Statistics
The CDC estimates that 76 million people get sick, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans die each year from food-borne illness.
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February 28, 2007
How To Prevent The Formation Of Problematic Kidney Stones
The single most painful condition that I have ever addressed as a health care provider is the acute pain associated with passing a sizeable kidney stone. More than a few women who I have treated over the years have said that passing a large kidney stone is much more painful than giving birth.
What's particularly scary about passing a kidney stone is that in most cases, there are no warning signs. One minute you are going about your normal business, and then all of a sudden, you begin to have waves of unimaginable pain on one side of your lower back.
The pain associated with passing a kidney stone typically arises when a stone grows large enough to get stuck in one of your two ureters.
Normally, your kidneys work on a continuous basis to filter water, waste products and minerals out of your blood and send them as urine down your ureters to your bladder, where your urine sits until there is enough volume to prompt your nervous system to prompt you to release urine out to the world via your urethra.
Continue reading "How To Prevent The Formation Of Problematic Kidney Stones" »
February 27, 2007
Hidden Danger is Coming into Focus
After Rebecca Rosen was finally diagnosed at age 5 with what was ailing her for several years, her parents placed a loaf of bread in front of her.
"This is something you can't eat ever," Rebecca, 10, recalls her parents saying. To reinforce the point, they spelled out the critical word on the bread wrapper: W-H-E-A-T.
Rebecca has celiac disease. Her digestive system can't tolerate gluten, a protein found not only in wheat but also in rye and barley. The condition, once thought unusual, is far more common than many experts realized.
Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, often goes unrecognized or misdiagnosed, sometimes for decades. Until recently, doctors thought the condition affected only about one in 10,000 people and was confined mostly to childhood.
But an expert panel convened in 2004 by the National Institutes of Health presented a more worrisome picture. It concluded 0.5 percent to 1 percent of Americans have celiac disease, which means as many as three million people are affected.
Cold Shower Therapy
Most people love a hot shower in the morning. Even those who don’t live in cold climates. For many people, they just can’t get started on their daily routine without that hot shower. As those of us who have lived through the aftermath of hurricanes in recent years can attest, one of the first things you miss about not having electricity is not having hot water. But maybe it’s time to rethink the whole hot water theory. More and more evidence is coming out to support the historically-based anecdotal concept that starting the day with a cold shower is better for you.
Cold water helps to keep your blood pressure stabilized. One of the reasons that people have been known to survive for a long time while submerged in freezing water is because the body has a natural reaction known as the autonomic nervous system. This system controls such bodily functions as breathing and heart rate. Cold water works by triggering the autonomic nervous system, which raises blood pressure. The more you expose your body to cold water, the stronger the autonomic response gets. So by showering with cold water each day you may in fact be also stabilizing your circulatory system for the long run.
February 26, 2007
Pesticides Linked to Honeybee Population Decline
Bees are critically important to farm ecosystems because of their role as pollinators that allow crops to produce edible fruit and seed. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon described by beekeepers, researchers and government officials when entire hive populations seem to disappear, apparently dying out.
A CCD working group was recently formed with researchers from the University of Montana, The Pennsylvania State University, the USDA/ARS, the Florida Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to analyze the problem. Their preliminary report indicates how pesticides may be a factor, specifically neonicotinioid pesticides, including imidacloprid, clothianiden and thiamethoxam.
According to the CCD report, "If bees are eating fresh or stored pollen contaminated with these chemicals at low levels, they may not cause mortality but may impact the bee's ability to learn or make memories. If this is the case, young bees leaving the hive to make orientation flights may not be able to learn the location of the hive and may not be returning causing the colonies to dwindle and eventually die."
Continue reading "Pesticides Linked to Honeybee Population Decline" »
Grapefruit Seed Extract
Grapefruit seed extract (GSE) is made from grapefruit seed and pulp. The manufacturing process converts grapefruit bioflavonoids (polyphenolic) into an extremely potent, nontoxic compound that has proven highly effective in numerous applications. It was researched and identified by Jacob Harish, a physicist and immunologist, who became curious about the bitterness of grapefruit seeds. With the assistance of the Plant Pathology Department of the University of Florida, Gainesville, the potential for its use as an antimicrobial agent became clear, and serious testing was undertaken.
GSE has been shown to exert significant antibiotic effects in test tube studies. It can be taken to combat strep, staph, salmonella, E.Coli, candida, herpes, influenza, parasites, fungi, and many many more.
GSE has been shown to be 10 to 100 times more effective as a disinfectant than chlorine, colloidal silver, and iodine. A study in Brazil found it to be 100% effective (at 100 ppm) for skin disinfection when used as a pre-surgical prep compared to an effectiveness rate of 72% for alcohol and 98% for commercially available surgical soap.
