Twinlab Corp., which has 320 workers in American Fork, was accused in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation and two environmentalists of misleading consumers about the levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in two of their fish oil supplements, Twinlab’s Norwegian Cod Liver Oil and Emulsified Norwegian Cod Liver Oil.

Even though these two Twinlab supplements claim they are “PCB and heavy metal free,” they allegedly contain PCBs above the “safe harbor” limits set for human consumption under California’s Proposition 65, which requires consumers to be warned about exposure to toxic chemicals, according to the San Francisco Superior Court suit.

The two Twinlab supplements are sold online at www.twinlab.com, said Justin Boone, spokesman for the company. But he wasn’t able to specify on Wednesday which retailers in Utah carry the two products. The company’s Web site shows its supplements are available through retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Walgreens, Vitamin World, Vitamin Shoppe, Rite Aid and GNC.

In addition to Twinlab, the suit names seven retailers and manufacturers of fish oil, shark oil, fish liver oil and shark liver oil supplements. They include: CVS Pharmacy Inc.; General Nutrition Corp.; Now Health Group Inc.; Omega Protein Inc.; Pharmavite LLC (which sells fish oils under the Nature Made brand); Rite Aid Corp.; and Solgar Inc.

What makes the defendants’ marketing claims egregious is that the 10 fish oil supplements, which are recommended to pregnant women and children for their health benefits, are marketed as being already treated for PCB contamination when the problem still exists, said Benson Chiles, an environmentalist that brought the lawsuit.

Christopher Manthey, another plaintiff, said he and Chiles found in their investigation that the supplements industry “seems very aware that fish oils can be high in PCBs.”

“That’s why many of them say their supplements have been ‘treated’ to remove or reduce PCBs,” he said. “But since they don’t say how much PCB contamination is still left, even consumers who choose ‘treated’ supplements can’t know what PCB levels they’re swallowing along with their daily Omega-3.”

Twinlab, in a statement Wednesday, said it cannot comment on the validity or accuracy of the plaintiffs’ test results, but said its supplements meet stringent government standards and are “molecularly distilled and tested for purity.”

Greg Grochoski, Twinlab’s chief science officer, notes that among the 10 supplements tested, its products were reported as having some of the lowest levels of impurities.

The company also said it has been working with Mateel for several months to develop scientifically valid standards for impurities that can be found in fish oils. It said it uses fish oil suppliers that adhere to industry safety standards.

“This lawsuit is about plaintiffs seeking additional standards under California’s Prop. 65, a consumer disclosure law,” the Twinlab statement said.

David Roe, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said they are seeking civil penalties of up to $2,500 a day for each violation of the California Health and Safety Code.

“The amount of the penalty will depend on what their supplements sales are since Aug. 6, 2009 when we notified the California office of the Attorney General of this problem, and will continue every day until the PCBs are taken out of the products, or until warnings are given,” he said.

“We’re hoping that the suit will stimulate the industry as a whole to get PCBs out of fish oils,” Roe said.

The brand name supplements named in the lawsuit include:

1. Nature Made Cod Liver Oil

2. Nature Made Odorless Fish Oil

3. TwinLab Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

4. TwinLab Emulsified Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

5. Now Foods Shark Liver Oil

6. Now Foods Double Strength Cod Liver Oil

7. Now Foods Salmon Oil

8. Solgar 100% Pure Norwegian Shark Liver Oil Complex

9. Solgar Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

10. GNC Liquid Norwegian Cod Liver Oil

Source: fishoilsafety.com

More information is available at www.fishoilsafety.com.

Soft drinks are hard on your health

Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet

Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let’s talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda

You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium

Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

• Fresh water

Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

• Fruit Juice

If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

• Tea

Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.

Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here. Drink up!

I hope you find the ways and means to avoid soft drinks. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

–Dr. Mao

Source: Yahoo Health

This story released by the Associated Press on Friday Sept. 25, 2009

Can you trust the Government to provide you with clean, safe, drinking water?

CUTLER, Calif. – Over the last decade, the drinking water at thousands of schools across the country has been found to contain unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.

An Associated Press investigation found that contaminants have surfaced at public and private schools in all 50 states — in small towns and inner cities alike.

But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied.

“It’s an outrage,” said Marc Edwards, an engineer at Virginia Tech who has been honored for his work on water quality. “If a landlord doesn’t tell a tenant about lead paint in an apartment, he can go to jail. But we have no system to make people follow the rules to keep school children safe?”

The contamination is most apparent at schools with wells, which represent 8 to 11 percent of the nation’s schools. Roughly one of every five schools with its own water supply violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.

In California’s farm belt, wells at some schools are so tainted with pesticides that students have taken to stuffing their backpacks with bottled water for fear of getting sick from the drinking fountain.

Experts and children’s advocates complain that responsibility for drinking water is spread among too many local, state and federal agencies, and that risks are going unreported. Finding a solution, they say, would require a costly new national strategy for monitoring water in schools.

Schools with unsafe water represent only a small percentage of the nation’s 132,500 schools. And the EPA says the number of violations spiked over the last decade largely because the government has gradually adopted stricter standards for contaminants such as arsenic and some disinfectants.

Many of the same toxins could also be found in water at homes, offices and businesses. But the contaminants are especially dangerous to children, who drink more water per pound than adults and are more vulnerable to the effects of many hazardous substances.

“There’s a different risk for kids,” said Cynthia Dougherty, head of the EPA’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water.

Still, the EPA does not have the authority to require testing for all schools and can only provide guidance on environmental practices.

In recent years, students at a Minnesota elementary school fell ill after drinking tainted water. A young girl in Seattle got sick, too.

The AP analyzed a database showing federal drinking water violations from 1998 to 2008 in schools with their own water supplies. The findings:

• Water in about 100 school districts and 2,250 schools breached federal safety standards.

• Those schools and districts racked up more than 5,550 separate violations. In 2008, the EPA recorded 577 violations, up from 59 in 1998 — an increase that officials attribute mainly to tougher rules.

• California, which has the most schools of any state, also recorded the most violations with 612, followed by Ohio (451), Maine (417), Connecticut (318) and Indiana (289).

• Nearly half the violators in California were repeat offenders. One elementary school in Tulare County, in the farm country of the Central Valley, broke safe-water laws 20 times.

• The most frequently cited contaminant was coliform bacteria, followed by lead and copper, arsenic and nitrates.

The AP analysis has “clearly identified the tip of an iceberg,” said Gina Solomon, a San Francisco physician who serves on an EPA drinking water advisory board. “This tells me there is a widespread problem that needs to be fixed because there are ongoing water quality problems in small and large utilities, as well.”

Schools with wells are required to test their water and report any problems to the state, which is supposed to send all violations to the federal government.

But EPA officials acknowledge the agency’s database of violations is plagued with errors and omissions. And the agency does not specifically monitor incoming state data on school water quality.

Critics say those practices prevent the government from reliably identifying the worst offenders — and carrying out enforcement.

Scientists say the testing requirements fail to detect dangerous toxins such as lead, which can wreak havoc on major organs and may retard children’s learning abilities.

“There is just no excuse for this. Period,” said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “We want to make sure that we fix this problem in a way that it will never happen again, and we can ensure parents that their children will be safe.”

The problem goes beyond schools that use wells. Schools that draw water from public utilities showed contamination, too, especially older buildings where lead can concentrate at higher levels than in most homes.

In schools with lead-soldered pipes, the metal sometimes flakes off into drinking water. Lead levels can also build up as water sits stagnant over weekends and holidays.

Schools that get water from local utilities are not required to test for toxins because the EPA already regulates water providers. That means there is no way to ensure detection of contaminants caused by schools’ own plumbing.

But voluntary tests in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles have found dangerous levels of lead in recent years. And experts warn the real risk to schoolchildren is going unreported.

“I really suspect the level of exposure to lead and other metals at schools is underestimated,” said Michael Schock, a corrosion expert with the EPA in Cincinnati. “You just don’t know what is going on in the places you don’t sample.”

Since 2004, the agency has been asking states to increase lead monitoring. As of 2006, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found nearly half of all schools nationwide do not test their water for lead.

Because contaminant levels in water can vary from drinking fountain to drinking fountain, and different children drink different amounts of water, epidemiologists often have trouble measuring the potential threats to children’s health.

But children have suffered health problems attributed to school water:

• In 2001, 28 children at a Worthington, Minn., elementary school experienced severe stomach aches and nausea after drinking water tainted with lead and copper, the result of a poorly installed treatment system.

• In Seattle several years ago, a 6-year-old girl suffered stomach aches and became disoriented and easily exhausted. The girl’s mother asked her daughter’s school to test its water, and also tested a strand of her daughter’s hair. Tests showed high levels of copper and lead, which figured into state health officials’ decision to phase-in rules requiring schools to test their water for both contaminants.

Many school officials say buying bottled water is less expensive than fixing old pipes. Baltimore, for instance, has spent more than $2.5 million on bottled water over the last six years.

After wrestling with unsafe levels of arsenic for almost two years, administrators in Sterling, Ohio, southeast of Cincinnati, finally bought water coolers for elementary school students last fall. Now they plan to move students to a new building.

In California, the Department of Public Health has given out more than $4 million in recent years to help districts overhaul their water systems.

But school administrators in the farmworker town of Cutler cannot fix chronic water problems at Lovell High School because funding is frozen due to the state’s budget crisis.

Signs posted above the kitchen sink warn students not to drink from the tap because the water is tainted with nitrates, a potential carcinogen, and DBCP, a pesticide scientists say may cause male sterility.

As gym class ended one morning, thirsty basketball players crowded around a five-gallon cooler, the only safe place to get a drink on campus.

“The teachers always remind us to go to the classroom and get a cup of water from the cooler,” said sophomore Israel Aguila. “But the bathroom sinks still work, so sometimes you kind of forget you can’t drink out of them.”

Say it isn’t so! A recent study out of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill cites what animal studies have hinted at for years: MSG (aka monosodium glutamate) could be a factor in weight gain.

The study focused on 750 Chinese men and women, ages 40-59, living in 3 rural villages in north and south China. Most of the study subjects prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods and roughly 82 percent used MSG. Those participants who used the highest amounts of MSG had nearly 3 times the incidence of overweight as those who did not use MSG, even when physical activity, total caloric intake, and other possible explanations for body mass differences were accounted for. The positive correlation between MSG and higher weight confirmed what animal studies have been suggesting for years.

Maybe you’re wondering what monosodium glutamate is exactly, and what you can do to avoid it in your diet. MSG is a flavor enhancer in foods—some believe it may even provide a fifth basic taste sensation (in addition to sweet, sour, salt, and bitter), what the Japanese call “umami” (roughly translated as “tastiness”). MSG is considered an “excitotoxin,” since its action in the body is to excite neurotransmitters (important brain chemicals), causing nerve cells to discharge and also exciting nerves related to taste. Perhaps this ability to excite these nerves is a factor in an association between increased MSG usage and weight gain.

How prevalent is MSG in the U.S. diet? Americans consumed about 1 million pounds of MSG in 1950, and today that number has increased by a factor of 300!

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes MSG as “naturally occurring,” and has it on the GRAS (“generally regarded as safe”) list. However, not only could MSG be causing us to gain weight, but some studies also reveal that as many as 25 to 30 percent of Americans have adverse reactions to it (e.g., palpitations and migraine headaches), and as many as 30 percent are extra sensitive to it if they consume more than 5 grams at one sitting.

OK, if you’re an MSG user who could stand to lose a little weight (or know someone who is), what should you do?

Unfortunately, eliminating MSG from the diet is much easier said than done, since—given the fact that food processors often change recipes—there’s no list of “safe” foods that never contain MSG. A good start is to avoid anything with MSG anywhere in the ingredient list, but there will still be many foods that have MSG hidden inside other ingredients. Likewise, even products labeled “no MSG added” can still contain these hidden sources.

Best bets for avoiding MSG

• Buy organic produce whenever possible.
• Make things from scratch, avoiding processed ingredients as much as possible.
• Limit making stews or soups in a crock pot, since slow-cooking tends to cause small amounts of glutamic acid to be released from the protein sources (e.g., meat, chicken) in the recipe.

What are your thoughts on MSG? I’d love to hear from you!

Editors Note: To say MSG occurs naturally is missing the point.  It is NOT natural to eat MSG in the quantity that Corporate America is cramming into the food supply.  Nicotine occurs naturally in potatoes, tomatoes, etc.  But you wouldn’t add it to food stuffs.

And there has been a real negative attack on Organic Produce lately. Media all over the world keeps saying it’s not more healthy.  Again missing the point entirely.  While an organic apple may have the same nutrition as a conventionally (Meaning grown with pesticide) apple the Organic apple is free of pesticide.  So the real issue is the pesticide NOT the nutrition.

It’s always about money.  Propaganda and Bullshit coming from the Media being spoon fed by Governments and Corporate interests.

MSG is toxic to the body in any form but naturally occurring.  Avoid it.

In people with hypokalemia, a drop in blood potassium levels results in problems with vital muscle functions. Symptoms can range from mild weakness to serious paralysis, say Greek researchers who conducted a review of people who drank between two to nine liters of cola a day.

Two of the patients were pregnant women who were admitted to hospital with low potassium levels. One was a 21-year-old woman who drank up to three liters of cola a day and complained of fatigue, appetite loss and persistent vomiting. An electrocardiogram revealed she had a heart blockage, and blood tests showed she had low potassium levels, the researchers explained in a news release.

The second pregnant patient, who’d consumed up to seven liters of cola a day for 10 months, had low potassium levels and was suffering from increasing muscular weakness, the researchers noted.

Both patients made a rapid and full recovery after they stopped drinking cola and took oral or intravenous potassium. The case studies are described in the June issue of the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

“We are consuming more soft drinks than ever before, and a number of health issues have already been identified including tooth problems, bone demineralization and the development of metabolic syndrome and diabetes,” and there’s increasing evidence that excessive cola consumption leads to hypokalemia, Dr. Moses Elisaf, of the University of Ioannina, said in the news release.

Elisaf said the three most common ingredients in cola — glucose, fructose and caffeine — can contribute to hypokalemia.

“The individual role of each of these ingredients in the pathophysiology of cola-induced hypokalemia has not been determined and may vary in different patients,” Elisaf said. “However, in most of the cases we looked at for our review, caffeine intoxication was thought to play the most important role. This has been borne out by case studies that focus on other products that contain high levels of caffeine but no glucose or fructose.”

However, “caffeine-free cola products can also cause hypokalemia because the fructose they contain can cause diarrhea,” Elisaf said.

Source: Yahoo Health News

Nutritious Foods

By Stephanie Breakstone, Prevention

More and more research suggests that what we eat is linked to how long we live. “The Biggest Loser” nutritionist Cheryl Forberg, R.D., sets eating guidelines to help contestants get healthy. “What works best for weight loss helps slow the aging process as well,” says Forberg, an expert in anti-aging nutrition.

1. Have a daily dose of omega-3s. “I like to call them the anti-aging fat,” say Forberg. Getting the recommended amount can help lower cholesterol, keep cells functioning properly, and combat inflammation, which reduces your risk of cancer, stroke, and heart attack. Flaxseed, walnuts, and some leafy greens contain omega-3s, but seafood is the best source. Research published in the December 2008 Journal of Nutrition found that DHA, an omega-3 found in cold-water, fatty fish, helps keep aging brains healthy.

Have two 3-ounce servings of salmon, herring, lake trout, or other fatty fish a week; and a daily serving of ground flaxseed, walnuts, soybean oil, spinach, or kale.

2. Eat antioxidants every four hours. These nutrients slow the aging process by protecting our cells from harmful free radicals. But some, such as vitamin C, are water soluble. “That means they only remain in our body for four to six hours, so you have to replenish regularly,” explains Forberg. Vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables are loaded with these disease-fighting substances.

Have a fruit or veggie at every meal and snack—and aim for three to five different colors a day.

3. Double your fiber. It may help protect against cancer and can keep blood sugar levels steady and promote heart health. In fact, according to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, every additional 10 g of dietary fiber consumed daily reduces the risk of death from coronary heart disease by 17 percent. The daily recommendation is 25 to 35 g per day; most Americans eat half or less.

Boost your intake with star sources: cooked lentils (8 g per ½ cup), cooked chickpeas (6 g per ½ cup), barley (16 g per ½ cup), apples (4 g in one medium), and raspberries (8 g per cup).

4. Stop when you’re 80 percent full. Centenarians in Okinawa, Japan, practice this eating ritual; they also consistently consume a lower-calorie diet, which researchers hypothesize is a key component to longevity. Eating slowly can automatically help control calories: A recent study found that women who ate at slower rates felt fuller and ate fewer calories than those who ate more quickly.

The key is to stop when you’re satisfied, not stuffed, says Forberg. A reminder: “You shouldn’t have to unbutton or unzip anything.”

5. Get about 25 percent of calories from healthy fats. The good-for-you variety—like monounsaturated fatty acids—can lower bad LDL cholesterol, raise cardio-protective HDL cholesterol, and decrease your risk of atherosclerosis. Plus, studies suggest that a higher intake of these fats may also contribute to longer life expectancy. For a 1,600-calorie diet, that’s about 44 g per day.

Healthy fats include 1/4 cup of pistachios (7 g), 1/4 cup of almonds (11 g), 1 tablespoon of olive oil (10 g) or 1/4 cup of avocado (3.5 g).

6. Pack protein into every meal and snack. Protein provides essential building blocks for the daily repair of nearly every single cell in your body. Getting enough is critical to your health and vitality, especially as you get older, when cellular damage can become more frequent. Aim to get 30 percent of your daily calories (or 120 g based on a 1,600-calorie diet) from lean protein.

Good sources of protein include skinless white meat from chicken, pork, or turkey (about 21 g per 3 ounces), fat-free milk (8 g per cup), egg whites (7 g for two), and beans (about 8 g per 1/2 cup).

Material adapted from The Biggest Loser 30-Day Jump Start by Cheryl Forberg, R.D.; Melissa Roberson; Lisa Wheeler; and The Biggest Loser Experts and Cast (Rodale; available Feb. 17 wherever books are sold). Copyright 2009 by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP, The Biggest Loser and NBC Studios, Inc., and Reveille LLC. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, Penn. 18098.

Provided by Prevention

Read the tiny print on their website:

* Except for the small amount naturally occurring in yeast extract.

MSG is MSG.  Naturally occurring or not, MSG is potentially very dangerous. Cigarette smoke from Naturally Occurring Tobacco is as dangerous as Cigarette Smoke from name brand cigarettes.  So many companies bury the fact that their products contain MSG in “hidden” names like Yeast Extract.

Why does Campbell try and trick people?  Why use Yeast Extract at all.  It’s not a necessary ingredient in soup. This is a very dangerous practice and injures and hurts people who are allergic to MSG.

Corporate Responsibility is an Oxymoron with Campbells Soup.

Learn more about the ingredients in your foods:  Natural News

Giant Food Corporations care about one thing: PROFIT!  They do NOT nor will they EVER care about YOUR HEALTH.

Buy Organic and eat FRESH not out of cans, boxes, or other packages.

Plastic water bottles are very convenient for carting water around when we are on the go, as they don’t break if we drop them. However, it is worth paying attention to the type of plastic your water bottle is made of, to ensure that the chemicals in the plastic do not leach into the water. If you taste plastic, you are drinking it, so get yourself another bottle.

To be certain that you are choosing a bottle that does not leach, check the recycling symbol on your bottle. If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene), your bottle is fine. The type of plastic bottle in which water is usually sold is usually a #1, and is only recommended for one time use. Do not refill it. Better to use a reusable water bottle, and fill it with your own filtered water from home and keep these single-use bottles out of the landfill.

Unfortunately, those fabulous colourful hard plastic lexan bottles made with polycarbonate plastics and identified by the #7 recycling symbol, may leach BPA. Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen, a known endocrine disruptor, meaning it disturbs the hormonal messaging in our bodies. Synthetic xenoestrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children. BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. For more of the science on the effects of BPA on our endocrine system etc. Nalgene, the company that manufactures the lexan water bottles also makes #2 HDPE bottles in the same sizes and shapes, so we have a viable alternative.

Unfortunately, most plastic baby bottles and drinking cups are made with plastics containing Bisphenol A. In 2006 Europe banned all products made for children under age 3 containing BPA, and as of Dec. 2006 the city of San Franscisco followed suit. In March 2007 a billion-dollar class action suit was commenced against Gerber, Playtex, Evenflo, Avent, and Dr. Brown’s in Los Angeles superior court for harm done to babies caused by drinking out of baby bottles and sippy cups containing BPA. So, to be certain that your baby is not exposed, use glass bottles.

Check the recycling numbers on all your plastic food containers as well, and gradually move to storing all food in glass or ceramic.

Store water in glass or brass if possible, and out of direct sunlight.

Source: http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2007/03/29/plastic_water_bottles

Most people realize that consumption of soft drinks is not healthy, but just how unhealthy often catches them by surprise.

Soft Drinks impact your health by:

• Causing Obesity though the consumption of “Empty Calories”
• Wear down bones contributing to Osteoporosis
• Cause Tooth Decay and Erosion
• Contribute to Heart Disease
• Contribute to the development of Kidney Stones
• Contain potential carcinogens
• When combined with Artificial Sweeteners contribute to Neurological Disorders

The bottom line is every time you consume Carbonated Beverages – Soft Drinks – Soda Pop you are doing your body a disservice.

If you would like to know more please take the time to read this report by Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D. from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, D.C.

This is a PDF file and requires Acrobat or other PDF reader.

Report Link: Liquid Candy – How Soft Drinks Are Harming Americans’ Health

Most people do not realize that oral vitamin consumption may only deliver as little as 5 to 15% of the vitamin to your system. People who are ill generally absorb even less! You’re intestinal tract is your “Second Brain” full of nerves and needs the care an attention the rest of your spine receive. Opportunistic pathogens in one area of the body may prevent another area of the body from receiving the healing attention it needs. The body is a whole!

This is a complex topic whose use extends from Mainstream to Alternative Therapies. The whole point is to bypass the digestive tract and deliver Nutrition/Drugs directly to the bloodstream.

Visit this link to learn more about Intravenous Therapy