A Natural Environmental Health Facts Ezine

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````
"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 April 08, 2005
````````````````````````````````````````````````````

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"

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
==> Food of The Week
==> Health Today
==> Environmental Report
==> Life Changing Information

As the weekend comes along, much too soon, I have to sit back and evaluate if I've done the very best for you that I can. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't quite make it. There is always so much to show you that I'm not always able to get it all out to you. Oh well, there is another week coming up and hopefully I will cover all that you need to be healthier and live longer with quality... Have a great weekend...

If you have a question or comment (good or bad) send it to me... Click Here
Remember ANEH Facts archives now exist Click Here
Ask Lena Health Q & A Archives Click Here
Take charge of you and your family's health before it takes charge of you!
Lena

==> Find An Alternative Health Professional
==>Latest Product Recalls - I'm appalled at the number of things, particularly medications, recalled weekly/daily neither your doctor nor your news stations are telling you about, so how are you going to know? Look here for DAILY Product Recall Site
===> Help The World Without Spending!
http://www.unicefusa.org/emergencies/
===>Help Feed The Hungry Doesn't Cost You A Penny
http://www.thehungersite.com Share your LOVE here!

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

The Ugly Side of Pretty
By Rebecca Ephraim, Dragonfly Media.
April 6, 2005.

Emerging science suggests that untold numbers of cosmetics and personal care ingredients may be silently and insidiously promoting cancer, ravaging women's reproductive functions and causing birth defects.

"I don't pay much attention to the ingredient lists, I just know what works for me," said Shelley Carpenter, when asked what she looks for in her personal care products. Thinking a little harder, she adds, "I'm allergic to most perfumes, so I stay away from smelly stuff. But I couldn't pin it down." This begs the question, "Who can?" After all, how many of us have the time or inclination to scour the ingredient lists of our moisturizer, deodorant, body lotion and any of the other products we slather on daily?

Carpenter, 45, bases her choices of personal body care products primarily on how her skin immediately reacts to them, and second to that, their functionality. Her skin, beautifully clear and alabaster, erupts into a red, scaly rash at the slightest provocation and she's aware from years of trial and error that certain products set this in motion.

But beyond skin eruptions and rashes, emerging science suggests that untold numbers of cosmetics and personal care ingredients may be silently and insidiously promoting cancer, ravaging women's reproductive functions and causing birth defects. Known by hundreds of long, intimidating chemical names, these ingredients are in the products we shower and bathe with, rub, spray and dab on our bodies, unconsciously, day-in-and-day-out.

It's the day-in-and-day-out part that's of most concern, since these toxic ingredients leak their poisons through our porous skin and into our bodies bit-by-bit. "There's not one smoking gun that we can point to and say 'it's that personal care product, that deodorant, that nail polish that is going to give you cancer," said Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Fund. "We can say the cumulative exposure -- the aggregate exposure that we all have to a myriad of personal care products containing carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins, has not been assessed."

Categorically, the giant, mainstream personal care products companies continue to use known or suspected toxic ingredients in their product formulas. There are literally thousands of substances that have been used for decades without the slightest hint to consumers that they may be doing something more than making us squeaky clean and smell good. As activist Charlotte Brody points out, "Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients are reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they are sold to the public. And the FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing."

Hence, chemicals such as acrylamide (in foundation, face lotion and hand cream) linked to mammary tumors in lab research; formaldehyde (found in nail polish and blush) classified as a probable human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency; and dibutyl phthalate (an industrial chemical commonly found in perfume and hair spray) known to damage the liver, kidney and reproductive systems, disrupt hormonal processes and increase breast cancer risk, are widely used in beauty products.

So should Shelley Carpenter be aware of this? She's certainly no slouch. She's a clinical hospital pharmacist advising doctors on the complex nuances of drug therapies; she's also working on her doctorate in pharmacy while being a mom and wife. Point is, like most of us, she's over-extended and assumes -- like most of us, that whatever personal care products we casually grab off the store shelf must be OK or, well, they wouldn't be sold. In other words, we think, "There's somebody watching out for us, probably some government agency."

"The public, bless our little democratic good government hearts, believes that there is some federal agency that makes sure that dangerous chemicals aren't put into the products we put all over ourselves. Sadly, it's just not true," quips Brody, who's executive director of Commonweal. It, along with Rizzo's Breast Cancer Fund and dozens of other social profit groups, are waging the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They're banging the drum to rouse consumers from our slumber of ignorance to realize the dangers lurking in personal care products and the failure -- or refusal -- of any power to change it.

The Innocents and the Knowing

If you believe that buying "natural" cosmetics and personal care products (those brands usually found in natural health stores and the like) guarantees toxin-free ingredients, you are wrong. The reasons for this are dicey with dollops of gray shading. It comes down to a spectrum that runs from 1) companies that know better but willfully use toxic ingredients to 2) well-intending natural products companies that heretofore operated out of ignorance.

But to understand this, we need to go to Europe for some perspective. The European Union (EU), with its 25 member countries, is taking a more enlightened (or a less Draconian) approach to protecting its 450 million people from toxins in personal care products. As of this March, an EU "Cosmetics Directive," will require companies doing business in Europe to eliminate chemicals in personal care products known or strongly suspected of causing "harm to human health." Although there are thousands of questionable chemicals, the directive is targeting about 450, which is huge compared to the nine chemicals that the FDA has banned or restricted in personal care products.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has seized upon the EU's Cosmetic Directive and is urging consumers to sign a petition that asks U.S. companies to commit to meeting the same standards as their European counterparts and then beyond. So far, some 50 companies have signed the campaign's compact -- all of them are natural products companies. Not one single, large, mainstream company has stepped forward, according to Janet Nudelman, coordinator of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. "We've had dozens of conversations with these companies and they are absolutely unwilling to admit there's a single chemical that represents harm or could be harmful to consumers in their products," Nudelman said.

Problem is, they don't have to. Major loopholes in federal law allow the $35 billion cosmetics industry to, basically, police itself, allowing unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products with no required testing, no monitoring of health effects and inadequate labeling requirements.

"The U.S. government, in relation to the FDA, has not been on the side of consumers and has not been on the side of public health," Nudelman said. "We certainly see that when we see industry representatives serving on government panels that are looking to the very issue that they are supposed to be regulating -- and that is consumer safety. Is the fox guarding the hen house? Yeah, absolutely in the U.S. without question."

However, consumers increasingly have a safe option in those "natural products" companies that have signed the Safe Cosmetics compact pledging to eliminate any questionable chemicals in the personal care products they sell. "The natural products companies may not be all pure and 100 percent where it is we want them to be, but the important thing is that they want to be there, and they're committed to getting there," Nudelman said. "We're talking about literally a massive reformulation on the part of many of these companies in order to meet the core components [of the compact]."

California-based Avalon Natural Products, with three different brands, including Avalon Organics, is one of those companies, reformulating more than 100 skin care products to eliminate questionable ingredients. For a casual observer, it's difficult to fathom why a "natural product" would even have this problem since chemicals like parabens aren't "natural" in the first place -- yet are pervasive in natural products.

Avalon brand manager Tim Schaeffer acknowledged the paradox, which stems from the complexity of preserving natural ingredients in packaged form. Parabens are used as preservatives to inhibit bacteria, yeast and mold growth.

"It's a big challenge to keep natural products from literally rotting. You buy them off a shelf in a store, where they were probably sitting for a month and before that in a warehouse for another month. Then you bring them home and put them in a warm, moist environment where they'll sit for six months or longer ... some things like a deodorant or cream you're putting your fingers in or rubbing in your armpit on a daily basis. That's a pretty tough environment to resist rotting. So preservation for products such as ours that have a lot of organic oils and herbs, is absolutely necessary."

Additionally, parabens (and thousands of other questionable ingredients), have always been legal to use in the U.S. and Canada, and only until recently, when studies have drawn correlations between their use and breast cancer, has concern been raised. Up to this time, many -- possibly most -- makers of natural personal care products were not aware of the hazards of these ingredients. Signers of the compact have scrambled to find effective natural alternatives.

Here's How to Check for Toxins in Your Products

In a massive undertaking, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed the health and safety reviews of 10,000 ingredients in personal care products. The EWG discovered that there is scant research available to document the safety or health risks of low-dose repeated exposures to chemical mixtures. But the absence of data should never be mistaken for proof of safety. The EWG points out that the more we study low-dose exposures, the more we understand that they can cause adverse effects ranging from the subtle and reversible, to effects that are more serious and permanent.

Based on that, the EWG has developed Skin Deep, a sophisticated online rating system that ranks brand-name products on their potential health risks and the absence of basic safety evaluations. To try out its usefulness, we ran a list of the personal care products that Shelley Carpenter uses (see chart). Six of the approximately 10 products she applies daily were recognized and scored. Among those was one product that may pose cancer risks and three products with ingredients that may contain impurities linked to breast cancer; another two, called "penetration enhancers," increase exposure to other products that are carcinogenic, six of the products contain ingredients that are unstudied or lack sufficient safety data and, despite Carpenter's efforts to avoid them, one product contains ingredients that are allergens. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being of the highest health concern, Carpenter's score was a 6.7. What's yours?

Janet Nudelman, of the Safe Cosmetics Campaign, says she uses Skin Deep regularly to look up ingredients in personal care products to get a safety reading -- and make a purchase decision based on the results. "Consumers have real power they are not exercising," she said. "We need to let cosmetic companies know we're going to not buy their products unless they make a strong unwavering commitment to safety."

Sign the consumer petition to encourage companies to join the compact for Safe Cosmetics:

www.safecosmetics.org

EXERCISE THE KEY TO LOWER CHOLESTEROL?

Looks very much like that is true... The University of Ulster at Jordanstown in the United Kingdom enrolled 22 women in a study to evaluate the effects of short periods of exercise on overall health. One group made no changes in their lifestyles, while the other stopped using the elevator and started taking the stairs.

Using a rather long staircase -- 199 stairs -- the study group started with one ascent a day, and at the end of seven weeks was going up the stairs six or seven times each day.

At the end of the seven-week study, the control group's health hadn't changed. But the study group had lower overall cholesterol, a higher HDL (good cholesterol) level and could climb the stairs with lower oxygen consumption and a slower heart rate.

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!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*Get Soft Moist Skin!
*Have Healthy Skin Cells!
*Eliminate Wrinkles!
*Healthy Glowing Skin Fast!

Don't Pay exorbitant $79.95 others charge! Save $39.45 Here

A "deep sea secret" that keeps your skin moist, and looking young and healthy.

It's a discovery called Squalene that comes from deep-water sharks-and it does an excellent job of diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in your skin. To learn more about Squalene.

When applied topically, Squalene is wonderfully moisturizing. Plus, it contains powerful and effective antioxidants to help your skin protect itself from free radicals. What this means for you is younger, firm-looking skin with a healthy, radiant glow.

And since Squalane is so potent, all you need to do is spray a little on your skin and lightly rub it in. I recommend applying it every night before you go to bed.

Don't Pay $79.95 others charge! Save $39.45 Get our Deep Sea Purified Squalene topical ointment for $45.00
Online at Click Here
OR
Toll Free Orders Only Line 866-605-0420 9am - 9pm (MST)

Alternate Snail Mail Ordering Click Here

Your Finger Nails Talk To You About Your Health
Copyright © 2005 Jeannie Crabtree C.Ac
Healthy Solutions Newsletter
http://www.health-doc.com

Your nails can tell you some things about your health. Look at yours and then read this:

If you have little white spots in your nails, and you have not bumped or banged your fingers, It may be a zinc deficiency.

Spoon shaped nails may be inherited or could be a clue to a thyroid deficiency or Iron deficiency anemia. Nails that have no "moon" or white crescent at the base, and are thin and brittle may indicate an underactive thyroid.

Clubbing could indicate chronic lung disease, congenital heart disease or a hereditary defect.

Other problems such as being thin and brittle, pitting or peeling could be an indication of nutritional deficiencies or problems with the chemicals you are using on your nails such as nail polish remover or nail polish.

So if you find unhealthy nails, ask yourself what needs to change. Symptoms are the way your body talks to you so that you do something about it. Are you listening?

*** Tip by Jeannie Crabtree C.Ac. Learn more about getting to the bottom of your health problems with Healthy Solutions Newsletter from http://www.health-doc.com

More info on how nails speak to you Let Your Fingers Be Your Physician

This time last year I was preparing to visit one of the large areas known for growing Ananas comosus Merr. Hawaii… While thinking about that marvelous trip I also remember eating a lot of these and enjoying every morsel! Christopher Columbus discovered this delectable food growing on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and took them back to Spain. It became very popular in Europe by the 1600s.

What is Ananas comosus Merr? Pineapple! The exceptional juiciness and vibrant tropical flavor of pineapple that balances the tastes of sweet and tart make them only second to bananas as America’s favorite tropical fruit. Although the season for pineapple runs from March through June, they are available year-round in local markets.

Bromelain, the great health property contained in pineapples, has been used for hundreds of years as a digestive aid, and to treat inflammation and other health problems. Recently, bromelain has been investigated for possible anticancer activity and now studies show it to contain protease that is a great blood thinner cholesterol lowering agent, thereby helping in preventing heart disease and stroke. Now all these will require daily consumption of pineapple and a very large portion.

Pineapple was a culinary favorite of the fierce Carib Indians who lived on islands in the sea that still bears their name.

Raw pineapple contains;
Calcium, a mineral, is used for building bones and teeth and in maintaining bone strength. Calcium is also used in muscle contraction, blood clotting, and maintenance of cell membranes.
Iron, Necessary for production hemoglobin, and oxygenation of red blood cells, builds up blood quality, and increases resistance as well as increasing energy production.
Magnesium, Key substance in proper functioning of nerves and muscles and healthy maintenance of bones. Helps protect the arterial lining from the stress of sudden blood pressure changes.
Phosphorus, Essential for utilization of carbohydrate, fats and proteins for growth, maintenance, repair of cells, and energy production. Necessary for proper skeletal growth, tooth development, kidney functioning and transference of nerve impulses.
Potassium, Essential for muscles, nerves and heart. Aids in proper maintenance of mineral balance of blood, as well as stable blood pressure. Works with sodium to regulate the body's water balance.
Sodium, The mineral is needed to maintain proper water balance and blood pH. The mineral aids in the transmission of nerve impulses, production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, muscle function and immune system maintenance.
Zinc, important in prostate gland functions and the growth of reproductive organs. The mineralization of bone, a healthy immune system, the digestion of proteins, the acuity of taste and smell, detoxification of free radical promoting metals, collagen formation and wound healing, all depend on zinc. It assists in the transportation of vitamin A in the blood. Sufficient intake and absorption of zinc are needed to maintain the proper concentration of vitamin E in the blood.
Copper, its functions involve the development and maintenance of the cardiovascular, skeletal and the nervous system, including the brain. The development and maintenance of the red blood cells and healthy skin and hair also depend upon copper. Found in all the tissues, the mineral is most concentrated in the brain, heart, kidney, and liver.
Manganese, essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defenses.
Selenium, enhances the immune system, normal development of the fetus during pregnancy, improving arthritic symptoms, and protecting the skin from UV rays. A deficiency could result in birth defects, increased risk of cancer, heart and liver diseases, Down’s syndrome and fibrocystic breast disease.

A host of vitamins; Such as C, Thiamin, B1, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, B-6, Folate, Folic acid, B-12, A, Retinol, E, Tocopherol. Along with Amino acids such as Tryptophan, Threonine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Cystine, Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, Valine, Arginine,Histidine, Alanine, Aspartic acid, Glutamic acid, Glycine, Proline and Serine.

Low in calories! Pineapple is best eaten alone between meals or its enzymes will be used up digesting food and not benefiting your body as well as it could.

Look for pineapples that are heavy for their size. While larger pineapples will have more edible flesh, there is usually no difference in quality between a small and large size pineapple. Pineapples should be free of soft spots, bruises and darkened “eyes,” all of which may indicate that the pineapple is past its prime. Choose fruit with a fragrant sweet smell at the stem end. Avoid pineapple that smells musty, sour or fermented.

Pineapple can be left at room temperature for one or two days before serving. While this process will not make the fruit any sweeter, it will help it to become softer and juicier. Since they are very perishable, you should watch closely during storing period to ensure that they do not spoil. After two days, if you are still not ready to consume the pineapple, you should wrap it in a perforated plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator where it will keep for a maximum of three to five more days.

Pineapple that has been cut up should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container. It will stay fresher and retain more taste and juiciness if you also place some liquid, preferably juice from the pineapple, in the container. Although pineapple can be frozen, this process greatly affects its flavor.

Our favorite way of eating pineapple is fresh and raw, can't beat it for great taste and enjoyment. My husband loves pineapple pie.

Word of caution: If you are taking blood thinners eat pineapple or drink pineapple juice but watch your blood closely for too much thinning.

Study: Drug-Resistant Staph Cases Rising
Apr 6, 2005
By STEPHANIE NANO

Dangerous drug-resistant staph infections are showing up at an alarming rate outside hospitals and nursing homes in the United States. New research found that in one part of the country, as many as one in five infections were picked up out in the community.

Until recently, these hard-to-treat cases were seen only in hospitals and other health-care settings where they can spread to patients with open wounds or tubes and cause serious complications. Now doctors are seeing resistant strains among inmates, children and athletes.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suspected that those outside infections might just be leaking out of hospitals rather than emerging from the general population. But their study in Baltimore, the Atlanta area and Minnesota proved that theory wrong.

Overall, they found 17 percent of drug-resistant staph infections were caught in the community and did not have any apparent links to health-care settings.

"Close to one-fifth of what used to be a hospital-specific problem is now a community problem. And that's a large number," said the CDC's Dr. Scott K. Fridkin. "We didn't think it would be anywhere near that high when we started the study."

Their findings are published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

In a second study in the journal, researchers reported that drug-resistant staph has acquired "flesh-eating" capabilities and caused 14 cases of rare necrotizing fasciitis in the Los Angeles area. All needed surgery and 10 were in intensive care. The condition is usually caused by strep bacteria, and there has been only one other confirmed case caused by staph.

"The bugs are winning, unfortunately, and we need to catch up," said Dr. Loren G. Miller, one of the researchers at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. "We really need to rapidly develop antibiotics to catch up with the bugs and start using antibiotics more appropriately."

Staph bacteria are a common cause of skin infections. Healthy people may carry the bacteria on their skin and in their noses. When infections occur, they are mostly pimples and boils, but the germ can cause serious surgical wound infections, bloodstream infections and pneumonia.

Three-quarters of the community-acquired cases in the CDC study were skin infections, but 23 percent of the cases were serious enough to require hospitalization.

Staph bacteria resistant to the penicillin drug family are called methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

The CDC researchers checked up to two years of lab reports for drug-resistant staph. More than 80 percent of the 12,553 cases were excluded because the patients had been hospitalized, had a history of surgery or dialysis or had another risk factor.

About 17 percent overall, or 2,107 cases, were determined to be community-acquired staph. The rate was 20 percent in Atlanta, 12 percent in Minnesota and 8 percent in Baltimore.

"When they got out in the community, it was felt these strains weren't strong enough to make it on their own. That no longer appears to be the case," said Dr. Henry F. Chambers of the University of California at San Francisco, who wrote an accompanying editorial.

The CDC research found that children under 2 were at higher risk, which could be because children get more cuts and scrapes. Blacks in Atlanta were found to be at higher risk than whites. In cases confirmed through interviews, half were in people who shared a bedroom, and only about one in 10 were in day care.

Fridkin said the study may have underestimated drug-resistant staph out in the community because not all cases are sent to labs for analysis.

Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology at NYU Medical Center, said people can help prevent staph infections by washing their hands, using an antiseptic and a bandage on all cuts and scrapes, and avoiding the sharing of towels, razors, clothing and athletic equipment.

"People should be aware that something that looks like an innocent infection might have a serious consequence," said Tierno, who wrote "The Secret Life of Germs."

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

LENA'S COMMENT: The statement: "the study may have underestimated drug-resistant staph out in the community because not all cases are sent to labs for analysis." Is definitely true. Very few offices ever report staph infections to the CDC because it's not required that they do so therefore the real numbers are much higher than this or any study will show... It's been in our news about someone locally having it and most are dying, at least twice a week over the last few weeks, which tells me it really is rising and rising fast... If you haven't read my book, "Antibiotic Alternatives To Preventing Mega Bacteria" you definitely should..

PAIN MAY ONLY MEAN YOU ARE LOW ON MINERALS AND TRACE MINERALS!
"YOU CAN TRACE EVERY SICKNESS, EVERY DISEASE, AND EVERY AILMENT TO A MINERAL DEFICIENCY" Linus Pauling, PhD a top scientist and two-time Nobel Prize winner Science is just now discovering what he already knew!
Read Why Every Person Should Be Supplementing With
Life Transfusion Ionic Liquid Minerals Click Here
Order online at The Herbal Pharmacy
OR Toll Free Order line 9am to 9pm Sunday through Thursday 1-866-605-0420