Rather Be Healthy

Top five essential oils for stress relief and how to properly use them

When used properly, the power of essential oils lies in their ability to deliver the beneficial healing properties of certain plants in a direct and highly concentrated form. Recognized long ago for their therapeutic properties, ancient Egyptians made essential oils by first soaking the flowers, leaves, twigs or bark in oil and then using linen as a filter to isolate the oil.

The healing applications of essential oils are many, from antibacterial defense to pain relief and emotional therapy, depending on the type of oil. From a scientific perspective, oils are effective because 50 million smell receptors inside the nasal cavity connect to the brain’s Limbic System – an area responsible for emotions, memory and sexual arousal. From a human perspective, they simply smell nice and make us feel better.

Whether improving mood or overall health, a winning strategy begins with stress reduction. And for the physical body that interprets stress as pain, these five essential oils know just where it hurts:

Lavender
Easily the most popular of all essential oils, lavender is known as the “universal oil.” With its calming, earthy, lightly sweet and freshly floral scent, it is widely beloved for its relaxing and balancing effects on both the physical and emotional bodies. It may also be used as a pain reliever for muscles and joints, or as an antiseptic on minor cuts, burns, bug bites and stings.

Frankincense
With its comforting warm, exotic aroma, Frankincense’s most common use is stress relief; however, it may also be applied topically to the skin to rejuvenate cells and repair scar tissue, or used to calm certain respiratory conditions such as asthma, coughing and bronchitis.

Rose
Another highly versatile essential oil, this one may be even more costly than most, due to its labor-intensive extraction process, which requires 60,000 roses for every one ounce of rose oil. In addition to providing relief from both stress and depression, the many uses of rose oil include the treatment of eczema and menopausal symptoms.

Chamomile
Though both the Roman and German types of chamomile essential oils are well suited for calming the nerves and supporting digestive health, there are some important differences between the two. Where the Roman variety is superior in addressing mental anxiety, paranoia and hostility, the German variety excels more in the treatment of irritated skin.

Vanilla
If the pure scent of warm vanilla makes you feel right at home, some aromatherapists say it is because vanilla is the closest in fragrance and flavor to mothers’ milk. With the ability to both soothe in tranquil relaxation and stimulate mental clarity, this rich aroma can vary in its therapeutic effects. Vanilla essential oil has also proven effective in relieving upset stomachs and reducing cravings for sweets.

Use essential oils appropriately and with caution
The most appropriate applications of essential oils will vary, depending on which of the additional therapeutic benefits you’re looking to harness. Because they are extremely potent in their pure form, essential oils should always be blended with a carrier oil, like almond or jojoba oil, before use. They may then be applied directly onto the skin, as with a massage, or onto a warm compress, handkerchief or pillow. A few drops may also be burned in a diffuser or added to bath salts for a skin-softening, muscle-relaxing bath experience. Some find that applying a small amount to the soles of the feet or to the back of the neck is also quite effective.

As always, be sure to do your own homework on the type of oil you’re using, as some may react negatively with sun exposure, certain medications, medical conditions or pregnancy. Remember that 100 percent pure, organic essential oils are made from plant materials and are therefore quite different from cheaper, artificial fragrance oils. Though they may have a pleasant aroma, fragrance oils often contain synthetic chemicals, and rather than helping to heal you, breathing in those synthetic chemicals may actually harm you. And that wouldn’t be very aromatherapeutic, now would it?

Sources for this article include:

Top 5 Essential Oils—and How to Use Them

http://www.mindbodygreen.com

http://www.floracopeia.com

http://oxford-consultants.tripod.com/OilsInformation.htm

http://www.quinessence.com/methods_of_use.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/032379_essential_oils_sources.html

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

Voters in Portland, Oregon solidly defeated a city-wide water fluoridation measure yesterday, with 60% of the voters saying “NO!” to the practice of adding toxic fluoride chemicals to the water.

The result is a huge victory for www.CleanWaterPortland.org and all the men, women and children of Portland who can now rest easier, knowing their tap water is not intentionally poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals derived from industrial waste and mislabeled “fluoride.”

The defeat of the measure absolutely infuriated fluoride-pushing doctors and dentists, many of whom resorted to using outrageous lies and dirty tricks during the entire campaign. These lies include whoppers like, “Drinking fluoride has never harmed anyone” and “this is naturally-occurring fluoride, therefore it’s safe.”

Fluoride advocates reject real science
Nowhere is there a more obscene departure from real science than in the “scientific” community of fluoride pushers. These people very well know that all sorts of “naturally-occurring” elements in the table of elements are extremely toxic to the human body. Mercury is toxic, yet it occurs naturally. Arsenic is highly toxic, yet it occurs naturally as well. I dare any of these fluoride pushers to chug a glass containing lead or cadmium.

To claim that fluoride is healthful merely because it is found in water wells and the Earth’s crust is an outrageously evil deception. Fluoride POISONS water wells around the world, and populations go to great lengths to try to remove it from their water! Fluoride pushers know this, but they seem to be determined to make sure as many people as possible are harmed through fluoridation, possibly as a way to make sure there’s more medical business in the future due to toxic fluoride side effects.

“Fluoride” is actually a toxic combination of chemicals and heavy metals
Most of the fluoride dumped into U.S. water supplies, by the way, is imported from China. And it just happens to be heavily contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals. No city in the United States tests its fluoride for these contaminants and openly publicizes the results. It’s all one big toxic secret, and the doctors and dentists who support fluoridation want to make sure it stays that way.

Shhh! Science isn’t allowed when we discuss fluoride! You’re supposed to just buy into the “cult” of it, without asking any scientific questions.

But even environmental groups understand this stuff is highly toxic. “…there is no safe exposure level for arsenic and lead,” said Antonia Giedwoyn, a Sierra Club spokeswoman in Portland. “Why would we want to add any level of heavy metals to our water, that our kids and our parents and we ourselves drink?” (SOURCE).

Fluoridation proponents are some of the most dangerous, life-hating people you’ll ever meet
By the way, in my more than ten years of being an investigative reporter, activist and pioneer in online health news and information, I have never met a more arrogant, insidious and life-hating group of people than those who push for water fluoridation. Across the board, these people behave like psychopathic criminals who want to unleash death and destruction across every city in the world. They are very much like the “mad scientists” that Batman defeats in major motion pictures. They’ve abandoned any desire to listen to reason or logic, and they don’t even recognize real science anymore.

They remind me of Dr. Gosnell, the abortionist doctor in Philadelphia who would murder babies after they were born alive by severing their spinal columns with scissors. He called it “post-birth abortion” with the same level of evil arrogance that doctors in Portland used to call mass poisoning “water fluoridation.” I am absolutely convinced that if you gave some of these fluoride-pushing doctors a couple of pairs of scissors, they would run around Portland stabbing infants in the neck if they thought they could get away with it. They might even call it something like, “Pre-emptive brain cancer prevention.”

“Fluoride” is often imported from China and laced with heavy metals
By the way, Natural News has already documented that much of the “fluoride” used in U.S. cities is actually an insecticide imported from China.

Here’s some of the text used by Chinese chemical manufacturers to promote their “fluoride” to U.S. cities that buy this stuff and dump it into the water supply:

From the Shanghai Polymet Commodities Ltd. company in China:

Fluosilicic Acid / hydrofluosilicic acid:

Property: Colorless, transparent and smoky liquid with penetrating odor; highly acidic; soluble in water and volatile; with disinfecting action; corrosive to glass, ceramics, lead and other metals; highly corrosive to human skin and harmful to people’s respiratory organs; keep it in a container made of plastics.

Another industrial fluoride supplier from China describes its sodium fluoride as:

…used as anti-corrosion agent in wood, medical corrosion, fusing in welding… manufacture of rimmed steel, treatment of hides and skins for leather industry, adhesive preservative, purification and coloring flux in the melting of light metals.

Oh yeah, and your idiot doctor wants you to drink it, too… right before he stabs you in the arm with a vaccine that also contains heavy metals.

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

GMOs are just bad news, followed by more bad news

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand why genetically modified foods are dangerous, but if you look closely, you may just find the name of one listed among the names of more than 800 scientists from around the globe who have joined forces in an open letter to all world governments, outlining their detailed concerns over the alarming potential threat of biotech’s unauthorized, worldwide GM foods experiment.

In a country whose government and media appear only too eager to conjure up fear of “bioterrorism” and “biological weapons,” it’s shocking (albeit obviously deliberate) to what extent the GMO issue remains omitted from mainstream discussion. Consider that the message from these scientists seems to be that the whole planet is already under attack by the persistent and largely unchecked, reckless behavior of greedy, unruly U.S. corporations – corporations whose activities appear to be sponsored by the federal government. And whether you know it yet or not, your body is the battleground.

The letter, as posted by the Institute of Science in Society (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php), is a collective call for the immediate suspension of any and all releases of GM crops and products into the environment for at least five years, in order to allow for more thorough testing. The scientists further demand that all patents on life-forms and living processes – including seeds, cell lines and genes – be revoked and banned “for a comprehensive public inquiry into the future of agriculture and food security for all.”

Life is a discovery, they say, not an innovation, and patents on life-forms and living processes “sanction biopiracy of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources, violate basic human rights and dignity, compromise healthcare, impede medical and scientific research and are against the welfare of animals.” Furthermore, they argue that GM crops provide no identifiable benefits either to farmers or consumers; instead, they offer only very significant risks to all living things.

GMOs are just bad news, followed by more bad news
Any consumption of GMO products is basically a smorgasbord of disaster, say these global scientists. In their thorough and fully cited open letter, they take biotechnology to task – making clear, undeniable connections between GM food crops and other products (like milk from cows injected with genetically modified Bovine Growth Hormone) and health problems for mammals in general. At the same time the GM crops themselves actually contribute to lower yields, increased use of herbicides/insecticides, unpredictable performance, poor economic returns, and a progressive monopoly on food by big corporations, they also encourage herbicide-tolerant weeds and pesticide-resistant superbugs, making their purported goal of “feeding the world” appear just as it is – clearly out of the reach of biotech industry. Scientists propose, instead, that these large food corporations are actually more the cause of world hunger currently, than they are the solution to it.

“It is on account of increasing corporate monopoly operating under the globalised economy that the poor are getting poorer and hungrier,” scientists say. “Family farmers around the world have been driven to destitution and suicide… Mergers and acquisitions are continuing.” Seed patent policies currently in place at biotech companies prevent farmers from saving and replanting seeds, an activity the scientists acknowledge, is one enjoyed even by third world farmers.

As promised; however, it only gets worse. Scientists agree that GMOs actually harm the delicate biodiversity necessary to the balance and maintenance of life on this planet. GM products, they say, “decimate wild plant species indiscriminately,” cause birth defects in mammals, kill insects essential to pollination like bees, lacewings, monarch butterflies, and pose other very serious threats related to horizontal gene transfer – for example, the “spread of antibiotic resistance marker genes that would render infections diseases untreatable, the generation of new viruses and bacteria that cause diseases, and harmful mutations which may lead to cancer.”

Multiple hazards to both animal and human health have already been identified by sources around the world, resulting either in bans on GM products or the adoption of strict labeling laws by many countries. Here in the U.S.; however, secret memoranda from inside the FDA have revealed its history of disregarding the warnings of its own scientists. Still, with a separate but similar mass appeal to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 failing to make a rippled, lasting impact, one can only hope that eventually the science on GMOs – and the growing number of people who know about it – will simply be too loud to ignore.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php

http://www.the-scientist.com

http://www.grain.org

http://www.naturalnews.com/037289_Monsanto_corporations_ethics.html

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

Turmeric – A fierce superfood spice that melts away body fat and defeats insulin resistance

Besides garnering attention as a a veritable fountain of youth, cancer tamer and fibromyalgia remedy, turmeric has proven itself to be a formidable weight loss superfood as well. Easing inflammation is just one benefit of this golden beauty. It also mitigates insulin resistance and balances blood glucose levels while helping to prevent the spread of fat tissue – providing a powerful tool in the battle of the bulge. A staple in Asian cultures for centuries, turmeric is a safe, flavorful and nutrient-packed addition to any diet or weight loss plan.

Colorful fat fighter
Research at Tufts University in Boston discovered that curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) reduced weight gain and total body fat in mice that consumed the compound. Eighteen mice divided into three groups were fed either a low fat, high fat or curcumin enhanced high fat diet. At the end of the study, body weight of the mice and fat distribution were measured. For those that ingested the diet with curcumin, both total body fat and weight gain were reduced — even though food intake was not restricted. Blood glucose, cholesterol, fatty acid, triglyceride and liver fat were lower as well.

Another study at Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Medicine in China also found turmeric intake to be beneficial for weight loss. As stated by Anthony Gucciardi of Natural Society:

“… curcumin (once again, a compound within turmeric found in extracts and the food itself) consumption directly decreased levels of insulin resistance and leptin resistance – two factors heavily linked to fat gain. In the conclusion of the research, study authors state:

“By diminishing the sediment of fat, relaxing the lymphatic return, and refraining the apoptosis of beta cells, the curcumin might significantly decrease the level of insulin resistance and leptin resistance caused by the high fat diet.”

Similar findings were observed at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center — Columbia University. Dr. Drew Tortoriello, M.D., an endocrinologist and research scientist, found that “turmeric-fed obese mice showed significantly reduced inflammation in fat tissue and liver compared to controls.” He suspects “the anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant ingredient in turmeric, lessens insulin resistance and prevents type 2 diabetes in these mouse models by dampening the inflammatory response provoked by obesity,” according to Science Daily.

Happily, researchers believe these results can be applied to humans too. With such a profusion of healthy benefits, all you really have to lose by enjoying this vibrant spice is excess weight.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090522181238.htm

http://naturalsociety.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080620195436.htm

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

Follow on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/Thrive_Living

At Facebook, follow here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thrive-Living/499578863433146

For Pinterest fans, connect here: www.pinterest.com/thriveliving/natural-news/

Read her other articles on Natural News here:

http://www.naturalnews.com/Author1183.html

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

In the 1950s, within the United States, the fluoridation propaganda machine was in full swing. Television commercials brainwashed an entire nation into believing that a toxic (cancer-causing) substance would make children “healthier and happy”.

Now, as people are waking up to the lies, politicians and the conventional dental industry are shaking in their boots.

Discover the shocking truth behind the danger of fluoride consumption; learn how to protect your family and become an effective, natural health advocate. On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour – Jonathan Landsman and Dr. David Kennedy provide the tools necessary to dramatically improve the quality of your water supply and save lives.

Visit: http://www.naturalhealth365.com and enter your email address for show details + a FREE gift!

Fluoride usage can cause osteoporosis, birth defects, lower IQ plus much more

From the 1940s to the present time, Americans have been told that fluoride dramatically reduces cavities. But, the United States government and conventional dentistry do not want you to know what science has already proven – better oral hygiene and dietary habits are why cavities have declined.

There were several studies to prove that consuming fluoride does not reduce cavities including a U.S. public health department report on 39,000 school children that was hidden, for quite some time, from the American public. So, we must ask ourselves, “Why are we spending so much money to put fluoride in the water supply”?

Is water fluoridation part of a grand “social engineering” project plus a great way to increase disease (and profits) for conventional medicine? I’ll let you decide – but you should know that facts. Science has already shown that water fluoridation increases cavities, bone fractures; behavioral problems and cancer death rates.

The connection between water fluoridation and low thyroid function

Did you know that fluoride bio-accumulates within the body? In other words, the more you drink or eat – the more it will concentrate in body tissue. The brain and thyroid gland are two areas that fluoride loves to accumulate. Obviously, low thyroid function (due to fluoride toxicity) can cause fatigue, apathy, weakness, tiredness and, most importantly, a permanent lowering of the IQ within a developing fetus.

Water fluoridation is literally dumbing down an entire nation. I hope you can appreciate the profound significance of what you just read. Even the slightest reduction of thyroid function, in pregnant women, can cause serious neurobehavioral problems for future generations. Fluoride has also been shown to increase reproductive problems by reducing testosterone levels and sperm count.

Simply put, we’ve got to put an end to this dehumanization and criminal behavior – before it’s too late.

Get informed and help us spread a message of hope. Let’s pull together – for the sake of our family and friends. Join us for an empowering show about how to eliminate fluoride from our communities.

Visit: http://www.naturalhealth365.com and enter your email address for show details + a FREE gift!

This week’s guests: Dr. David Kenney, Past President of IAOMT, health advocate and filmmaker

Learn how to end the use of fluoride in your community with knowledge and political influence

Dr. David Kennedy is the Past President of the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. His BA is in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology from the University of Kansas (1967) and his Doctorate of Dental Surgery is from the University of Missouri (1971).

He is a world lecturer to the dental profession on the safety of dental materials in the human body. His lectures include (among others) addresses to the World Health Organization, the American Dental Society of Europe, the German BGD, and Brazil Rio Eco-Odonto.

Discover the shocking truth behind the danger of fluoride consumption; learn how to protect your family and become an effective, natural health advocate. On the next NaturalNews Talk Hour – Jonathan Landsman and Dr. David Kennedy provide the tools necessary to dramatically improve the quality of your water supply and save lives.

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

“Fluoride” is actually a toxic combination of chemicals and heavy metals

Voters in Portland, Oregon solidly defeated a city-wide water fluoridation measure yesterday, with 60% of the voters saying “NO!” to the practice of adding toxic fluoride chemicals to the water.

The result is a huge victory for www.CleanWaterPortland.org and all the men, women and children of Portland who can now rest easier, knowing their tap water is not intentionally poisoned with cancer-causing chemicals derived from industrial waste and mislabeled “fluoride.”

The defeat of the measure absolutely infuriated fluoride-pushing doctors and dentists, many of whom resorted to using outrageous lies and dirty tricks during the entire campaign. These lies include whoppers like, “Drinking fluoride has never harmed anyone” and “this is naturally-occurring fluoride, therefore it’s safe.”

Fluoride advocates reject real science
Nowhere is there a more obscene departure from real science than in the “scientific” community of fluoride pushers. These people very well know that all sorts of “naturally-occurring” elements in the table of elements are extremely toxic to the human body. Mercury is toxic, yet it occurs naturally. Arsenic is highly toxic, yet it occurs naturally as well. I dare any of these fluoride pushers to chug a glass containing lead or cadmium.

To claim that fluoride is healthful merely because it is found in water wells and the Earth’s crust is an outrageously evil deception. Fluoride POISONS water wells around the world, and populations go to great lengths to try to remove it from their water! Fluoride pushers know this, but they seem to be determined to make sure as many people as possible are harmed through fluoridation, possibly as a way to make sure there’s more medical business in the future due to toxic fluoride side effects.

“Fluoride” is actually a toxic combination of chemicals and heavy metals
Most of the fluoride dumped into U.S. water supplies, by the way, is imported from China. And it just happens to be heavily contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals. No city in the United States tests its fluoride for these contaminants and openly publicizes the results. It’s all one big toxic secret, and the doctors and dentists who support fluoridation want to make sure it stays that way.

Shhh! Science isn’t allowed when we discuss fluoride! You’re supposed to just buy into the “cult” of it, without asking any scientific questions.

But even environmental groups understand this stuff is highly toxic. “…there is no safe exposure level for arsenic and lead,” said Antonia Giedwoyn, a Sierra Club spokeswoman in Portland. “Why would we want to add any level of heavy metals to our water, that our kids and our parents and we ourselves drink?” (SOURCE).

Fluoridation proponents are some of the most dangerous, life-hating people you’ll ever meet
By the way, in my more than ten years of being an investigative reporter, activist and pioneer in online health news and information, I have never met a more arrogant, insidious and life-hating group of people than those who push for water fluoridation. Across the board, these people behave like psychopathic criminals who want to unleash death and destruction across every city in the world. They are very much like the “mad scientists” that Batman defeats in major motion pictures. They’ve abandoned any desire to listen to reason or logic, and they don’t even recognize real science anymore.

They remind me of Dr. Gosnell, the abortionist doctor in Philadelphia who would murder babies after they were born alive by severing their spinal columns with scissors. He called it “post-birth abortion” with the same level of evil arrogance that doctors in Portland used to call mass poisoning “water fluoridation.” I am absolutely convinced that if you gave some of these fluoride-pushing doctors a couple of pairs of scissors, they would run around Portland stabbing infants in the neck if they thought they could get away with it. They might even call it something like, “Pre-emptive brain cancer prevention.”

“Fluoride” is often imported from China and laced with heavy metals
By the way, Natural News has already documented that much of the “fluoride” used in U.S. cities is actually an insecticide imported from China.

Here’s some of the text used by Chinese chemical manufacturers to promote their “fluoride” to U.S. cities that buy this stuff and dump it into the water supply:

From the Shanghai Polymet Commodities Ltd. company in China:

Fluosilicic Acid / hydrofluosilicic acid:

Property: Colorless, transparent and smoky liquid with penetrating odor; highly acidic; soluble in water and volatile; with disinfecting action; corrosive to glass, ceramics, lead and other metals; highly corrosive to human skin and harmful to people’s respiratory organs; keep it in a container made of plastics.

Another industrial fluoride supplier from China describes its sodium fluoride as:

…used as anti-corrosion agent in wood, medical corrosion, fusing in welding… manufacture of rimmed steel, treatment of hides and skins for leather industry, adhesive preservative, purification and coloring flux in the melting of light metals.

Oh yeah, and your idiot doctor wants you to drink it, too… right before he stabs you in the arm with a vaccine that also contains heavy metals.

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

More than 36 percent of Americans share their homes with a dog, and 30 percent with a cat.1 This amounts to more than 70 million pet dogs and 74 million pet cats in the US alone.

This love affair with animals is nothing new; humans have been sharing their lives with companion animals since ancient times, when dogs, domesticated from wolves, may have been used for hunting and protection, and cats, which were often regarded as sacred, helped control pests.

This mutually beneficial relationship continues today; although most Americans no longer depend on dogs for hunting or cats to scavenge mice, we take them in with abandon no less, and even look the other way when they wake us up barking or meowing at 4 am, chew up our slippers or scratch up our new furniture.

Why?

Because they provide unconditional love in return, providing a sense of friendship and comfort in a way that is unmatched, sometimes even by humans. And as if you needed another reason to give your pet a hug today, research is also increasingly showing that these furry creatures offer proven benefits to your health.

American Heart Association Says Owning a Pet Benefits Your Heart

According to a new statement released by the American Heart Association (AHA), owning a pet, particularly a dog, may reduce your risk of heart disease.2 The conclusion came following a review of dozens of studies that showed pet owners were in better health than non-pet owners. Highlights of the research included:3
•People with dogs engaged in more walking and more physical activity, and were 54 percent more likely to get the recommended level of physical activity
•Pet ownership is probably associated with a reduction in heart disease risk factors and increased survival among patients
•Owning a pet is linked with lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and a lower incidence of obesity
•Pets can have a positive effect on your body’s reaction to stress, including a decrease in heart rate, blood pressure and adrenaline-like hormone release when a pet is present

While many of the studies did not prove that owning a pet directly reduces heart disease risk, and some of the benefits may be due to the increased activity that dog owners get from walking with or playing with their pets, the researchers concluded:

“Pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is probably associated with decreased CVD [cardiovascular disease] risk … [and] may have some causal role in reducing CVD risk.”

Pets Benefit Your Health at All Life Stages

Pets have a way of appealing to very diverse groups, from children to the elderly, families to singles. Perhaps this is because they offer advantages for people at all stages of life:
•Children: Owning a pet has been linked to higher levels of self-esteem as well as an ability to function better emotionally in kids.4 Children who live with a dog during their first year of life also have a lower risk of respiratory tract infections and ear infections, and need fewer antibiotics, than children in non-pet homes.5

This may be because dogs track more dirt and bacteria into homes, and this increased exposure to “germs” helps strengthen the immune system. Living with a cat was also linked to health benefits among children.
•Adults: One of the most revealing studies on the health benefits of pets for adults involved New York City stockbrokers who were being treated with medications for high blood pressure. Those who adopted a dog or cat were able to lower their blood pressure significantly more, and felt calmer, than those who did not.6
•Couples: Couples who own pets are less stressed by conflicts and recover quicker when conflicts occur. Pet-owning couples also reported more signs of happiness and sociability than non pet-owning couples.7
•Singles: Singles, as well as those who are widowed, divorced or separated, are increasingly adopting pets because they provide love and a sense of family.8
•Elderly: Two of the biggest hurdles facing the elderly are social isolation and inactivity. Owning a dog not only increased the amount of activity, with dog owners taking twice as many daily walks than non-owners, but also increased social interactions through casual conversations that occurred during the daily walks. Elderly dog owners also report being more satisfied with their social, physical and emotional states.9

Do Cats or Other Pets Give Similar Benefits?

Many of the health benefits of pets focus on dogs, with their tendency to make us get out for more frequent walks as well as their strong sense of emotional devotion to their humans. But cats, too, offer benefits to your health. For starters, many of the above-mentioned studies involved both dogs and cats; for instance, living with either a dog or a cat is linked to lower rates of respiratory infections in kids, and both dogs and cats helped lower blood pressure among stressed-out stockbrokers.

Cat owners, specifically, have even been found to have a 40 percent lower risk of heart attacks than non-owners,10 and a cat’s purr, which gives off low-frequency vibrations, has been called a “natural healing mechanism” that may help strengthen and repair bones, relieve pain and heal wounds.11

Studies involving birds, reptiles, horses and other pets are far less common than those with cats or dogs, however it’s often the emotional connection that leads to the decreased stress responses felt by those when their beloved pet is present. So it stands to reason that any pet with which you feel an emotional bond, whether furry, feathered or finned, can benefit your health on multiple levels.

Health Considerations Shouldn’t be Your Only Motivation for Getting a Pet

Pet owners do seem to have a health advantage over non-owners, but you shouldn’t rush out to adopt a pet solely for this reason. Obviously, having a pet comes with considerable demands on your time and finances, so you must be sure you are fully able to care for a pet, and committed to adding this animal to your family for its lifetime, before proceeding. Even the AHA researchers noted:12

“Despite the likely positive link, people shouldn’t get a pet solely to reduce heart disease risk.”

However, if you are thinking about adding a pet to your family, or if you’re a pet owner already, you can find a guide for bringing home a new dog or cat, along with a treasure trove of additional pet ownership information, at Mercola Healthy Pets.

Every day at Mercola Healthy Pets, Dr. Karen Becker shares her passion for the benefits of proactive, integrative and wellness-oriented pet healthcare, and the value of alternative therapies that are rarely, if ever, discussed in the conventional veterinary community. Now countless animal lovers across the globe are learning about the foundations of pet health and becoming empowered to take the best possible care of their pets, and I urge you to join them if you’re a pet owner, too.

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

25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam

What is the appropriate word to use when you find out that the top executive at the third largest health insurance company in America raked in 68.7 million dollars in 2010? How is one supposed to respond when one learns that more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies make over a billion dollars in profits each year? Is it okay to get angry when you discover that over 90 percent of all hospital bills contain “gross overcharges”? Once upon a time, going into the medical profession was seen as a “noble” thing to do. But now the health care industry in the United States has become one giant money making scam and it is completely dominated by health insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, lawyers and corporate fatcats. In America today, just one trip to the hospital can cost you tens of thousands of dollars even if you do not stay for a single night. The sad thing is that the vast majority of the money that you pay out for medical care does not even go to your doctor. In fact, large numbers of doctors across the United States are going broke. Rather, it is the “system” that is soaking up almost all of the profits. We have a health care industry in the United States that is fundamentally broken and it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

But wasn’t that what Obamacare was supposed to do? No, in fact Obamacare was largely written by representatives from the health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. Once it was signed into law the stocks of most health insurance companies went way up.

The truth is that Obamacare was one of the worst pieces of legislation in modern American history. It did nothing to fix our health care problems. Rather, it just made all of our health care problems much worse.

In case you haven’t noticed, health insurance companies all over the United States have announced that they are going to raise premiums significantly due to the new law. Of course they are just using it as an excuse. They have been sticking it to us good for the last several decades and they just grab hold of whatever excuse they can find to justify the latest rate hike.

If you are looking for a legal way to drain massive amounts of money out of average Americans just become a health care company executive. Health care has become perhaps the greatest money making scam in the United States. When Americans are sick and have to go to the hospital most of them aren’t really thinking about how much it will cost. At that point they are super vulnerable and ready to be exploited.

It is almost unbelievable how much money some of these companies make. Health insurance companies are more profitable when they provide less health care. Pharmaceutical companies aren’t in the business of saving lives. Rather, they are in the business of inflating the profit margins on their drugs as much as possible. Many hospitals have adopted a policy of charging “whatever they can get away with”, knowing that the vast majority of the public will never challenge the medical bills.

The system is broken.

Everyone knows it.

But it never gets fixed.

The following are 25 shocking facts that prove that the entire U.S. health care industry is one giant money making scam….

#1 The chairman of Aetna, the third largest health insurance company in the United States, brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010. Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation. The funny thing is that he left the company and didn’t even work the whole year.

#2 The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to receive nearly $200 million in total compensation in 2009.

#3 One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#4 Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million.

#5 According to one survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 has absolutely no health insurance.

#6 According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#7 Profits at U.S. health insurance companies increased by 56 percent during 2009.

#8 According to a report by Health Care for America Now, America’s five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion.

#9 Health insurance rate increases are getting out of control. According to the Los Angeles Times, Blue Shield of California plans to raise rates an average of 30% to 35%, and some individual policy holders could see their health insurance premiums rise by a whopping 59 percent this year alone.

#10 According to an article on the Mother Jones website, health insurance premiums for small employers in the U.S. increased 180% between 1999 and 2009.

#11 Why are c-sections on the rise? It is because a vaginal delivery costs approximately $5,992 on average, while a c-section costs approximately $8,558 on average.

#12 Since 2003, health insurance companies have shelled out more than $42 million in state-level campaign contributions.

#13 Between 2000 and 2006, wages in the United States increased by 3.8%, but health care premiums increased by 87%.

#14 There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that made over a billion dollars in profits in 2008.

#15 Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone.

#16 Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis according to a CDC report that was just released. According to the report, approximately one-third of all Americans use two or more pharmaceutical drugs, and more than ten percent of all Americans use five or more prescription drugs on a regular basis.

#17 According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.

#18 The Food and Drug Administration reported 1,742 prescription drug recalls in 2009, which was a gigantic increase from 426 drug recalls in 2008.

#19 Lawyers are certainly doing their part to contribute to soaring health care costs. According to one recent study, the medical liability system in the United States added approximately $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008.

#20 According to one doctor interviewed by Fox News, “a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen” will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door, and then there will be significant additional charges depending on how bad the wound is.

#21 In America today, if you have an illness that requires intensive care for an extended period of time, it is ridiculously really easy to rack up medical bills that total over 1 million dollars.

#22 It is estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every single year.

#23 One trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of the medical bills that she has audited contain “gross overcharges“.

#24 It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent, but if you are uninsured or you don’t know how the system works then you are out of luck.

#25 According to one recent report, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries on health care.

Sadly, the pillaging of the American people only seems to be accelerating.

Whether it is as a result of Obamacare or not, health insurers have decided that this is the season to raise health insurance premiums. Just consider the following excerpt from a recent article on Fox News….

Here is the terse reason CareFirst/Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Washington gave its subscribers for raising a monthly premium from $333 to $512 on a middle aged man who is healthy, is not a smoker and is not obese: “Your new rate reflects the overall rise in health care costs and we regret having to pass these additional costs on to you.”

512 dollars a month for health insurance for a healthy non-smoker?

Are they serious?

Apparently they are.

Things have gotten so bad that an increasing number of Americans are going outside of the country for medical care.

According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were “medical tourists” in 2010.

Is there anyone out there that is not paid by the health care industry that is still willing to defend it?

Is there anyone out there that still believes that the health care industry is not just one giant money making scam?

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Chinese herb eradicates cancer in 40 days, says new research

The key to curing the type of pancreatic cancer that afflicted Apple visionary Steve Jobs just might be found in an ancient Chinese herb that has long played a crucial role in traditional Chinese medicine. A new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine has revealed that lei gong teng, also known as “thunder god vine,” possesses at least one unique compound capable of fully eradicating cancer tumors within 40 days, which could eventually make the herb a go-to alternative for treating cancer.

A research team from the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center discovered that, when given an injectable extract form of Tripterygium wilfordii, mice with pancreatic tumors experienced complete healing and recovery in fewer than five weeks. Even after discontinuing the treatment, the healed mice indefinitely maintained their healthy, cancer-free state with no signs of tumor resurgence or relapse.

The lei gong teng compound believed to be primarily responsible for killing cancer tumors is triptolide, an active diterpenoid that has been shown in several previous studies to exhibit broad anti-cancer activity. The team was able to effectively isolate this triptolide and convert it into a water soluble form, which researchers then injected into the mice regularly for a little more than one month, which was enough to cure the animals’ cancers.

“This [herb] is just unbelievably potent in killing tumor cells,” said Ashok Saluja, vice chairman of research at the center, to Bloomberg about the findings. “You could see that every day you looked at those mice, the tumor was decreasing and decreasing, and then just gone.”

Back in 2007, researchers from both Yale University and Columbia University found that triptolide effectively triggers cancer cell apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death. Numerous other studies over the years have also identified triptolide as a powerful tumor fighter in a general sense, including as a weapon against aggressive prostate cancers.

“Triptolide, a diterpenoid isolated from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook.f, has shown antitumor activities in a broad range of solid tumors,” wrote researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in a 2006 study on the powerful herb. This particular study found that triptolide targets various leukemic cancer cell lines, as well as increases the effectiveness of other anticancer agents.

Sources for this article include:

http://stm.sciencemag.org

http://www.wakingtimes.com

http://www.theregister.co.uk

http://www.bloomberg.com

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Bayer, Pfizer Accused of Making False Claims About Their Top-Selling Multivitamins

A recent study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, BASF Corporation, Pfizer and DSM Nutritional Products found that daily supplementation with a multivitamin significantly reduced the risk of cancer among men.

This particular study used Pfizer’s Centrum brand of multivitamins, which brings in around $1 billion a year in sales (a hefty share of the $40 billion US supplement market).

Undoubtedly, Pfizer will seek to use these study results to claim that taking Centrum multivitamins may help you prevent cancer… a lofty marketing move that has already landed them (and other drug companies) in hot water…

Although it is good to see the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) keeping these companies honest, one of the biggest crimes is actually perfectly legal. These companies are using synthetic vitamins rather than natural ones in virtually all of their products, despite the compelling evidence of the vast superiority of natural versions.

Pfizer Removes False Claims from Multivitamins After a Threatened Lawsuit

Last year CSPI alleged that claims made on the labels of Centrum multivitamin products were deceptive and implied that the supposed health benefits had been scientifically established, when most were from studies not directly applicable to the product. Among the claims at issue were that Pfizer’s multivitamins support:
•Energy and immunity
•Heart health
•Eye health
•Breast and colon health
•Bone health

In a letter to Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read, CSPI threatened legal action and listed multiple examples of unsubstantiated claims and deception. For instance, regarding the multivitamin’s role in heart health, the letter stated:1

“Pfizer markets Centrum Ultra Men’s, Centrum Cardio, and Centrum Silver with the claim that they support “heart health.”

For example, a recent print advertisement says, “Centrum Cardio is the only complete multivitamin with CoroWise™ phytosterols, an ingredient derived from soybeans that may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol. Centrum Cardio is the multivitamin that’s complete and all heart.”(Emphases added.)

However, existing research on the effectiveness of phytosterols has evaluated them in foods, … which help disperse the phytosterols in the GI tract to do their work. There is little or no evidence that the free phytosterols in hard, dry pills have the same effect. In fact, Pfizer has failed to produce any convincing evidence as to their effects in response to previous requests from CSPI.

Therefore, this claim is un-lawful because it lacks prior substantiation and is deceptive.”

In response, Pfizer agreed to drop certain claims related to “breast health” and “colon health” from the labels of its Centrum multivitamins, as well as from their Web site. CSPI subsequently agreed to withdraw their notice of intention to file a lawsuit.

Bayer Also Threatened With Legal Action Over False Multivitamin Claims

Bayer, which manufactures One A Day multivitamins, states on their Web site that taking One a Day is a recommended tip for avoiding breast cancer. CSPI has taken issue with this, and other health claims related to heart disease and more, and has notified Bayer that they will file a lawsuit for violating state consumer protection laws if the deceptive claims are not removed from One A Day marketing materials.

This is the second time since 2009 that CSPI has threatened Bayer with legal action. In 2009, the organization filed a lawsuit against Bayer for claiming that its One A Day Men’s multivitamin with selenium might reduce the risk of prostate cancer, when no research existed to back it up. Bayer also settled a lawsuit in 2010, in which a group of state attorney generals alleged the company was “deceptively leveraging fear of prostate cancer in order to market One A Day to men.”2

Who’s Behind Some of the Largest Multivitamin Brands in the World?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with taking a multivitamin supplement. But when doing so it’s essential to know who’s behind the product you’re trusting with your health. For instance, Pfizer, which makes Centrum multivitamins, is no stranger to lawsuits and has been convicted of fraud and other illegal activities on multiple occasions.

In fact, in 2009, Pfizer paid a $2.3-billion settlement for marketing fraud related to Bextra, Lyrica and other drugs. Charges included marketing drugs to doctors for uses for which they had not been approved and giving kickbacks to doctors and other health care professionals for prescribing their drugs. This was Pfizer’s fourth settlement numbering in the multimillions in less than a decade.

Meanwhile, some 3,000 lawsuits have been filed against Bayer in recent years over their genetically modified crops contaminating American rice farms. They have also been fending off lawsuits from angry beekeepers for years now, who allege that Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides are killing bees.

Why Are Drug Companies Interested in the Supplement Market?

The drug industry would rather you head out to your physician’s office and receive a prescription for a drug to protect your heart and treat diseases. So why are they increasingly buying up the supplement industry? The supplement industry actually represents the drug industry’s greatest competition, and as the saying goes, you should keep your friends close and your enemies even closer… By buying up supplement companies, the drug industry stands to benefit in several key ways:
1.Supplements as a category are yielding greater sales growth than the overall US economy and represent the greatest threat to drug company profits (the supplement industry is expected to grow at a rate of 9 percent a year through 2015, when it is expected to reach more than $90 billion3 — as compared to the US economy’s dwindling growth rate of 2 percent per year).
2.Drug patents are set to expire soon, in great volume, forcing pharmaceutical companies to find replacements for their top moneymaking drugs.
3.Pharmaceutical companies can snuff out their competition by paying off politicians to write legislation that makes it too difficult for small competitors (i.e., supplement companies) to survive, and then buying up the large competitors that remain).

These large drug companies actually benefit from the increased regulatory hurdles being imposed upon the supplement industry because it helps them squelch smaller competitors (who, by the way, often offer you better quality goods and services).

Recent acquisitions include:
•Pfizer, which purchased Alacer (the maker of “Emergen-C” vitamin drink mixes) in February 2012 for $360 million
•Bayer acquired Schiff Nutrition International, a leading nutritional supplement company, for $1.2 billion in a 2012 deal
•Procter & Gamble (which is partnered with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries) bought supplement maker New Chapter in March 2012 for $250 million

Can Multivitamins Improve Your Health?

As a consumer interested in taking control of your own health, you have a number of “tools” at your disposal, including access to hundreds of therapeutic vitamins and other nutritional supplements that are available over the counter. Is this a worthwhile avenue to improve your health?

I do believe that dietary supplements — including vitamins and minerals — can help compensate for some of the damage your body incurs through living in a contemporary culture. However, it’s not wise to use supplements to justify a poor diet or otherwise unhealthful lifestyle. In my experience, no amount of supplements will ever be able to substitute for healthy food choices. And if you’re depending on a pill of any form to lower your risk of cancer, as the above-mentioned study claims for multivitamins, you’re short-changing yourself, as there are far more comprehensive cancer-prevention strategies available at your fingertips…

Assuming you are using them to complement an otherwise healthy lifestyle, a high-quality multivitamin can be useful. Unfortunately, many spend hundreds of dollars a year or more on synthetic vitamins purchased from discount stores, which typically use cheap synthetic isolates.

Isolated synthetic vitamins are far less than optimal. Your body only absorbs a small percentage of an isolate form of vitamins and minerals, and it utilizes even less. Plus, synthetic vitamins often give you massive quantities of some nutrients (often the most inexpensive ones) and insufficient quantities of others.

Nature intended for you to consume food in whole form because all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and enzymes are together in one package, working synergistically to give your body the nutrition it requires for optimal health. This is why when you choose supplements, you need to look for whole-food supplements — and steer clear of synthetic vitamins.

How Do You Determine Whether or Not a Supplement Is a Good Choice?

For starters, make sure it has the following characteristics:
•It is as close as possible to its natural (whole food) form.
•Use independent third-party labs that check the raw materials for contaminants and correct dosage.
•Follows industry standards for quality assurance including ISO 9001, ISO 17025 and Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) certifications.
•The utmost care has been taken in all phases of its production, from growing its ingredients, to manufacturing, testing for potency and quality control.
•It works! I always try to select from companies that have a long track record of providing high-quality products that produce good clinical results.

Remember, if you are interested in optimizing your health, your BEST solution is to choose the highest quality foods possible, and eat a wide variety of whole organic foods. You can use my free nutrition plan and work your way up to the advanced stage. Once you have addressed your diet and are looking for further improvement, odds are you would likely benefit from some supplements, like an animal-based omega-3 supplement and a probiotic, for example. There are many others you could then consider depending on your specific circumstances, including a high-quality multivitamin, additional antioxidant support and others.

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