up to approximately 115 degrees Fahrenheit as this low heat will not compromise enzyme activity. Countless studies have revealed that cooking food produces toxic by-products, and once consumed, the body reacts by generating white blood cells to attack the foreign debris.
Raw Vegan Diets
In 1878, Louis Pasteur published his "germ theory of disease" which led to the widespread fear of germs and the popular belief that all foods must be cooked to protect health (1). Diets that once contained very little cooked food and an abundance of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables were switched to a predominance of cooked food. Today the concept of a high raw diet is foreign to most people, although it continues to regain popularity and credibility as its advocates and practitioners increase globally and exponentially.
A raw food diet may contain fish, eggs, unpasteurized milk and other raw animal products; however, a raw vegan shuns all animal flesh and by-products in favor of raw fruits, vegetables, (including seaweeds), sprouts, juices, herbs, nuts, seeds and their unprocessed oils.
Raw vegan preparations often include dehydrated and fermented foods. Fat content can be extremely high on a raw vegan diet when nuts, seeds, avocados and oils comprise the largest percentage of calorie intake.
80-10-10 Raw Diet
The low-fat raw vegan diet known as the 80-10-10 diet is thoroughly explained in the book by the same name, written by Dr. Douglas Graham. The numbers refer to the recommended ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the diet. Graham, who has followed this lifestyle for nearly thirty years, asserts that a minimum of 80% of total caloric intake should come from carbohydrates, a maximum of 10% from protein and up to 10% from fat. The concept may seem radical and unacceptable to many but it nevertheless takes the raw vegan diet to the next level of health.
With science to back him up Graham makes a convincing case for a diet of whole, fresh, ripe, raw and unprocessed fruit, tender greens, and small amounts of nuts and seeds, as the most natural to our anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. If left to fend for ourselves in nature with our bare hands and without the convenience of stoves, utensils, refrigeration and other modern devices we would seek out and thrive on this dietary model.
Fruit sugar provides energy to cells within a matter of minutes as long as there is a relatively small amount of fat in the diet. Without excess fat to slow it down, the natural sugar travels easily from the digestive tract through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream where it then makes its way to nourish cells.
Fats on the other hand take twelve to twenty-four hours to finally reach the cells. An excess consumption causes the bloodstream to remain congested with fat which in turn slows sugar from reaching the cells. The resultant elevated blood sugar contributes to candida, diabetes and many other illnesses.
Excess dietary fat (more than 10% of total caloric intake), not natural sugar, is the offender as it holds up digestion and adversely affects blood sugar levels. According to Graham, high fat intake "contributes not peripherally, but directly and causally to all the misleadingly named 'blood-sugar metabolic disorders.'
Graham maintains that fruit is the most nutritionally-complete food and should be the basis of a healthy diet. Vegetable fruits (cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.) and tender greens are also cleansing and alkalizing, and are an important component of the 80-10-10 diet as well.
Transition
For most people addicted to the Standard American Diet the transition to any one of the healing diets may be difficult. Instead of eliminating foods it may be easier to initially begin adding raw vegetables and fruits to one's daily diet. This may take a period of several days or weeks, but once this has become habit some of the health-damaging foods may be easier to release. The next level might be a natural foods diet before attempting a further restrictive cleansing diet. The strategy is to follow an incremental path to the optimum dietary lifestyle, regardless of how long it takes.
Many chronically ill individuals have made their transitions literally overnight in an effort to end their suffering or save their lives. These individuals endured the symptoms of detoxification until finally arriving at renewed health, and many have subsequently published their remarkable accounts of healing. Among the scores of noteworthy testimonies are The Raw Family: A True Story of Awakening by Victoria, Igor, Sergei and Valya Boutenko, (http://rawfamily.com/index) , A Way Out by Matthew Grace, (http://www.matthewgrace.com) , and Dying to Get Well by Shelly Keck-Borsits (http://www.rawandjuicy.com) .
Transitioning to a plant-based diet for optimum health is a lifestyle adjustment rather than a temporary phase, and determining the best option is an individual investigation that takes time. We tend to eat for reasons having less to do with nutrition and more to do with comfort, emotional attachment and tradition, and it's been said that changing one's diet is more difficult than changing religions. Nevertheless, once the addictive and highly processed foods are eliminated and the restorative powers of healing foods are realized it becomes easier and more desirable to stay the course.
References:
1. Graham, Dr. Douglas N.: The 80-10-10- Diet. Key Largo, FL: FoodnSport Press,
pp. 100; pg. 106; pg. 54, 2006
2. (http://macrobiotics.co.uk/foodlist.htm)
3. (www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html)
4.Campbell, PhD., T. Colin and Campbell II,Thomas M.: The China Study. Dallas, Texas: Benbella Books, pg. 232. 2006
About the author
Mary Laredo is an artist, educator and gallery curator who lives and works in Detroit, MI. As a breast cancer survivor who shunned conventional treatment, she is writing a book about her experience with natural therapies and nutritional healing. Visit http://marylaredo.blogspot.comMonday, August 11, 2008
RETURN OF THE GROWN-UPS by Liz Jones (Daily Mail)
The moment the tide started to turn is one I remember distinctly. It was a balmy July night in 2007, I was in the front row of the 60th anniversary couture show by Dior, held in the gardens of Versailles, and suddenly every supermodel worth her Touche Eclat started to teeter slowly along the longest catwalk in history.
There was Linda Evangelista, with her hour-glass figure and green cat's eyes, a cross between Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. There was Naomi Campbell, with a body that wouldn't shame a woman half her age. There was Shalom Harlow, surely the most naturally beautiful of all the supers.
And there was the timelessly lovely Claudia Schiffer (although OK, she found the high wedge shoes, not around when she was in her heyday, impossible to walk in, and needed her hand held by a security guard, as if she were 80 rather than close to 40).
I remember thinking, hmm, isn't it nice to see women, proper grown-up women, with pasts and ex-husbands and spells doing community service, who have given birth to several children, looking fabulous in these clothes, rather than seeing the glorious gowns modelled by shapeless, characterless, big-eyed babies who don't have the ability to look remotely sexy, who are incapable of looking elegant, or sophisticated, or even adult.
Sasha Pivovarova
D&G Ad with Lily Donaldson
Then there is Naomi Campbell, at 38 (model years are like dog years; Naomi is now at the age when she should be sitting in her basket in front of a warm fire), on the covers of Italian, French and Brazilian Vogues, butt naked, if you please. On the cover of the current i-D, radiant on the cover of POP, and the brand new face of Yves Saint Laurent, probably the most prestigious and certainly one of the most lucrative contracts in the business.
And, my goodness, there is even the 60-something Lauren Hutton, the new face of High Street fashion brand Mango.
The lovely Linda Evangelista has, hurrah!, toppled the vacant, hollow-eyed, cadaverous Sasha Pivovarova (I'm not quite sure how old Sasha is; let's say she's 12) from her six-season reign as the face of Prada.
Linda, who says she is 43, suits the clothes - grown up, severe, impeccably tailored, and mostly black - to a capital T.
Looking at these women, most of whom are household names and certainly more famous than many of the brands they get out of bed (or, more likely these days, abandon the school run) for, you might wonder why they were put out to grass in the first place.
The problem is, they got too big (not as in size 12; big as in powerful) for the magazines and the photographers and the fashion brands. They no longer wanted to take part in the gruelling, twice-yearly four weeks of catwalk shows. They started to want picture approval and an agreed budget for airbrushing.
They stopped wanting to travel to far-flung places and stay in a tent. They started writing angry letters to editors. (I got one, anyway. When I put Christy Turlington on the cover of Marie Claire, accompanied by an interview, she wrote me an irate letter, spitting with rage, beginning 'You, Editor' and complaining she had been asked about her private life.) The supers got a little too greedy (not for food, don't be silly, but for money), opening ill-fated fast-food restaurants such as the Fashion Café. And, to be honest, we all got a little tired of them. As Calvin Klein said in 1996: 'I don't think people are that interested in models any more.'
The supers' reign, while it lives large in our minds, actually lasted only about five years.
The supermodels were born on the Versace runway back in 1991, when Gianni Versace, looking for women who could fill his sexy dresses with curvaceous bodies and a bit of va-va-voom, cast Cindy, Linda, Claudia, Stephanie and Helena Christensen for a show that turned out to be a fashion landmark: the moment high-octane glamour blew all the dowdy relics of the Eighties out of the water.Didier Fernandez - of DNA Models in New York, and who as well as looking after Linda Evangelista represents those other relics Nadja Auermann (an ice cool blonde surely ripe for a comeback) and Amber Valletta (now a successful Hollywood actress) - told New York magazine this month: 'There was a supermodel overdose and people wanted to see actresses, but maybe the fact that actresses don't have a real relationship with fashion is driving their return.'
He also suggested that 'people are starting to wake up to the value, both in the emotive and bankable sense' of these iconic, wonderful women.
Storm Model Management founder Sarah Doukas - who when she first signed Kate Moss aged 14 could not, in her wildest dreams, have imagined she would still be milking that particular cash cow some two decades later (Kate, 34, has just landed the job of being in the new ad campaign for Stella McCartney) - agrees that the return of the super was inevitable.She says: 'I have a theory about why this has happened, keeps happening - and it's that great style never goes out of fashion. I don't think it's a coincidence that a group of terrific-looking, intelligent and strong women should remain icons over a period of two decades.
'I think the media and the public respond well to models like Kate, Eva [Herzigova], Naomi, Elle [ Macpherson], Cindy, Claudia, Christy, etc, because these girls have real personalities to equal their beautiful looks. The model as the personality is back in vogue again.'
And these superannuated supermodels are proving good for business. Call it the Carla Sarkozy effect. Sales of Dior flats and other accessories have soared since the former model, now 40, started showing how women of a certain age should and could look - groomed and sophisticated and not, thank God, remotely girly.
L'Oreal's profits have increased 20 per cent since Linda Evangelista started appearing in its advertising campaigns 18 months ago. As a Louis Vuitton spokeswoman pointed out, a recognisable face is necessary to make people stop and look at an ad.
And while we might think Sasha Pivovarova young and weirdly beautiful, not many outside the industry (even I can never tell my Sashas from my Vladas) will have the foggiest idea who she is.
Why should you or I care about this seismic shift away from the ingénue to the - in modelling terms - positively geriatric? The airbrushed creatures we see on billboards are still not remotely real, or ancient looking, or riddled with age spots and stretch marks.
But if it is now considered great for business to have a woman in her 40s on the cover of a glossy magazine (the June issue of American Vogue featuring a 43-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker on its cover has turned out to be one of its best sellers) or writ large on a billboard, well then, and only then, can we expect this trend to mushroom and continue and make us all, even in a little way, feel less afraid and ashamed of the encroaching years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1043403/RETURN-OF-THE-GROWN-UPS-The-old-school-supermodels-back.htmlArtichokes ain't choking no more! (amazing healing properties!)
(NaturalNews) When people think of artichokes, most only think of artichokes sold as a vegetable in grocery stores and aren't aware of the healing properties of the artichoke leaf. Artichoke leaf extract (ALE) is an extract of the leaves at the base of the stem of the globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus). Artichoke leaf extracts that are used medicinally have been found to possess greater therapeutic properties than the artichoke heart.
Artichoke leaf has a variety of important healing properties. For years traditional herbal healers have used the artichoke leaf as a treatment for digestive upset, poor liver function (artichoke leaf extract increases the flow of bile from the liver to the gallbladder), along with the following disorders and discomforts:
* Abdominal Discomfort
* Anti-inflammatory
* Antioxidant
* Bile Stimulant
* Biliary Deficiency
* Bitter Tonic Herb
* Bloating
* Detoxifying
* Digestive Disorders
* Diuretic
* Dyspepsia
* Flatulence
* Gallbladder Health
* Gastrointestinal Disorders
* High Cholesterol
* Indigestion
* Lowering LDL Cholesterol
* Nausea
* Vascular Disorders
The artichoke leaf has primarily been used as a choleretic, which is a substance that boosts liver function by means of enhancing bile production. Artichoke leaf extract protects and regenerates the liver. It can completely protect the body against poisoning and death from lethal doses of many toxins by helping the liver to detoxify many toxic substances. This is a great supplement to use for liver protection in today's world of heavy pollution.
The artichoke leaf has also obtained a reputation for being one of the best solutions for digestive and bowel problems. It is also known as a diuretic, for its ability to reduce water retention and increase urination. Also, sufferers of ulcers and acid reflux report that artichoke leaf extract reduced the burning, acidic and uncomfortable symptoms in the upper stomach.
Traditional herbal healers have recommended artichoke leaf extract as a means for lowering cholesterol and now there it scientific proof to support using artichoke leaf in place of statins for lowering cholesterol.
Researchers at the University of Reading have found that an over-the-counter Artichoke Leaf Extract (ALE) from the globe artichoke plant can lower cholesterol in otherwise healthy individuals with moderately raised levels. Cardiovascular diseases are the chief causes of death in the U.K., and are associated with raised circulating levels of total cholesterol in the plasma.
Once plasma cholesterol reaches a certain level, drugs such as statins are often prescribed to help reduce it. Intervention before concentrations reaches these levels may help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease without the need for drugs. This new piece of research has shown that otherwise healthy people with moderately raised plasma cholesterol may be able to lower their levels by taking this herbal supplement.
During the trial, 75 volunteers were given 1,280 mg (4 capsules) of an ALE, or matched placebo, each day for 12 weeks. ALE consumption resulted in a modest but favorable statistically significant reduction in total plasma cholesterol after the intervention period.
For over 10 years, the relationship between dietary intakes of antioxidant nutrients and a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases has been recognized and investigated. Antioxidant nutrients include 'non-essential' phytochemicals (e.g. flavonoids) as well as 'essential' nutrients (e.g. vitamins C, E). Several plant-rich sources of flavonoids, such as fruits and vegetables, tea, red wine, cocoa and olive oil, have been associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, although the exact mechanisms for their protective effects are still not clear. Research has shown that ALE's are rich in various flavonoids.
Globe artichokes have been used traditionally in Europe to improve digestive and urinary tract health. Artichoke leaf extracts (ALE's) are currently used in Germany and Switzerland as a remedy for indigestion, and are available in the U.K. as over-the-counter food supplements. Various studies have provided an evidence base for their use in conditions such as dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome.
Dr. Rafe Bundy said "Reducing cholesterol levels can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Our research investigated whether ALE could be beneficial to otherwise healthy people who had raised levels of cholesterol but were not yet at a stage where they needed standard medical intervention. ALE may provide another option which people could try over and above a healthy diet in order to help lower plasma cholesterol."
Journal reference:
Bundy R., et al. Artichoke leaf extract (Cynara scolymus) reduces plasma cholesterol in otherwise healthy hypercholesterolemic adults: a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial. Phytomedicine, DOI: 10.1016/j.phymed.2008.03.001
Sources:
University of Reading (http://www.reading.ac.uk/)
Flora Herb & Supplement Encyclopedia
Herbal Healing Guide ((http://herbalhealingguide.com/artichoke...)
Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions; Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An Herbal Perspective.
Artichoke leaf has a variety of important healing properties. For years traditional herbal healers have used the artichoke leaf as a treatment for digestive upset, poor liver function (artichoke leaf extract increases the flow of bile from the liver to the gallbladder), along with the following disorders and discomforts:
* Abdominal Discomfort
* Anti-inflammatory
* Antioxidant
* Bile Stimulant
* Biliary Deficiency
* Bitter Tonic Herb
* Bloating
* Detoxifying
* Digestive Disorders
* Diuretic
* Dyspepsia
* Flatulence
* Gallbladder Health
* Gastrointestinal Disorders
* High Cholesterol
* Indigestion
* Lowering LDL Cholesterol
* Nausea
* Vascular Disorders
The artichoke leaf has primarily been used as a choleretic, which is a substance that boosts liver function by means of enhancing bile production. Artichoke leaf extract protects and regenerates the liver. It can completely protect the body against poisoning and death from lethal doses of many toxins by helping the liver to detoxify many toxic substances. This is a great supplement to use for liver protection in today's world of heavy pollution.
The artichoke leaf has also obtained a reputation for being one of the best solutions for digestive and bowel problems. It is also known as a diuretic, for its ability to reduce water retention and increase urination. Also, sufferers of ulcers and acid reflux report that artichoke leaf extract reduced the burning, acidic and uncomfortable symptoms in the upper stomach.
Traditional herbal healers have recommended artichoke leaf extract as a means for lowering cholesterol and now there it scientific proof to support using artichoke leaf in place of statins for lowering cholesterol.
Researchers at the University of Reading have found that an over-the-counter Artichoke Leaf Extract (ALE) from the globe artichoke plant can lower cholesterol in otherwise healthy individuals with moderately raised levels. Cardiovascular diseases are the chief causes of death in the U.K., and are associated with raised circulating levels of total cholesterol in the plasma.
Once plasma cholesterol reaches a certain level, drugs such as statins are often prescribed to help reduce it. Intervention before concentrations reaches these levels may help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease without the need for drugs. This new piece of research has shown that otherwise healthy people with moderately raised plasma cholesterol may be able to lower their levels by taking this herbal supplement.
During the trial, 75 volunteers were given 1,280 mg (4 capsules) of an ALE, or matched placebo, each day for 12 weeks. ALE consumption resulted in a modest but favorable statistically significant reduction in total plasma cholesterol after the intervention period.
For over 10 years, the relationship between dietary intakes of antioxidant nutrients and a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases has been recognized and investigated. Antioxidant nutrients include 'non-essential' phytochemicals (e.g. flavonoids) as well as 'essential' nutrients (e.g. vitamins C, E). Several plant-rich sources of flavonoids, such as fruits and vegetables, tea, red wine, cocoa and olive oil, have been associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, although the exact mechanisms for their protective effects are still not clear. Research has shown that ALE's are rich in various flavonoids.
Globe artichokes have been used traditionally in Europe to improve digestive and urinary tract health. Artichoke leaf extracts (ALE's) are currently used in Germany and Switzerland as a remedy for indigestion, and are available in the U.K. as over-the-counter food supplements. Various studies have provided an evidence base for their use in conditions such as dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome.
Dr. Rafe Bundy said "Reducing cholesterol levels can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Our research investigated whether ALE could be beneficial to otherwise healthy people who had raised levels of cholesterol but were not yet at a stage where they needed standard medical intervention. ALE may provide another option which people could try over and above a healthy diet in order to help lower plasma cholesterol."
Journal reference:
Bundy R., et al. Artichoke leaf extract (Cynara scolymus) reduces plasma cholesterol in otherwise healthy hypercholesterolemic adults: a randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial. Phytomedicine, DOI: 10.1016/j.phymed.2008.03.001
Sources:
University of Reading (http://www.reading.ac.uk/)
Flora Herb & Supplement Encyclopedia
Herbal Healing Guide ((http://herbalhealingguide.com/artichoke...)
Leslee Dru Browning is a 6th generation Medical Herbalist & Nutritionist from the ancestral line of Patty Bartlett Sessions; Pioneer Mid-Wife & Herbalist. Leslee practiced Medical Herbalism and Nutritional Healing for over 25 years and specialized in Cancer Wellness along with Chronic Illness. She now devotes her career to teaching people, through her writing, about Natural Healing from An Herbal Perspective.
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