`````````````````````````````````````````````````````
"A NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH FACTS Ezine" Here to Inform and Help You Become Healthier and Happier while Achieving Quality Longevity!

http://www.antibiotic-alternatives.com
Email Lena
928-636-9425
Friday March 16, 2007
````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Watch for Monday's "Ask Lena Health Q & A edition.
Get Your Health Question Answered Email Click Here
&
Tuesday's & Thursday's "Your Home Business Coach"
The newsletter/ezine for home based business!

This Ezine is available by subscription only and subscriber requests are kept on file!

I strive to bring you only the most timely, pro's & con's information for the betterment of your health without clogging the issue or your email box with a lot of advertising and other such junk! If I am not
succeeding mailto:health@antibiotic-alternatives.com and let me know!!

Our subscriber list is confidential and we respect your privacy. A N.E.H.F. does not make its list available to third parties. All subscribe and unsubscribe information can be found at the end of this issue.
The Mission of this Ezine Click Here

============================
=> IN THIS ISSUE!
============================

==> Editors' Ranting & or Warnings
==> Something To Think About
==> Health Thought for the day!
==> Showcase Health Spotlight
==> Monthly Spotlight Ads
==> Today's Health Tip
==> Health Today
==> Environmental Report
==> Life Changing Information

Greetings and thank you for being an optin subscriber!

This week's warm summer type weather finds the bird houses full of paired up birds and nesting with eggs, which has me in a summer mood. Yes, I realize spring won't be here for a few days, but since it's close I think it's appropriate today to pass on necessary spring cleaning information and I'm not talking about your brick and mortar home either! Also, you need to remember that it's so important to take your weekly day of rest and your body will thank you in days to come!

Take charge of your family's health before it takes charge of you!
Question or comment (good or not so good) Click Here

Remember ANEH Facts archives now exist Click Here
Ask Lena Health Q & A Archives Click Here
Your Home Business Coach Archives Click Here

==================================
Something To Think About
============================

A Real Good Reason To Forgo Canned Foods!

Chemical Linked to Birth Defects Found at Unsafe Levels in Canned Food
Plastics Compound Highest in Soup, Pasta, Baby Formula
By Jovana Ruzicic, (202) 939-9144

WASHINGTON, March 5 - In the most comprehensive U.S. tests for an industrial chemical used to line cans of foods, an independent laboratory found a compound linked to birth defects in more than half of the samples of canned fruit, vegetables, soda, and baby formula from supermarket shelves, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) report released today.

The lab tests conducted for EWG found bisphenol A, or BPA, in 55 of 97 cans of food purchased from major supermarket chains in California, Connecticut and Georgia. The lab tested 27 national name brands and three store brands.

The potential for BPA to cause birth defects and reproductive harm is being evaluated today by a federal advisory panel at the Center for Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR), a division of the National Institutes of Health. Major concerns have been raised regarding the integrity of CERHR science and conflicts of interest on the part of a Center contractor, Sciences International (SI). SI plays a major management role in CERHR operations while at the same time doing business with a client base that includes manufacturers of chemicals under review by the Center, including BPA.

BPA is an ingredient in plastics and the epoxy resins that line food cans. Low doses of BPA lead to a range of health problems, including birth defects of the male and female reproductive systems in laboratory animals. Despite the growing evidence of risk to human health, there are no limits on the amount of BPA allowed in canned food.

The tests found that pregnant women and infants who eat even a single serving of some canned foods are exposed to unsafe doses of BPA. Of the foods tested-which included many of the canned foods eaten most often by women of childbearing age-BPA levels were highest in canned pasta and soup. Canned infant formula also had high levels. Just one to three servings of food with these BPA levels could expose a pregnant woman or infant to harmful doses of the chemical.

"BPA reads like a case study of how badly our chemical safety system is broken," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at EWG. "We've known it's toxic for 75 years, it's polluting the bodies of almost all Americans, but we allow it in our food at levels that leave no margin of safety for pregnant women and young children."

Scientists have detected BPA in breast milk, serum, saliva, urine, amniotic fluid, and cord blood from at least 2,200 people in Europe, North America, and Asia. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently detected BPA in 95% of nearly 400 U.S. adults and children.

The last comprehensive review of low dose studies found that the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies?94 of 115?of have confirmed BPA's toxicity at low levels of exposure. Few chemicals have been found to consistently display such a diverse range of harm at such low doses.

Read the Full EGW report

=======================
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!
=======================

Eating a Low Fat Diet And Running?

Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo studied the effects of different diets on endurance runners. They had marathon runners eat diets that ranged from 17 percent to 44 percent of total calories from fat. They found that on the low-fat diet, the runners simply weren't getting enough essential nutrients, particularly calcium and zinc. Women runners on the low-fat diet weren't getting enough essential fatty acids either.

As a result, the researchers had to advise the runners to eat more, rather than less, fat.

Proven Fact Of Marketing!
Takes a minimum of seven times readings an ad
before the normal buyer will take advantage of your offer...
GET THAT ADVANTAGE HERE!
Spotlight your product or service here!
Ad Information Click Here

======================================
We accept all advertisements in good faith, but the advertisers are completely responsible for the content and accuracy of their advertisements. We do not give any warranties and accept no responsibility. The editor and publisher suggest that you exercise due diligence!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FDA Says Pills Can Cause 'Sleep-Driving'
Mar 14, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) - All prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving, federal health officials warned Wednesday, almost a year after the bizarre side effect first made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after taking Ambien.

It's a more complicated version of sleepwalking, but behind the wheel: getting up in the middle of the night and going for a drive - with no memory of doing so.

The Food and Drug Administration wouldn't say exactly how many cases of sleep-driving it had linked to insomnia drugs, but neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports - and is worried that more are going uncounted.

Given the millions of prescriptions for insomnia drugs, Katz called the problem rare, and said he was unaware of any deaths. But because sleep-driving is so dangerous - and there are precautions that patients can take - the FDA ordered a series of strict new steps Wednesday.

First, the makers of 13 sleep drugs must put warnings on their labels about two rare but serious side effects:

_sleep-driving, along with other less dangerous "complex sleep-related behaviors" - like making phone calls, fixing and eating food, and having sex while still asleep.

_and life-threatening allergic reactions, as well as severe facial swelling, both of which can occur either the first time the pills are taken or anytime thereafter.

Next, doctors this week will begin getting letters notifying them of the new warnings.

Later this year, all prescription sleeping pills will begin coming with special brochures called "Medication Guides" that spell out the risks for patients in easy-to-understand language.

Sleep-driving made headlines last May when Kennedy, D-R.I., crashed his car into a security barrier outside the U.S. Capitol after taking Ambien and a second drug, Phenergan, an anti-nausea pill that also acts as a sedative. Kennedy has said he had no memory of the event. He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of prescription drugs, and was sentenced to court-ordered drug treatment and a year's probation.

Ambien isn't the only insomnia drug that can cause sleep-driving - any of the class known as "sedative-hypnotics" can, FDA's Katz stressed Wednesday.

To lower the risk of a sleep-driving episode, he advised patients to never take any prescription insomnia drug along with alcohol or any other sedating drug. Also, don't take higher-than-recommended doses of the pills.

"We really want people to know these things can occur, and these sleep behaviors can be perhaps to a large extent mitigated by behaviors the patients can control," he said.

Some of the insomnia drugs may be riskier than others, so FDA also recommended that manufacturers conduct clinical trials to figure that out.

The drugs are: Ambien; Butisol sodium; Carbrital; Dalmane; Doral; Halcion; Lunesta; Placidyl; Prosom; Restoril; Rozerem; Seconal; Sonata.

Fewer than one in 1,000 patients in studies of Ambien reported somnambulism - a scientific term that includes the sleep behaviors flagged by the FDA - said Lisa Kennedy, a spokeswoman for manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis SA, who is not related to the congressman. The side effect has remained similarly rare since widespread sales began, she said.

AP News

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
FOOD OF THE WEEK
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Another great springtime green for detoxing and cleansing the body of its winter residue!

Phytolacca americana aka Poke Salat aka Pokeweed

During my years of living in Oklahoma as a child there was a spring ritual that we took part in that produced a tasty and healthy green dish. It was known to us as "poke salat pickin time". This tasty green popular wild food is found mostly in the eastern half of the United States but can be found in the western portion in some areas. Each year as spring approaches I start to hunger for these tasty greens. Mother nature produces some great free food if you know where to look for it? These days with the population so exploded it's harder to find but bet your grand mother will know where to find them!

Some so-called smart people will tell you not to eat Poke Salat, but they also will tell you that processed foods are good for you and your body can be healthy without vitamins and minerals so I totally discount their recommendations!

We new (1700's)Americans didn't start that ritual! The true-blue Native Americans introduced the plant to the early European settlers and fast became such a popular pot herb that seeds soon were being cultivated back in Europe. After a long winter without fresh food, the early settlers looked forward to cooking the first tender green leaves of pokeweed. It gave them vitamins while providing a good spring cleansing tonic. They'd cook it up with Lamb's Quarters ? another of my favorite wild greens - and Dock, which are also early spring greens. Some people today still cook and eat poke greens in the early spring although fast food is overshadowing healthy eating that I fear these healthy greens are losing their appeal in this and future generations. Growing up it was simply understood that everyone ate greens and liked them but now most children have never tasted a green food or if they have most have chosen to dislike them.

Salat is the German word for salad, and probably came with German settlers. In towns you'll find pokeweed growing wild in alleyways and vacant lots. In the country it grows in the fence rows and along the edges of woods. Best picked in early spring. When mature, in mid and late summer, it has clusters of shiny purple berries which birds love to eat. Poke is poisonous in uncooked stage and cannot be eaten raw in salads!

Pokeweed is a large and coarse herbaceous weed with big leaves, a stout reddish trunk, widely branching reddish stems, and elongated erect clusters of small white flowers that give way to drooping clusters of dark purple berries. The leaves are smooth, long and taper at both ends. As the season progresses all parts of the plant take on more of a reddish or purplish hue. Pokeberry is an herbaceous perennial that dies back in winter and grows quickly in spring Mature leaves give off an unpleasant odor when bruised. In addition to eating the young shoots and leaves, native Americans and early American settlers made a crimson dye from the berry juice and that continues with some naturalists today. The berry juice was used for ink.

Care should be taken when picking! Only the young shoots and developing leaves - before they take on their reddish hue - can be eaten, and only after boiling for 20-30 minutes in at least two changes of water. Be very careful not to get any of the root when picking the young shoots.

Native Americans from throughout its range used pokeweed concoctions for a wide variety of internal and external medicinal applications. It seems the berry juice has been used for pimples and boils, in some cases taken internally in very small amounts and in other cases applied to the skin. It has also been taken for joint pain and applied to sore breasts. Leaf concoctions have been used as an expectorant, emetic and cathartic. Winter way-back-when use to find a sister or two with boils on them and my mother would make a poke poultice applied to the boils and it really worked to eliminate them?

Sadly I cannot find the exact nutrient makeup of Poke Salat but is said to contain the same nutrients as the cabbage, collard and kale families. Traditionally cooking; drained leaves are then seasoned with salt, pepper and bacon drippings and then fried in an iron skillet. Personally, any way you fix spinach will work with poke greens as long as you change water half way through cooking.

My mother served poke greens two ways. One; by boiling until tender then she would drain them and put into a skillet and add one egg and one small chopped onion per 2 cups of greens and cook until eggs were set and onions tender crunchy. Second, my most favorite, was simply boiled for about 15 minutes, drain off water, add more water and sliced onions, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper to taste. Both ways are tasty.

I now live in an area that I cannot find wild poke greens, but forced to buy canned ones, which just isn't the same nor as tasty? Fresh is best!

Try a new food,
Lena

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
HEALTH TODAY
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

Spring Cleaning Your Body As Important As Spring Cleaning Your House!
© By Lena Sanchez

Losing that excess winter weight gain will certainly require more than just a weight loss program for some. Winter comfort foods tend to block our intestines and clog our organs, therefore a good gently cleansing should be undertaken to assure that weight loss can be attained? Spring cleaning of the home should include the spring cleaning of the body?

A Dr. Omura informed us that he discovered, almost by accident, that the leaves of the coriander plant can accelerate the excretion of mercury, lead and aluminum from the body. He had been treating several patients for an eye infection called trachoma (granular conjunctivitis), which is caused by the micro-organism Chlamydia trachomatis. Following the standard treatment with antibiotics, Dr. Omura found that the patients´ symptoms would clear up initially, then recur within a few months. He experienced similar difficulties in treating viral-related problems like Herpes Simplex types I & II and Cytomegalovirus infections.

Cilantro Helps Flush Out Heavy Metals

After taking a closer look, Dr. Omura found these organisms seemed to hide and flourish in areas of the body where there were concentrations of heavy metals like mercury, lead and aluminium. Somehow the organisms were able to use the toxic metals to protect themselves from the antibiotics.

It just so happens that while he was testing for these toxic metals, Dr. Omura noticed that mercury levels in the urine increased after one consumed a healthy serving of Vietnamese soup. The soup contained Chinese parsley, or as it is better known in this country, cilantro. Some of you may also know it as coriander since it comes from the leaves of the coriander plant.

Further testing revealed that eating cilantro also increased the urnary excretion of lead and aluminum. And when cilantro was used concurrently with the antibiotics or natural antiviral agents and/or fatty acids like EPA with DHA, the above infections could be eliminated for good. (Acupunct Electrother Res 95:20(3-4):195-229.)

Dr. Omura made a remarkable discovery. He found a novel technique which greatly increases our ability to clear up recurring infections, both viral and bacterial. And, perhaps more exciting, he's discovered an inexpensive, easy way to remove (or "chelate") toxic metals from the nervous system and body tissues-one that anyone can use.

Here is a simple and tasty way to achieve that cleansing and also Great News for Amalgam Sufferers!

Cilantro Pesto

1 clove garlic
½ cup almonds, cashews, or other nuts
1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons olive oil

Put the cilantro and olive oil in blender and process until the cilantro is chopped. Add the rest of the ingredients and process to a lumpy paste. (You may need to add a touch of hot water and scrape the sides of the blender.) You can change the consistency by altering the amount of olive oil and lemon juice, but keep the 3:1 ratio of oil to juice.
- It freezes well, so you can make several batches at once. I enjoy this on wheat pasta or as a snack on multigrain crackers. 1-2 Tablespoons a day works for me.

Then build your immune system and include a great builder, SHIITAKE MUSHROOM MISO SOUP.

According to Joseph Forest, food consultant and editor of Cooking Vegetarian, the following soup is "packed with therapeutic action from the olive oil, onions, garlic, miso and most notably, the shiitake mushrooms." These meaty, woodsy flavored mushrooms have long been recognized for their immunity boosting, anti-viral and anti-tumor properties.

* ½ lb fresh shiitake mushrooms (12 medium sized).
* ½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
* 1 small onion, diced.
* 4 cloves garlic, crushed.
* ½ teaspoon dried thyme.
* ½ teaspoon dried marjoram.
* 4 cups purified/filtered water.
* 1 cube vegetable bouillon.
* 4 tablespoons miso paste.
* ½ cup chopped fresh parsley.

-Remove stems from the mushrooms and clean caps with damp cloth. (Keep the stems for stock) Cut mushroom caps in half, and then cut into thin strips.
-Saute the mushrooms, onions, garlic, thyme and marjoram in olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, stir frequently.
-Add the water and vegetable bouillon bring to a light boil. Cover, reduce heat and lightly simmer for 12 minutes.
-Place miso in small bowl. Add ½ cup of soup liquid and stir until smooth.
-Take pot off heat and stir in the miso. Add parsley and adjust seasoning.
-Heat on low/medium heat for 3 minutes. Pour into bowls and serve.

Have this at least 3 times a week for ongoing immune system building! Flavor with Bragg's Liquid Aminos if necessary.

Eating your greens and add these tasty morsels and you can shortly have a cleansed body ready for spring and getting that weight under control, should it be necessary.
Lena

Judge halts sale of biotech alfalfa seeds
By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2007

Activists applaud the preliminary ruling as first ban on genetically manipulated crops.

A federal judge Monday overturned the Bush administration's 2005 approval of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds and stopped their sale for now, in what activists hailed as the first ban on selling such crops.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to adequately conduct an environmental impact study before approving them for sale.

Monday's ruling grew out of the judge's decision last month that the USDA failed to take seriously concerns that genetically altered seeds could migrate to other alfalfa crops. Nothing in the National Environmental Protection Act, "the relevant regulations, or the case law support such a cavalier response," he said.

The seeds, developed by agribusiness giant Monsanto Co., are now in their second season of use. Such genetically engineered seeds are grown in 200,000 of the nation's 23 million acres of alfalfa, widely grown for hay and animal grazing.

The seeds were re-engineered so that alfalfa plants can resist the ill effects of another Monsanto product, a widely used herbicide known by the trade name of Roundup. As a result, some farmers say, they can get greater crop yield and better quality alfalfa.

California is the nation's No. 1 alfalfa producer with about 1 million acres under cultivation. The state's 2004 harvest was worth $853 million.

Breyer's preliminary injunction came in a lawsuit brought by the San Francisco-based Center for Food Safety and other environmental groups.

It is the first ban on the genetic manipulation of traits of basic crops, such as corn, canola, soybeans and cotton, people familiar with the case confirmed.

Boosters of organic foods called the judge's order a landmark in protecting the public interest. A representative of the Agriculture Department in Washington could not be reached.

But some farmers, agricultural scientists and officials at Monsanto said the ruling, if upheld, would pose a major setback for the burgeoning U.S. biotech industry.

"It's a very significant development, the next step in the pushback by the federal court system for the grossly inadequate environmental review of genetically engineered crops," said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist of the Organic Center, a nonprofit Rhode Island-based group that does research into the benefits of organic food.

The ban will remain in effect until the judge considers lifting it or making it permanent. Monsanto is banking on increasing the acreage by convincing Breyer at an April hearing that farmers can use so-called Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds without contaminating neighboring fields.

Researchers have developed "stewardship" practices that provide "a robust and responsible approach to managing the environmental questions raised by the plaintiffs in this case," said Jerry Steiner, Monsanto's executive vice president.

"I hope this is just a bump in the road," added Phillip Bowles, who grows Roundup Ready alfalfa on about one-tenth of his 6,000-acre alfalfa farm in Los Banos in Merced County. Without the new seeds, farmers will be forced to use herbicides that are far stronger than Roundup if they want to control weeds, Bowles said.

Allen Van Deynze, a biotechnology scientist at UC Davis who's done extensive research on genetically modified alfalfa, said that genetic plants could be managed effectively so that less than 1% of the seeds would contaminate other crops. "We've managed gene flow in the seed industry for 100 years now," he said.

Although Van Deynze confirmed that he received some of the financial support for his research from the seed industry, he stressed that all his papers had been thoroughly reviewed by other scientists in the field.

Van Deynze said that he and his colleagues at UC Davis also had developed management plans for using Roundup Ready seeds that have been accepted by alfalfa growers, who use conventional and organic methods.

But Jim Rickert, who raises 3,000 acres of organic and conventional alfalfa in Siskiyou and Shasta counties in Northern California, was skeptical. "I've heard this particular statement made before," he said.

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

Judge halts sale of biotech alfalfa seeds By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer March 13, 2007

Judge halts sale of biotech alfalfa seeds
By Marc Lifsher, Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2007