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.”

“Since the first real studies were done in the late 70’s, Achilles complaints have actually increased by about 10 percent, while plantar fasciitis has remained the same,” said Dr. Stephen Pribut, the president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine.

And so Mr. True began to wonder, does it even matter what footwear runners use? Or could protective shoes be contributing to the problems they’re meant to prevent? Mr. True had been hampered by repeated injuries while competing in ultramarathons in the early 90’s. While fighting for first place in the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon, a grueling 100-mile course over steep, rocky trails, he suffered a stress fracture in his tibia. It was there that Mr. True met the Tarahumara runners, who had traveled from Mexico to win four of the top five places while wearing homemade huaraches fashioned from strips of old tires.

Hoping to discover their secret, Mr. True followed the Tarahumara back to their canyon-bottom home. There they taught him to run lightly on the front of his foot instead of heavily on his heel. He experimented with running on his own homemade huaraches before trying the Bite running sandal, with its deft mix of ancient sparseness and modern cushioning. Eleven years have passed since Mr. True changed his technique and footwear, and even though he now regularly runs 40 miles over hazardous terrain, he has not had an injury since.

“If my gringo feet could handle it, going barefoot would be even better,” he said.

During the past decade two barefoot-style training methods for runners have been developed based on the same principle: that legs, not shoes, are the best shock absorbers. That is, you land on your forefoot, instead of your heel, and paw back.

Dr. Nicholas Romanov, a sports physiologist in Naples, Fla., created what he calls the Pose Method, and Danny Dreyer, a running coach in San Francisco, started a program known as ChiRunning, both of which have already won legions of disciples among joggers, trainers and triathletes. Essentially these programs
teach runners something they thought they knew: how to run.

“The problem is, the fancy running shoes have allowed us to develop lazy feet,” Dr. Romanov said. Pose runners, consequently, prefer the thin-soled Puma H. Street, which is actually a casual shoe.

Surprisingly, even Nike now sees the sense of running “shoeless.” Just one year after releasing its most structured shoe ever - the Air Max 2004, with airbags and a motion-control footbridge - the company has switched tack by offering the Nike Free 5.0, a shoe it claims will “re-evolutionize” running by enabling people to run as if they were barefoot. With its gauzy heel, stockinglike upper, and thin sole, the Free 5.0 looks more like a slipper than a sneaker.

I’ve found a pair of “barefoot” shoes that are really interesting. They are called Vivo Barefoot. Although they were expensive and made of leather, I found the design to be great for my feet. There is only a very thin rubber bottom, kevlar, and leather between your feet and the street. You feel everything. Every rock, crack, and bit of trash on the street. But thanks to the kevlar bottom you can step on a rusty nail and be ok - although I won’t test this myself. It creates a profound sense of grounding when the nerves of your feet aren’t numbed from cushy soles. I heard they were designed by an Alexander practitioner for a tennis player from the salesman, but don’t quote me on that. The company talks about a similar walking style to the Mexican Runners of Tarahumara and also the Kenyan’s with the toe/ball of foot strike first, then roll back onto the heel, and finally toe off. I find this really unnatural and do pound the pavement with my heels like my natural posterior tilt pelvis likes to do. But after many blocks, this does become painful and forces me to walk the recommended way - which is alittle embarassing to say the least. But I feel comforted because I know I can block a bullet with my kevlar bullet-proof soles.

- Lucy

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.

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.

This is an interesting page I found on QueryCat doing a basic search on Structural Integration.

Structural Integration is the generic term for the style of bodywork that includes Rolfing. Rolfing is the original form of the work. Only practitioners that have attended the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration are permitted to call themselves “Rolfers”. All forms of structural integration trace their lineage back to Ida P. Rolf. Over time, various people have decided to change the way the method was taught or even alter its basic tenants.

Basically, Rolfing is what Kleenex is to tissues. Rolfers have branded themselves quite well over the years apart from the greater Structural Integration community, but now we are all united under the same roof again with the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI).

The word ‘Rolfing‘ is a nonsense term that I’ve heard Dr. Ida Rolf herself scoffed at. When clients would go to see her they would say, “I’m going to get Rolfed” or “I just got Rolfed” and the word stuck. After all, she originally called the work Postural Dynamics which then morphed into Structural Integration.

Today there are 4000+ practitioners attempting to make the world more symmetrical. Here is a list of the schools the IASI deems part of the family:

The Guild for Structural Integration
Core Institute - Structural Integration Program
The Guild for Therapeutic Bodywork, Inc.
Hellerwork®, International
Institut für Strukturelle Körpertherapie
Institute of Structural Medicine
Institute for Structural Integration
International Professional School of Bodywork
International School of Structural Integration
Kinesis, Inc. - KMI
Mana Integrative Therapies
Northwest Center for Structural Integration
The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration
The School of Integrated Therapies – SI Program
Soma Neuromuscular Institute®
Structural Innovations - SI Program

I’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of the Rolfers and call my work Bulgering since I integrated visceral manipulation into the basic series and tacked on another 5 sessions.

Oi Vay, My Back!

Most of us have back pain. Because we’re all way to busy, we either learn to live with it or latch ourselves to quick fixes, like pain medication, cortisone injections or a couple of cracks at the chiropractor. None of these, of course, are cures; they just dull or block out the pain for a few hours or days.

In fact, mainstream remedies will never restore a person’s back to health when having to live a modern lifestyle. The human body is not accustomed to asphalt streets, concrete sidewalks, handbags, telephones, driving and most especially, sitting at a computer for hours on end. The demands of modern society keep the back oscillating between up-right and slouching forward. Over time, this creates a destructive pattern of ceaseless back muscle engagement and hyper-stretching. Our over-worked and over-tired back muscles become compromised from such abuse and eventually start manifesting more severe issues, including pathogenic displacement of vertebrae and shoulder blades, postural misalignments, nerve impingement, headaches, migraines and many other issues.

They key to finding lasting relief for back pain is to counter-act this daily pattern of abuse to our backs. But who can do that? Are we all supposed to levitate along sidewalks, lie down in our cars, train our pets to carry our handbags and hire someone to answer our email? Although this would be awesome, it’s highly improbable. So we’re back at square one, trying to find an effective, fast and frequent method to alleviate our back pain that we’ll actually get around to doing.

Fortunately, there are techniques that allow us to achieve this goal and they are especially suited for people who want to relax and need a lazy form of pain relief. In fact, after keeping us upright all day long, what our backs are seeking most is a comfortable position or just plain rest. Their dream therapy is effortlessly relaxing into a back bend. Therefore, the lazy person’s path to back pain relief is the supported bridge position

The Science behind the Supported Bridge: Positional Therapy

Eighty five percent of the pain we experience in our lives is muscular in origin and predominantly from excessive contracture or tightness. Often, the key to pain relief is the release of tight muscles, which is why so many of us receive massage or practice yoga. One of the most powerful therapies dedicated to muscle release is known as Positional Therapy. Discovered by osteopaths, it was determined that if a muscle is placed in a position of passive contraction for 90 seconds, it spontaneously releases its tension.

For example, the upper trapezius muscle (the one between the shoulder and the neck that everyone loves having massaged) helps to raise the shoulder towards the ear. The position of release for the trapezius is to lie down on one’s back, lift an arm over the head, and bend the elbow across the crown of the head. It is imperative that once this position of release is reached, the trapezius muscle be allowed to completely relax. The trapezius must not hold itself in this position of release, but lets gravity do the work. After 90 seconds, the trapezius muscle will release, and it will not only feel better but will have a greater range of motion.

The technique is so simple, passive and effective that people would find it unbelievable if not for their undeniable relief of pain.

Currently, the precise physiological explanation for the effectiveness of the Positional Therapy remains unclear. The primary theory is that a muscle becomes tense due to habitual use or trauma. The muscle then gets stuck in a constant state of contraction from which it cannot release itself, and therefore experiences pain. By passively contracting the muscle in the position of release for 90 seconds, the neuromuscular sensors in the muscle realize there is no need for continued habitual contraction and spontaneously release. Of course, no matter what the biophysical explanation, the effectiveness of positional therapy has been overwhelmingly and consistently demonstrated. Ultimately, when it comes to pain relief, results are more important than explanations. And, when it comes to living our lives, nothing could be more welcome than a lazy way of releasing muscles.

The Practice of the Supported Bridge

The supported bridge is a classic yoga posture. Although yogis have been practicing such postures for a very long time, and harnessing their healing benefits for the back, the reasons why the supported bridge released the back muscles, and the key to making it consistently effective, were unknown. Using the lens of Positional Therapy, the healing benefits of the supported bridge are now understood.

The back muscles are responsible for keeping the back erect, when they contract, they pull the torso backwards. Another way of looking at it is that they keep the upper body from falling forward towards the feet. In Positional Therapy, our goal is to passively contract the targeted muscle. This is essential to the process. If the muscle is working it will not release. Conveniently, the supported bridge posture is perfect for our goal of releasing the back muscles, because it allows gravity to passively contract our back muscles. And even more conveniently, all we have to do is lie down (that’s right, I said lie down) on a yoga block for ninety seconds!

I’ll let that settle in for a moment. Sometimes the concept is so lazy, it’s incomprehensible.

Alright, now that you’ve had time to digest that, we’ll talk about how it’s done.

Instructions

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.

2. Your arms should lie along your sides, palms down, with your fingers near your heels.

3. Your feet and knees should stay about hip-width apart. Don’t attempt to keep the knees parallel.

4. Engage your abs (do not do a sit-up, just activate them); push down into the soles of your feet and lift your hips off the floor.

5. Slide a yoga block or firmly rolled towel (minimum of 4 inches to a maximum 12 inches thick) under your back directly under the sacrum. Let your sacrum rest on the block. Let your arms rest alongside your body.

6. Find a comfortable resting position. Focus on breathing into your back body and melt around the support of the block. Your goal should be to relax as much as possible in this position. Remain in the posture for a minimum of 90 seconds; although you may stay in the position for as long as it remains comfortable.

7. To come out of the posture, engage your abs (do not do a sit-up, just activate them), press down into your feet, and lift the hips again. Remove the block and lower your back slowly and gently - - one vertebra at a time - - from the top (shoulders) down (sacrum).

8. Roll onto your side into a fetal position, and then push yourself up slowly into a sitting position. Take your time standing up again.

Notes:

This posture should be comfortable. It should not be painful. If it is, adjust the height and position of the yoga block. If it continues to be painful, stop.

Remember, you are not seeking to stretch. In fact, you are seeking just the opposite, a passive melting contraction of your back muscles.

If you cannot completely relax while trying to keep your legs parallel; let them release inwards (so that the knees touch) rather than outwards.

You may want to use a low cushion of some sort to support your head.

The minimum time for Positional Therapy release is 90 seconds.

If it is your first time doing this and you have extreme back pain and/or limited flexibility, use a very low yoga block (4 inches).

You may increase the height of the support if you want, especially if you are more advanced.

Variations may be explored in order to more specifically address your form of back pain. For example, if your back pain is between your shoulder blades, place the yoga block between your shoulder blades and not on top of them. Melt your upper back and shoulder blades around the yoga block.

You should consult your doctor before attempting this self-care treatment

The Lazy Persons Conclusion

The supported bridge is an immensely effective treatment. This is because it provides a break to our everyday abuse of our back muscles. More specifically, it’s an opportunity for our back to do the opposite of what it does every day (stay engaged to keep us upright and hyper-stretch via the forward slouch). By doing the supported bridge twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed, for just 90 seconds each time, our back muscles get the release that they scream for (in the form of pain) and counteract the damage done throughout our daily lives.

In general, benefits are immediate, but may take some repetition. Additionally, the more frequent the application, the more potent the relief. All one has to do is embrace his or her inner laziness and lay down on a yoga block. Best of all, it is lasting pain relief without the degenerative use of drugs and surgery. Does it get any easier than that? I don’t think so.

A final note. If a yoga block is inaccessible or uncomfortable and you are finding that a towel is ineffective, Gaiam makes an excellent product called the Back Wave II. Check it out.

Wiki Dean Kamen.

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.

How to eat like a Sumo Wrestler from Dietblog:
1. Skip breakfast. By depriving their bodies of food after eight hours of sleep, their metabolic rates stay low.
2. Exercise on an empty stomach. If their bodies have
no food, their metabolic thermostats are turned down even lower to conserve fuel.
3. Take a nap after eating. The Sumo secret for gaining weight is that, after eating, they sleep for at least four hours.
4. Eat late in the day. Going to bed with full stomachs means that their bodies must respond to the huge flood of nutrients with a rush of insulin, forcing their bodies to store some of it in the cells as fat instead of in the muscles and organs as nutrients.
5. Always eat with others in a social atmosphere. According to leading researchers, a meal eaten with others can be at least 44 percent larger and with 30 percent more calories and fat.

And the facts are in:
New Yorkers have finally ecclipsed the nationwide obesity rate! From the Daily News,

New Yorkers collectively gained more than 10 million pounds in two years, according to Health Department data released Wednesday.

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

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.

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.”

SCIENCE Magazine, “the world’s leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary,” has an excellent write up about the recent First International Fascia Research Congress in its November 23, 2007 issue (vol. 318, pp. 1234-5).

David Grimm’s article is titled “Cell Biology Meets Rolfing — A diverse group of researchers wants to create a new discipline from scratch by bringing together experts in fascia and deep-tissue massage.”

“The meeting, held here [in Boston] last month, would be the first dedicated to the soft part of the body’s connective tissue system — an important but medically neglected organ. It would bring together top scientists from fields as diverse as cell biology and biophysics, but it would also include alternative medicine practitioners…”

This conference was a first venture within the field of the human fasciae to bring together scientists and clinicians. Thomas Findley, MD PhD, the Executive Director of the conference,

“Practitioners want to know the science behind what they’re doing…and scientists want to see clinical applications of their work.”

Partap Khalsa, DC PhD, program officer with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) stated,

“You need people who can do good basic science and clinicians who can inform them about their experiences…It’s the only way to advance the field.”

Here is the article: Science article

The International Association of Structural Integrators bi-annual conference followed the symposium and brought together the whose who in Structural Integration. Look for the 2009 conference to bring it all home again, this time in Italy. Also in Europe -the next Fascia Congress will be in Amsterdam. Arrivederci and tot ziens!

]]> http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/03/01/1st-international-fascia-research-congress/feed/ http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/25/reduce-your-carbon-flatulent-print/ http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/25/reduce-your-carbon-flatulent-print/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:38:14 +0000 mike Events & Press Research & Science Environment http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/25/reduce-your-carbon-flatulent-print/ Here is a cool computer to help you figure out your actual carbon footprint and also help you eliminate it by donating to carbon reducing technologies: basic calculator

What most people seem to overlook is that methane gas is 20x’s more greenhouse causing then carbon. So our food choices become just as important to how many miles we carpool or if we drive a hybrid. Driving a hybrid is better then a gas guzzler but it sure does not make you green! Ride a bicycle you bought second-hand if you really want to step it up.

To truly make a difference stop eating meat. Eating more like a vegetarian (or being one) is better for you, better for the environment, and ridiculously better for the animals. This is from the United Nations,

…the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

From the University of Michigan site:

Each year we add 350-500 million tons of methane to the air by raising livestock, coal mining, drilling for oil and natural gas, rice cultivation, and garbage sitting in landfills. It stays in the atmosphere for only 10 years, but traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Livestock such as cows, sheep, goats, camels, buffaloes, and termites release methane as well. Bacteria in the gut of the animal break down food and convert some of it to methane. When these animals belch, methane is released. In one day, a cow can emit ½ pound of methane into the air. Imagine 1.3 billion cattle each burping methane several times per minute!

This is an interesting article on non-methane kangaroo farts and the far-fetched idea that cows can switch to this type of bacteria so we can still raise them. Why do we take the hard road when we can just modify our lifestyle? I’m sure William of Occam would say, “Just put down the burger and eat more veggies.” And I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt if we all used some Beano once in awhile!

]]> http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/25/reduce-your-carbon-flatulent-print/feed/ http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/20/circadian-organ-clock/ http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/20/circadian-organ-clock/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:53:42 +0000 mike Structural Integration Research & Science Medical Community Center for Structural Wellness Chinese Medicine http://structuralevolution.org/blog/2008/02/20/circadian-organ-clock/
The picture above is a scanned image from Paul Pitchford’s “Healing With Whole Foods”- the best tome on nutrition. I left some text to read so you get his point.

The organs in the body are building from a low point energetically until they peak for 2 or so hours half way through the day and then discharge back to their low - completing a 24-hour journey. This is important because the timing is staggered allowing each organ to complete it’s peak 2 hours after the next. The Chinese clock represents 12 organs in the pie chart, a very spiritual number having to do with control and ruling. Using this chart you can get a glimpse at a deficiency or problem in the organ if you notice something recurring at a similar time each day. Do you wake up every night at 3:30am? Your body might be telling you something is wrong with your lungs. Being aware of the emotional counterpart to each organ, tells us even more about what’s happening inside of us. If you suffered recent grief or are generally drowning in sorrow, this tells you even more about the health of your lungs. From Squidoo Health,

“The seven emotions are thought to correlate with the five Yin organs: joy with heart, anger with the liver, sadness and grief with the lungs, pensiveness and over thinking with the spleen, and fear or fright with the kidneys.”

I like to include the stomach to worry and the gall bladder to bitterness to complete the thorax as a structural whole; the liver, gallbladder, stomach and spleen are all connected to each other and the diaphragm- the arch support for the pericardium, heart and lungs. This is a more complete chart on the organs and emotions by Dr. Bruce and Joan Dewe.

This is from a western study adhering to stringent scientific methodologies on PubMed by Wang et al, 2006:

“Circadian rhythms are about-daily variations of physiological functions that are found in every living organism on earth ranging from bacteria to mammals. These daily rhythms are generated through the integration of the oscillatory expression of multiple circadian clock genes. In mammals, circadian rhythms are regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. Neurons in the SCN generate self-sustained daily oscillations of gene expression and electrical activity with a period close to 24 hours. The SCN keeps the circadian rhythms of different peripheral organs synchronized to each other as well as to the environmental light-dark cycle. Although every mammalian cell is believed to express circadian clock genes, cells outside the SCN cannot maintain self-sustained circadian oscillation in the absence of the SCN.”

And more simply put:

“Every physiological function in the human body exhibits some form of circadian rhythmicity. Under pathological conditions, however, circadian rhythmicity may be disrupted.”

The body is designed to help us help ourselves by communicating with us when something is amiss. Due to our disassociated lifestyles it’s hard for us to hear these whispers. I hope these Western and Eastern views can integrate and help us understand more about what is going on inside before irrevocable damage is done. For more information, see your local acupuncturist or contact Heather Trujillo, L.Ac at acupuncture@centerforsw.com.

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