Swine Flu Pandemic - An Opportunity for Some

The coverage of the swine flu pandemic has been downright scary. Everywhere I look it seems there are pictures of people wearing surgical masks over their faces. Although the number of deaths doesn’t warrant the kind of panic that’s being conveyed by the media, the reports indicate that the swine flu has the potential to be the next great pandemic to sweep around the globe killing millions in a short course of time.

What's Behind the Media Hype?

I’m always a bit leery when it comes to media frenzy. What’s the real story here I wonder. Is all the hype warranted? Or have things gotten a bit overblown?

It’s not that I don’t believe a pandemic is possible. History shows that it is. My grandmother’s parents and younger sister were all killed by the Spanish flu of 1918. But, part of me hates dire predictions simply because we don’t know whether they will come to pass or not.

Opportunists Will Make the Most of Every Opportunity

Another part of me hates the manipulation/opportunism that always seems to accompany dire predictions. Remember the Y2K predictions about everything from food shortages to computer malfunctions at the highest levels? A handful of people made a whole pile of money on the fears of the masses.

Swine Flu Vaccine

I understand that a vaccine against the swine flu is being worked on. Hmm. I wonder if there’s any money to be made in vaccinating billions of people.

You might be saying, “Well, of course! A vaccine is what’s needed. What else can prevent us from getting such a deadly virus?”

Actually, there’s a lot that you can do to guard against acquiring the swine flu and other contagious illness. Strengthen the immune system. Read my most recent article at Suite101.com to find out what you can do to protect yourself from swine flu.

Also, have a look at Dr. Mercola’s alert on the swine flu. I’m inclined to go along with much of what he says.

Best health to you!

Tammie

Why MSG is So Dangerous

I've known for a long time that msg (monosodium glutamate) is dangerous. But I didn't know why until I read Dr. Mercola's latest article on msg

I didn't know, for instance that msg was an excitotoxin that destroys cells by stimulating them to death. When msg bonds to a cell's glutamine receptor, cell damage and death can result.

The worst part of this is that msg is in so many processed foods and most of us don't even recognize it on the label because it's hidden under other names like, natural flavour.

What surprised me was that msg is in a lot of things that we use at home, like some nutritional yeast flakes (sounds healthy, doesn't it?), soy products like soy milk and soy sauce, and many other things.

I'm going to contact the company that makes our engevita yeast powder and inquire about whether it contains msg.

The bottom line is, the more natural the food, the better - unrefined, unprocessed, in it's natural state. We eat pretty simple foods as it is. Dr. Mercola's article just reinforced the idea that we need to be diligent about reading labels and educating ourselves about what goes into our grocery carts.

Green Lemonade, Anyone?

I've learned a little more about alkalizing our body. My mom said to drink lemon juice and chlorophyll before bed. Eeeew, I thought.

Then I made some green lemonade. Don't knock it till you've tried it. I'll take green lemonade over pink lemonade anyday! It's delicious! Really. Here's the recipe:

Green Lemonade
1 litre of water
Juice of one lemon
2 droppers of liquid chlorophyll
Stevia to taste

That's it! Surprisingly, it doesn't have an exceptionally "green" or "grassy" taste. It is exceptionally refreshing, though. (Not to mention very alkalizing, too.) How's that for a new twist on lemonade?

Here's another tip for getting alkaline in a hurry: dump two boxes of baking soda into bath water and have a good long soak. (This is good for kids with autism, I've read.)

Great health to you!

Tammie

pH: The Acid/Alkaline Balance and Your Health

I picked up some pH strips to measure our family's acidity. What I've learned is that our bodies strive to maintain an alkaline state. Acidity is associated with disease. If your extracellular fluids are alkaline, you will be healthy. Because:

An Alkaline Body = A Healthy Body

An Acidic Body = A Sick Body

As a matter of fact, people with cancer happen to be extremely acidic. You have to get alkaline to get well.

So . . . we're checking our pH.

It's quite simple really. I got some pH strips (http://www.ph-ion.com/) and do three tests each day for two days. I measure urinary and saliva pH for a composite (more accurate) reading.

You know, even though we're doing just about everything right - eating our greens and veggies, avoiding processed foods, drinking lots of water - we're still more acidic than I 'd like us to be. I think we may be low in magnesium. (We did a checklist in Mark Hyman's UltraMind Solution. http://www.ultramind.com/)

We're going to take some vitamin and mineral supplements, eat more raw foods, and check our pH again in a couple of weeks.

Tip for the day: Check your pH!

The UltraMind Solution

I just bought The UltraMind Solution: The Simple Way to Defeat Depression, Overcome Anxiety, and Sharpen Your Mind by Mark Hyman, M.D. (published by Scribner). What a great book! Well worth the $32 (Canadian) for the hardcover.

Reading this book has really added and built upon the knowledge I'd gained from reading Allergies: Disease in Disguise.

Doctor Hyman explains how our overall health affects the wellness of our minds. With research and case studies from his own medical practice, he builds a case for healing and nourishing the body to cure all kinds of physical and psychological illnesses.

He outlines a 6-week program that he says works for 80% of people who try it. The program is easy to follow and by accessing more than 100 pages of on-line corrollary materials (like charts and lists of medical tests that can be requested), there is value-added to the price of the book.

I have renewed hope that by adjusting our daily habits, we can find healing for our son who has severe ADHD and autism-like symptoms. There is great hope here for people who are looking for help for autism, dementia, alzheimers, depression, and a whole plethora of other psychological (and physical) problems.

What a boon to find this book. It's so well organized, sensible, and helpful, I just can't say enough good things about it!

Thanks, Dr. Hyman!

The Good Fats Miracle

I've been reading an older book (written mid '90's) by Sam Graci called The Power of Superfoods: Thirty Days that Will Change Your Life. What a great book!

In the book, Graci shows what's wrong with our diet, why we're fat, full of cancer and degenerative diseases. It's an eye-opener.

I like that Graci became a health researcher when he finally got sick and tired of early aging and obesity when he was in his thirties. He's authentic. He speaks from experience and backs up his conclusions with research.

Interestingly, I finally have a better understanding of a miracle cure that happened in my own life, because of reading his chapter on healthy fats. Graci explains how trans fats (from hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated oils) and damaged fats (heat processed cooking/vegetable oils) not only add unhealthy toxins to our bodies, but actually prevent our bodies from accessing the essential fatty acids that we take in when we consume good fats. These unhealthy fats hit the body at a cellular level with a double whammy as a result.

The bottom line is, though many of us are eating twice the recommended daily allowance of fats, we're still deficient of the essential fatty acids that our cells need for normal functioning.

Which helps to explain something that happened in my own life. Several years ago, I had severe eczema on my hands and legs. It was extremely uncomfortable. Added to that, I had itchy, flaky scalp. I used medicated dandruff shampoo and still suffered. The doctors prescribed corticosteroid ointments for my legs and hands, but they didn't help.

Then I read a letter in an Alive magazine about someone who had similar problems. The advice given in the letter was to take flax seed oil. I began taking 2 T/day. Within 2 weeks, my skin closed up, the weeping stopped. It was a miracle! The pain was gone. Within a month or so, my skin was completely healed. Amazing.

I was deficient in essential fatty acids. Such a simple cure, but such profound results. Thanks, Sam Graci, for the explanation!

Amazing Enzymes

Since I’ve learned about the essential role that enzymes play in maintaining our health, I’ve been making a real effort to shift to predominantly raw foods at meal times. Although we're not 100% raw, we're striving for 70%.

What I’ve learned is that enzymes are necessary not only for digesting food, but for all communication that goes on between cells and systems within the body. The bad news is, that as we age, we produce fewer enzymes for doing all the break-down, building and maintenance work that goes on in the body. On top of that, we hasten our own degeneration by eating cooked foods, because the body is forced to produce digestive enzymes for breaking down cooked foods, since cooking destroys all enzymes. Raw food comes with its own digestive enzymes. As a result, eating raw doesn’t stress our organs the way eating cooked food does.

Eating raw is not such a big deal when you’ve got a good variety of foods to replace your normal cooked fare. For example, our usual breakfast is some form of cooked cereal, usually oatmeal. But we’ve found that a good replacement is soaked organic grains.

We’ve also found that our new raw breakfast is so easy to digest. We’re actually hungry by lunch time and eat to fill a need rather than eating just because it’s time to eat. Complete digestion is the cornerstone of good health.

Here’s what we had for breakfast this morning.
2 cups buckwheat, soaked overnight
3 or 4 apples
Dash of cinnamon (optional)
Almond/cashew cream (optional)

Rinse the buckwheat a few times with cold water. Grate the apples on a fine grater or chop them in a food processor. Stir the chopped apples into the buckwheat. Serve with nut cream.
Tip: The buckwheat can be served whole, because the grains are really soft, but we like them whizzed in our blender with the apples. I just toss the apples (cut in chunks) with the buckwheat into the blender, add enough really hot water to get it processing and then serve it with a sprinkling of sliced almonds or shredded coconut.

For more info on amazing enzymes, go to:
http://health2us.com/enzyme.htm