So I can, so I can
See the light that’s right before my eyes.

-From the 1984 Corey Hart song

And thats some pretty good advice with some new research coming out. From Sharon Moalem’s “Survival of the Sickest“:

“As everybody knows, skin color changes, to some extent, in response to sun exposure. The trigger for that response is the pituitary gland. Under natural circumstances, almost as soon as you are exposed to the sun, your pituitary gland produces hormones that act as boosters for your melanocytes, and your melanocytes start producing melanin in overdrive. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to disrupt that process. The pituitary gland gets it’s information from the optic nerve - when the optic nerve senses sunlight, it signals the pituitary gland to kick-start the melanocytes. Guess what happens when you’re wearing sunglasses? Much less sunlight reaches the optic nerve, much less warning is sent to the pituitary gland, much less melanocyte-stimulating hormone is released, much less melanin is produced - much more sunburn results. If you’re reading this on the beach with your Ray-Bans on, do your skin a favor - take them off.”

This brings us to the topic of Vitamin D and how it can help prevent many forms of cancer. It’s estimated that up to 50,000 people die from cancers that could have been prevented from proper Vitamin D levels. Now, whats the cheapest most effective way to regulate our Vitamin D without overdosing? Sunshine!

I remember a time when my next door neighbor, a biodynamic gardner, took me out to climb Mt. Yale, a 14′er in Buena Vista, Colorado. He abstained from putting sunblock on and when I asked if he was scared of getting skin cancer, he unexpectedly told me, “Yes” and that’s why he wasn’t wearing sunblock. huh? He told me that sunblock was actually implicated in skin cancer. Now I’ve never seen this study before and I’m not saying it’s true, it just got me thinking. The skin is a major detox organ and is going to be damaged by the toxins in our body - not necessarily by the sun. Since we evolved underneath this solar bath for millions of years why all of a sudden has it become poisonous? That makes no sense.

The FDA recommends 200-400 IU’s daily. Guess what - 15 minutes in the sun should garner your body the best type of Vitamin D possible, the endogenous kind, and in the 10,000-15,000 IU’s range (this varies due to altitude, skin color, and latitude). Remember, once the skin shows signs of gently turning pink in the sun- you’ve had enough. Don’t go crazy now - over doing the sun exposure by tanning can prematurely age the skin and increase skin cancer rates. You must build a tolerance this spring just like you need to rebuild your muscles after relaxing on your couch all winter. Avoid tanning beds and go to the source. When you’ve had enough, make sure to avoid sunblocks loaded with toxins. Go biodegradable and organic. Here is a page of good sunblocks. Here is what you want to avoid:

Para Amino benzoic acid (PABA)
Avobenzone
Cinoxate
Dioxybenzone
Homosalate
Menthyl anthranilate
Octocrylene
Octo methoxycinnamate
Octyl salicylate
Oxybenzone
Padimate O
Phenylbenzimidazole
Sulisobenzone
Trolamine salicylate

The question I have and that I want to leave you with is, is there a correlative between the massive widespread use of UV protected eye wear in our culture with a rise in skin cancer?
I’m going to listen to Corey Hart and only wear my sunglasses at night so I can…

UNTIL he met a reclusive tribe of near-mythical athletes at the bottom of a Mexican canyon, Micah True could never figure out why his running injuries got worse as his running shoes got better. Then, the Tarahumara Indians taught him a lesson that even Nike is now starting to embrace: the best shoe may be no shoe at all.

Mr. True, 53, from Nederland, Colo., wasn’t the only one baffled by the injury mystery. For years kinesiology professors, physical therapists and athletic-shoe designers have been puzzling over the same paradox: if running shoe protection and cushioning have improved, why haven’t injuries among joggers
decreased?

“The technological advancements over the past 30 years have been amazing,” said Dr. Irene Davis, the director of the Running Injury Clinic at the University of Delaware. “We’ve seen tremendous innovations in motion control and cushioning. And yet the remedies don’t seem to defeat the ailments.”

Since the running boom of the 70’s, giants like Nike, Adidas and New Balance have rivaled Silicon Valley for speed of R. & D. rollout, releasing improved products nearly every six months. One shoe, the Adidas 1, even has microprocessors that analyze foot impact and adjust cushioning with each stride. New Balance has a motion-control shoe so finely engineered it costs $199.99. Still, 65 percent to 80 percent of all runners - joggers and elite marathoners alike - are injured in an average year, according to Dr. Davis. Aching Achilles tendons, sore knees, inflamed arches and hobbling plantar fascia pain are as common today as they were when boot camp grunts were jogging in canvas Converse “Chuckies.”

Read the rest of this entry »

There are almost 100,000 deaths in US hospitals each year from preventable medical errors, according to Public Citizen. This number doubles if you use the company HealthGrades numbers. I wonder how many deaths from unpreventable medical errors?

• Only one in eight preventable medical errors committed in hospitals results in a malpractice claim. (Harvard Medical Practice Study Group, Patients, Doctors and Lawyers: Medical Injury, Malpractice Litigation, and Patient Compensation in New York, 1990.)
• Punitive Damages are awarded in less than 1 percent of medical malpractice cases. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1996.)

And yet the costs are still high:
• The annual costs to society for medical errors in hospitals at $17 billion to $29 billion. (Institute of Medicine, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, 2000.)

Could you imagine if the other 7 out of 8 people filed malpractice suits and punitive damages were awared in more than 1% of cases? Our economy would collapse for sure. The interesting thing about the punitive damages was that only 5% of cases paid over 1 million. I guess thats the value of a human life these days. Less then a million. With the creation of healthcare tribunals to get cases out of the court system these numbers will drop drastically in the future. We will be worth less than a 100k in no time.

Malpractice payments for doctors and insurers remain at about 1% of the total health care costs. $4.5 billion in 2001, with total health care costs at about $1.4 trillion. The western health care industry consumes about 15% of our gross domestic product. And according to Dr. Jay Parkinson, this industry runs at up to a 40% inefficiency rate. That is just maddening.

Dr. Jay Parkinson’s Hello Health practice will seriously address the inefficiency problem and give the best quality healthcare. He has created a way for the uninsured and the underinsured get the best healthcare possible. Amen for Dr. Jay.

A final note from Wikipedia:

US healthcare expenditures totaled US $2.2 trillion in 2006. According to Health Affairs, $7,498 will be spent on every woman, man and child in the United States in 2007, 20 percent of all spending. Costs are projected to increase to $12,782 by 2016.

Pharmaceutical drugs have now been found in many cities drinking water.

From the health section at CNN:

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

The federal government doesn’t require any testing and hasn’t set safety limits for drugs in water.

And the scary news is that users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems. Click here for the Jupiter Biostone filtration report.

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe — even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

The environmental effect is frightening, and guess what - no one is accountable for our “downstream” pollution so nobody is doing a thing about it. And make no mistake about it - “Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.”

These pharmaceuticals in our water are toxic and are dissolved at such very high dilution levels (in the parts per billion and parts per trillion range) that they are acting like homeopathic treatments. There is an unmistakable similarity to homeopathy, which uses dissolved substances in water at such a high dilution rate that the original substance is virtually undetectable. This processing attempts to remove the “toxic” qualities of the substance and leave behind the essence that is used to treat the problem. Homeopathy is an intelligent system and every treatment is highly specific. Our water supply is blanketing us with many different toxic pharmaceuticals: what do you think is happening to us men who are getting small amounts of hormone replacement therapy, estrogen, and mood stabilizers with every sip of water? I feel like less of a man just thinking about that happening. I for one, will continue to use my Jupiter Melody water filtration system. And if you want one to - I will still pass my discount on to you. Nobody should be without a proper water filtration system nowadays.

City Reports

• The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city’s water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.

• Officials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.

• Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

• Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

• A sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California.

• The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

From the April 21st NY Magazine by Adam Sternbergh.

I got a shout-out in the article “You Walk Wrong”. It’s not much, but I’ll take it.

… I consider myself a very accomplished walker. I mean, sure, I have occasional back pain, and okay, when I walk long distances, I feel a grinding pain in my hip that I never used to feel before. And, yes, when I visited Michael Bulger, a structural integrationist near Washington Park with an expertise in “Rolfing,” a kind of deep-tissue massage, and he Rolfed one of my feet, then had me walk around a bit for a before-and-after comparison, I felt, thanks to my un-Rolfed foot, like a pirate walking on a peg leg.

The article goes on to praise the awesome Vivo Barefoot shoe line that I’ve been rocking on my peds for years now. If you want to experience NYC in a new way, try these shoes - you feel every crack, every temperature change, steel grating, pebbles, hypodermic needles, just everything. And with the clever kevlar protection you can stop bullets with a front kick.

Click here for entire article.

I know most of you remember this from the New York Times, but I just had to put it out again as it’s importance and relevance is paramount. It’s easy to forget that Mercury is a huge problem when it gets into our nervous system thus compromising our brain function.

What is mercury?
From MSU:

Mercury can exist as monomethylmercury (MeHg). This form of mercury is 100 to 1000 times more toxic then natural mercury. MeHg participates directly in biochemical reactions. MeHg is created both by humans and by the environment. Industry uses MeHg, and in the past there have been poisonings due to industrial discharge. MeHg is also created through biomethylation processes in the environment, and this MeHg bioaccumulates primarily in fish. The greatest source of MeHg is natural biomethylation, and fish consumption is the principal source of MeHg intake for most people.

How do you test to find out your mercury levels?

Blood, urine, and hair analysis can reveal recent or acute mercury poisoning but these tests don’t do well to uncover chronic accumulation.

How does mercury hurt us?

Monomethylmercury (MeHg) is an estimated 100 to 1000 times more toxic (than elemental mercury) to humans. In fact, MeHg seems to specifically target the advanced Central Nervous System (CNS). Until recently, this was a mystery, as the CNS enjoys the protection of the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). The BBB consists of tightly packed endothelial cells that line the walls of the blood capillaries in the CNS. The key to understanding why MeHg is so toxic is to see that structural similarities in biochemical reactions can lead to active transport of toxins. In this case organisms with a highly advanced CNS, like humans, this active transport can lead to a brain accumulation of MeHg.

As mentioned before, most of our exposure to MeHg comes from bioaccumulations in fish. When we eat contaminated fish, this ingested MeHg easily passes through the intestines and into the bloodstream. The pathway of MeHg from the bloodstream to the brain is complicated, and we think it is easiest to understand the pathway through a list of the various processes involved:

1. MeHg in blood plasma can combine with cysteine, forming a compound that is structurally similar to the amino acid methionine

2. This MeHg-cysteine compound is actively transported into the endothelial cells in the BBB, on the methionine carrier.

3. A high level of reduced glutathione is maintained in the endothelial cells, and the MeHg switches from a cysteine carrier to a glutathione carrier.

4. MeHg-glutathione is actively transported out of the endothelial cells and into the brain.

5. In the brain, the hydrolysis of MeHg-glutathione generates MeHg-cysteine.

6. This MeHg-cysteine can now enter nerve cells in the brain, where it accumulates.

What if you have high levels of mercury?

Chelation therapy is one option for removing mercury. EDTA is used to bond to mercury in your body and help you safely eliminate it through your urine. Click here for ACAM certified doctors in the NY/NJ area.

Note: I looked for information on the negative side effects of chelation therapy and only came across a piece from Quackwatch - the website of the now disgraced Stephen Barrett, who lost in court in 2005 when it was revealed that he was not a real doctor of psychiatry and was actually paid by the American Medical Association, Federal Trade Commission, and the FDA to “de-bunk” alternative and complementary medicine. We must persevere and stay diligent in our research to show how amazing alternative medicine is when it complements the body’s natural healing response. I can not express how happy I am to see Barrett destroyed in the public arena and his covert relationship with the medical industry’s corporate agenda exposed to us all.

This is a very cool clock that will blow your mind. Click the NOW button to watch it all happen from zero.

This is a great article I’m reprinting in its entirety from the Smart Skin Care site, an independent research collective that does not sell or endorse any products.

An ideal clinical study is set up something like this. First, find a large uniform pool of candidates and randomly assign them to two groups. Second, change a single variable in a controlled way, e.g. administer a nutrient or a drug to the one group and give a placebo to the other group. Importantly, neither the administering doctors nor the subjects should know who is giving/getting what. After the treatment, analyze the results and make a conclusion whether the difference in the outcome between the groups is likely to be due to random statistical variations or the effect of the treatment. Such a study, especially if repeated by several independent groups of researchers unaffiliated with commercial interests, gives you a decent chance of arriving at the truth about the value of the treatment in question.

Well, I have to disappoint you but conducting such a study to find the best diet to prevent or reduce wrinkles is next to impossible in real life. First, a dietary intervention involves too many variables — it is not practicable to vary every single aspect of a diet separately while keeping everything else constant. Second, long-running, interventional studies are very expensive. It is next to impossible to patent a diet, so such a study would require extremely generous public funding, which is hard to obtain for only a “beauty-threatening” problem like wrinkles. And there are other obstacles too. In other words, don’t hold your breath for a definitive study showing what diet is the best ‘wrinkle cure’.

The most comprehensive such study to date was published by researchers from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia in 2001 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. The researchers analyzed the diets of 453 people (aged 70 years and over from Australia, Greece and Sweden) to determine the correlation, if any, between the consumption of certain types of foods and skin wrinkling.

The overall conclusion was that a low-glycemic diet high in varied fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and fish was associated with less skin wrinkling. Specifically, the following food were noted:

Foods associated with less wrinkling

In the Monash study, less skin wrinkling in the elderly was associated with higher intakes of:

Total fat
Mono-unsaturated fat
Olive oil and olives
Fish (especially fatty fish, such as sardines)
Reduced fat milk and milk products, such as yogurt
Eggs
Nuts and legumes (especially lima and broad beans)
Vegetables (especially leafy greens, spinach, eggplant, asparagus, celery, onions, leeks and garlic)
Wholegrain cereals
Fruit and fruit products (especially prunes, cherries, apples and jams)
Tea
Water
Zinc (foods which contain zinc include seafood, lean meat, milk and nuts).

Foods associated with more wrinkling

More skin wrinkling in the elderly was associated with higher intakes of:

Saturated fat
Meat (especially fatty processed meats)
Full fat dairy products (especially unfermented products and ice cream)
Soft drinks and cordials
Cakes, pastries and desserts
Potatoes
Butter
Margarine

This is an important list of chemicals you absolutely must avoid in any products that touch your skin or enter your body. Our skin can absorb an incredible 60% of what is rubbed onto it. Depending on the size of the chemicals, they may be able to enter your bloodstream in as quickly as 20 minutes. Here is a list of must avoids from the Dr. Mercola site:

Mineral Oil, Paraffin, and Petrolatum – Petroleum products that coat the skin like plastic, clogging pores and creating a build-up of toxins, which in turn accumulate and can lead to dermatologic issues. Slows cellular development, which can cause you to show earlier signs of aging. Suspected cause of cancer. Disruptive of hormonal activity. By the way, when there’s an oil spill in the ocean, don’t they rush to clean it up – fast? Why put that stuff on your skin?
Parabens – Widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic industry (including moisturizers). An estimated 13,200 cosmetic and skin care products contain parabens. Studies implicate their connection with cancer. They have hormone-disrupting qualities – mimicking estrogen – and interfere with the body’s endocrine system.

Phenol carbolic acid– Found in many lotions and skin creams. Can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even death from respiratory failure.
Propylene glycol – Used as a moisturizer in cosmetics and as a carrier in fragrance oils. Shown to cause dermatitis, kidney or liver abnormalities, and may inhibit skin cell growth or cause skin irritation.

Acrylamide– Found in many hand and face creams. Linked to mammary tumors in lab research.
Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate (SLS), also known as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)– Found in car washes, engine degreasers, garage floor cleaners… and in over 90% of personal care products! SLS breaks down the skin’s moisture barrier, easily penetrates the skin, and allows other chemicals to easily penetrate. Combined with other chemicals, SLS becomes a “nitrosamine”, a potent class of carcinogen. It can also cause hair loss. SLES is sometimes disguised with the labeling “comes from coconut” or “coconut-derived”.

Toluene – Poison! Danger! Harmful or fatal if swallowed! Harmful if inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Made from petroleum or coal tar, and found in most synthetic fragrances. Chronic exposure linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage, and may affect a developing fetus. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) contains toluene. Other names may include benzoic and benzyl.

Dioxane– Found in compounds known as PEG, Polysorbates, Laureth, ethoxylated alcohols. Common in a wide range of personal care products. The compounds are usually contaminated with high concentrations of highly volatile 1,4-dioxane, easily absorbed through the skin.
Dioxane’s carcinogenicity was first reported in 1965 and later confirmed in studies including one from the National Cancer Institute in 1978. Nasal passages and liver are the most vulnerable. Dioxane is easily removed during the manufacturing process by “vacuum stripping”. Warning: It is a synthetic derivative of coconut. Watch for hidden language on labels, such as “comes from coconut”.

Just for instance, the ingredients in Pfizers popular moisturizer, Lubriderm, are:
Water, mineral oil, petrolatum, sorbitol, lanolin, lanolin alcohol, stearic acid, triethanolamine, cetyl alcohol, fragrance, butylparaben, methylpapaben, propylparaben, sodium chloride.

So what are our options? I’ve been using the Natural Body Butter that Dr. Mercola has on his site. It’s practically edible and really does have a nice consistency and work well for delivering the moisture your skin needs.

This is the follow-up to the original article on structured water. I’ve managed to enlist myself as a dealer to the best structured water filters I could find. I checked out a bunch of filters that purify, alkalize, and structure the water to make it more hydrating and selected what I think generates the best gallons for the buck. It’s called the Jupiter Melody and it retails for $1250 plus shipping costs. Though I am prohibited from offering a discount online I can throw in a free session if you buy one through me. Click on the link to email me for the details. The free session is for either Structural Integration, massage, acupuncture, or personal training. Now back to the new information.

It’s important to move away from bottled water so as to protect the environment, cut down on transportation pollutions and remove the risks of dioxins and other harmful chemicals that leach from the plastic bottles themselves (even Nalgene bottles are at risk). I guestimate that I spend around $1500 a year on bottled water like Fiji and Icelandic H2O. What a waste. I’ve got my new structured and alkaline water filter up running and it tastes oh so good. I really do feel more hydrated and now that the initial costs are absorbed - its free!

Here is a quick list on bottle plastics:

Avoid:
#3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) commonly contains di-2-ehtylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), an endocrine disruptor and probable human carcinogen, as a softener.

#6 Polystyrene (PS) may leach styrene, a possible endocrine disruptor and human carcinogen, into water and food.

#7 Polycarbonate contains the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A, which can leach out as bottles age, are heated or exposed to acidic solutions. Unfortunately, #7 is used in most baby bottles and five-gallon water jugs and in many reusable sports bottles.

Better Plastics

#1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), the most common and easily recycled plastic for bottled water and soft drinks, has also been considered the most safe. However, one 2003 Italian study found that the amount of DEHP in bottled spring water increased after 9 months of storage in a PET bottle.

#2 High Density Polyethylene

#4 Low Density Polyethylene

#5 Polypropylene

This is from Daily Grist:

“Recent studies have shown that polycarbonate plastics, including the kind used in popular Nalgene water bottles, may leach one of their constituent chemicals into water. The chemical in question, bisphenol-A, has been shown to cause chromosomal disorders and endocrine disruption and to have adverse effects on prostate development and tumors, breast tissue development, and sperm count — in rodents. Nalgene says that no health problems have been demonstrated in human beings. Still, John P. Myers, environmental health expert and coauthor of a book on endocrine disruptors, says, “I personally recommend avoiding polycarbonate plastics — don’t let them come into contact with your food or water. I think the science is strong enough to justify precautionary measures today.”