Chemicals in Toys

Tests in 1,200 children's items revealed that more than one-third contained lead and other potentially dangerous chemicals such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

The study, directed by the Environmental Health project of the Ecology Center in Michigan, also found that jewlery products were the most likely to contain high levels of lead.

Other items, such as bedroom slippers, bath toys and card-game cases were also tainted, some with as much as five times the standard safety level of lead. One Hannah Montana card-game case, for instance, had lead levels of 3,056 parts per million.

The study was conducted to spur government officials to take action against tainted toys. Millions of toys, most of them made in China, have already been recalled.

Yahoo News December 5, 2007

Cut the Salt

About 13 percent of Americans have chronic kidney disease, but most don't realize it. In a report published in the Journal of the american Medical association, reseachers studied more than 28,000 U.S. adults and found that just 11.6 percent of men and 5.5 percent of women with moderate kidney disease knew about their condition.

"The biggest problem is that kidney disease has no symptoms until you're down to about 30 percent kidney function or less," says National Kidney Foundation spokesperson Leslie Spry, M.D. Since the condition can lead to kidney failure and raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, he urges testing for anyone with risk factors like high blood pressure or a family history of the disease, and anyone over 65.

To keep your kidneys healthy, Spry recomends cutting back on salt, watching your cholesterol, and sticking with the principles of the DASH diet.

BODYANDSOULMAG.COM

Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)

This particularly nasty substance should have never been approved for human use. In fact, had it not been for some fancy footwork by those in power in the FDA, it never would have. Early experiments using low, medium, and high doses with aspartame all found dramatic tumor increases in test animals. These included brain, pancreas, and breast tumors, and tumors ofd the testes, thyroid and prostate. Experiments also demonstrate a direct correlation between intake quantity and tumor incidence.


Health and Nutrition Secrets that can save your life - Blaylock, M.D.

Enzymes and You

Enzymes are the spark of life. Without them, life would not exist. They are the workers that make your body function. although the action of enzymes cannot be seen, it is the driving force behind virtually every biochemical process that occurs in the body. There are hundreds of thousands of enzymes active in every organ, tissue, and fluid, and each has its own function. Enzymes activate our muscles, stimulate our nerves, make our hearts beat, keep us breathing, and even help us think. these complex biochemical substances are also able to convert nutrients from food to strong, healthy bodies.

If you eat food that is steamed, boiled, roasted, broiled, fried, stewed, canned, pesteurized, or even microwaved, you need food enzymes. Enzymes are the most heat sensitive nutrients found in food. When food enzymes are missing, the body is forced to produce all the enzymes necessary for digestion. This puts unwarranted stress on the organs of digestion which must rob enzymes from your immune system to digest your food.

www.loomisinstitute.com

Diet Soda Now Linked to Heart Disease

Eating two or more servings a day of red meat increases your risk of metabolic syndrome by 25 percent, compared to those who have two servings of red meat each week, a new study found.

Drinking diet soda also increased the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors such as excessive fat around your waist, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, all of which can raise your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers examined the diets of over 9,500 people between the ages of 45 and 64. They were categorized into two groups: a "western-pattern diet" that included processed meat, fried foods and red meat, or a "prudent-pattern diet" that included more fruits and vegetables, poultry and fish.

They concluded that lots of meat, fried foods and diet soda increase your risk of heart disease.

Reuters January 22, 2008

How MSG Affects Your Body.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of over 3,000 chemicals that are added to the processed food supply. These compounds do various things to food: add color, stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, and flavor, soften, emulsify and more.

Potential side effects from the additives vary, and are controversial. For just one common food additive, (MSG), for example, the following symptoms have been reported:

• numbness
• burning sensation
• tingling
• facial pressure
• chest pain
• headache
• nausea
• rapid heartbear
• drowsiness
• weakness
• difficulty breathing

Harvard Magazine: The way we eat now.

Stress and Your Nervous System

There are 3 major stresses that bombard our Nervous system on a daily basis. They are physical, chemical, and emotional stresses. When our body adapts to these 3 types of stress from our environment, we continue to live, grow and thrive. When our body fails to adapt properly to these 3 types of stress our nervous system reacts in a way that causes a subluxation. A subluxation is like a breaker in your electric panel. When it gets tripped, it saves the house and you can have the opportunity to fix it. When our body gets subluxated, we have the opportunity to fix it with a Chiropractor and then we can go on with our lives to have a happy healthy productive live.

Synthetic Estrogens Wreak Havoc on Your Reproductive Systems

Researchers are developing a clearer understanding of why the synthetic estrogens found in many widely-used plastics can cause damage to a developing fetus, fertility problems, and vaginal and breast cancers.

Past research has shown that exposure to the synthetic estrogen diethylstilbestrol (DES) alters the expression of HOXA10, a gene necessary for uterine development, while increasing the risk of cancer and pregnancy complications. By studying the DNA of the offspring of 30 pregnant mice injected with DES, researchers found changes in certain regions of the HOXA10 gene that continued beyond the time of development and persistent into adulthood.

This indicates that exposure to DES and similar substances results in lasting genetic memory, known as "imprinting." which is actually changing the structure of the HOAX10 gene.

Though DES is no longer on the market, pregnant women are frequently exposed to similar substances with estrogen-like properties, such as Bisphenol-A (BPA).

Science Daily March 31, 2008

Grains and Sugars May Cause You to Go Blind

Carbohydrates that cause blood sugar levels to spike and fall rapidly could be a risk factor for central vision loss with aging. Central vision loss is one of the first signs of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness among the elderly.

Diets high in carbohydrates that are quickly digested and absorbed, such as white bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugars and corn syrups are also suspected of being involved in the vision loss that sometimes accompanies diabetes.

The type of damage to eye tissue produced by these "fast" carbs could be similar in both AMD and diabetic eye disease.

Science Daily November 27, 2007

7 Ills That Don't Need Pills

People pop pills for just about every condition these days, but multiple studies in recent years offer strong evidence that diet and exercise can be effective treatments for many ills.

In the April 2008 issue of the Harvard Health Letter, reseachers highlight how to manage seven common conditions without taking medication. While no one should stop taking prescribed medication without talking to a doctor, the researchers write that with discipline, the nonpharmacological approach can do as much as pills in mant cases.

These seven common conditions can be managed without medication:

1. Arthritis
2. Cholesterol
3. Cognitive decline
4. Depression
5. Diabetes
6. High blood pressure
7. Osteoporosis

Live Science March 25, 2008

The Science of Sleep

Human beings sleep through one-third of their lives, yet why we sleep is one of the biggest unanswered questions of science. In the fascinating article from 60 Minutes, Leslie Stahl explores all of the latest scientific findings about the reasons for -- and functions of sleep.

Here is a sampling of what she found after talking with sleep researchers from across the U.S.

• You can die from sleep deprivation, just like you can die from being deprived of food.
• Sleep can actually enhance your memories.
• A single night of sleeping just four, five, or even six hours can impact your ability to think clearly.
• Sleep deprivation can cause changes in your brain activity similar to those experienced by people with psychiatric disorders.
• Sleep deprivation puts your body into a pre-diabetic state, and makes you feel hungry, even if you've already eaten.

CBS News March 16, 2008

Are Cell Phones More Dangerous Than Smoking?

Award-winning cancer expert Dr. Vini Khurana has concluded that mobile phones may kill far more people than smoking or asbestos. The latest study, which is being called the "most devestating indictment yet" for the safety of mobile phones, draws on growing evidence that using handsets for 10 years or more can double your risk of brain cancer.

Professor Khurana reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones, and concluded that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumors."

"We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation, " he added.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, particularly for children. Germany also advises people to minimize handset use.

Khurana urges people to avoid using mobile phones whenever possible, and believes that governments and the mobile phone industry must take immediate steps to reduce exposure to this radiation.

If nothing is done, Khurana believes that the rate of malignant brain tumors and the associated death rate will rise around the world within a decade, and by then it may be too late to intervene medically.

AlterNet March 30, 2008

Eating Just One Sausage a Day Raises Your Cancer Risk By 20 Percent

Just one sausage a day can significantly raise your risk of bowel cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, according to an analysis by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). Eating 1.8 ounces of processed meat daily - about one sausage or three pieces of bacon - raises the likelihood of the cancer by a fifth.

Processed meats may also trigger cancer in the prostate, lung, stomache and esophagus.

Processed meats include bacon, ham, pastrami, salami and hot dogs. Sausage and hamburgers can also fall into the category if they have been preserved with salt or chemical additives.

The analysis also found that red meat raises the risk of bowel cancer, but to a lesser extent. Processing raises levels of cancer-causing chemicals called N-nitroso compounds, making bacon, sausages and other processed meats more deadly.

WCRF recommends people avoid eating all procesed meats, although they say that at least eating smaller quantities would be beneficial.

According to estimates, if everyone cut down on red and processed meat, one in 10 cases of bowel cancer could be prevented.

Daily Mail March 31, 2008

A Big Belly Boosts Your Risk of Dementia

A big belly in your 40's can boost your risk of Alzheimer's disease later.

Previous research has already shown that obesity raises your chances of developing dementia, but a new study found a separate risk from storing fat in your abdomen. Even people who weren't overweight were endangered.

Abdominal fat, sometimes described as making people apple-shaped rather than pear-shaped, has been linked to a higher risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Now dementia can be added to that list.

The study involved over 6,500 people who were monitored for an average of 36 years. Compared to people with normal body weight and a low belly measurement, people with normal body weight and high belly measurements were 89 percent more likely to have dementia. And the risk increased among overweight and obese people with high belly measurements.

It's known why abdiminal fat may promote dementia, but it may pump out substances that harm your brain, the researchers said.

Neurology March 26, 2008

How Cellphone Radiation Affects Your Cells

Radiation from Cell phones is too weak to heat biological tissue or break chemical bonds in cells, but the radio waves they emit may still change cell behavior.

Scientists exposed 10 female volunteers to radiation at 900 megahertz from GSM phones to simulate an hour-long phone call.

They screened 580 different proteins in their skin cells and found that the number of two proteins were altered in all of the volunteers: one protein increased by 89 percent, the other decreased by 32 percent.

This study shows that even without heating, molecular level changes take place in response to exposure to cell phone frequency electromagnetic radiation.

Sources:
New Scientist February 23, 2008
BMC Genomics 2008, 9:77

Life Expectancy Tied to Education

Life Expectancy in the United States is on the increase, but only among people with more than 12 years of education, a new study finds. In fact, those with more than 12 years of education - more than a high school diploma - can expect to live to 82: for those with 12 or fewer years of education, life expectancy is 75.

The study was published in the March/April issue of Health Affairs.

What do you want?

The first step in everything in your life is to determine what it is that you want. What do you want? When it comes to your health you must be specific about what you want, not just to say you want to lose weight and get in shape. It has to be positive, specific and have a time frame. Also it has to have action steps attached to it as well as the why behind it. If you have a BIG enough why, the how becomes very easy. Here is an example: I am so excited, energized, and happy to weigh my ideal weight of 200 pounds on 12-31-08. I will achieve this by eating fresh fruits and vegetables with each meal, drinking half my body weight in ounces of water, exercise for 1 hour per day, get regular chiropractic care, and at least 7 hours of restful sleep every night. The reason I will reach my goal is because I want to live to be 100 years of age, I want to see my grandchildren grow up, I want to help people live their dreams and to foster, promote, and inspire health excellence.