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

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Friday April 15, 2005
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=> IN THIS ISSUE!
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==> 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 closes in upon us don't forget to take that healthy, relaxing day to rejuvenate and rest your body. Change pace for one day to give your mind and body a balanced relaxation!

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Something To Think About
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Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve), and aspirin are clearly known to cause kidney damage and disease if taken on a regular basis. Acetaminophen (Tylenol and Excedrin) can also cause kidney damage and failure if used on a regular basis. All of these over-the-counter pain medications probably don?t pose significant danger if your kidneys are relatively healthy and you use them for emergencies only.

As many professional athletes have discovered during the past several years, regular use of prescription anti-inflammatory pain medication like Vioxx, Indocin, and Naprosyn poses even greater danger to kidney health than over-the-counter pain killers.

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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!
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Lessons of the Kissing Bug's Deadly Gift
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D.
April 12, 2005

BUENOS AIRES - When there is an extraordinary new outbreak of a well-known disease, it can provide new insights into how the disease is spread.

A case in point is Chagas' disease, which exists only in the Americas, where it has infected an estimated 16 million people and causes about 50,000 deaths each year.

This parasitic infection usually is transmitted through the bite of the kissing bug (also known as the reduviid bug and the triatomine bug). The insect lives in cracks and holes in poor housing, where it bites people, often on the face, while they sleep. Occasionally, Chagas' is transmitted through blood transfusions, organ transplants and from mother to child at birth.

Recently, Brazilian health officials have reported a widespread outbreak in which Chagas' apparently was transmitted orally through contaminated sugar cane juice. Brazil has banned the sales of the juice, which was used to make a popular drink, guarapa, which is usually consumed fresh. The product is not believed to have been exported.

Although the outbreak is small (25 laboratory-confirmed cases as of April 4), three people have died of the disease, making the outbreak unusually virulent. The ages range from 3 to 73.

The outbreak has led Brazil to ask Argentina and other neighboring countries to warn the hundreds of thousands of people who flocked to the beaches in the state of Santa Catarina and elsewhere in southern Brazil since Feb. 1 in the steamy South American summer to get medical checkups if they drank sugar cane juice and became ill. (One case was reported from Italy.)

In their investigation scientists hope to determine how the contamination of the juice occurred and how much effect food-borne transmission can play in spreading Chagas'. The investigation so far has traced the source to a single site in Navegantes, Brazil, a coastal city.

The disease is named after Carlos Chagas, a Brazilian physician who first described it, in 1909. Chagas' usually spreads when someone is bitten by an insect, engorging itself with blood and passing the parasite in its feces onto the skin.

The parasite then enters the body when an affected person scratches the skin or touches an open cut or the eyes or mouth.

The initial symptoms of Chagas' are usually mild or nonexistent. It generally takes decades for the Chagas parasite to cause death by slowly damaging heart muscle, the esophagus and the colon. By that time, drugs are ineffective in reversing the damage.

But in this outbreak, the symptoms and medical problems have developed within days after ingestion of the parasite, and they have been severe in a large proportion of victims. The most common were fever, headache, muscle aches, vomiting and a rash.

Many also experience swollen lymph glands and spleen; abdominal pain; intestinal bleeding; jaundice from liver damage; and encephalitis, said Dr. Luis G. Castellanos of the Pan American Health Organization, a branch of the World Health Organization, in Bras?ia. Also, Dr. Castellanos said, a buildup of fluid in the lungs has resulted from an acute infection of the heart.

Brazil has advised doctors who examine patients with symptoms suggestive of Chagas' disease to test their patients' blood for evidence of infection from the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi.

Patients may benefit from either of two drugs: Benzonidazol, made by Roche, and Nifurtimox, made by Bayer. The drugs can be effective in treating the earliest stages of Chagas' infection, said Dr. Ricardo Gurtler, an expert in the biology and epidemiology of Chagas' disease at the University of Buenos Aires.

Dr. Kennedy L. Schisler, a specialist in allergies and immunology who practices in Igua? Falls, Brazil, said, "News of the outbreak has shocked and flabbergasted us," in part because of the severity of the initial symptoms. In recent years, as health workers have stopped or reduced the transmission of Chagas' by the kissing bugs in Santa Catarina and in a number of other areas, doctors have deduced in a few instances that the disease was spread through contaminated food. But documentation was limited.

Doctors have reported a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary died of Chagas' after acquiring the parasite at the party. In other outbreaks, entire families have become infected by eating contaminated food in their homes.

The Santa Catarina outbreak is believed to be the largest known food-borne outbreak of Chagas' and the first that has led to an international warning, said Jennifer Marcone, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. She also said that the C.D.C. was not participating in the investigation because Brazil has many experts on Chagas' disease.

Why the symptoms appear to be more severe in this outbreak than in earlier ones is under investigation. One theory is that many more parasites entered the body from the contaminated juice than would have found their way into the blood from a bug bite. Another theory is that the victims may have been infected with an unusually virulent strain of the Chagas' parasite.

Epidemiologists theorize that animals like the gamba, carrying the reduviid bugs, could have deposited the parasite in the sugar cane and left before the cane was crushed. Another theory is that the bugs were in the sugar cane when it was crushed.

The investigations are also aimed at determining how long the parasite can survive in feces outside the reduviid bug and in fluids after the bug is crushed. The information is important because it can help health workers devise strategies to prevent oral transmission.

The Shoot You Can Eat And Lose Weight!

A fantastic food that has almost no calories if you leave off the butter!

As I picked the fat green shoots out of our patch I ate one, after washing it of course, and began to wonder what is so great about this vegetable. That's how a lot of my food columns come to be… Here is what I found on investigation!

Asparagus: A great source of vitamin E, asparagus (asparagi?) are also loaded with known phytochemicals to help fight cancer (glutathione, for example) and as a natural diuretic, will help get rid of that excess water weight.

The asparagus we eat are actually shoots from the earth-covered root of the asparagus plant. The shoots are cut after 3 to 7 days of growth.

Asparagus exceeds other vegetables as the leading supplier of Folic Acid. Providing folacin. Folacin is necessary for blood cell formation, growth, and prevention of liver disease. Clinical trials have demonstrated a significant link between Folic Acid intake and the prevention of neural tube defects that can cause paralysis and death in babies. - Low in Calories, less than 4 calories per average spear.

     - Very Low in Sodium
     - Vegetable Protein
     - A source of Fiber
     - Contains Vitamin A
     - Contains Potassium
     - Contains Vitamin E
     - A significant source of Vitamin B6
     - A significant source of Thiamine
     - One of the richest sources of Rutin, a strengthener of capillary walls
     - Contains Glutathione.
Glutathione (GSH) is one of the strongest Anti-Carcinogens and Antioxidants found in the body. Glutathione has a function to protect cells from oxidative damage and detoxify carcinogenic electrophiles, consequently preventing damage to DNA. Therefore Glutathione functions as a primary defence against chemicals that can cause cell transformation or cell death. Asparagus was found to have the highest Glutathione content of several foods that were tested.

CHOOSING ASPARAGUS: Select asparagus with tightly bunched tips (pass if the tips are loose), and minimum of woody white stalk at the bottom. Wrinkled or pithing stalks indicate age and dehydration and the taste may not be as good. When asparagus is fresh, there is no difference in taste or texture between thin and fat stalks (no matter what you've heard!).

Cooking Asparagus: Since most of asparagus nutrients are in the tip, its best to cook it upright in a tall container. Tie the asparagus in a bunch after cleaning, place in standing position in 1-2 inches of boiling water. Cook just until stalks soften.

If you don't have a pan tall enough, try this: make a very light butter sauce – I find that half butter and half virgin olive oil makes a healthy and tasty sauce - in a wide, flat pan. Cool. Add a touch of water and heat. Lay the washed wet asparagus in, cover and steam or simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. I have a steamer that I lay the cleaned asparagus in and steam, without butter or water, for about 5 minutes for crunchy goodness. Sprinkle with seasoned rice vinegar or lemon for a real treat!

Enjoy!
Lena

Beware: Taking Anti-Impotence Pills Can Make You Blind!

Men who suffer from erectile dysfunction often turn to Viagra to solve their problem. While it has been known for years that some men taking this impotence drug will experience short-term blue/green color blindness, headaches and flushing, a much more serious side effect has been revealed: A team of ophthalmologists has identified a condition that caused permanent blindness in a group of males who had taken Viagra.

The condition? Nonarteritic ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). It is depicted as "stroke of the eye" and takes place when the blood flow is cut off to the optic nerve, injuring the nerve and causing permanent vision loss.

Proof Viagra Causes NAION

Ophthalmologists identified seven patients (ages 50-69) who had distinctive NAION features within 36 hours of taking Viagra; six patients had vision loss within a mere 24 hours after use of the drug. Moreover, all of the patients had at least one of the following arteriosclerotic risk factors:

Diabetes
Hypertension
Hyperlipidemia: excess fat or lipids in the blood
Hypercholesterolemia: elevated cholesterol

... as well as a low cup to disk ratio--a way doctors measure the small circular indentation where the optic nerve binds to the eyeball--meaning the blood vessels and nerves are tightly bundled together in the small space behind the eye. And due to the fact that Viagra regulates a chemical to constrict the body's arteries, this could cut off blood flow to the optic nerve, particularly in those who suffer from low cup to disk ratio, where blood vessels and nerves are already tightly packed, and cause vision loss.

Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology March 2005, Vol. 25, Issue 1: 9-13

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Columbia River Spring Salmon at New Lows
April 14, 2005
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Usually by now the Columbia River's spring chinook salmon are heading upstream over fish ladders in the tens of thousands to spawn. But not this year.

"It's a never-before-seen scarcity," said Charles Hudson of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "We're way behind, even compared to the historically low years of 1994-1995."

It's this bad: For centuries the treaty Indian tribes on the river have caught salmon for the ceremonial First Foods celebration marking the return of the fish. This year they had to get their salmon somewhere else.

Fish biologists had predicted a spring run of about 229,000 chinooks at Bonneville Dam, about 140 miles upstream from the Pacific. But as of Tuesday, near the usual midpoint of the spring run, only about 200 had been counted there.

The chinooks enter the Columbia River from the Pacific at this time of year to return to the streams where they were hatched.

Scientists say they don't have an explanation.

"Nobody knows why, certainly not any of the scientists here I've talked to," said Brian Gorman of the Pacific Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. "It's a mystery. Nobody has a clear idea."

Gorman said the run is not only late, "it is mysteriously late."

Some fish managers wonder whether low water levels as a result of a dry winter - combined with murky water caused by recent rains - are keeping chinook from swimming up the Columbia.

"Spring chinook are pretty finicky when conditions are abnormal," said Guy Norman, regional director for the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "April and early May are the most significant times for spring chinook movement over the (Bonneville) dam. We're hoping for good things to come."

Fish swimming upstream on the Columbia are tallied at the Bonneville Dam, where they go up fish ladders, which resemble stairs, and swim past a large window.

Their numbers are a factor in setting fishing seasons for sport, tribal and commercial fishermen.

Hudson said he's optimistic "there are fish out there gathering at the mouth of the river waiting for some biological trigger to send them up."

The economic impact of the small chinook return is not clear.

"Historically the midpoint of the run is April 26 at Bonneville Dam," Hudson said. "We will have to wait and see where we are then, when we may have a clearer picture."

Curtis Melcher, marine salmon fisheries manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlfe, said weekly meetings are held to look at the size of the run and the size of the catch, and regulators are not yet ready to recommend trimming the season.

He said sport fishermen are catching some chinooks but not as many as usual. He said many of those caught were bound for the Willamette River and other tributaries below the dam.

Each year juvenile salmon swim downstream through an obstacle course of hydroelectric dams to the Pacific Ocean. In two or three years, through a biological instinct that is not well understood, they return upriver to the stream where they were hatched. There, they spawn and die.

Most of this year's spring run went to sea in 2002 or 2003, said Norman, adding that there were no conditions in those years that would readily explain the dearth of fish this spring.

Hudson said the fish are back in near their usual numbers in the Willamette River, which joins the Columbia well below Bonneville Dam, the first dam the returning fish encounter on their return.

"With an impact of this kind you're usually talking about hydroelectric operations as a likely cause," Hudson contended.

Bonneville is required to release a certain amount of water past dams to help fish if the water flow is low to keep young salmon out of hydroelectric turbines. The turbines kill about 10 percent of the fish that go through them.