Rather Be Healthy

Corn and soy—much of which are genetically engineered—are rapidly overtaking native grasslands in a number of US states. This is a trend that may have a not-so-insignificant impact on global climate change and subsequently, our ability to secure our food supply long-term.

As discussed in a recent Mother Jones article,1 this conversion of grasslands to crop fields is the exact opposite of what might be in our best interest.

“…to get ready for climate change, we should push Midwestern farmers to switch a chunk of their corn land into pasture for cows,” the featured article states.

“The idea came from a paper2 by University of Tennessee and Bard College researchers, who calculated that such a move could suck up massive amounts of carbon in soil—enough to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 36 percent.

In addition to the CO2 reductions, you’d also get a bunch of high-quality, grass-fed beef… Turns out the Midwest are doing just the opposite.”

Federal Policy Worsens Environmental Concerns

According to a recently published paper3 by South Dakota State University researchers, grasslands in the Western corn belt, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, is being lost at a rate “comparable to deforestation rates in Brazil, Malaysia, and Indonesia.”

Between 2006 and 2011, nearly 2 million acres of friendly native grasses have been lost to corn and soy—two of the staples in processed foods that are driving chronic disease rates in an ever steepening upward incline. The same thing is happening in South America, where native forests are leveled in order to plant soy.

The researchers claim the land being converted into corn and soy fields is actually much better suited for grazing than crop agriculture, as it is “characterized by high erosion risk and vulnerability to drought.” So why would farmers opt to use such risky land for their crops?

According to the featured article:

“Simple: Federal policy has made it a high-reward, tiny-risk proposition. Prices for corn and soy doubled in real terms between 2006 and 2011, the authors note, driven up by federal corn-ethanol mandates and relentless Wall Street speculation.

Then there’s federally subsidized crop insurance, the authors add. When farmers manage to tease a decent crop out of their marginal land, they’re rewarded with high prices for their crop. But if the crop fails, subsidized insurance guarantees a decent return.

Essentially, federal farm policy, through the ethanol mandate and the insurance program, is underwriting the expansion of corn and soy agriculture at precisely the time it should be shrinking.”

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released a report titled: “Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States.” According to the report, our current agricultural system, which is dominated by corn and soy, is unsustainable in the long term. Should temperatures rise as predicted, the US could expect to see significant declines in yields by the middle of this century.

Unfortunately, the USDA failed to analyze how reliance on monoculture might heighten our vulnerability to devastating crop loss. As a general rule though, the more crop diversity you have, the greater your food security, as different crops are affected differently. Our dependence on two primary crops is a recipe for disaster.

Monoculture—A Tremendous Threat to Global Food Security

The “faster, bigger, cheaper” approach to food is slowly draining dry our planet’s resources and compromising your health. The Earth’s soil is depleting at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced, and we’ve already lost 75 percent of the world’s crop varieties over the last century.

In the words of Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and a number of other bestsellers: “Mother Nature destroys monocultures.” What is a monoculture? Monoculture (or monocropping) is defined as the high-yield agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence of rotation through other crops. Corn, soybeans, wheat, and to some degree rice, are the most common crops grown with monocropping techniques. In fact, corn, wheat and rice now account for 60 percent of human caloric intake, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.4 According to an article on GreenFudge.org, monoculture is detrimental to the environment for a number of reasons, including the following:
•It damages soil ecology by depleting and reducing the diversity of soil nutrients
•It creates an unbuffered niche for parasitic species to take over, making crops more vulnerable to opportunistic pathogens that can quickly wipe out an entire crop
•It increases dependency on chemical pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
•It increases reliance on expensive specialized farm equipment and machinery that require heavy use of fossil fuels
•It destroys biodiversity

By contrast, polyculture (the traditional rotation of crops and livestock) better serves both land and people. Polyculture evolved to meet the complete nutritional needs of a local community. Polyculture, when done mindfully, automatically replenishes what is taken out, which makes it sustainable with minimal effort. Unfortunately, government subsidies and fervent lobbying to favor patented seeds drive the monoculture train; the goal of which is to maximize profits as quickly and for as long as possible… At stake is our entire food supply, not to mention farmers who don’t want to use patented seed.

Monsanto: Why We Sue Farmers Who Save Seeds

In a recent article in CropLife,5 Monsanto “provides the ‘justification’ they use to explain why they are forced to protect their innovation.”

“Patents are necessary to ensure that Monsanto is paid for its products and all the investments it puts into developing products. This is one of the basic reasons for patents. A more important reason is to help foster innovation. Without the protection of patents there would be little incentive for privately-owned companies to pursue and re-invest in innovation. Monsanto invests more than $2.6 million per day in research and development that ultimately benefits farmers and consumers. Without the protection of patents, this would not be possible,” the article reads.

Contrary to the “law of nature,” when you purchase patented seed, such as those sold by Monsanto, you have to sign an agreement confirming you will not save and replant seeds produced from the seed you buy. This means you have to repurchase new seed from them each season, opposed to the ancient practice of saving seed from one season’s harvest to plant the next. However, patented crops don’t know they’re not supposed to spread like natural ones… Farms can easily become contaminated by wind- or insect-carried pollen from GE fields, thereby opening farmers up to patent infringement lawsuits.

Monsanto has aggressively waged war against farmers whose only crime was to grow crops out in the open… According to a report6 by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Monsanto had, as of December 2012, filed 142 patent infringement lawsuits against 410 farmers and 56 small businesses in more than 27 states. All in all, Monsanto has been awarded a staggering $23 million from their mafia tactics so far.7

According to Monsanto, only nine cases have gone through full trial, and in each of those cases, the jury or court decided in Monsanto’s favor. I’m sure it helps to have some of the most high-paid legal firms in the country representing them, and also to have insiders in the halls of justice… Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,8 appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991, is in fact a former Monsanto attorney. And he has yet to rule against his former employer.

Monsanto vs. Bowman

Not all cases are related to contamination however. On February 19, the US Supreme Court began hearing the appeal of 75-year old Indiana soybean farmer Vernon Bowman, in which he disputes Monsanto’s claim that his farm used the patented seeds without authorization. The central issue in this case is the extent that a patent holder can control its use through multiple generations of seed.9 According to a recent press release:10

“Farmer Bowman legally purchased seeds at a grain elevator, which bought them from farmers who had, with Monsanto’s authorization, used the genetically modified Monsanto seeds to grow their soybean crops. Monsanto claims that Mr. Bowman infringed its patents on herbicide-resistant plants and seeds by using the grain elevator seeds to grow his soybean crops. Mr. Bowman asserts that Monsanto’s sales of the original seeds to authorized purchasers exhausted Monsanto’s patent rights and therefore Monsanto cannot enforce its patents against second-generation and later seeds that resulted from planting the original seeds.”

So far, none of the Justices have been impressed with Bowman’s appeal. In fact, just seconds into Bowman’s attorney’s opening arguments, Chief Justice Roberts interrupted him by asking “why anyone would ever patent anything if Bowman were to prevail?” And just moments after that, Justice Breyer openly stated that “Bowman had infringed” on Monsanto’s patent, as if the case was already decided. In a summary of the case, patent attorney and founder of IPWatchdog, Gene Quinn, writes:11

“Justice Breyer, harkening back to the words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, said: ‘There are three generations of seeds. Maybe three generations of seeds is enough.’ Justice Breyer acknowledged that it was a bad joke. Certainly a politically incorrect joke. The ‘joke’ referred to Holmes’ 1927 decision in Buck v. Bell,12 which was a case of forced sterilization. Holmes concluded in that case: ‘Three generations of imbeciles are enough.’”

Indeed, making light of the government’s right to sterilize mentally handicapped people is not just a bad joke, it’s a sick one when you consider that the case in question (Buck vs Bell) basically concluded that it’s okay for the federal government to sterilize whomever they want—primarily those they consider ‘imbeciles.’ In Buck vs Bell, Holmes made the case that so long as government can force vaccination, it can force sterilization. If they can force medical procedures on your body, what rights do you really have? Now they are establishing that corporations have a right to patent not just one life, but the future generations as well

“We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.

The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes… Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

But, it is said, however it might be if this reasoning were applied generally, it fails when it is confined to the small number who are in the institutions named and is not applied to the multitudes outside. It is the usual last resort of constitutional arguments to point out shortcomings of this sort. But the answer is that the law does all that is needed when it does all that it can, indicates a policy, applies it to all within the lines, and seeks to bring within the lines all similarly situated so far and so fast as its means allow. Of course so far as the operations enable those who otherwise must be kept confined to be returned to the world, and thus open the asylum to others, the equality aimed at will be more nearly reached.”

Jokes aside about government’s rights to do with life as it pleases, the Court appears sold on protecting patent rights for seeds through multiple generations. The judges’ decision will come by the end of June 2013. My guess is the Supreme Court only took this case to clearly protect the future of genetic engineering, and the rights to their products and of future generations. Justice Breyer and Justice Holmes appear to have a lot in common, and Americans can expect another moral injustice to our laws.

Keep Fighting for Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods

While California Prop. 37 failed to pass last November, by a very narrow margin, the fight for GMO labeling is far from over. The field-of-play has now moved to the state of Washington, where the people’s initiative 522, “The People’s Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act,” will require food sold in retail outlets to be labeled if it contains genetically engineered ingredients. As stated on LabelitWA.org:

“Calorie and nutritional information were not always required on food labels. But since 1990 it has been required and most consumers use this information every day. Country-of-origin labeling wasn’t required until 2002. The trans fat content of foods didn’t have to be labeled until 2006. Now, all of these labeling requirements are accepted as important for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also says we must know with labeling if our orange juice is from fresh oranges or frozen concentrate.

Doesn’t it make sense that genetically engineered foods containing experimental viral, bacterial, insect, plant or animal genes should be labeled, too? Genetically engineered foods do not have to be tested for safety before entering the market. No long-term human feeding studies have been done. The research we have is raising serious questions about the impact to human health and the environment.

I-522 provides the transparency people deserve. I-522 will not raise costs to consumers or food producers. It simply would add more information to food labels, which manufacturers change routinely anyway, all the time. I-522 does not impose any significant cost on our state. It does not require the state to conduct label surveillance, or to initiate or pursue enforcement. The state may choose to do so, as a policy choice, but I-522 was written to avoid raising costs to the state or consumers.”

Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, they need support of people like YOU to succeed. Prop. 37 failed with a very narrow margin simply because we didn’t have the funds to counter the massive ad campaigns created by the No on 37 camp, led by Monsanto and other major food companies. Let’s not allow Monsanto and its allies to confuse and mislead the people of Washington and Vermont as they did in California. So please, I urge you to get involved and help in any way you can, regardless of what state you live in.
•No matter where you live in the United States, please donate money to these labeling efforts through the Organic Consumers Fund.
•If you live in Washington State, please sign the I-522 petition. You can also volunteer to help gather signatures across the state.
•For timely updates on issues relating to these and other labeling initiatives, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
•Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the Washington initiative.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

15-Year-Old Invents New Test for Early, Reliable Detection of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a devastatingly fatal form of cancer, and is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute,1 an estimated 45,220 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, of which 38,460 are expected to die.

Part of the problem is that this cancer is usually diagnosed quite late, contributing to the abysmal five-year survival rate. It also shows you just how ineffective conventional detection methods and treatments are.

All of that may soon change however — all due to the persistence and dedication of a high school kid who decided there must be a better way to detect this lethal cancer sooner…

Yes, a 15-year-old boy named Jack Andraka has done what scientists with millions of dollars-worth of research grants at their disposal have failed to do. He invented a dipstick-type sensor to detect pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer that is:
•168 times faster
•26,000 times less expensive, and
•400 times more sensitive than the current standard of detection

And he did it using Google and Wikipedia as his primary research tools — online resources that are available to virtually anyone on the planet with an internet connection. What’s more, the test costs three cents, takes five minutes, and has a 90 percent accuracy rate. Compare that to the current standard, which employs 60-year-old technology, costs about $800, and misses 30 percent of all pancreatic cancers.

How Could a High School Kid Make Such an Amazing Discovery?

You are in for a real treat. Please find the time to watch this awesomely inspiring video of a high school freshman who accomplished a major feat that most of us will never surpass in our lifetime. It is clearly one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen. You are left with the impression if this high school freshman can do this, why can’t I achieve my goals?

Last year, Jack was awarded first place in the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair for his invention.2 To me the most impressive part of his story are the thousands of failures he went through that did not deter him in the pursuit of his goal. Absolutely magnificent story.

When Jack first began his research, he didn’t even know he had a pancreas, but when pancreatic cancer suddenly claimed the life of a close family friend who was like “an uncle” to him he got to thinking… and researching, using readily available online tools and freely available studies, he determined that the reason we haven’t done a better job at detecting pancreatic cancer is because we’re looking for a particular protein present in the blood, called mesothelin.

This protein is always present, but in ovarian, pancreatic, or lung cancer patients, this protein is elevated. The problem is, detecting elevated levels is like “finding a needle in a stack of identical needles.”

After determining the parameters for an ideal detection sensor — noninvasive, rapid, inexpensive, simple, sensitive, and selective — he set to work trying to figure out how to detect elevated levels of mesothelin. The idea for his dipstick sensor came during a high school biology class on the subject of antibodies, during which he was secretly reviewing a paper on analytical methods using the 21st century technology of carbon nanotubes. (His approach would be absolutely impossible when I was in high school as carbon nanotubes would not be discovered for many decades.)

Antibodies fit like a lock and key into an antigen binding site. In this case, that would be the mesothelin protein. His idea involved lacing the nanotubes with the antibody, which would subsequently only attract the mesothelin protein. The nanotube strip would then generate an electrical response large enough to detect with a simple ohm meter.

Once he had locked down his theory, he needed a lab space. He applied to 200 laboratories working with pancreatic cancer and promptly received 199 rejections. But there was one “maybe.” He “hunted down” the professor and eventually landed a meeting. And a place to work. Seven months later, after countless trials and errors, he had created his first paper sensor. The sensor has now been tested in blind studies on humans, and has been found to have a 90 percent accuracy rate. Another key is that this protein becomes elevated during the earliest stages of cancer, allowing for a greatly increased survival rate.

“Through the internet anything is possible,” Jack says.

I couldn’t agree more. Not only is this story amazing because of his youth, it’s also an incredible testament to the power of the internet. Anyone can now, quite literally, change the world by putting the available information to good use! That is really the primary reason why I am able to provide all these news stories for you in the newsletter. Virtually all of them are carefully researched on the internet. We supplement these stories with my 20-plus years of clinical experience treating 25,000 patients and interviews with some of the leading health experts in the world.

What Causes Pancreatic Cancer?

Three lifestyle issues keep popping up on the radar when you look at what’s contributing to pancreatic cancer:
•Sugar/fructose consumption
•Lack of physical exercise
•Vitamin D deficiency

Obesity and physical inactivity makes your body less sensitive to the glucose-lowering effects of insulin. Diminished sensitivity to insulin leads to higher blood levels of insulin, which in turn can increase your risk of pancreatic cancer. One previous study found that men and women with high Body Mass Index (BMI) faced a pancreatic cancer risk 1.5 to 2 times higher than those with low BMI. And for women who are both overweight and sedentary, your risk is 2.5 times higher. When they reduced their weight and exercised, they lowered their risk. In fact, the men who exercised strenuously at least 8 hours a month were found to have only 59% of the pancreatic cancer risk of men who exercised less. Insulin seems to be one of the main drivers for cancer in general, and for pancreatic cancer in particular.

Why?

Because insulin production is one of your pancreas’ main functions, used by your body to process blood sugar, and, in the laboratory, insulin actually promotes the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Researchers suspect that if your body maintains high levels of insulin, you increase the pancreatic cancer’s ability to survive and grow. In fact, researchers now believe that up to a third of all cancers may be caused by diet and lifestyle. So if you want to prevent cancer, or want to treat cancer, it is imperative that you keep your insulin levels as low as possible. Furthermore, pancreatic tumor cells have been found to use fructose, specifically, to divide and proliferate — again attesting to the fact that there are significant metabolic differences between fructose and other sugars.

According to the authors:3

“Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different… These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation.”

The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructose for cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. If this difference isn’t of major consequence, then I don’t know what is, especially when you consider how quickly pancreatic cancer can kill you. As Jack stated in his talk, his friend was asymptomatic, and went from “healthy” to “a walking skeleton” in just three months.

It may surprise you, but the theory that sugar feeds cancer was born nearly 80 years ago. In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, who first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. Yet most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars.

Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decreases the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that help cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer. In a nutshell, ALL forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways, and to a different extent. Fructose, however, clearly seems to be one of the overall most harmful.

Fructose — Uric Acid — Cancer

The study above also mentions that fructose metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation. This is another gigantic clue that fructose is directly associated with cancer.

In my first interview with Dr. Johnson back in 2010 (the same year that study was published), he explained the detrimental impact fructose has on your uric acid level. Interestingly, ONLY fructose, NOT glucose, drives up uric acid as part of its normal metabolic pathways. The connection between fructose, uric acid, hypertension, insulin resistance/diabetes and kidney disease is so clear that your uric acid level can actually be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose — meaning that if your levels are high, you’re at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose consumption and you really need to reduce your fructose intake.

Dr. Richard Johnson has authored two of the best books on the market on the health dangers of fructose. The first one, The Sugar Fix, explains how fructose causes high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and kidney disease. The second, The Fat Switch, explains how fructose triggers a specific ‘switch’ located in the powerhouse of each of your cells — the mitochondria — causing your body to activate enzymes that tell your cells to accumulate fat. This is an ancient adaptive mechanism found in a variety of animals that need to gain fat in anticipation of food scarcity or hibernation.

Now it’s safe to say that cancer, at least pancreatic cancer, is also definitely on the list of diseases that are directly linked to excessive fructose consumption.

Reducing (or preferably eliminating) fructose and other added sugars, as well as limiting grain carbohydrates from your diet should be part of any comprehensive cancer treatment plan. By doing so, you’ll help stave off any potential cancer growth, and “starve” any tumors you currently have. It also bolsters your overall immune function, because sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately.

Unfortunately, few cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer care in the US are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy beyond being told to “just eat healthy foods.” I believe many cancer patients would see major improvement in their outcome if they controlled the supply of cancer’s preferred fuel, glucose, and stayed clear of fructose to significantly reduce tumor proliferation.

The following video features Dr. Dominic D’Agostino who, along with a team of researchers at the University of South Florida studies metabolic therapy. They found that when lab animals were fed a carb-free diet, they survived highly aggressive metastatic cancer better than those treated with chemotherapy. CBN reports:4

“’We have dramatically increased survival with metabolic therapy,’ [Dr. D’Agostino] said. ‘So we think it’s important to get this information out.’ It’s not just lab mice. Dr. D’Agostino has also seen similar success in people – lots of them. ‘I’ve been in correspondence with a number of people,’ he said. ‘At least a dozen over the last year-and-a-half to two years, and all of them are still alive, despite the odds. So this is very encouraging.'”

Top 13 Tips to Prevent Cancer

There’s a lot you can do to lower your chances of getting cancer — you and your family CAN take control of your health. Don’t wait for diagnosis, take the reins and be a proactive participant in your own health care, before you end up in need for disease management. I believe you can virtually eliminate your risk of cancer and chronic disease, and radically improve your chances of recovering from cancer if you currently have it, by following these relatively simple risk reduction strategies.
1.Reduce or eliminate your processed food, sugar/fructose and grain carbohydrate intake. This applies to whole unprocessed organic grains as well, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive your insulin and leptin levels up, which is the last thing you need to have happening if you are seeking to resolve or prevent cancer.
2.Consider seriously reducing your protein levels. I believe most people consume twice as much protein as they need. I personally have reduced my protein to one gram per kilogram of lean body weight. I believe it would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely close to half that. Excess protein is one of the primary drivers of the mTOR pathway, which is an ancient and profoundly important recently discovered cancer pathway and emerging evidence suggests limiting protein may even be more important than limiting sugar to prevent cancer.
3.Control your fasting insulin and leptin levels. This is the end result you’ll get when you remove sugars and grains from your diet and start to exercise regularly. Your levels can be easily monitored with the use of simple and relatively inexpensive blood tests.
4.Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of most processed vegetable oils.
5.Get regular exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. If you have limited time Peak Fitness exercises are your best bet but ideally you should have a good strength training program as well.
6.Normalize your vitamin D levels by getting appropriate sun exposure, and consider careful supplementation when this is not possible. However, if you’re taking oral vitamin D, you also need to make sure you’re taking vitamin K2 as well, as K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. To learn more, please see my previous article: What You Need to Know About Vitamin K2, D and Calcium. If you take oral vitamin D and have a cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly.
7.Get regular, high quality sleep. Using a Zeo will help you objectively determine if your current sleeping strategy is providing you with the amount of deep and REM sleep that you need to heal and repair properly.
8.Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.
9.Limit your exposure and provide protection for yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and WiFi stations.
10.Avoid frying or charbroiling your food. Boil, poach or steam your foods instead.
11.Have a tool to permanently reprogram the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
12.Eat at least one-third of your food raw.
13.Consider adding cancer-fighting whole foods, herbs, spices and supplements to your diet, such as broccoli, curcumin and resveratrol. To learn more about how these anti-angiogenetic foods, and many others, work to fight cancer, please see my previous article: Dramatically Effective New Natural Way to Starve Cancer and Obesity.

Knowledge is Power

While most of us may lack the genius to invent a paradigm-breaking medical device while browsing the internet, all of us have the power to research matters relating to our own health, and more. Like Jack, I urge you to take full advantage of the internet, and even if your findings won’t change the world, rest assured it can change yours.

Jack’s story is an absolutely incredible testament to the power of applying yourself using common tools that are available to each and every one of us. He also reminds us of the importance of not letting failure and rejection deter you from your passion and purpose.

When it comes to your health, conventional medicine has precious little to offer. But that does not mean you have no options! On the contrary, there are many alternatives available, no matter what your health condition might be. Unfortunately, with pharmaceutical companies ruling the roost over medicine, you won’t get that information from your doctor. You have to find it on your own. My website can help you get started. I have literally tens of thousands of free articles available, covering countless health issues. Just use the search engine at the top of every page and enter a topic you would like to learn more about. You will typically find dozens if not hundreds of articles on any given subject.

Remember, good health rests on just a few basic principles, and if you get those right, the rest will be much easier. Your diet accounts for about 80 percent of all the health benefits you’ll reap from a healthy lifestyle, so start there. My free optimized nutrition plan can get you off on the right foot.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

With food prices steadily rising over the last several years, by as much as five percent, families are scaling back and going without many staples just to put a meal on the table. Or worse, resorting to ‘bargains’ like fast food specials, subsidized SNAP junk food or just plain instant noodles to fill a hungry belly. We have reached the point where self-sufficiency is not a luxury any longer, it’s a real necessity. In response, many are carving out a small homestead niche, even in the middle of lively cities. An encouraging example is found with a micro-farm in the heart of Southern California.

The downward spiral of dwindling food supplies
It isn’t much of a stretch to see our food dollars are shrinking. A combination of droughts, erratic weather patterns and astronomical fuel costs have all contributed to an inflated food bill. The use of GMO seeds isn’t helping the matter either with horrible crop yields. Couple this with a nose dive of world economies and we have a recipe for wide spread shortages of quality, nutritious food. Individuals are waking up to these realities and taking matters into their own hands — not only growing their own food, but removing themselves from the grid as much as possible, even within the bounds of a bustling city. A shining model of exceptional self-sufficiency, survival and ecological action is the Urban Homestead.

The path to freedom
The tale begins in the mid-1980s when Jules Dervaes sold his property in rural Florida to head west and purchase a ramshackle fixer-upper in a low income Southern California neighborhood. Over the course of several decades, the property was transformed into a self-sufficient garden of Eden, providing over 6,000 pounds of fresh produce annually using sustainable, eco-friendly practices. As an authentic farm, chickens, ducks, dwarf rabbits and pygmy goats roam the property. Bees are also kept as well as an aquaponic pond with tilapia fish. The homestead embraces the following practices:

Garden:

– Growing 99 percent of produce

– Saving seeds

– Companion planting

– Intensive growing methods

– Polyculture/intercropping

– Composting

Food

– Handmade bread, cheese, butter and yogurt

– Canning and drying

– Sprouting, fermenting and brewing

– Buying organic, in bulk and locally

Water and energy conservation

– Grey water for landscape

– Clay pot irrigation

– Solar outdoor shower

– Growing food not grass — edible landscaping

– Bottom water bed irrigation

– 12 solar panels

– Rechargeable batteries

– Solar and cob ovens

The farm also offers an abundance of resources for other aspiring homegrown revolutionaries through their website, presentations, workshops, film screenings and eco-events. More information can be found here.

In order to avert massive food shortages and environmental disintegration, it’s our responsibility to take the initiative. Now is the time to create mini-havens of fresh food and sustainability. As observed by Dervaes, “Let’s face it. Our world is in deep, deep trouble and we are the ‘troublemakers.’ We have to make real, difficult changes yesterday. Despite the obvious benefits, we are not going to recycle, compost, or talk our way out of this. Our leaders, being politicians, are not leaders at all but are bound to be followers, who just won’t be there for us in a crisis. So, it’s up to me and you to make the choice of becoming responsible stewards of the earth.”

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/039158_farmers_gmos_crop_yields.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk

http://www.nytimes.com

http://urbanhomestead.org/about

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

http://urbanhomestead.org/urban-homestead-10-elements

About the author:
Carolanne enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years. Through her website www.Thrive-Living.net she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded folks who share a similar vision.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Scientists hyping ‘universal’ flu shot to perpetuate vaccine scam

A Madison, Wisconsin-based vaccine company is about one year away from enrolling a new universal flu shot into clinical trials, according to reports. The vaccine, known as Redee Flu, is said to provide protection against a host of viral strains, and would only need to be administered once every three to five years — but like all other flu shots currently available on the market, Redee Flu will more than likely also contain a potentially-deadly cocktail of toxic, chemical adjuvants.

For the past few years, vaccine manufacturers in numerous parts of the world have been scrambling to come up with a vaccine that will target multiple strains of influenza, as several recent studies have shown that existing flu vaccines provide little, if any, protection against the flu. Scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, and elsewhere are all reportedly racing to get a universal flu jab to market, presumably to stem the compliance fallout that is building due to the failure of existing flu shots.

But will the new shot actually work as claimed, or will it become yet another example of mainstream medical quackery? According to an official company press release, Redee Flu contains a live virus that allegedly cannot replicate, but that triggers “a robust immune response.” As anyone with even a cursory understanding of how vaccines work already understands, the immune response triggered by vaccines is a direct result of the adjuvants added to the vaccine solutions.

Aluminum, antifreeze, and petroleum-based toxins are abundant in flu shots
Such adjuvants include things like toxic aluminum-based gels and salts, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insinuates on its vaccine safety page are safe because aluminum “is one of the most common metals found in nature and is present in air, food, and water.” But what this corrupt agency does not explain is that aluminum-based vaccine adjuvants can cause severe neurological damage, including mental retardation and autism.

Other common vaccine additives include ingredients like antifreeze (ethylene glycol), monosodium glutamate (MSG), food coloring, and ammonia. Each of these ingredients is collectively linked to causing central nervous system damage, memory impairment, lowered IQ, bone problems, and cancer, among other conditions. Vaccine adjuvants are also linked to causing food allergies, particularly when they are made with food-based excipients.

Beyond this, there is the simple fact that existing flu vaccines do not work as claimed, and the so-called “science” used to defend their use is politically influenced and fundamentally flawed. If this same “science” is used to show that Redee Flu is safe and effective, in other words, there is a good chance that it actually does not work, and very likely poses the threat of inducing serious side effects.

“[F]lu vaccination is a lot less effective than we have been led to believe,” explains Dr. John Briffa in a 2011 article entitled One Way to Prevent Flu: Catch the Flu, which was quoted by Christina England in a recent piece on vaccines for VacTruth.com. “Plus, many individuals need to be vaccinated for one person to benefit. In other words, the vast majority of people who are vaccinated against flu will not benefit.”

Sources for this article include:

http://www.jsonline.com

http://www.businesswire.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/033206_universal_flu_shot_vaccinations.html

http://www.naturalnews.com

Three Vaccine Myths That Will Make Your Head Explode

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

I warned Natural News readers about this years ago: those grocery store “loyalty cards” that they push on you to enjoy discounts on groceries are actually a behavior surveillance technology that’s used to capture and profile your grocery purchasing patterns. This data is then sold off to insurance companies who use it to raise your rates by linking your grocery purchases with the risk of disease.

Buying a lot of ice cream? You’re more likely to be obese and diabetic.

Purchasing a lot of processed meats and homogenized milk? You’re more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

Bringing home a lot of processed food with additives, chemical sweeteners and chemical preservatives? You’re far more likely to get cancer.

Health insurance companies are now using this data to develop these sorts of “risk profiles” of individual consumers. And it’s all enabled because people are so incredibly obedient that they actually fill out their real names and addresses on these grocery loyalty cards. Health insurance companies simply use credit reporting databases to link your grocery loyalty card account number to your health insurance account number, and from there, your insurance rates can be adjusted based on what you buy to eat.

Even worse, they can use this data to deny your health insurance claims. For example, if you get diagnosed with cancer, your health insurance company can look through your grocery purchasing history and show that you bought processed meat products containing cancer-causing sodium nitrite. They can use this data to deny payment on your claims and push the blame on YOU for living a “cancer lifestyle.”

From conspiracy theory to conspiracy fact
When I first reported on this a decade ago, I was called a “conspiracy theorist” for daring the write about the “absurd” idea that grocery store purchase data would be used against you. But now, in the age of total police state surveillance of your search engine queries, cell phone texts, bank transactions, emails and web surfing behavior, the idea that corporations are purchasing your grocery purchase surveillance data is no longer just a theory: it’s a conspiracy fact.

“Marketing firms have sold this data to retailers and credit-card companies for years, and health plans have recently discovered they can use it to augment claims data,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The title of that article, by the way, is, “How the Insurer Knows You Just Stocked Up on Ice Cream and Beer.” It opens with this paragraph:

Your company already knows whether you have been taking your meds, getting your teeth cleaned and going for regular medical checkups. Now some employers or their insurance companies are tracking what staffers eat, where they shop and how much weight they are putting on — and taking action to keep them in line.

This is all reported in a ho-hum, matter-of-fact manner. There is no cry of “conspiracy theorists!” There is no accusation that the Wall Street Journal is fear mongering over a fabricated bit of fictional news. Nope, in 2013 this news is simply accepted as “normal.”

This is how things work in our world: When people like myself or Alex Jones first warn you about what’s coming, we’re called “conspiracy theorists” and told that whatever we’re talking about doesn’t exist. Later, once it becomes obvious that the thing we were talking about does, indeed, exist, the accusation changes to, “Well, you should LIKE it!”

That’s what we’re hearing about grocery shopping loyalty cards now. Yes, it’s all admitted that they are tracking your grocery purchase behavior, and it’s all admitted that this surveillance data is being sold off to countless corporations who use that data to spy on your eating habits and maybe even deny you health insurance claims. But now you’re just supposed to accept it as “normal” and not question it. “What kind of a kook wants anonymity in their grocery purchases anyway?” the thinking goes.

How corporations spy on the most intimate parts of your life
The thing is, when they aggregate your purchase data, they can easily determine all sorts of very private things about your life. They know whether you have pets or children. They even know very private, personal things like when you purchase a pregnancy test kit or the fact that you’re using hair coloring products. They know which brands you prefer, how many coupons you use, and even when you’re planning a party.

All this information can and will be used to target you with not just marketing messages, but potentially to raise your insurance rates or even fire you from your job because you’re a “heart attack risk.” Yep, just wait for your employer to get their hands on all this information. It has already begun, in fact. As the Wall Street Journal report:

Some critics worry that the methods cross the line between protective and invasive — and could lead to job discrimination. …Dr. Deborah Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights… worries employers could conceivably make other conclusions about people who load up the cart with butter and sugar.

When you use grocery loyalty cards, you allow the corporate borg to invade your private life and pry into the most intimate activities inside your own home.

It’s not about saving you money. It’s about the grocery store making money by selling the most private, intimate details of your life to any number of unethical corporations, all of which are drooling over the possibility of using this information against you in some insidious way.

My run-in with the “card pusher”
About a decade ago, I had a repeated run-in with a loyalty card pusher at a local grocery store. This cashier, a 50’s-something bearded man, knew I always paid with cash and always refused a loyalty card, and over time this began to infuriate him.

He kept insisting that I should sign up for the card because otherwise I was “throwing money away.” The idea of privacy protection never even entered his mind, of course. He had no clue what his own employer was doing with all this data.

Eventually, just to play along with the guy, one day I said, “Okay, I’ll fill it out this time,” I filled it out with a false name and no address, making sure that nothing could be linked to my real name and address.

This satisfied the cashier’s insistence that I stop “throwing money away,” but it also protected my privacy from the prying eyes of corporate marketers and insurance companies.

And this is the solution for everyone: Fill out the cards if you want, but use false names.

Never use your real name on retailer loyalty cards
Have fun with this. Resist the grocery surveillance agenda by using funny, inappropriate names such as :

• Chris P. Bacon
• Oliver Closoff
• Heywood Jablome
• Pat McGroin (also works with the TSA)
• Jack Hoff

Remember, there is no requirement that you give them your real name and address to sign up for their loyalty card. Let ’em have fun trying to find the health insurance policy for Heywood Jablome. You can only imagine the corporate phone conversation:

“Hello this is Kevin from Data Resources International. We’re looking for a match on a name from your database.”

“What name is that?”

“Heywood Jablome.”

(pause) “Don’t you have any phone manners?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I asked for what name you were looking for, and you said…”

“Heywood Jablome?”

“YES! I mean, NO! There you go again!”

“But that’s his name.”

“What’s his name?”

“Heywood Jablome!”

“NO! And stop asking!”

… and so on.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Does Diet Soda Make You Fat, or Does it Help Weight Loss?

We all know by now that soda (aka “pop” in some areas) is one of the most evil things you can put in your body… the nasty chemicals, the gut-fattening high fructose corn syrup, and a myriad of health problems caused by this carbonated cocktail worshipped by those that don’t care about their health or body.

Since you’re one of my readers, I know that you actually do care about your health and the appearance of your body.

Surprisingly, many people falsely believe that “diet” soda is in some way a good thing for losing body fat. In fact, I hear people all the time proudly state that they “eat so healthy and only drink diet soda”.

So let’s set the record straight…

There is NOTHING even remotely healthy about drinking diet soda. In fact, I’ve even seen several studies that showed dedicated diet soda drinkers got even FATTER than their regular soda drinking counterparts.

Here’s some findings from an 8-year University of Texas study that I had read…

An excerpt from the study author:

“What didn’t surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity,” Fowler tells WebMD. “What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher.”

“There was a 41 percent increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day,” Fowler says.

Ok, as if we didn’t already know how bad regular soda was for us, and now they’re showing us studies that diet soda makes us even fatter than the already bad stuff!

There’s a lot of complicating factors as to why this occurs…

One reason is that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas create a negative hormonal response in the body that increases fat storing hormone production and increases cravings for more sweets and refined carbohydrates in the time period after consuming the diet drink.

I’ve been reading more studies lately on the effects of artificial sweeteners and one thing that appears clear is that it’s not a good idea to try to “fool” your body. Essentially you “fool” your body by drinking something very sweet (sweetened with artificial sweeteners), but you don’t actually ingest the sugar calories your body expects. Your body has a hard time knowing how to deal with that.

With artificial sweeteners, your taste buds “sense” that you ingested something very sweet, and even though you might not have ingested sugar, your body follows with an insulin response. As you know, higher insulin levels can increase cravings as well as triggering your body to deposit body fat. This is not to say it’s any better to drink a sugar-sweetened soda which has it’s own host of problems.

Another reason for weight gain from drinking diet drinks is that people may subconsciously think that because they are drinking a diet soda, that gives them more leeway to eat more of everything else, hence consuming more calories overall.

The cause for weight gain from diet drinks may actually be some combination of both of those explanations above.

I’ve said this all along, but the bottom line is that if you’re serious about your health and body, soda of any kind (and artificial sweeteners in anything for that matter!) should be avoided at all times, except for very rare occasions when you can’t avoid them.

Another article I did about artificial sweeteners explains more of the problems with them and good substitutes

So what is a good alternative to diet sodas?

The best alternatives are good old water with lemon or unsweetened iced teas… you have plenty of options with teas – green, white, black, oolong, red… be creative in making your iced teas and you’ll enjoy it more. Plus you’ll get a more diverse array of antioxidants.

I just add a little of the natural non-caloric sweetener stevia to my iced teas and I love them. Please share this page with your friends and family to help them kick the diet soda habit.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

MSM Health Benefits May Be Related to Its Sulfur Content

The clinical use of sulfur as an adjunct in our diet is becoming progressively more recognized as an important tool for optimizing health.

Certainly, diet is the primary tool for reducing your risk for chronic degenerative diseases. But the practical question becomes, how do you obtain the needed sulfur from food grown in depleted soils?

The nutrient MSM (methylsulfonylmethane), is a naturally occurring sulfur compound found in all vertebrates, including humans. MSM is already well-known for its joint health benefits, but it may be important for a whole host of other reasons as well.

Rod Benjamin is the director of technical development for Bergstrom Nutrition, the largest producer of the highest quality MSM that is produced by distillation purification.

MSM is a metabolite of DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, an organosulfur compound), but DMSO is approved for use in veterinary medicine only, not in humans.

Are the Health Benefits of MSM Related to Sulfur?

I first became aware of DMSO decades ago, when I saw a 60-Minutes episode in which they revealed its therapeutic impact on race horses. It supported their soft tissues, helped with muscle soreness and soft-tissue injury. It also benefitted the horses’ lung function.

Dr. Stanley W. Jacob pioneered the use of DMSO and later MSM. Originally, he began looking at DMSO because it freezes at about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and Dr. Jacob had been deeply involved in looking at cryogenic preservation of tissues and organs for transplantation. As a result of being investigated for its cryogenic uses, DMSO ended up being one of the most researched drugs on the market today.

“DMSO is classified as a drug within the United States. You can buy it at a lot of veterinary supply stores and things like that, but it’s not to be used for humans,” Mr. Benjamin says.

MSM, which is a metabolite of DMSO, and approved for use in humans, primarily impacts your health by reducing inflammation. It’s widely used as a supplement for arthritic conditions. Like DMSO, MSM also appears to improve cell wall permeability, so it can be used to help deliver other active ingredients. Perhaps most important, MSM helps protect against oxidative damage.

Within the last two years, at least four human clinical trials have been conducted on MSM and its ability to help with exercise recovery, and muscle injuries like delayed onset muscle stiffness or soreness (DOMS) and large muscle injuries like that from a heart attack—all of which is related to oxidative stress and subsequent cellular damage.

“In one of the studies, they were looking at the VAS pain scores. That’s muscle soreness due to exercise. There was a significant reduction in the MSM-treated group versus placebo. That’s directly tied to the muscle soreness,” Mr. Benjamin says.

The Importance of Sulfur

Furthermore, according to Mr. Benjamin:

“Dr. Stanley Jacob said DMSO – and MSM together with that – in his opinion is much more of a therapeutic principle. It’s similar to exercise or proper nutrition. Instead of that singular focus that is so prevalent within the drug or pharmas per se, it’s much more of a therapeutic principle, which is overall body wellness [opposed to treating a specific symptom or ailment].”

This suggests that MSM may be providing some kind of missing link, and that link appears to be related to sulfur. MSM is 34 percent sulfur by weight, but as Mr. Benjamin discusses below, it is more than just a simple sulfur donor. It affects sulfur metabolism in the human body, although it’s still not entirely clear how.

Sulfur is just now becoming more widely appreciated as a really critical nutrient, without which many other things don’t work properly, and most people are probably not getting enough sulfur from their diet anymore. For example, sulfur plays a critical role in detoxification, and also in inflammatory conditions. For detoxification, sulfur is part of one of the most important antioxidants that your body produces: glutathione. Without sulfur, glutathione cannot work.

The plethora of research that was done on DMSO and its therapeutic properties begs the question: How many of those therapeutic properties are due to the DMSO? Or are they due to its metabolite, MSM, once it’s been converted in vivo or within the body? (Approximately 15 percent of any DMSO dosage, on average, converts to MSM in the human body.) The answer to that question is still unknown. Sulfur is found in over 150 different compounds within the human body. There are sulfur components in virtually every type of cell, so it’s extremely important.

“Now, as far as MSM’s role within the body, it’s very complicated. And I will say that it’s not a hundred percent understood,” Mr. Benjamin says. “I’ve been working with this compound for 16 years to try and answer that question. We understand a part of the mechanism of action, but not all of it.

…In 1986, Richmond did a study, and it showed that it was taken up into serum proteins. That sulfur was actually incorporated in the serum proteins.

We also have done [something] like the pharmacokinetic study, which showed that radiolabeled sulfur was taken up into hair, skin, and nails. Keratin is a very high sulfur-containing compound, which is a building block for your nails and your hair. But it also showed up in almost all tissues, spleen, and liver. It went all over.

It’s complicated. We did a study where we said, ‘Okay, let’s give it to healthy human volunteers.’ We did actually three different dosages – one gram, two grams, and three grams. We measured urinary sulfur output by measuring sulfate, thinking that sulfate will be a waste sulfur product that would show up excreted in the urine. We did the different doses to see if it was in a dose-dependent manner that we’d be able to correlate back and, say, ‘Yes, MSM is giving output of sulfur.

We found that they were indeed dose-related, but the interesting thing was it was inversely related. The more MSM you took, the less sulfate was excreted in your urine. What that says is it’s much more complicated than just a strict sulfur donor. It is a compartmentalization of sulfur and sulfur metabolism within the body. That suggests that MSM is actually allowing better metabolism, better incorporation of the sulfur throughout the body. It’s not just a simple sulfur donor…’”

MSM Improves Your Body’s Ability to Make its Own Antioxidants

As I mentioned earlier, sulfur plays an important role in the production of glutathione—one of the most important antioxidants that your body produces. Glutathione also serves important functions for detoxification. Without sulfur, glutathione cannot work. So, while not an antioxidant by itself, part of MSM’s action is to improve your body’s ability to make its own antioxidants.

It also provides support for all sorts of structural proteins, where sulfur is an important component. According to Dr. Benjamin:

“[G]lutathione has two different states within your body. There’s reduced glutathione and oxidized glutathione. The ratio of those two signifies the overall oxidative status or the ability of your blood plasma to address oxidative stress. MSM improves that overall ratio. In other words, you have much more reduced glutathione that’s able to deal with these free radicals. That’s, I think, kind of the key of how MSM really – and DMSO also does the same thing – by controlling that oxidative stress or protecting from the oxidative damage can have these therapeutic [benefits].”

Sulfur-Rich Foods

Ideally, you’d be best off getting your sulfur needs filled from the foods you eat. However, this can be a bit of a challenge these days. There’s been a transition away from many traditional foods that have been the big sources of sulfur, like collagen or keratin, which we just don’t eat much nowadays.

You can perhaps get enough if you cook down bones from organically raised animals into bone broth and drink the broth regularly (or use for soups and stews). The connective tissues are sulfur-rich, and when you slow-cook the bones, you dissolve these nutrients out of the bone and into the water. According to Mr. Benjamin:

“MSM is in almost all raw foods. It’s in leafy green vegetables. Interestingly enough, there’s MSM in beer and coffee. Actually, it’s been identified as one of the main flavoring constituent in port wines… raw milk has the highest naturally occurring content of MSM.”

One caveat is cooking and pasteurization. While MSM is stable to extremes of pH and temperature, it volatilizes and turns to gas very easily. It’s also very water soluble. So when cooked at high temperatures, it simply wafts off in the steam. That’s why it’s easily removed during cooking and processing. Pasteurization cuts the MSM content by approximately 50 percent. So, in order to ensure you’re getting the most MSM from any food, it must be either raw or as minimally processed as possible.

Toxicity and Dosage Recommendations

Toxicity studies have shown that MSM is extremely safe and can be taken at very, very high doses. Even if you have a very rich diet full of raw vegetables and MSM-rich foods, you can still supplement and not hit that toxicity level. Clinical research studies have found that the effective amounts range from about 1.5 grams to 6 grams, although at higher doses, potential side effects include:
•Intestinal discomfort
•Swelling of the ankles
•Mild skin rashes

These are likely detoxifying effects that can typically be mitigated or minimized by cutting back on the initial dosage, and slowly working your way up. In that case, you might want to start out with half a gram (500 milligrams) for a couple of weeks and then slowly increase until you get up to the desired dose.

MSM is approved for use in fortified food and beverage and gram quantities may be consumed when consuming raw diet and approved MSM fortified foods. The amount from the fortified foods that have been approved would be between 1.9 to 3.8 grams per day. For comparison, intake of MSM from natural sources such as fruits and vegetables would be in the milligram per day range of about 2.3 to 5.6 mg/day.

How to Select a High –Quality MSM Supplement

As with most other supplements and food, quality is a major issue when it comes to selecting an MSM supplement. Fortunately, with MSM it’s fairly easy to determine. There are two methods of purification of MSM:
1.Distillation
2.Crystallization

For MSM, distillation is by far superior. But crystallization is less expensive, and a lot less energy-intensive. According to Mr. Benjamin, only two companies that produce MSM use distillation. Mr. Benjamin explains why you should consider a product that has been purified using distillation.

“A lot of the problems with [crystallization] is you’re essentially crystallizing it out of a parent solvent or liquid. If there are any impurities, which could be salts of heavy metals, you could have aromatic hydrocarbons in that… It’s actually the parent solvent. It’s usually water. It is dependent upon water quality. ”

Is MSM for You?

As you know, I am very cautious about recommending supplements, as I believe you’re best off getting your nutrients from healthful, whole organic foods. But, I’m also realistic, and I understand a perfect diet is hard to come by these days, so some supplements I believe can be quite beneficial. MSM would fall into this category. It would make sense that, if you’re suffering from a decrease in normal dietary sulfur, supplementing with something that’s relatively safe and inexpensive would make a lot of sense.

As I’ve said, sulfur is an emerging stealth player in nutrition and for a variety of mechanisms, including the detox and anti-inflammatory pathways. Remember, if you don’t have enough sulfur in your diet, you’re not going to be able to naturally produce glutathione, which is absolutely essential for removing heavy metals and many of the toxins you’re exposed to. People who might want to consider using some supplemental sulfur sources such as MSM include those who have:
•Chronic inflammatory conditions
•Aches and pains / sore muscles and achy joints
•Premature aging symptoms
•Toxicity

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

How autism is connected to mercury toxicity – and what to do about it

This is so strange because since 2007 when I started as a director with Huggins Applied Healing I’ve been shouting from the rooftops about the dangers of the toxic material mercury and the dangers of using it. sadly because I’m just me, my words havent had the weight of the establishment. Its so good that credible health professionals are now putting their names to this.

A recent study published in the Polish journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis raises new and pertinent questions about the intensifying link between mercury toxicity and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Far from being the definitively debunked hoax that the mainstream media and so-called “skeptics” have arrogantly declared it to be, the purported connection between mercury exposure, particularly in vaccines, and autism is becoming nearly undeniable, as evidence continues to emerge showing that the official story on the matter is complete bunk.

Entitled Evidence of parallels between mercury intoxication and the brain pathology in autism, the 41-page paper identifies a shocking 20 parallels between mercury poisoning and autism. Among these are intracellular degeneration, neuroinflammation, brain immune response activation, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation, reduced glutathione levels, mitochondrial dysfunction, pathological changes of blood vessels, decreased cerebral and cerebellar blood flow, and increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the brain, as well as many others.

Put more simply, the research team, headed by Janet K. Kern from the Institute of Chronic Illnesses in Maryland, identified nearly two-dozen metabolic and systemic changes that occur inside the body as a result of mercury intoxication. And it just so happens that these same changes also commonly occur in children with ASD, many of whom were injected with mercury in the form of Thimerosal as a result of childhood vaccinations.

“Although there may be genetic or developmental components to autism, the evidence in this current review of the brain findings in autism clearly indicates the reality of brain injury in ASD … (and) the brain injury symptoms which characterize autism closely correspond to those seen in sub-acute Hg (mercury) intoxication,” wrote the authors in their conclusion.

“The evidence suggests that mercury may be either causal or contributory in the brain pathology in ASD, and possibly working synergistically with other toxic compounds or pathogens to produce the brain pathology observed in those diagnosed with an ASD,” they added.

You can read the team’s full review for more details about how they came to these shockingly inconvenient (at least for the vaccine industry) conclusions here:
http://www.ane.pl/linkout.php?pii=7212

Stop injecting your children with mercury-laden vaccines, and tell all your friends and family to do the same
Interestingly, J.K. Kern et al. cite earlier work on the subject from 2000 that found a whopping 79 similarities between mercury intoxication and autism, which is outlined on page 139 of the journal (page 27 of the PDF file of the study). From this diagram, you can see for yourself how mercury intoxication exhibits virtually the exact same symptoms as ASD, a fact that even the most dedicated and outspoken skeptic cannot deny.

Similar research published in the Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology back in June found that perinatal exposure to Thimerosal, or exposure to mercury in vaccines shortly after birth, is directly responsible for inducing neurotoxic effects on the developing brain. Particularly in the cerebellum, mercury was found to stunt gene expression as it pertains to hormone regulation, particularly from the thyroid gland, which is responsible for brain development in humans (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22791642)

With all this in mind, it is clearly not worth the risk to inject your little ones with this toxic poison just because the establishment insists, without any sort of proof, that mercury is safe. The group Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs, also known as CoMeD, has been working for years to get mercury banned from all vaccines and medicines, as it is clearly an unsafe neurotoxin with life-altering affects — but until that time, be sure to avoid all mercury-containing vaccines, and tell your friends and family to do the same.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22810216

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

Challenge the Establishment — Dispelling Five Common Health and Fitness Misconceptions

By John Paul Catanzaro

In life we take many things for granted. People are told to go on a low fat diet and do some aerobic training, and yet they still gain body fat. Your blood work shows slightly altered cholesterol and thyroid levels and right away you’re told to go on medication. The trainer at your local gym rips out a copy of Everyday Stretches (reproduced from a 1987 poster) and says: “Do this before your next workout.”

If you’ve been spinning your wheels and going nowhere in your pursuit for optimal health and fitness, then stop! Doing something simply because you’ve been told to is not good enough.

It’s time to question authority and challenge the establishment!

Five Common Health and Fitness Misconceptions

Let’s start by dispelling five common health and fitness misconceptions. Dare I suggest that…
1.
A high fat intake can actually lower body fat!

Two reasons: a) If low fat is consumed, your body retains body fat as a protective/survival mechanism, and b) a high fat intake upregulates key (lipase) enzymes, which not only break down dietary fat but also body fat.

Of course, a high fat and high carb diet will result in body fat accumulation so this only applies to a low carbohydrate intake.

“The lipase enzyme is a naturally occurring enzyme found in the stomach and pancreatic juice, which is also found within fats in the foods you eat.

Lipase enzyme digests fats and lipids, helping to maintain correct gall bladder function. As such, these constitute any of the fat-splitting or lipolytic enzymes, all of which cleave a fatty acid residue from the glycerol residue in a neutral fat or a phospholipid. The lipase enzyme controls the amount of fat being synthesized and that which is burned in the body, reducing adipose tissue (fat stores).

The lipase enzyme belongs to the esterases family of proteins. The lipase enzyme is found widely distributed in the plant world (beans and legumes), as well as in molds, bacteria, milk and milk products, and in animal tissues, especially in the pancreas.

In sufficient quantities of lipase enzyme production, lipase can help use fat-stores to be burned as fuel. Indeed, lipase is a rate-determining enzyme, which not only activates the burning of stored body fats but also effectively inhibits fatty acid synthesis, or fat storage!

Hormone-Sensitive Triacyclglycerol Lipase, as it is also known, actually stimulates lipolysis in fat tissues, safely raising blood fatty acid levels, which ultimately activates the beta-oxidation pathway in other tissues, such as liver and muscle. In the liver, lipolysis leads to the production of ketone bodies that are secreted into the bloodstream for use as an alternative fuel to glucose by peripheral tissues.”

Source

2.
Reduced thyroid levels (i.e. TSH levels above 5) for a lean individual following a low-carb diet may be normal and healthy!

Now before you throw your chair at the computer, hear me out. As Dr. Ron Rosedale notes in the excerpt below, reduced thyroid levels are not necessarily synonymous with hypothyroidism. Your body chooses to lower thyroid hormones due to an increased efficiency of energy use and hormonal signaling. It is yet another example of how your body adapts and should not be viewed as abnormal.

The knee-jerk reaction in many cases would be thyroid medication, which could potentially decrease your lifespan.

“Metabolic rate and temperature has long been connected with longevity. Almost all mechanisms that extend lifespan in many different organisms result in lower temperature. Flowers are refrigerated at the florist to extend their lifespan. Restricting calories in animals also results in lower temperature, reduced thyroid levels, and longer life.

It should be noted that reduced thyroid levels in this case are not synonymous with hypothyroidism. Here, the body is choosing to lower thyroid hormones because the increased efficiency of energy use and hormonal signaling (including perhaps thyroid) is allowing this to happen.

Anything will dissolve faster in hot water than cold water. Extra heat will dissolve, disrupt and disorganize. This is not what I try to do to make someone healthy. It is commonly advised to increase metabolism and increase thermogenesis for health and weight loss.

Yet how many of you would put a brand of gasoline in your car that advertised that it would make your engine run hotter? What would that do to the life of your car? It is not an increase in metabolism that I am after; it is improved metabolic quality.”

Source

3.
Low cholesterol levels will promote aging.

Cholesterol is the raw material for many hormones. If you lower your cholesterol you will also lower your hormone production … and if you lower hormone production, you increase aging! To make matters worse, low cholesterol has been associated with a broad complex of emotional, cognitive and behavioral symptoms including aggressiveness, hostility, irritability, paranoia, and severe depression.

There is also an increase in deaths from trauma, cancer, stroke, and respiratory and infectious diseases among those with low cholesterol levels.

Furthermore, a study in the British medical journal, Lancet, indicates that elderly men die earlier with low blood cholesterol levels.

“The human organism is in a state of dynamic equilibrium, know as homeostasis. One of the main roles in normal homeostasis belongs to multiple feedback loop mechanisms.

Cholesterol is the precursor or the building block for the basic hormones: pregnenolone, DHEA, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone.

Deterioration of the reproductive function, one of the most striking endocrine alterations occurring in aging, is related to a complex interplay of factors. Target organs may become less sensitive to their controlling hormone or may break them down at a slower rate. Hormone levels may change; some increasing, some decreasing and some remaining unchanged.

Many of the diseases that middle-aged persons begin experiencing including depression, abdominal weight gain, prostate, breast and heart disease, are directly related to hormone imbalances.

Conventional doctors are prescribing drugs to treat depression, elevated cholesterol, angina and other diseases that may be caused by hormone imbalance.

A few years ago we found out that some patients who had high cholesterol levels before hormonorestorative therapy (HT) were free of cholesterol problems during therapy. We started pondering as to why this had happened?

In our opinion, when the production of hormones starts to decline our body tries to correct this problem by increasing the production of cholesterol. A similar situation happens to women during pregnancy. When a female’s body needs more hormones for herself and her baby, cholesterol levels are elevated significantly. If a woman’s body is unable to increase the production of cholesterol the risk of an abortion and miscarriages is increased.

Another situation is a low level of cholesterol. If your total cholesterol is less than 160, you have nothing to worry about. Wrong opinion!

A low level of cholesterol means a low production of basic hormones (because of a limited amount of building blocks). Patients with a low level of hormones have life problems that include suicides, criminal behavior, depression, attention deficit disorder, cancer at young age, etc. Low cholesterol is a marker for poor underlying health.

When patients take cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLD) we can surmise that hormonal production will decrease. That’s why many patients on CLD have severe fatigue, fibromyalgia-like pain, depression, high risk of cancer, suicides, weight gain and impotency.

Normally our body tries to keep a normal ratio between different hormones: DHEA/cortisol, estrogen/progesterone, female/male hormones. When we have a malfunction in a feedback loop mechanism we start to have the problems related to the imbalance of hormones (for example: male or female dominance, estrogen dominance, etc.).

Once again, when the production of hormones starts to decline, our body tries to correct the deficiency of hormones by the extra production of cholesterol. It looks like the elevation of total cholesterol serves as a compensatory mechanism for hormonal deficiency.”

Source

4.
Aerobic training can increase body fat.

Specifically, long distance, low intensity, rhythmic-type aerobics done for a long duration/distance on a frequent basis can signal your body to store fat.

Your body prefers fat for fuel at lower intensities. It adapts to aerobic activity by storing fat (usually in the hips and thighs) to become more efficient for future use. The more fat you store, the more you can use.

Furthermore, aerobics are associated with increased cortisol levels without a concomitant increase in testosterone (as occurs during strength training) disrupting an optimal testosterone:cortisol ratio. In fact, average testosterone levels are significantly lower in endurance athletes. This, of course, equates to a decrease in muscle and strength along with an increase in (android) body fat, i.e., midsection fat.

5.
Static stretching will make you weak.

This has been well documented in the literature, and yet a typical warm-up usually contains some form of (you guessed it) static stretching. The classic Bob Anderson style of stretching before exercise tends to sedate muscles, and research shows that it will decrease power and strength by as much as 30 percent for up to 90 minutes. By that time, your workout is over!

Sometimes you need to take a sledgehammer and crush what’s written in stone!

We’ve been told to reduce fat in our diets, lower our cholesterol levels, improve reduced thyroid production with medication, perform aerobic training almost daily, and definitely start each workout with some static stretching.

Dare I suggest otherwise?

You better believe it!

About The Author

John Paul Catanzaro, B.Sc., C.K., C.E.P., is a Certified Kinesiologist and Certified Exercise Physiologist with a Specialized Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Health Science. He owns and operates a private gym in Richmond Hill, Ontario providing training and nutritional consulting services. For additional information, visit his website at www.BodyEssence.ca or call 905-780-9908.

Check out John Paul’s DVD, Warm-Up to Strength Training, for some powerful techniques to increase strength and improve performance. It has received a thumbs-up from many experts including Drs. Eric Serrano, Mark Lindsay, and Ken Kinakin as well as Olympic strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Visit www.StrengthWarmUp.com for more information.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.

When you mess with your body’s intrinsic need for regular, high-quality sleep, it sets off a cascade of biological changes that can seriously impact your health.

The trouble is, of course, that many people don’t intentionally neglect proper sleep; instead, they simply can’t fall asleep or stay asleep once they do … and this, unfortunately, increases your risk of developing serious chronic diseases.

Hard-to-Treat Hypertension Linked to Poor Sleep Quality

In a study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions, researchers found a strong link between sleep quality and a type of high blood pressure known as resistant hypertension, which does not respond to typical drug-based treatments.

In fact, women who had resistant hypertension were five times as likely to also have poor sleep quality. While the average length of sleep in this study was only 6.4 hours a night (and nearly half slept fewer than six hours each night), it was sleep quality, not quantity, that appeared to influence hypertension risk.

While this study only found an association with women, other studies have also linked hypertension in men to a lack of deep sleep,1 and sleeping fewer than seven hours a night has been linked to hypertension in both men and women.2

Even Partial Sleep Deprivation Impacts Your Health … And Your Weight

If you sleep less than six hours a night, defined as “partial sleep deprivation,” you may not only be increasing your risk of high blood pressure but also obesity (a known high blood pressure risk factor).

New research found that partial sleep deprivation is associated with obesity and alters your food intake by disrupting key hormones involved with regulating metabolism and appetite.3

“Reduced sleep may disrupt appetitive hormone regulation, specifically increasing ghrelin [a hormone that triggers hunger] and decreasing leptin [the hormone that tells your brain you’re full] and, thereby, influence energy intake. Increased wakefulness also may promote food intake episodes and energy imbalance,” the researchers said.

Reduced insulin sensitivity was also noted among the sleep-deprived subjects, and this not only increases your risk of diabetes but also high blood pressure!

The Same Factors That Cause Diabetes Also Cause High Blood Pressure

Lack of sleep interferes with metabolism and hormone production in a way that is similar to the effects of aging and the early stages of diabetes. It’s long been known, in fact, that sleep deprivation increases your diabetes risk … so it’s not at all surprising that it also increases your risk for high blood pressure, because the two are caused by essentially the same factors.

High blood pressure, like diabetes, is typically related to your body developing resistance to insulin. As your insulin level rises, your blood pressure rises. Most physicians – even cardiologists – do not understand the crucial connection between blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and insulin.

Dr. Richard Johnson, author of the book The Fat Switch, masterfully ties together the connection between hypertension, obesity and diabetes in his previous book, The Sugar Fix, which is one of the best books written on this issue. Dr. Johnson is the Chief of the Kidney Disease and Hypertension Division at the University of Colorado, and I would encourage you to listen to his interview below for more information.

Download Interview Transcript

Tips for Reducing Your High Blood Pressure (and Diabetes) Risks …

More than 85 percent of those who have hypertension can normalize their blood pressure with some basic lifestyle modifications – and these tips work for lowering your diabetes risk too:
•Normalize your insulin levels by avoiding sugar, fructose and grains: If your blood pressure is elevated and you consume a lot of sugar – especially in the form of fructose (such as high fructose corn syrup) – lowering your blood pressure might be as simple as cutting all forms of sugar and grains out of your diet. Normalizing your blood glucose levels will normalize your insulin and bring blood pressure down into a healthy range. I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, or as low as 15 grams if you have high blood pressure, are overweight, or diabetic.

Unlike glucose, which is burned by fuel in every cell in your body, fructose, if not immediately consumed as fuel, is metabolized into fat by your liver, which can set the ball rolling toward insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. I highly recommend getting a fasting insulin level test, which must be ordered by your doctor. The level you want to strive for is about 2 to 3. If it’s above 5, then you have a problem and you definitely need to get your insulin level down as you are at risk for cardiovascular problems.
•Use exercise as a drug. Physical activity is by far one of the most potent “drugs” there is, especially for increasing insulin sensitivity and normalizing blood glucose and blood pressure levels. We have developed a comprehensive fitness program that includes high-intensity interval burst-type activity called Peak Fitness, stretching, and resistance training, which are all important components of a complete fitness program.
•Follow a good nutrition plan that’s right for your body. It should be rich in fresh, organic vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, raw organic dairy, eggs from pastured hens, grass-fed meats, healthy fats such as coconut oil and animal-based omega-3, and plenty of fresh pure water.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels. Sunlight, and the vitamin D it causes your body to produce, has a normalizing effect on your blood pressure. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. But for many of us, this just isn’t practical during the winter and fall months. The next best option to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. If neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, then using oral vitamin D3 supplements is your best bet. If you wish to take an oral vitamin D3 supplement, follow my dose recommendations, which are based on the latest scientific research. The only way to know your optimal dose is to get your blood tested. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain a vitamin D level of 50-70 ng/ml year-round.

For an in-depth explanation of everything you need to know about vitamin D, please listen to my FREE one-hour vitamin D lecture.
•Manage your stress. Stress puts the “tension” into hypertension! The long-term activation of your stress-response system can disrupt nearly all of your body’s processes, and elevated blood pressure is one of many negative effects. Finding a way to deal with life’s everyday stressors is a necessity for good health. My preferred tool is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
•Get plenty of deep, restorative sleep each night.

Lack of Sleep Increases Teen Sports Injuries

If you’re a teenager who plays sports (or the parent of one), here’s one more reason to make sure you get a restful night’s sleep. Teen athletes who slept for eight or more hours each night were 68 percent less likely to get injured than those who slept less, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition.

Perhaps these teens are simply more alert on the field than their less rested teammates, or maybe there is another role sleep plays in helping protect your body from harm. Either way, teenagers are notorious for staying up too late or falling asleep while watching TV or using a computer, which may interfere with their sleep quality. Yet, on average, children and teens need more sleep than adults. Making sure your teen learns healthy sleep habits early on is important not only for injury prevention, but also for preventing chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes down the line.

Top Tips for Healthy Sleep

Making some adjustments to your sleeping area can also go a long way to ensure uninterrupted, restful sleep. I suggest you read through my full set of 33 healthy sleep guidelines for all of the details, but to start:
1.Cover your windows with blackout shades or drapes to ensure complete darkness. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and the melatonin precursor serotonin, thereby disrupting your sleep cycle.

So close your bedroom door, get rid of night-lights, and refrain from turning on any light during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. If you have to use a light, install so-called “low blue” light bulbs in your bedroom and bathroom. These emit an amber light that will not suppress melatonin production.
2.Keep the temperature in your bedroom at or below 70 degrees F (21 degrees Celsius). Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees F (15.5 to 20 C). Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep.
3.Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can also disrupt your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house.
4.Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your head. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least three feet.
5.Reduce use of light-emitting technology, such as your TV, iPad, and computer, before going to bed. These emit the type of light that will suppress melatonin production, which in turn will hamper your ability to fall asleep, as well as impact your cancer risk (melatonin helps to suppress harmful free radicals in your body and slows the production of estrogen, which can activate cancer). Ideally, you’ll want to turn all such light-emitting gadgets off at least one hour prior to bedtime.

If you like what you read, please consider donating to help support my blog, even as little as $5 will help.