Part I - Check your water report!
If you live in Michigan especially the area around the thumb you are being exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic in your drinking water. According to Environmental Health report this area of Michigan has evidence of higher death rates due to causes of death including several types of cancer, diseases of the circulatory and respiratory system, diabetes mellitus, and kidney and liver diseases. Each of these diseases has shown some evidence of association with arsenic exposure.
Specifically, cancer of the female reproductive organs was elevated. Deaths from all diseases of the circulatory system and cerebrovascular diseases were elevated in both males and females. In females only, deaths from atherosclerosis were elevated and deaths from aortic aneurysm were reduced. Deaths from respiratory diseases were elevated in the study area, with chronic airways obstruction-related deaths elevated in both males and females. Males also experienced elevated mortality rates for all diseases of the respiratory system. Deaths from diabetes mellitus and kidney diseases were also elevated among both males and females in the study area. Deaths from chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis were reduced for males and females.
There are other scary contaminates in our water too so it's a good idea to check your city's water evaluation report to know what is in the water in your area. Unfortunately, many contaminats such as prescription drugs cannot be filtered out right now.We need stricter laws to ensure proper disposal of these substances in order to prevent further contamination.
How this report was done: Estimates of arsenic concentrations in drinking water in the six-county study area were compiled from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) arsenic database which contains results from water samples collected and analyzed between 1983 and 2002. You can read the entire report here www.ehjournal.net/content/6/1/4
What can you do about this? Get a water filtration system for all drinking and cooking water. Many are inexpensive. Check the label to see what contaminates the brand your considering filters out. You can also get a shower head water filter (highly advisable) to eliminate these toxins from entering through the skin.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
PUTTING THE "C" IN CURE:
PUTTING THE "C" IN CURE:
Quantity and Frequency are the Keys to Ascorbate Therapy
Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
(OMNS, December 15, 2009) What is it about a little left-handed molecule of six carbons, six oxygens, and eight hydrogens that ticks off so many in the medical community? Maybe it's cases like this one: Ray, a health professional I know, had an 11-month old son who was very sick for over a week. No one, and I mean no one, in their family had had any sleep in a long time. They were up night after night with this child, who had a high fever, glazed watery eyes, tons of thick watery mucus and labored breathing. The child would not sleep, and did little else but cry. The baby was under the care of a pediatrician, who, in the infant's eleven months on earth, had already prescribed twelve rounds of some very serious antibiotics. That they clearly were not working was all too apparent to Ray, who out of desperation decided to try something he previously had been taught to not try: bowel tolerance quantities of oral ascorbate. Ray and his wife gave their baby vitamin C about every 15 minutes. As a result, the baby was noticeably improved in a matter of hours, and slept through the night. With frequent doses continuing, the child was completely well in less than 48 hours. Ray calculated that the child had received just over 2,000 mg vitamin C per kilogram body weight per day. This is even more than what vitamin C expert Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner customarily ordered for sick patients. Remarkably, at 20,000 milligrams of vitamin C/day, that baby never had bowel-tolerance loose stools. (1)
With such a little body, you have to marvel at where all that ascorbate was going. Of course, it is the opinion of those who promulgate the US RDA and related nutritional mythology that almost all of that baby's vitamin C went uselessly into the toilet. Ray and his wife would tell you differently. They would say that their sick child soaked it up like a sponge, and then promptly got better. You choose the answer that works for you.
Quantity of Dose
Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner earned his MD from Duke University School of Medicine and was subsequently board certified in diseases of the chest. (2) A working summation of Dr. Klenner's therapeutic use of vitamin C is 350 milligrams vitamin C per kilogram body weight per day (350 mg/kg/day), in divided doses. (3) Since a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, this translates to:
mg of Vitamin "C" Body Weight Number of Doses Amount per dose
35,000 mg 220 lb 17-18 2,000 mg
18,000 mg 110 lb 18 1,000 mg
9,000 mg 55 lb 18 500 mg
4,500 mg 28 lb 9 500 mg
2,300 mg 14-15 lb 9 250 mg
1,200 mg 7-8 lb 9 130 - 135 mg
Although these quantities may seem high, Dr. Klenner actually used as much as four times as much for serious viral illness, administered by injection. The oral doses listed above are, for the doctor, comparatively moderate.
Frequency of Dose
For those unable to obtain intravenous vitamin C, it is essential to pay special attention to one of the most important aspects of vitamin C therapy: dividing the dosage improves absorption and retention of vitamin C. High oral doses of vitamin C yield higher blood levels of the vitamin, and dividing the oral doses maintains those higher levels. Although initially seeming almost too obvious to mention, these are not self-evident concepts. Many a medical website and government-based dietary recommendation hinge on ignoring them. Hilary Roberts, PhD, writes: "Stressed and even mildly ill people can tolerate 1,000 times more vitamin C, implying a change in biochemistry that was ignored in creating the RDA. In setting the RDA, unsubstantiated risks of taking too much vitamin C have been accorded great importance, whereas the risks of not taking enough have been ignored. Real scientists understand that 'no scientific proof' is a fancy way of saying 'we don't like this idea.'" (4)
And there is ample proof to not like. Vitamin C, in very high doses, has been used to successfully treat several dozen illness (5), with a published, peer-reviewed literature spanning the last 60 years. Therefore, the effectiveness and safety of megadose vitamin C therapy should, by now, be yesterday's news. Yet I never cease to be amazed at the number of persons who remain unaware that vitamin C is the best broad-spectrum antibiotic, antihistamine, antitoxic and antiviral substance there is. Equally surprising is the ease with which some people, most of the medical profession, and virtually all of the media have been convinced that, somehow, vitamin C is not only ineffective but is also downright dangerous.
Bias against Ascorbate Therapy
When you pick up a health or nutrition book and need to know really fast if it is any good or not, just check the index for "Klenner" and three other key names: Cathcart, Stone, and Pauling. Robert F. Cathcart, an orthopedic surgeon, administered huge doses of vitamin C to tens of thousands of patients for decades (6), without generating a single kidney stone. Irwin Stone, the biochemist who first put Linus Pauling onto vitamin C, is the author of The Healing Factor: Vitamin C against Disease. (7) Pauling cites Stone thirteen times in his landmark book How to Live Longer and Feel Better (8), a recommendation if there ever was one. The importance of vitamin C's power against infectious and chronic disease is extraordinary. To me, omitting it is tantamount to deleting Shakespeare from an English Lit course.
Because of such bias, the primary way patients (and through them, their physicians) have been exposed to Dr. Klenner's work has been through Dr. Lendon Smith's 68-page Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C: The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. (9) Upon discovering this book, one of my undergraduates submitted a paper to another class discussing a substantial number of medical references she had found on vitamin C as a cure for polio. That course's instructor told me privately that the student's work was absurd, and he literally described her as a "dial tone." I recall a nutritional presentation I made to a hospital staff. All was going well until I mentioned using vitamin C as an antibiotic, as Dr. Klenner did. The mood changed quickly. And how many of us have heard this old saw: "If vitamin C was so good, every doctor would be prescribing it!"
Cardiologist Thomas Levy, MD, explains: "I could find no mainstream medical researcher who has performed any clinical studies on any infectious disease with vitamin C doses that approached those used by Klenner. Using a small enough dose of any therapeutic agent will demonstrate little or no effect on an infection or disease process." (10)
Preventive Doses
Dr. Klenner recommended daily preventive doses of 10,000 to 15,000 mg/day. He advised parents to give their children their age in vitamin C grams (1 g = 1,000 mg). That would be 2,000 mg/day for a two year old, 9,000 mg/day for a nine year old, and for older children, a leveling-off at about 10,000 mg/day. As for me, I simply say, "Take enough C to be symptom free, whatever that amount may be." It worked for my family. I raised my children all the way into college and they never had a dose of any antibiotic. Not once.
It is high time for medical professionals to welcome vitamin C megadoses and their power to cure the sick. Cure is by far the best word there is in medicine. It would seem that you cannot spell "cure" without "C." I do not think Dr. Klenner would dispute that.
(Andrew W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level, and has won three New York State teacher fellowships. He is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! and, with Dr. Abram Hoffer, co-author of Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. Saul is featured in the documentary film Food Matters.)
References:
(1) Bowel tolerance as an indicator of vitamin C saturation is discussed by Dr. RF Cathcart at http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html and http://www.doctoryourself.com/cathcart_thirdface.html
(2) For more about Dr. Klenner's life and work: http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html
(3) Klenner FR. The significance of high daily intake of ascorbic acid in preventive medicine, p 51-59, in: A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine, Third Edition, Roger Williams, PhD, ed. Keats, 1979.
(4) Hickey S and Roberts H. Ascorbate: The science of vitamin C. 2004. ISBN 1-4116-0724-4. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.
(5) http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitaminc.html
(6) http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_cathcart.html
(7) The complete text of Irwin Stone's book The Healing Factor is posted for free reading at http://vitamincfoundation.org/stone/
(8) Pauling L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better, revised edition, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780870710964. Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/livelonger.html
(9) The full text of Dr. Frederick R. Klenner's Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C is posted for free reading at http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/198x/smith-lh-clinical_guide_1988.htm
(10) Levy TE. Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable. Livon Books, 2002. ISBN: 1-4010-6963-0 and 978-1401069636
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.
Damien Downing, M.D.
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
"http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml"
"http://www.orthomolecular.org/forms/omns_subscribe.shtml"
"http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml"
Quantity and Frequency are the Keys to Ascorbate Therapy
Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
(OMNS, December 15, 2009) What is it about a little left-handed molecule of six carbons, six oxygens, and eight hydrogens that ticks off so many in the medical community? Maybe it's cases like this one: Ray, a health professional I know, had an 11-month old son who was very sick for over a week. No one, and I mean no one, in their family had had any sleep in a long time. They were up night after night with this child, who had a high fever, glazed watery eyes, tons of thick watery mucus and labored breathing. The child would not sleep, and did little else but cry. The baby was under the care of a pediatrician, who, in the infant's eleven months on earth, had already prescribed twelve rounds of some very serious antibiotics. That they clearly were not working was all too apparent to Ray, who out of desperation decided to try something he previously had been taught to not try: bowel tolerance quantities of oral ascorbate. Ray and his wife gave their baby vitamin C about every 15 minutes. As a result, the baby was noticeably improved in a matter of hours, and slept through the night. With frequent doses continuing, the child was completely well in less than 48 hours. Ray calculated that the child had received just over 2,000 mg vitamin C per kilogram body weight per day. This is even more than what vitamin C expert Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner customarily ordered for sick patients. Remarkably, at 20,000 milligrams of vitamin C/day, that baby never had bowel-tolerance loose stools. (1)
With such a little body, you have to marvel at where all that ascorbate was going. Of course, it is the opinion of those who promulgate the US RDA and related nutritional mythology that almost all of that baby's vitamin C went uselessly into the toilet. Ray and his wife would tell you differently. They would say that their sick child soaked it up like a sponge, and then promptly got better. You choose the answer that works for you.
Quantity of Dose
Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner earned his MD from Duke University School of Medicine and was subsequently board certified in diseases of the chest. (2) A working summation of Dr. Klenner's therapeutic use of vitamin C is 350 milligrams vitamin C per kilogram body weight per day (350 mg/kg/day), in divided doses. (3) Since a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, this translates to:
mg of Vitamin "C" Body Weight Number of Doses Amount per dose
35,000 mg 220 lb 17-18 2,000 mg
18,000 mg 110 lb 18 1,000 mg
9,000 mg 55 lb 18 500 mg
4,500 mg 28 lb 9 500 mg
2,300 mg 14-15 lb 9 250 mg
1,200 mg 7-8 lb 9 130 - 135 mg
Although these quantities may seem high, Dr. Klenner actually used as much as four times as much for serious viral illness, administered by injection. The oral doses listed above are, for the doctor, comparatively moderate.
Frequency of Dose
For those unable to obtain intravenous vitamin C, it is essential to pay special attention to one of the most important aspects of vitamin C therapy: dividing the dosage improves absorption and retention of vitamin C. High oral doses of vitamin C yield higher blood levels of the vitamin, and dividing the oral doses maintains those higher levels. Although initially seeming almost too obvious to mention, these are not self-evident concepts. Many a medical website and government-based dietary recommendation hinge on ignoring them. Hilary Roberts, PhD, writes: "Stressed and even mildly ill people can tolerate 1,000 times more vitamin C, implying a change in biochemistry that was ignored in creating the RDA. In setting the RDA, unsubstantiated risks of taking too much vitamin C have been accorded great importance, whereas the risks of not taking enough have been ignored. Real scientists understand that 'no scientific proof' is a fancy way of saying 'we don't like this idea.'" (4)
And there is ample proof to not like. Vitamin C, in very high doses, has been used to successfully treat several dozen illness (5), with a published, peer-reviewed literature spanning the last 60 years. Therefore, the effectiveness and safety of megadose vitamin C therapy should, by now, be yesterday's news. Yet I never cease to be amazed at the number of persons who remain unaware that vitamin C is the best broad-spectrum antibiotic, antihistamine, antitoxic and antiviral substance there is. Equally surprising is the ease with which some people, most of the medical profession, and virtually all of the media have been convinced that, somehow, vitamin C is not only ineffective but is also downright dangerous.
Bias against Ascorbate Therapy
When you pick up a health or nutrition book and need to know really fast if it is any good or not, just check the index for "Klenner" and three other key names: Cathcart, Stone, and Pauling. Robert F. Cathcart, an orthopedic surgeon, administered huge doses of vitamin C to tens of thousands of patients for decades (6), without generating a single kidney stone. Irwin Stone, the biochemist who first put Linus Pauling onto vitamin C, is the author of The Healing Factor: Vitamin C against Disease. (7) Pauling cites Stone thirteen times in his landmark book How to Live Longer and Feel Better (8), a recommendation if there ever was one. The importance of vitamin C's power against infectious and chronic disease is extraordinary. To me, omitting it is tantamount to deleting Shakespeare from an English Lit course.
Because of such bias, the primary way patients (and through them, their physicians) have been exposed to Dr. Klenner's work has been through Dr. Lendon Smith's 68-page Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C: The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. (9) Upon discovering this book, one of my undergraduates submitted a paper to another class discussing a substantial number of medical references she had found on vitamin C as a cure for polio. That course's instructor told me privately that the student's work was absurd, and he literally described her as a "dial tone." I recall a nutritional presentation I made to a hospital staff. All was going well until I mentioned using vitamin C as an antibiotic, as Dr. Klenner did. The mood changed quickly. And how many of us have heard this old saw: "If vitamin C was so good, every doctor would be prescribing it!"
Cardiologist Thomas Levy, MD, explains: "I could find no mainstream medical researcher who has performed any clinical studies on any infectious disease with vitamin C doses that approached those used by Klenner. Using a small enough dose of any therapeutic agent will demonstrate little or no effect on an infection or disease process." (10)
Preventive Doses
Dr. Klenner recommended daily preventive doses of 10,000 to 15,000 mg/day. He advised parents to give their children their age in vitamin C grams (1 g = 1,000 mg). That would be 2,000 mg/day for a two year old, 9,000 mg/day for a nine year old, and for older children, a leveling-off at about 10,000 mg/day. As for me, I simply say, "Take enough C to be symptom free, whatever that amount may be." It worked for my family. I raised my children all the way into college and they never had a dose of any antibiotic. Not once.
It is high time for medical professionals to welcome vitamin C megadoses and their power to cure the sick. Cure is by far the best word there is in medicine. It would seem that you cannot spell "cure" without "C." I do not think Dr. Klenner would dispute that.
(Andrew W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level, and has won three New York State teacher fellowships. He is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! and, with Dr. Abram Hoffer, co-author of Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. Saul is featured in the documentary film Food Matters.)
References:
(1) Bowel tolerance as an indicator of vitamin C saturation is discussed by Dr. RF Cathcart at http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html and http://www.doctoryourself.com/cathcart_thirdface.html
(2) For more about Dr. Klenner's life and work: http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html
(3) Klenner FR. The significance of high daily intake of ascorbic acid in preventive medicine, p 51-59, in: A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine, Third Edition, Roger Williams, PhD, ed. Keats, 1979.
(4) Hickey S and Roberts H. Ascorbate: The science of vitamin C. 2004. ISBN 1-4116-0724-4. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.
(5) http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitaminc.html
(6) http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_cathcart.html
(7) The complete text of Irwin Stone's book The Healing Factor is posted for free reading at http://vitamincfoundation.org/stone/
(8) Pauling L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better, revised edition, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780870710964. Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/livelonger.html
(9) The full text of Dr. Frederick R. Klenner's Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C is posted for free reading at http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/198x/smith-lh-clinical_guide_1988.htm
(10) Levy TE. Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable. Livon Books, 2002. ISBN: 1-4010-6963-0 and 978-1401069636
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.
Damien Downing, M.D.
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
"http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml"
"http://www.orthomolecular.org/forms/omns_subscribe.shtml"
"http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml"
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
How do you cook your food?
Do you use a microwave to cook your food? I hope not.
Did you know that microwaves destroy the nutrients in your food leaving you to consume a toxic soup?
Perhaps you remember reading about the dangers of microwaving infant formula or perhaps you remember reading that microwaved blood killed a patient back in 1991 in Oklahoma? This is because microwaves destroy natural substances - they destroy nutrients in food and alter our structural makeup in detrimental ways.
How they work:
Microwaves are very short waves of electromagnetic energy that travel at the speed of light. Microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food. All wave energy changes polarity from positive to negative with each cycle of the wave. As these microwaves are generated they bombard the food and they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second. All this agitation creates molecular friction, which heats up the food. The friction also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them. The scientific name for this deformation is "structural isomerism".
The now famous study by Hans Hertel in Switzerland proved that voulenteers who consumed microwaved milk and vegetables showed a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants.
Effects on health -
Consuming microwaved food has been linked to pathogenic activity, lymphatic and digestive disorders and cancer. Microwaving foods shows a decrease in the bioavailability of B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics in all foods. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
Don't believe me? Just search microwave dangers and read the evidence.
Did you know that microwaves destroy the nutrients in your food leaving you to consume a toxic soup?
Perhaps you remember reading about the dangers of microwaving infant formula or perhaps you remember reading that microwaved blood killed a patient back in 1991 in Oklahoma? This is because microwaves destroy natural substances - they destroy nutrients in food and alter our structural makeup in detrimental ways.
How they work:
Microwaves are very short waves of electromagnetic energy that travel at the speed of light. Microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food. All wave energy changes polarity from positive to negative with each cycle of the wave. As these microwaves are generated they bombard the food and they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second. All this agitation creates molecular friction, which heats up the food. The friction also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them. The scientific name for this deformation is "structural isomerism".
The now famous study by Hans Hertel in Switzerland proved that voulenteers who consumed microwaved milk and vegetables showed a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants.
Effects on health -
Consuming microwaved food has been linked to pathogenic activity, lymphatic and digestive disorders and cancer. Microwaving foods shows a decrease in the bioavailability of B-complex vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics in all foods. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
Don't believe me? Just search microwave dangers and read the evidence.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Lower your risk of developing chronic disease by changing your diet
Ask any health care provider (allopathic or naturopathic) and they will confirm that inflammation is the leading cause of chronic health conditions such as; CVD, insulin resistance and diabetes; stroke, arthritis and a host of digestive disorders such as IBD, Crohn's disease and intestinal permeability.
You see inflammation is the body's way of responding to a health crisis. So if you can prevent inflammation you can prevent chronic illness.
The really mind blowing thing here is that inflammation is preventable and actually reversible in most instances if you just modify your diet and eat a low glycemic, Mediterranean style diet that is based around plants and good fats, lean protein, legumes, nuts and seeds. And, by the way did I mention that the NIH, ADA, AHA and even the AMA have all issued statements advising doctors to have their patients follow a low - glycemic Mediterranean style diet program along with daily exercise and stress reduction first, before putting them on medications?
The question is why aren't more doctors heeding this advice for there patients?
I just spent four days in NYC at an intensive First Line Therapy training and learned more about how to implement this Therapeutic Lifestyle approach to wellness in my coaching practice. Basically, this is a whole lifestyle approach to wellness that teaches you how to make changes that drastically reduce your risk of developing chronic health conditions that are caused by inflammation. It includes not only diet and exercise but stress reduction too.
Stay tuned (or visit my website for a sneak preview) for more details on my new lifestyle program!!! Did I mention you loose weight on this too?
You see inflammation is the body's way of responding to a health crisis. So if you can prevent inflammation you can prevent chronic illness.
The really mind blowing thing here is that inflammation is preventable and actually reversible in most instances if you just modify your diet and eat a low glycemic, Mediterranean style diet that is based around plants and good fats, lean protein, legumes, nuts and seeds. And, by the way did I mention that the NIH, ADA, AHA and even the AMA have all issued statements advising doctors to have their patients follow a low - glycemic Mediterranean style diet program along with daily exercise and stress reduction first, before putting them on medications?
The question is why aren't more doctors heeding this advice for there patients?
I just spent four days in NYC at an intensive First Line Therapy training and learned more about how to implement this Therapeutic Lifestyle approach to wellness in my coaching practice. Basically, this is a whole lifestyle approach to wellness that teaches you how to make changes that drastically reduce your risk of developing chronic health conditions that are caused by inflammation. It includes not only diet and exercise but stress reduction too.
Stay tuned (or visit my website for a sneak preview) for more details on my new lifestyle program!!! Did I mention you loose weight on this too?
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Moving to a Plant Based Diet - Part II
In Part I of Moving to a Plant based diet I explained what a plant based diet looked like. Now here are a few reasons why eating a plant based diet is a good idea.
A. You’ll save money. Beef cost nearly ten times as much per person than vegetables (veg = .12 cents per serving vs. beef $1.30 per serving). Fish, especially wild caught is a good healthier option but is more expensive than fruits and vegetables.
B. You’ll lower your carbon foot print dramatically.
C. You will reduce intake of saturated fats known to be detrimental to cardiovascular health. OPt for wild caught fish instead and you will be getting the right kind of fats (essential fatty acids).
D. You’ll reduce your toxic load from hormones and GMO grown corn and soy - this is what commercial meat industry feed livestock with and is another reason to eat only grass fed/organic meats when you do eat them.
E. You will increase your fiber intake. Fiber improves digestion and elimination of toxins in the body.
F. You’ll be eating more nutrient dense foods.
G. You’ll be eating more vitamins
H. You’ll improve your transit time – plants are easier and faster for the body to digest and eliminate.
Now that you know some of the reasons to eat more plant based foods and less animal based foods I hope you’ll start making this healthy change. Here are some tips to help you make the transition:
· Start the day with fresh fruit such as those low on the glycemic index such as raspberries, strawberries or blueberries. Enjoy with some plain, low fat yogurt.
· Think in reverse of what you’re used to - Build each meal around vegetables, beans, legumes and nuts/seeds as the main course and treat animal protein sources as a side dish.
· If your used to consuming animal protein twice a day, say at lunch time and then at dinner, replace one of those meals with a plant based protein source such as beans, nuts, soy products (be sure they are organic!). Try hummus made from chick peas and tahini butter – YUM!
· Remember whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat and oats also contain protein.
· Eat a salad at both lunch and dinner.
· Eat salads first before you dig in to your cooked foods.
· Use fresh herbs to flavor home made salad dressings.
· Commit to eating entirely plant based meals one day a week and work up to three or more days a week.
Give it a try – and let me know how you feel after eating this way for a few weeks!
A. You’ll save money. Beef cost nearly ten times as much per person than vegetables (veg = .12 cents per serving vs. beef $1.30 per serving). Fish, especially wild caught is a good healthier option but is more expensive than fruits and vegetables.
B. You’ll lower your carbon foot print dramatically.
C. You will reduce intake of saturated fats known to be detrimental to cardiovascular health. OPt for wild caught fish instead and you will be getting the right kind of fats (essential fatty acids).
D. You’ll reduce your toxic load from hormones and GMO grown corn and soy - this is what commercial meat industry feed livestock with and is another reason to eat only grass fed/organic meats when you do eat them.
E. You will increase your fiber intake. Fiber improves digestion and elimination of toxins in the body.
F. You’ll be eating more nutrient dense foods.
G. You’ll be eating more vitamins
H. You’ll improve your transit time – plants are easier and faster for the body to digest and eliminate.
Now that you know some of the reasons to eat more plant based foods and less animal based foods I hope you’ll start making this healthy change. Here are some tips to help you make the transition:
· Start the day with fresh fruit such as those low on the glycemic index such as raspberries, strawberries or blueberries. Enjoy with some plain, low fat yogurt.
· Think in reverse of what you’re used to - Build each meal around vegetables, beans, legumes and nuts/seeds as the main course and treat animal protein sources as a side dish.
· If your used to consuming animal protein twice a day, say at lunch time and then at dinner, replace one of those meals with a plant based protein source such as beans, nuts, soy products (be sure they are organic!). Try hummus made from chick peas and tahini butter – YUM!
· Remember whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat and oats also contain protein.
· Eat a salad at both lunch and dinner.
· Eat salads first before you dig in to your cooked foods.
· Use fresh herbs to flavor home made salad dressings.
· Commit to eating entirely plant based meals one day a week and work up to three or more days a week.
Give it a try – and let me know how you feel after eating this way for a few weeks!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Before you decide if you should get a flu vaccine - READ THIS!
I. Vaccines are toxic! They contain substances known to be toxic like mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum. You can check this by looking at the vaccine packaging - it shows what the ingredients are.
II. Immunization depresses and disables brain function. There are studies showing that diseases like AIDS, SIDS, Epstein Barr, Autism. dyslexia, MS etc are linked to being vaccinated.
III. The rate of adverse reactions to vaccines is being ignored and denied by conventional medicine.
Doctors were not required to report adverse reaction before 1990. Adverse reactions are considered "normal", frequently ignored or diagnosed as other diseases.
IV. Mass vaccination programs endanger the public and disregard our rights. Technically, a vaccine is a surgery since it breaks the skin. All surgeries are required by law to have obtained informed consent by the person it's being performed upon. It's wrong to force someone against their will to be vaccinated.
V. There is no proof that vaccines are either safe or effective. No control group studies are done; those done did not eliminate examiners bias since they are done by the company manufacturing the vaccine or those closely associated with them.
VI. Laws allow drug companies to violate the public trust. In private law suits information has been reveled condemning vaccines as deadly. Vaccine manufacturers use "gag" orders to restrict plaintiff disclosing to the public these facts.
VII. The national childhood vaccine injury act of 1987 is a pacifier. In effect the act lets vaccine manufactures off the hook for any liability as long as they right the wrongs by acknowledging the existence of vaccine damage. The fund is in fact a tax added to the cost of each vaccine, thereby making consumers pay for their own potential injury!
VIII. Private insurance companies - who perform the liability studies have abandoned coverage for damage to life and property due to; Acts of God; Nuclear War & nuclear power plant accidents; AND - VACCINES!
IX. Vaccination is not emergency medicine.
X. There is no law enforcing vaccination for babies or anyone else. Vaccination is linked to school attendance but is NOT compulsory. Exemptions from vaccination are part of every states health law and should be expanded by public pressure.
Remember departments of heath education and the AMA profit form the sale of vaccines!
For much more information go to www.sayingnotovaccines.com
II. Immunization depresses and disables brain function. There are studies showing that diseases like AIDS, SIDS, Epstein Barr, Autism. dyslexia, MS etc are linked to being vaccinated.
III. The rate of adverse reactions to vaccines is being ignored and denied by conventional medicine.
Doctors were not required to report adverse reaction before 1990. Adverse reactions are considered "normal", frequently ignored or diagnosed as other diseases.
IV. Mass vaccination programs endanger the public and disregard our rights. Technically, a vaccine is a surgery since it breaks the skin. All surgeries are required by law to have obtained informed consent by the person it's being performed upon. It's wrong to force someone against their will to be vaccinated.
V. There is no proof that vaccines are either safe or effective. No control group studies are done; those done did not eliminate examiners bias since they are done by the company manufacturing the vaccine or those closely associated with them.
VI. Laws allow drug companies to violate the public trust. In private law suits information has been reveled condemning vaccines as deadly. Vaccine manufacturers use "gag" orders to restrict plaintiff disclosing to the public these facts.
VII. The national childhood vaccine injury act of 1987 is a pacifier. In effect the act lets vaccine manufactures off the hook for any liability as long as they right the wrongs by acknowledging the existence of vaccine damage. The fund is in fact a tax added to the cost of each vaccine, thereby making consumers pay for their own potential injury!
VIII. Private insurance companies - who perform the liability studies have abandoned coverage for damage to life and property due to; Acts of God; Nuclear War & nuclear power plant accidents; AND - VACCINES!
IX. Vaccination is not emergency medicine.
X. There is no law enforcing vaccination for babies or anyone else. Vaccination is linked to school attendance but is NOT compulsory. Exemptions from vaccination are part of every states health law and should be expanded by public pressure.
Remember departments of heath education and the AMA profit form the sale of vaccines!
For much more information go to www.sayingnotovaccines.com
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Moving to a Plant based Diet
You have probably heard a great deal about the health benefits of eating a plant based diet. I'll be addressing some common questions and providing some tips on how to transition to a more plant based diet in this and forthcoming blogposts.
The Mediterranean diet has been mentioned repeatedly as being a healthy plant based diet. Great you say but we are living in the US and as Americans we don't generally shop every day and many of us do not have gardens we can pick from year round.
So what does a healthy plant-based diet look like?
A healthy plant based diet needs to include the following:
- Lots of fresh vegetables and fruits every day
- Low in refined and processed foods and sugar - switch to low glycemic sweeteners such as Agave or Stevia
- Minimal dairy products
- More fish and less red meat - try and eat grass fed when you do eat red meat, and organic or Amish poultry
- No hydrogenated fats, trans-fats (found in many pastries and margarine) - opt for olive, flax seed oil, grape seed oil instead
- Low in both saturated animal fats and vegetable oils such as safflower, corn sunflower and cottonseed oils.
- More filtered water and less bottled juices and more fresh raw vegetable juices, more baked potatoes and not French fries, more whole grains and less products made from refined flour
- More alkaline foods such as lemons and limes
- More brown rice and less white rice
- Incorporate seasonally, organic and locally grown produce as much as possible - good for reducing your Co2 footprint too!
- Eliminate eating foods with msg, artificial preservatives, colors and other chemical additives - read the labels!
- Breast milk for infants vs. infant formulas, but adults should aim to stick to probiotics for your dairy (such as kefir and yogurt) and try to eliminate cows milk.
And for vegans (those who eat no products from animals at all) it is important to include foods with B-12 or supplement the diet. Brewers yeast is a great source of the B 12 as are sea vegetables such as kelp, dulse, kombu and nori and herbs alfalfa (delicious sprouted!). Another important nutrient difficult for vegans to get adequate amounts of is Omega 3 fatty acids. These are found in flax seeds and oil, and fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel and sardines. It is also found in walnuts, hemp seeds, green leafy vegetables and canola oil in lesser amounts.
Another misconception is about calcium. Most people do believe that the best source of calcium is dairy products. Most do not realize that many green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and other leafy greens contain calcium. In fact eating two half cup servings of these vegetables provides as much bio-available calcium as one cup of cow’s milk.
Importantly please note that the daily requirement set by the US government for calcium is in fact not being met by 90% of Americans, in large part because it is probably too high.Two other nutrients needed in order to aid absorption of calcium are vitamin D and vitamin K, so be sure to get these into your diet (or supplement) as well
It is also worth mentioning that in 2001 the American Journal of Nutrition published a study that reported a dramatic correlation between the ratio of animal protein in the diets of elderly women and their rate of bone loss. The eleven year study reveled that women who ate more animal protein than vegetable protein were three times more likely to lose bone mass and had four times as many hip fractures as those who ate in reverse proportions.
More on the how to begin making this healthy transition in my next post!
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