Friday, December 17, 2010

FLU SHOT ANYONE?

Before you take your flu shots, here is something to consider.....

Nutrition News and Views, November/December 2010, Vol. 14, No. 6
How effective are flu vaccines?  The vaccine formula change each year.  Usually in the spring, three flu strains are chosen based on guesswork, flu outbreaks in Asia, and recommendations of the World Health Organization. The guess is frequently wrong.  Researchers divide flu in two types.  One is blamed on influenza A or B viruses which afflict fewer than 15% of people who appear to have flu.  The flu vaccines applies to this type.  All other forms of flu (85%) are referred to as influenza-like illness.  Both types produce exactly the same symptoms.  It's just that specific flu viruses can't be found in influenza-like illness.  Vaccine researcher Tom Jefferson, MD, explains:  "The flu is not caused by a single 'bug' --about one-third of all influenza is caused by an unknown agent; about one-third are caused by rhinoviruses, the same viruses that cause the common cold; and the remainder are a mixed bag of other agents including influenza A and B viruses and members of the coronavirus family,"  Anywhere from 150-200 viruses are implicated in causing the symptoms.  What makes it really complicated, he says, is that they all appear to cause the same illness.  What we see every year as flu may be caused by 200 to 300 different agents (viruses and others).  A vaccine is offered against a few influenza A and/or B viruses, though no one can predict which strains of or how much A or B will be applicable.  Since the A and B viruses account only for a small percentage (15%) of all flu-type cases, in no way can the vaccine prevent the type of lue that the vast majority of people get.

Here are some other quotes from the article...
"There is no evidence whatsoever that seasonal influenza vaccines have any effect, especially in the elderly and young children.  No evidence of reduced cases, deaths, complications."

September 2, 2008 AMA Morning Rounds headline read:  "Researchers suggest influenza vaccine's effectiveness in elderly patients may have been exaggerated by earlier observational studies."  The earlier studies seemed to show that vaccines were effective when they really were not.

February, 2010 Cochrane Database of System Reviews shows that flu vaccines keep coming up short.  Dr Roger Thomas explained that what troubled the researchers was that the vaccines had no effect on laboratory-confirmed flu.  They looked for proof of reductions in flu, pneumonia, and deaths from pneumonia.  They didn't find any of these.

An early 2010 study implicated the 2008 flu vaccine in causing an increase of risk for 2009 H1N1 swine flu.

--This is my own opinion, I think flu-vaccine is just another way of big PHAMA company scaring the innocents and making huge profits out of it.  Sad, but true.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Food, Inc

Anybody else watched this movie? No, then go WATCH it.  I already knew some of the things they do at those chicken farms, but to actually seeing them is pretty shocking.

Letter from Chief Sealth of the Duwamish Tribe(area in state of Washington) to President Franklin Pierce

Currently I am reading this book called "Sugar Blues," it is a great book.   It came out 1975, but still applies to today.  It's kind of scary that we still have the same problems they had in 1975.  I guess, it guess says people never learn or don't want to learn.

Anyways, in this book, the author (William Dufty) mentions this letter that the Chief Sealth of Duwamish Tribe wrote to President Franklin Pierce protesting the president's proposal to buy the tribal lands.  "His letter warned of the white man's corruptive, destructive habits:",

page 116

     How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land?  The idea is strange to us.  We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water.  How can you buy them from us?
     We know that the white man does not understand our ways.  One portion of the land is the same to him as the next for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.  The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on.  He leaves his father's graves, and his children's birthright is forgotten.
      The air is precious to the red man.  For all things share the same breath--the beasts, the trees, the man.  The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes.  Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench...
     The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brother.  I am a savage and I do not understand the other way.  I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairies left by the white man who shot them from a passing train.
     What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to man.  All things are connected.  Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
     One thing we know which the white man will one day discover.  Our God is the same God.  You may think now that you own him as you wish to own our land.  But you cannot.  He is the Body of man.  And his compassion is equal for the red man and the white man.  This earth is precious to him.  And to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. ... Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.
     We might understand if we knew what it was that the white man dreams, what hopes he describes to his children on long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds...
     Our warriors have felt shame.  And after defeat.  - East West Journal, Boston, letter from Dale Jones of Seattle.

It is pretty amazing about what he said about the Land and the Air.  We are contaminating the land with all those pesticides and fertilizers the farmers put in.  The Air, of course the pollutions.  I am sad to say I am also part of the problem because I drive.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Going Back To The Basics of Human Health

That is the title of the book I'm currently reading.  It is a great book.  If you want to live a healthy life without medicine and surgeries, then you must read this.  It will explain to you what you need to avoid, what to eat, and how diseases happen.

This is just an example and some of these are just basic science that health professionals just forgot about.

High insulin levels causes
-high blood pressure
-high cholesterol
-diabetes
-heart disease

And what causes high insulin level....Consumption of large quantities of carbohydrate produce large quantities of insulin.  Very basic.  Carbohydrates are composed of various sugar molecules(glucose), bonded chemically.  Once you have eaten a carbohydrate, your body has digestive enzymes that break these chemical bonds and release the sugar molecules into the blood.  Then insulin is released from the pancreas once the blood sugar level gets too high, as it does in a carbohydrate meal.  So what insulin is doing is storing excess food energy (sugar) for later and keeps our blood sugar from getting too high.

And of course, regular American meal has lots of carbohydrates.  It is not surprising to see a lot of people have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease.  So eat a meal that has high protein, low in carbohydrates.  Simple enough, but unfortunately, the foods that tastes really good are made of carbohydrates.. cake, pizza, fries, bread, mac and cheese, hash brown, and cookies. 

It does take some sacrifices, but when you are feeling healthy and living a healthy life, then it is worth it.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Dirty Dozen

 These are good to know the next time you go shopping!


The Dirty Dozen (foods with most pesticide)

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Domestic blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach, kale and collard greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Imported grapes
Lettuce


The Clean 15 (foods with least pesticide)

Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi fruit
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Sweet onions