Category Archives: healthcare

The Powerful Seed

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The organic farmers group posted a link to this article.  The humble seed contains the beginnings of life.  You could even say that the seed rules the world….

Below this article was a link to Vandana Shiva’s “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in the Forest”.  Bless her for her dedication to sustainability.

From that article, I was intrigued about the link for Ecuador recognizing the rights of nature in its Constitution…Wow……somebody who “gets it”.  See, we humans want to think that we are so superior that we are more valuable than all other life forms.  Worse than that, we have fooled ourselves into thinking that we are independent…that we could actually survive without them.  We pollute the air, water, and soil without regard that it will harm nature.  We survive in a circle…truly, what goes around comes around…and the balance of life–when we take something, we must give something of equal value in return…this simple rule is ignored.

 

To DEET or not to DEET

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Just thought I’d re-post this on the DEET controversy.  The mosquitoes are really bad this spring due to all the rains, so I’m sure that cases of West Nile will be popping up.  I still don’t think it’s worth the risk of putting DEET on my skin.  Be sure to follow the last link to a natural recipe for mosquito repellant.  Happy Camping! 🙂

(A side note~ – a phenomenon we noticed on the mercury support group is that we weren’t bitten by mosquitoes.  Apparently, we were so toxic not even they wanted our blood….haha….anyway, now that I’m getting better, I’m starting to get bitten like I was prior to poisoning….heh…)

Monsanto Protection Act

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Organic Consumers has this up on urgent legislation:

Dear Organic Consumer,

The Senate will take up the farm bill this week, and we need you to contact your senators about several key amendments. There’s no time to waste. Please read through the list of important votes below, and contact your senators today! You can call the senate switchboard and ask to be connected: (202) 224-3121. Or you can look up the number for your senators here.

Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act

Now’s our chance! The Monsanto Protection Act, Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) love note to his state’s most notorious corporation (and one of his top contributors) could be repealed by the Senate this week!

Ask you’re your senators today: Please support Sen. Jeff Merkely’s (D-Ore.) amendment to the Senate version of the 2013 Farm Bill to repeal the infamous Monsanto Protection Act. The rider was slipped, without debate or a vote, into the emergency Continuing Resolution signed into law in March, to fund the U.S. government through Sept. 30.

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will offer an amendment to the Senate version of the 2013 Farm Bill to repeal the infamous Monsanto Protection Act, which gives Monsanto immunity from federal law. As long as it remains in force, even the federal courts can’t stop Monsanto from planting new genetically modified crops, even if they were illegally approved and could threaten human health or the environment.

The outrage that erupted in response to its passage made the Monsanto Protection Act national news. It was lampooned by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sponsored the Continuing Resolution, offered a public apology. Now, there’s a campaign to force Sen. Blunt to resign and worldwide “March Against Monsanto” protests are scheduled for May 25.

The Senate is expected to begin consideration of the farm bill on Monday, so please take action today. Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act!

 Let Farmers Grow Industrial Hemp in the U.S. Again!

Farmers in Kentucky, Vermont, North Dakota and other states are seeking permission from the federal government to grow industrial hemp, a crop that the Obama administration treats like marijuana under the law. This doesn’t make sense. The products of industrial hemp are legal and widely used in organic food, clothing and plant-based materials like plastics and biofuels. Why should farmers in other countries get to grow the hemp we use in the United States?

Please call your senators and ask them to vote for Senator Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky) industrial hemp amendment to the Farm Bill.

Learn more.

Farm Bill Money for Hungry Kids Not Insurance Companies!

The Senate version of the farm bill proposes to cut $4.1 billion over 10 years from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest domestic food aid program. Sen. Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) has proposed an amendment to restore the $4.1 billion in cuts to foods stamps. The Gillibrand amendment takes the $4.1 billion from payments to crop insurance companies without reducing the insurance subsidies paid directly to farmers.

Please call your senators today and ask them to vote YES on Sen. Gillibrand’s amendment. Please tell your senators: Farm Bill money should be used to feed hungry kids, not pad the profits of insurance companies!

Learn more.

 Our Seeds Shouldn’t All Be Owned By Monsanto!

Farmers constantly face changing climate, insect, weed, and disease pressures that vary by region, and they lament reduced options in regionally appropriate seed cultivars held in the public domain. Crops must continuously be adapted to meet these changes, and the most productive approach is to have seeds adapted to the same environment as their intended use through classical plant breeding.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is introducing a Farm Bill amendment next week that aims to reinvigorate classical plant breeding and public cultivar development. Please call you’re your senators and urge them to support Sen. Tester’s amendment to reinvigorate classical plant breeding to ensure farmers have the seed they need to be successful. Developing regionally appropriate seed varieties held in the public domain is paramount to the success of U.S. agriculture.

Learn more.

The Senate is expected to begin consideration of the farm bill on Monday, May 18, although final votes might take place after Memorial Day. Please call your senators today at (202) 224-3121!

The House and Senate ag committees both approved their respective versions of the farm bill last week. The five-year bill could be brought to the House floor for a final vote in June, and possibly pass before the August recess.

Organic Consumers Association

6771 South Silver Hill Drive – Finland, MN 55603 – Phone: 218-226-4164 – Fax: 218-353-7652

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Lead and zinc

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A member of the mercury support group posted today that a brand Nutricology, has a notice on its bottle that reads:

“California Proposition 65 Warning: This product contains lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm”

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I did a search to see if the form I use, zinc glycinate (Now brand) also contained lead.  I couldn’t find anything confirming or denying it.

I looked up Now brands on the web.  Here is their customer service number:  888-669-3663.  The company nutritionist told me this:  “the product does not contain more than 1200 parts per billion.”

Toxic metals study links to Autism

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Seventy-four percent!

74% of the studies examined showed a significant relationship between an ASD diagnosis and toxic metal exposure. These investigators concluded that the balance of studies support a link between ASD diagnoses and toxic metal exposure.

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Note further down that they also link heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic and lead (from coal dust).

Okay, can we now stop drugging up our children with psychotropic drugs to help control symptoms and start addressing the real problem–our toxic environment and toxic amalgams?? It’s truly heartbreaking how many children have been misdiagnosed as autistic when they are displaying symptoms of heavy metal toxicity and acting out because they’re toxic…

 

More on mercury causing brain damage:

 

How many times do they have to find a correlation between mercury and neurological damage?  When do they stop “studying” and start putting solutions in action?

Detroit buried in petroleum coke

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(migraine…pardon my faux pas)

They ought to take this three-story, one-block long pile of coke and dump it on the Koch’s front lawn.  And for every shipment afterward, dumped on every Tea Party supporter’s front lawn who denies the pollution coming from oil and its byproducts.

More here on the residents’ concerns.  Same stonewalling over health concerns for residents living around this poison.  They say they’re sending in samples to find out if it’s hazardous.  Here’s the Material Data Safety Sheet (MSDS) on Petroleum Coke.  It’s pretty evident from this that it IS a serious health concern.   One of the warnings is not to breathe the dust.  Wonder how many residents breathe in particulate every single freaking day?

From the sheet:

Inhalation of excessive dust concentrations may be irritating to the upper respiratory
system. Repeated chronic inhalation exposure may cause impaired lung function.
There is no evidence that such exposures cause pneumoconiosis, carcinogenicity,
or other chronic health effects.
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I would question the last sentence–anything that can cause impaired lung function is causing inflammation…inflammation kills cells over a period of time.
Note that is is a combustible dust….just laying around….which the MSDS specifically states this is not proper storage–it states it should be in containers.  (Not that I personally believe containers are any better.  The stuff is toxic, toxic,toxic, creating problems of disposal…in somebody’s neighborhood.)

Anybody wanna bet this is located in a poor neighborhood in Detroit?

So…now BP wants to start operations for processing this filthy sludge in Whiting, Indiana, which is near Gary and Hammond  and Chicago….right on Lake Michigan. Um-hmmm…Anybody wanna guess if the toxic environment is a factor in Gary Indiana being the murder capital of the United States.  Note the article stating this area is one of the worst in air quality in the U.S.

And here we have the latest in *cough* BP cares….about our profits over your health and safety…

More here.

A video of yet another explosion in Whiting, Indiana:

Indiana has a sad history of putting business over its environment.  Just look at the lack of trees compared to, say, Ohio.  You can actually tell the air quality difference once you leave Indiana and venture into Ohio.  Nevermind the beauty of all the trees, but the air is breathable.  Anyway, Indiana’s own Dept. of Environmental Management *cough* has told manufacturers several years ago that once they were given a good report, they could slack off, er I mean, they could continue their good environmental practices until the IDEM inspected them three years later.

The Indiana Dunes, which we used to go to nearly every summer, have been polluted by the lack of concern of the environment.  Lake Michigan was once reasonably clean.  I took my kids up there after many years and was depressed to see the condition of the water.  It was no longer clear and had that polluted look to it.  I saw nuclear cooling towers off to my left.  At least, I thought they were nuclear cooling towers…turns out they were from another power plant–the one thing Indiana has going for it is that we don’t have nuclear power plants here.  I don’t hold my breath that they won’t eventually appear, especially with Mike Pence and the ALEC team now in charge here.  Besides, there are nuclear plants in Illinois and Ohio bordering our state, so…yeah…we’re still susceptible to nuclear radiation or the China Syndrome.  All it would take is one of the reactors melting down and we’re done.

And then there’s the curious case of radiation in Delaware,  Indiana that is mentioned in this blog.

Angelina Jolie

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Has this at the New York Times on having a double mastectomy.  First, I want to say that I hope she is doing well and on her way to healing and recovery.  It must have been a difficult decision to make.

My grandmother died of breast cancer.  There is a lot of cancer in my family.   But I would not make the same choice as Angelina has done, even if I knew that I had the “breast cancer gene”.  There are too many unknowns about genes and their impact on disease.  As I have posted about before, there are factors about genes and the expression of their purpose that is *still* not understood by scientists.

More here on genes and the nutrition of the mother. Very interesting.  The usual focus is treating the problem after it occurs (or in Angelina’s case, before it occurs, but with drastic measures)…instead of  turning the focus to the toxic soup we’re living in that is the root cause of the disease.   Also, it does not focus on the understanding that diet of organic fruits and vegetables are key to good health and allowing the body to do what it miraculously does:  fight disease.

Why is that so hard to do?

Why can’t we be more proactive in trying to eliminate the causes instead of allowing it?

 

 

Warrior princesses

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My heroes. 

They put into words what a celiac goes through with the *cough* medical profession….clueless doctors who charge $$ to tell you that it’s all in your head.

I like the one who told the patient she couldn’t feel pain in the gut…say what??

I’d like to see the Wisconsin Tea Party legislators tangle with these gals. Pass the popcorn. (Ooh, wait, what was I thinking??…Um, pass the gluten free snack. 🙂  Still not used to the idea of not having some things…<sigh>   )

Kelp and arsenic

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A member posted they did not take kelp supplements because of the high arsenic content.  I was aware of the possible contamination with heavy metals, but it’s always good to check and re-check supplements to see the latest.

I have been taking Solgar brand kelp, because Solgar is a good brand…but that doesn’t mean I should slack off….so…

I went on a search this morning trying to find out the exact content of arsenic in kelp.  I found a disturbing study out of UC Berkeley…that tested several brands of kelp and found arsenic in all of them but one.  The aggravating part of the story is that they did not name the brands!  WTH? (One also needs to keep in mind that universities are not islands in the $$ funding arena, so their “studies” may be heavily influenced by donations from corporations.  Supplements have been the target of Big Pharma for years…they would love nothing better than to destroy the supplement industry because it cuts into their $$ billion dollar profits. Greed. Greed. Greed.) (also–many pharmaceuticals are derived from plant properties. Another site here.)

Doing a search, I came up empty on Solgar when looking for specific data stating arsenic content.

I found these links:  Vegan health on supplementing with iodine.  I notice they recommend potassium iodide by Nature’s Plus because it isn’t made from kelp, thus avoiding arsenic contamination.  I am always skeptical about sites that recommend a specific brand.  I saw this on three different sites that had the same format–a red flag is raised.  Not that I think Nature’s Plus is a bad brand, only that the authors of these sites perhaps are receiving some sort of compensation for the recommendation, which would influence their judgment and perhaps they would not state adverse problems with the product.

This article recommends Lugol’s for replacing iodine.  Lugol’s is a popular supplement on the mercury support group.

This page states that Solgar, among others, is a good brand that is not loaded with toxic heavy metals.  The connection of fluoride displacing iodine in the thyroid….and yet they continue putting fluoride in public drinking water.  Also note his assertion that kelp is superior due to the minute minerals it adds plus the bioavailability (it isn’t going to do you much good if your body doesn’t recognize it and absorb it).   He recommends against Lugol’s because of… possible toxicity in the liver…this is especially worrisome for heavy metal poisoned folks like moi--the liver and kidneys take direct hits from the stupid mercury poison and therefore have a tough time processing toxins like they would normally–care needs to be taken.

I like that he also considers kelp a balancing food between yin and yang (not that I understand yin and yang to a deep degree–just know that it’s an Asian approach to medicine of balance).

 

 

Fort Wayne is on Fire

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Another police shooting—the fourth in four months–of a Fort Wayne citizen:        indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Mayor-Henry-on-205796441.html

This isn’t even counting the ones shooting each other.  You know it’s bad when California sits up and takes notice….as they did with the third shooting just a few days ago…

The news reported that the latest shooter “should not have had access to a gun with his prior history…”  It left out the details about why this person should not have had a gun….but since he claimed to be Jesus and just randomly started shooting people (rather than a specific target), I would guess mental issues.  And yes, I would wonder about the chem trails and the toxic environment of FW–they had terrible air quality last year on many, many days.  And this shows air quality is once again questionable.  All I can say is that I notice a change in people’s behavior when there has been heavy chem trail spraying and when the air quality is already bad.  I know that when I tried jogging in the A.M. on bad air quality days, I started wheezing afterwards.  Not good.

Here’s another map showing particulate matter as being moderately high.  This is not good, either, as particulate is known to be the cause for health conditions–scientists just don’t know how it affects health, only that it does affect heart, lungs, and brain health.