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Gardening Proven To Help Overcome Depression

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By Dr. Mercola

Every year, some 230 million prescriptions for antidepressants are filled, making them one of the most-prescribed drugs in the United States.

Despite this, the incidence of all forms of depression is now at 10 percent, according to 2012 statistics, and the number of Americans diagnosed with depression increases by about 20 percent per year.

Such statistics are a strong indication that what we’re doing is simply not working, and that instead, these drugs are contributing to other serious health problems. Fortunately, there are other, safer, more effective ways to address depression—including something as simple as spending more time outdoors.

Gardeners Are Happier than Most Others

According to a recent survey for Gardeners World magazine3, 80 percent of gardeners reported being “happy” and satisfied with their lives, compared to 67 percent of non-gardeners.

Gardening Can Help Beat Depression

And the more time spent in the garden, the higher their satisfaction scores—87 percent of those who tend to their gardens for more than six hours a week report feeling happy, compared to those spending less time in their gardens.

Monty Don4, a TV presenter and garden writer, attributes the well-being of gardeners to the “recharging” you get from sticking your hands in the soil and spending time outdoors in nature.

I can personally confirm this as over the past year I have started a major interest in high performance agriculture and biodynamic gardening, and have been busy applying it to my edible and ornamental landscape. I hope to soon teach all that I have learned.

Interestingly, fitness researchers have also found that when you exercise outdoors, you exercise harder but perceive it as being easier than when exercising indoors, which can have significant health benefits.

This feeling of well-being can have more far-reaching implications for your physical health too. According to recent research from Johns Hopkins5, having a cheerful temperament can significantly reduce your odds of suffering a heart attack or sudden cardiac death. According to lead author Lisa R. Yanek, M.P.H., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine6:

“If you are by nature a cheerful person and look on the bright side of things, you are more likely to be protected from cardiac events. A happier temperament has an actual effect on disease and you may be healthier as a result.”

What the Research Says About Exercise and ‘Ecotherapy’ for Depression

Three years ago, I interviewed medical journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee Robert Whitaker about his extensive research and knowledge of psychiatric drugs and alternative treatments for depression. He mentioned an interesting study conducted by Duke University in the late 1990’s, which divided depressed patients into three treatment groups:

        Exercise only
        Exercise plus antidepressant
        Antidepressant drug only

After six weeks, the drug-only group was doing slightly better than the other two groups. However, after 10 months of follow-up, it was the exercise-only group that had the highest remission and stay-well rate. According to Whitaker, some countries are taking these types of research findings very seriously, and are starting to base their treatments on the evidence at hand.

The UK, for example, does not routinely recommend antidepressants as the first line of therapy for mild to moderate depression anymore, and doctors there can write out a prescription to see an exercise counselor instead under the “exercise on prescription programme7.”

Part of the exercise can be tending to an outdoor garden, taking nature walks, or repairing trails or clearing park areas—as discussed in the BBC video above. According to Dr. Alan Cohen, a British general practitioner with a special interest in mental health8:

“[W]hen people get depressed or anxious, they often feel they’re not in control of their lives. Exercise gives them back control of their bodies and this is often the first step to feeling in control of other events.”

Within the first few years of the introduction of this so-called “Green Gym” or “Ecotherapy9” program in 2007, the rate of British doctors prescribing exercise for depression increased from about four percent to about 25 percent.

Studies on exercise as a treatment for depression also show there’s a strong correlation between improved mood and aerobic capacity. So there’s a growing acceptance that the mind-body connection is very real, and that maintaining good physical health can significantly lower your risk of developing depression in the first place. According to a 2009 report on Ecotherapy by the British Depressionalliance.org10:

“94 percent of people taking part in a MIND survey commented that green exercise activities had benefited their mental health; and 100 percent of volunteers interviewed during an outdoor conservation project agreed that participation benefited their mental health, boosted self-esteem and improved confidence. Furthermore, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence asserts that for ‘patients with depression… structured and supervised exercise can be an effective intervention that has a clinically significant impact on depressive symptoms.’”

Ready, Set, Garden!

Aside from increasing your sense of well-being, keeping a garden can also improve your health by providing you with fresher, uncontaminated food, and cutting your grocery bill. And you don’t need vast amounts of space either. You don’t even have to have a backyard. Apartment dwellers can even create a well-stocked edible garden.

There are tons of creative solutions that will allow you to make the most of even the tiniest space, and engaging your own creativity to solve space limitations can be part of your therapy. You can also start growing sprouts which is rapidly rewarding as, unlike gardens, in about one week you will have food that you can harvest and eat.

In her book The Edible Balcony, Alex Mitchell details how to grow fresh produce in small spaces. Filled with beautiful color photographs throughout, the book helps you determine what might work best for you, depending on your space and location, and guides you through the design basics of a bountiful small-space garden. For example, those who live in a high-rise apartment will undoubtedly have to contend with more wind than those who live on the bottom floor. There are solutions for virtually every problem, and in this case, wind-tolerant plants can be used, or you could construct some sort of protective screening.

You can use virtually every square foot of your space, including your lateral space. Hanging baskets are ideal for a wide variety of foods, such as strawberries, leafy greens, runner beans, pea shoots, tomatoes, and a variety of herbs. And instead of flowers, window boxes can hold herbs, greens, radishes, scallions, bush beans, strawberries, chard, and chiles, for example. Just start small, and as you get the hang of it, add another container of something else. Before you know it, large portions of your meals could come straight from your own edible garden.

To learn more, please see my previous article on creating edible gardens in small spaces. I garden both outdoors and indoors. As I mentioned previously, sprouts are one of my favorite tight-space crops, as they provide so much nutrition, which is another critical factor for beating the blues and they give you far more immediate feedback than growing a garden.

Reposted from realfarmacy.com

Source: mercola.com

Most Cancer Patients Don't Die of Cancer

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Dr. Michael Farley discusses his findings as a forensic pathologist. After doing many autopsies on cancer patients, he found that most, if not all, died from something other than the cancer itself. But cancer is almost always listed as the cause of death.

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Sources: Raw For Beauty

ihealthtube.com

Rate of Chronic Disease Increasing Exponentially

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A growing global epidemic of chronic disease, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, will cause at least 35 million deaths this year, costing the world economy billions of dollars, even though medical science has identified the principal causes and knows ways to prevent it, experts said at a AAAS seminar in Washington, D.C.

www.DiscoveryDoodles.com

 Speakers at the first Philip Hauge Abelson Advancing Science Seminar said that twice as many premature deaths are caused worldwide by chronic diseases as by all infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions and nutritional deficiencies combined. And while the toll from infectious diseases is declining globally, deaths from chronic disease are expected to increase by 17 percent in the next 10 years.

The 8 December seminar included speakers from the World Health Organization (WHO), from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and from university research labs. It was the inaugural event in a series named for Abelson, a researcher in physics, biology and other sciences, and the editor for 22 years of Science, which is published by AAAS. Abelson died last year at the age of 91.

Alan I. Leshner, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of Science, said the seminar series would address major societal challenges and focus on the frontiers of science and technology.
Robert Beaglehole, WHO's director of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion, said in the keynote address that the toll of premature death from chronic disease is increasing worldwide principally because of unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the use of tobacco and the aging of populations in almost all countries.

Diet and the lack of physical activity is contributing to a growing pattern of obesity, a key risk factor for diabetes and early heart disease. And it's not just happening in the rich countries, such as the United States and South Africa, where recent reports show that 75 percent of women aged 30 and over are overweight. A "very frightening statistic," said Beaglehole, is that in countries both rich and poor, about 22 million children worldwide under the age of five are already obese.

"We've done a lot to observe the emergence of this problem," he said. "We have done practically nothing to solve it."

Beaglehole said that common misunderstandings about chronic disease have affected policy decisions and slowed the worldwide response to the emerging epidemic.
 
For instance, he said it's widely believed that premature heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other chronic diseases are mostly a plague among the elderly and among the rich in high-income countries.
Actually, said Beaglehole, 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases are in low- and middle-income countries. A WHO report found that poor people, in all but the least developed countries, are more likely than the rich to develop chronic diseases and are more likely to die early. And it is not just the elderly who are victims. The WHO report found that almost half of the deaths from chronic diseases occur in people under 70 years old.

"A very dangerous misunderstanding is that chronic disease is the result of unhealthy lifestyles under the control of individuals," Beaglehole said. "The reality is that poor people and children have very limited choices, and it is unfair to blame them for the environmental conditions in which they suffer."
There's also the belief by many that chronic diseases and premature deaths cannot be prevented.
"The reality is that approximately 80 percent of premature heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is preventable, as are 40 percent of all cancers -- many of which result from tobacco consumption," said Beaglehole. "A few known risk factors explain the vast majority of premature chronic disease deaths."

A global effort to attack the causes of chronic disease could reduce death rates by 2 percent a year and save 36 million lives within a decade, he said. Ninety percent of the lives saved, said Beaglehole, would be in low- and middle-income countries. Slowing the epidemic of premature death from chronic diseases will have to involve policy issues beyond the health field, he said. For instance, farm subsidies often affect the type of food available in some countries. An example: The consumption of full fat milk is encouraged in schools in some European countries because of subsidies, said Beaglehole. Excessive fat, sugar and salt in the diet lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Other specialists at the Abelson seminar reported recent findings that offer new hope for treatment and management of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
Eric J. Topol, provost of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said studies of families with heart attack have demonstrated specific genes that are causative or induce susceptibility. This will allow strategies of lifestyle and individualized therapy early in life to prevent heart attacks decades later.

The battle against the growing epidemic of obesity will require fundamental changes in attitudes toward food and exercise, said Holly Wyatt, the program director at the Centers for Obesity Research and Education at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In American society, she said, "we've had a lot of pressures to not expend more energy than we have to and we had a lot of pressure to eat more than we need."

To change the behaviors that lead to obesity will require encouragement from virtually every element in society -- employers, schools, churches, community centers and retail stores, she said. Such programs have worked in the past to discourage tobacco use and encourage using seat belts in cars. Without such an effort, Wyatt said that by 2008 about 75 percent of Americans will be at a body weight that negatively affects health.

Basic research on how the kidneys regulate salt in the body has given medical science a new understanding of the causes of high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, said Rick Lifton, Sterling Professor and chairman of Genetics atYale University School of Medicine. He said there are biological pathways and gene mutations that cause the kidneys to sequester sodium, leading to increases in blood pressure. Drugs to counter these effects could lead to dramatically improved treatments for hypertension, a disorder that affects a billion people world wide and is linked to about 5 million deaths annually.

Dr. Gerald I. Shulman, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of internal medicine and cellular & molecular physiology at Yale University, said that new, non-invasive studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy have demonstrated that the development of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes is directly related to the build-up of fat inside muscle and liver cells where it disrupts normal insulin signaling and action in these organs. Studies in transgenic and knockout mice as well as in humans have shown that removing this excess intracellular fat can restore insulin sensitivity and cure type 2 diabetes. The results from these studies provide new targets for novel therapies that might be developed to reduce intracellular fat levels and reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes, said Shulman.

Copyright 2005. American Association for the Advancement of Science

Source: oasisadvancedwellness.com

Country of Belize Destroys GMO Soybean Crops

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There’s been trouble in the tropical paradise of Belize.

Despite the fact that the federal government of Belize has banned all GMO seeds from the country’s borders, a field of GMO soybeans was found growing in the northern portion of the country.  (Two weeks ago, an errant field of unapproved GMO wheat was discovered in Oregon – these examples make it clear that Monsanto and the rest of the biotech industry have no regard for the regulations that disallowed these crops to be planted.)

This discovery in Belize comes, rather ironically, just months after a very successful  national awareness campaign called  ”GMO Awareness Month”.

    GMO Awareness Month was conducted in response to a recent push by the newly-formed Belize Grain Growers Association to gain Government approval for the importation of GMO corn seed. This GMO v.s. NON-GMO conflict pits the Mennonite and other commercial grain farmers against the cultural natives, the Maya, who first brought corn to the world. Throughout the entire month of March, members of the social network Facebook group Belizeans Against GMOs (BAGMO), now numbering over 1,700, orchestrated a GMO educational campaign which included weekly full-page educational advertorials and letters-to-the-editor in the national Amandala newspaper. (These can be reviewed at: (http://www.belizeansagainstgmo.info/index.html). BAGMO members not only appeared on Belizean TV/radio talk shows but they also promoted a GMO writing contest with cash prizes for students in secondary schools throughout Belize. (press release)

The lovely Central American country is a popular eco-tourism destination, and perhaps this is the reason that they are so environmentally conscious.  The government of Belize appears to be adamant about keeping GMO crops out of the country.  The following press release was issued by the Government of Belize Press Office on June 7.


    “On May 24, 2013 the Plant Health Department of the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) discovered suspected genetically modified soybean seeds in Northern Belize.  As a result, samples of the suspected soybean seeds were submitted to BAHA’s Plant Health Diagnostics Laboratory in Central Farm for GMO screening.  The screening tests were conducted on May 28 and all the samples tested positive indicating that the seeds were genetically modified.

    A further set of samples were then sent to Eurofins Genescan Laboratories in the United States on May 30 for a confirmatory test using Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR technology. On June 5th, BAHA received results of the confirmatory test, which verified the results of previous tests conducted by BAHA on the soybean seeds.Since the sowing of GMO seeds is prohibited in Belize, BAHA has placed the seeds under quarantine, and will render the seeds non-viable by milling. The milled soybean seeds will be used for the production of animal feed which contains genetically modified soybeans. Belize currently imports animal feeds which contains genetically modified soybeans.”  (source)

(Author’s note: Although the government of Belize is to be sincerely applauded for supporting the ban on GMO seeds, feeding livestock GMO crops is dubious because it still introduces the genetically modified material into the food chain.)

Back in 2011, outrage in Belize resulted in the public burning of GMO corn seeds.  BAGMO wrote, “Central America is the birth place of corn. Belize is known for its magnificent biodiversity, astounding natural resources, and tremendous cultural heritage. The introduction of genetically modified corn would negatively affect biodiversity, natural resources and the cultural heritage of the Maya.”


Thus far Belize has been steadfast in the fight against GMO crops.  They don’t want corn fields that require Kevlar tires on the vehicles to drive through them scattered in amongst the ancient ruins and rain forests of their pristine environment.

This find, along with the unapproved GMO wheat that made it’s appearance in Oregon, makes it very clear that  Monsanto and their ilk have no interest in respecting the wishes and regulations of the nations who have banned their biotech corruptions or in waiting for approval from their yes-men in government agencies..   They are breaching the gates by throwing around money, hiring disinformation agents, and when all else fails, arrogantly disregarding the laws and having their seeds planted anyway.

In Belize, the fight against GMOs in paradise goes on.  Denise Frank, the spokesperson for BAGMO, requests support.”BAGMO members ask the rest of the world to stand with them in solidarity in their efforts to keep Belize GMO-free and to help fight this recent criminal action to the fullest extent of the law. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bagmo/”

Source: The Organic Prepper

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

A Solution To Factory Farming

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Photo: Getty Images
With Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) wreaking havoc on public health and the environment, what is the alternative to this industrial method of meat and dairy production?

“Mob grazing” or intensive rotational grazing is an advanced method of raising livestock on pasture that is based on the patterns of grazing animals in nature. It produces more pounds per acre than traditional pasture farming and has many holistic benefits while avoiding the negative consequences of factory farming.  There is little input, there is no need for antibiotics, the animals feed on their natural diet instead of GMO crops, and manure is used to improve the soil instead of polluting the water and air.

Source: RealFarmacy.com

Studies Show That These Prescriptions Make Your Brain Stop Working

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Image: RawForBeauty.com
Drugs commonly taken for a variety of common medical conditions negatively affect your brain, causing long term cognitive impairment. These drugs, called anticholinergics, block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter.

They include such common over-the-counter brands as Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM, and Unisom.

Other anticholinergic drugs, such as Paxil, Detrol, Demerol and Elavil are available only by prescription.

Physorg reports:

“Researchers … conducted a six-year observational study, evaluating 1,652 Indianapolis area African-Americans over the age of 70 who had normal cognitive function when the study began … ‘[T]aking one anticholinergic significantly increased an individual’s risk of developing mild cognitive impairment and taking two of these drugs doubled this risk.’”

Many view over-the-counter (OTC) drugs as safe because they don’t require a prescription. Well nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, many OTC drugs were previously carefully monitored prescription drugs. Many people are not aware that while I was in college in the 1970s, I worked as a full time pharmacy apprentice and helped sell drugs to patients all day long.

Motrin was the first non-salicylate prescription NSAID. Now it is a popular OTC ibuprofen option. Similarly, anti-ulcer drugs like Tagamet, Zantec, and Prilosec used to be carefully controlled. Now they can all be easily purchased in a smaller “OTC strength” that nearly doubles the number of pills required to equal the prescription dose.

Just because a drug is available without a prescription does not make it any less dangerous. It is still a chemical, which in no way, shape, or form treats the cause of the problem and can lead to complications that can seriously injure, if not kill, you or someone you love.

So this is clearly important information that can help you or someone you love reduce your risk of dementia as you get older. Based on the findings of this study, I would strongly recommend that seniors in particular avoid all anticholinergic drugs, like Benadryl (generic is diphenhydramine) which is a pervasive and commonly used in virtually all of the OTC sleeping pills.

Researchers will continue studying the matter to see whether anticholinergic-induced cognitive impairment can be reversed, but don’t hold your breath. Avoidance is really the best solution.

What are Anticholinergic Drugs?Anticholinergic drugs block a nervous system neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease typically have a marked shortage of acetylcholine.

Anticholinergic drugs are available both over-the-counter and by prescription, as medications used for a variety of symptoms can have this effect. Examples include night-time pain relievers, antihistamines, and other sleep aids, such as:

    Excedrin PM
    Tylenol PM
    Nytol
    Sominex
    Unisom
    Benadryl
    Dramamine

Prescription drugs with anticholinergic effects include certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.

Examples of prescription meds in these categories include:

    Paxil
    Detrol
    Demerol
    Elavil

A Special Note for Aspartame ‘Reactors’

Many of the drugs listed here, as well as a long list of additional ones, contain diphenhydramine. As an important side note, you need to beware that chewable tablets and rapidly disintegrating tablets that contain diphenhydramine may be sweetened with aspartame

If you have the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU), you must be particularly careful to avoid these types of drugs and all other types of aspartame-sweetened foods and beverages in order to prevent mental retardation.

But many other people also suffer detrimental health effects from aspartame, so you should know that this is yet another potential source of this toxic sweetener.

Anticholinergic Drugs Increases Dementia in the Elderly

I’ve previously written about the health dangers of many of these individual drugs. Paxil, for example, is an addictive antidepressant that is well known to increase the risk of suicide in children and teens. It is also known to increase violent behavior.

Benadryl and Sominex have previously been found to cause hallucinations in the elderly, and a number of the drugs on the list also promote dental decay.

The results of this study indicate that drugs with anticholinergic effects may be yet another piece of the puzzle that might explain the sharp rise in dementia and cognitive decline.

According to the University of Michigan, dementia strikes about 50 percent of people who reach the age of 85. Of those, about 60 percent go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, the researchers tracked the intake of anticholinergic drugs and monitored the cognitive abilities of 1,652 African-American seniors, aged 70 and older, for six years. All of the participants had normal cognitive function at the outset of the study.

Fifty-three percent of the participants used a ‘possible anticholinergic,’ and 11 percent used a ‘definitive anticholinergic’ drug.

They found that those who took drugs classified as ‘definite anticholinergics’ had a four times higher incidence of cognitive impairment.

In those who were not carriers of the specific gene, APOE ε4 allele, the risk was over seven times higher. (The APOE ε4 gene is known to influence many neurological diseases, and is considered a high risk factor for Alzheimer’s.)

Taking two of these drugs further increased the risk of cognitive impairment.

PhysOrg reports:

“Simply put, we have confirmed that anticholinergics, something as seemingly benign as a medication for inability to get a good night’s sleep or for motion sickness, can cause or worsen cognitive impairment, specifically long-term mild cognitive impairment which involves gradual memory loss.

As a geriatrician I tell my Wishard Healthy Aging Brain Center patients not to take these drugs and I encourage all older adults to talk with their physicians about each and every one of the medications they take,” said Malaz Boustani, M.D., IU School of Medicine associate professor of medicine, Regenstrief Institute investigator and IU Center for Aging Research center scientist.”
Even More Reasons to Ditch the Sleep Meds

In 2008, Americans filled more than 56 million prescriptions for sleeping pills and spent more than $600 million on over-the-counter sleep aids. But anticholinergic sleep medications in particular may be causing far more harm than good, especially long term, without providing any benefit at all.

In a recent article, CBC News reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has had data for 15 years which shows that over-the-counter sleep aids like Tylenol PM and Excedrin PM do not offer any significant benefit to patients.

There’s no explanation for why the FDA took 15 years to evaluate the industry’s research, but upon final analysis “the data suggests the combination products are statistically better than a placebo but not by much,” CBC News reported.   

I guess it can be chalked up as yet another vibrant example of how industry research frequently amounts to little more than corporate wishes and good PR fodder.

Another analysis of sleeping pill studies from 2007 (financed by the National Institutes of Health) found that sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata reduced the average time to go to sleep by just under 13 minutes compared with fake pills — hardly a major improvement.
   
Yet, the participants believed they had slept longer, by up to one hour, when taking the pills.

This may actually be a sign of a condition called anterograde amnesia, which causes trouble with forming memories. When people wake up after taking sleeping pills, they may, in fact, simply forget that they had been unable to sleep!

You would be far better off putting your money toward authentic solutions to help you sleep than on sleeping pills, as it’s now clear that they do next to nothing to help you sleep – in fact, they may actually make it more difficult for you to get a good night’s rest naturally – and may significantly increase your risk of dementia.

Sleeping Pills are NOT a Safe Solution for Sleepless Nights

Understand that resorting to sleep medications is risky business, and that these pills do not address the underlying reasons why you’re having trouble sleeping in the first place.

In addition to the long-term problems already discussed, there are other serious, not to mention bizarre, risks involved.

For starters, these pills are notorious for being addictive, which means that once you want to stop taking them, you’ll likely suffer withdrawal symptoms that could be worse than your initial insomnia. Some, such as Ambien, may also become less effective when taken for longer than two weeks, which means you may find yourself needing ever higher dosages.

Ambien may also make you want to eat while you’re asleep — and I don’t mean sneaking down to grab a piece of fruit. The sleep eating can include bizarre foods such as buttered cigarettes, salt sandwiches, and raw bacon.

Sleeping pills, and again Ambien in particular, are also known to increase your risk of getting into a traffic accident. Ambien actually ranks among the top 10 drugs found in the bloodstreams of impaired drivers, according to some state toxicology labs.

Among the elderly, using sleeping pills may increase the risk of nighttime falls and injuries, and anyone who takes them may find they wake up feeling drowsy if the effects of the drug have not worn off yet.

You’re far better of finding safe and natural solutions that will actually address the underlying causes of your sleepless nights instead of just cover up the resulting symptoms.

Source: Raw For Beauty




Mercola

Delicious Mango Smoothie That Helps Lower Cholesterol

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Fruit pectin is a great way to help lower your cholesterol levels. It is a natural, soluble fibre in fruit that reduces the amount of bile reabsorbed in the intestines. When fiber interferes with absorption of bile in the intestines, the bile is excreted in the feces. To make up for this loss of bile, the liver makes more bile salts. The body uses cholesterol to make bile salts. So in order to obtain the cholesterol necessary to make more bile salts, the liver increases its production of LDL receptors.

These receptors pull cholesterol out of LDL molecules in the bloodstream, and thus, more bile salts are made from the liver and more LDL cholesterol is pulled from the blood. It is also possible that one of the short-chain fatty acids produced by the fermentation of soluble fibre in the large intestines may inhibit the amount of cholesterol produced by the liver.

Ginger, too, has great effects on cardiovascular health, including the prevention of atherosclerosis, lowering cholesterol levels and preventing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol which plays a key role in the development of atherosclerosis.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped mango
- 1 cup chopped apple
- 1 knob ginger (4 inches or so)
- 1 cup young thai coconut water
- Optional: a couple dates to sweeten up

Blend the above ingredients in a high-speed blender & enjoy!

Source: Raw Edibles

80% of the Packaged Food in the US is Banned in Other Countries

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Natural News

According to the new book Rich Food, Poor Food, ingredients commonly found in up to 80 percent of all pre-packaged foods on grocers shelves in the U.S. have been banned in other countries. As alarming as such information is, our food safety outlook becomes even bleaker when we consider other banned and toxic food items.

The toxic banned ingredients in our food
In the book, authors Mira and Jason Calton provide a list of banned ingredients which they term "Banned Bad Boys" as well as the countries which have banned them. Among the items is Olestra - commonly used in low/no-fat snack foods and known to cause serious gastrointestinal issues - which has been banned in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Worse is brominated vegetable oil, a substance found in Mountain Dew and Fresca which has been banned in more than 100 countries. As the authors state, brominated vegetable oil "has been linked to basically every form of thyroid disease - from cancer to autoimmune diseases - known to man."

Other dangerous items listed include food colorings - such as yellow #5 and yellow #6, dyes used to make mac & cheese dinners visually appealing. Those dyes are made from coal tar, an active ingredient in lice shampoo which has been linked to allergies, ADHD, and cancer in animals.

Other banned and toxic items in our foods
The toxic banned ingredients listed in the book, horrible as they are, are but part of the bad news when it comes to food items most Americans regularly consume. Here is a partial list of some other toxic ingredients and unsafe food items:

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a synthetic chemical used to make plastic drinking bottles, baby bottles and storage containers as well as the lining of food and drink cans which can leech into foods http://www.naturalnews.com/food.html from high heat and prolonged storage. Currently, it is found in virtually all canned goods and most baby bottles. It mimics estrogen and can offset the delicate hormonal balance in the developing child, and is blamed to be largely responsible for the age of puberty in young girls being lowered to as young as seven years old. In 2010, Canada became the first country to ban.

Increasing number of countries are banning the sale and/or cultivation of GM crops. Some of the GM crops are engineered to produce their own pesticides and research has shown that the genes are passed on to humans and even down to several generations after consumption. Other crops are engineered to withstand heavy applications of the toxic pesticide Roundup.

Thanks in part to GM engineering, US produce contains serious levels of pesticides as well as herbicides such as Roundup and other glyphosphates. Researchers in Europe have found that the weed killer Roundup has serious toxic effects due to inert ingredients that amplify the toxicity of Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate. As a result, Roundup is banned in nearly every European country.

Due to growth stimulators such as ractopine as well as antibiotics which are added to our meats, over 160 countries say "no" to U.S. meats.

Chemical fertilizers are yet another widespread problem. From 1990 to 1995, 600 different companies from 44 states sent a whopping 270,000,000 pounds of toxic waste to both fertilizer companies and farms. The waste was not treated to remove toxic substances including arsenic and dioxins.

Sadly, greed and cash are kings in the US and our government is too often for sale to the highest bidder. This explains why we have a Monsanto insider over our food safety, much like we have a Merck insider over our medicines.


Found on Raw For Beauty via Natural News

Sources for this article include:

http://shine.yahoo.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/035504_BPA_puberty_chemicals.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/030343_BPA_toxic_chemicals.html

http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=5537&catId=1

http://www.examiner.com/article/what-countries-have-banned-gmo-crops

http://www.offthegridnews.comm

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041098_groceries_banned_foods_American_diet.html#ixzz2aqgTBjVh

The World According To Monsanto (Full Documentary)

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Image: geke.us
There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the
cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world. The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.

 Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.

Source: YouTube

What Are Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)?

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Here is a great video that breaks down some of the science behind how GMOs are made and what they are used for by Abby Martin of Media Roots.She also brings up some of the concerns that arise throught the growing use of GMO foods.

Get Your Vitamin C From Nature, Not The Pharmacy

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Image: The Organic Prepper
The Nature’s Vitamins series

Sometimes the sources for  elemental nutrients are, quite literally, right in your own back yard.  This couldn’t be more true than for Vitamin C. Vitamin C is a vital nutritional component for a healthy diet and is the most recommended supplement in the United States. But skip the often toxic store-bought pills shaped like cartoon characters and turn to the garden for your daily dose!  Store-bought vitamins often contain heavy metals, GMOs, artificial sweeteners, and other poisons.

Rose hips, the seed-filled pods at the base of a rose blossom, contain more than 60 times the dose of Vitamin C than is found in an equal amount of citrus fruit.

wild roses

All rose hips are not created equally.  Wild roses and old fashioned breeds of roses like the Rugosa Rose (Rosa rugosa)  and the Dog Rose (Rosa Canina) have the highest concentration of Vitamin C.  Be sure that the roses were not subject to the spraying of pesticides or other chemicals.  Harvest rose hips after the first frost.  They should be red and yield slightly to the touch.

rose hips on bush

Fresh rose hips have the highest levels of vitamin C, but the best way to store rose hips for the winter is to dry them.  Wash the harvested rose hips and allow them to air dry.  Place them in the dehydrator whole for about 6-8 hours.  When dry they will be shriveled and wrinkly.

rosehips

Using your food processor, pulse the dried rose hips until they are coarse chunks. Don’t over process them.

Using a mesh colander, sift the pulsed rose hips so that the little hairs and seeds fall through, leaving you with a lovely colander full of reddish-brown tangy-tasting bits of Vitamin C.

rosehip tea

As a nutritional bonus, rose hips are also a good source of  vitamins A, B-3, D and E, bioflavonoids, citric acid, flavonoids, fructose, malic acid, tannins and zinc.
How to Make Rose Hip Tea

Rose hips are most commonly used in teas.  Commercially, most fruit or berry flavored teas contain rose hips. They give a tart, tangy flavor due to the naturally occurring ascorbic acid. Always prepare rose hips using non-aluminum cookware – aluminum destroys the vitamin C content.

    To make tea from fresh rose hips, steep 2 tablespoons of rose hips in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes.
    To make tea from dried rose hips, steep 2 teaspoons of rose hips in a cup of boiling water for 15 minutes.

Rose Hip Jam
Ingredients

    8 cups of washed rose hips
    1/4 cup of lemon juice
    6 cups of water
    5 cups of turbinado sugar
    1 package + 2 tbsp of no-sugar needed pectin

Directions

    With a sharp paring knife, cut the rose hips in half, then remove the seeds and the “hairs” from the inside of the halves.
    Use a food processor to roughly chop the rose hips.  (You’ll end up with about 4-5 cups of rose hip halves.)
    In a large non-aluminum pot, add the water, lemon juice, and rose hips. Bring this to a hard boil, uncovered,  for about 30 minutes to cook down the rose hips.
    In a small bowl, use a fork to mix ¼ cup of the sugar with one packet of pectin.
    Stir the pectin/sugar mixture into the rosehip liquid.
    Boil for 1-3 minutes, then TEST YOUR JAM with a spoon from the freezer.  If it is not the right consistency, add the extra 2 tbsp of pectin and boil for another two minutes, then retest.  Repeat until your jam has reached the desired thickness. (Be sure to skim off and discard foam throughout this step.)
    Ladle the jam carefully into your awaiting (sanitized) jars, wipe the rims and cap your jars with snap lids and rings.
    Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes, making adjustments for your altitude.

Source:The Organic Prepper

The Health Benefits of Cherries

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Image: Rennett Stowe
Cherries are one of the most popular summer fruit, with around two million tonnes being produced worldwide every year! Thankfully, cherries are also wonderful for our health! That deep, dark red hue is a good sign that they pack an array of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. The benefits of cherries range from helping to relieve pain, prevent diseases like cancer and slow down the aging process. Read on to find out how cherries can help improve our health.

Help Fight Cancer & Disease

Cherries are very rich in antioxidants – you can tell simply by observing their deep red hue. Antioxidants help scavenge free radicals which induce damage to our DNA and cells in our body. When we consume a large quantity of antioxidants, they replace the free radicals in our body before they can cause any harm to our health.

Cherries are rich in queritrin (a flavonoid), which has been found by researchers to be one of the most potent anti-cancer antioxidants. They also contain ellagic acid (potent anti-carcinogen and anti-mutagenic which eradicate cancer cells in the body) and perillyl alcohol (POH) which is extremely powerful in destroying proteins that the cancer cells need to grow.

Powerful Anti-Inflammatory (Arthritis, Gout, Migraines)

Cherries, similar to berries, help fight off inflammation in the body thanks to their high concentration of free-radical scavenging antioxidants. The anthocyanins and bioflavonoids in cherries slow down COX-1 and COX-2 pro-inflammatory enzymes, which means that individuals suffering from arthritis and gout will experience major pain relief from a reduction in inflammation.

By helping reduce inflammation in the body, cherries also help eliminate migraine headaches. In fact, cherries work so well at reducing headaches and migraines, that they have been found to be just as effective as aspirin and ibuprofen!

“Brain Food” – Improve Memory

Anthocyanins in cherries produce powerful effects in the brain, such that they improve circulation of blood and thus increase the ability of neurons to communicate more effectively. This means better memory and reduced risk of developing diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Help You Lose Weight

Cherries, like all fruit, can actually help you lose weight! Foods that are high in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients help signal to the brain that the body has received ample nutrients and will shut off the hunger signal. When we consume empty-calorie foods (anything highly processed and packaged), we feel as though we can eat 500 times the amount of those foods and STILL not be satiated. This is because these foods are stripped of nutrients, and thus our body gets confused and wants to keep eating until it has fulfilled it’s nutrient needs.

Cherries have been extensively studied and have proven to lower total body weight, reduce belly fat and cholesterol. Specifically, tart cherries have the potential to limit the uptake of fat into the body and help control blood cholesterol levels.

Reset Circadian Rhythms

Cherries contain the antioxidant melatonin which is released when we sleep, and helps regulate our circadian rhythms. Our body rapidly absorbs melatonin, so if you want to sleep easy, eat a cup or two of cherries before you go to bed. Not much melatonin is present in the body, so consuming foods that contain this antioxidant is a wonderful way to naturally treat insomnia and help you sleep better.

 Sources : livelovefruit.com

 mercola.com

The Dangers of Using Plastic Water Bottles

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This is an article that should be shared to anyone important in your life!
Image: Raw For Beauty

Bottled water in your car is very dangerous. People should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water. Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

Use a stainless steel canteen or a glass bottle instead of plastic.

This information is also being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center … No plastic containers in microwaves. No plastic water bottles in freezers. No plastic wrap in microwaves.

Dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to cells in our bodies. Don’t freeze plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently the Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain
this health hazard.

We should not be heating food in the microwave using plastic containers…..
This especially applies to foods that contain fat. The combination of fat, high heat and plastic releases dioxin into the food.

Instead use glass, such as Pyrex or ceramiccontainers for heating food… You get the same result, but without the dioxin.. So, such things as TV dinners, instant soups, etc., should be removed from
their containers and heated in something else.

Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s safer to
use tempered glass, such as Pyrex, etc.

A while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the styrene foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons….

Plastic wrap, such as Cling film, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

Source: Raw For Beauty

Fluoridated Water Is Causing Thyroid Health Problems

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But aside from all the sordid history, the suppression of scientific concern, and the labeling of dissenters as off-balanced "fluorophobes," what should a sensible person do? Here are three appropriate actions for regular daily life, especially if you are bothered by feeling fat, fuzzy, frazzled, fatigued, depressed, beset by intolerance to heat or cold, annoyed by problems with skin-hair-nails, or suffering with severe constipation, low libido, infertility, or uncomfortable menopause.

First, if you are not a thyroid patient, have your thyroid status carefully checked. Insist on more testing than the simple AMA panel of TSH and Free T4. Add a Free T3 and the Thyroid Antibody Panel. You may be one of the millions of people whose fluoride exposure over the years has finally made you low thyroid.

Second, if you are already a thyroid sufferer and treatment is not going as well as you would like, consider an enhanced fluoride avoidance program. Stop drinking and cooking with tap water if it is fluoridated. Well-chosen bottled water is preferable. Start buying non-fluoridated tooth paste. It's available at the health food store if you really look closely. Decline the fluoride dental treatments and make sure it is not in your mouth wash. The various other food sources are probably not a significant factor.

Commentary on 2006 Research Findings

Third, start speaking out against the unhealthy practice of fluoridation. Don't expect that the Public Health Service will ever willingly admit to the most colossal error ever in the history of government science. The change will instead occur as more and more local communities decide against fluoridating their city water. They will thereby join those whole countries that have rejected or banned the practice, such as Japan, India, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Holland. Be guided by the credo of health professionals, "Above all, do no harm." If fluoridated water is now highly suspected of harm, then let's put a moratorium on proceeding further with it.

Key Resources

EPA Standard for Fluoride in Drinking Water Is Not Protective/2006
http://thyroid.about.com/od/newscontroversies/a/fluoride2006.htm

Drs. Richard and Karilee Shames
http://www.feelingfff.com/
Portland Tribune Article

Sources: oawhealth.com

Mary Shomon

If this petition gets 100,000 signatures Monsanto products could be banned from America!

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If this petition gets 100,000 signatures Monsanto products could be banned from America!

Someone just commented this on our page. Current signatures 1. But that is all that is needed. 1 good idea in the hands of wise people. Never under-estimate the power of one.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE PETITION:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/ban-monsantos-genetically-modified-food-products-united-states/yrdxqMQT

Update!*** The petition to BAN MONSANTO FROM AMERICA has received almost 6,000 signatures in less than 24 hours!! We have 29 days left to hit 100,000 to be taken serious. Get this everywhere! If this petition gets 100,000 signatures Monsanto products could be banned from America! Those who say it can't be done shouldn't interupt those who are doing it!

UPDATE*2 --> 8,000 signatures! Day 2

UPDATE*3 ---> Almost 17,000 Signatures - Day 7! (Picture below)



Here is another petition:

 Mandatory GMO labeling -- It already has 85,000!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/support-mandatory-labeling-genetically-engineered-foods-gmos/nkWHZ2Vm

We are the first to share this petition so do us a favor and help share this article. We will keep this updated as the signatures come in. If this is still a democracy let us speak.

Related articles about Monsanto:

2 million people signed this petition against monsanto:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/2-million-people-against-monsanto.html

A must watch Monsanto documentary:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/monsanto-documentary-on-gmo-must-watch.html

The top 5 reasons GMOs are recipe for global famine:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/5-reasons-why-gmos-are-recipe-for.html

Fox news reporters fired for telling truth about Monsanto Milk
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/fox-reporters-fired-for-reporting-truth.html

The world according to Monsanto - Documentary:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/02/the-world-according-to-monsanto-gmo.html

Study finds GMO long term effects terminal:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/02/study-finds-gmo-long-term-effects-are.html

Pesticides damage bee brains:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/pesticides-damage-brains-of-bees.html

Bill Gates owns the largest share of Monsanto:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/bill-gates-on-gm-foods-vaccines-and.html

10 years later - the farmers who grow GMO tell us how they feel:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/10-years-later-review-of-gm-crops-from.html


Uruguay Becomes First Country In World To Fully Legalize Cannabis

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Jose Mujica is known as "the worlds poorest president" yet he donates 90% of his salary to charity and is now making Uruguay the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana. You can grow it, smoke it, buy it, use it for cancer treatment etc. A.k.a. the natural freedom everyone deserves. Cannabis is a natural plant and people have the right to choose what goes into their body. That is what FREEDOM is all about. Using cannabis is something you can easily do while maintaining everyone's basic human rights. Obviously you shouldn't smoke and drive and things that that otherwise you will be a danger to society. Moderation is important but so is logic. Call us liberals or whatever the buzz word is now, but we have no label in our own minds. We just wish everyone could be free to do as they wish as long as it didn't harm anyone else or the planet. Live can be simple. And only what you allow will continue.



Anyone else moving to Uruguay with us?

Here is a long list of sources that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that cannabis is most likely the most useful and nutritional plant on Earth or even the Universe.

This man cured his skin cancer with cannabis oil:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/man-cures-his-skin-cancer-with-cannabis.html

Here is a study on cannabis that proves the government wrong:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/study-on-cannabis-proves-government.html

Here are 10 cannabis studies the government wish it never funded and why:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/10-cannabis-studies-government-wishes.html

Here is a 7 year old that uses cannabis oil to treat her Leukemia: 
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/7-year-old-treated-with-medical.html

Here is the truth about government animal testing with marijuana:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/05/marijuana-government-animal-testing.html

The first Marijuana commercial airs on national TV:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/first-marijuana-commercial-airs-on-tv.html

Here are 10 health benefits of smoking marijuana:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/the-health-benefits-of-smoking-marijuana.html

If we could all grow marijuana this is what we could do:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/when-we-grow-this-is-what-we-can-do.html

Here is evidence that cannabis is the most nutrional plant on earth:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/evidence-that-cannabis-is-most.html

Clearing the smoke: The science of cannabis
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/clearing-smoke-science-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis can revolutionize our economy: Here is how
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/how-cannabis-can-revolutionize-our.html

Here are the health benefits of juicing and drinking raw cannabis:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/huge-results-from-juicing-raw-cannabis.html

Tommy Chong says hemp oil works! (From cheech and chong)
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/02/tommy-chong-says-hemp-oil-works.html

Disclaimer:

Before trying anything you find on the internet you should fully investigate your options and get further advice from professionals.

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