They Still Don't Get It

This past Sunday I was watching the cable news programs and tuned into a group of Doctors discussing why degenerative diseases, including arthritis, athrosceleosis, diabetes and other common ailments that, in the past, have been usually associated with older people are now turning up in epidemic porportion in much younger people today,..some times in teenagers.
 
As I watched the round table discussion I was amazed and perturbed at the same time to hear the Doctors make statements to the effect: "A sedentary lifestyle is causing a large porportion of these degenerative diseases," "One of the keys is to start getting medical screening as much younger ages," "People need to know the 'at risk' factors and be pro-active discussing this with your Doctors,".....

Not once did I hear any of the Doctors say anything about the importance of good nutrition.
Not once did I hear any of the Doctors talk about the importance of taking quality nutritional supplements to ensure you get the required nutrients in the required doses.
Nor did I hear any of the Doctors mention avoiding common toxins.

What this means is that each of us has to be responsible enough as individuals to cast about and search ernestly for the answers. Each of us has to be individually responsible for our health and well being.

Doctors,...God bless 'em, I know some dog gone good ones and Doctors in general certainly save many lives each and every day, but they are in the business of treating symptoms not the cause...most of them anyway.

Take charge of your health. Make today the first day in a Healthy Lifestyle for the rest of your life.




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Toxins in Foods

The Chair of Health contends that we have to eat right, take quality supplements, and, get some sort of physical exercise. The fourth leg of that chair is to avoid toxins. As the world gets more populated,...as we demand a quicker solutions to problems great and small, our ability to avoid toxins is going to be based on knowledge of where toxins are found. Aside from the occasional press release about e coli or other toxic substances found in a batch of baby food or canned soup, some foods can routinely be found to have toxins either natural or through the processing procedure. When researching some of these we found this article on arsenic found in fruit juices.

Toxic Levels of Arsenic Found in Popular Juice Brands

Arsenic has long been recognized as a poison and a contaminant in drinking water, but now concerns are growing about arsenic in foods, especially in fruit juices that are a mainstay for children.

Controversy over arsenic in apple juice made headlines as the school year began when Mehmet Oz, M.D., host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” told viewers that tests he’d commissioned found 10 of three dozen apple-juice samples with total arsenic levels exceeding 10 parts per billion (ppb). There’s no federal arsenic threshold for juice or most foods, though the limit for bottled and public water is 10 ppb. The Food and Drug Administration, trying to reassure consumers about the safety of apple juice, claimed that most arsenic in juices and other foods is of the organic type that is “essentially harmless.”

But an investigation by Consumer Reports shows otherwise. Our study, including tests of apple and grape juice, a scientific analysis of federal health data, a consumer poll, and interviews with doctors and other experts, finds the following:

* Roughly 10 percent of our juice samples, from five brands, had total arsenic levels that exceeded federal drinking-water standards. Most of that arsenic was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.
* One in four samples had lead levels higher than the FDA’s bottled-water limit of 5 ppb. As with arsenic, no federal limit exists for lead in juice.
* Apple and grape juice constitute a significant source of dietary exposure to arsenic, according to our analysis of federal health data from 2003 through 2008.
* Children drink a lot of juice. Thirty-five percent of children 5 and younger drink juice in quantities exceeding pediatricians’ recommendations, our poll of parents shows.
* Mounting scientific evidence suggests that chronic exposure to arsenic and lead even at levels below water standards can result in serious health problems.
* Inorganic arsenic has been detected at disturbing levels in other foods, too, which suggests that more must be done to reduce overall dietary exposure.

Tainted brands include Minute Maid, Mott's, Gerber, Welch's, and Great Value (Walmart) among others. See results from tests on other apple and grape juice brands.

Our findings have prompted Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, to urge the FDA to set arsenic and lead standards for apple and grape juice. Our scientists believe that juice should at least meet the 5 ppb lead limit for bottled water. They recommend an even lower arsenic limit for juice: 3 ppb.

“People sometimes say, ‘If arsenic exposure is so bad, why don’t you see more people sick or dying from it?’ But the many diseases likely to be increased by exposure even at relatively low levels are so common already that its effects are overlooked simply because no one has looked carefully for the connection,” says Joshua Hamilton, Ph.D., a toxicologist specializing in arsenic research and the chief academic and scientific officer at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

As our investigation found, when scientists and doctors do look, the connections they’ve found underscore the need to protect public health by reducing Americans’ exposure to this potent toxin.


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Fish Oil Supplements

I see people taking Fish Oil capsules, usually from large bottles purchased at national store chains. I usually ask them why are they taking Fish Oil supplements and I'll usually get an answer like "someone told me fish oil is good for my health."

Indeed, Fish Oil and Omega 3 Fatty Acids are good for your health. Omega 3 Fatty acids are linked to cognitive function in the brain and who doesn't want a sharper mind? A healthier cardiovascular system is another known benefit as well as the often told result of lowering your cholesterol.

I have had great benefit from my aching knees and back from a combination of Omega 3 Fatty Acid and Glucosamine whereas my chronic pain is completely gone.

However, back to those large off the shelf bottles of Fish Oil. I tell people, if I were you I would be careful taking food grade, off the shelf Fish Oil as there is no other nutritional supplement being sold today with the impurities and toxins. in fact there is a reported law suit against multiple fish oil manufacturers because of PCB's and other chemicals found in these supplements.

There is thought to be many trillion gallons of mercury, petroleum products, dioxins, and fertilizers among other toxic substances dumped into our water supplies each year. Way more than enough to cause the consumer to re-think buying non-pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplements, let alone give them to your kids. In fact, several friends of mine had giant bottles of fish oil, a three month supply, on their desks that they purchased for $9.99. This is a very necessary nutrient so you think you are getting quality at $3.33 per month? To ad insult to possible toxic injury, those tablets smelled,...well, fishy! And you get to taste it twice, once going down and then again with the "fish burp"! Great.

I take a highly purified, pharmaceutical grade version of Fish Oil capsules giving me the a high dose of Omega 3 (EPA and DHA) nutrients that is really necessary in tooday's western diet where we often exceed the recommended 2:1 Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratios in our bodies by 10 to 20 times, providing a fertile ground for oxidative stress and the resulting inflammation to affect our health, sometimes first detectable in joint pain.

The link to better brain function cannot be tossed aside with quality Omega 3 supplements. I have several friends who I introduced to a daily pharmaceutical grade mineral and anti-oxidant supplement and adding an alike quality Omega 3 has significantly decreased ADD/ADHD behavior in their children, between the ages of 6 and 14 years old.

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Scary (and Toxic) Substances

MyAchingKnees has written many times before about the four legs of health and one of those legs being “Avoidance of Toxins”. Devon Jarvis, of SELF, wrote an article posted on Yahoo! About Scary Products: Which to Eliminate, Cut Back On or Quit Worrying About.

Why this is important to us is because toxins can interfere with our immune system, creating more oxidative stress which of course results in inflammation and that inflammation can manifest itself to joint pain and connective tissue and muscles which can enhance the pain from that joint.

1. Triclosan, the chemical used in hundreds of germ-fighting products, may damage the liver and disrupt thyroid hormones. These products contribute to drug resistance, and people using antimicrobial soap get sick as often as regular suds users, a review in the American Journal of Public Health finds. Toss triclosan. Gotta sanitize? Opt for alcohol-based gels.

2. Tobacco smoke contains ammonia, benzene, formaldehyde and 50 chemicals known to cause cancer. "Plus, smoking damages your lungs, kidneys and liver, the body's detoxifiers, which protect you from other chemical exposures," notes consumer advocate Debra Lynn Dadd, author of Toxic Free.

3. "Fresh" paint smell signals volatile organic compounds, solvents that can trigger breathing issues, headaches and dizziness, and that research links to reproductive problems and birth defects, says Gina Solomon, M.D., senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in San Francisco. Low- or no-VOC paints from brands such as Benjamin Moore have a similar texture but less toxicity.

4. BPA, the synthetic estrogen linked to cancer and abnormal brain development, is in the lining of most food and beverage cans, and it can leach out. Whether the food is organic doesn't matter, USDA tests show. When possible, buy fresh or frozen items; there's no BPA in plastic freezer bags, says Sarah Janssen, M.D., senior scientist at the NRDC.

5. Using chlorine bleach, cleaning sprays and disinfectants more than once a week is linked to asthma, says the author of a 2010 Spanish review of studies. Dr. Solomon adds, "There is a role for strong cleaning agents if used with care." Save them for serious mold and mildew, and never mix chlorine bleach with ammonia, because the combo produces toxic fumes. Wear gloves, open the windows, and dilute every cup of bleach you use in 10 cups of water.

6. Plastics Memorize the numbers 3, 6 and 7. These recycling codes mean plastic may have BPA, Dr. Landrigan says. Instead, store food in glass or plastic with codes 4, 5 and 12. But no plastic is "microwave safe." The claim means a container won't melt, not that chemicals won't seep into your dinner.

7. “The word fragrance on a label may stand in for hundreds of chemicals," Dr. Solomon says, including phthalates and musks, endocrine disrupters that have been linked to reproductive dysfunction. The laundry room is a good place to cut back. Seek out unscented detergents and dryer sheets, as coating clothes with chemicals means you're exposed all day, all over your skin.

8. AspartameDespite Internet rumors, a National Cancer Institute study of nearly 500,000 people discerned no link between consuming this sweetener and developing leukemia, lymphoma or brain cancers. Nor is it tied to multiple sclerosis or lupus. (But remember, most soda cans do contain BPA.) MyAchingKnees comment: Boy, they got this wrong! Do not use Aspartame! It has been linked to lethargy, headaches, muscle fatigue, memory loss, tremors, even seizures. If you consume diet drinks with Aspartame, do yourself a favor and stop for a week and notice the difference!

9. Cotton Even though conventional cotton farmers use high levels of potentially planet-harming pesticides, there's no evidence that simply wearing the fabric harms consumers, testing by the Bremen Cotton Exchange in Germany reveals. As for tampons, they expose us to 13,000 to 240,000 times fewer dioxins than our everyday diet does, according to a report in Environmental Health Perspectives. Be confident choosing any brand that works for you, organic or not.

10. The debate over water fluoridation shouldn't have you questioning your Crest. The feds have advised utilities to lower the amount of fluoride allowed in tap water, due to studies linking fluoridation with bone fractures and stiffness; however, both environmentalists and dentists agree that fluoride toothpaste is safe and necessary for everyone older than two. Check the label for a paste without triclosan—some brands add it, supposedly to prevent germs, plaque or gingivitis. MyAchingKnees comment: I have not used a fluoride toothpaste for 5 years now. I have been using a natural toothpaste. My dentist always remarks how well my gums look and I have had no cavities. The last time I had my teeth cleaned, I relented and took the fluoride treatment afterwards and I about vomited and developed a headache. Nobody can tell me that Fluoride is either necessary or not a toxin.

11. Teflon coated pots and pans. The EPA is working to phase out perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used in making Teflon coating. Nonstick cookware, however, doesn't expose you to PFOA, even when you subject it to extreme heat, confirms a study in Food Additives & Contaminants. Scratched parts are fine, too, so flip your flapjacks fearlessly.


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