Rather Be Healthy

Middle-Aged Americans Committing Suicide at Unprecedented Rate

Newly released statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that more Americans now commit suicide than die in traffic accidents.1, 2, 3

Between 1999 and 2010, the suicide rate among American adults ages 35-64 rose by more than 28 percent, to just under 18 deaths per 100,000.

The sharpest rise in suicides is seen among the middle-aged, suggesting there may be a link to the downturn in our economy, which to some degree has affected most Americans over the past decade. During the 1932 Great Depression, as many as 22 people per 100,000 committed suicide.

The suicide rate for men in their 50’s has risen by 50 percent, to nearly 30 suicides per 100,000.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women is just over eight deaths per 100,000. While not nearly as high as that for men, suicide rates still increased with age among women, with the largest increase seen among women between the ages of 60-64. In this age group, suicide rates rose by nearly 60 percent in the last decade.

According to the CDC:

“Prevalence of mechanisms of suicide changed from 1999 to 2010. Whereas firearm and poisoning suicide rates increased significantly, suffocation (predominantly hanging) suicide rates increased the most among men and women aged 35-64 years.

…Possible contributing factors for the rise in suicide rates among middle-aged adults include the recent economic downturn (historically, suicide rates tend to correlate with business cycles, with higher rates observed during times of economic hardship); a cohort effect, based on evidence that the ‘baby boomer’ generation had unusually high suicide rates during their adolescent years; and a rise in intentional overdoses associated with the increase in availability of prescription opioids.”

Antidepressants May Be Fueling the Problem

Sadly, the knee-jerk conventional treatment for depression and suicidal tendencies is almost exclusively prescription antidepressants. Every year, more than 253 million prescriptions for antidepressants are filled in the United States, making them the second most prescribed drug class in the United States (second only to cholesterol-lowering drugs).4

But how effective are antidepressants in alleviating the symptoms of depression?

Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that antidepressants are often no more effective than a placebo, and in some case less effective. A study published in the January 2010 issue of JAMA concluded there is little evidence that SSRIs (a popular group of antidepressants that includes Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft) have any benefit to people with mild to moderate depression.5 The researchers stated:

“The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo… may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms.”

SSRIs were found to be 33 percent effective, just like a sugar pill—but with far more adverse effects, including violence and suicidal thoughts and actions. Exercise actually outperforms antidepressants, but many still overlook this option.

Total Video Length: 1:02:10
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More and more studies are confirming that antidepressants intensify violent thoughts and behaviors, both suicidal and homicidal, especially among children. And, since the late 1980s, there have been frequent reports of increased violent behavior, including homicides and suicides, among individuals taking antidepressant drugs.

Add to this a faltering economy and many literally feeling like they’re “fighting for their livelihoods” and the safety of their family, and the use of antidepressants may very well be pushing people over the edge rather than keeping them from it… It all depends on how you react to them.

Federal Institute for Mental Health Abandons Psychiatric ‘Bible’

There may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon however, in terms of psychiatric diagnosis and ultimate treatment. The misuse of psychiatric drugs is in part due to the reliance on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—the “bible” of psychiatry, containing all the diagnostic codes for virtually every conceivable mental health problem and personality quirk known to man at this point. There are many problems with this reference book. As stated by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):6

“While DSM has been described as a ‘bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each. The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been “reliability” – each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity.

Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever.

Indeed, symptom-based diagnosis, once common in other areas of medicine, has been largely replaced in the past half century as we have understood that symptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment. Patients with mental disorders deserve better.” [Emphasis mine]

At the end of April, the NIMH (which is responsible for overseeing mental health research in the US, and funds more research in this field than any other agency in the world) announced it will no longer look to the DSM as the “gold standard” for categorizing mental health problems.7 In an effort to improve and transform psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, the Institute has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project, which will incorporate genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other information in order “to lay the foundation for a new classification system.”

Will Psychiatric Transformation Miss the Mark Yet Again?

While this is a step in the right direction, I hope they make the effort to go far enough… The NIMH admits that their approach began with certain assumptions, some of which, I think, may or may not be completely accurate in all cases. And if so, then the most effective treatments may still be completely overlooked. For example, one of the assumptions is that:

“Mental disorders are biological disorders involving brain circuits that implicate specific domains of cognition, emotion, or behavior.”

The assumption that all mental health problems are due to biological dysfunction is to take too narrow a view, in my opinion, because there’s also a spiritual and a bioenergetic component—both of which few psychiatrists bother to address. Also, by limiting it to “biological disorders involving brain circuits” they may completely miss the boat in terms of how nutrition affects your mental health. Mounting research shows that your gut health has a truly profound impact on your mental and emotional states, so to say that the cause of mental disorders is rooted in faulty brain circuits alone still seems rather dogmatic and archaic.

We may in fact be complicating matters when we really should be simplifying. There’s no doubt in my mind that proper nutrition, optimal gut health and vitamin D levels, along with regular exercise and an overall reduction in toxic exposures can go an enormously long way toward curbing the trend of rising mental health problems.

SPECT Imaging—An Invaluable New Tool for Psychiatry

That said, I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet, as I believe there may be room for modern diagnostic tools even within something as nebulous as mental health. For example, last year I interviewed Dr. Daniel Amen, a physician, board-certified psychiatrist, and one of the foremost experts on brain imaging science and brain plasticity. His work with SPECT imaging demonstrates how it can be a remarkably useful tool for psychiatry, especially more complicated cases.

Brain SPECT imaging is different from the anatomical MRI or CT scans. SPECT measures blood flow and activity patterns. It looks at how your brain works. (It’s similar to positron emission tomography (PET) scans, which looks at glucose metabolism.) When using SPECT imaging, physicians look for three things:
1.Areas of your brain that work well
2.Areas of your brain that are low in activity, and
3.Areas of your brain that are high in activity

The job then becomes balancing the different areas of your brain. According to Dr. Amen, most cases of depression and anxiety are symptoms of underlying brain dysfunction. For example, depression can arise if brain activity is too low in your frontal lobes. This inactivity means you cannot inhibit your negative feelings. Depression can also be a symptom of heightened or excessive activity in your frontal lobes, as this leads to an inability to stop thinking the bad thoughts in your head. A traumatic brain injury can also result in symptoms of depression. In fact, according to Dr. Amen, this is very common.

However, he does not dismiss or overlook the impact of lifestyle on brain function. Rather he readily admits that some brain dysfunction is directly related to toxic exposures and/or a combination of poor lifestyle habits, such as a poor diet and lack of exercise. And, unlike most psychiatrists who rely on drugs, Dr. Amen’s treatments to restore and optimize brain function focus on the four-pronged approach of diet, exercise, nutritional supplements, and correcting negative thought patterns.

This, I believe, is a beautiful example of how, by combining the best of both worlds—modern diagnostic tools and science, combined with natural common sense lifestyle changes—can truly make a difference in people’s lives. While getting a SPECT scan can be expensive, it may save you tons of money in the long run. According to a recent study by Dr. Amen and his colleagues, getting a SPECT scan will change what your doctor does 79 percent of the time.

“”We have a new outcome study that we’re publishing on 500 consecutive patients that came to the Amen Clinics who were complicated. After six months, 85 percent showed significant improvements in their quality of life,” Dr. Amen said.” We are very excited about our work. And we have been teaching our colleagues about it for decades… But it’s horrifying what’s happening overall in psychiatry. I would be very cautious about seeing a psychiatrist that is not gathering data on your brain before he or she puts you on multiple medications.”

The Rise of Energy Psychology

Many people avoid energy psychology as they believe it is an alternative form of New Age spirituality, yet nothing could be further from the truth. It is merely an advanced tool that can effectively address some of the psychological short circuiting that occurs in emotional illnesses. It is not any competition at all with any religion but merely an effective resource you can use with whatever spiritual belief you have.

My favorite technique for this is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is the largest and most popular version of energy psychology.

EFT was developed in the 1990s by Gary Craig, a Stanford engineering graduate specializing in healing and self-improvement. It’s akin to acupuncture, which is based on the concept that a vital energy flows through your body along invisible pathways known as meridians. EFT stimulates different energy meridian points in your body by tapping them with your fingertips, while simultaneously using custom-made verbal affirmations. This can be done alone or under the supervision of a qualified therapist. By doing so, you help your body eliminate emotional “scarring” and reprogram the way your body responds to emotional stressors.

While the following video will teach you how to do EFT, it is VERY important to realize that self-treatment for serious mental health issues is NOT recommended. For serious or complex issue you need someone to guide you through the process as there is an incredible art to this process and it typically takes years of training to develop the skill to tap on deep-seated, significant issues.

Research Backs the Use of EFT for Depression

I have been a fan of energy psychology for many years, having witnessed its effectiveness in my medical practice and in my own personal life. However, studies have been few and far between as science has been trying to “catch up” with clinical experience. That has finally started to change. Several studies have been published in the last few years, showing just how safe and effective EFT really is. For example, the following three studies show remarkable progress in a very short amount of time for people with a history of trauma:
1.A 2009 study8 of 16 institutionalized adolescent boys with histories of physical or psychological abuse showed substantially decreased intensity of traumatic memories after just ONE session of EFT.
2.An EFT study9 involving 30 moderately to severely depressed college students was conducted. The depressed students were given four 90-minute EFT sessions. Students who received EFT showed significantly less depression than the control group when evaluated three weeks later.
3.In a study of 100 veterans with severe PTSD10 (Iraq Vets Stress Project),11 after just six one-hour EFT sessions, 90 percent of the veterans had such a reduction in symptoms that they no longer met the clinical criteria for PTSD; 60 percent no longer met PTSD criteria after only three EFT sessions. At the three-month follow-up, the gains remained stable, suggesting lasting and potentially permanent resolution of the problem.

Red Flags: Is Someone You Know Suicidal?

If someone close to you has recently endured a hardship, or you have noticed a change in their behavior, how can you tell when ordinary stress or sadness has progressed to a potentially suicidal level? Besides straightforward or “sideways” comments about not wanting to live any longer, some of the red flags that a person has a high risk for self-harm include:

Acquiring a weapon

Hoarding medication

No plan for the future

Putting affairs in order

Making or changing a will

Giving away personal belongings

Mending grievances

Checking on insurance policies

Withdrawing from people

If you think someone is suicidal, do not leave him or her alone. Most suicide attempts are expressions of extreme distress, not harmless bids for attention. A person who appears suicidal needs immediate professional help. Help the person to seek immediate assistance from their doctor or the nearest hospital emergency room, or call 911. Eliminate access to firearms or other potential suicide aids, including unsupervised access to medications.

Are You, or Someone You Know Currently Struggling With Depression or Feeling Suicidal?

If you are feeling desperate or have any thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a toll-free number 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or call 911, or simply go to your nearest Hospital Emergency Department.

I know firsthand that depression and suicide is devastating. It takes a toll on the healthiest of families and can destroy lifelong friendships. Few things are harder in life than losing someone you love, especially to suicide.

It’s impossible to impart the will to live to somebody who no longer possesses it. No amount of logic, reasoning, or reminders about all they have to live for will put a smile back on the face of a loved one who is seriously contemplating suicide.

If you are currently the one struggling in a dark place, realize that oftentimes you cannot change your circumstances. You can, however, change your response to them. I encourage you to be balanced in your life. Don’t ignore your body’s warning signs that something needs to change. Sometimes people are so busy taking care of everybody else that they lose sight of taking care of themselves. Know that it’s okay to take care of yourself. Putting yourself last is a serious mistake, as you need to find ways to “refill” and replenish your own energy stores or else you’ll eventually burn out.

There really are no easy answers—especially when the troubles are related to crumbling finances, joblessness, or tumultuous family- and living situations. So many seem to be suffering these days; emotional and mental pain really is epidemic. Knowing that others are suffering as well can be helpful to a degree, but overall, it may only add to the sum total of ones misery and adding to the feeling that there’s no hope… One of the most effective ways of being supportive is perhaps to simply allow yourself to reach out and try to truly connect with the person who is suffering—even if it’s a virtual stranger. Sometimes, having someone look you in the eye and asking you how you are, and really meaning it, can be the lifeline needed in that moment…

Long-Term Strategies for Improving Your Mental Health

You can’t make long-term plans for lifestyle changes when you are in a crisis, so clearly, the following recommendations are not meant to get you out of an acute situation. Rather, I invite you to take these lifestyle recommendations to heart as a preventive measure, before depression and other troubles set in. Optimizing your health may actually be one of the most important things you can do to help you make it safely through financially hard times, as faltering health in combination with poverty can lead even the most level-headed people to the limit of what they can endure.

My top tips to support positive mental health are as follows:
•Energy psychology is one of the most powerful tools for resolving emotional issues—specifically a technique called EFT. For serious problems like depression you do NOT want to perform EFT on yourself, you need to seek guidance from a skilled professional,12 ideally someone who is also trained in conventional methods. The effectiveness of any energy psychology technique will be significantly improved if you combine it with the tips that follow.
•Dramatically decrease your consumption of sugar (particularly fructose), grains, and processed foods. (In addition to being high in sugar and grains, processed foods also contain a variety of additives that can affect your brain function and mental state, especially artificial sweeteners.)
•Adequate vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 deficiency can contribute to depression and affects one in four people.
•Optimize your vitamin D levels, ideally through regular sun exposure. Vitamin D is very important for your mood. One study found that people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who had normal levels.

The best way to get vitamin D is through exposure to SUNSHINE, not swallowing a capsule. Remember, SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of depression that we know is related to sunshine deficiency, so it would make sense that the perfect way to optimize your vitamin D is through sun exposure, or a safe tanning bed if you don’t have regular access to the sun.
•Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats are crucial for optimal brain function and mental health, and most people don’t get enough from diet alone. So make sure you take a high-quality omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.
•Evaluate your salt intake. Sodium deficiency actually creates symptoms that are very much like those of depression. Make sure you do NOT use processed salt (regular table salt) however. You’ll want to use an all natural, unprocessed salt like Himalayan salt, which contains more than 80 different micronutrients.
•Adequate daily exercise. Exercise is one of the best-kept secrets to preventing and treating depression.
•Make sure your cholesterol levels aren’t too low for optimal mental health. I have been educating the public about the underreported, adverse effects associated with lowering cholesterol through drugs like statins for many years, but what many still do not know is that low cholesterol is linked to dramatically increased rates of suicide, as well as aggression towards others.

This increased expression of violence towards self and others may be due to the fact that low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors in the brain (which is approximately 30 percent cholesterol by weight). Lower serum cholesterol concentrations therefore may contribute to decreasing brain serotonin, which not only contributes to suicidal-associated depression, but prevents the suppression of aggressive behavior and violence towards self and others.13

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Sleep is such an important part of your overall wellness that no amount of healthful food and exercise can counteract the ill effects of poor sleeping habits.

Researchers have linked poor sleep to a number of health ailments, from short-term memory loss and behavioral problems, to weight gain, diabetes and even increased risk of cancer, just to mention a few.

Yet sleep is usually one of the first things people sacrifice when the calendar starts to fill up with commitments and to-do’s.

Sleep researchers are also hard at work trying to develop ways to dramatically reduce people’s need for sleep, if not eliminate it entirely. I believe that to be foolhardy to say the least, but I can certainly see how the military would find the notion enticing.

Can Technology Eliminate Your Need for Sleep?

Stimulants like modafinil and dextroamphetamine have long been used to combat daytime sleepiness caused by lack of nighttime sleep. Clearly, this is putting the cart before the horse, and stimulants have their limitations, including reduced performance and amphetamine-induced paranoia—both of which can be considered significant drawbacks, if not liabilities, if lives are on the line.

According to the featured article in Aeon,1 new technologies are emerging, promising to decrease our relentless need for sleep, without the side effects associated with stimulant drugs:

“Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – the research arm of the US military – leads the way in squeezing a full night’s sleep into fewer hours, by forcing sleep the moment head meets pillow, and by concentrating that sleep into only the most restorative stages.”

To improve the restorative effects of “power napping,” the military has developed a mask called the Somneo Sleep Trainer. The mask screens out audio- and visual distractions, has a warming element around the eyes that promotes relaxation, and contains a blue light that gradually brightens as your alarm time nears.

The blue light helps to suppress melatonin production, which is thought to help you feel less groggy when you wake up, even though you haven’t had a full night’s sleep. According to the featured article:

“Sleep ideally contains multiple 60- to 90-minute cycles, from slow-wave sleep back up to REM, but a 20-minute nap is all about dipping into Stage 2 as quickly as possible. The idea of the Somneo is to fast-track through Stage 1 sleep, a gateway stage with few inherent benefits, and enter Stage 2, which at least restores fatigued muscles and replenishes alertness.”

Interestingly enough, another military initiative involves omega-3 supplementation, as animal-based omega-3’s have been found to “sustain performance over 48 hours without sleep” and improve attention and learning.

Other newer technologies include an FDA approved transcranial stimulation device to treat insomnia, sold by Fisher Wallace Laboratories. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) is becoming increasingly popular among insomniacs.

While similar to electroconvulsive therapy (aka “shock therapy”), tDCS uses far less of a charge—just enough to alter the polarization of the neurons without making them fire. As of yet, no detrimental effects on the brain have been observed, but studies are still being done to investigate the exact mechanisms that make it so effective. According to the featured article:

“After a half-hour session… subjects are energized, focused and keenly awake. They learn visual search skills at double the speed, and their subsequent sleep — as long as it does not fall directly after the stimulation session — is more consolidated, with briefer waking periods and longer deep-sleep sessions.

To combat insomnia, this type of treatment is used daily in two-week sessions, according to clinical recommendations by Richard Brown, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The mechanism might lie in its anti-anxiety effects: patients familiar with Xanax or Valium describe their post-tCDS mood as a clear-headed version of taking these medications.”

Another technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) directly causes your neurons to fire, which can literally induce deep sleep at the flip of a switch… TMS devices are being investigated by neuroscientists at Duke University, who have shown that by targeting a central region at the top of your head, pulsed slow-frequencies can enter the neural area where sleep is generated. Once artificially stimulated in this way, your brain in essence shuts “off” more or less instantly.

Some see the promise of sleep-enhancing technologies as a form of life extension, as sleeping less while still maintaining performance would extend your conscious lifespan. The question is whether it can really be done without ill effects. After all, your circadian rhythms or “body clocks” have a powerful influence on multiple biological systems, some of which we may not even fully understand as of yet.

How do You Know if You’re Getting Proper Sleep?

If you feel well-rested in the morning, that’s a good sign that your sleep habits are just fine. But if not, you might want to investigate your sleep patterns more closely. You could have a professional evaluation in a sleep laboratory for a comprehensive diagnosis if you think you may have sleep apnea or another sleep disorder interfering with quality sleep, or consider the Zeo Sleep Mobile Manager, a useful new tool that is available on Amazon for under $100.

ZEO is an innovative sleep measurement device that you can use at home. It’s an electronic device with a headband that emits a signal into what looks like an alarm clock. This device allows you to perform a personalized ‘sleep study.’ It’s strongly correlated with polysonography, which you typically have to go to a sleep center to get, and pay big bucks for – around $2,000 for just one night.

The ZEO allows you to measure your sleep night after night, for as long as you want. So the device lets you evaluate how various factors affect your sleep. For example, you can evaluate how your sleep was affected by a cup of coffee in the afternoon, or how doing computer work past a certain hour impacted your sleep. The data collection is quite sophisticated. It will show you your time awake, how long it took you to fall asleep, time in light sleep, time in deep sleep, and time in REM sleep. It distributes this information over a graph and gives you percentages, along with a cumulative score of your sleep over time. It’s a sophisticated device that I think can be used in a really positive way, by helping you determine what works and what doesn’t.

Zeo is an important tool as it will allow you to carefully biohack your sleep and determine precisely the effect of new lifestyle changes on your sleep. It is important to use the less expensive mobile sleep manager as that will allow you scan your brainwaves without transmitting the data until the morning when you awake and manually transfer to your smart phone or tablet via Bluetooth.

I have been using Zeo for nearly three years now and have accumulated loads of data. When I first started using it I was frequently only getting less than 10 minutes a night of deep sleep. For over two years I struggled to increase it but was unable to figure out how to do that until I started oral myofunctional therapy which you can learn more about in the video below. After six months of therapy I was able to increase my deep sleep to close by an hour and occasionally two hours which is a beyond-phenomenal improvement.

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My only caution on the new therapies that are being discussed above is to use them in conjunction with a ZEO otherwise you will have no idea how they are impacting the quality of your sleep. And the other technologies may not even be necessary as the ZEO application itself provides loads of customized feedback depending on what phase of your sleep is disrupted.

How Sound Can Affect Your Sleep

In related news,2 sound stimulation has been shown to be effective for prolonging deep sleep and improving memory. Published in the journal Neuron,3 the study found that playing “pink noise,” sounds that were synchronized to the subject’s brain waves when the subject approached deep sleep, allowed them to remain in deep sleep longer than when the sound was not played. The participants were also shown 120 pairs of words before going to bed and tested the following morning to see how many they could remember. After sound stimulation, the subjects improved their memory retention by nearly 60 percent, recalling an average of 22 sets of words compared to 13 when the sound was not played.

The key, according to the authors, is that the frequency of the sound was synched to the subject’s brain waves. This produced an increase in the size of the brain waves during deep sleep, and these slower brain waves are associated with information processing and memory formation. Co-author Dr. Jan Born told Nature World News:4

“The beauty lies in the simplicity to apply auditory stimulation at low intensities-an approach that is both practical and ethical, if compared for example with electrical stimulation-and therefore portrays a straightforward tool for clinical settings to enhance sleep rhythms.”

Numerous studies have shown the importance of sleep for all things related to brain function, from memory formation and retention, to learning, creativity and problem solving. If you keep toiling over a problem you can easily wind up with tunnel vision that keeps you from finding an appropriate solution. Sleep, it turns out, removes the blinders and helps “reset” your brain to look at things from a different perspective, which is crucial to creativity.

So will technology eventually be able to allow your brain and all your biochemical systems to harmoniously function on, say, half of your normal sleep? Time will tell, but in the meantime, I’d strongly suggest working on getting some regular shut-eye the natural way, because your mental and physical health does depend on it. Chronic insomnia has even been linked to premature death from any cause. Again, if you are going to use any intervention it is my strong recommendation that you use a device like the ZEO Sleep Mobile Manager that I discussed above as it will provide you with the hard objective data you need to make an intelligent determination of how effective the therapy was.

How Too Little Sleep Affects Your Health

If you fail to sleep well regularly, for whatever reason, it is virtually impossible to be optimally healthy, as interrupted or impaired sleep can cause a ripple-effect capable of wreaking all sorts of havoc in your body. For example, poor sleep can:

Dramatically weaken your immune system

Contribute to mood disorders like depression

Decrease production of melatonin, a potent antioxidant that helps to suppress harmful free radicals and slows the production of estrogen, which can activate cancer

Raise your risk of heart disease

Accelerate tumor growth – tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions

Raise your risk of stomach ulcers

Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you’ve already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your weight

Contribute to constipation

Impair your performance on physical or mental tasks, and decrease your problem solving ability

Accelerate aging

Seriously impair your memory; even a single night of poor sleep – meaning sleeping only 4 to 6 hours – can impact your ability to think clearly the next day

Adversely impact your levels of thyroid and stress hormones

10 Reasons Why You Might Have Trouble Sleeping

There are many factors that can influence your sleep. For my complete recommendations and guidelines that can help you improve your sleep, please see my article 33 Secrets to a Good Night’s Sleep. Following are 10 often-overlooked factors to address if you’re having trouble with your sleep:
1.Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin. So close your bedroom door, and get rid of night-lights. Refrain from turning on any light at all during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. Cover up your clock radio. Cover your windows – I recommend using blackout shades or drapes.

All life evolved in response to predictable patterns of light and darkness, called circadian rhythms. Modern day electrical lighting has significantly betrayed your inner clock by disrupting your natural rhythms. Little bits of light pass directly through your optic nerve to your hypothalamus, which controls your biological clock. Light signals your brain that it’s time to wake up and starts preparing your body for action.
2.Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Many people keep their homes and particularly their upstairs bedrooms too warm. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, between 60 to 68 degrees. Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep. When you sleep, your body’s internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body’s natural temperature drop.
3.Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). These can disrupt the pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well. To do this, you need a gauss meter. You can find various models online, starting around $50 to $200. Some experts even recommend pulling your circuit breaker before bed to kill all power in your house.
4.Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your bed. If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least 3 feet. Remove the clock from view. It will only add to your worry when you stare at it all night… 2 a.m. …3 a.m. …4:30 a.m.
5.Avoid using loud alarm clocks. It is very stressful on your body to be suddenly jolted awake. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, an alarm may even be unnecessary. I gave up my alarm clock years ago and now use a sun alarm clock, an alarm that combines the features of a traditional alarm clock (digital display, AM/FM radio, beeper, snooze button, etc.) with a special built-in light that gradually increases in intensity, simulating sunrise.
6.Consider separate bedrooms. Recent studies suggest, for many people, sharing a bed with a partner (or pets) can significantly impair sleep, especially if the partner is a restless sleeper or snores. If bedfellows are consistently interfering with your sleep, you may want to consider a separate bedroom.
7.Avoid exercising too close to bedtime. Exercising for at least 30 minutes per day can improve your sleep. But if you exercise too close to bedtime (generally within the three hours before) it may keep you awake.
8.Avoid alcohol and caffeine before bed. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol can also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.

As for coffee, keep in mind caffeine has a half-life of five hours, which means some will still be in your system even 10 hours later, and 12.5 percent 20 hours later (see the problem?). Plus, in some people caffeine is not metabolized efficiently, leaving you feeling its effects even longer after consumption. So, an afternoon cup of coffee or tea will keep some people from falling asleep at night. Be aware that some over the counter medications contain caffeine as well (for example, diet pills).
9.Avoid watching TV. The artificial glow from your TV can serve as a stimulus for keeping you awake and, possibly, eating, when you should really be asleep. Further, computer and TV screens (and most light bulbs) emit blue light, to which your eyes are particularly sensitive simply because it’s the type of light most common outdoors during daytime hours. As a result, it can disrupt your melatonin production and further interfere with your sleep.
10.Avoid eating three hours before bed. Although you might struggle with this initially, it is ideal to avoid eating any foods three hours before bed, as this will optimize your blood sugar, insulin and leptin levels and contribute to overall good health.

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

Beat the worst of chemotherapy with medicinal mushrooms

The chances of a brush with cancer these days are unfortunately high, especially in the West – with one in three now expected to suffer some form our most notorious disease at some point in their lives. With the rise of environmental toxins, unnatural levels of hormones in dairy and meat produce, transfats and sugars in foods, and freaky chemicals in cosmetics, cancer’s relentless rise is unwelcome, but ultimately understandable.

Whereas NaturalNews readers will be aware that a healthy diet filled with wholefoods and genuine nutrition is a great way to help protect yourself against cancer, the fact is we can never tell exactly where the cancer roulette wheel will land.

Given this, many people will unfortunately have to suffer chemotherapy at some point in their treatment, which severely diminishes the immune system and energy levels. Fortunately, nature has ways to counteract the worst of any trial man can dream up! One of the lesser known ways of combating the some of the negative effects of cancer and chemotherapy is from the use of medicinal mushrooms.

Medicinal mushrooms are a group of edible mushrooms, or extracts from the mushrooms, which contain a diverse range of incredibly powerful compounds which have been scientifically proven to 1) prevent certain cancers; 2) reduce symptoms of cancers; 3) significantly boost a compromised immune system; and, 4) reduce negative effects of various cancer treatments, including chemotherapy.

In the USA and Europe, knowledge is finally seeping through about the power hidden in the mycological kingdom, and Western science is confirming ancient Eastern knowledge about the health improving and cancer fighting abilities of medicinal mushrooms.

Snow Fungus (Tremella Fuciforims)
Cobalt-60 is a type of radiation therapy which has been used for 60 years. It is one of the most precise administrations of radiotherapy, most commonly used in brain cancer. Despite its usefulness as a conventional treatment, Cobalt-60 chemotherapy reduces myeloid granuloctyes (an important type of white blood cell which is damaged during chemotherapy) to 20 percent of natural levels. However, daily administration of Tremella Fuciformis (Snow Fungus) leads to a reduction of myeloid granulocytes to 60 percent of the normal amount – a significant 40 percent boost over non-users.

Polysaccharide-K (PSK)
PSK is a polysaccharide extracted from the Turkey Tail Mushroom, the most researched of the medicinal mushrooms, and is licensed in Japan as an adjuvant in cancer treatment (An adjuvant is something which is recommended for use alongside conventional cancer treatment) and has scientifically proven anticancer activity from in vitro (in the lab) and in vivo (in the body). At the University of Texas Cancer Center MD Anderson has reported that it is a “promising candidate for chemo-prevention due to the multiple effects on the malignant process, limited side effects and safety of daily oral doses for extended periods of time.” Anecdotal reports suggest during chemotherapy, users of Turkey Tail extracts have a better immune system response; in Japan it can even be claimed on medical insurance!

Shiitake – Lentinan
Most people know the gourmet Shiitake Mushroom (Lentinus Edodes), but less are aware of its cancer fighting properties. One of the symptoms of cancer, and specifically chemotherapy, is the huge strain on the immune system. Polysaccharide compounds in the Shiitake Mushroom significantly increase immune function, helping chemotherpay sufferers boost their immune system. A pure extract of one of these polysaccharides is called lentinan and has been licensed for anti-tumour treatment in Japan for 30 years, and clinical studies of cancer patients have associated lentinan with a higher survival rate, higher quality of life, and lower re-occurrence rates.

Other medicinal mushrooms which also improve immune function include Reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum), ABM (Agaricus Blazei Murril), Chaga (Inonotus Obliquus) and Antrodia CamphorataAntrodia Camphorata. Have a look around online, find out about medicinal mushrooms and their effects on cancer treatment and if you or a friend is unfortunate enough to suffer cancer, maybe these natural marvels might be able to lend a helping hand.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.mdanderson.org

Medicinal Mushroom Benefits, Foraging and Identification

The Mushroom Cultivator, Paul Stamets and J.S. Chilton

About the author:
Mark Towse is a professional naturopath, nutritionist and mycologist specializing in herbal extracts, phytonutrients and medicinal mushrooms. He owns and runs the European herbal extract specialist Active Health Supplements, www.activehealthsupplements.com. He is interested in all things relating to the natural world, particularly the healing power hidden within the plant kingdom and how nature has given us the power to detoxify, re-balance and strengthen ourselves in the increasingly crazy pressures of modern life! If you are interested in high-strength herbal extracts and rare medicinal mushrooms, or are looking for more information or advice in his specialist areas, he’d love you to visit his website www.activehealthsupplements.com.

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Thunder god vine compound annihilates cancer in 40 days, researchers discover

Rarely known outside traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), lei gong teng or “thunder god vine” is stunning Western researchers with its ability to stop cancer in its tracks – in as little as forty days. Used for its health enhancing qualities for more than 2,000 years in China, the West is beginning to recognize the astounding benefits of the vine for treating cancer, giving new hope to those who suffer from the most deadly forms of the disease.

Thunder god vine compound swiftly conquers cancer
Lei gong teng (Tripterygium wilfordii) is native to China, Japan and Korea where it has long been valued for its distinct anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive and anti-cancer properties. Supplying ample amounts of the active compound triptolide, the herb demonstrates substantial success in eradicating cancerous tumors.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center discovered that mice treated with triptolide for 40 days showed no further incidence of tumors, even after ceasing treatment. Ashok Saluja, vice chairman of research and the study’s leader, told Bloomberg, “You could see every day you looked at those mice, the tumor was decreasing and decreasing, and then just gone.”

Scientists at John Hopkins School of Medicine also found extracts of lei gong teng to be effective in eliminating cancerous tumors. Jun O. Liu, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at Johns Hopkins, notes:

“… triptolide has been shown to block the growth of all 60 U.S. National Cancer Institute cell lines at very low doses, and even causes some of those cell lines to die.”

Apparently, the compound impedes the manufacture of new RNA, thereby curbing cancerous proliferation in mice. These findings are laying the foundation for human clinical trials in the near future.

Triptolide has been shown to inhibit colorectal, pancreatic and ovarian cancers, among others. Rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and lupus respond to lei gong teng as well.

Since the herb can cause serious side effects, including loss of bone density, headache and infertility, it is important to consult a qualified TCM practitioner before use.

The dark side of scientific research
Even though emerging research regarding the thunder god vine is encouraging, financial gain is still the underlying motivating factor. Anthony Gucciardi of Natural Society aptly observes:

“While it is great news that this study is bringing the beneficial effects of inexpensive and near-free plant compounds to light, the bad news is that the individuals responsible for the research are actually looking to create a pharmaceutical drug from the essential component triptolide. A drug that will seek FDA approval and ultimately be patented, nutritionally ruined, and sold for exorbitant amounts of cash. Instead, just get your hands on some thunder god vine for yourself.”

Sources for this article include:

http://naturalsociety.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303153118.htm

http://www.bloomberg.com

http://www.naturalstandard.com

http://www.plosone.org

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22902510

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22464014

http://www.livingwellmagazine.net

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

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How Angelina Jolie was Duped by Cancer Doctors into Self Mutilation for Cancer She Never Had…

In a New York Times op-ed explaining her decision to have both of her breasts surgically removed even though she doesn’t have breast cancer, Angelina Jolie cited risk numbers as key to her decision. She said that doctors told her she had an “87% risk of breast cancer.” Her solution? Undergo three months of surgical procedures and have her breasts cut out.

Problem solved, right? With her breasts removed, she says her risk of breast cancer is now reduced to a mere 5 percent. The same bizarre logic can also be applied to men who cut off their testicles to “prevent testicular cancer” or people who cut out their colons to “prevent colorectal cancer.” But that would be insane, so nobody does that, because one of the most basic principles of medicine is that you don’t subject patients to the considerable risks and costs of surgery and anesthesia to remove organs that have no disease!

But the really sad part about all this is that Angelina Jolie was lied to. She didn’t have an 87% risk of breast cancer in the first place. All the women reading her NYT op-ed piece are also being lied to.

Here’s why…

How cancer doctors lie with statistics and use fear to scare women into high-profit procedures
The very idea that breast cancer is a “percent risk” is a complete lie. In reality, everyone has cancer micro-tumors in their bodies, including myself. Cancer is not a disease you just “get” like being randomly struck by lightning. It’s something you must “manage” or “prevent” day by day, meal by meal, through a lifestyle choice that involves vitamin D supplementation, nutrition, superfoods, vegetable juices and avoidance of cancer-causing chemicals and radiation.

So when a doctor says you have a “chance” of getting cancer, what he’s implying is that you have no control over cancer, and that’s an outright lie. Cancer quackery, in other words.

Even Jolie with her BRCA1 gene that’s linked to breast cancer can quite easily follow a dietary and lifestyle plan that suppresses BRCA1 gene expression. It’s not rocket science. It’s not even difficult. It can be done with simple foods that cost a few dollars a day. Those foods include raw citrus, resveratrol (red grapes or red wine), raw cruciferous vegetables, omega-3 oils and much more. Those same foods also help prevent heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other chronic diseases.

Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), by the way, a natural chemical found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage, offers powerful prevention against BRCA1 gene expression. But you don’t hear cancer doctors telling women to “eat more cabbage” because that doesn’t make the cancer industry any money. You can buy I3C as a potent nutritional supplement from a variety of sources. It’s literally cancer prevention in a capsule.

So the whole “chance” argument is pure quackery. There is no chance involved in whether you get cancer. It’s all cause and effect. You are either living a pro-cancer lifestyle and therefore growing cancer, or you’re living an anti-cancer lifestyle and keeping cancer in check so that it never becomes a problem. Cause and effect is what results in either the growth of cancer tumors or the prevention of cancer tumors. There is no “luck” involved.

It’s fascinating, isn’t it, that medical doctors don’t believe in luck or voodoo on any topic other than cancer. But when it comes to cancer, they want all women to be suckered into the victim mentality that cancer is purely a matter of “luck” and therefore women have no control over their own health outcomes. How dis-empowering! How sick! How incredibly exploitive of women!

If you really want to be informed about breast cancer and the corrupt, dishonest cancer industry, read my related article 10 Facts about the Breast Cancer Industry You’re Not Supposed to Know. Or listen to our upcoming FREE Cancer Solutions Summit broadcasting this coming Monday, May 20th.

Why doesn’t the cancer industry empower women with a sense of control over their own health?

I find it astonishing that the cancer industry doesn’t believe in cause and effect. They would rather scare women with “risk” statistics that imply people have no control over cancer. Empowering women with a sense of control over their own health is the last thing the cancer industry wants to do, because that would cause them to lose customers and lose money.

It’s far more profitable to scare all women into a state of such irrational panic that they agree to the most insane things imaginable such as chopping off both their healthy breasts even though they have no cancer. Such women are then convinced they’ve literally saved their own lives by agreeing to be mutilated by cancer surgeons.

“My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent,” says Jolie. “I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”

Will she also tell her children they should mutilate themselves, too, as a form of medical disease prevention? And what happens if she learns she has a risk of brain cancer? Does she chop off her head and call it a cure?

The scam of making women believe there is only ONE way to reduce your “risk” of breast cancer

The other enormous scam in all this is the idea that there’s only one way to reduce your “risk” of breast cancer. Even if you believe the fictitious number of “87% risk,” why does everyone automatically assume there is one and only one way to lower that risk?

“For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options,” writes Jolie in the NYT. Yet she utterly fails to offer women any options other than the one she took: check in to a cancer center and let them play “cut-poison-burn” on your body. Jolie’s op-ed piece, which reads as if it were written by the public relations department of the Pink Lotus Breast Center, offers nothing in the way of nutrition advice, lifestyle choices, holistic therapies, wellness, alternative medicine… nothing! What an incredible disservice to all the women of America…

In the world of health, nutrition and cancer, there are thousands of ways to prevent cancer and suppress the expression of BRCA1 genes. But Jolie and the cancer industry seem to imply no options exist other than chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Three options only. Nothing else exists in their world, not nutritional prevention, not vitamin D therapy, not vitamin C potentiated micro-chemotherapy, not ozone therapy, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, stress reduction or anything else. You are supposed to believe that none of these things exist!

And why? Because the cancer industry wants to funnel women like cattle into their slash-poison-burn system of quack treatments. And Angelina Jolie is their new cheerleader. Scarred and no doubt experiencing the chest and armpit numbness that almost always accompanies mastectomy surgery, she now seeks to “inspire” other women to exercise their own sick “choice” and have their breasts removed, too!

It is the sickest invocation of women’s power that I’ve ever witnessed. This is not empowering women, it’s marching them into self-mutilation. And the “risk” is a complete fraud. In truth, Angelina Jolie had a higher risk of dying on the operating table than dying from breast cancer if she simply followed an anti-cancer lifestyle.

Don’t be tricked into self-mutilation by cancer industry quacks

In summary:

• The claim that you have a “percent risk” of breast cancer is a big lie which implies you have no control over cancer.

• BRCA1 genes can be kept quiet (suppressed) through proper foods and lifestyle choices. A gene is not a death sentence.

• The implication that there is only ONE way to reduce breast cancer risk is a complete lie. There are thousands of options and strategies for preventing cancer. Never be cornered into surgery by a group of surgeons pushing irrational fear.

• Cancer micro-tumors exist in everyone. Cancer must be “managed” in everyone to keep it in check and avoid the growth of tumors.

• The cancer industry tricks women using unethical fear tactics to scare women with false statistics into high-profit cancer procedures that only cause them harm.

• The claim that cutting off healthy breasts somehow “empowers” women is sick and demented. Women are far more empowered by honest information on nutrition and healthy living that allows them to keep their bodies intact rather than being sliced up by dishonest cancer surgeons.

-Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com

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Face it – most people aren’t really eating the things they should, engorging themselves on food types that should be avoided at all costs. Considering the wide array of processed foods today, it is kind of hard to avoid eating any of these. For those who are currently planning to live a healthier lifestyle, following are six of the healthiest food types you’re probably not eating but should:

Guava
Guava is one of the healthiest fruits today that can be found in most stores. This particular fruit has a high concentration of vitamins and minerals that help boost the immune system against common types of colds. Not only that, the guava actually contains more potassium than the banana, specifically 63 percent more. It also contains the antioxidant lycopene which helps flush out toxins from the body. When eaten on a routine basis, guava is believed to help in preventing prostate cancer.

Frozen blueberries
It’s true that fresh blueberries provide the best vitamins and minerals, but getting them is really impractical. Instead, you can simply purchase frozen blueberries that are luckily available for the whole year. They can be served as a shake or yogurt, providing you with a healthy dose of antioxidants, and they are very high in dietary fiber too,w hich may prevent weight gain by providing calories that are not absorbed and displacing high-calorie refined foods.

Cabbage
Lots of people seem to forget cabbage in favor of other green and leafy vegetables such as lettuce. What most people don’t realize is that this vegetable is jam packed with nutrients that can fight cancer.

Beets
Another cancer-fighting vegetable is beets which look unappealing at first. This not so desirable food is laced with folic acid which provides excellent help to pregnant women. The color of the beets which most people do not like is actually the main attraction of the vegetable as the pigments are believed to help prevent the onset of cancer.

Sardines
Although they may seem like processed food, sardines actually come with various minerals that make them ideal for a weekly diet. Sardines are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids known for their positive effects with cholesterol levels and weight loss. There’s also a bunch of potassium, magnesium, zinc and B vitamins that can help boost a person’s immune system.

Canned pumpkin
Another product that most people steer clear of is pumpkin. Probably the only time it becomes popular is during the Halloween but after that, individuals rarely devise recipes with pumpkin in the ingredient. What is important to know is that pumpkin actually contains lots of fiber for digestion. It also has very few calories, ideal for weight watchers. Although fresh pumpkin is usually the best source, the canned ones are every bit as good and shouldn’t discourage anyone.

Of course, those aren’t the only healthy food items that may be lacking in your diet. Keep in mind that the hallmark of a healthy individual is balance. As long as a person eats a balanced meal combined with daily exercises, there’s a good chance that he will enjoy a long and happy life.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.mnn.com

http://lifehacker.com

http://caloriecount.about.com

About the author:
Sandeep is an avid rock climber, Mountaineer, runner, and fitness coach. He shares his tips for staying in shape and eating healthy on several fitness sites.

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

Grapes and standardized grape extracts fight cellular oxidation to protect against metabolic dysfunction

Metabolic syndrome refers to a related group of conditions including increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels that dramatically increase the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes, among a host of other serious chronic diseases. Extensive research has identified a number of natural foods and aggressive lifestyle changes that can delay or even prevent the development of serious health problems.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have presented the result of their work to the Experimental Biology Conference in Boston that shows how consuming grapes may help protect against organ damage associated with the progression of metabolic syndrome. The scientists explain that natural components found in grapes, known as polyphenols, are thought to be responsible for the beneficial effects.

Grapes and standardized grape extracts fight cellular oxidation to protect against metabolic dysfunction
The team has found that regular consumption of a variety of different colored grapes can directly impact the development of metabolic syndrome, even when consumed as part of a high fat, American-style diet followed by millions across the country. Using a mouse model designed to simulate human metabolism, researchers examined the effect of feeding a high fat diet supplemented with a freeze-dried grape powder extract to two test groups, with one isolated as an unsupplemented control group for a period of 90 days.

The results showed that three months of a grape-enriched diet significantly reduced inflammatory markers throughout the body, but most significantly in the liver and in abdominal fat tissue. Grape consumption in the supplemented group also reduced liver, kidney and abdominal fat weight, and increased markers of antioxidant defense, particularly in the liver and kidneys. Lead study investigator, Dr. Mitchell Seymour commented “Our study suggests that a grape-enriched diet may play a critical role in protecting against metabolic syndrome and the toll it takes on the body and its organs.”

Consuming grapes and grape seed extract has been shown to improve levels of cognition and lower the risk of developing dementia in past studies, and now may be used as a critical component in the fight against metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Dr. Seymour concluded “Both inflammation and oxidative stress play a role in cardiovascular disease progression and organ dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. Grape intake impacted both of these components in several tissues which is a very promising finding.” Nutrition scientists recommend consuming several servings of grapes each week or supplementing with a standardized extract (150 to 250 mg daily) to fight the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and lower the risk of organ damage.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.uofmhealth.org

http://medicalxpress.com

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130422111242.htm

About the author:
John Phillip is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and Health Researcher and Author who writes regularly on the cutting edge use of diet, lifestyle modifications and targeted supplementation to enhance and improve the quality and length of life. John is the author of ‘Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan’, a comprehensive EBook explaining how to use Diet, Exercise, Mind and Targeted Supplementation to achieve your weight loss goal. Visit My Optimal Health Resource to continue reading the latest health news updates, and to download your Free 48 page copy of ‘Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan’.

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One of the world’s most popular non-caloric sweeteners has recently been exposed as a complete fraud

One of the world’s most popular non-caloric sweeteners has recently been exposed as a complete fraud. A new study published in the journal Diabetes Care reveals that Splenda (sucralose), which is commonly marketed to diabetics as a safe, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS), actually elicits a diabetes-promoting effect in people who consume it.

Researchers from the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, made this discovery after evaluating the metabolic effects of consuming Splenda on a small group of 17 human participants, all of whom were obese and who did not consume artificial sweeteners at the beginning of the study. Each participant was subjected to either Splenda or control water 10 minutes prior to undergoing a five-hour glucose tolerance test.

At the conclusion of the randomized crossover trial, the team observed that Splenda consumption prompted noticeable changes in terms of insulin production, circulating insulin levels, and bodily sensitivity to insulin. As relayed by GreenMedInfo.com, a single dose of Splenda was found to increase plasma glucose concentrations by 0.6 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L). It also led to a 20 percent spike in insulin levels, a 22 percent increased peak insulin secretion rate, a 7 percent decrease in insulin clearance, and a 23 percent decrease in insulin sensitivity.

“Compared with the control condition, sucralose ingestion caused 1) a greater incremental increase in peak plasma glucose concentrations, 2) a … greater incremental increase in insulin area under the curve (AUC), 3) a … greater peak insulin secretion rate, 4) a … decrease in insulin clearance, and 5) a … decrease in SI (insulin sensitivity),” wrote the authors in their abstract. “These data demonstrate that sucralose affects the glycemic and insulin responses to an oral glucose load in obese people who do not normally consume NNS.”

Splenda also linked to causing gastrointestinal upset, migraine headaches and environmental damage
This is all quite shocking, especially when considering that Splenda’s entire existence is predicated on the notion that it is a safe and acceptable sweetening substitute for refined sugar products, which are widely known to spike blood glucose levels and trigger excess insulin production. Many diabetics use Splenda because they have been told that it has a minimal effect on blood sugar levels, and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

But it gets worse. Not only has Splenda now been shown to be detrimental for diabetics, but it has also previously been shown to cause a host of other health problems. A 2011 study published in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology, for instance, identified a link between sucralose consumption and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). And a 2008 study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A found that consumption of Splenda well below the FDA’s acceptable daily intake levels disrupted gut flora in test rats.

Beyond this, Splenda has also been linked to causing migraine headaches, and numerous studies have found that the sweetening chemical is persistent in the environment. According to information compiled by GreenMedInfo.com, the discovery of sucralose, Splenda’s primary active ingredient, was an accident — pesticide researchers stumbled upon it after observing that it is closely related to the retired insecticide chemical DDT.

“Industry influence largely accounts for the fact that synthetic chemicals like aspartame, neotame, saccharin and sucralose are being foisted onto the public as ‘safe,’ non-calorie sweeteners, despite obvious research to the contrary,” writes Sayer Ji for GreenMedInfo.com.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21912763

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One-third of honeybee colonies in US died last winter: The food collapse approaches

The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) recently published preliminary data from its annual review of bee colony declines in the U.S., and the findings from this report are mind-boggling. According to the latest survey results, an astounding 31.3 percent, or roughly one-third, of all managed bee colonies in the U.S. were wiped out during the most recent 2012/2013 winter season, a rate that represents a 42 percent increase compared to the number of colonies lost during the previous 2011/2012 winter season.

According to BIP, which works in collaboration with both the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. beekeepers on average lost more than 45 percent of their colonies during the 2012/2013 winter season, a 78.2 percent jump in losses over the previous season. And overall, more than 70 percent of respondents, most of whom were backyard beekeepers, experienced losses beyond the 15 percent “acceptable” threshold, illustrating a monumental problem not only for bee survival but also for the American food supply.

Since 2006, total bee colony losses have hovered around 30 percent, sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower. And the situation was believed by some to be improving when the overall percentage of colony losses declined sharply during the 2011/2012 winter season by almost 10 percent. But now that the death toll has jumped once again beyond the 30 percent mark, many are worried that this year-after-year compounded increase will very soon make it impossible for grow enough food.

“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” says Dennis vanEngelstorp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland who led the survey. “If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important. One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.”

Colony Collapse Disorder no longer a primary cause of bee losses – bees are just dying
In previous years, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, was believed to be the primary cause of bee losses around the world. The general consensus is that bees affected by CCD simply disappear from their hives for no apparent reason. According to the USDA, CCD-stricken hives typically still have a queen, but experience anywhere from a 30 to 90 percent loss on adult worker bees, whose bodies are never found.

CCD is still highly problematic today, no doubt. But experts increasingly say it is no longer the primary cause of bee losses that it was once believed to be. In Western Europe, for instance, there have been very few documented cases of true CCD, and yet honeybee losses there have remained high just as they have in many other parts of the world, which points to other causes.

“Even if CCD went away, we’d still have tremendous losses,” entomologist Diana Cox-Foster from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) is quoted as saying by Wired.com about the epidemic. “CCD losses are like the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The system has many other issues.”

Neonicotinoids are also highly problematic, but so are the hundreds of other pesticides being found in honeybee hives
So what else is causing bees to die? As many have reported recently, the widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides on commercial food crops is also to blame. Neonicotinoids are so dangerous, in fact, that the European Union recently banned them, at least for two years, pending further safety studies. EU officials determined earlier in the year that this particular class of chemicals poisons bees at an alarming rate and ultimately leads to their untimely deaths, en masse.

And yet at the same time, there are hundreds of other chemicals used in conventional agriculture that are also responsible for poisoning bees, admit experts. Samples of wax taken from various hives have demonstrated high levels of all sorts of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides – one study published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE back in 2010 found more than 120 different types of crop chemicals in the wax and pollen collected from hundreds of different hive samples.

“I worry that the neonicotinoid attention is distracting from the other pesticides that have clear effects, and might even have stronger effects,” says vanEngelstorp. “Things like fungicides are completely unregulated for bees. I think we need to keep the pesticide investigation broader.”

Another major factor affecting bees includes monoculture crop systems that deprive bees of the diversity of plants they need for healthy survival and foraging. Many of these monoculture systems are also planted with genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), which have been shown to damage the gastrointestinal tracts of bees and make them more prone to viruses and disease.

Sources for this article include:

http://beeinformed.org/2013/05/winter-loss-survey-2012-2013/

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/

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The Truth About Eggs – What Commercial Egg Farmers Don’t Want You to Know

A massive scale egg producer in Pennsylvania has made the news for inhumane treatment of chickens and unsanitary conditions.

Kreider Farms, which houses seven million hens, appears to be the next sickening example of what allegedly happens behind the scenes at CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations).

The Humane Society recently released an undercover video that exposes the horrific conditions endured by the birds in this operation.

This includes filthy living conditions, overcrowding with up to 11 birds per cage, dead birds apparently left untended, and a severe fly infestation capable of spreading salmonella across the chicken population.

The worker capturing the video reports mummified corpses were lying on the ground under other hens that were laying eggs.

Kreider Farm’s owner, Dave Andrews, claims the allegations are false and that three state agencies have given the farm a clean bill of health. He did admit, however, that one of the farm’s buildings tested positive for salmonella but has since been cleaned up.

This egg industry news comes on the heels of a number of egg recalls, including a massive one in 2010 in which the feds recalled 550 million eggs when officials found samples of salmonella matching a strain linked to an outbreak in the feed and barns of one Iowa egg producer.1

It was further revealed that the Iowa egg producer knew about his salmonella problem months before the outbreak, which sickened nearly 2,000 people… but he continued to sell them, nonetheless.2 Another salmonella outbreak associated with live poultry from a mail-order hatchery in Idaho sickened 37 people in 11 states.3

It’s no mystery why these diseases take hold in henneries. Massive numbers of chickens in deplorable living conditions become stressed, then become sick and contaminated, spreading illness up the food chain. And the next step up the food chain is you.

Proof that Salmonella Contamination can be Related to Farm Conditions

The raising of egg-laying hens indoors and in cages in ever larger commercial operations has detrimental effects on animal welfare, the environment, and the nutritional value of the eggs. The size of the hens’ confinement space is directly related to salmonella risk: the smaller the space, the higher the risk of contamination. A 2010 British study4 found that eggs from hens confined to cages, as they often are in CAFOs, had 7.7 times greater odds of harboring salmonella bacteria than eggs from non-caged hens.

Another study found that while more than 23 percent of farms with caged hens tested positive for salmonella, this dropped to just over four percent for organic, i.e. free-range pastured flocks. The highest prevalence of salmonella occurred in the largest flocks (30,000 birds or more), which contained over four times the average level of salmonella found in smaller flocks.

Inhumane Treatment of Hens Challenged by Proposed Legislation

When I say “insufficient space,” that’s really an understatement. Many egg-laying hens are confined to cages with fewer square inches than one sheet of notebook paper – too small for them to even stand up straight or raise a wing – which prevents them from engaging in natural self-comforting behaviors, such as stretching, preening or bathing.

The birds are further stressed because they are prevented from building nests. Instead, their eggs drop through cage wires for collection, resulting in great frustration.

Constant laying leaches calcium from their bones, so they can get severe osteoporosis, leading to pain and broken bones (known as Cage Layer Fatigue5). They also experience injuries from standing in one place their entire lives, on wires that eventually cut into their feet. Stress-induced maladaptive behaviors, such as injurious pecking and cannibalization, soon follow. Complications arising from these abysmal conditions lead CAFO operators to resort to a number of inhumane practices. For example:
•A painful mutilation of baby chicks called debeaking (or “beak trimming”) is performed in order to prevent injurious pecking and cannibalism
•Hens are starved for the purpose of forcing them to molt, which forces them to lay eggs longer than normal
•Male chicks are destroyed (usually inhumanely) because they’re of no use to the egg industry

Sparked by the Kreider Farms video, the Humane Society is endorsing and promoting new animal handling legislation specific to the egg industry. The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012 (H.R. 3798)6, proposed in January, is supported both by the Humane Society and the United Egg Producers, and has a total of 53 sponsors. The bill, which proposes a new housing system that would double the space each hen is allotted, has the meat industry in a tizzy, as it represents stricter oversight of how livestock and poultry producers raise and care for their animals.

Eggs from Pasture-Raised Hens Proven Superior

Without question, this legislation is very important and long overdue. But there is something you can do right now to improve your own health and the lives of these animals, without having to wait for the legislative process to unfold. You can buy your eggs from farmers who raise happy, healthy chickens the natural way… which allows chickens to express their “chickenness” – as Joel Salatin, a pioneer in sustainable agriculture, would say! In addition to being better for the environment, eggs from pastured hens are also nutritionally superior, as demonstrated in Mother Earth News’ 2007 egg testing project. Compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture and allowed to freely forage outdoors may contain:
•Two-thirds more vitamin A
•Twice as many omega-3 fats
•Three times as much vitamin E
•Seven times more beta carotene

Eggs contain some of the highest quality protein you can eat, as well as beneficial fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Two raw egg yolks contain nearly twice as many antioxidants as an apple, but be aware that cooking them will reduce that by half. Cooking your eggs can also increase your likelihood of developing an egg allergy. Heating the egg protein actually changes its chemical shape, and this distortion can easily lead to allergies.

If you consume your eggs in their raw state, the incidence of egg allergy virtually disappears. I also believe eating eggs raw helps preserve many of the highly perishable nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are powerful prevention nutrients for age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness.

Beware of consuming raw egg whites without the yolks as raw egg whites contain avidin, which can bind to biotin. If you cook the egg white, then the avidin is not an issue. Likewise, if you consume the whole egg raw (both yolk and egg white), there is more than enough biotin in the yolk to compensate for the avidin binding.

If you choose to cook your eggs, then soft-boiled would be your best option. Scrambling your eggs is one of the worst ways to eat eggs as it actually oxidizes the cholesterol in the egg yolk. If you have high cholesterol this may actually be a problem as the oxidized cholesterol may cause some damage in your body.

How to Raise Healthy, Happy Chickens

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms is a pioneer in sustainable agriculture and has mastered the art of raising healthy, happy chickens that produce outstanding eggs. I recently visited Joel Salatin at his farm in Virginia. He practices the local, sustainable model of food production, which is in stark contrast to the more prevalent model of large-scale mass food production that’s seen today. The “bigger is better” food system has reached a point where its fundamental weaknesses are becoming apparent, and foodborne disease and loss of nutrient content are just two of the most obvious consequences.

Total Video Length: 48:03

Download Interview Transcript

The question is, what kind of food system do YOU want? If every American decided to not eat at a fast food restaurant tomorrow, the entire system would collapse overnight. It doesn’t take an act of Congress to change the food system. All that’s required is for each and every person to change his or her shopping habits.

Beware of Misleading Claims on Your Egg Carton Labels

You can’t always tell everything about the quality of your eggs or the treatment of the hens that produced them by reading your egg carton label. In fact, egg labels have become quite confusing. Descriptors like “natural” and “cage-free” make eggs sound like they came from happy little chickens running about in a lush field, eating bugs and dandelions like Salatin’s chickens at Polyface Farms.

But that’s rarely the case, unless those eggs came from a small, local farm practicing sustainable farming.

If you can’t visit your egg farm or meet with the farmer face to face, then you can at least choose your eggs based on some factual information. The Humane Society7 has outlined some of the most common egg carton claims and certifications and what they actually indicate, which I’ve summarized in the following chart. Also check out the Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Egg Scorecard that rates egg manufacturers based on 22 criteria, and see how our brand measures up.

LABEL

ANIMAL TREATMENT

ANIMAL DIET

CAN YOU TRUST IT?

Animal Welfare Approved

Cage-free and have continuous access to outdoors; can engage in natural nesting, perching; allowed to molt naturally; space requirements for nesting and perching; debeaking prohibited

Organic GE-free food encouraged but not required; antibiotics allowed if bird temporarily removed from operations

Yes. Humane Society regards as highest animal welfare standard of any third-party program; annual audits

Certified Humane

Cage free environment but not necessarily outdoors; adequate space must be allowed for natural scratching and perching

Free of animal byproducts, antibiotics, growth promoters, arsenic; antibiotics only under supervision of vet

Yes. But standards a bit less stringent than Animal Welfare Approved

American Humane Certified

Cage confinement and cage-free systems allowed; so-called “furnished” cages are only the size of a legal sheet of paper; forced molting prohibited but debeaking allowed

No restrictions

Yes. However, the allowed cages are proven detrimental to these birds and are opposed by nearly every animal welfare group

Food Alliance Certified

Cage-free and free access to outdoors or natural daylight; must be able to nest and perch; space density specified; forced molting prohibited but debeaking allowed

No restrictions

Yes. Compliance verified through third-party audits

United Egg Producers Certified

Permits routine cruel and inhumane factory farm practices; 67 square inches per bird; cannot nest or perch or even spread their wings; forced molting prohibited but debeaking allowed

No restrictions

Yes. Compliance verified through third-party audits

Certified Organic

Uncaged inside barn or warehouse, with outdoor access, but duration is poorly defined; debeaking and forced molting allowed

Organic diet free from antibiotics or pesticides

Yes. Compliance verified through third-party audits

Omega-3 Enriched

May be caged

Hens fed increased omega-3s from flaxseeds, fish oil or algae

Maybe. Type of omega-3 inferior to beneficial EPA/DHA you’d get from fish or krill oil; pastured eggs have far superior omega-3 fat profile

Pastured

Often housed on grassland in portable shelters for access to fresh grasses and bugs

BEST natural diet possible, biologically ideal

Maybe, if you know the farmer and his practices (no third-party inspection)

Cage-free

Uncaged inside barns or warehouses, but no access to outdoors; can engage in walking, nesting, spreading their wings; debeaking allowed

No restrictions

No. Lacks third party auditing

Free-Ranging or Free-Roaming

Chickens allowed outside, but for no specified length of time; debeaking and forced molting allowed

No restrictions

No. Lacks independent third party certification, so anyone can use this label

Natural

Means absolutely nothing; may be raised in inhumane conditions

Hens may be pumped full of antibiotics, fed GE corn or soy, or contaminated with arsenic

No!

Resources for Finding Pastured Organic Eggs Near You

One of the best ways to ensure you’re getting the highest quality eggs is sourcing your eggs from a local farmer who practices sustainable agriculture and raises chickens humanely. Every state has a core sustainable agriculture organization or biological farming organization supporting the farmers in that state. There are also increasing numbers of “eat local” and “buy local” directories that list farms in your particular geographic area. The following organizations may help you locate farm-fresh foods close to home:
1.Local Harvest: This website will help you find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area
2.Alternative Farming Systems Information Center: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
3.Farmers’ Markets: A national listing of farmers’ markets.
4.Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals: A free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
5.Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA): CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting small farms.
6.FoodRoutes: Helps you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive “Find Good Food” map, you’ll find listings for local farmers, CSA’s, and markets near you.

If you’re a farmer or interested in becoming one, I suggest reading some of the books Joel Salatin has authored, such as The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer. You might also want to investigate a number of helpful organizations I have listed on my Sustainable Agriculture page.

The PolyFace Farms website also offers a wealth of information and resources for farmers and consumers alike, including an online store where you can obtain the actual physical hardware to make everything from fences to chicken feeders. Raising your own chickens and eggs isn’t as difficult as you might think, and there are ample resources out there. It may take a little time and effort, but it’s well worth it.

Joel’s slogan is: “We’re healing the land one bite at a time.” My thought is, you can heal your body one bite at a time as well, if you provide it with the highest quality foods possible.

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