This is a great article from Melissa Breyer, as a reminder of all the toxic chemicals we so willingly use in our homes.

There are safe alternatives though, and I’ll have to create a nice ebook just on that in the future, until then, enjoy this article. (yes I did edit it, to only bring you the high lights)

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Second only to heart disease as a leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is responsible for close to 500,000 deaths per year. Many products we use in our homes contain ingredients linked to or suspected to cause cancer, not to mention other ingredients that can cause allergies, asthma, and other health problems. Poor government regulation in the face of so many chemical ingredients is to blame, but we can take charge once we know what to look for.

Here is a list of some of the top offenders in terms of carcinogenic risk. Of course, these products don’t necessarily lead to cancer, but why take the risk when there are safer alternatives available?

1. Air fresheners:

Sweet-smelling air often comes with napthelene and formaldehyde, both known carcinogens, as well as a host of other toxic chemicals.

For a fresh scent, start by removing the odor’s source rather than trying to mask it. If something still stinks, try zeolite, baking soda, or natural fragrances from essential oils.

2. Art and craft materials:

Common art supplies may contain harmful ingredients. For a full list of specific products to avoid by brand, see the items prohibited for use in California schools by the California EPA: Art Hazards List (PDF). To guard against exposure to carcinogenic and/or highly toxic ingredients:

• Watch out for lead and other heavy metals in paints, glazes, and enamels. Use vegetable-based dyes and paints instead.
• Use water-based glues, paints, and markers and avoid hazardous solvents like rubber cement, paint thinners, and solvent-based markers.

3. Automotive supplies:

Given how unhealthy auto exhaust is, it’s no surprise that the fluids we feed our cars aren’t very safe either. Antifreeze and brake fluids that contain ethylene glycol are highly toxic, and windshield wiper fluid is extremely poisonous. As little as 2 tablespoons can be deadly to a child.

Similarly, used motor oil presents a serious health threat through skin contact, skin absorption, inhalation, or ingestion. The health problems are cumulative, so with each exposure to used motor oil the amount of risks to the body’s system increase.

If you need to use automotive supplies, keep them locked away and dispose of remnants or containers at your local hazardous waste facility.

4. Dry cleaning:

Conventional dry cleaners use tons of chemicals, such as perchloroethylene (tetrachloroethylene), naphthalene, benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene, all of which are carcinogenic. These chemical fumes can stick around on your clothes for days.

If your garments require a trip to the cleaners, ask for the wet-cleaning option at the cleaners, and seek dry cleaners that use liquid C02 or citrus juice cleaners.

5. Flea, tick, and lice control:

Avoid lindane-based pesticides. California considers lindane to be carcinogenic. In rare cases, lindane has caused seizures and death, even among people who used lindane according to the directions.

6. Paints and varnishes:

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) used in paints are known human carcinogens. In addition, the VOCs in paint are released into the air and may continue to off-gas at low levels for years after application.

Always choose low- or no-VOC finishes.

7. Mothballs:

You know how awful mothballs smell? Consider that your body’s way of telling you: Bad, bad, bad! When you smell mothballs, you are essentially inhaling insecticide. Mothballs are nearly 100 percent naphthalene, a carcinogen, or paradichlorobenzene, a toxin.

Many people use cedar to combat moths, but it is not effective against adult moths.

8. Cleaning products:

Not all cleaning products contain carcinogens, but here are the worst offenders.

Mold and mildew cleaners can be a nasty bunch, often containing formaldehyde. Try a natural approach to killing mold and mildew by using vinegar and tea tree oil.

Carpet and upholstery cleaners are designed to strip stains and dirt from heavy textiles by using noxious substances. The worst of the ingredients is perchloroethylene, a central nervous system toxicant and respiratory irritant.

Instead, try using a steam cleaner with water or a natural-based cleaner. Next time you’re shopping for furniture, aim for styles that use slipcovers that can be removed and washed or water-process dry-cleaned.

Furniture polishes achieve a shine with nitrobenzene, a reproductive toxin and central nervous system toxin that can be absorbed through the skin. Look for an all-natural polish, or make your own using 1/8 cup olive oil or other vegetable oil mixed with 1 tablespoon vinegar and
1 tablespoon vodka.

I had just read this article, and it just goes to show what I have been saying for years, along with all midwives, let babies be born naturally.

By Kylee Perez For the Camera

Babies born through cesarean section don’t acquire the same beneficial bacteria as babies delivered vaginally, according to research by a team of scientists including some from the University of Colorado.

“Vaginally delivered babies travel through the birth canal, which is colonized by specific colonies of bacteria and so they get coated by them,” said Elizabeth Costello, a former CU researcher who is now at Stanford University.

Costello was one of the lead researchers on the study, which was published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Babies delivered by C-section are exposed to bacteria from the people and items they first come into contact with. The bacteria found on vaginally delivered babies very strongly resemble the bacteria found on their mothers, while the bacteria on C-section babies are generalized, not resembling any one person’s, said Costello, who worked on the research while at CU.

Children who are delivered through C-section are more susceptible to allergies, asthma and staph infections.

“In a sense, the skin of newborn infants is like freshly tilled soil that is awaiting seeds for planting — in this case bacterial communities,” said Noah Fierer of CU’s ecology and evolutionary biology department in a news release. “The microbial communities that cluster on newborns essentially acts as their first inoculation.”

Researchers are still unsure whether the same colonies of bacteria stay with the children throughout their lives or if they change, Costello said.

The results of the study may help provide insight into what bacteria are normal for a healthy person.

“The prospects of learning how differences in individual human microbial communities can be used as a diagnostic tool in biomedicine is, frankly, quite exciting,” said Rob Knight, of CU’s chemistry and biochemistry department, in a news release.

For years and years now, millions of sun worshippers across the country would hit the beaches during summer to work on the perfect, golden tan. However, the advent of indoor tanning salons now allows Americans to sport a sun-kissed look year-round. And as more and more people pursue a perpetual summer-style tan, dermatologists have begun noticing a significant rise in skin cancer incidents, especially among young women.

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, still makes up just 3 percent of all skin cancers, and results in about 8,000 deaths a year, according to the National Cancer Institute. But three factors have doctors alarmed: The rates of this cancer are rising; it has become the most common cancer for young people; and many of the cases result from the preventable, but addictive, behavior of indoor suntanning.

“In the last few decades, it’s certainly been on the rise. And some people think that may be a result of behavior, and UV exposure,” said Jennifer Stein, an assistant professor of dermatology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “This is a very serious cancer, and this is a behavior that’s preventable.”

Tanning and cancer go hand-in-hand

Without tanning beds, soaking up the rays was limited to clear days in the summer. The invention of the tanning bed changed that, and throughout the 1990s, the rapid proliferation of tanning salons provided venues for millions of people to sunbathe regardless of weather, season, or time of day.

Since 1992, the indoor tanning industry has grown five-fold, with 28 million indoor tanners in the United States supporting a billion-dollar-a-year business, said Maria Tsoukas, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

During that same period, melanoma rates have increased by 2 percent in the general population, Stein said. Amongst young women, who make up 71 percent of tanning salon customers, incidents of melanoma have increased by 2.2 percent, Stein said. Over that time, skin cancer also became the most common form of cancer for Americans ages 25-29, a group that traditionally shows very low cancer rates, Stein said.

“We see a surprising number of young women coming in with melanoma, and a lot of them say they’ve used tanning beds,” Stein told LiveScience.com. “By far, by far, the majority of users of indoor tanning beds are young women.”

While some dermatologists believe that other factors, such as increased UV exposure resulting from the hole in the ozone layer, contribute to the rise in melanoma rates over the last 18 years, the irrefutable link between indoor tanning and melanoma makes tanning beds the prime suspect, Tsoukas said.

In a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, frequent tanning bed users proved three times more likely to develop melanoma than non-users, and subjects that used tanning beds for any amount of time showed a 74-percent higher rate of melanoma than non-users, according to research published online May 27 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

That study did not investigate the percentage of indoor tanners who developed melanoma, rather showing the difference between users and non-users.

How tanning causes cancer

Indoor and outdoor tanning can be dangerous, because the same ultraviolet radiation that provokes a tan also damages DNA. In fact, exposure to the mid-day sun can produce as many as 40,000 DNA errors an hour, said Regina Santella, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York.

The UV light causes the DNA molecule thymine to bind to adjacent thymine molecules in a manner that renders both molecules unreadable during transcriptions, Santella said. Transcription is a step in which the body reads the DNA instructions the cell will later follow. When those thymine errors occur in areas of DNA that regulate cell growth, skin cancers like melanoma can begin to develop, Santella said.

Most times, skin cells rapidly repair most of those 40,000 errors, but over time repeated errors can cause cancer or other problems.

Tanning is actually the body’s response to that damage, with the darker color produced by skin adding an additional layer of protection for the DNA, Stein said. However, when the body produces the hormone that initiates tanning, it also produces a secondary molecule in the endorphin family, said Scott Feldman, a professor of dermatology at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Endorphins are chemicals that transmit feelings of pleasure and happiness. In effect, exposure to UV radiation gets tanning bed users high, Feldman said. And like any high, tanning can become addictive.

In 2005, Feldman conducted a study where he gave volunteers endorphin-blocking chemicals before they used a tanning bed. The study aimed to test whether frequent tanning salon customers would enjoy the experience as much if their bodies didn’t produce endorphins. They didn’t. And even before the frequent tanners used the tanning bed, they showed signs of physical addiction to tanning.

“When we started doing the experiments, the first couple volunteers got sick, and we said ‘Hey, that’s unexpected,’” Feldman told LiveScience. “We were putting them into withdrawal.”

Tan responsibly

With studies proving that tanning bed use causes both addiction and cancer, many dermatologists have begun comparing the practice to other forms of drug abuse like drinking and cigarette smoking, Feldman said. And much like with smoking and drug abuse, doctors have told their tan-loving patients to “just say no.”

“There is no point to it. Someone wants to look darker? Gimme a break. For cosmetic reasons, people risk getting a fatal cancer. To me, it’s a public health hazard because it has no upside,” Santella said. “Don’t go to skin tanning salons. Simple as that.”

Others advocate that tanning salon patrons take an approach more like drinking alcohol, with moderation and responsibility mitigating the long-term health effects, Feldman said.

“We see the cancer patients, but there are millions of people tanning, and considering the number of people doing it and not getting cancer, it’s probably not the first problem we need to solve in America,” Feldman said. “If a woman comes in, and I see cigarettes in her bag, I’ll tell her to stop smoking before I tell her to stop tanning. Lung cancer is considerably worse.”

But those approaches only tackle the physical side of tanning without getting to the root problem that drives millions of Americans, young women in particular, to engage in a behavior they often know raises their risk of a deadly disease, Stein said. To fix the social pressures behind the rise in this largely preventable cancer, America might need to refine its idea of beauty.

“I’ve met people who said they couldn’t stop tanning. They wanted to stop, but couldn’t. They liked the way it felt and they felt pressure from their friends,” Stein said. “I think we really need to change that notion in this country that looking tan means looking healthy, because we know that tans are not healthy.”

Children’s Tylenol and Other Drugs Recalled

By NATASHA SINGER

May 1, 2010

The deficiencies may affect the potency, purity or quality of the products, the agency said in a statement. It said it was investigating the plant where the products were made to make sure there were no other problems.

Consumers should stop using certain lots of infants’ and children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl products because some of them may contain more of the active drug ingredient than specified, the Johnson & Johnson unit, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, said in a statement late Friday. Other products involved in the recall may contain foreign particles or inactive ingredients that may not meet testing requirements, the company said.

“The particles may be solidified product ingredients or manufacturing residue such as tiny metal specks,” Marc Boston, a McNeil spokesman, said.

McNeil did not undertake the recall because of adverse health reactions to the products, the company said, but it advised consumers to stop using them.

Although the potential for serious medical problems is remote, McNeil said, parents and caregivers should not give the products to children.

The recall involves all unexpired lots of seven products in 43 different flavors and sizes. These include Tylenol Infants’ Drops, Children’s Tylenol Suspensions, Infants’ Motrin Drops, Children’s Zyrtec liquids in bottles and Children’s Benadryl Allergy liquids.

McNeil has posted a full list of the recalled product lots on a dedicated Web site: mcneilproductrecall.com. The recall comes after federal health regulators cited McNeil on Friday morning for manufacturing violations found during a routine inspection at a company facility in Fort Washington, Pa., an F.D.A. spokeswoman said. This is the second major recall this year for McNeil. In January, after receiving reports of moldy smells emanating from over-the-counter medicines made at a plant in Puerto Rico, the company recalled several hundred lots of adult and children’s products. The earlier recall involved certain lots of Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids, Simply Sleep, St. Joseph Aspirin and Tylenol.

McNeil has a hotline, (888) 222-6036, available 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. But due to high call volumes, a reporter who called the hotline at different times on Saturday was unable to reach a customer service representative. A recorded message directed callers to the company’s Web site and later disconnected. McNeil said it was working to respond to the high call volumes.

Hold the Chemicals, Bring on the Needles

JANE BECKER, a composer and solo pianist, celebrated her 50th birthday at the dermatologist, paying $1,500 for shots of Restylane and Botox. But three months later, their wrinkle-smoothing effects wore off. So, she turned to a less-artificial youth tonic: facial acupuncture.

Natasha Calzatti for The New York Times

STICKER SHOCK Cosmetic acupuncture has caught the attention of increasing numbers of women who want to slow signs of aging, but don’t want to undergo surgery or to inject chemicals.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Like many women who have tried acupuncture in pursuit of beauty, Ms. Becker hoped that having needles strategically inserted into her face would be cheaper and last longer than her birthday injections.

Ms. Becker, now 53, started with 10 sessions in five weeks ($1,000) and has gone for monthly maintenance since ($105 a session).

Acupuncture didn’t end up being much of a bargain, but it pays in other ways, she said.

“I can really see a difference in my face,” said Ms. Becker, who sees Steven Sonmore, a licensed acupuncturist in Minneapolis. “It looks younger, smoother, brighter and uplifted.”

Early adopters like Ms. Becker first spread word of the virtues of a so-called acupuncture face-lift. Then before the 2005 Academy Awards, a crew of facial acupuncturists descended on Soho House, a makeshift celebrity hangout in Los Angeles, and A-listers jumped at the chance to transform their skin from the inside out.

Now, thanks to more robust marketing, cosmetic acupuncture has caught the attention of more of the wrinkled public. Its holistic approach appeals in particular to women who want to slow signs of aging, but don’t want to undergo surgery or to inject chemicals.

Whether it is called facial rejuvenation, acupuncture face-lift or cosmetic acupuncture, the aim is to tackle wrinkles, muscle tension that may be causing unsightly lines, as well as systematic issues standing between you and glowing skin. Just as with traditional needling, putting needles on acupuncture points stimulates the body’s natural energies, called qi, but with added benefits.

Whether cosmetic acupuncture works has yet to be proved. Some randomized, controlled studies have shown that acupuncture is an effective adjunctive treatment for hypertension, chronic pain, headaches and back pain. But there is no peer-reviewed research demonstrating that acupuncture diminishes wrinkles.

Still, an industry devoted to needling for youthful skin has grown in recent years.

“There’s a rise in interest all over the country,” said Martha Lucas, a licensed acupuncturist who helped create the Mei Zen cosmetic acupuncture system in 2003. She teaches a dozen seminars annually to rooms of more than 30 budding facialists. “L.A. used to be the biggest market. But now we get people from the Midwest calling.”

Practitioners of this style of cosmetic acupuncture called Mei Zen (“beautiful person” in Chinese) offer their services in 16 states.

Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, a licensed acupuncturist who headed the 2005 Oscars event, has trained more than 2,000 teachers in 40 states in her technique: constitutional facial acupuncture. This year to date, she has trained almost 1,200 practitioners, up from 100 in 2001, she said. “For centuries, the ancient Chinese have promoted health and beauty,” Ms. Wakefield said, “but we’ve taken it to another level.”

Part of the reason is savvier marketing: Ms. Lucas’s monthly seminars include pointers on taking effective before-and-after pictures, and creating fruitful relationships with dermatologists. She even passes out T-shirts that proclaim “Cosmetic Acupuncture Works.”A half-dozen women interviewed for this article said they have seen puffiness decrease, under-eye bags disappear and lines diminish or soften.

Dr. Richard G. Glogau, a clinical professor of dermatology at University of California, San Francisco, said these changes were quite possible. “It’s obvious that people carry around a lot of muscle tension in their face, which gives them frowns and wrinkles,” he said. “My take on this is that they are producing relaxation in the muscles.”

But Dr. Glogau doesn’t believe that facial acupuncture can increase collagen, another claim of some practitioners.

During a recent session at the Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, Calif., Andy Seplow, a licensed acupuncturist, told me as much as he used tweezers to guide tiny needles into a deep wrinkle between my eyebrows.

A needle penetrating the dermis would create damage, Dr. Glogau agreed, and the body would respond by producing collagen.

But does the doctor think the procedure could get rid of wrinkles? “My general understanding is that acupuncture really just involves a handful of punctures,” he said. “It’s unlikely that you will get significant collagen production from that.”

That said, holding tension in one’s jaws or brows can make a face appear strained. I am a teeth grinder with a tight jaw. Mr. Seplow inserted needles into my jaw area to relax it. He also assessed my systemic issues. Red blotches above my cheeks, he said, were a sign of sluggish digestion, so he put needles into my feet and legs for this.

Many cosmetic acupuncturists pride themselves on their holistic service. “The way I look at it, your health is reflected in your skin,” said Anita Lee, a licensed acupuncturist who has a private practice that specializes in women’s health in Manhattan. Because acupuncture facials improve circulation and unblock stuck energy, Ms. Lee said, “they help people heal from the inside out.”

One kind of cosmetic acupuncture incorporates microcurrents. Dr. Peter G. Hanson, a licensed acupuncturist, uses a machine which has probes that connect with facial needles to deliver bursts of microcurrent. He first used this method to stimulate the facial nerves in patients with conditions like Bell’s palsy, which involves paralysis of the face. But Dr. Hanson soon realized it could help his middle-age clients, too. The current, he said, tones and increases the volume of underlying muscles, which “makes the skin young again.”

Not likely, said Dr. Richard D’Amico, the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

“First of all, increasing tone does not increase muscle volume,” said Dr. D’Amico, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. And “anything that stimulates muscles will cause skin to fold even more and the wrinkles will get worse.”

The doctors clearly disagree. “If you don’t exercise the face muscles, you’ll get more wrinkles,” Dr. Hanson said.

For some, acupuncture facials serve as a back door into alternative medicine. Sheila Schmidt, 35, a telecom consultant from Denver, started facial acupuncture after noticing crow’s feet. They diminished, but she still goes for sessions. “I leave feeling more balanced and less anxious,” she said.

Ms. Becker, too, has come to think of her acupuncture facials as a kind of preventive medicine. “If I have any stress on my kidneys, liver and spleen, it shows up on my face,” she said. “Keeping my systems healthy is a win-win all around.”

This is an excellent article written by Dr. Marilyn M. Walkey MD. I know it’s long, but well worth the read. Emphasis is made by myself, not the author.

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Sometimes, understanding one’s background can clarify their particular point of view. So in the spirit of “full disclosure” I would like to tell you a little about mine.

I began my medical career in 1979 when I received my MD degree from Albany Medical College. I trained in diagnostic radiology at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC. I entered private practice and spent 20 years doing full-service hospital radiology. It was at the end of these 20 years that changes occurred in my life, changes that made me look at my direction and commitments. It was at that time in my career when I discovered acupuncture, and the power this medicine has to heal. Please understand, I was awestruck at the conditions acupuncture could effectively treat —- conditions that from my previous medical training I knew were precisely those no one wanted to get stuck with because there was no effective treatment. I am a fellowship-trained interventional radiologist, and I have put needles into arteries, veins, solid organs, abscesses, tumors, pleural cavities, peritoneal cavities….you name it. But I had never felt the pull of Qi on a needle, I had never intentionally manipulated a needle to achieve a specific energetic effect, I had never contacted the energy of a meridian, nor used needles themselves, as instruments of healing. Here was a whole new science to learn. And the amazing thing is that it has a 3000 year history with millions upon millions of people undergoing clinical trial in China for 30 centuries!

So I enrolled in a course for physicians to learn “medical acupuncture”. I attended two weekend sessions, watched videotapes, and read one book. This course was based on the work of one physician. The book we read was his book – the videotapes we listened to were him talking, and he gave nearly all of the lectures at the 2 weekends of instruction. On the last day of training, I happened to be sitting next to a doctor from San Diego, and I overheard him say, “My wife knows so much more about acupuncture than I do.”

I subsequently found out this doctor’s wife was a licensed acupuncturist. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was enrolled at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon in a Master’s degree program in Classical Chinese Medicine. I will graduate from this same program in June. It is a 4-year program, and I have been able to complete it in 3 years by transferring credits from my medical school training. I feel very strongly that, in order to practice acupuncture at the level of competency which this medicine deserves, one must learn from many professors, observe with many clinical supervisors, and spend at least a few years to learn how to approach a patient in a holistic way with an entirely new set of diagnostic principles.

Remember, I am a scientist at heart, and this is the finest science that I have encountered. As a physician who has gone through Western medical training and now training in acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, I assure you that abbreviated courses in acupuncture for physicians pose a serious problem. That problem has to do with efficacy of treatment. Without a comprehensive education in the fundamentals of this science, and without appropriate hours spent in learning complex needling techniques, followed by supervised clinical application of all of this learning, it is not possible to effectively treat the list of diseases which the world now recognizes are amenable to acupuncture intervention.

The World Health Organization recognizes the ability of acupuncture to treat the following diseases: asthma, menstrual cramps, arthritis, sciatica, TMJ problems, allergies, anxiety, depression, bladder problems, kidney problems, childhood illness, colds, influenza, cough, bronchitis, constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, ear-nose & throat disorders, fatigue, gynecological disorders, genital herpes, herpetic neuralgia, heart palpitations, immune system deficiency, infertility, insomnia, numbness, poor circulation, PMS, sexual dysfunction, impotence, skin problems, stress-related illnesses, and weight gain or weight loss…and the list goes on.

Acupuncture is not a nice, short topic that can be covered during a seminar lasting for a few weekends. Suffice it to say, that it is not possible to treat the difficult diseases listed above after watching videotapes, reading one textbook, and attending two weekends of lecture with needling practice on a few other course participants.

I would like to give you a brief case presentation now, to try to illustrate in a nutshell why I am writing this letter. A 57 year old man presented 4 days earlier to the OHSU emergency room with sudden and complete blindness in his right eye. He was seen by an ophthalmologist, underwent carotid ultrasound, an MRI of his brain and MRI angiography, and was told that he had occlusion of his central retinal artery and would have permanent loss of vision in that eye. At the time of presentation his medications included lisinopril, metformin, and aspirin. Fortunately, the patient happened to have an appointment with his chiropractor, who heard the story of this man’s sudden blindness and grim prognosis, and referred the patient to the acupuncture practitioner who worked in the same building. The patient was seen daily for 7 consecutive days for acupuncture treatment. On the second day, he could see a small circle of light in the center of his vision in the blind eye. Day by day that circle of light enlarged, and became clearer. At the end of 7 treatments he had 20/40 vision in the previously blind eye.

This is the power of this medicine in the hands of a skilled practitioner. This is what can be accomplished in Oriental Medicine. Someone in Integrative Medicine has given me a definition of their subspecialty as the medicine that “fills in the gaps”. I think this is an apt definition, and there are many gaps in western medicine which need filling. Please give Oriental Medicine a chance by ensuring that practitioners who enter this field are adequately trained. Let’s up the ante, and see whether we can embrace this amazing alternative healing science with practitioners who have enough didactic hours of lecture from a variety of acupuncture faculty, and enough supervised hours of clinical practice so that they are familiar with treating patients with all sorts of maladies such as cancer, asthma, palpitations, constipation, allergies, menstrual disorders….to name just a few common problems.

The way forward has been paved by the state of Hawaii. Hawaii requires that medical doctors be trained and tested for competency prior to administering acupuncture to patients. The Attorney General for the state of Hawaii issued a statement on August 18, 2003, declaring that “medical acupuncture” as performed by physicians is not substantially different from any other type of acupuncture, and therefore, physicians performing “medical acupuncture” should be subject to the same laws of licensure and proof of competency as everyone else.

We in the acupuncture field are at a crossroads. We can condone physicians doing acupuncture under-trained, unsupervised, unevaluated in terms of competency, or we can strive to raise the standard. I feel strongly that this is a public health issue. I feel strongly that allowing medical doctors with minimal training & without oversight by a non-professional organization is a dangerous and foolhardy policy. I’d like to respectfully remind you that we are talking here about a healthcare profession; we are talking about peoples’ health & well-being; we cannot afford to have a double standard. The general public deserves parity in licensing so that competency can be maintained.

I therefore propose that the American Association of Medical Acupuncture evaluate their own training programs and consider complying with the World Health Organization’s recommendations of 1500 hours of training in acupuncture for physicians interested in pursuing this medicine. The WHO standards for physicians performing “medical acupuncture” include 1000 hours of didactic (including needling technique labs) and 500 hours of supervised clinical training, which ensures adequate training for entry level acupuncture. In addition, I feel that physicians should be required to pass the NCCAOM examinations to ensure their competency in acupuncture evaluation and treatment. If the AAMA is willing to adopt these standards of 1500 hours and NCCAOM testing, I believe the future of “medical acupuncture” in the United States would be shifted from a position of tenuous efficacy to one of competency and powerful healing.

An excellent article by Dr. Mercola

A widespread and silent killer that’s worse for your health than alcohol, nicotine and many drugs is likely lurking in your kitchen cabinets right now.[1] “It” is monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that’s known widely as an addition to Chinese food, but that’s actually added to thousands of the foods you and your family regularly eat, especially if you are like most Americans and eat the majority of your food as processed foods or in restaurants.

MSG is one of the worst  food additives on the market and is used in canned soups, crackers, meats, salad dressings, frozen dinners and  much more. It’s found in your local supermarket and restaurants, in your child’s school cafeteria and, amazingly, even in baby food and infant formula.

MSG is more than just a seasoning like salt and pepper, it actually enhances the flavor of foods, making processed meats and frozen dinners taste fresher and smell better, salad dressings more tasty, and canned foods less tinny.

While MSG’s benefits to the food industry are quite clear, this food additive could be slowly and silently doing major damage to your health.

What Exactly is MSG?

You may remember when the MSG powder called “Accent” first hit the U.S. market. Well, it was many decades prior to this, in 1908, that monosodium glutamate was invented. The inventor was Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese man who identified the natural flavor enhancing substance of seaweed.

Taking a hint from this substance, they were able to create the man-made additive MSG, and he and a partner went on to form Ajinomoto, which is now the world’s largest producer of MSG (and interestingly also a drug manufacturer).[2]

Chemically speaking, MSG is approximately 78 percent free glutamic acid, 21 percent sodium, and up to 1 percent contaminants.[3]

It’s a misconception that MSG is a flavor or “meat tenderizer.” In reality, MSG has very little taste at all, yet when you eat MSG, you think the food you’re eating has more protein and tastes better. It does this by tricking your tongue, using a little-known fifth basic taste: umami.

Umami is the taste of glutamate, which is a savory flavor found in many Japanese foods, bacon and also in the toxic food additive MSG. It is because of umami that foods with MSG taste heartier, more robust and generally better to a lot of people than foods without it.

The ingredient didn’t become widespread in the United States until after World War II, when the U.S. military realized Japanese rations were much tastier than the U.S. versions because of MSG.

In 1959, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeled MSG as “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS), and it has remained that way ever since. Yet, it was a telling sign when just 10 years later a condition known as “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” entered the medical literature, describing the numerous side effects, from numbness to heart palpitations, that people experienced after eating MSG.

Today that syndrome is more appropriately called “MSG Symptom Complex,” which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifies as “short-term reactions” to MSG. More on those “reactions” to come.

Why MSG is so Dangerous

One of the best overviews of the very real dangers of MSG comes from Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon and author of “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills.” In it he explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain damage to varying degrees — and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and more.

Part of the problem also is that free glutamic acid is the same neurotransmitter that your brain, nervous system, eyes, pancreas and other organs use to initiate certain processes in your body.[4] Even the FDA states:

“Studies have shown that the body uses glutamate, an amino acid, as a nerve impulse transmitter in the brain and that there are glutamate-responsive tissues in other parts of the body, as well.

Abnormal function of glutamate receptors has been linked with certain neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s chorea. Injections of glutamate in laboratory animals have resulted in damage to nerve cells in the brain.”[5]

Although the FDA continues to claim that consuming MSG in food does not cause these ill effects, many other experts say otherwise.

According to Dr. Blaylock, numerous glutamate receptors have been found both within your heart’s electrical conduction system and the heart muscle itself. This can be damaging to your heart, and may even explain the sudden deaths sometimes seen among young athletes.

He says:

“When an excess of food-borne excitotoxins, such as MSG, hydrolyzed protein soy protein isolate and concentrate, natural flavoring, sodium caseinate and aspartate from aspartame, are consumed, these glutamate receptors are over-stimulated, producing cardiac arrhythmias.

When magnesium stores are low, as we see in athletes, the glutamate receptors are so sensitive that even low levels of these excitotoxins can result in cardiac arrhythmias and death.”[6]

Many other adverse effects have also been linked to regular consumption of MSG, including:

• Obesity
• Eye damage
• Headaches
• Fatigue and disorientation
• Depression

Further, even the FDA admits that “short-term reactions” known as MSG Symptom Complex can occur in certain groups of people, namely those who have eaten “large doses” of MSG or those who have asthma.[7]

According to the FDA, MSG Symptom Complex can involve symptoms such as:

• Numbness
• Burning sensation
• Tingling
• Facial pressure or tightness
• Chest pain or difficulty breathing
• Headache
• Nausea
• Rapid heartbeat
• Drowsiness
• Weakness

No one knows for sure just how many people may be “sensitive” to MSG, but studies from the 1970s suggested that 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. population was intolerant of MSG — at levels then found in food. Since the use of MSG has expanded dramatically since that time, it’s been estimated that up to 40 percent of the population may be impacted.[8]

How to Determine if MSG is in Your Food

Food manufacturers are not stupid, and they’ve caught on to the fact that people like you want to avoid eating this nasty food additive. As a result, do you think they responded by removing MSG from their products? Well, a few may have, but most of them just tried to “clean” their labels. In other words, they tried to hide the fact that MSG is an ingredient.

How do they do this? By using names that you would never associate with MSG.

You see, it’s required by the FDA that food manufacturers list the ingredient “monosodium glutamate” on food labels, but they do not have to label ingredients that contain free glutamic acid, even though it’s the main component of MSG.

There are over 40 labeled ingredients that contain glutamic acid,[9] but you’d never know it just from their names alone. Further, in some foods glutamic acid is formed during processing and, again, food labels give you no way of knowing for sure.

Tips for Keeping MSG Out of Your Diet

In general, if a food is processed you can assume it contains MSG (or one of its pseudo-ingredients). So if you stick to a whole, fresh foods diet, you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll avoid this toxin.

The other place where you’ll need to watch out for MSG is in restaurants. You can ask your server which menu items are MSG-free, and request that no MSG be added to your meal, but of course the only place where you can be entirely sure of what’s added to your food is in your own kitchen.

To be on the safe side, you should also know what ingredients to watch out for on packaged foods. Here is a list of ingredients that ALWAYS contain MSG:

These ingredients OFTEN contain MSG or create MSG during processing:[10]

So if you do eat processed foods, please remember to be on the lookout for these many hidden names for MSG.

Choosing to be MSG-Free

Making a decision to avoid MSG in your diet as much as possible is a wise choice for nearly everyone. Admittedly, it does take a bit more planning and time in the kitchen to prepare food at home, using fresh, locally grown ingredients. But knowing that your food is pure and free of toxic additives like MSG will make it well worth it.

Plus, choosing whole foods will ultimately give you better flavor and more health value than any MSG-laden processed food you could buy at your supermarket.

Everyone should go and download this free report.

I’ve been telling people for years that soy isn’t as good as we have been programmed to believe.

http://www.mercola.com/Downloads/ads/dangers-of-soy/default.aspx

WATER

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the world population)
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. (the best way to determine how much water you need is divide your weight in half, that will be the minimum ounces of water you need, add more in dry climates or if you are exercising/sweating a lot)
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%., and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer. Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink every day?

COKE

1. In many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China .
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Apply a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into the load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. ~ It will dissolve a nail in about four days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase of osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup! (the concentrate) the commercial trucks must use a hazardous Material place cards reserved for highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean engines of the trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or Coke?

This is a good article I found, therefore I’m passing it on to all of you.

********************

Health Risks of Alcohol: 12 Health Problems Associated with Chronic Heavy Drinking
By David Freeman
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

It’s no secret that alcohol consumption can cause major health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver and injuries sustained in automobile accidents. But if you think liver disease and car crashes are the only health risks posed by drinking, think again: Researchers have linked alcohol consumption to more than 60 diseases.

“Alcohol does all kinds of things in the body, and we’re not fully aware of all its effects,” says James C. Garbutt, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a researcher at the university’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. “It’s a pretty complicated little molecule.”

Here are 12 conditions linked to chronic heavy drinking.

Anemia

Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to be abnormally low. This condition, known as anemia, can trigger a host of symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and lightheadedness.

Cancer

“Habitual drinking increases the risk of cancer,” says Jurgen Rehm, PhD, chairman of the University of Toronto’s department of addiction policy and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also in Toronto. Scientists believe the increased risk comes when the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a potent carcinogen. Cancer sites linked to alcohol use include the mouth, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus, liver, breast, and colorectal region. Cancer risk rises even higher in heavy drinkers who also use tobacco.

Cardiovascular disease

Heavy drinking, especially bingeing, makes platelets more likely to clump together into blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. In a landmark study published in 2005, Harvard researchers found that binge drinking doubled the risk of death among people who initially survived a heart attack.

Heavy drinking can also cause cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly condition in which the heart muscle weakens and eventually fails, as well as the heart rhythm abnormalities atrial and ventricular fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart’s upper chambers (atria) twitch chaotically rather than constrict rhythmically, can cause blood clots that can trigger a stroke. Ventricular fibrillation causes chaotic twitching in the heart’s main pumping chambers (ventricles). It causes rapid loss of consciousness and, in the absence of immediate treatment, sudden death.

Cirrhosis

Alcohol is toxic to liver cells, and many heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, a sometimes-lethal condition in which the liver is so heavily scarred that it is unable to function. But it’s hard to predict which drinkers will develop cirrhosis. “Some people who drink huge amounts never get cirrhosis, and some who don’t drink very much do get it,” Saitz says. For some unknown reason, women seem to be especially vulnerable.

Dementia

As people age, their brains shrink, on average, at a rate of about 1.9% per decade. That’s considered normal. But heavy drinking speeds the shrinkage of certain key regions in the brain, resulting in memory loss and other symptoms of dementia.

Heavy drinking can also lead to subtle but potentially debilitating deficits in the ability to plain, make judgments, solve problems, and other aspects of “executive function,” which are “the higher-order abilities that allow us to maximize our function as human beings,” Garbutt says.

In addition to the “nonspecific” dementia that stems from brain atrophy, heavy drinking can cause nutritional deficiencies so severe that they trigger other forms of dementia.

Depression

It’s long been known that heavy drinking often goes hand in hand with depression, but there has been debate about which came first — the drinking or the depression. One theory is that depressed people turned to alcohol in an attempt to “self-medicate” to ease their emotional pain. But earlier this year, a large study from New Zealand showed that it was probably the other way around — that is, heavy drinking led to depression.

Research has also shown that depression goes away when heavy drinkers go on the wagon, Saitz says.

Seizures

Heavy drinking can cause epilepsy and can trigger seizures even in people who don’t have epilepsy. It can also interfere with the action of the medications used to treat the disorder.

Gout

A painful condition, gout is caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the joints. Although some cases are largely hereditary, alcohol and other dietary factors seem to play a role. Alcohol also seems to aggravate existing cases of gout.

High blood pressure

Alcohol can disrupt the sympathetic nervous system, which, among other things, controls the constriction and dilation of blood vessels in response to stress, temperature, exertion, etc. Heavy drinking — and bingeing, in particular — can cause blood pressure to rise. Over time, this effect can become chronic. High blood pressure can lead to many other health problems, including kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke.

Infectious disease

Heavy drinking suppresses the immune system, providing a toehold for infections, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases (including some that cause infertility). People who drink heavily also are more likely to engage in risky sex. “Heavy drinking is associated with a three-fold increase in the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease,” Rehmn says.

Nerve damage

Heavy drinking can cause a form of nerve damage known as alcoholic neuropathy, which can produce a painful pins-and-needles feeling in the extremities, as well as muscle weakness, incontinence, constipation, erectile dysfunction, and other problems. Alcoholic neuropathy may arise because alcohol is toxic to nerve cells, or because nutritional deficiencies attributable to heavy drinking compromise nerve function.

Pancreatitis

In addition to causing stomach irritation (gastritis), drinking can inflame the pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis interferes with the digestive process, causing abdominal pain and persistent diarrhea –and “it’s not fixable,” Saitz says. Some cases of chronic pancreatitis are triggered by gallstones, but up to 60% stem from alcohol consumption.