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A Natural Environmental Health Facts Ezine
 Information For Getting Healthy And Staying Healthy

Lena Sanchez Editor

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 Tobacco is a mood-altering, addictive drug that kills 500,000 Americans a year (200 million worldwide)
Costs $400 billion each year, according to "Smoking and Health Review," (1992). 

The American Lung Association says tobacco contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which causes cancer. 
Some of the 'killers' are radioactivity, arsenic, ammonia, lead, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, cadmium, phenol, benzene and hydrogen cyanide (the 'gas chamber' gas that poisons the respiratory enzymes) 

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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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Sunday  July 31, 2005
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=> 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

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EDITORS' RANTING
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Greetings and thank you for subscribing! 

Death has a way of changing all kinds of things and this ezine hasn't escaped that fact. We had to be out of town for a funeral and with all the family duties there was absolutely no time for online and this ezine did not go out to you in a timely manner as I warned it might not... So Sunday's "A Natural Environmental Health Facts" is going out Monday and very late Monday 8/1/05...

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Something To Think About
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Dust Mites Alive!

House-dust mites are a major source of allergens, and their favorite place to live is a nice warm mattress -- your warm mattress!  But did you know dust mites also need moisture? And, according to the journal Allergy, the amount of moisture generated by a single person lying in bed isn't enough to keep mites alive.

So, one way to reduce the number of mites in your mattress would be to wait for a really cold day to turn the temperature way up. The relative humidity will be too low to let the mites survive.

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School-vaccine waivers inject concern in experts But parents say opting not to have children get shots is a control issue
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
7/31/05 Houston Chronicle

Thousands of parents across the state are exempting their children from required school vaccines, despite concerns that Texas is one of the most poorly immunized states in the nation.

The state health department has mailed 36,993 affidavits to roughly 11,400 people interested in claiming the "conscientious objection," created by the Legislature two years ago to give parents more flexibility to refuse shots.

Though some parents applaud the law, medical experts fear that Texas - and the 17 other states that allow such broad philosophical exemptions - are sending the wrong message. Without the shots, they say, potentially fatal diseases such as measles and whooping cough could make a comeback.

"In the area of public health, we typically have rules," said Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This replaces medical correctness with political correctness."

Parents can request affidavits for "conscientious objections" from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The form, which must be signed and notarized, replaces the state's religious exemption, according to House Bill 2292.

Parents still can seek medical waivers, too.

"To me it's an issue of parental rights," said Rebecca Rex, a Houston mother and co-founder of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, which lobbied for the law for six years. "I feel like it gave parents more ability to control what's done to their child."

Record keeping at the state level is spotty, but a survey conducted in spring 2004 showed that at least 2,314 schoolchildren were covered by philosophical exemptions. The Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, was not among the 81 percent of public school districts that responded to that survey.

Keeping track
HISD officials, who track exemptions among kindergartners and seventh-graders, said 72 students in those grades took conscientious exemptions in 2004-05 and 545 students took medical exemptions.

In Cypress-Fairbanks, 134 students districtwide took conscientious exemptions and 241 took medical exemptions.

Though schools must track exemptions so that students without immunizations could be removed in case of an outbreak, the state is not allowed to keep databases of students with waivers. Still, state officials said they're trying to compile more complete results so they could at least correlate any increases in exemptions with increases in disease rates.

"We won't be able to do that for at least three years," said Monica Gamez, school immunization-compliance coordinator with the DSHS.

Prior to the new law, children in Texas were exempted in 2002 from 33,426 shots for medical reasons and 21,238 shots for religious reasons.

With little indication that exemptions increased significantly after the law, parents who support the "conscientious objection" said the low numbers prove that the state's poor immunization rate can't be blamed on the new law.


Growing list of shots

A study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts Houston's vaccination rate for toddlers at 65.5 percent, the second-lowest rate for an urban area in the nation. The lowest was El Paso County, with a rate of 64.8 percent.

"It wasn't like all these people were waiting at the floodgates to grab a form," Rex said. "I haven't seen this rush out there. It's just that people feel more comfortable with the way they can go about it."

Rex and others said that a growing list of required shots likely will cause more parents to take pause. Children of certain ages now need the hepatitis A vaccine and pneumococcal disease vaccine to attend child care facilities and pre-kindergarten programs.

Parents already have a range of concerns about vaccinations, including allergic reactions and links to autism. They said they should have this increased level of control.

"Every disease is different, every vaccine is different, and every child is different," said PROVE President Dawn Richardson, of Austin.

Aldine mother Maria Garcia, who was getting shots for her 4-year-old son last week at La Nueva Casa de Amigos Health Center, said she's never thought twice about immunizing her children.

"I'm always had it in my mind that the babies always had to have the shots," she said in Spanish through a translator.


Called the best defense

Advocates, though, said school districts should be more open about advertising the exemption. Too often the message they send is: "No shots, no school," they said.

South Houston resident Darla Ibarrola said she wishes she would have known about the exemptions when her son got his last shot in 2003. She attributes her 6-year-old's autism to that shot, a hepatitis B vaccination.

"I didn't know it was an option. At that time, I believed by giving the vaccinations, I was doing the best for my children," she said. "I jumped on the bandwagon."

Some public health officials insist that the vaccinations are the best way to protect public health.

Texas had 497 cases of hepatitis B, 642 cases of whooping cough (also called pertussis) and 5,778 cases of chickenpox in 2004, according to health department statistics.

"Without these immunizations, we run the risk of having a major outbreak," said Kathy Barton, chief of public affairs for the city of Houston Department of Health.

Diseases would spread quickly among children with low immunity, she said.

Rather than focusing on the small percentage of parents ? usually less than half of 1 percent ? who exempt their children from vaccinations, advocates said public health experts should try to reach the 20 percent to 40 percent of parents who want and need vaccines for their children.

F. Nan Wagoner, chairwoman of the Gulfton Immunization Initiative, said she's been surprised to learn how many people in her community are not immunized.

Many residents are recent immigrants, struggling with poverty, language barriers and a lack of education.

"We're talking about people who are walking around with terrible diseases that would kill us all," said Wagoner, an attorney.

If there was a pertussis or measles outbreak, "we could just have dead babies all over the news," she said. "It's kind of like turning back the clock 100 years."

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com 
Houston Chronicle

Figgy Food Medicine

Being in Southern California this week among the vegetables in my sister-in-laws back yard, along with citrus and a Fig tree that was loaded and my dear husband eating his fill right off the tree I thought this weeks food should be on his love. FIGS!

Now I'm not a great fan of figs but I will eat them occasionally.

Have you heard of a Fresh Fig Poultice? No! Its use is found in the Bible in Isaiah 38:21 Works, wonders for boils and skin infections.

Figs are one of the first known natural medicines. The Roman writer Pliny, (52-113 AD) said, "Figs are restorative. They increase the strength of young people, preserve the elderly in better health and make them look younger with fewer wrinkles."

Figs contain the photochemical psoralenes, which helps bring about beneficial results in skin injuries, hence a fig poultice to draw and infection to a head. Also beneficial in the removal of dead skin tissues as for cosmetic use in facial scrubs, and in a skin disease involving lack of pigmentation in patches of skin (vitiligo). I bet it is the mineral properties contained in figs that does the trick!

Both fresh and dried figs are great medicinals! Dried, having about 5 times the amount of nutrients as fresh.

Figs have the highest overall mineral content of all common fruits. A 40 gram (1/4 cup) serving provides 244 mg of potassium (7% of the DV), 53 mg of calcium (6% of the DV) and 1.2 mg of iron (6% of the DV). On top of that contain the calming vitamins B1 and B2.

Great for intestinal balance and cleansing Figs have the highest dietary fiber of any common fruit, nut or vegetable. They are high in peptic fiber, which is a soft soluble fiber and helps the body remove toxic wastes and reduces cholesterol levels. They are good to prevent and relieve constipation. Chinese medicine recognizes figs as a toxin neutralizer. One of the most alkalizing foods, figs can help balance the acid that forms from diets rich in meat and refined foods. Figs contain significant amounts of the proteolytic enzyme Ficin which is a digestion enzyme helping with the digestion especially of proteins.

Word of caution; check that the figs you are buying are organic and of good quality. Fumigation is sometimes used to assure the absence of insects in figs and sulphur dioxide is used to maintain their sweet flavor and rich color. Dried figs infested by mites (rare but possible) may cause severe gastrointestinal conditions if eaten. Mold attack may cause figs to form mycotoxins, which can make you ill, so stick with fresh when you can.

Need ideas on how and/or when to eat figs?

1. Tuck a few figs into a plastic bag for the office, school, game or park, makes for a quick healthful snack. Satisfies to a sweet tooth.

2. Keep a container of dried organic figs in a desk drawer at work, to satisfy late afternoon munchies, or to nibble at coffee break time.

3. Chop a few California figs to add to tossed green salads. They add delightful sweetness and texture, as well as fiber.

4. Sweeten up mashed or cubed winter squash or sweet potatoes with some chopped figs adding a richness of their own, so you can skip the butter or margarine.

5. Blend low-fat cream, ricotta or cottage cheese with some figs to create a great spread for toast or bagels, or as a dip for sliced fresh fruit.

6. Chop some California figs to scatter over instant or regular oatmeal or any cold cereal, skipping the sugar.

Grab a bag from your neighbor's tree and put them into your dehydrator for future use!

Enjoy your figgy food medicine! 

Lena
 

This may be an eye opener if you don't keep up with cancer studies and facts! CANCER CONSPIRACY

The American public is ignorant about cancer ? or so the American Cancer Society concludes from the results of a recent survey. The study in question was designed and carried out by the ACS in order to gauge the prevalence of some allegedly dangerous misconceptions held by the American public concerning cancer and its treatment.

Over 900 adults were interviewed by telephone. They were asked whether they believed a series of statements about cancer to be true, possibly true, or definitely not true.

A particularly insidious aspect of this study is the way in which it draws a direct association between low income and ignorance. The very title of the paper - "Sociodemographic determinants of cancer treatment health literacy" ? offers a revealing glimpse of the authors' preconceived - and thoroughly condescending - ideas. In not so subtle ways, it implies that poverty ("sociodemographic determinants") is the root cause of ignorance in the cancer field.

Another disturbing feature of the study is embedded in the questions themselves. By defining in advance what is and is not a 'cancer myth' the ACS effectively controls the parameters of the debate, assigning participants to the category of ignorance or enlightenment depending on how closely they adhere to ACS-defined standards of truth.

But the fact is, those standards leave a lot to be desired. In fact, it is the ACS leadership itself whose beliefs and attitudes should more properly be made an object of study.

For example, among the questions investigators asked was this: "Treating cancer with surgery causes it to spread throughout the body. True or false?" More than half of those polled thought that yes, surgical procedures could indeed spread cancer. The ACS authors label this a classical example of a "cancer myth," and interprets the fact that more than half of those polled believed it to be true as symptomatic of an alarming and potentially dangerous ignorance of the American public concerning cancer.

Yet is this idea really a myth? Is it an old wives' tale that surgery can spread cancer?

No, it is not. This is an unfair and one-sided characterization. In fact, it has been known since antiquity that surgical procedures in the presence of cancer are capable of causing dissemination of the tumor. Procedures as seemingly routine as needle biopsy or fine needle aspiration, as well as more invasive surgical procedures aimed at the control or excision of tumors, are capable of inadvertently spreading the disease. There are abundant studies and case histories in the medical literature documenting instances of surgically-triggered (so-called 'iatrogenic') tumor spread and warning of the intrinsic dangers of certain surgical procedures in the presence of cancer.

As long ago as 1930 the great American cancer pathologist James Ewing, MD explicitly advised against the surgical sampling of tumor tissue. "It is especially to be avoided with...tumors of the breast, and all growths in which incisions of the skin involve also incisions through the tumor capsule," wrote Ewing (after whom Ewing's sarcoma is named). His concern was that the mechanical disturbance of the tumor - and in particular the disruption of its exterior wall or capsule - would result in the spillage of tumor cells into nearby blood and lymphatic vessels, thereby encouraging spread.

When tumors are perforated, sliced or penetrated by surgical instruments so-called tumor spillage or seeding can occur. That is, tumor cells or clumps of cells can be accidentally spilled into the body's cavities, sucked into the withdrawal track of a needle or catheter, or introduced directly into the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Even rough handling during surgery can cause clusters of tumor cells to break away from the primary tumor. And since the physical insult of surgery itself is well known to be immunosuppressive (i.e., to hinder the normal functioning of the immune system) any accidentally released tumor cells would have a head start over the body's natural defenses in the days and weeks following surgery.

The work of Nora M. Hansen, MD and colleagues, of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., has shown that surgical instrumentation - even something as simple as a diagnostic needle biopsy - may be capable of causing tumor spread. In a paper published in 2004, Dr. Hansen and her fellow researchers presented evidence that needle biopsy of isolated breast tumors can cause the spread of malignant cells to nearby sentinel lymph nodes. As I wrote in a previous newsletter describing this research, "The authors reluctantly concluded that a needle biopsy may indeed increase the spread of the disease by 50 percent compared to patients who receive the more traditional excisional biopsies (or lumpectomies)."

NOTE: To read the newsletter describing Dr. Hansen's work on needle biopsy of breast lesions and its association with lymphatic spread of tumor cells: Cancer Decisions