Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts

Coconut Oil Protects Against Environmental Toxins

In the largest study of chemical exposure ever conducted on human beings, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recently that most American children and adults are carrying in their bodies dozens of pesticides and toxic compounds used in consumer products, many of them linked to potential health threats.

The report documented that children carry bigger doses of many chemicals than adults, including some pyrethroids that are ingredients of virtually every household pesticide and phthalates found in nail polish and other beauty products as well as in soft plastics.

The study looked for 148 toxic compounds in the urine and blood of about 2,400 people over age 5. CDC director Julie Gerberding called the national exposure report, “the largest and most comprehensive report of its kind ever released anywhere by anyone.” Environmental health experts say the discovery of more than 100 chemicals in human bodies is of great concern because we don’t know what effect they can have on the body. Many environmental health experts believe the rise in cancer and other chronic diseases over the past several decades is due, in part, to the accumulation of these chemicals in our bodies.

However, removing pesticides, plastic bottles, make-up, and other items won’t be happening anytime soon. The best solution to the problem is to remove the toxins from our bodies. Certain foods such as cilantro, wheat bran, and coconut have detoxifying effects that can absorb or neutralize environmental chemicals that collect in our bodies. Simply adding these detoxifying foods into the diet can help eliminate many of the toxins we are exposed to each day.

Coconut oil is of particular interest because it has been shown to be highly effective in neutralizing many environmental toxins.

A recent study published in the journal Human and Experimental Toxicology (August 2005) revealed the effectiveness of coconut oil in neutralizing aluminum phosphide, a poison used in rodent control. A case study reported a 28-year-old man ingested a lethal amount of the chemical in an attempt to commit suicide. There is no known antidote for aluminum phosphide poisoning. Doctors had little hope of saving him. He was given the standard treatment for acute poisoning as well as the oral administration of coconut oil. To the surprise of the medical staff, the patient survived. The authors of the study recommend that coconut oil be added to the treatment protocol in acute poisoning cases.

Using coconut oil to help nullify the effects of a poison is not as strange as it may sound. Researchers have known for over a decade about the detoxifying effects of coconut oil. In my new book Coconut Cures: Preventing and Treating Common Health Problems with Coconut, I cite several studies where coconut oil has been shown to neutralize a variety of toxins, including the deadly aflatoxin.

Aflatoxin is a very potent poison that comes from a fungus that often infests grains, especially corn. In Asia and Africa, aflatoxin is a serious problem. Corn has been found to be the most aflatoxin-contaminated food eaten in the Philippines. In certain areas of that country, corn consumption is high. A correlation exists between the incidence of liver cancer caused by aflatoxin and the amount of corn consumed. Those people who eat the most corn also have the highest rates of liver cancer. Coconut oil consumption appears to protect the liver from the cancer-causing effect of aflatoxin. The population of Bicol, in the Philippines, has an unusually high intake of aflatoxin-infested corn, yet they have a low incidence of liver cancer. The reason for the low cancer rate is believed to be due to the high coconut consumption in the area.

Using coconut oil in your daily diet can help protect you from a variety of environmental toxins. An easy way to add coconut oil to your diet is to use it in your cooking in place of other fats and oils. If you don’t use much oil in food preparation you can take it by the spoonful like a dietary supplement. A quality brand of coconut oil tastes very good and is even pleasant to eat straight from a spoon. I often put a spoonful of hardened coconut oil in my mouth and let it slowly melt. It’s an easy way to get my daily dose. SOURCE

TOP PICKS from Natural Health News

Mar 04, 2009
MARY ENIG Ph.D. ON NATURAL COCONUT OIL FOR AIDS and OTHER VIRAL INFECTIONS On July 19, 1995, Enig was quoted in an article published in The HINDU, India's National Newspaper as stating that coconut oil is converted by ...
Jul 05, 2011
In all of my articles I promote the use of mild, unfrangranced soap, dying your hands thoroughly, and applying a simple natural lubricant to your skin to help prevent drying (which perpetuates the problem), coconut oil ...
Aug 12, 2009
A new study examined the effects of coconut oil supplementation on women with abdominal obesity—that is, a waist circumference greater than 34 ½ inches—one of the leading risk factors in both heart disease and diabetes. ...
Nov 15, 2008
"Coconut oil has been a popular oil treatment for thousands of years where coconuts are plentiful, like Sri Lanka and the Philippines. It keeps hair strong and vitalized against the signs of aging. If you visit India today, it's perhaps ...

Healthcare and The Environment

Over my many years working in healthcare facilities I have developed a green and clean system to help in the elimination of devastating bacteria that can lead to MRSA and other difficult infections.


It seems as the facilities make a major contribution to this problem and they must be addressed.
How Healthcare Impacts the EnvironmentHospitals make significant contributions to their communities by providing a wide variety of services.  They are also major employers, with healthcare comprising approximately 16% of the national and regional economy. Hospitals operate all day everyday, making their environmental footprint large in many communities.
Hospitals impact the environment by:
  • Generating approximately 7,000 tons per day of waste, including infectious waste, hazardous waste, and solid waste.
  • Using mercury in medical devices, equipment, light bulbs, etc.
  • Using materials that may have toxic effects:  PVC, DEHP, cleaning materials, heavy metals in electronics, pesticides, batteries.
  • Consuming large amounts of energy in buildings and car fleets, and generating significant greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Consuming large amounts of water for domestic use and heating/cooling as well as landscaping.
Read more

Environment: Printing Green

In the most recent issue of my newsletter, herbalYODA Says!, I mentioned that I have changed to Century Gothic font because it uses less ink when you print.  I also mentioned the use of GreenPrint, a service that helps save ink and paper.
Now it seems this idea is taking up steam with an article in the CBS MoneyWatch newsletter today.

Five Ways to Cut Costs in 2011

And in this article about saving on printing costs then mention that WWF has started promoting a way to not print at all using pdf files.

Why not make this one of the first savings changes you make in 2011...

Another Reason Fast Food Makes You Sick & Fat

Fluoride in fast food wrappers - Exploring Indirect Sources of Human Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylates (PFCAs): Evaluating Uptake, Elimination and Biotransformation of Polyfluoroalkyl Phosphate Esters (PAPs) in the Rat"

FAST-FOOD WRAPPERS ARE A SOURCE OF TOXIC CHEMICALS"
It now appears that dangerous chemicals line the wrappers of fast food.
PAPs (polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters) are used as non-stick agents on the inside of fast-food wrappers, which are now found to make their way into the food contents. Once consumed they are metabolized into PFCAs (perfluorinated carboxylic acids) - dangerous chemicals which can cause cancer.
Scientists at Toronto Uni, Ontario, say the wrappers could be a major, and totally unexpected, source of these chemicals. They've found high concentrations of PFCAs in a number of popular fast foods.
The chemicals are used to make paper resistant to grease and include some burger and fries wrappers.
Until now scientists had assumed that the high concentrations of PFCAs found in most people's bodies came from such things as the fluoride used in non-stick cookware and stain-repellent furnishings etc.

Environmental Effects and Your Health

It has been decades that I've been promoting what just recently so many report as anti-cancer Superfoods.  The same goes for all the education I have done since the late 90s on EMF and cell phone-cordless phone-wifi impact.
As far as food goes, I encourage berries as a top food; the reason being the presence of proanthocyanidins (cyanide compounds from seeds).  Garlic of course is exceptional as we now know brassicas and fiber to be.

We now have a new high ORAC value berry compound in capsules or liquid
from Aronia (chokecherry), about 3 times more beneficial than blueberries.
The first and most important point is that most cancer is not born but made. By that I mean, that only one in ten cases of cancer comes about because you have inherited a defective gene by your mother or father.  Nine out of ten cases of breast cancer, colon cancer and even more for brain cancer arise because of something that happens to you after you’re born. Source
1) Tomatoes - Lycopene in tomatoes protects against cervical, ovarian and prostate cancers. Tomato products like sauce, paste and ketchup are even better sources due to their concentrations.
2) Berries - The vivid colors of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries come from antioxidants called anthocyanins, which fight a variety of cancers. Frozen berries are available year round-try them in smoothies or in cereal.
3) Spinach - One of the most nutritious leafy greens, the lutein and vitamin E in spinach fight liver, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancers.
5) Garlic - Italians and want-to-be Italians, rejoice! Garlic fights stomach, esophageal, and breast cancers. To get the most benefits, chop just before cooking.
6) Apples - This affordable, delicious, year-round fruit has plenty of antioxidants and vitamins, but it also boasts quercetin, a plant chemical, which may lower lung cancer risk and slow the growth of prostate cancer cells.
7) Pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes - As long as it's orange, take your pick! These sweet, fiber-rich vegetables are excellent sources of beta carotene, which may protect the DNA in your cells.
8) Beans - fiber source   Expanded list


following article sourced from SciAM

Alpha-carotene from veggies linked to longer life

Thursday, December 30, 2010
Need another reason to eat your greens (and yellows and oranges) as part of a healthful diet in the New Year? A large U.S. study has found that adults with higher concentrations of serum alpha-carotene in their blood were likely to live longer than those who had lower levels.

Research around carotenoids (phytochemicals that also include beta-carotene, lycopene and others) has yielded mixed results. Cheering of beta-carotene's purported disease-fighting abilities quieted down after years of studies failed to show that supplements reduced risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease or type-2 diabetes (all diseases linked to free-radical damage, which antioxidants, such as carotenoids, are thought to help neutralize).

Nevertheless, increased consumption of fruits and vegetables (which are often high in carotenoids) continue to be linked to a longer, healthier life, often regardless of other lifestyle factors. So researchers are now busy chasing down other components of these foods.

The recent alpha-carotene research is one such study. It assessed the blood levels of serum alpha-carotene in 15,318 U.S. adults and followed up over an average of 13.9 years to see which of the participants had died as of December 31, 2006.

After controlling for demographic, health and lifestyle factors, the researchers "found that serum alpha-carotene concentration was inversely associated with adjusted risk of death," according to their study, led by Chaoyang Li, of the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Women tended to have slightly higher concentrations of the nutrient than men (5.31 microgram per deciliter versus 4.22).

The team found an especially strong correlation between higher alpha-carotene levels and lower risk of death from diabetes, upper respiratory tract and upper digestive tract cancers, as well as lower respiratory disease.

The findings are slated to be published next year in the March 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine and are now available online. A handful of previous, smaller studies of alpha-carotene had mixed results, and the researchers cautioned that the levels of alpha-carotene, rather than having a direct affect on disease prevention themselves might instead "act as an indicator of multiple interactive forces."

Unlike beta-carotene, alpha-carotene is not often found in multivitamins or other common dietary supplements, which suggests that most of the quantities found in people's blood comes from food (primarily yellow-orange and dark green veggies, including broccoli, carrots, collards, green beans, lettuce, peas, pumpkin, spinach, sweet potatoes and winter squash). And a previous case-control study found that eating more of these sorts of alpha-carotene-rich veggies led to a decreased risk of lung cancer.

"These findings support increasing fruit and vegetable consumption as a means of preventing premature death," the researchers noted. So go ahead and raise those carrots high.
Carrot recipes from Jaime Oliver
CARROTS BOILED WITH ORANGE, GARLIC AND HERBS
Boil the carrots in salted boiling water with a tablespoon of sugar, a knob of butter and a little handful of fragrant fresh herbs, tied up. Parsley, rosemary, thyme, bay – use just one or a mixture. Cut an orange into eighths and add them to the water, along with a few whole garlic cloves in their skins. If you really want to be a little tiger, add a pinch of cumin as well (seeds or ground) – it subtly cuts through with the most wonderful flavor. As soon as the carrots are cooked, drain them, discard the herbs and all but one of the orange pieces, squeeze the garlic out of its skin, chop the remaining orange piece finely and toss with the carrots, some seasoning and a little more butter. The flavor will be incredible. Another idea is to fry the chopped-up orange in a good tablespoon of sugar, so it almost jammifies, and serve this on top of the carrots. These two flavours together are one of the coolest things.

ROASTED CARROTS WITH ORANGE, GARLIC AND THYME
Or – just as easy – as soon as you drain the carrots you can throw them into a baking pan with the chopped-up orange and the garlic cloves and roast them at 400°F for 10 minutes – this will give you a slightly meatier flavor.

MASHED CARROTS
Or simply mash the carrots up with the orange and garlic, so you have some coarse and some smooth. Lovely.

Safer Cleaning in FLU Season

With the flu season in North America ramping up the FDA wants you to know they are protecting your health by registering 500+ products for antimicrobial cleaning.  The majority are toxic, concocted with such health promoting ingredients as butyl cellusolve.

Antimicrobial Products Registered for Use Against the H1N1 Flu and Other Influenza A Viruses on Hard Surfaces

http://www.epa.gov/oppad001/influenza-disinfectants.html

There are certainly better and safer ways to clean and kill viruses.  My old standby is a combination of eucalyptus and sweet orange essential oil made into a spray solution.

See another longtime environmental favorite here