Rather Be Healthy

Back Manipulation May Help Relieve Chronic Pain

By Dr. Mercola

It has been estimated that 80 percent of Americans will suffer from chronic back pain at some point during their lives.

Nearly 30 percent may be struggling with back pain right now,1 which can cause debilitating symptoms, leading many to resign themselves to a lifetime of taking prescription painkillers, receiving expensive steroid shots or even opting for surgery.

But before trying these conventional options, which have questionable effectiveness and more than their fair share of side effects, why not try a safe alternative treatment that many have not yet heard of: osteopathic manipulation.

Osteopathic Manipulation Helps Relieve Low Back Pain

If you have chronic low back pain, you may want to consult a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO). As many of you know, I am an osteopathic physician, which I choose to focus on because DOs practice a “whole person” approach to medicine, treating the entire person rather that just symptoms.

As a DO I can tell you that we receive additional training in adjusting the musculoskeletal system — your body’s interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones that make up two-thirds of your body mass.

This training in osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) provides osteopathic physicians with a better understanding of how an injury or illness in one part of your body can affect another.

Osteopathic manipulation, which may involve moving joints back into place, massaging soft tissue and helping you relax stressed muscles, was recently found to reduce chronic low back pain in a study of 455 people.2

Participants received eight weeks of either osteopathic manipulation, a sham treatment, or ultrasound therapy. Sixty-three percent of those who’d had osteopathic manipulation reported a moderate improvement in their pain while half said they had a substantial improvement.

However, in my experience, only a small percentage of DOs are skilled in this area, as they have instead chosen a more conventional allopathic model to follow. So if you choose to see a DO for osteopathic manipulation, make sure they provide this service and have ample experience.

This is just one example of a safe “alternative” treatment that should actually be regarded as a preferable treatment choice to drugs, steroids and surgery. Another is chiropractic care.

Chiropractic Care May Relieve Pain Better Than Drugs

Seeing a qualified chiropractor is a wise option if you suffer from any type of chronic pain, including back pain. One study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine even revealed that chiropractic care is often better than medication for treating musculoskeletal pain.3

After following 272 neck-pain patients for 12 weeks, researchers found that those who used a chiropractor or exercised were more than twice as likely to be pain free compared to those who took medication. Although this study involved neck pain rather than back pain, specifically, it’s likely the results apply to back pain as well.

The results showed:
•32 percent who received chiropractic care became pain free
•30 percent of those who exercised became pain free
•13 percent of those treated with medication became pain free

I am an avid believer in the chiropractic philosophy, which places a strong emphasis on your body’s innate healing wisdom and far less reliance on Band-Aid solutions like drugs and surgery. Chiropractic, osteopathic, and naturopathic physicians receive extensive training in the management of musculoskeletal disorders during their course of graduate healthcare training, which typically lasts from 4-6 years.

Due to their comprehensive training in musculoskeletal management, numerous sources of evidence have shown that chiropractic management is much safer and often more effective than allopathic medical treatments, particularly for back and neck pain. In addition, researchers have also found that chiropractic adjustments affect our bodies on a deep cellular level.

What that means is that chiropractic care may affect the basic physiological processes that influence oxidative stress and DNA repair, so in addition to addressing any immediate spinal misalignment that might cause pain, it can also address deeper dysfunction in your body.

Foundation Training: A Must-Know Technique for Anyone With Back Pain

I recently learned of Dr. Eric Goodman’s work through his TED presentation and was excited about the simplicity and elegance of his approach to exercise — an innovative method called Foundation Training, which he developed while in school to become a chiropractor, to treat his own chronic low back pain. Because exercise often leads to improved posture, range of motion and functionality of your body, it can help treat the underlying source of your pain as well as help prevent chronic back pain from developing in the first place. Exercise helps prevent and relieve pain through a number of mechanisms including strengthening key supportive muscles and restoring flexibility.

Poor posture while sitting, or long hours spent sitting in any position, is one of the key reasons why people develop chronic back pain in the first place. Foundation training exercises are powerful, yet simple, structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture by working on your core.

As Dr. Goodman explains, your core is anything that connects to your pelvis, whether above or below it, and this includes your hamstrings, glutes, and adductor muscles. Foundation Training teaches all those muscles to work together through integrated chains of movement, which is how you’re structurally designed to move, as opposed to compartmentalized movements like crunches.

In the video below you can see a demonstration of one of the key exercises, called “The Founder,” which helps reinforce proper movement while strengthening the entire back of your body. The Founder is an excellent exercise that can help reverse the effects of frequent and prolonged sitting (i.e. back pain).

Drugs for Back Pain?

If you visit a conventional physician for back pain, there’s a very good chance you’ll leave with a prescription for a medication, as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen (Tylenol) and even opioids (OxyContin, Vicodin, etc.) are the go-to treatment for pain in the modern medical world.

Aside from significantly increasing your heart risks (such as a two to fourfold increase in the risk of heart attacks, stroke or cardiovascular death), NSAIDs are linked to serious gastrointestinal risks like bleeding of the digestive tract, increased blood pressure and kidney problems. Remember, this applies not only to prescription medications like Celebrex but also to over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, Advil and Motrin.

It’s very difficult to find a drug-based method of pain relief that is not saddled with severe side effects. The FDA has even recently limited the amount of acetaminophen allowed in prescription products and added a boxed warning due to liver toxicity concerns. Acetaminophen is actually the leading cause of acute liver failure in the United States.

As for the opioid painkillers like OxyContin, they are among the most commonly abused prescription drugs and are a leading contributor to the rising rates of fatal prescription drug overdoses. Many become addicted after using them to treat conditions like back or neck pain.

You Have Many Natural Options for Treating Back Pain

Drugs do nothing to treat the underlying cause of back pain, which is often related to body mechanics, meaning your posture or muscle balance is off kilter. Addressing your posture (or other factors that may be contributing to the strain, such as sleeping in an awkward position) and treating the condition with exercises as described above is often effective at relieving the pain and addressing the underlying cause. If you have chronic pain of any kind, please understand that there are many safe and effective alternatives to prescription and over-the-counter painkillers, though they may require some patience.

For instance, therapeutic massage has been found to offer clinically significant improvement in function and symptoms for those with neck pain,4 while a variety of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments (including acupuncture, massage, spinal manipulation, and mobilization) were deemed to be significantly more efficacious than no treatment, placebo, physical therapy, or usual care in reducing pain immediately or at short-term after treatment for those with neck or low-back pain.5 There are also lifestyle changes you can make that may have a dramatic impact on your pain.

Among the best are:
•Start taking a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat like krill oil. Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, they positively influence prostaglandins.) The omega-3 fats EPA and DHA contained in krill oil have also been found in many animal and clinical studies to have anti-inflammatory properties.
•Eliminate or radically reduce most grains and sugars (including fructose) from your diet. Avoiding grains and sugars will lower your insulin and leptin levels. Elevated insulin and leptin levels are one of the most profound stimulators of inflammatory prostaglandin production. That is why eliminating sugar and grains is so important to controlling your pain.
•Optimize your production of vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain.
•Optimize your emotional health with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): Your brain, and consequently your thoughts and emotions, play a large role in your experience of pain. Using mind-body techniques like the EFT is often one of the best pain-relieving solutions there is.

Even More Safe Pain-Relief Options

Methods like osteopathic manipulation may take several sessions to fully relieve your pain. In the meantime, you don’t need to suffer unnecessarily. Following are options that provide excellent pain relief without any of the health hazards that pain medications often carry.
•Astaxanthin: One of the most effective oil-soluble antioxidants known. It has very potent anti-inflammatory properties and in many cases works far more effectively than NSAIDs. Higher doses are typically required and one may need 8 mg or more per day to achieve this benefit.
•Ginger: This herb is anti-inflammatory and offers pain relief and stomach-settling properties. Fresh ginger works well steeped in boiling water as a tea or grated into vegetable juice.
•Curcumin: Curcumin is the primary therapeutic compound identified in the spice turmeric. Curcumin has been shown in over 50 clinical studies to have potent anti-inflammatory activity.
•Boswellia: Also known as boswellin or “Indian frankincense,” this herb contains powerful anti-inflammatory properties, which have been prized for thousands of years. This is one of my personal favorites as I have seen it work well with many rheumatoid arthritis patients.
•Bromelain: This protein-digesting enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form, but eating fresh pineapple may also be helpful. Keep in mind that most of the bromelain is found within the core of the pineapple, so consider leaving a little of the pulpy core intact when you consume the fruit.
•Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO): This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a “joint lubricant” and an anti-inflammatory. I have used a topical preparation for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and a mild annoying carpal tunnel syndrome that pops up when I type too much on non-ergonomic keyboards.
•Evening Primrose, Black Currant and Borage Oils: These contain the fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), which is useful for treating arthritic pain.
•Cayenne Cream: Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body’s supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.
•Therapeutic modalities such as yoga, acupuncture, meditation, hot and cold packs, and even holding hands can also result in astonishing pain relief without any drugs.

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Exercise Poses Virtually No Danger to Your Joints

There is no good evidence supporting a harmful effect of regular exercise on normal joints, according to a review of studies.

Exercise is beneficial for weight control, management of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and improving psychological well-being. However, there is also a perception that exercise is potentially harmful to joints, in particular those of the lower extremities.

Researchers reviewed existing studies on the relationship between regular exercise and osteoarthritis (OA) and concluded that in the absence of existing joint injury there is no increased risk of OA from exercise.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Osteoarthritis of the knee is one of the most common causes of disability in the U.S. More than 10 million Americans suffer from knee osteoarthritis; women being more commonly affected than men.

Unfortunately, most people have little appreciation for how powerful exercise can be in preserving bone density and joint function, which can help prevent and alleviate both osteoporosis and osteoarthritis as you age.

What is Osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease, generally caused by wear-and-tear on your joints due to lifestyle, diet and aging. It typically occurs in older individuals, but can also be caused by repetitive stress or acute trauma, regardless of age.

Osteoarthritis usually affects your distal joints, or the joints at the end of your fingers and toes, not the middle ones. Additionally, it’s not symmetrical, so typically you may have it on just one joint and not the other. For example, you may have osteoarthritis on just one knee.

Exercise Will NOT Wear Out Your Knees!

The review published in the Journal of Anatomy provides an overview of the risk factors for the development of osteoarthritis, and the particular role and impact of physical exercise. The authors reaffirm that the notion that exercise is detrimental to your joints is a misconception, as there is no evidence to support this belief.

The only time exercise may exacerbate osteoarthritis is if you’ve suffered a prior joint injury.

Said lead researcher David Hunter MD PhD of New England Baptist Hospital:

“We found that in elite athletes where there was more likelihood of obtaining sports injuries, there was an increased risk of OA in the damaged joints, but in most people vigorous, low-impact exercise is beneficial for both its physical and mental benefits.

The largest modifiable risk factor for knee OA is body weight, such that each additional kilogram of body mass increases the compressive load over the knee by roughly 4kg”.

Instead, the evidence points to exercise having a positive impact on joint tissues — if you exercise sufficiently to lose weight, or maintain an ideal weight, you can in fact reduce your risk of developing osteoarthritis rather than increase your risk. Not to mention the numerous other health benefits you gain from exercise. Other studies have shown that regular exercise can help:
•Reduce diabetes by reducing insulin resistance
•Promote weight loss without dieting
•Reduce effects of aging
•Cut cholesterol levels in men with type 1 diabetes
•Reduce ovarian cancer risk
•Prevent impotence

It’s simply a myth that you can ‘wear down’ your knees just from average levels of exercise and/or normal activity.

Is it Safe to Run?

You may know I started running in 1968 and have run about 1,000 miles a year since that time. I’ve logged in more than 40,000 miles of running in my lifetime. One would think that if running damaged the knees I might have knee pain, but that has never been an issue for me.

My bias has always leaned toward running, which I do to this day, and as some scientists have discovered, the human body was most likely designed for endurance running. Over the last few years I have a far more balanced program and only run about 750 miles per year. I have replaced some of the running with anaerobic workouts, plyometrics, core and strength training, and tennis. The variety of exercises has allowed me to be the fittest I have ever been in my life.

However, despite my experience, and the scientific literature, many experts still advise against running as a form of exercise, stating it may be too rough on your knees and can accelerate osteoarthritis. However, research findings contradict this popular belief as well.

A recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, for example, found no evidence of accelerated rates of osteoarthritis among middle- to older-age long-distance runners.

As an additional plus, weight-bearing exercise like running can also help stave off osteoporosis (weakening of your bones) — which is another extremely common problem among the elderly — by maintaining bone mineral density.

“I Already Have Osteoarthritis… What Can I Do?”

If you’ve already developed osteoarthritis in your knee, you’ll want to incorporate exercises that strengthen the quadriceps muscle at the front of your thigh. And, rather than running, you may be better off with non-weight-bearing exercises like swimming and bicycling.

Jump-starting an exercise program can be frustrating at any age or fitness level, especially if you already have a health condition such as osteoarthritis. However, it will benefit you greatly to make the effort to implement a regular fitness regimen, no matter where you are currently.

If you don’t know where to begin, I have plenty of free tools on my Web site to help you get started. My beginners’ exercise page includes plenty of tips and guidelines, as well as links to other helpful information.

Treatment Options for Osteoarthritis

Since osteoarthritis can be a very painful condition, pain relief is usually on the top of the list. Typically, anti-inflammatory approaches such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics, like Tylenol, are used for this purpose.

However, while these can be effective pain relievers, it’s very important to understand that the regular, chronic use of these types of medications are associated with significant, and very serious, side effects such as kidney and/or liver damage. In the U.S. overuse of analgesics such as these are very common sources of kidney failure.

NSAIDs also kill some 30,000 people every year due to bleeding ulcers, and the oral drugs have been linked to a host of problems, including heart failure — Vioxx and Celebrex being prime examples of these very real dangers. This is not to say that they are not useful agents in some cases, however you need to use them very cautiously.

This is also why it’s so vital that you seek out the underlying cause of your problem and treat it “at the root,” so you do not need to pursue these types of medications. This is most effectively done by addressing your diet and exercise habits.

Here are my top natural approaches for treating osteoarthritis:
•Get plenty of omega-3 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil. Omega-3s are an essential component that your body needs to reduce inflammation.
•Implement a regular exercise program.
•Eat a healthier diet based on the principles of nutritional typing. Your unique biochemistry and genetics influence the ratio of fat, protein and carbohydrates your body needs to thrive, so eating for your nutritional type will ensure that you get the optimal macronutrient ratio out of your diet.
•Rely on safer anti-inflammatory alternatives for pain relief, such as: ◦Glucosamine
◦Boswellia
◦Acupuncture

Use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to harness the power of your mind to help in your healing. For a powerful example of how EFT can work, please read my previous article: 22 years of pain from degenerative arthritis gone after persistent EFT.

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Japanese Doctor Confirms Health Benefits of Working Out Less, But More Intensely

By Dr. Mercola

A little over three years ago, I was introduced to high intensity interval training, commonly referred to as HIIT, when I met Phil Campbell at a fitness camp in Mexico. I refer to it as Peak Fitness Training.

Since then, researchers have repeatedly confirmed the superior health benefits of HIIT compared to traditional and typically performed aerobic workouts.

For example, high-intensity interval-type training gives a natural boost to human growth hormone (HGH) production—which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor—and has been shown to significantly improve insulin sensitivity, boost fat loss, and increase muscle growth.

Anaerobic HIIT can be performed on a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine, or sprinting outdoors (with proper guidelines to avoid injury).

While there are a large number of variations, the HIIT routine I recommend involves going all out for 30 seconds and then resting for 90 seconds between sprints. Total workout is typically 8 repetitions. In all, you’ll be done in about 20 minutes, and you only need to perform HIIT two or three times a week.

But researchers such as Dr. Izumi Tabata have shown that even shorter workouts can work, as long as the intensity is high enough.1

The video above shows a modified high intensity workout from the DVD Mash Up Conditioning. It demonstrates 30 seconds of high intensity followed by 30 seconds of recovery with repeated intervals. There are 3 different levels demonstrated at the same time in the video.

Personal Modifications

I personally modified the Peak 8 to a Peak 6 this year as it was sometimes just too strenuous for me to do all 8 and. So by listening to my body and cutting it back to 6 reps I can now easily tolerate the workout and go full out and I no longer dread doing them.

Another tweak is to incorporate Butyenko breathing into the workout and do most of the workout by only breathing through my nose. This raises the challenge to another level. I will discuss more of the benefits of this in a future article but I do believe it has many benefits.

I then finish my Peak 6 workout with Power Plate stretches, 10 pull ups, 10 dips and 20 inverted pushups, and call it a day. I personally have never tried the Tabata protocol as it seems too intimidating and I’m not sure I could do it, but it is yet another option that people can use.

Can You Get Fit in Just Four Minutes, Four Times a Week?

After monitoring the Japanese speed skating team in the early 90’s, Dr. Tabata noticed that extremely hard but intermittent exercise appeared to be at least as effective as standard workouts that require several hours a week. The training protocol he came up with as a result requires a mere four minutes, four times a week. The caveat? Extremei ntensity.

Dr. Tabata’s HIIT protocol calls for just 20 seconds of all-out drop-dead effort, followed by a mere 10 seconds of rest. This intense cycle is repeated eight times. According to Dr. Tabata:2

“All-out effort at 170 percent of your VO2 max is the criterion of the protocol. If you feel OK afterwards you’ve not done it properly. The first three repetitions will feel easy but the last two will feel impossibly hard. In the original plan the aim was to get to eight, but some only lasted six or seven.”

When performed four times per week for six weeks, participants in one experiment increased their anaerobic capacity by 28 percent, and their VO2 max (an indicator of cardiovascular health) and maximal aerobic power by 15 percent. This is in contrast to the control group, who performed an hour of steady cardiovascular exercise on a stationary bike five times a week. These participants improved their VO2 max by just 10 percent, and their regimen had no effect on their anaerobic capacity.

Dr. Tabata also has forthcoming research findings showing that his protocol reduces your risk of diabetes, which other HIIT studies have already suggested. And, according to the featured article:3

“Another soon-to-be-published finding, which Tabata describes as ‘rather significant,’ shows that the Tabata protocol burns an extra 150 calories in the 12 hours after exercise, even at rest, due to the effect of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. So while it is used by most people to get fit – or by fit people to get even fitter – it also burns fat.”

As Little as Three Minutes of HIIT Per Week Can Improve Your Health, Previous Study Suggests

Dr. Tabata’s claims may sound crazy, but previous research has also found that performing high intensity exercises for just minutes per week can significantly improve important health indices. One such study found that just three minutes of HIIT per week for four weeks improved participants’ insulin sensitivity an average of 24 percent. This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health.

Other research has also demonstrated that 20 minutes of high intensity training, two to three times a week, can yield greater results than slow and steady conventional aerobics done five times a week. But the fact that you can improve your insulin sensitivity by nearly 25 percent with a time investment of less than ONE HOUR A MONTH really shows that you can significantly improve your health without having to eliminate hours of other commitments from your calendar.

As I mentioned previously I have not even attempted this protocol as I know how hard Peak 8 is with a 90 second recovery. I shudder to think how painful the Tabata protocol is with only 10 seconds to recover. That said, I believe that while it’s theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial to do these exercises two or three times a week for a total of four minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training.

You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing HIIT more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between these intense sessions. If you feel the urge to do more, make sure you’re really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Remember, intensity is KEY for reaping all the benefits interval training can offer. To perform it correctly, you’ll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 seconds. Phil Campbell suggests that it needs to be even higher than your maximum calculated heart rate, which is about 220 minus your age.

Why High Intensity Interval Training May Be Ideal for Most

Contrary to popular belief, extended extreme cardio actually sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it’s only designed to do so intermittently, and for short periods—not for an hour or more at a time. This is the natural body mechanics you tap into when you perform HIIT.

Repeatedly and consistently overwhelming your heart by long distance marathon running, for example, can actually prematurely age your heart and make you more vulnerable to irregular heart rhythm. This is why you sometimes hear of seasoned endurance athletes dropping dead from cardiac arrest during a race.

Compelling and ever-mounting research shows that the ideal form of exercise is short bursts of high intensity exercise. Not only does it beat conventional cardio as the most effective and efficient form of exercise, it also provides health benefits you simply cannot get from regular aerobics, such as a tremendous boost in human growth hormone (HGH), aka the “fitness hormone.”

What Makes HIIT so Effective?

Your body has three types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and super-fast twitch muscles. Slow twitch muscles are the red muscles, which are activated by traditional strength training and cardio exercises. The latter two (fast and super-fast) are white muscle fibers, and these are only activated during high intensity interval exercises or sprints.

According to fitness expert Phil Campbell, author of Ready, Set, Go, getting cardiovascular benefits requires working all three types of muscle fibers and their associated energy systems — and this cannot be done with traditional cardio, which only activates your red, slow twitch muscles. If your fitness routine doesn’t work your white muscle, you aren’t really working your heart in the most beneficial way. The reason for this is because your heart has two different metabolic processes:
•The aerobic, which requires oxygen for fuel, and
•The anaerobic, which does not require any oxygen

Traditional strength training and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process, while high intensity interval exercises work both your aerobic AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular benefit. This is why you may not see the results you desire even when you’re spending an hour on the treadmill several times a week. Interestingly enough, when it comes to high intensity exercises, less really is more. You can get all the benefits you need in just a 20-minute session, start to finish, performed two or a max of three times per week.

How to Properly Perform Peak Fitness Exercises

If you are using exercise equipment, I recommend using a recumbent bicycle or an elliptical machine for your high-intensity interval training, although you certainly can use a treadmill, or sprint anywhere outdoors. Just beware that if you sprint outside, you must be very careful about stretching prior to sprinting.

I personally prefer and recommend the Peak Fitness approach of 30 seconds of maximum effort followed by 90 seconds of recuperation, opposed to Dr. Tabata’s more intense routine of 20 seconds of exertion and only 10 seconds of recovery. But some might like his strategy more. His approach may be better suited to fitter athletes who want to kick it up another notch, but may be too intense for most people. For a demonstration using an elliptical machine, please see the following video. Here are the core principles:
•Warm up for three minutes
•Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
•Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
•Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times. (When you’re first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high-intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight during your 20-minute session)
•Cool down for a few minutes afterward by cutting down your intensity by 50-80 percent

By the end of your 30-second high-intensity period you will want to reach these markers:
•It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt.
•You will start to sweat. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don’t sweat much normally.
•Your body temperature will rise.
•Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle “burn.”

Some Suggestions to Take Into Consideration

Remember, while your body needs regular amounts of stress like exercise to stay healthy, if you give it more than you can handle your health can actually deteriorate. So it’s crucial to listen to your body and integrate the feedback into your exercise intensity and frequency.

When you work out it is wise to really push as hard as you possibly can a few times a week, but you need to wisely gauge your body’s tolerance to this stress. When you’re first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of Peak Fitness. That’s okay! As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight. And if six is what your body is telling you, then stop there.

If you have a history of heart disease or any medical concern please get clearance from your health care professional to start this. Most people of average fitness will be able to do it though; it is only a matter of how much time it will take you to build up to the full 8 reps, depending on your level of intensity.

For Optimal Health, Add Variety to Your Exercise Program

In addition to doing high intensity interval exercises a couple of times a week, it’s wise to alternate a wide variety of exercises in order to truly optimize your health. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt and the benefits will begin to plateau. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program on days when you’re not doing high intensity anaerobic training:
•Strength Training: If you want, you can increase the intensity by slowing it down. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild.

For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high-intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
•Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

Exercise programs like Pilates, yoga, and Foundation Training are great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
•Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) developed by Aaron Mattes. With AIS, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body’s natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

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Vaccine policymakers routinely ignore the safest and most effective strategies that can naturally strengthen your immunity to help you stay well or move through illness with fewer complications if you do get sick.

For example, there are many far more effective ways to prevent the flu and other flu-like diseases, such as dietary interventions, making sure your vitamin D and gut flora are optimized, being more meticulous about washing your hands, getting enough exercise and sleep, and taking natural immune boosters like oil of oregano and garlic.

But ignoring the obvious is not the worst of it.

The vaccine industry is also ceaselessly working to figure out which propaganda strategy can most effectively lull concerned parents back to sleep and quit asking questions about safety.

Such questions threaten that which is truly important to the vaccine industry: their profits. Sadly, vaccines DO come with potential side effects, and many parents are already grossly underinformed about such risks. Narcolepsy, for example, has yet again been confirmed as a vaccine-induced side effect from the European version of the 2009-2010 H1N1 swine flu vaccine that contained an oil in water adjuvant, ASO3.

With such serious side effects at stake, should the government really be permitted to resort to what’s looking like outright fraud, in order to increase vaccination rates?

Flu Vaccine Shown to have Shockingly Low Effectiveness Rate

Propaganda scare tactics still do work, as demonstrated by the 25 percent uptick in 2012-2013 seasonal flu vaccine sales reported by Novartis.1 This despite the fact that not just one, but three recent studies published in the journal Eurosurveillance2, 3, 4 strongly challenge the claim that the influenza vaccine will protect you against the flu.

According to CIDRAP:5

“All three studies suggest that during the 2011-12 flu season, the vaccine provided modest protection at first, but its effectiveness dropped sharply after 3 or 4 months.

A multicenter study by researchers in eight European countries indicated that overall vaccine effectiveness (VE) against influenza A/H3N2 in the first months of the season was 38%, but after mid-February it dropped to -1%.

‘The concept that vaccine protection can be so short-lived provides a challenge for public health policy,’ says the British report.”

Similarly, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently admitted that this year’s flu vaccine is doing a “startlingly dismal job of protecting senior citizens,” to quote the San Francisco Chronicle.6

While not at a negative percentage rate, as reported by CIDRAP for the European community, the US flu vaccine is only nine percent effective against this season’s type A (H3N2) influenza strain in people 65 and older. Across all age groups reviewed by the CDC, the flu vaccine’s effectiveness was found to be just 56 percent—in essence, the statistical equivalent of a coin toss…

When Does Misrepresentation of the Facts Equate to Outright Fraud?

While none of this surprises me, I am troubled by the gross discrepancies between the government’s claims about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine compared to the actual effectiveness.

“Get vaccinated” is the mantra, even though the scientific evidence backing such a recommendation is flimsy at best. And, when you factor in effectiveness rates of negative one percent, or nine percent, or even 40-50 percent within the first few months of vaccination, the recommendation to use vaccination as your primary flu prevention strategy really becomes rather ludicrous. Not only that, but at what point do these PR tactics become equivalent to outright fraud?

More people than ever are reportedly sick this winter,7 including those who got their flu vaccination. This is in large part due to a new flu strain, the “H3N2 type variant,” identified as being particularly aggressive, and believed to be the cause of many if not most of the illnesses.8

Interestingly, according to Dr. Joseph Bresee, a medical epidemiologist in the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the H3N2 component in this year’s seasonal flu vaccine “has been a good match against almost all the confirmed H3N2 samples the agency has tested,”9 and due to flu fears, vaccines have been flying off the shelves this year.

So, the vaccines are a great match against the most virulent flu strain in circulation, yet the effectiveness rate for the type A H3N2 influenza strain is nine percent for seniors, and equivalent to a 50/50 tossup for the rest of us? Personally, I would never accept the potential side effects associated with the influenza vaccine—such as permanent paralysis from Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) —for such odds.

Another thing to consider is that states that have fired health care workers for refusing the flu vaccine10 have done so over an absolutely useless vaccine that provides nothing but profits for the vaccine industry. Meanwhile, health professionals who buckle to the pressure are taking some very real health risks, just to keep their jobs. For a first-hand look at what’s at stake, take a look at the following video, featuring a former nursing professor who became permanently disabled following a flu shot.

Health Care Industry Boasts about Profits During Worse-than-Average Flu Season

A January 8 CNBC report11 highlighted the profitability of the flu season:

“Walgreens reported earlier this month that it had administered 5.5 million flu shots by the end of December — up from 5.3 million in the same period a year earlier. ‘Walgreens is a key provider of flu shots,’ said Muken, ‘so they are seeing a modestly outsized benefit.’ Beyond flu shots, a strong cold and flu season could mean stronger sales for over the counter medication and other cold care items at Walgreens and its competitors, CVS Caremark and Rite Aid….The CDC reports outpatient visits and hospitalizations are up sharply with the early start of the flu season. That likely results in more testing for influenza, and higher overall medical costs.”

Similarly, an article in Infectious Diseases in Children, titled “Influenza vaccination makes sense for everyone,”12 written by Dr. Richard Lander, MD, a pediatrician in private practice in northern New Jersey and a member of the Infectious Diseases in Children Editorial Board, offers an insightful glimpse into the motivations behind the at times near-rabid push for flu vaccinations.

It not only spells out the financial incentives for pediatricians and other physicians to “sell, sell, sell!” the vaccine to as many as possible, but when you read his disclosure, the root of his pro-vaccination stance becomes quite obvious, as he is not only co-owner of the National Discount Vaccine Alliance, he’s also a speaker for Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Sanofi-Pasteur… Here, for the first time, a real doctor, with real numbers reveals exactly how profitable giving the flu vaccines is for doctors. The article reads, in part:

“…let’s calculate monies generated for administering influenza vaccine for a doctor with a panel of 2,000 patients. We’ll be conservative and consider that only 1,000 patients will get their influenza vaccine in your office. Some of the 1,000 not receiving the vaccine in your office might be infants younger than 6 months of age and not eligible for the vaccine, and some patients will go to retail-based clinics or refuse the vaccine.

I know you are all financially savvy and you have purchased influenza vaccines at the lowest possible price… The fee you receive has been set by your contract with each managed care organization and you are seeing a 10% to 25% profit.

If your practice purchased the vaccine at approximately $10, the profit on these 1,000 patients will range from $1,000 to $2,500. Additionally, you are receiving a vaccine administration fee, which should range from $14 to $30. This amounts to $14,000 to $30,000 for the 1,000 patients. Furthermore, in my practice, we do not vaccinate if a patient has not received a well visit in the last 12 months. If 100 patients who call for a flu shot ending up scheduling a well visit, you should be generating an additional $10,000. Bottom line: $25,000 to $42,500, which is not bad!”

Australian Study Reveals Strategic PR Plan

Another recent study published in the journal Vaccine13 reveals how the vaccine industry is plotting to adapt its propaganda strategy to make more people accept vaccine risks. According to the authors:

“We aimed to determine demographic predictors of parental vaccine safety and risk perceptions, and assess the relationship between the occurrence of children’s perceived adverse events following immunization (AEFI) on parents’ opinions.”

The survey found that:
•Of 469 parents interviewed, 95 percent were confident in vaccine safety in general, but nearly 50 percent still expressed concern for pre-licensure testing of vaccines
•41 percent of all parents responded that at least one of their children had experienced an adverse event following immunization. Parents of children who had a previous AEFI were more concerned about vaccine safety
•Only half of parents surveyed were aware of surveillance for vaccine safety
•Almost one third of the AEFI parent group indicated they reported their children’s symptoms to either a healthcare professional or the Department of Health, with most reports being made to the family’s general practitioner
•Parental acceptability of the risks of febrile convulsion and anaphylaxis were 73 percent and 76 percent respectively. Mothers were less accepting of these risks

In conclusion, the authors state:

“Parents commonly perceive and report that their child has experienced an AEFI. In this group of parents the subsequent expectation of an AEFI and vaccine safety concerns may be heightened. Further research should investigate parental understandings of differentiating an expected event from an adverse event as this could inform immunization risk communication and consumer AEFI reporting strategies.”

The latter paragraph tells you what they’re really after. Vaccinologists in charge of the US public health system are looking for ways to convince parents, and mothers in particular, of two things:
1.When your child suffers a health problem after vaccination, it really isn’t caused by the vaccine, and that
2.Certain side effects, some of which may be severe and/or life threatening, are “normal” occurrences. Meaning, they want you to view side effects like convulsion and anaphylaxis as “expected events” rather than “adverse events,” which in and of itself would make vaccinations appear to be far safer than they are

The former has already been accomplished through pediatricians, who have been taught to dismiss anything bad that happens after vaccination as a “coincidence.” But they have not yet convinced mothers of that myth. That will be much more difficult as they need to somehow eradicate a mother’s gut instincts. Perhaps they can develop a vaccine for that… Until then, they are “investigating parental understandings” of the difference between adverse reactions they want you to think are normal, and adverse events worth blaming on the vaccine. Once they figure out how parents think about these things, your thinking will be used against you in their “immunization risk communications” and shape their adverse events reporting strategies.

Narcolepsy — A Confirmed Adverse Effect of European Flu Vaccines

A recent example of the devastating harm that can occur from a single dose of a vaccine and the side effects of the 2009-2010 H1N1 flu vaccine licensed in Europe, which caused some 800+ cases of narcolepsy in Sweden and other European countries14. According to a retroactive analysis recently published in the British Medical Journal15, the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, which contained an oil in water adjuvant, AS03, resulted in a 10-fold increased risk of the sleep disorder. The authors write:

“’The increased risk of narcolepsy after vaccination with ASO3 adjuvanted pandemic A/H1N1 2009 vaccine indicates a causal association, consistent with findings from Finland. Because of variable delay in diagnosis, however, the risk might be overestimated by more rapid referral of vaccinated children.’

…Our attributable risk estimate of between one in 57 500 and 52 000 doses was lower than reported from Finland (one in 16 000), despite a similar odds ratio/relative risk and annual incidence before vaccine, which was 0.42 per 100 000 in our study (based on the 29 incident cases in 2008) and 0.31 in Finland between 2002 and 2009. This could be because of differences in population susceptibility or because proportionately more vaccine in Finland was given to adolescents, in whom incidence is highest.”

Why We Must Fight to Protect Philosophical Exemption to Vaccination

Informed consent to medical risk taking is a human right. You have the right to be fully informed about the benefits and risks of pharmaceutical products – like vaccines – and be allowed to make a voluntary choice about whether to take the risk without being punished for it. More than $2.5 billion dollars has been awarded to children and adults in America, who have been seriously injured by vaccines. Yet those rights are increasingly being taken away from us.

For example, last year in Vermont, the legal right to take a vaccine exemption for philosophical beliefs was threatened with bills promoted by two Vermont legislators, State Senator Kevin Mullin and State Representative George Till. They joined with the Vermont Health Commissioner, Dr. Harry Chen, to lead a crusade to take away philosophical exemption to vaccination but the bills went down in defeat after supporters of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice educated legislators and the public about the need to keep the philosophical exemption from being stripped from Vermont public health laws.

In the following video, Barbara Loe Fisher of the NVIC interviews Nicole, a Vermont mother, whose seven year old daughter, Kaylynne, died within 92 hours of a routine flu shot in December 2011. Nicole believes that parents should be fully informed and able to make voluntary decisions about vaccination for their children.

“If I would have known the reactions and symptoms of adverse reactions to vaccination, I would have had her seen immediately. If I would have known about the risks and symptoms, I would have been most likely able to save my daughter,” said Nicole. “I feel that Vermonters need to be educated and be able to make their own decisions on whether or not they want to vaccinate their children and pediatricians and physicians, as well, need to be more educated.”

While the NVIC led a successful effort with the Vermont parent group to preserve the philosophical exemption to vaccination in Vermont last year, legislators in Vermont are coming around again this session, attacking the philosophical and religious exemptions to vaccination. They now want to pass a law (HB138) that says that if vaccination rates in schools gets below 90 percent then both those exemptions will be suspended. VT legislators also have introduced a bill that would require pertussis vaccinations for childcare workers and teachers (HB 114).

Vaccinations? Know the Risks and Failures

The NVIC is currently running a billboard campaign in a few different states. In Illinois, the billboard is located on 1409 Roselle Road in Roselle, where it will remain until March 24. For other billboard locations, see the list below.

How to Protect Yourself During the Flu Season

Also be aware that one of the main staples for treating pain and cold symptoms, acetaminophen, is a leading cause for calls to the Poison Control Center, and accounts for 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations, and an estimated 458 deaths annually.16

Avoiding a serious case of influenza is not about vaccination but more about maintaining a healthy, well functioning immune system. By following these simple guidelines, you can help keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with or, if you do get sick with the flu, you are better prepared to move through it without complications and soon return to good health.
•Optimize Your Gut Flora. This may be the single most important strategy you can implement as the bacteria in your gut have enormous control of your immune response. The best way to improve your beneficial bacteria ratio is to avoid sugars as they will feed the pathogenic bacteria. Additionally, processed foods and most grains should be limited and replacing with healthy fats like coconut oil, avocados, olives, olive oil, butter, eggs and nuts. Once you change your diet then regular use of fermented foods can radically optimize the function of your immune response.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I’ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency may actually be the true culprit behind the seasonality of the flu – not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. Regularly monitor your vitamin D levels to confirm your levels are within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.

Ideally, you’ll want to get all your vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed, but you can also take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the latest review by Carole Baggerly, (Grassrootshealth.org), adults need about 8,000 IU’s a day. Be sure to take vitamin K2 if you are taking oral vitamin D as it has a powerful synergy and will help prevent any D toxicity. But be sure and get your level tested as that is the only way to know for sure.
• Avoid Sugar and Processed Foods. Sugar impairs the quality of your immune response almost immediately, and as you likely know, a healthy immune system is one of the most important keys to fighting off viruses and other illness. It also can decimate your beneficial bacteria and feed the pathogenic yeast and viruses. Be aware that sugar (typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup) is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice. If you are healthy then sugar can be consumed but the LAST thing you should be eating when you are sick is sugar. Avoid it like poison while you are sick.
•Get Plenty of Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you’re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.
•Have Effective Tools to Address Stress. We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.
•Get Regular Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. Be sure to stay hydrated – drink plenty of fluids, especially water. However, it would be wise to radically reduce the intensity of your workouts while you are sick. No Peak Fitness exercises until you are better.
•Take a High Quality Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also vitally important to avoid damaged omega-6 oils that are trans fats and in processed foods as it will seriously damage your immune response.
•Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap for this – antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.
•Tried and True Hygiene Measures. In addition to washing your hands regularly, cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze. If possible, avoid close contact with those, who are sick and, if you are sick, avoid close contact with those who are well.
•Use Natural Immune Boosters. Examples include oil of oregano and garlic. Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, they do not appear to lead to resistance.
•Avoid Hospitals. I’d recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you’re having an emergency and need expert medical care, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infections of all kinds. The best place to get plenty of rest and recover from illness that is not life-threatening is usually in the comfort of your own home.

Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Vaccine Exemptions

With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it’s critical to protect your right to informed consent to vaccination and fight to protect and expand vaccine exemptions in state public health laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws.

Signing up for NVIC’s free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choices and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips..

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:
•NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
•If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
•Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

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Cigarettes or diet soda: Which gives you cancer sooner?

Most people who smoke a pack a day of cigarettes know they are treading on thin ice regarding their health, but how many people realize that drinking 30 or more ounces of diet soda each day could prove to be more lethal than a pack of cigarettes? And how can diet soda be worse than regular soda? Even though there are over 4,000 chemicals in one commercial cigarette, the leading chemical in diet soda may actually be breeding more cancer cells in human beings, and thus leading to malignant tumors sooner in life, according to recent research. (http://naturalsociety.com)

Could cancer be the end result of depression? Killing brain neurons and expediting cell death may be killing people faster than lung cancer, and chronic depression is fuel for overwhelming cell mutation and the taking over of organs by mutagenic warped cells, also known as blood cancer. (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/)

People who smoke cigarettes are locked into a vicious cycle of boosting their ambition and dopamine levels with a highly addicting drug, nicotine. The cigarette hangover, which begins with smoking 4,000 chemicals and then waiting for the nicotine to subside, is just the beginning of lung cancer and the mutation of cells.

Cancer thrives in an acidic body where the cells are deprived of oxygen and nutrients. Yet, even worse than cigarettes are artificial sweeteners, which fool the body into ingesting them, as if they are food, and polluting the cleansing organs with mutagens. Some research shows the body never excretes all of the aspartame, sorbitol, sucralose or saccharin. When a human consumes Equal, Splenda, Nutrasweet, Sweet-n-Low, etc., their cleansing organs, like the liver, kidneys, and pancreas are overworking and malnourished. You cannot live without these organs. Aspartame is GMO, so the blood is infected, with synthetic carcinogens (which it does not release properly, if ever) which cause central nervous system (CNS) disorders and make you hungrier! That’s right, synthetic sugars drive hunger and actually make most people put on weight. How ironic, right? (http://www.naturalnews.com/033914_Splenda_Essentials_sweetener.html)

It is proven that obesity is a driving force of cancer, so whether you consume excess SUGAR or ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, you are feeding the same destructive forces in your body, in your cells, changing your DNA, and the long term effects have “no cure.” So, when it all boils down to it, drinking 3 or 4 diet sodas per day is more dangerous than smoking a pack of cigarettes, about 20 cigarettes, in one day. Although diet sodas contain less chemicals than cigarettes, these specific “diet” chemicals are choking cells and mutating DNA at a higher rate, leading to chronic disorders of the digestive track, breakdown of the CNS and ultimately leads to the development of cancerous tumors. It is “programmed cell death” and your mitochondria cells are basically suffocating. If you combine toxic food and toxic medications prescribed by Western doctors (MDs), the addictions being “programmed in” are like programming an early death.
(http://www.zenantidiet.com/)

There is no prescription drug, and there never will be one, which cures the problems that artificial sweeteners create. Over 70 percent of reported cases of fibromyalgia, chronic depression, IBS and acid reflux are caused by consuming chemical agents which have been approved by the FDA.
(http://www.naturalnews.com) The good news is that there are natural cures for both diet soda addiction and cigarette addiction.

Don’t eat cancer, don’t smoke cancer, and eat organic food only
Want to QUIT the NICOTINE ADDICTION? Want to quit smoking and be smoke-free for life, using a natural method the Health Ranger recommends? Check out 14AndOut, the all natural method to stop smoking in 14 days or less: (http://premium.naturalnews.tv/14AndOut__TV.htm)

Want to QUIT the DIET SODA ADDICTION? Want to stop eating “cancer” and learn about hundreds of chemicals posing as food, so you can filter them out of your daily intake? Check out the book Don’t Eat Cancer available as a full color download:
(http://programs.webseed.com/Dont_Eat_Cancer__TV.htm)
Do you want the very best nutrition, USDA approved organic, Superfoods, healthy storable food and safe natural remedies? Check out the Natural News store and read Mike Adam’s reviews and recommendations. Also read the “Top 10 Superfoods” the Health Ranger eats every day. (http://www.naturalnews.com)

Sources for this article include:

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/

http://naturalsociety.com

http://www.usnews.com

http://naturalsociety.com

http://www.zenantidiet.com/

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org

http://premium.naturalnews.tv/14AndOut__TV.htm

http://programs.webseed.com/Dont_Eat_Cancer__TV.htm

http://store.naturalnews.com/Superfoods_c_4.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/033914_Splenda_Essentials_sweetener.html

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

Only about one-quarter of American adults eat three or more servings of vegetables a day. If you are in the majority who does not, you are missing out on major benefits, as consuming fresh vegetables is one of the key cornerstones to optimal health.

Although I am convinced virtually everyone would benefit from some animal protein in their diet, I firmly believe we all need to eat large amounts of fresh, high-quality vegetables every day to achieve high-level health. Some of us need far more than others.

Most vegetables are not very calorie dense and as a result they probably should constitute the bulk of your diet by volume. Even though my diet is 70 percent fat by calories, if you were to spread out all the food I eat in a day, the largest volume of food would be vegetables.

There is little that compares to the nutritional value of organic, raw vegetables, and according to new research, eating your greens may be even more important than previously imagined.

The Importance of Eating Your Greens

Researchers at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Molecular Immunology division have discovered1 that a gene, called T-bet, which is essential for producing critical immune cells in your gut, responds to the food you eat—specifically leafy green vegetables. According to the press release:2

“The immune cells, named innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), are found in the lining of the digestive system and protect the body from ‘bad’ bacteria in the intestine.

They are also believed to play an important role in controlling food allergies, inflammatory diseases and obesity, and may even prevent the development of bowel cancers.

… [T]he research team revealed T-bet was essential for generating a subset of ILCs which is a newly discovered cell type that protects the body against infections entering through the digestive system.

‘In this study, we discovered that T-bet is the key gene that instructs precursor cells to develop into ILCs, which it does in response to signals in the food we eat and to bacteria in the gut,’ Dr Belz said. ‘ILCs are essential for immune surveillance of the digestive system and this is the first time that we have identified a gene responsible for the production of ILCs.’”

ILCs are thought to be essential for:
•Maintaining balance between tolerance, immunity and inflammation in your body
•Producing interleukin-22 (IL-22), a hormone that can protect your body from pathogenic bacteria
•Maintaining healthy intestinal balance by promoting growth of beneficial bacteria and healing small wounds and abrasions in the gut
•Helping resolve cancerous lesions

More Reasons to Eat Your Veggies

Vegetables contain an array of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds that are very difficult to get anywhere else. Plant chemicals called phytochemicals can reduce inflammation and eliminate carcinogens, while others regulate the rate at which your cells reproduce, get rid of old cells and maintain DNA. Studies have repeatedly shown that people with higher vegetable intake have:

Lower risks of stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease

Lower risks of certain types of cancer, eye diseases and digestive problems

Reduced risk of kidney stones and bone loss

Higher scores on cognitive tests

Higher antioxidant levels

Lower biomarkers for oxidative stress

Further, if you eat your veggies raw, you’ll also be receiving biophotons, the smallest physical units of light, which are stored in, and used by all biological organisms — including your body. Vital sun energy finds its way into your cells via the food you eat, in the form of these biophotons. They contain important bio-information, which controls complex vital processes in your body. The biophotons have the power to order and regulate, and, in doing so, to elevate the organism — in this case, your physical body — to a higher oscillation or order. Generally, the more sunlight a food is able to store, the more nutritious it is.

Naturally-grown fresh vegetables, raw sprouts, and sun-ripened fruits are rich in light energy. Ideally, look for fresh, non-GMO produce that is organically grown on a local farm in your area. Choose the vegetables that appear freshest first, and consume them raw shortly after purchase for optimal benefits.

If you can’t obtain organic, conventionally-grown vegetables are better than none! Just take extra care with non-organic vegetables by washing them thoroughly and removing peels and cores when possible to minimize your exposure to pesticides. Certain fruits and vegetables also tend to be far more contaminated than others simply because they’re more susceptible to various infestations and therefore sprayed more heavily. Some foods are also more “absorbent,” with thin, tender skins. Such foods would be high on your list for buying organic.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) produces an annual shopper’s guide to pesticides in produce3 that you can download. It lists the produce with the highest and lowest levels of pesticide residue, which can help save you money if you can’t afford to buy everything organic.

Reasons to Eat Sprouts, a Living Food with Amazing Health Benefits

Sprouts are a “super” food that many overlook. In addition to their nutritional profile, sprouts are also easy to grow on your own. I started sprouting seeds in ball jars 10 to 15 years ago. A Care2 article published last year4 listed 10 reasons for eating sprouts, including the following. For the rest, please see the original article:
•Sprouts can contain up to 100 times more enzymes than raw fruits and vegetables, allowing your body to extract more vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fats from the foods you eat
•Both the quality of the protein and the fiber content of beans, nuts, seeds and grains improves when sprouted
•The content of vitamins and essential fatty acids also increase dramatically during the sprouting process. For example, depending on the sprout, the nutrient content can increase as much as 30 times the original value within just a few days of sprouting. Sunflower seed and pea sprouts tend to top the list of all the seeds that you can sprout and are typically each about 30 times more nutritious than organic vegetables you can even harvest in your backyard garden
•During sprouting, minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, bind to protein, making them more bioavailable
•Sprouts are the ultimate locally-grown food, and can easily be grown in your own kitchen, so you know exactly what you’re eating. And since they’re very inexpensive, cost is no excuse for avoiding them

Planting and Harvesting Sprouts at Home

I used to grow sprouts in Ball jars over ten years ago but stopped doing that. I am strongly convinced that actually growing them in soil is far easier and produces far more nutritious and abundant food. It is also less time consuming. With Ball jars you need to rinse them several times a day to prevent mold growth. Also takes up less space. I am now consuming one whole tray you see below every 2-3 days and to produce that much food with Ball jars I would need dozens of jars. I simply don’t have the time or patience for that. I am in the process of compiling more specific detailed videos for future articles but I thought I would whet your appetite and give you a preview with the photos below.

About to plant Wheat grass and Sunflower seeds – 2 days after soaking

Wheat grass and Sunflower seeds – 3 ½ days post germination.

Sunflower seeds and Pea sprouts – 3 days until ready for harvest.

Sunflower seed sprouts and Wheat Grass – ready to harvest.

Sprouts as Medicine

Sprouts-as-medicine.com5 is a good source for things relating to sprouts: their health benefits, recipes, and how to grow your own. The British verticalveg.org6 is another. The latter gives helpful growing tips for each month of the year. One of the benefits of sprouts is that you can grow them year-round, even when it’s cold and dark. The article 6 Easy Steps to Sprout Heaven7 teaches you how to grow your own sprouts, from start to finish. While you can sprout a variety of different beans, nuts, seeds and grains, sprouts in general have the following beneficial attributes:
•Support for cell regeneration
•Powerful sources of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and enzymes that protect against free radical damage
•Alkalinizing effect on your body, which is thought to protect against disease, including cancer (as many tumors are acidic)
•Abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect against abnormal cell growth, viruses and bacteria that cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment

Common Sprouts and Their Superior Nutritional Profiles

Some of the most commonly sprouted beans, nuts, seeds and grains include:

Broccoli: known to have anti-cancer properties, courtesy of the enzyme “sulforaphane”

Alfalfa: a significant dietary source of phytoestrogens. Also a good source of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, F, and K

Wheat grass: high in vitamins B, C, E and many minerals

Mung bean: good source of protein, fiber, vitamin C and A

Clover : significant source of isoflavones

Lentil sprouts: contain 26 percent protein, and can be eaten without cooking

Sunflower: contains, minerals, healthy fats, essential fatty acids, fiber, and phytosterols. It’s also one of the highest in protein

Pea shoots: good source of vitamins A, C and folic acid and one of the highest in protein

My two favorites are pea and sunflower sprouts. They provide some of the highest quality protein you can eat. They have radically improved the nutrition of my primary meal, which is a salad at lunch. They are a perfect complement to fermented vegetables. It is hard to imagine a healthier combination that provides the essentials of nutrition very inexpensively.

I plan on producing some videos on how to grow them later this year but for now you can get instructions on how to grow them by viewing a step-by-step guide at rawfoods-livingfoods.com.8

Vegetarians in Paradise9 offers an in-depth write-up on the history and health benefits associated with sunflower seeds. Of the seeds, sunflower seeds are among the best in terms of nutritional value, and sprouting them will augment their nutrient content by as much as 300 to 1,200 percent! Similarly, sprouting peas will improve the bioavailability of zinc and magnesium. Sprouted sunflower seeds also contain plenty of iron and chlorophyll, the latter of which will help detoxify your blood and liver. The phytosterols in sprouted sunflower seeds can help enhance your immune system. According to Vegetarians in Paradise:

“One of the richest sources of protein, 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) of sprouted sunflower seeds contains 22.78 grams. The mineral content soars in the sprouted state. That 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) offers a notable 116 mg of calcium, 5.06 mg of zinc, 689 mg of potassium, 1.75 mg copper, and 354 mg of magnesium.

Vitamins increase during sprouting when the seeds are producing a new life. Vitamin A increases to 50,000 IU, and Vitamin E offers 52.18 mg, while vitamin D provides 92.0 IU for 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams). The vitamin B family offers niacin at 4.50 mg, riboflavin at 0.25 mg, and thiamin at 2.29 mg. Sprouted sunflower seeds are also a rich source of iron, providing 6.77 mg for 31/2 ounces (100 grams) that can be a benefit to people with anemia.”

Simple Ways to Increase Your Veggies

Two of the easiest and most efficient ways to optimize your vegetable intake is to juice your vegetables and add sprouted seeds. Not only will juicing help your body absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables by making them easily digestible, but you’re also avoiding the risk of damaging any of their sensitive micronutrients through cooking. Cooking and processing food destroys many micronutrients by altering their shape and chemical composition. And the sprouting process tends to increase nutrient content and bioavailability of nutrients. Sprouts also contain valuable enzymes that allow your body to absorb and use the nutrients of all other foods you eat.

Another benefit of juicing is that it allows you to add a wider variety of vegetables to your diet that you might not normally enjoy eating whole. This way, you’re working with the principle of regular food rotation, which will lessen your chances of developing food allergies. For more in-depth guidelines and information about juicing, I recommend you review the juicing section of my nutrition plan.

But whatever method you choose, juiced, whole, sprouted or cooked, please make it a point to eat your veggies. This is one food group that is incredibly diverse, so there’s a wide variety to choose from and plenty to suit virtually everyone’s tastes. And mounting evidence shows that eating vegetables every day is a cornerstone of good health, and a habit that can go a very long way toward preventing disease of all kinds, including cancer.

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

Salt has long been a treasured food staple. Far from being harmful, high-quality salt is actually essential for life, but in the United States and many other developed countries salt has been vilified as a primary cause of high blood pressure and heart disease.

According to preliminary research presented at an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans on March 21,1 excessive salt consumption contributed to 2.3 million heart-related deaths worldwide in 2010; 42 percent from coronary heart disease and 41 percent from stroke.

This includes sodium intake from commercially available table salt and sodium found in processed foods and soy sauce. According to the researchers, 40 percent of deaths were premature, occurring in those under the age of 69. Sixty percent of the deaths were in men; 40 percent were women.

To reach these conclusions, the researchers analyzed 247 food surveys on sodium consumption collected between 1990 and 2010. From these, they tried to determine how the various salt intakes affected cardiovascular disease risks. The ideal salt intake was determined to be less than 1,000 mg per day.

Kazakhstan had the highest average salt intake at 6,000 mg per day. Kenya and Malawi had the lowest average intake at about 2,000 mg. Other salty regions included Central Asia, with an average of 5,500 mg sodium per day; high-income countries in the Asia-Pacific area, averaging 5,000 mg per day; and East Asia at 4,800 mg per day.

According to the featured article:2

“Global sodium intake from various sources such as prepared food and soy sauce averaged nearly 4,000 milligrams a day in 2010… In the U.S., the average intake was about 3,600 milligrams a day. While the World Health Organization recommends sodium intake of fewer than 2,000 milligrams a day, 181 of 187 countries representing 99 percent of the world’s population exceeded the recommended level.”

You Need Salt, But Make Sure It’s the Right Kind

So is salt a dietary friend or foe? Salt is actually a nutritional goldmine, provided you consume the right kind, and maintain a proper salt-to-potassium ratio, which I’ll discuss in a moment. Unfortunately, modern table salt has very little in common with natural, unrefined salt.

Salt provides two elements – sodium and chloride – that are essential for life. Your body cannot make these elements on its own, so you must get them from your diet. Some of the many biological processes for which natural salt is crucial include:

Being a major component of your blood plasma, lymphatic fluid, extracellular fluid, and even amniotic fluid

Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells, and helping maintain your acid-base balance

Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning. Both sodium and chloride are also necessary for the firing of neurons

Maintain and regulate blood pressure

Helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange

Supporting the function of your adrenal glands, which produce dozens of vital hormones

However, not all salts are created equal. Natural salt contains 84 percent sodium chloride, and 16 percent naturally-occurring trace minerals, including silicon, phosphorous and vanadium.

Processed (table) salt, on the other hand, contains 97.5 percent sodium chloride and the rest is man-made chemicals, such as moisture absorbents and flow agents. These are dangerous chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate. A small amount of iodine may also be added.

Some European countries, where water fluoridation is not practiced, also add fluoride to their salt.3 In France for example, 35 percent of table salt sold contains either sodium fluoride or potassium fluoride, and use of fluoridated salt is widespread in South America.

Besides these basic differences in nutritional content, the processing—which involve drying the salt above 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit—also radically alters the chemical structure of the salt. So, while you definitely need salt for optimal health, not just any salt will do. What your body needs is natural, unprocessed salt, without added chemicals.

Does Salt Really Cause Heart Disease?

Overindulgence in the typically used commercially processed table salt can lead to fluid retention, high blood pressure, swelling of your limbs, and shortness of breath. In the long term, it is thought to contribute to high blood pressure, kidney and heart disease, heart attacks, and heart failure.

However, compelling evidence suggests that while processed salt can indeed cause fluid retention and related health problems, numerous studies have, overall, refuted the salt-heart disease connection.

For example, a 2011 meta-analysis of seven studies involving more than 6,000 people found NO strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death.4 In fact, salt restriction actually increased the risk of death in those with heart failure.

Similarly, research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that same year revealed that the less sodium excreted in your urine (a marker of salt consumption), the greater the risk of dying from heart disease.5 This study followed 3,681 middle-aged healthy Europeans for eight years. The participants were divided into three groups: low salt, moderate salt, and high salt consumption. Researchers tracked mortality rates for the three groups, with the following results:
1.Low-salt group: 50 people died
2.Moderate salt group: 24 people died
3.High-salt group: 10 people died

The risk for heart disease was 56 percent higher for the low-salt group than for the group who ate the most salt! Some studies have shown a modest benefit to salt restriction among some people with high blood pressure, but the evidence does not extend to the rest of the population. So what’s really going on? Well, there are at least three factors that need to be taken into consideration.
1.First, an ingredient that contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease across the board is fructose, and since so much of salt intake comes from processed foods, it’s easy to see how the lines of causation may get blurred. Virtually all processed foods are high not just in sodium, but also fructose, particularly in processed foods sold in the US.
2.Another factor is that there’s a huge difference between natural salt and the processed salt added to processed foods and salt shakers in most homes and restaurants. The former is essential for good health, whereas the latter is best avoided altogether.
3.A third factor that can have a significant impact on whether salt will harm or aid your health is the ratio between the salt and potassium in your diet.

That said, it’s clear that many are consuming far too much processed table salt and not enough natural salt. This begins early. According to the featured article, nearly 75 percent of processed meals and snacks for toddlers contain 210 mg of sodium per serving or more. Some toddler fare contains as much as 630 mg per serving, which equates to 40 percent of the daily limit recommended by the American Heart Association for adults. Lead researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, MPH told MedPageToday:6

“‘These findings highlight both the tremendous disease burdens caused by sodium but also the incredible opportunities for prevention.’ …He urged global public health efforts rather than relying on individuals to control intake of so pervasive an element. ‘Our results should inspire both food industry and policymakers to take rapid and decisive actions to reduce sodium in the food supply… If voluntary agreements are not enough, taxation or restrictions on amounts of sodium should be implemented.'”

The Importance of Maintaining Optimal Sodium-Potassium Ratio

As mentioned earlier, another important factor that needs to be taken into account is the potassium to sodium ratio of your diet. Imbalance in this ratio can not only lead to hypertension (high blood pressure) but also contribute to a number of other diseases, including those highlighted in the featured research, along with a few others:

Heart disease and stroke

Memory decline

Osteoporosis

Ulcers and stomach cancer

Kidney stones

Cataracts

Erectile dysfunction

Rheumatoid arthritis

The easiest way to achieve this imbalance is by consuming a diet of processed foods, which are notoriously low in potassium while high in sodium. (And, to reiterate, processed foods are also loaded with fructose, which is clearly associated with increased heart disease risk, as well as virtually all chronic diseases.)

Why is potassium so important?

Among other things, your body needs potassium to maintain proper pH levels in your body fluids, and it also plays an integral role in regulating your blood pressure. It’s possible that potassium deficiency may be more responsible for hypertension than excess sodium. Potassium deficiency leads to electrolyte imbalance, and can result in a condition called hypokalemia. Symptoms include:
•Water retention
•Raised blood pressure and hypertension
•Heart irregularities/arrhythmias
•Muscular weakness and muscle cramps
•Continual thirst and constipation

According to a 1985 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, titled “Paleolithic Nutrition,”7 our ancient ancestors got about 11,000 mg of potassium a day, and about 700 mg of sodium. This equates to nearly 16 times more potassium than sodium. Compare that to the Standard American Diet where daily potassium consumption averages about 2,500 mg (the RDA is 4,700 mg/day), along with 3,600 mg of sodium… As mentioned earlier, if you eat a diet of processed foods, you can be virtually guaranteed that your potassium-sodium ratio is upside-down.

This may also explain why high-sodium diets appear to affect some people but not others. According to a 2011 federal study into sodium and potassium intake, those at greatest risk of cardiovascular disease were those who got a combination of too much sodium along with too little potassium.

The research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,8 was one of the first and largest US studies to evaluate the relationship of salt, potassium and heart disease deaths. According to Dr. Elena Kuklina, one of the lead authors of the study at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), potassium may neutralize the heart-damaging effects of salt. Tellingly, those who ate a lot of salt and very little potassium were more than twice as likely to die from a heart attack as those who ate about equal amounts of both nutrients.

How Can You Ensure Proper Sodium-to-Potassium Ratio?

So, how do you ensure you get these two important nutrients in more appropriate ratios?
1.First, ditch all processed foods, which are very high in processed salt and low in potassium and other essential nutrients.
2.Eat a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, ideally organically and locally-grown to ensure optimal nutrient content. This type of diet will naturally provide much larger amounts of potassium in relation to sodium.

I do not recommend taking potassium supplements to correct a sodium-potassium imbalance. Instead, it is best to simply alter your diet and incorporate more potassium-rich whole foods. Green vegetable juicing is an excellent way to ensure you’re getting enough nutrients for optimal health, including about 300-400 mg of potassium per cup. By removing the fiber you can consume even larger volumes of important naturally occurring potassium. Some additional rich sources in potassium are:
1.Lima beans (955 mg/cup)
2.Winter squash (896 mg/cup)
3.Cooked spinach (839 mg/cup)
4.Avocado (500 mg per medium)

Other potassium-rich fruits and vegetables include:
•Fruits: papayas, prunes, cantaloupe, and bananas. (But be careful of bananas as they are high in sugar and have half the potassium that an equivalent of amount of green vegetables. It is an old wives tale that you are getting loads of potassium from bananas, the potassium is twice as high in green vegetables)
•Vegetables: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, avocados, asparagus, and pumpkin

Putting Salt Consumption into Proper Context

More than 80 percent of the salt most people consume is from processed foods. Indeed, there is far too much sodium in processed foods. But you shouldn’t be eating those foods anyway—sodium is just one of MANY ingredients in packaged foods that will adversely affect your health. The salt added to these convenience foods is bleached out, trace mineral deficient and mostly sodium—as opposed to natural salt, which is much lower in sodium and contains a myriad of other critical trace minerals. Himalayan salt, for example, contains about 86 different minerals, and in terms of taste, you cannot compare it to regular table salt. Natural salt has flavor, over and above just salty taste.

The more you can move toward a diet of whole organic foods in their natural state, the healthier you’ll be—whether it’s veggies, meat, dairy products, or salt. And increasing your vegetable intake will help insure you’re getting the ideal ratio of sodium-to-potassium, which may be more crucial for overall health than we currently imagine.

Given that salt is absolutely essential to good health, I recommend limiting, or ideally, eliminating processed foods and processed table salt and switching to a pure, unrefined salt. Generally speaking, it is perfectly fine to salt your food to taste, provided the salt you’re using is natural and unrefined and you’re eating plenty of vegetables

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

by Jamie E. Weiss |

Maryam Henein listens to bees. And they’ve whispered many things to her over the past five years. Like in June 2011, when they made a pass at her in the Dominican Republic. She was escaping the madness of Los Angeles, accompanied by Jan Wellman, HoneyColony’s co-founder who is also Maryam’s partner in business and love. The two were attending a screening of Vanishing of the Bees at the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development’s annual environmental film festival. To unwind, they’d gone down a week early and rented a private condo on the beach in a little town called Don Julio.

“We were being guarded by men with rifles,” Maryam recalls. “I guess you could say HoneyColony was born at gunpoint.” Maryam is joking — the weapons were simply part of the security. “Jan was working on an idea for a new kind of online technology that rewards relevant social influence and I started telling him about how the bees work together with hive mentality and how similar social media is to swarm intelligence.”

In that instant, Jan’s technological brain built for modern business collided with Mayam’s fascination with and deep knowledge of ancient hive logic, and the inspiration for HoneyColony sprang to life. “We jumped into the ocean while the armed guards looked after our mangos,” Maryam laughs.

But just 10 years earlier, she stood face to face with the staunch reality that she may never run and jump again.

Metal In Her Flesh

At age 29, Maryam was enjoying a career as a budding Los Angeles TV producer and hustling freelance journalist. But on April 25, 2002, at about 6 o’clock, just after sipping a chai latte at the illustrious Urth Café in West Hollywood, her life changed. As she was negotiating a crosswalk to get to her car, a Ford Explorer slammed into her at 40 miles an hour. The impact forced Maryam onto the hood of the car before she rolled back off its side and onto the pavement. By the time the driver stopped, he’d dragged her 49 feet, leaving a trail of skid marks from her denim jeans and jacket.

The accident left Maryam with five broken ribs, a torn rotator cuff, a major hip laceration, a smashed L1 vertebrae, a broken tailbone, a fractured left femur, and a severely bruised spirit. Her leg was immediately outfitted with a 14-inch titanium rod.

A full year after the accident, Maryam’s femur bone was still not healing, a condition known medically as a “non-union.” The solution suggested by a doctor at Cedars-Sinai was to hoist the screw from Maryam’s hip bone higher up to her buttocks. “I said, hell no. I was not a piece of IKEA furniture.”

Despite her doctor and chiropractor’s disapproval, Maryam trusted her gut and decided to have the painful second screw above her knee removed. Later, she discovered that screws are often the direct cause of non-unions.

“I know someone who actually lost part of his leg because he blindly believed a doctor. You need to be your own best health advocate. Western medicine excels at surgeries, running test labs, and prescribing drugs, but they do not possess a holistic approach to healing. In my situation, they didn’t even prescribe physical therapy — maybe because I was a Canadian without insurance at the time. And they definitely didn’t take into account the effects the trauma had on my psyche. The treatments were piecemeal.”

After several years of chronic physical pain from the rod and mounting post-traumatic stress disorder, additional ailments piled on: insomnia, depression, severe bloating, and gastrointestinal issues. Western medicine prescribed sleeping meds and psychiatric treatment and suggested she perform an intrusive colonoscopy and endoscopy. Gentler approaches like dietary changes, natural supplements or individualized treatments were never even mentioned.

“At that time, I felt so lost and helpless. At one point I was working as the assistant to the director of Cat Woman, and I was so extremely sleep deprived and in such intense pain that I felt crazy. I wanted to disappear.”

Recently Maryam was diagnosed with markers for the autoimmune disorder lupus and symptoms of fibromyalgia. “If someone looked at me they would never know I have a disease, like on days like today when every muscle in my body is hurting. Autoimmune conditions are the ‘look good, feel bad’ disease.”

This is indeed true.

The gorgeous brown-skinned beauty looks nothing like that of a disease-ridden woman who just turned 40. You could easily mistake Maryam for being 10 years younger while envying her toned yogi body. It’s hard to believe she was not always a glowing Vitamix beacon of green health. But Maryam confides that long before she knew what spirulina was or that wheat was “evil,” she struggled with her own self-image and was even bulimic for a time.

Her road to a healthy lifestyle was not a birthright — and she has the pictures to prove it. Growing up in an Egyptian household in Montreal, Canada, with a dash of Greek heritage, she ate tzatziki, dolma (vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice), macaroni with béchamel sauce, cow brain, fried calamari, and lots of other rich foods. And at thanks to the era — late ’70s and early ’80s — she also indulged in her fair share of Doritos, Coca Cola, cookies, cereals, and Happy Meals.

Like so many other modern teens, Maryam landed her first job at McDonald’s. At the time, she was convinced that eating a McFish was a healthy choice. “When I think about that now, it’s like, oh my God, what was I thinking?! But I didn’t know. I haven’t eaten any food like that for at least 15 years.” This goes to show that you can change your course at any moment.

Pain And Perseverance

Perhaps it was Maryam’s journalistic nature that compelled her to search tirelessly for strategies to restore her body’s health and equilibrium after “the accident.” Intuitively, she grasped that the answer to reconstituting her body would not come from an operating table or any other cut-and-dried, one-and-done approach. But giving up was not an option. She became a self-taught nutritional encyclopedia, investigating every avenue of possible relationship between nutrition and disease. Part of her healing involved sharing information with others about health and well-being.

Maryam’s search for answers led to several critically influential turning points. First, she met a naturopath who would turn her life around with a careful elimination diet, targeted supplements, and the advice to listen to her own pain. Second, she made the decision to have the titanium rod removed from her leg. After several years of pain, health crises, and healing — the bees flew in, just as she was ready to embark on a project that made a difference.

Bees For Life

In 2007, when Maryam’s friend George Langworthy — who eventually became the co-director of her award-winning film, Vanishing of the Bees — first told her that bees were disappearing, she didn’t grasp the enormity of the situation. But as a “sister at heart,” she was captivated once she discovered that the bees are a matriarchal society. In a hive of about 50,000, at least 90 percent are female. What’s more, they work together with the greater good of the hive in mind. Maryam also learned that bees are responsible for pollinating a third of our food supply and that a widespread and very troubling phenomenon, known as colony collapse disorder, was causing bees to abandon the brood and the queen, something unlikely to occur on its own in nature.

A few days after Maryam’s first conversation with Langworthy, the bee visitations began, and they continue to this day. Not many of us can claim to have walked through a thick swarm of bees merely hours after learning about their plight. Or tell the tale of their yoga studio being overtaken by thousands of bees just minutes after leaving the building. In fact, one day during the making of Vanishing of the Bees, Maryam stood at her kitchen sink washing dishes and worrying about where her next dollar would come from. At that exact moment, a single bee flew right up to window in front of her, tapped the pane of glass, and flew away. “It was as though the bees were reassuring me that everything would be OK.”

The bees are the reason Maryam now knows eating four or five servings of vegetables is not enough. “You have to make sure your food is not poisoned with pesticides! The bees really opened my eyes to all the chemicals we are exposed to.”

A Shift In Consciousness

After finally completing Vanishing of the Bees — a five-year saga — Maryam was exhausted but ready for her next project. After the epiphany in the Dominican Republic, Maryam and Jan got to work building what is today known as HoneyColony, an antidote for the indecipherable onslaught of mainstream health information.

“HoneyColony is a call to arms. It fuses my love of bees, journalism, and alternative medicine. Creating a community and sharing information encourages others to become their own best health advocate, a push for us to participate and reap the benefits of community wisdom. The opportunities are endless,” Maryam says enthusiastically.

HoneyColony empowers people by providing access to a concentrated source of organic, user-driven information. Site members lend their voices to determine what works and what doesn’t. It is an amoebic force that continually grows, moves, evolves, learns, and changes based on collaboration and sharing. Ultimately, HoneyColony is aimed at people who know there’s something else out there in terms of a healthy lifestyle but don’t know where to start. It’s a community lifeline, a non-biased source of information members can trust because they help create it.

HoneyColony plans on aligning itself with nonprofits to help foster low-income communities to create social food equity. It’s a big dream, but if the bees have shown Maryam anything it’s that love is spread when everyone is working in alignment for the greater good. There would be no honey without the hive, and so HoneyColony relies on hive members to create the balance so desperately needed in the current climate of mainstream misinformation.

“Food is medicine and healing is for everyone, not just the privileged. Honeybees spend their entire lives being of service, and, if you think about it, all bees do is spread sweetness and life,” Maryam says. “HoneyColony will strive to do the same.”

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

We live in a throwaway society. The next time you’re in a grocery store, take a look around you and note the number of items packaged in plastic.

The problem is, these petroleum-based plastics are designed to last forever. So you have products for short-term consumption packaged in materials that survive for centuries.

This throwaway mindset is a relatively recent phenomenon. Your parents and grandparents used products in reusable, recyclable or degradable containers made from glass, metals and paper. But today, discarded plastics are circling the globe at a significant human and environmental cost.

This “out of sight, out of mind” mentality is suffocating our oceans and choking our wildlife — but the damage doesn’t end there.

Plastic chemicals are finding their way into your body and accumulating over time. The potential for catastrophic biological consequences for the human race is growing with every discarded bottle or bag.

Plasticizing chemicals like BPA disrupt embryonic development and are linked to heart disease and cancer.

Phthalates dysregulate gene expression and cause genital anomalies, especially in baby boys, that may pass down several generations. DEHP may lead to multiple organ damage. So, whether you look at environmental or biological effects, our careless use of plastics has created a monster needing immediate attention.

20 Billion Pounds of Plastic Makes its Way into Our Oceans Every Year

According to Greenpeace, the world produces 200 billion pounds of plastics every year. Ten percent of that ends up in our oceans. Seventy percent sinks (Polycarbonate, Polystyrene, and PETE), causing damage to the ocean floor, and the remaining 30 percent that floats (LDPE, HDPE, Polypropylene and foamed plastics) accumulates into massive islands of trash that many consider an embarrassment to the human race.1

Virtually every molecule of the six billion pounds of polycarbonate tossed into landfills each year, stays there forever. Only a very small percentage of plastic waste is remade into durable goods. In spite of our green campaigns, we currently recycle only five percent of the plastics we produce. Consider the following:
•Americans discarded more than 22 billion water bottles in 20062 and about a billion plastic shopping bags every year, creating 300,000 tons of landfill waste3
•More than seven billion pounds of PVC are thrown away annually in the U.S., and only about one-quarter of one percent is recycled
•Approximately 50 percent of plastic waste goes to landfills where it will sit for hundreds of years due to limited oxygen and lack of microorganisms to break it down; the remaining 45 plus percent “disappears” into the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea, damaging marine ecosystems and entering the food chain
•A United Nations report claims there are 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean4

You Mean Fish and Turtles Aren’t Supposed to Eat Plastic?

Fish and other sea creatures are being found with plastic in or around their bodies. Forty-four percent of all seabird species, 22 percent of Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), all sea turtles and a growing list of fish have been found contaminated with these materials.5

Why would any creature knowingly EAT plastic?

All plastic starts as “nurdles,” or little plastic resin beads. These nurdles appear to sea creatures like fish eggs or other food sources, so they simply mistake them for food. Loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their favorite food. And the effects are disastrous, including internal blockages, dehydration, starvation, and potentially death. Albatrosses are frequently found strangled by the plastic rings that hold six-packs of soda together. Other creatures meet a painful end by getting tangled up in plastic netting.

Debris also blocks sunlight from which plankton and algae sustain themselves, and this has negative implications on up the food chain. In some ocean waters, plastic exceeds plankton by a factor of six to one.

Not only do sea creatures suffer the effects of consuming chunks of plastic, but they’re also at risk from the organic pollutants plastic absorbs. Plastic particles are like “sponges” for waterborne contaminants such as PCBs, pesticides like DDT, herbicides, PAHs, and other persistent organic pollutants. When PCB concentrations in resin pellets were compared with the surrounding seawater, the accumulation factor was found to be one million. This phenomenon makes plastics far from benign, and scientists have yet to determine the full extent of the dangers posed by their consumption or the effects higher up the food chain. We have more questions than answers.

From Heart Valves to Hula-Hoops, Massive Plastic Islands Float upon Our Oceans

What has become of all the plastics humans have casually discarded? Scientists have discovered massive accumulations of plastic trash in each of the world’s five major oceanic gyres. Gyres are large, slowly rotating oceanic whirlpools, driven by global winds and ocean currents.6 Garbage and debris is funneled into the center of these gyres, in a kind of toilet bowl effect.

One of these gyres, the North Pacific Gyre, is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean about a thousand miles from the Western coast. In its midst is a huge mass of trash (90 percent plastics), which floats in a soup of smaller pieces that have been broken apart by wave action.

Some call it the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and others the “Pacific Trash Vortex,” but regardless of its name, it’s the largest “landfill” in the world. In it you will find everything from plastic netting to bottles and bags and buckets, paint rollers, hula-hoops and medical equipment. Most of the garbage patch, however, is not made up of large items but rather microplastics you can’t see with the naked eye, such as the nurdles previously described.

No one knows exactly how vast these garbage patches are because so much of them can’t be visualized.7 The garbage-laden gyres are all located in remote areas, out of public view, which contributes to the “out of sight, out of mind” problem. As a side note, we’ve learned a good deal about ocean current patterns and the gyres they create — believe it or not — from 28,000 rubber duckies lost at sea in 1992, which continue to wash ashore in surprising locations!8 Rubber duckies notwithstanding, the chemicals in plastic have a number of problematic biological effects.

Dangerous Levels of BPA Found in More than 95 Percent of People Tested

Perhaps the most well known plastic chemical is BPA (bisphenol-A), widely used in the lining of food cans, dental sealants, paper money, receipts and other products. Unfortunately, BPA is so prevalent that 95 percent of people tested have potentially dangerous levels in their bodies. BPA leaches out of can linings and into the foods they contain, such as soups and sodas. BPA is not the only chemical that does this — science has recently discovered that melamine, once thought stable, leaches chemicals as well, particularly when heated. Consistent low-level melamine exposure has been linked to kidney stones in children and adults.9

Studies show that adults with the highest levels of BPA in their urine are more than twice as likely to develop narrowed arteries and coronary heart disease as those with the lowest levels. A British health survey correlated higher levels of urinary BPA with an increased risk of heart disease. One study found that eating canned goods increases urinary BPA concentrations more than 1,000-fold.

BPA is an endocrine disrupter, which means it interferes with your body’s hormonal system. An animal study found that BPA damages chromosomes and interferes with egg development, which could lead to spontaneous miscarriage, birth defects, and Down syndrome. In other studies, BPA has been linked to obesity, insulin resistance and cancer. According to Texas A & M geneticist Dr. David Busbee, less than one trillionth of a gram of BPA per one milliliter of food is sufficient to change the functioning and development of cells in your body.

BPA studies have captured the public’s attention, and there is growing legislation to limit its use, as a result. The state of California just declared BPA a reproductive health hazard10. The message is clear: BPA is harmful and should be avoided.

BPS May Be Even Worse than BPA

As the public has grown increasingly wary of BPA, a slew of BPA-free plastics have hit the market, from water bottles to plastic toys. However, many companies are simply swapping out BPA for another bisphenol, bisphenol-S (BPS), which is now showing up in human urine at levels similar to those of BPA. Research suggests BPS has hormone-mimicking characteristics similar to BPA, but it may be significantly less biodegradable, and more heat-stable and photo-resistant, which means it may be even more toxic than BPA over time.

Phthalates: The Plastic Gender-Benders

Another group of toxic chemicals coming from plastic are the phthalates. Phthalates function as plasticizers in everything from vinyl flooring to detergents, hoses, raincoats, adhesives, air fresheners, medical supplies, shampoos and even toys. Phthalates belong to “gender-bending” chemicals group that causes males of many species to become more female. Phthalates have been linked with chronic diseases such as allergies, asthma and autism, and can cause inflammation for at-risk infants. Children have been found to absorb phthalates from crawling around on soft, flexible plastic flooring and plastic play mats.

One of the more pervasive phthalates is DEHP, used primarily in the medical industry. Manufacturers add it to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make plastic equipment more flexible. In PVC, DEHP extends the shelf life of red blood cells, so you’ll find it in IV tubing, catheters, blood bags, nasogastric tubing and the like. Familiar with that “new shower curtain smell”? That’s the aroma of offgassing DEHP.

Groundbreaking research just published in PLoS One and Reproductive Toxicology11 found that rats exposed to phthalates produced offspring with higher rates of kidney and prostate disease, and their great-grandchildren showed greater obesity and diseases of the reproductive organs. This is the first time environmentally induced inheritance of disease has been demonstrated scientifically. The authors write12:

“This is the first study to show the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease, such as obesity.”

Unfortunately, every single person may have measurable phthalates in their bodies. In 2000, the CDC discovered high levels of phthalates in all 289 adult Americans tested. Dr. Busbee reports that every phthalate tested disrupts gene expression. This disruption is not only harmful to the person exposed, but the effects may be passed on to future generations, as the latest scientific study reveals.

Are Bioplastics the Pollution Solution?

Numerous companies have jumped onto the plant-plastics bandwagon in fervent efforts to come up with the perfect bioplastic material. As of 2010, more than 2.5 billion plant-plastic bottles were already in use around the world, including the PlantBottle by Coca-Cola Co.13 Despite all of the buzz, plant-based bottles are largely non-biodegradable, so they do nothing to relieve the garbage problem.

But even when bioplastics are compostable and made from “renewable resources,” they fail miserably when you look at their carbon footprint. Plant-based plastics run into the same problem as plant-based fuels — they have an impact on food production, turning valuable farmland to cornfields.14 There are concerns over the harmful effects of the pesticides and genetically modified crop strains used to create many of these bioplastics. And many require intensive chemical processing that is even dirtier than petroleum-derived plastics15.

So what is the answer?

The featured documentary, Addicted to Plastics, presents several examples of truly eco-friendly solutions that take all of the above factors into consideration — for example, making biodegradable plastics from chicken feathers.16 But perhaps the most important thing is what you can do TODAY to reduce your own plastic footprint.

What You Can Do Right Now

Discarded plastics are clogging up our oceans and threatening marine life from plankton on up. Massive islands of plastic waste now occupy the centers of the five major oceanic gyres. Our “disposable culture” has left a trail of destruction, in terms of both environmental and human impact. Chemicals like BPA, BPS, and phthalates disrupt the reproductive function and genetic expression of multiple species — including humans — causing infertility and potentially disastrous health effects like metabolic dysfunction, organ damage, and cancer.

There is no single solution to the plastic waste problem. But you can do your part by taking the following action steps that reduce your plastic consumption, which will benefit your health as well as the environment.
•Reduce plastic use: Purchase products that are not made from or packaged in plastic. Here are a few ideas… Use reusable shopping bags for groceries. Bring your own mug when indulging in a coffee drink — and skip the lid and the straw. Bring drinking water from home in glass water bottles, instead of buying bottled water. Store foods in the freezer in glass mason jars as opposed to plastic bags. Take your own leftover container to restaurants. Request no plastic wrap on your newspaper and dry cleaning. These are just a few ideas — I’m sure you can think of more.
•Recycle what you can: Take care to recycle and repurpose products whenever possible. For example, here’s a video demonstrating a simple way to turn your plastic shopping bags into very strong rope.

•Support legislation: Support legislative efforts to manage waste in your community; take a leadership role with your company, school, and neighborhood.
•Be Innovative: If you have a great idea, share it! Your capacity to come up with smarter designs and creative ideas is limitless, and many heads are better than one. Innovations move us toward a more sustainable world.
•Assist Recovery: Return deposits on bottles and other plastic products, and participate in “plastic drives” for local schools, where cash is paid by the pound.

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

Look around your home and take note of just how many plastic items are around you. From food containers and utensils to bags, water bottles, shower curtains and children’s toys, plastic has become a permanent fixture in our everyday lives – but it’s one that comes with serious consequences.

Approximately 200 billion pounds (that’s 100 million tons) of plastic are produced every year. Some now say we have entered the “Age of Plastics.”1 But all of these plastic chemicals are now finding their way into your body and the environment, where they are accumulating over time with potentially catastrophic biological consequences.

Why You Should Check the Resin Identification Code

It is possible to seriously cut back on the amount of plastic in your life, which I strongly recommend and give tips for below. However, for the plastics you do use it’s important to be aware of the risks they pose.

This can be determined through a classification system called the Resin Identification Code, which is the number printed on the bottom of most plastic bottles and food containers. It describes what kind of plastic resin the product is made out of.

The featured article2 compiled a breakdown of what each Resin Identification Code means, which you can use to help you make informed decisions on your plastic usage. As you’ll read below, you should generally avoid plastics labeled #7, #3 or #6, while those that may be somewhat safer include #1, #2, #4 and #5.

Getting to Know Your Plastics: What the 7 Numbers Mean

Plastic #1: Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)

Typically used to make bottles for soft drinks, water, juice, mouthwash, sports drinks and containers for condiments like ketchup, salad dressing, jelly and jam, PET is considered safe, but it can actually leach the toxic metal antimony, which is used during its manufacture.

One study that looked at 63 brands of bottled water produced in Europe and Canada found concentrations of antimony that were more than 100 times the typical level found in clean groundwater (2 parts per trillion).3

It also found that the longer a bottle of water sits on a shelf — in a grocery store or your refrigerator — the greater the dose of antimony present. It is believed that the amount of antimony leeching from these PET bottles differs based on exposure to sunlight, higher temperatures, and varying pH levels.

Brominated compounds have also been found to leach into PET bottles.4 Bromine is known to act as a central nervous system depressant, and can trigger a number of psychological symptoms such as acute paranoia and other psychotic symptoms.

Plastic #2: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

HDPE, which is considered a low-hazard plastic, is often used for milk, water and juice bottles, as well as bottles for cleaning supplies and shampoo. It’s also used to make grocery bags and cereal box liners. HDPE (like most plastics) has been found to release estrogenic chemicals.

In one study, 95 percent of all plastic products tested were positive for estrogenic activity, meaning they can potentially disrupt your hormones and even alter the structure of human cells, posing risks to infants and children.5 In this particular study, even products that claimed to be free of the common plastic toxicant bisphenol-A (BPA) still tested positive for other estrogenic chemicals.

Plastic #3: Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

PVC plastic can be rigid or flexible, and is commonly found in bags for bedding, shrink wrap, deli and meat wrap, plastic toys, table cloths and blister packs used to store medications.

PVC contains toxic chemicals including DEHP, a type of phthalate used as a plastics softener. Phthalates are one of the groups of “gender-bending” chemicals causing males of many species to become more female. These chemicals have disrupted the endocrine systems of wildlife, causing testicular cancer, genital deformations, low sperm counts and infertility in a number of species, including polar bears, deer, whales and otters, just to name a few.

Scientists believe phthalates are responsible for a similar pattern of adverse effects in humans as well. If your home contains soft, flexible plastic flooring, such as vinyl or those padded play-mat floors for kids (often used in day cares and kindergartens, too), there’s a good chance it is also made from toxic PVC. PVC flooring has been linked to chronic diseases including allergies, asthma and autism.

Plastic #4: Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)

Another plastic that is considered a low hazard, LDPE is used in bags for bread, newspapers, fresh produce, household garbage and frozen foods, as well as in paper milk cartons and hot and cold beverage cups. While LDPE does not contain BPA, it may pose risks of leaching estrogenic chemicals, similar to HDPE.

Plastic #5: Polypropylene (PP)

PP plastic is used to make containers for yogurt, deli foods, medications and takeout meals. While polypropylene is said to have a high heat tolerance making it unlikely to leach chemicals, at least one study found that PP plastic ware used for laboratory studies did leach at least two chemicals.6

Plastic #6: Polystyrene (PS)

Polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, is used to make cups, plates, bowls, take-out containers, meat trays and more. Polystyrene is known to leach styrene,7 which can damage your nervous system and is linked to cancer, into your food. Temperature has been found to play a role in how much styrene leaches from polystyrene containers, which means using them for hot foods and beverages (such as hot coffee in a polystyrene cup) may be worst of all.

Plastic #7: Other

This is a catch-all designation used to describe products made from other plastic resins not described above, or those made from a combination of plastics. It’s difficult to know for sure what types of toxins may be in #7 plastics, but there’s a good chance it often contains BPA or the new, equally concerning chemical on the block in the bisphenol class known as Bisphenol-S (BPS).

BPA and BPS are endocrine disrupters, which means they mimic or interfere with your body’s hormones and “disrupts” your endocrine system. The glands of your endocrine system and the hormones they release are instrumental in regulating mood, growth and development, tissue function, metabolism, as well as sexual function and reproductive processes.

Some of the greatest concern surrounds early-life, in utero exposure to bisphenol compounds, which can lead to chromosomal errors in your developing fetus, causing spontaneous miscarriages and genetic damage. But evidence is also very strong showing these chemicals are influencing adults and children, too, and leading to decreased sperm quality, early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles and ovarian dysfunction, cancer and heart disease, among numerous other health problems.

For instance, research has found that “higher BPA exposure is associated with general and central obesity in the general adult population of the United States,”8 while another study found that BPA is associated not only with generalized and abdominal obesity, but also with insulin resistance, which is an underlying factor in many chronic diseases.9

Plastics Pose a Great Risk to the Environment, Too

Plastics are not only an issue in products while they’re being used but also when they’re disposed of. While approximately 50 percent of plastic waste goes to landfills (where it will sit for hundreds of years due to limited oxygen and lack of microorganisms to break it down) the remaining 45 plus percent “disappears” into the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea, damaging marine ecosystems and entering the food chain.

Plastic particles are like “sponges” for waterborne contaminants such as PCBs, pesticides like DDT, herbicides, PAHs, and other persistent organic pollutants. This phenomenon makes plastics far from benign, and scientists have yet to determine the full extent of the dangers posed by their consumption or the effects higher up the food chain.

One of the biggest environmental assaults is the massive accumulation of plastic trash in each of the world’s five major oceanic gyres. Gyres are large, slowly rotating oceanic whirlpools, driven by global winds and ocean currents.10 Garbage and debris is funneled into the center of these gyres, in a kind of toilet bowl effect or vortex.

One of these gyres, the North Pacific Gyre, is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean about a thousand miles from the Western coast. In its midst is a huge mass of trash (90 percent plastics), which floats in a soup of smaller pieces that have been broken apart by wave action.

Some call it the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and others the “Pacific Trash Vortex,” but regardless of its name, it’s the largest “landfill” in the world. In it you will find everything from plastic netting to bottles and bags and buckets, paint rollers, hula-hoops and medical equipment. Most of the garbage patch, however, is not made up of large items but rather microplastics you can’t see with the naked eye, forming a sort of plastic soup where pure seawater used to be. Filter-feeding marine animals ingest these plastic particles, and the toxins they contain, and subsequently pass them up through the food chain, and eventually to humans.

Tips for Cutting Down on Your Plastic Use

If at all possible, seek to purchase products that are not made from or packaged in plastic. Here are a few ideas for doing so:

Use reusable shopping bags for groceries

Bring your own mug for coffee

Bring drinking water from home in glass water bottles, instead of buying bottled water

Store foods in the freezer in glass mason jars as opposed to plastic bags

Take your own non-plastic container to restaurants for leftovers

Request no plastic wrap on your newspaper and dry cleaning

Avoid disposable utensils

Buy foods in bulk when you can

Replace your plastic kitchenware with glass or ceramic alternatives

Use stainless steel or high-heat-resistant nylon for utensils in lieu of plastics

Since plastic is found widely in processed food packaging (this includes canned foods and beverages, which typically have a plastic lining), modifying your diet to include primarily fresh, whole foods that you purchase at a farmer’s market or food co-op will have the added benefit of helping you cut down on exposure to plastic chemicals that are common in the food packages sold at most supermarkets.

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