Life on the Roller Coaster

GFCFSF Chickpea "Chicken nuggets"

2012-02-08T16:50:00.003-07:00

I posted a picture of these chickpea "nuggets" that I whipped up today and got a few requests for the recipe so here it is. I adapted it from THIS blog. I decided to leave out some things, add in others so here is MY rendition;

Wet ingredients
3 C cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained (I used canned chickpeas because I decided pretty last minute that I wanted to try this. I used 2 cans, rinsed them then cooked them in water on the stove until tender, about 30 mins)
4 T toasted sesame oil
Juice of 1 small lemon, or ½ of a medium or large lemon
1/2 of an onion, diced

Dry ingredients
1 C brown rice flour
2 tsp xanthan gum (you can use either chia or flax seed and water but I have heard they fall apart unless eaten really quickly. I made plenty for leftovers so I used Xantham gum)
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp rubbed sage
½-1 tsp smoked paprika, to taste
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1/2 tsp black pepper

Mash the chickpeas in a large mixing bowl. Add the oil and lemon juice. Mash again a couple of times to mix in the liquids. Chickpeas should be pretty mashed, some smooth, some still partly whole.

In a small bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together.

Add the dry ingredients into wet and stir until fully mixed. It may be crumbly at this point. Add some water until you get to a thick, almost bread dough consistency. It should be wet enough to mix well without crumbling but not soupy. I added the onions in at this stage (they were not in the original recipe but I think many things are better with onion!).

Form into little balls or patties and brown on each side in a cast iron skillet with a little coconut oil. Salt a little more once cooked.

I let the kids eat them with their fingers with a healthy (No MSG, HFCS, etc) ketchup to dip into. They loved them! Now if only they would eat their chard :/

I also see us making these with some mashed potatoes and gravy, YUM! So for a meat alternative, I think this one is a hit!

Dow and Monsanto

2012-02-08T14:53:00.003-07:00

If you are watching what Monsanto is doing these days and care to get involved, here is a little issue you should check out. There is still time to weigh in with your opinion if you are so inclined. And if you haven't already figured out that Monsanto is bad for us and our food supply, you should check out the copious amounts of info on the subject. But for now, check out THIS blog.

Update Feb 2012

2012-02-08T13:52:00.003-07:00

We just ran an IgG food allergy test and Organic Acid Test to look at what is going on after just a few months of Camel's milk. The IgG test was pretty amazing, he's gone from 5 "High" IgG foods to just 1. His Organic Acid Test showed some elevated yeast, bacteria and oxalates but I have a strong idea as to what is causing that and a game plan. But the most exciting part is that he is less reactive to the byproducts of these nasty little organisms! We used to have a completely goofy/silly/giggly child who would not sleep but would rather laugh in the middle of the night and whose name you had to call at least 50 times to get even some eye contact with yeast overgrowth. Bacteria brought a very short fuse, no patience and even aggression which was very uncharacteristic. That speaks of neurological and immune healing! And we did test both wheat and dairy (one isolated exposure to both) with no behavioral or gut reactions.

In my consult with Dr. Woeller to go over everything we both feel that at this point we are looking at child specific issues (i.e. personality emerging, his own traits) and less "Autism". I am hard pressed to find things to "work on" (unless someone has a supplement somewhere for back talk or sibling fighting???). That is a pretty cool place to be considering where we came from. I had grand hopes of integrated kindergarten, and yet even when I made that resolve to heal him by that point, there was that small spark of doubt within me that we could achieve that. And yet we made it. We struggled a little but had an amazing, wonderful, loving, caring teacher to help guide him through (and a loving class full of very accepting and helpful children!). We continued with the healing and things have just gotten better ever since! Now, does that mean we have zero issues? Of course not! We pull out the stops when we need to. I know when he needs his homeopathic remedy, I know when I need to add in some herbs for yeast, I know when he's growing and it throws his sensory system into utter chaos. And I know the future will bring its share of curve balls for us. And I don't even want to THINK about the hormones kicking in. But, it is nice to appreciate where we are, today, in this moment.

He will always face challenges from Autism, despite this thing called "recovery" and I totally get that. But, the fact that we have removed many, many roadblocks for him is incredible. This is a child with almost zero language who never slept and who would be content to spin Tupperware lids all day and who screamed bloody murder at even a quick trip to a grocery store due to sensory overload. I am so thankful for our team from doctors to therapists, teachers and just friends and family who support us through this. And more than anything I hope to share our story with others and impart some hope for recovery from this "incurable" disorder we call Autism. You have to try new things, you have to see what will work for your child. There is no magic bullet no matter what anyone says. Each child is unique and should be treated as such. And above all, never give up hope for improvement!

Homemade cough drops/throat losenges

2012-01-21T14:53:00.002-07:00

Yes, it is that time of year....the dreaded bugs are circulating schools and homes. As we got hit with colds this week, I remembered this blog I stumbled across a while back. I knew I wanted to try and make this. My son woke http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifup on Wednesday complaining of a sore throat. So, I figured it was a good time to give this a try! So here they are, I am linking back to the original blog, and please look around. I found this blog when homeschooling through the Waldorf style. This blog had so many wonderful ideas and when I came across it yet again for these losenges, I knew I had to promote them even more! You can click HERE to find the recipe. I have to warn you though, your kids will not understand these are actually medicinal. They are yummy and I do find myself having to limit them or they would eat them all day. I love that there are no refined sugars in them like in most commercial losenges, and you can tailor them to your needs, adding or reducing whatever herbs you need to.

GFCFSF Newton style cookies

2012-01-08T15:19:00.002-07:00

This post is a long time coming as I first attempted it back in September. But hey, life has been a little hectic lately so here it is! I have to warn you, these make wonderful treats for lunches or after school but once you get your hands on one, YOU will be the one who needs to be told "Just 1 more!". I could seriously eat these all day. And with a few tweakings, you can make these very low on the glycemic index so they won't feed yeast like other cookies may.

In a food processor grind 2 cups almonds (preferrably soaked/dehydrated). Add in 2 cups potato starch, 4 tbsp coconut oil, 1/2 cup coconut nectar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt. ** Note - I usually add in all the dry ingredients and mix a few times to ensure that it is all evenly mixed before adding in the "sticky" stuff.

Combine until a dough forms and sticks together. Divide in half. Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper, make into a long rectangle. Spoon a layer of jam/jelly (for lower sugar content use a xylitol sweetened jam/jelly) leaving a border around the edges.

Fold the dough in half so you now have a long skinny rectangle. Gently pinch edges to seal. Square the edges. Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 cookies (or to your size preference). Cook in a 325 degree oven for 12 minutes (DO NOT OVER BAKE!!). Repeat with other half of the dough! Enjoy!!

Camel's milk.....2 1/2 weeks in

2011-12-21T18:37:00.004-07:00

So update #1 on our trial of Camel's milk. We haven't been very scientific, we don't give the same amounts every day or even give it to our son everyday. But we did see an increase in appetite and physical growth very quickly. I began to truly believe the power of this stuff when an unintended dietary infraction happened early on in our trial of camel's milk. Turns out that a product we have used over the years changed their formulation and he actually got wheat without our knowing. What we saw was an increase in emotions. But it also coincided with the fighting of a small cold so it was hard to tell what was what. It certainly was not to the level that we have ever seen with gluten infraction which is usually off the charts meltdowns, aggression, lots of screaming and crying with a level of irrationality that is not usually present. So, being that it is school break, we decided to try adding in wheat and/or dairy to see what is going on. I will admit, this is scary. The tantrumming, lack of sleep and aggression for 3 days (at least) is hard to stomach, especially doing it ON PURPOSE. But, our goal is to get to the point where the occassional infraction is not a big deal. In the past it turned his little world upside down. Since then we've embarked on lots of things to help heal his body. And reactivity to food for us is an indicator of healing in the body.

So here we are today. We decided to hit up Diablo Burger. Diablo Burger is a local restaurant that serves up local, organic, grassfed burgers (and veggie burgers) and they offer gluten free buns as well! They focus on local, quality, fresh food. It is DELISH. Since we've been to Diablo Burger before without any reaction whatsoever, we figured changing one thing today would give us a reliable look at reactions. We gave him the choice, either a regular, gluten bun or a gluten free bun but with cheese. He chose a regular bun. No surprising since the child can only remember the dairy free cheses (some awful) that we've tried over the years. I was actually happy since I would prefer for him to try raw cheese if anything, given his strong reaction and addition to dairy in the past.

We ordered the burgers, ate and waited.......nothing. We went shopping in downtown Flag, ran into some school friends, no auditory processing delays, no "in his own world" behaviors, no running off. Hmmmmm. So here we are 7 hours in, still no reaction. Now, I will be watching for the next few days but I am optimistically hopeful that we've turned a corner here. The last time we had a real infraction (1 Ritz cracker) was in kindergarten and he came home a screaming child, bit his sister (he's never been a biter) and then slammed her finger in the dresser drawer. It was a weekend of that type of behavior. So the reaction was immediate and strong. So far this afternoon was filled with imaginary play with his sister while I finished some Christmas presents. There is none of the vacant eyes, crying, or addictive cravings we've seen in the past. Now, whether we have detox from this we shall see. But, I look at this as a promising step in his recovery.

My 13 year old step daughter wondered whether we would begin eating wheat and dairy again if this is sucessful. I believe this was said very hopefully, lol. There was probably some disappointment when I said No (OK maybe a lot of disappointment). We've learned too much to go back. I now know the immune stimulation that occurs with gluten ingestion in most of us, largely unnoticed but contributing to so many auto-immune disorders and overall degradation of health. I would NEVER go back to drinking cow's milk. But, I would like for a school treat or birthday party slice of cake to be able to be eaten without a major breakdown in functioning for days. These changes have helped all of us so much, even when for those who didn't think they needed to make the changes, that I would not go back to the way we used to eat at all. But this is a very good step in the right direction I believe. So, here's to our first trial of wheat. Let's hope this is just the beginning of no more food reactions!!!!

Food and Nutrition for Autism Course by Julie Matthews!

2011-12-16T15:55:00.002-07:00

I first met Julie years ago as we embarked on a biomedical treatment plan to heal my son. Dr. Woeller recommended her after labs revealed IgG food allergies and unbelievably high oxalate levels. As a veteran of GFCFSF cooking, the oxalate issue threw me for a loop and I needed help, big time! You see, even healthy food can be damaging if there is an issue like oxalates or food allergies. We had been juicing, adding lots of raw recipes filled with nuts and doing green smoothies, all very high in oxalates. This posed a problem for my son with gut pathogens such as yeast and bacteria and a leaky gut. She helped us navigate this twisty, turny path and gave me ideas on what to fix, how to fix it and recipes to help nourish my son's brain and body. Over the years I have gotten to know Julie on a personal level. Very few people have a passion at helping our kids on the spectrum without one of their own also on the spectrum. And yet Julie has that passion, she researches and continues to grow her own skill set and delves deeper into the science of these issues and then helps to educate parents.

She often does classes around the country and at the major conferences like Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!). But, if you have not had the chance to take one of her classes or have a consult with her, this may be a great time for you to do so. She is offering a discount HERE. From first hand experience, Julie will help you understand the role nutrition plays and the scientific explainations as to why these diets work for our kids. Start the new year empowered!!

DIR Floortime therapy??

2011-12-11T09:25:00.002-07:00

Hello East Valley parents! If you are looking for an in-home therapist who specializes in DIR/Floortime therapy please contact me. Since our move, our therapist has our spots open in her schedule. If you don't know what DIR/Floortime therapy is then click HERE to find out more. It is our therapy of choice and our therapist is WONDERFUL (we miss her tons!!). Please leave a comment and a way to contact you and I will put you in touch with her. Not only does she provide one on one in-home therapy during the week but she also does social groups on the weekends. And yes, DDD HAB hours can be used for your sessions!!!

Camel milk, healing or hype by Julie Matthews

2011-12-02T08:49:00.002-07:00

Camel milk, new treatment to help children with Autism? Maybe....and a whole host of other issues if the research is to be believed. My friend Julie Matthews, Nutrition Specialist for Autism recently wrote an article talking about this very thing. You can find the article HERE. If you know Julie then you know how scientific she is in her basis for diets in helping individuals with Autism. One of the best things about her book in my opinion was its citation of WHY these children have issues with gluten and dairy. She doesn't gloss over the why's, she explains to you the biomechanics of food intolerances and why certain products, including some raw dairy products in certain people, can be tolerated when the pasteurized and processed forms can't be. For me, understanding the chemistry of the body and the breakdown of our food was so important. Our food is the basis for our health or disease so we really do need at least a basic understanding.

So, when camel milk was introduced on the scene (important to note, this is NOT a new thing in other countries) it intrigued me. Julie and I had chatted a few months ago about the potential here. When you read just how powerful this stuff can be and how because of the small immunoglobulin size, the camel's milk is able to penetrate and heal the gut/immune system like few other things, you will be intrigued too! Julie has been trying this personally and will be sharing more of her findings. I will pass those on as well along with my own. ;) Wish us luck as we embark on this next phase. And by the way, because of its intense immune boosting potential, I am trying this on several members of my family so our experiences will cover more than just Autism!

GFCFSF BBQ sauce

2011-11-30T12:16:00.002-07:00

So this one is especially for Julie Matthews, I have owed her this for a while now! :)

Our move has been so amazing but has left very little time to blog unfortunately. We will be moving again soon and so the process is not quite over but for now, I will take whatever moment I can grab.

So, we have some grass fed, organic beef in the freezer from a local rancher and I just had a craving one day for BBQ beef. So I started searching the Internet for a recipe and this is one that I adapted from a few different places. I stuck this roast in the crock pot and man did my house smell good!!

Put your roast in the crock pot with about a 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water and turn on low for a few hours.

BBQ Sauce:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 chopped chile pepper
1 medium onion grated
1 cup bourbon or whiskey (distilled alcohol is gluten free)
1/2 cup diced tomatoes, tomato paste or tomato sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup molasses
2 - 3 tbs crystallized coconut sugar
salt

Melt the oil. Add the grated onion and pepper, heat over medium heat 3 - 4 minutes or until the onions are clear. Take pan off heat and add the bourbon/whiskey, return to stove and turn up the heat medium/high. Boil for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste/sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, molasses and sugar. Mix well. Return to simmer for a few minutes. Pour over meat in crock pot and let cook down another couple of hours. And be prepared to have your mouth water for those next few hours!! Enjoy!!

ARI Conference

2011-10-15T16:52:00.003-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. We are moving which has created a whole new level of chaos.

As I sit waiting for my flight after the ARI conference, I reflect back. This past 3 days has been filled with hugs to newly diagnosed parents, many in tears, talking about my son's recovery from Autism, what helped, what didn't, our hurdles and accomplishments. I remember my first conference as a new parent in this world of Autism. I was scared, sleep deprived, angry that we were apart of this group at all and devastated by the lack of answers from mainstream doctors. The past 4 years has gone way too fast for one thing but has been filled with ups and downs. There are always new things to try, more studies to be read and supplements to add. But the thing that stands out is the normalcy that our family has now. We make decisions on what we want to do, not based on what my son's system cannot handle. This is a place I am still not always comfortable. Sometimes I still wait for the other shoe to drop, but these days it usually doesn't. And being at ARI makes me remember those days. I always tell people that each child is different, there is no one size fits all treatment approach but all kids can get better. Maybe not all will recover but wouldn't you try? Our story is amazing but not impossible. And that is what I hope I got across, especially to those parents in tears, opening up to those of us who have "been there". Autism is not for the weak. And I met a friend from the internet, an adult with Autism. She is amazing and I loved meeting her in person. Learning from her will give me additional perspective that may help my son and others. We still have a lot to learn but we have to share successes.

As we prepare to move our family, I can say that we did so without fear. Change is good these days, before it was a dirty word. Adaptability has replaced inflexibility. This change was met with excitement and enthusiasm. It was of course tempered with sadness at missing his friends. The fact that he has friends is reason to celebrate. But he's excited at what is to come and that friends is progress! Never give up, recovery is possible, my son is proof (and pretty darn amazing at that!).

What's really in the food, by Natural News

2011-09-11T06:30:00.001-07:00

Another great article from Natural News....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(NaturalNews) Ever wonder what's really in the food sold at grocery stores around the world? People keep asking me, "What ingredients should I avoid?" So I put together a short list that covers all the most toxic and disease-promoting ingredients in the food supply. These are the substances causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and leading to tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs across America (and around the world).

If you want to stay healthy and out of the hospital, read ingredients labels and make sure you avoid all these ingredients:

Acrylamides - Toxic, cancer-causing chemicals formed in foods when carbohydrates are exposed to high heat (baking, frying, grilling). They're present in everything from bread crusts to snack chips, and because they aren't intentional ingredients, acrylamides do NOT have to be listed on labels.

Aspartame - Chemical sweetener that causes neurological disorders, seizures, blurred vision and migraine headaches. (http://www.naturalnews.com/030918_a...)

Autolyzed Proteins - Highly processed form of protein containing free glutamate and used to mimic the taste-enhancer chemical MSG.

BPA (Bisphenol-A) - A hormone mimicking chemical found in nearly all food packaging plastics. Active in just parts per billion, BPA promotes cancer, infertility and hormone disorders. It also "feminizes" males, promoting male breast growth and hormone disruption (http://www.naturalnews.com/032860_B...).

Casein - Milk proteins. Hilariously, this is widely used in "soy cheese" products that claim to be alternatives to cow's milk. Nearly all of them are made with cow's milk proteins.

Corn Syrup - Just another name for High Fructose Corn Syrup (see below). Frequently used in infant formula products (http://www.naturalnews.com/029863_S...).

Food Colors - FD&C Red #40, for example, is linked to behavioral disorders in children. Nearly all artificial food colors are derived from petroleum, and many are contaminated with aluminum.

Genetically Modified Ingredients - Not currently listed on the label because the GMO industry (Monsanto and DuPont) absolutely does not want people to know which foods contain GMOs. Nearly all conventionally grown corn, soy and cotton are GMOs. They're linked to severe infertility problems and may even cause the bacteria in your body to produce and release a pesticide in your own gut. If you're not eating organic corn, you're definitely eating GMO corn. (http://www.naturalnews.com/026426_G...) Learn more at www.ResponsibleTechnology.org or watch my GMO music video (hilarious) at www.NaturalNews.com/NoGMO

High Fructose Corn Syrup - A highly processed liquid sugar extracted with the chemical solvent glutaraldehyde and frequently contaminated with mercury (http://www.naturalnews.com/032948_h...). It's also linked to diabetes, obesity and mood disorders. Used in thousands of grocery items, including things you wouldn't suspect like pizza sauce and salad dressings.

Homogenized Milk - The fats in the milk are artificially modified to change them into smaller molecules that stay in suspension in the milk liquid (so the milk fat doesn't separate) (http://www.naturalnews.com/022967_m...). While it makes milk look better on the shelf, it's also blamed for promoting heart disease and may contribute to milk allergies. Raw milk is healthier, which is why the government had outlawed it (http://www.naturalnews.com/029322_r...).

Hydrochloride - When you see anything hydrochloride, such as Pyridoxine Hydrochloride or Thiamin Hydrochloride, those are chemical forms of B vitamins that companies add to their products to be able to claim higher RDA values of vitamins. But these are synthetic, chemical forms of vitamins, not real vitamins from foods or plants. Nutritionally, they are near-useless and may actually be bad for you. Also watch out for niacinamide and cyanocobalamin (synthetic vitamin B-12). (http://www.naturalnews.com/032766_c...)

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein - A highly processed form of (usually) soy protein that's processed to bring out the free glutamate (MSG). Use as a taste enhancer.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils - Oils that are modified using a chemical catalyst to make them stable at room temperature. This creates trans fatty acids and greatly increases the risk of blocked arteries (http://www.naturalnews.com/027445_f...). It also promotes what I call "sludge blood," which is thick, viscous blood that's hard to pump. This is usually diagnosed by doctors as "high blood pressure" and (stupidly) treated with blood-thinning medications that are technically the same chemicals as rat poison (warfarin) (http://www.naturalnews.com/023149_d...).

Phosphoric Acid - The acid used in sodas to dissolve the carbon dioxide and add to the overall fizzy-ness of the soda. Phosphoric acid will eat steel nails. It's also used by stone masons to etch rocks. The military uses it to clean the rust off battleships. In absolutely destroys tooth enamel (http://www.naturalnews.com/021774.html). Search Google Images for "Mountain Dew Mouth" to see photos of teeth rotted out by phosphoric acid: http://www.google.com/search?q=moun...

Propylene Glycol - A liquid used in the automotive industry to winterize RVs. It's also used to make the fake blueberries you see in blueberry muffins, bagels and breads. (Combined with artificial colors and corn syrup.) See shocking "Fake Blueberries" video at: http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=7...

Sodium (Salt) - The processed white salt lacking in trace minerals. In the holistic nutrition industry, we call it "death salt" because it promotes disease and death. Real salt, on the other hand, such as "dirty" sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, is loaded with the trace minerals that prevent disease, such as selenium (cancer), chromium (diabetes) and zinc (infectious disease). Much like with bread and sugar, white salt is terrible for your health. And don't be fooled by claims of "sea salt" in grocery stores. All salt came from the sea if you go far back enough in geologic time, so they can slap the "sea salt" claim on ANY salt!

Sodium Nitrite - A cancer-causing red coloring chemical added to bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, ham, lunch meats, pepperoni and nearly all processed meats. Strongly linked to brain tumors, pancreatic cancers and colon cancers (http://www.naturalnews.com/007024.html). The USDA once tried to ban it from the food supply but was out-maneuvered by the meat industry, which now dominates USDA regulations. Sodium nitrite is a complete poison used to make meats look fresh. Countless children die of cancer each year from sodium nitrite-induced cancers.

Soy Protein - The No. 1 protein source used in "protein bars," including many bars widely consumed by bodybuilders. Soy protein is the "junk protein" of the food industry. It's made from genetically modified soybeans (often grown in China) and then subjected to hexane, a chemical solvent (http://www.naturalnews.com/026303_s...) that can literally explode.

Sucralose - An artificial chemical sweetener sold as Splenda. The sucralose molecule contains a chlorine atom (http://www.naturalnews.com/027491_a...). Researchers have repeatedly found that artificial sweeteners make people fat by actually promoting weight gain (http://www.naturalnews.com/024543_h...).

Sugar - The bleached, nutritionally-deficient byproduct of cane processing. During sugar cane processing, nearly all the minerals and vitamins end up in the blackstrap molasses that's usually fed to farm animals. (Blackstrap molasses is actually the "good" part of sugar cane juice.) Molasses is often fed to farm animals because every rancher knows that farm animals need good nutrition to stay alive. Amazingly, conventional doctors don't yet realize this about humans, and they continue to claim that eating sugar is perfectly fine for you. Sugar promotes diabetes, obesity, mood disorders and nutritional deficiencies.

Textured Vegetable Protein - Usually made of soy protein which is extracted from genetically modified soybeans and then processed using hexane, an explosive chemical solvent (see Soy Protein, above). Widely used in vegetarian foods such as "veggie burgers" (most of which also contain MSG or Yeast Extract, by the way).

Yeast Extract - Hidden form of MSG that contains free glutamate and is used in many "natural" food products to claim "No MSG!" Yeast extract contains up to 14% free glutamate. You'll find it in thousands of grocery store products, from soups to snack chips. I even once spotted it used on fresh meat!

Food label tricks
Here's a trick food companies frequently used to pack more sugar into their products without making sugar look like the first ingredient:

Ingredient labels, you see, must list the most prominent ingredients first, and some consumers might freak out of they saw a box of cereal that said, "Sugar, whole grain wheat, corn" and so on. Instead, the company uses 3 or 4 different forms of sugar to distribute them farther down the label, like this:

"Whole grain wheat, sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids..."

This way, the first ingredients looks like "whole grain wheat" when, in reality, the cereal might be over fifty percent sugars!

How to buy honest food
• Shop are your local farmer's market, food co-op or CSA.

• In the USA, look for the USDA Organic label on foods. This is a legitimate claim to being certified organic. It's one of the few programs run by the USDA that actually has integrity.

• Read the ingredients labels! If you see names of chemicals you can't pronounce, don't buy it.

• Buy more unprocessed food ingredients and make your own meals rather than buying ready-to-eat, processed foods, which are almost universally formulated with disease-promoting ingredients.

• GROW some of your own food! The best food you can ever eat is food from your own garden.

How to learn more about what's really in your food
Read NaturalNews. I'm the editor of NaturalNews, and I cured my own borderline diabetes, high cholesterol and near-obesity using nothing but healing foods.

The more you read NaturalNews, the more you'll learn about what to avoid in your foods and what to BUY that's loaded with nutrition! We cover natural cures, superfoods nutrition, juicing, raw foods, nutritional supplements, healing herbs and much more. You can subscribe to our free email newsletter using the form below.

We teach you what the mainstream food industry doesn't want you to know (and what the mainstream media won't dare report).

If you want to learn the truth about food, read NaturalNews. Lots more to come...

Some of my favorite nutrient-rich superfoods include...
(No, these are not sponsored links. Just stuff I personally enjoy and purchase on a regular basis to blend into superfood smoothies!)

• Boku Superfood (www.BokuSuperfood.com)
• LivingFuel (www.LivingFuel.com)
• Enerfood (www.EnerHealthBotanicals.com)
• Pure Synergy (www.TheSynergyCompany.com)
• Rejuvenate! (www.IntegratedHealth.com)
• Healthforce Nutritionals (www.HealthForce.com)
• X-Balance (www.SGNNutrition.com)

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033162_food_ingredients_chemicals.html#ixzz1XeN8P2qV

More reasons to add Milk Thistle into your supplement program

2011-09-08T13:27:00.002-07:00

This article is from the Natural News Website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(NaturalNews) The liver is one of the most critical organs essential to human health. It serves more than 300 functions in the body to detoxify against chemical and environmental intrusions, and it promotes metabolic function as well. Silymarin is commonly known as milk thistle, and new science is emerging to validate the healing potential of this powerful plant. Publishing in the journal Hepatitis Monthly, researchers provide solid evidence that natural milk thistle extracts can halt and even reverse the effects of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an affliction affecting as much as a third of the adult population. Supplementation with milk thistle will dramatically lower the risks associated with fatty liver disease, atherosclerosis and cognitive dysfunction.

NAFLD is a significant health concern that is growing at an unprecedented rate due to the obesity and diabetes epidemic currently gripping most western societies. The condition is caused in part by excess accumulation of fats (triglycerides) in the cellular matrix of the liver that results in suboptimal function of the organ. Left unchecked, the disease can result in cell injury and damage, in inflammation and ultimately in cirrhosis as the liver becomes less able to perform the multitude of tasks essential to life.

Researchers found that the plant extract has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and becomes concentrated in hepatic tissue soon after ingestion. They found that silymarin promotes liver tissue regeneration by supporting multiple critical metabolic functions: these include lower oxidized LDL cholesterol levels, regulation of membrane permeability and stability and prevention of the deposition of collagen fibers, which lead to cirrhosis. In addition, milk thistle inhibits the absorption of many toxins, effectively preventing them from entering circulation through the bloodstream.

Silymarin is known to be a powerful cellular antioxidant with specific properties that can prevent excess oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Oxidized LDL cholesterol particles are sticky and become lodged in the delicate endothelial layer of coronary artery vessels where they combine with other blood-borne compounds to form plaque. Natural milk thistle extracts (570 mg per day) have proven effective to lower risk factors that promote arterial hardening.

Milk thistle has been used as a chemopreventive agent in the fight against certain cancer lines, most notably metastatic cancers of the prostate. Silymarin interferes with cancer growth and immortality, and it exhibits anti-inflammatory and anti-metastatic activity (prevents cancer spread). Extracts of milk thistle have also been used as an agent in the war against numerous malignancies including those of the liver, colon and skin.

Our body is continually under assault from a barrage of more than 70,000 chemicals and 900 drugs known to induce liver damage. Milk thistle supplementation provides an effective tool to protect and heal our primary filtration organ, the liver. Silymarin is also proving to be an important tool that can naturally lower cancer risk, while providing critical support for the heart and prostate.

Article References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021...
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011...
http://hepatmon.com/pdf/Milk_thistl...

About the author:
John Phillip is a Health Researcher and Author who writes regularly on the cutting edge use of diet, lifestyle modifications and targeted supplementation to enhance and improve the quality and length of life. John is the author of 'Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan', a comprehensive EBook explaining how to use Diet, Exercise, Mind and Targeted Supplementation to achieve your weight loss goal. Visit My Optimal Health Resource to continue reading the latest health news updates, and to download your Free 48 page copy of 'Your Healthy Weight Loss Plan'.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033524_milk_thistle_liver_protection.html#ixzz1XOWWPTmS

Julie Matthews is coming to GILBERT!!!!

2011-09-08T10:54:00.004-07:00

This is an amazing opportunity to see and hear Julie Matthews in person talking about diet, nutrition, health and Autism recovery! I would encourage everyone in the area to come to this informative talk and for $35 it is a DEAL!! You can also get her books/DVD if you would like for an additional cost. It will be held at Mission church on Elliot and Recker, September 20th from 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm. Don't miss it!!!

Great advice on shopping from Michael Pollan

2011-08-15T13:11:00.002-07:00

Here is a great article and video featuring Michael Pollan. He talks about supermarket strategy and how to shop if you are wanting to get the healthiest options.

Click HERE to read the story and watch the video.

Puffed Amaranth homemade GFCFSF cereal

2011-07-06T12:34:00.005-07:00

Here's my first video blog, please tell me what you think!! Thanks to my awesome videographer aka my 13 year old!! - gotta put them to work over the summer, right?!?

**Blogger's note - My husband took offense to me referring to the cyclist's cold sore as herpes (even though it IS a herpes virus that causes cold sores along with causing both chicken pox and shingles!!). So, just to clarify, the cyclist suffered from COLD SORES (which are caused by the herpes virus) and my comment in no way referred to any sort of genital herpes!!! Ugh, such a guy!!

TAGS - puffed amaranth popped GFCF cereal gluten free

Strawberry cake/cupcakes

2011-07-06T08:20:00.003-07:00

So for the 4th of July holiday, I wanted to make some red, white and blue cupcakes using REAL fruit. Most of the recipes I found called for boxes of "strawberry" gelatin with just a handful of real strawberries and they were that very unnatural pink color. Now I will say I did cheat, normally I would make the cupcakes from scratch using my GF flour blends I mix at home. But hey, it was a holiday and mom needed a shortcut. So I grabbed the Betty Crocker yellow GF cake mix. What I did was sub in pureed strawberries instead of the water. Viola, real strawberry cupcakes with no dyes or artificial flavors to give it that strawberry taste. I topped them with homemade strawberry "buttercream" frosting and let the kids decorate them with frozen blueberries. They were a hit, even with the non-GFCF friends we had over. I hope you and your family had a very happy and safe 4th of July!

Canola and soybean oil used as pesticides

2011-07-02T14:27:00.001-07:00

(NaturalNews) In a shocking new video, Mike Adams (the Health Ranger) reveals that common cooking oils such as canola oil and soybean oil are used as key active ingredients in pesticide products because they work so effectively to kill bugs. The video shows how one pesticide product that kills insects is made with 96% canola oil and is so dangerous that the label says, "Hazards to humans and domestic animals."

The label of the product, made almost entirely with canola oil, goes on to explain "CAUTION: Avoid contact with skin or clothing." If you get it on yourself, you are directed to take off all your contaminated clothing, take a 15-20 minute shower to rinse the canola oil off your skin, and then "Call a poison control center or doctor for treatment advice."

Watch the short video at NaturalNews.TV:

Again, this is a for an insecticide that's made of 96% canola oil -- an oil that's found throughout the food supply and especially in products such as salad dressings and snack chips. Canola oil is also in ingredient often used in so-called "vegetable oil" shown on the ingredients label.

This canola oil-based pesticide also says on the label: "Environmental Hazards: Do not apply directly to water. Do not contaminate water when disposing of equipment..."

Soybean oil also an active pesticide ingredient
The chemical company Bayer also makes a "natural" insect killing product called Natria. It's most prominent active ingredient? Soybean oil (most of which is almost certainly genetically modified).

Much like canola oil, soybean oil is nearly ubiquitous in the U.S. food supply, being found in countless manufactured food items sold at grocery stores everywhere. In his video, Adams asks the obvious question: If these oils kill insects so effectively, and if they are harmful to pets, skin and the environment, why are we eating them as part of our daily diet?

Adams also suggests that if you want a low-cost but highly-effective natural pesticide, just buy canola oil from your grocery store and spray that on bugs. "We've tested it and it really works to kill bugs," Adams says. Plus, it's less than half the cost of the natural pesticide products made almost entirely with canola oil.

The video is available at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=AEE77...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032853_canola_oil_pesticides.html#ixzz1QzAucx6K

NEVER give up!

2011-06-16T07:38:00.006-07:00

Oh FRICK! Crying is NOT the way I wanted to start my Thursday morning. I look back on this 7 year journey and so many of the key points they share are a part of our history. No speech, no pointing, no interaction, no friends, no sleep. Notice I said history, not present or future. My son has friends, misses them while on summer break, fights with his sister, antagonizes even, and tells me this morning when I give him his breakfast "I need more flavor mom, you lose the challenge". Uhmm...maybe we shouldn't watch the cooking challenges anymore! But I know so many children with Autism and maybe we just gravitate towards each other. Heck we see each other enough in therapy clinic waiting rooms! A good chunk of my Facebook friends are other Autism moms and dads who share this journey even if theirs has a slightly different flavor to it. Not all of them recover but many are helped by biomedical treatment approaches. Never has there been such a feeling of comradarie and willingness to help each other out with sharing data and research or even just tips to get our children to eat!!

There is no one answer for any of them. You have to find what the issue is for your particular child. But, NAA is a wonderful charity if you want to lend your support or fundraise to TRULY help an organization that HELPS families. Unlike another (bohemouth) "charity", they don't use all of your hard earned "walking" dollars for big salaries, marketing and lobbying. NAA gives back to families who need it the most. Like this video shows, many of us go bankrupt on this journey, many lose spouses and even extended family because of the stress. Autism can be such a divisive topic. But what should be agreed upon is that these kids need help, our oh-so-wise officials can't tell us what "causes" Autism but they sure can tell us what doesn't cause it. Families need help and support. What will happen in the future to these children???? My heart breaks for these children and families. But like the video says, we must never give up. Never give up learning, researching, sharing, talking, TRYING, and most of all believing that these children CAN get better, CAN flourish and CAN lead the lives they were meant to lead. My blog was started as a way to share hope with other families. The worst thing someone can do is to tell me I can't do something. I will NEVER give up!

The sunscreen myth

2011-06-14T07:37:00.002-07:00

We live in AZ, my kids do not use sunscreen unless we are having a mid-day pool party where we will be in the sun for hours during the hottest time (between 10 am and 2 pm). If we are planning to be at a beach for hours, or a water park for hours then yes I do put an all natural sunscreen on them. Usually they are very thick and very white since I usually use one with pure zinc oxide. I have found that mixing it with pure coconut oil makes it rub in better. But I will not use the mainstream sunscreens because they are filled with toxins and dare I say, CANCER CAUSING chemicals. Seems kind of stupid to put chemicals on your skin that CAUSE cancer in an effort to PREVENT cancer. We were made to be in the sun. As far back as I can tell, the sun has been here. And this society today spends far less time in the sun as a whole than previous ones. So if you are wondering whether you really need that sunscreen slathered on the moment you walk out the door, here is a good read for you. And all this sunscreen prevents us from getting the vitamin D we NEED! Don't get me wrong, no one should end up like a lobster but a little sun each day is critical for us in my opinion. That doesn't mean that someone with an outdoor job should never put on sunscreen and get sunburned, that is not good. But, there are much safer sunscreen choices out there so that if you need the protection, you can get it without the toxins. So, HERE is the article then go get some sun after you finish reading it! :)

Sugar free raspberry coconut milk (frozen) yogurt

2011-06-12T10:16:00.008-07:00

Well the heat is certainly here in the southwest. It is 97 degrees at 10:00 am and the kids wanted a snack. So, I whipped this up and it came out really good so I figured I would share.

Yesterday I made a batch of homemade coconut milk yogurt. I am not a fan of the commercial version, they have evaporated cane juice and some other ingredients that I don't like to give to my kids. I used the recipe from Julie Matthews' presentation at DAN! 2009 which goes a little something like this (although not verbatim so don't quote me on it!):

Take any nut milk (I used homemade coconut milk, thicker than usual which is 2 cups water, 1 cup shredded coconut without additives, blend and strain) and heat to 160 degrees. Let cool to at least 105 degrees. Whisk in a little less than 1/16 tsp GI Pro Health non dairy yogurt starter (recipe called for 16 ounce:1/16 tsp starter, I had about 13 ounces so I used just a tad less). Put in yogurt maker for at least 8 hours. Refridgerate at least 5 hours, preferrably overnight before serving.

So, this recipe makes good yogurts but mainly for smoothies and such because it does come out thin. That is why I tried to make the milk thicker. I started with a 1:1 ratio of coconut to water but that was a little too thick so we added another cup of water. It was still pretty thin when I looked at it this morning so I threw it in the blender with a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries and two heaping spoonfuls of Stevia (yes, we like things sweet around here). What resulted was very similar to a frozen yogurt and very sweet and tasty with that wonderful coconut milk flavor! But, it has none of the additives, sugars, etc. that can be problematic for many kids on the spectrum. So, I hope you can use this recipe and enjoy!!

Homeopathy update

2011-06-12T07:48:00.005-07:00

As I have mentioned before, we've been doing homeopathy with Pierre Fontaine since December. It is a very precise method and you don't always get the right remedy the first try, we sure didn't. And after a consult or follow up I feel a little like I have just done some sort of psychic channeling session. You really need to get inside of your child and understand how they feel, especially in regards to the issues you want to work on, so that the right remedy can be found. It can be a little surreal. But man, when it works, it WORKS!!!

Many of you know we've been doing Respen-A for about a year and a half. It has worked VERY well for my son but there are some things that I am not all that excited about. We had to stop or reduce some supplements that I really do find beneficial (Turmeric, D3, EFA's) because in higher doses it can negate the effects. I tended to push that envelope especially, for example, when my son came down with a cold and I dosed with high D3. And another thing I was not thrilled with was the high amounts of calcium carbonate that he had to take daily. For whatever reason, we have bowel issues with calcium and so my long term plan was to be off of it. But I feel that way about most things. I want to HEAL my child to the point where these things are not critical. And let me tell you, Respen-A was CRITICAL!

We took a Respen-A break a few months ago out of necessity. We ran out of the calcium! It was a mess. He was breaking down at school, was unable to complete the normal math worksheets they complete in class daily. In talking with his teacher, she noticed a big change. The day we resumed Respen-A was the day his ability to complete that worksheet resumed. Takeaway - Respen-A is critical right now.

At a recent consult with Pierre, I explained just what happens with M when he is not on Respen-A. He becomes a volatile, screaming, meltdown prone child. He is explosive and very emotional. So we went there. We came up with a remedy. Since then.....WOW!!! Within days we had comments at our IEP from the school SLP about him meeting goals that she JUST set for the upcoming year in regards to listening to peers and asking unprompted questions back and forth. We dosed Sat, Mon when she saw him (and coincidentally wrote the new goals for the upcoming year) he accomplished that! Eric and I looked at each other. Hmmmmm. She went on to say he was as "ON" as she had ever seen him. She has been seeing him for 2 years now. That week he came walking out with his peers, chatting and laughing together. He has started to want to know what my husband and I are talking about, very interested in our conversations now. He's picking up funny quotes from peers. For example, when shooting hoops and missing he now says "aaawwww, show me some love". His awareness is much better and he is showing much more compassion and empathy towards others. Anxiety and perseverations are down. Thankfully I don't have to have a play-by-play of what houses have satellite dishes or basketball hoops as we drive places anymore.

So, after a follow up with Dr. Woeller to review labs and our other supplements, I ran the idea of a Respen-A break by him, for the reasons I stated above. He was all for it. So, I waited until school was out. It has been 1 full week of no Respen-A and quite honestly we are STILL seeing gains. We dose our homeopathic remedy about once every 7 - 10 days, when we see the negatives creeping back in, we dose again. This last dose was 12 days ago!! Of course we still have issues to work on but I am thrilled that he hasn't turned into a complete mess after 1 week of no Respen-A!! Like with Respen-A, we have seen increased ability to tan with this new remedy. My son was casper the ghost, seriously. And in the AZ sun, an outdoor child, and no sunscreen, I am not sure how that was possible. Most sunscreens are filled with cancer causing chemicals and we NEED natural vitamin D for the sun. So, we go swim in the morning, do inside activities during the heat of the day, then swim in the afternoon/evening. But, my kids get plenty of sun and even though they never burn, my daughter looks like the Coppertone baby and my son has always stayed completely white. No tan lines....NONE. Odd. Well Respen-A gave us our first back of the neck tan. Evidence of cellular healing and enzyme processes now work, YAHOO. With this new remedy, sock tan line from shooting hoops on the black top at school! This first week of summer has also brought more tanning so far.

He is also going through a growth spurt which has been throwing his sensory system into a little chaos right now. But overall I could not be happier. We sat through the first summer movie on Thurs and it was my daughter who wanted to leave early. Now that was a first!! My son did great! He also has been wanting to read on his own. He has always loved being read to and his reading is coming along nicely. But, with his fear of failure, if he picked up a book and found a few words that he couldn't sound out, his frustration would get the best of him. Now he calmly sits there, reading what he can, asking us to help with words he can't. Woah! So we shall see what the next few weeks bring but I am very pleased with his continued recovery. He is missing his friends and asking for playdates, we have a couple of things lined up so far. A far cry from the child who avoided other children, instead spinning Tupperware lids for fun. On the last day of school his class did their last "community circle". That is where the kids sit in a big circle and whoever has the ball gets to speak. They can voice concerns, praise, gripes, etc. Many of the kids were saying things like "I hope everyone has a good summer". M spoke last and his was "I just love everyone in my class". Collective aaawwwww.

****NOTE - I firmly believe that had we tried homeopathy from the beginning it would have been an epic fail. I believe that some level of healing needs to happen. When we first started this journey, my son's body was overrun with bacteria (clostridia) and fungus (arabinose), he had severe gut and brain inflammation, he had lots of unaddressed food intolerances, etc. His body was just trying to "keep the wheels on" at that point. It took us 2 years of heavy biomed, testing, dietary changes, etc. until we got to a point where his body had healed enough to engage in this level of additional healing. Have you ever tried to offer a natural or holistic remedy to someone who uses a lot of pharmaceuticals, has a heavily processed diet, etc? Usually they don't work and the person walks away thinking it is all a bunch of hooey. When the body is flooded with toxins and is just trying to sort through that, I don't believe the healing powers can be initiated. So, I believe that homeopathy really is most effective when you have healed the body to a certain extent. But that is just my opinion on the subject!

Tears of an Autism mom

2011-06-10T10:26:00.003-07:00

This was a great article by Jean Winegardner on why Autism moms cry so much. Well, I have heard that raising a child with Autism puts us into the category of PTSD survivors. And boy, I believe it! Everyday can be a barrage, emotionally from dealing with state service providers, sometimes contentious school districts, the contempt from our own families many times, physical assaults from our own child and maybe even more painful, the guilt we often put on ourselves about our child's disorder. There is stress on marriages, stress on family relationships, friendships (I have had my share of friends who just "don't get it") and even the stress on siblings. And this is a daily thing, no reprieve, many times Autism families cannot even get childcare for a much needed date night or just a few minutes away to themselves. And oh the sleep deprivation! If that doesn't bring you to your knees I don't know what will! This life is not for the faint of heart and yes, maybe we do cry a lot.

I tend to hold it together pretty well, and like in this article, I am a big fan of the car and behind sunglasses. I have walked out of my son's school in tears, rushing to get to the haven of my car. Early on, I remember sobbing in the car after leaving my almost 3 year old, screaming and crying for me. The guilt of leaving him even if he did "need" the early intervention ate at me. Really? Really is he better off in this scary environment with people who don't really understand or know him than at home where I know him best and can calm his inflammed sensory system?? This journey forces us to do what most do not.

And as my son has begun to recover, it hasn't made the tears any less frequent. I am still forced to see my child's deficits in black and white like most parents do not. I remember the report from the school psychologist years ago when my son was in preschool and his "cognitive ability and IQ range". Punch, right to the gut. And then you start thinking of their future. And then at a stop light the other day I remembered that and look at him now, with his peers, doing all of the same things academically and I do a little internal "F YOU!" to those standardized tests and ANYONE who wants to count out my child. If anything that fuels my drive even more to ensure the roadblocks are removed inside his body to enable him to flourish the way he was meant to.

But on the flip side, this journey certainly has enabled me to see every small achievement, which is HUGE to us, in ways that many don't. When you have a child years behind in development, the first time they tell you "NO" is a wonderful thing! Now when my kids fight I now understand what neurotypical families talk about. Hallaleujah!! For so many years my son was without words, without the interest in his sisters. Now he seems hell bent on annoying them....typical brother! Ha, I just said TYPICAL! The word that provokes much joy from Autism families. Because although we know our children are extraordinary, we still strive for typical.

HERE is Jean's article.

Mercury in HFCS

2011-06-10T10:13:00.002-07:00

This is old news and I have blogged this before but worth reposting. If you haven't decided that this little gem, HFCS, needs to be out of your diet, maybe this will help push you over that edge. What they found is that many products with HFCS also have mercury contamination. And coincidentally many of these same products have two or three (or fifteen) other ingredients that shouldn't go into your body or that of your growing child. But what disturbs me about this particular article is this comment "The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients". Uhmmmm, I don't consider that good news. Even without the mercury, HFCS should not be ingested. It is not good for us, it is NOT the same as regular sugar and our body does know the difference-regardless of how many ads tell us otherwise (ads that are funded by the Corn Refiners Association by the way). Sugar in general has many negative side effects, including depressing the immune system. Ever wonder why cold and flu season tends to hit right around Halloween and goes all through winter and the holidays?? I have a sneaky suspicion the increase in sweet treat consumption has a little something to do with that. So, here is the article to read for your self.

The impact of diet and lifestyle on prostate cancer - a case for epigenetics

2011-06-05T09:26:00.004-07:00

Well to my fellow "warrior" moms and dads (those who are treating Autism and other medical conditions in their children through many biomedical treatment approaches) this will not be surprising. We see it everyday. We see a "genetic" disorder that is being improved through dietary changes, supplementation, detox, chelation, treating yeast and bacterial overgrowth in the gut, etc. But this is pretty exciting. Anyone who has gone to a conference talking about the biomedical approach to Autism has heard about epigentics and the issue with our increasingly toxic environment making heritable changes in our genes and of course the negative health consequences that brings. So, this is pretty exciting to have more of this research come out in the mainstream. Although it really shouldn't be THAT hard to digest that our way of life has more to do with our health than just our genes. Eating healthy, organic, nutrition filled foods, exercise and stress management is good, while eating heavily processed, nutritionally void foods, not exercising and not managing stress can have a negative impact. In a word "DUH". When we flood our body with nutrients and remove toxins, it does what it does best, flourish, thrive, grow and heal. That means increases in proper immune function and cellular turnover and the ability to fight disease and cancer is increased. When we bog it down with bad food and toxins, it has to work hard to process that, it brings down immune function, or even worse stimulates it because of the food that is eaten causing auto-immunity, and therefore things like cancer can gain a foothold. So here is the article from Reuters. Maybe we're not so crazy afterall ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:47pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.

As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.

After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.

The activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research was led by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a well-known author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health.

"It's an exciting finding because so often people say, 'Oh, it's all in my genes, what can I do?' Well, it turns out you may be able to do a lot," Ornish, who is also affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

"'In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live?' That's pretty exciting," Ornish said. "The implications of our study are not limited to men with prostate cancer."

Ornish said the men avoided conventional medical treatment for prostate cancer for reasons separate from the study. But in making that decision, they allowed the researchers to look at biopsies in people with cancer before and after lifestyle changes.

"It gave us the opportunity to have an ethical reason for doing repeat biopsies in just a three-month period because they needed that anyway to look at their clinical changes (in their prostate cancer)," Ornish said.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Xavier Briand)

B-12 deficiency

2011-06-05T09:13:00.002-07:00

Below is a link to a blog article I read that I wanted to share. B-12 has done really amazing things for my son. When we started working with Dr. Woeller, injectible B-12 was the first therapy we implemented while we did labs and waited for them to be processed and reviewed to see where to go next. We saw changes in language and sleep patterns but also in eye contact and social connectedness. Like I said, he gets injectible but if you can't do injections but want B-12 in a good form, I use the Methyl Mate from New Beginnings but I switch out the top and use a nasal adapter. Research has shown that using B-12 nasally is almost as good as using an injection in terms of steady levels in the body. Sometimes we just have to get a little creative in our administration of things. I love my B-12 and use it almost daily (i.e. whenever my crazy schedule doesn't make me forget it!). So here is some additional info on B-12 and its importance, click HERE to read this article from Food Farm Health blog.

The Canary Party - Get behind it!

2011-06-02T20:57:00.003-07:00

Now here's a party I can support!! Check them out HERE. Read their position paper below. It is about time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Canary Party Position Paper
Friday, 27 May 2011 11:36

The time has come for a change. The mounting crisis in the health of children and other vulnerable groups has not only been ignored by medical authorities, it has been suppressed. As parents, citizens and advocates for the health of future generations, we must rise up to call attention to this crisis and take action to end it. In nominally democratic societies, which sadly are increasingly corrupted by the power of entrenched interests and the economy of influence that surrounds the medical industrial complex, we can most directly effect change by mobilizing for political action in order take action against these corrupt forces. It is time to come together to form The Canary Party.

This position paper addresses three questions surrounding the mission of

The Canary Party

1. What is the problem?

2. What is the solution?

3. What is to be done?

What is the problem?

In 19th century coalmines, canaries were used for the first time to detect the presence of poisonous gas accumulation deep in underground tunnels. Because their metabolisms run faster than humans, these small animals provided a crucial signal in dangerous times: the canaries would die from toxic gas releases before humans. Normally quite vocal, the silence of these songbirds was the signal of danger. Back then, miners whose lives depended on the absence of poisons paid close attention to the absence of the canary’s song. Today, as the rising power and spread of the medical industrial complex are taking an increasing toll on human health, we need to recognize the silenced canaries all around us.

What is this toll? Nothing less than a generation of sick, injured and dying children, children who are increasingly becoming young adults. American children are over vaccinated and over medicated, over fed, undernourished and have record levels of chronic illness and developmental delay.

As well, there is a direct toll of injured adults, especially those who serve in the military, subjected to an increased burden of inadequately tested, compulsory and even experimental vaccine exposures administered over a backdrop of multiple toxic exposures from prescription and over the counter medications, foods made from genetically modified organisms and laden with pesticides and preservatives, and tens of thousands of industrial compounds that did not exist a century ago.

In simplest terms, the medical industrial complex has launched a massive and uncontrolled experiment on a generation of Americans. In an unprecedented intervention in human immune development, this complex has succeeded in promoting an explosion in medical industry revenues and profits; this explosion has been accompanied, however, by an epidemic of death, disability and chronic disease, much of which can be traced directly to these medical and chemical exposures.

What is the medical industrial complex? It is no simple thing to describe, but our working definition is the partnership between the medical and pharmaceutical industry on one hand and the public health establishment on the other. This “public private partnership”--one which includes vaccine manufacturers like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, associations of doctors like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association, and government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health—has steadfastly resisted the rising evidence of a crisis in human health, denying its existence, defending its prerogatives in the face of the crisis and pressing its own expansionist agenda in spite of widespread evidence that the medical model its members are advancing has failed consumers. The moral failing of this partnership agenda becomes all the more egregious as one reflects on the notion that the primary precept of medical ethics was once, “First, do no harm”.

The human toll of these experiments affects us all, but most visibly affects the vulnerable in our society, those who have the highest rate of exposure to this uncontrolled experimentation. These groups are modern day canaries and we must heed their silent suffering. They include

• Infants and children exposed to the most dramatic escalation in medical interventions and toxic exposures in human history, and subject to the new childhood epidemics of autism, ADHD, asthma, and food allergy,

o Autism now disables 1 in 100 American children, 1 in 60 boys

o Peanut allergies put the lives of nearly 2% of children at risk

o Asthma affects over 10% of American children, putting their lives at risk as well

• Child and adolescent victims of new experimental vaccines such as Gardasil

o Gardasil recipients have suffered close to 100 reported deaths

o Meanwhile, there are thousands of additional cases of serious adverse events and disability, many of them unreported, uninvestigated and suppressed

• Countless deaths and disabled victims in the soldiers and families of our armed forces

o Uncountable deaths and disabilities from the use of experimental vaccine adjuvants

o An epidemic of suicides (commonly blamed on post-traumatic stress disorder) haunts our service men and women, with large numbers of these suicides occurring among those never deployed in combat

• Adults and children suffering from the epidemic increases in auto-immune disease, disabling and potentially deadly conditions where the body’s own immune system turns against itself.

o Rising rates of celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome and colitis

o Epidemic rates of ALS, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Addison’s Disease, Guillain-Barré, Graves’ and countless other disabling conditions

In the investigation and management of these and other modern–day plagues, our leading medical institutions have done more than merely fail us, their conduct lies at the root of the problem. Their agents have censored important science, manipulated data, intimidated honest scientists, and deceived the public. Worst of all, they have cloaked themselves in the mantle of science and “evidence-based medicine” as they have circled the wagons to defend their policies, profits and programs. In the meantime, their conduct and behavior is perpetuating one of the most egregious and systematic episodes of scientific denial in human history.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against this outcome half a century ago in his Farewell Address to the nation. In addition to citing the emergence of a military-industrial complex, he also cautioned that an unholy alliance of money, technology, and government power could corrupt public policy more broadly. “Scientific research,” he said, “could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

Today, despite Eisenhower’s warning, that reality is upon us, and its consequences are devastating. Public bureaucracies, professional associations and private corporations – groups whose interests and leaders are all but interchangeable -- have triggered a public health disaster that worsens by the day. Eisenhower’s early warning has emerged in full flower as the medical industrial complex.

Along the way, the press has also failed us. The rise of corporate media and the breathlessly predatory 24 hour news cycle has led most of the mainstream media to swallow the talking points of the medical industrial complex while it continues to accept the advertising expenditures of its corporate members. They hide behind the technical nature of the evidence and meekly accept the claims of the medical industry’s “experts.” Increasingly, media celebrities have joined the attack, leading the inquisition against courageous scientists while denying media access to the many compelling leaders of critical consumer groups.

Most important of all, our political institutions have been failing us, at least so far. No major political party or movement has taken up this complex of issues. The blame for this failure of political will is broadly distributed and largely explained by the triumph of ideology over evidence. In order for our movement to succeed, we must ask advocates to check their political biases at the door, find ways to connect with the most helpful impulses of larger-scale movements while recognizing the ideological obstacles to embracing our agenda for change.

• The progressive movement. In principle, progressives oppose Big Business and the corrupting influence of corporate money. At the same time, progressives embrace the concept of activist government and reflexively support areas in which “good government” can be defended as legitimate. Under this guise, progressives have actively promoted the expansion of the medical roles of Big Government and the expansion of the vaccination program, all in the interest of “progress.” Progressives gloss over the corrosive effect on government regulators of the “public-private partnerships” that pervade this expanding mandate.

• The conservative movement. By contrast, the conservative movement reflexively opposes the program and activities of Big Government but looks past the ambitions and technological agendas of Big Business. Despite widespread evidence of the failure of the pharmaceutical innovation model, conservatives have failed to recognize the necessity of regulatory vigilance in order to defend consumers from the rising risk of palliative medical intervention; they have simultaneously failed to recognize how the free market can break down when Big Business forges unholy alliances (“public-private partnerships”) with Big Government.

• The Green Party. A political movement dedicated to defending human populations against the excesses of industrial activity ought to be a natural ally of the victims of medical excess. Unfortunately, the environmental movement has narrowed its focus to the release of chemicals from industrial processes into the environment and has largely ignored the health effects of injecting toxic substances into vulnerable humans. Along the way, the environmental movement has allied itself with the progressive movement in its celebration of the effectiveness of regulatory intervention. Sadly, most “greens” have developed a blind spot when it comes to the silent canaries victimized by the medical industrial complex

• The Tea Party. Although the populist momentum captured by the Tea Party movement may prove receptive to the critique offered here, to date the movement’s motivating energy has stemmed more from concerns over the expanding economic footprint of Big Government than concerns over the health outcomes that have resulted from Big Government programs. Appropriately, the Tea Party has protested the rising intrusion of government in the issues that affect our lives and liberties; to date, however, the movement has been more concerned with reining in Big Government than the need for justice for the victims of expanded Big Government programs.

The unfettered march of the medical industrial complex is a threat to Western society as we know it: to the lives of children and those who serve and defend us in our armed forces, to our right to choose the medical procedures we receive and to our rights to participate in society if we dissent. This all must change.

What is the solution?

The first step toward political action is unity. As representatives of the silenced canaries, we can start by promoting a shared sense of identity. We have many advocates and impressive leaders, but our political movement is too often fragmented. Many different leaders pursue many different goals. This distributed model of advocacy is both a strength and a weakness. We can maintain our entrepreneurial spirit while also establishing a stronger sense of connection and shared identity.

Political power comes with numbers. And although the many potential constituencies coalesce within communities that provide their own strong and passionate cores, the problem we face is broader than any one of these communities. We can build a strong movement only by assembling the broadest possible base of support. There are many victims of the medical industrial complex who share similar concerns and sympathies and they are increasingly recognizing their shared concerns and interests.

In a broadly distributed movement of voluntary advocates, a command and control model of action will never serve. Rather than seeking compliance, we can concentrate our voice by coming together around a set of shared principles. We have seen the appeal of a principle-driven coalition in some of our political activity and can extend this approach to a platform in which we protest the corruption of our institutions while raising the alarm over the harm done to the canaries.

Refining our principles awaits the opportunity to meet, discuss and debate as a group, but defining them will surely involve this set of ideas: Awareness; Precaution; Safety; Choice; Freedom; Justice; Scientific Integrity; Compassion.

With the right statement of principles we can extend the reach of our efforts by forming a political party. This movement should appeal to a diverse constituency of advocates; it can and must be ecumenical with respect to political beliefs that don’t bear on our principles; by focusing on a limited set of principles, we can seek to influence the platforms of other leaders in political parties and movements; and although we may begin our efforts where our leaders reside, we must embrace a global vision in support for silenced canaries everywhere.

One source of strength in our movement is our broad base of advocates. We can exploit this strength by giving advocates the tools to begin engaging directly in the political and legislative process. Although our opponents have more resources to bring to bear at a national level and in the mainstream media, we can maximize our advantage if we extend our engagement to the broadest possible geographic base, including activities in Washington DC, all 50 states as well as county, city and local political and policy forums.

A broad based movement will help us in creating many occasions for victories including elections. These victories might be achieved through ballot questions, candidate questionnaires, legislative initiatives and even sponsoring candidates for office.

In addition to sponsoring our own agenda through the political process, the movement will also benefit from identifying high profile opponents of our agenda and taking the fight to them. Under the right circumstances, movements define themselves not only by what they stand for, but also whom they stand against.

In the long run, the solution to the problem of institutional corruption in the medical industrial complex will require wholesale shifts in policy, governance and representation in many areas. Part of our movement’s ultimate success will depend on our skill in laying out a detailed agenda for change and influencing the political process to implement those changes. This is a long-term process, one in which success may come slowly at first. Every journey, however, begins with the first step.

What is to be done?

The first steps of the journey require only a few simple steps. The first steps ahead of us are these.

1. Recruit and mobilize a core constituency. The leading groups from which this constituency might be drawn include, but are not limited to

• Parents and families of injured children

o Autism parents and high-functioning autistic individuals

o Peanut allergy parents and sufferers

o Parents of Gardasil victims

o Vaccine Injury Compensation Program participants, both winners and losers

• Adult victims of the medical industrial complex

• Military personnel and veterans

• Medical professionals and service providers who seek to provide an alternative to the failed approaches of the medical industrial complex

2. Hold a party convention, an occasion to convene a broad group of skilled and experienced advocates who can carry the Canary Party agenda forward.

3. Draft an initial platform, one based on principles around which broad agreement is strongest.

4. Develop a working vision of success and set goals and strategies to take the movement there.

5. Decide on a near term plan of action in order to generate early momentum and the maximum possible leverage for change. Possible action areas include

• Introducing local ballot questions

• Drafting questionnaires to submit to candidates for elective office in which they respond to The Canary Platform

• Designing and sponsoring legislative initiatives at the national, state and local level

• Fielding candidates for office, including local, state and national positions

• Engaging in impact litigation where and when the opportunity is deemed necessary and furthers the goals of the Canary Party.

• Beginning to meaningfully harvest, educate, and focus the current court of public opinion which legitimately questions the safety of vaccines and the schedule.

• Etc.

Early Signers:

Alison MacNeil, LICSW

Carol Stott, PhD, MSc (Epidemology), CSci, CPsychold

Dan Olmsted

Ginger Taylor, MS

Heather Fraser, MA

Jane Winans, MA

Jennifer Larson

Jerri Johnson

Jim Navarro

John Oller, PhD

Julie Obradovic, MA Ed

Kathryne Pirtle, MA

Laurette Janak

Leslie Phillips, MBA

Marian Greene

Mark Blaxill, MBA

Michael Belkin

Polly Tommy

Rebecca Estepp

Richard Rovet, RN, BSN, Capt. USAF (RET)

Sheri Tenpenny, DO, AOBNMM

Sylvia Pimentel

Cell phones and brain health

2011-06-01T15:21:00.003-07:00

I think it was in one of the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conferences a few years ago where I sat and listened to the discussion about cell phone radiation and its impact on the brain. I remember seeing data on brain scans showing blood flood. We have this nifty thing called a blood brain barrier, which defined by Wikipedia is :

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a separation of circulating blood and the brain extracellular fluid (BECF) in the central nervous system (CNS). It occurs along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around the capillaries that do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects (e.g. bacteria) and large or hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), while allowing the diffusion of small hydrophobic molecules (O2, hormones, CO2). Cells of the barrier actively transport metabolic products such as glucose across the barrier with specific proteins. This barrier also includes a thick basement membrane and astrocytic endfeet.

So just to be clear, the blood brain barrier is a very good thing as it keeps out harmful bacteria and certain neurotoxins. As I listened to this presentation, they discussed how in the research they monitored the flow of blood into the brain using dye. Clearly the areas of the brain were not dyed because of this blood brain barrier. Yet, when a cell phone was placed next to the head, low and behold, that area of the brain became penetrable. Ruh roh!! Since then, I have been much more conscious of using my plugged headset (no blue tooths for the similar reasons). And for my children, I do NOT let them talk on my cell phone unless it is through the speaker phone. Radiation is harmful (see my blog post on microwaving your food too!) and we should avoid it when at all possible. Technology may be changing but our body and the way it handles these things hasn't. Reducing our exposures to the bad things as much as we can is certainly the prudent way to stay healthier longer. And, if you want to learn more, just look at some of the disorders that can come from compromised blood brain barriers (hint, those include Alzheimer's and MS!). No one is saying throw away every single cell phone but certainly be aware of what you are holding next to your brain for hours.

Here is an article on the best and worst offenders, to read it, click HERE

Foods to avoid by Dr. Mercola

2011-05-31T19:21:00.003-07:00

Here is a wonderful article from Dr. Mercola on foods to avoid and why. One note about cans and BPA. We buy ALL of our canned goods from Eden Foods. They have a wide array of canned tomatoes, beans, etc. and they are the only manufacturer that I know of that uses cans without BPA. And we buy Eden Foods (and other organic and healthy foods and products) through Azure Standard www.azurestandard.com. Buying by the case once a month saves money and hey, every little bit counts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Food Matters asked seven experts a simple question: “What foods do you avoid?” Here are some of their eye-opening responses:

Canned Tomatoes

An endocrinologist won’t go near canned tomatoes -- the cans are lined with a resin containing BPA, and tomatoes are especially dangerous because their acid breaks the BPA down in dangerous amounts.

Conventional Beef

Conventional cattle are fed grain, corn and soy to make them fat, even though studies show that grass-fed beef is higher in important vitamins, minerals and heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory fats.

Microwave Popcorn

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) lines microwave popcorn bags, and when they are heated the compound, which has been linked to infertility, leaches onto the food.

Conventional Potatoes

Non-organic potatoes are heavily sprayed with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides -- many potato growers don’t eat the potatoes they sell, but instead they grow their own separate plots without all the chemicals.

Farmed Salmon

Farmed salmon are stuffed into pens and fed chicken feathers and pellets. A scientific study on fish contamination showed high levels of carcinogens such as DDT and PCBs.

Conventional Milk

Dairy cows are fed growth hormones to maximize milk production, which results in increased incidence of udder infection and pus in the milk.

Conventional Apples

Apples are heavily and frequently doused with pesticides -- pesticides that have been linked to Parkinson’s.

To find out more about these dangerous foods, click on the link below.
Sources:
Food Matters May 12, 2011

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The seven supermarket foods featured by Food Matters all belong on the list of foods to avoid, for sure—although I wouldn't limit fruits to avoid to conventional apples.

I recommend checking out the Environmental Working Group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides, which lists fruits and vegetables that contain the highest and lowest amounts of pesticides, as many are far more contaminated than apples. After all, you can peel an apple, but berries, for example, cannot be rid of pesticides, and many berries are heavily sprayed. I'd also like to add a few more foods to this list, effectively turning it into a Dirty Dozen list of foods to avoid when shopping at your local grocery store.

Genetically Modified Foods
Make no mistake about it; genetically modified (GM) foods may be one of the absolute most dangerous aspects of our food supply today. I strongly recommend avoiding ALL GM foods.

Since over 90 percent of all corn grown in the US is GM corn, and over 95 percent all soy is GM soy, this means that EVERY processed food you encounter at your local supermarket that does not bear the "USDA Organic" label likely contains one or more GM components.

To avoid GM foods, first memorize the following list of well-known and oft-used GM crops:

Corn Canola Alfalfa (New GM crop as of 2011)
Soy Cottonseed Sugar derived from sugar beets

The following fresh produce are also commonly GM:

•Zucchini
•Crookneck squash
•Hawaiian papaya
To effectively avoid GM foods, you need to avoid all products that list corn, soy, canola, and any of their derivatives as an ingredient, unless it's labeled USDA 100% Organic.

I also recommend downloading the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, created by the Institute for Responsible Technology, for more information about specific brands and products that do not use GM ingredients. You can also get the guide as a free iPhone application. It's available in the iTunes store—just search for ShopNoGMO in the applications.

It is important to remember to look for products (including organic products) that feature the Non-GMO Project Verified Seal. This seal assures that at-risk ingredients have been tested for GMO content. Many health food stores carry these products.

Please understand that unless you're buying all organic food, or grow your own veggies and raise your own livestock, or at the very least buy all whole foods (even if conventionally grown) and cook everything from scratch, chances are you're consuming GM foods every single day... What ultimate impact these GM foods will have on your health is still unknown, but increased disease, infertility and birth defects appear to be on the top of the list of most likely side effects.

Fructose
Additional exceedingly health-harming ingredients that you're bound to get in excess if you consume processed foods, soda, and other sweetened beverages, is fructose—typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Evidence is mounting that excess sugar, and fructose in particular, is the primary factor causing not just obesity, but also chronic and lethal disease. In fact, I am convinced that fructose is one of the leading causes of a great deal of needless suffering from poor health and premature death.

Many conventional health "experts," contend that sugar and fructose in moderation is perfectly okay and part of a normal "healthy" diet.

I couldn't disagree more.

The central issue behind my vigorous objection to this stance is that fructose is now used in virtually all processed foods (whether you'd suspect the food would contain a sweetener or not). Case in point: the number one source of calories in the US is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the form of soda!

Now, if you're able to keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day then it's not going to cause any major health issues. Unfortunately, while this is theoretically possible, precious few people are actually doing that. Cutting out a few desserts will not make a big difference if you're still eating a "standard American diet"—in fact, I've previously written about how various foods and beverages contain far more sugar than a glazed doughnut.

Because of the prevalence of HFCS in foods and beverages, the average person now consumes 1/3 of a pound of sugar EVERY DAY, which is five ounces or 150 grams, half of which is fructose. That's 300 percent more than the amount that will trigger biochemical havoc.

Remember that is the AVERAGE; many actually consume more than twice that amount.

For more details about the health dangers of fructose and my recommendations, please see my recent article Eliminate This ONE Ingredient and Watch Your Health Soar.

Artificial Sweeteners
Once you've made the decision to drastically cut down on sugar and fructose, please do NOT make the mistake of replacing it with artificially sweetened foods and beverages. It's important to understand that these are toxic substances that can wreak havoc in your body.

Artificial sweeteners, just like fructose, are also extremely prevalent in processed foods. Aspartame, for example, can be found in more than 6,000 products.

Not only have studies shown that "diet" foods and drinks ruin your body's ability to count calories, boosting your risk of weight gain, but they've also been associated with a slew of negative health effects, such as intestinal damage, diabetes, brain damage, pre-term delivery and cancer, just to name a few of the more serious ramifications. Acesulfame potassium (or Acesulfame-K) is yet another artificial sweetener, which has been linked to kidney tumors.

Diet Water
Plain, pure water is by far the most healthful beverage you can conceive of. You need water in order to survive. However, slick marketing campaigns have managed to turn an essential part of your diet into a pure disaster... Leave it to the food and beverage industry to find a way to turn perfectly healthful water into a toxic slurry.

I'm talking about flavored water, "zero calorie" water, and so-called "enhanced" or "functional" water products.

For example, the latest water enhancement product to hit the market is called MiO, which is a mixture of two artificial sweeteners, three dyes, one preservative, and propylene glycol (PG)—a solvent that can potentially result in cell mutations and skin, liver, and kidney damage, if ingested in high enough amounts.

I recently completed a special report on this and related water products, which will be posted shortly.

If you aren't already an avid label reader, it's time you became one, lest you fall prey to these clever marketing ploys. Enhanced waters have become an enormously lucrative business as people have begun to abandon soda for what they believe are better alternatives.

Avoid being fooled!

Because in addition to artificial sweeteners and dyes, these enhanced water products can also contain enormous amounts of sugar and fructose, adding to the numerous health problems caused by excessive fructose consumption.

For example, Glaceau VitaminWater (made by the Coca-Cola Company) has a whopping 33 grams of sugar per 20-ounce bottle, which is only 6 grams less than a can of Coke. Additionally, the fructose found in VitaminWater is the worst possible kind—crystalline fructose—which is even more damaging to your health than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Crystalline fructose is 99 percent fructose, whereas HFCS is only 55 percent fructose!

Clearly, any type of water but PLAIN purified water is NOT going to improve your health, and should be avoided entirely.

Processed Meats
Lastly, processed meats, such as hot dogs, deli meats, bacon, and pepperoni contain dangerous compounds, which put them squarely on the list of foods to avoid or eliminate entirely. These compounds include:

•Heterocyclic amines (HCAs): a potent carcinogen, which is created when meat or fish is cooked at high temperatures.
•Sodium nitrite: a commonly used preservative and antimicrobial agent that also adds color and flavor to processed and cured meats.
•Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): Many processed meats are smoked as part of the curing process, which causes PAHs to form.
•Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): When food is cooked at high temperatures—including when it is pasteurized or sterilized—it increases the formation of AGEs in your food. AGEs build up in your body over time leading to oxidative stress, inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.
This recommendation is backed up by a recent report commissioned by The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). The review, which evaluated the findings of more than 7,000 clinical studies, was funded by money raised from the general public, so the findings were not influenced by vested interests. It's also the biggest review of the evidence ever undertaken, and it confirms previous findings: Processed meats increase your risk of cancer, especially bowel cancer, and NO amount of processed meat is "safe."

A previous analysis by the WCRF found that eating just one sausage a day raises your risk of developing bowel cancer by 20 percent, and other studies have found that processed meats increase your risk of:

•Colon cancer by 50 percent
•Bladder cancer by 59 percent
•Stomach cancer by 38 percent
•Pancreatic cancer by 67 percent
Processed meats may also increase your risk of diabetes by 50 percent, and lower your lung function and increase your risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you absolutely want or need a hot dog or other processed meats once in awhile, you can reduce your risk by:

•Looking for "uncured" varieties that contain NO nitrates
•Choosing varieties that say 100% beef, 100% chicken, etc. This is the only way to know that the meat is from a single species and does not include byproducts (like chicken skin or chicken fat or other parts)
•Avoiding any meat that contains MSG, high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavor or artificial color
Ideally, purchase sausages and other processed meats from a small, local farmer who can tell you exactly what's in their products.

GMO-based bug threatens US food supply

2011-05-16T11:40:00.002-07:00

As Scooby Doo would say "Rut Roh!". Read this latest article from the wonderful Alison Rose Levy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connecting the Dots: Novel GMO-Based Bug Threatens U.S. Food Supplies
Posted: 05/16/11 02:20 PM ET A newly discovered pathogen, visible only under an electron microscope, is destroying plants and undermining the health of livestock -- thereby posing a deadly risk to the U.S. food supply, a senior plant pathologist warned USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

In a January 2010 letter to Vilsack, (a former Iowa governor and agribusiness champion, appointed by President Obama) Dr. Don Huber advised caution in introducing additional GMO crops. But just weeks later, the USDA approved expansion of GMO crops to include alfalfa, the most widespread animal feed crop. The unnamed bug already runs rampant in current GMO Roundup Ready baseline food crops (corn and soy), and spreads from there to the animals who feed on them, says Huber, a Professor Emeritus at Purdue University. In addition to his thirty-five years in academic science, Huber is also a retired Colonel, who evaluated natural and manmade biological threats, including germ warfare and disease outbreaks for the military.

The GMO Roundup Ready crops are designed to be used with the Monsanto herbicide, Roundup, a glyphosate that leads to severe micronutrient deficiencies in soil that scientists now say are leading to increased crop failure. Scientists have detected a higher prevalence of the opportunistic pathogen in the depleted glyphosate treated soil. It is also found in higher rates in the livestock that feed off of the Roundup crops. Infertility and spontaneous abortion are on the rise within these cattle and dairy populations, with infertility at 20% and a 45% abortion incidence in certain animals. "It's infectious to cattle, pigs, poultry and horses, and will kill a fertilized egg," says Huber in one of a series of video interviews posted on YouTube. "It can readily reproduce, and it's compatible with other organisms." Watch the video here.

In his January 2011 letter, Huber cautioned against expanding GMO into alfalfa, which he characterizes as "the number one forage crop" that nourishes livestock. "Why place it in jeopardy?" Huber asked in the series of videos, predicting that, "In five years you won't have anything but Roundup Ready alfalfa. If we see a new organism which makes it a hazard to animal survival -- what's the urgency?"

Organic farmers have sued Monsanto preemptively to protect themselves from legal action from the GMO producer when the GMO alfalfa contaminates organic seed, which cannot be prevented once GMO alfalfa is planted. Food Democracy Now is circulating a letter asking President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to "halt the sale and planting of Monsanto's recently approved Roundup Ready® GMO alfalfa and sugar beets until independent, peer-reviewed studies can be conducted to determine whether or not these products pose a threat to plant, animal and human health."

Connecting the Dots from personal health to our total health environment. Subscribe for free to make your voice heard for health, food, water, and the environment at: www.healthjournalistblog.com and on Facebook.

Are YOU a real foodie??

2011-05-10T07:21:00.002-07:00

I couldn't help but laugh as I read through this going "yep, yep, yep that too!". I think many of my friends who read this blog are going to be able to relate too. Happy Tuesday! ;)

From www.healthhomehappy.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You Might Be A Real Foodie If…
By Cara, on July 26th, 2010
1214
Share

You might be a real foodie if…

You leave milk out on the counter overnight… on purpose
You know what CLO stands for
You have a giant container of vinegar in your bathroom
Mason jars are your drinking glasses - Anyone who knows me KNOWS this is true! ;)
Your blood pressure raises when you hear public service announcements about anything health related
You’re more likely to recommend an elimination diet than a medication
You get excited talking about mushrooms
You have a ‘milk pool’ rather than a car pool
You’ve taken pictures of your children with the cows that make the milk they drink.
You ferment.
You buy your fats in gallon (or 5 gallon!) buckets
You can smell the ammonia in conventional beef
You shop for clothes at Good Will in order to be able to afford grassfed beef
From others:

You just might be a real foodie if…

You have jars of homemade whey in your refrigerator…and you use them. (Mira)
You know the best place to purchase bulk herbs to make your own pregnancy tea. (April)
You have actual conversations with the people who provide you with eggs, milk, pastured chickens, vegetables, etc. (Laurie)
You lie awake at night brainstorming where you could construct housing for dairy goats. (Julia)
You have more concoctions brewing on the kitchen counter than the average high school science lab. (Julia)
You can’t enjoy a good meal at a restaurant because you’re assessing the pesticide load of the veggies, stressing over how the meat and dairy animals were raised, and bemoaning which ingredients would be soooo much better if only they were lacto-fermented. (Julia)
You think of a shot as having your daily dose of beet kvass (Patricia)
You actually cry over *raw* spilled milk. (Kat)
You can never keep up with all the egg whites accumulating in your fridge. (Kat) I use them for this cake! We make it at least once a week now
Skim milk is what you feed to your pets or garden after you make butter for yourself. (Kat)
You personally know the farmer who raises the meat/fowl and grows the produce you feed your family. (Linda)
People ask why you make everything from scratch and “Why can’t you just buy it??” (Audrey)
Your friends and family wonder why you’re not fat with all the butter, lard, and bacon grease you use. (Audrey)
The farmers market is the highlight of your week during the summer. (Audrey)
You get asked frequently “Why don’t you just take medication for it?” (Audrey)
You’re always trying to find a way to sneak in more butter, cream, cultured dairy, or, really, anything that’s been fermented. (Audrey)
Your friends are afraid to eat the food you prepare because you tell them of the benefits of all the ‘live’ food and how proud you are of all the ‘bugs’ in it! (Nadine)
You’re on the hunt for “vintage” cookbooks where all they HAD to cook with was REAL food! (Cindy)
Your child sees farm animals and instead of saying, “Aw, how cute!” he says, “Yum!” and licks his lips. (Jenny)
Your child makes up little songs about ferments- “komubucha, komucha, COOOOOMMMMMMMEandgititBUCHA!” (Barb)
Your first question when you go to a restaurant is, “Do you have real butter? Are you SURE it’s real?” (Kelly)
You design your house/remodel/look for a house with fermenting in mind! I have decided I must had a culturing / fermentation center either in the kitchen or the walk in pantry. (Pam)
You get excited about raw butter and you leave it to warm on the counter. (Alex)
You comment on how lovely your mother is and you mean your Kombucha scoby! (Alex)
You have a love affair with your cast iron skillet and treat it like a child! (Alex)
You will go to (almost) any lengths to procur raw dairy for your family (Alex)
You own at least one chest freezer. (Ann Marie)
All you want for your birthday is a grain mill. (Ann Marie)
You have a bucket of coconut oil the size of Montana. (Ann Marie)
You consider the fermenting capabilities of just about any cylindrical container you come across. (Barb)
Other people look in your fridge and can’t find anything to eat… because they don’t recognize anything (Meike)
Friends and family ask you if they’re gonna get sick if they eat our food because they see so much sitting out on the counter(Meike)
Your kids know how each veggie came to be and that eggs come from the “CHICKEN BUTT” in the backyard (Diana)
You have chicken feet simmering in a crock pot on your counter, along with necks and bones and other social discards! (Tina)
You are brainstorming how to create a root cellar! (Tina)
You realize you’ve completely flipped your budget, that most goes to the farmer’s market and only a small share to the actual grocery. (Tina)
Your grocery store receipt has zero tax on it. That’s because you didn’t buy anything processed, there’s no tax on real food. (Mira)
you try to convince your friends and family to eat more good fat! (Jen Marie)
you wish you had two crock pots, two blenders, two BOSCH mixers, and a never ending supply of widemouth mason jars. (Jen Marie)

This is all in fun, my friends! Please don’t be offended. And I’d love you to join in in the comments section! How do you know someone might be a real foodie? Which ones can you identify with?

(Part of Real Food Wednesday)

The effect of diet on health and disease

2011-05-04T10:35:00.004-07:00

This will not be news to many of you in the field of biomed or who have healed your children and yourselves of many illness thanks to major changes to your diet. There is such a thing as epigenetics or how our environment impacts our gene expression. In a nutshell, what we are exposed to and what we eat tells our body which genes to turn on and off, including genes that predispose us to cancer. That is why not EVERYONE in the same family gets cancer. And for those of you who seem to think that cancer is random, like getting your number pulled in the lottery, well you may want to read up a little more. What we put into and on our bodies matters. And for those of you who say "Oh I can eat gluten or XYZ food, it doesn't bother me." Really??? Do you have signs of chronic inflammation? Do you have ezcema? Do you have allergies, arthritis, or other auto-immune issues? If you answered yes, you may want to look at your diet. For every person those food intolerances will be different too but I think there is so little thought about what food goes into our body these days.

Never have we had more processed and nutritionally VOID foods as we do now. And MANY people have reactions to foods that they are not associating with foods. You have to do some testing or do an elimination trial to really see what's going on, maybe some muscle testing. To just say "It doesn't bother me" because you do not swell up and turn blue is like sticking your head in the sand. You have to go out of your way to feed your body in a healthy manner. But when we understand what an impact it has on us developing diseases down the road, especially cancer, doesn't it seem like it is worth it? Maybe I am jaded these days. I have had to keep my trap shut because I cannot change everyone's mind and many people don't WANT to change. It is hard when I see children already going down that path to ill health.

Someone who has not been on this journey cannot understand what I have seen just in my child and my family. If I did not consider that diet could impact my son's brain function and health and I took what my standard pediatrician said, good God where would he be today???? Probably STILL nonverbal, probably STILL not sleeping, ezcema, chronic gut issues, he's probably be on a allergy pill and a steroid cream and all the other phamraceutical "bandaids" we throw on something to mask the true breakdown in our body. And we are so thankful that we did look outside of the box, found Dr. Woeller and thus began this journey of understanding more about health in general but healing our son's Autism. What I continue to learn from Dr. Woeller astounds me when I look back at where I started and how much I have changed. We have been blessed to find both him and our pediatrician, Dr. Carrie Rittling, who blend the traditional medical model and alternative medicine so beautifully. So please read the article below, maybe it will be something useful to you or someone you know and care about.

This article is from www.organicauthority.com and written by Jill Ettinger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Study Suggests Food May Play Larger Role in Health than Genetics
April 30th, 2011 - Jill Ettinger
Share236

It was Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, who made the simple observation more than 2,000 years ago: “Let thy food be thy medicine”. And now, there seems to be a good deal of science to back him up.

An article published in the journal, Biochemical Pharmacology, presents significant findings connecting the dots between food and nutrition choices as it relates to disease prevention, treatment and reduction.

Inflammation is often the source of many common illnesses including heart disease, arthritis, allergies, obesity and even certain types of cancer. While scientists have known for some time that diet plays a role in inflammation, they have also long thought genetics significantly impacted the risks of developing these health issues.

The team of researchers who conducted this recent study now suggest that while certain conditions are in fact genetic, it’s likely not as many as we think. Specifically, chronic health problems are often a result of our environment and lifestyle habits, which affect genetic behavior altering how an individual ‘s genes respond to certain stimuli.

These changes, because they’re not inherent to the genes, means they can be prevented, treated and even reversed through particular changes in diet and lifestyle habits as well as with the help of some drugs.

Inflammation can be reduced through removing certain items from the diet such as alcohol, red meat, excessive sugar and salt, and adding in whole grains, beans and fresh fruits and vegetables, specifically those grown organically, which not only reduces the risk of contact with disease-causing pesticides and fertilizers, and genetically modified ingredients, but organic foods have an average antioxidant capacity that is 25 percent higher than non-organic options.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Gratitude

2011-04-23T18:11:00.004-07:00

So I have a little explaining to do for anyone who follows my blog. I have had a few wonderful people who have friend requested me through Facebook and asked in a roundabout way "so what's up, you haven't blogged lately". That is true.

My family and I took off for California to spend my birthday and the kids' spring break at Disneyland for a few days. On the day we were set to return, my Dad collapsed and died suddenly. Luckily we were just an hour and a half away and I could get there quickly to mourn with my family. I have the world's best friend, Jen P., and have been so blessed to have had her by my side since 3rd grade. She dropped everything and was my "husband" for the next week and a half as I muddled through my new "normal", a life without my big strong father whom I adore. My husband was so wonderful, keeping my kids away from their mom falling apart and the parts of death that I do not feel they are ready to see yet. My dear mother in law put our crew up and helped my husband with all of the things that go into our lives, and the fact that we have a child with Autism which adds to the normal chaos that comes with small children. Constant supervision, lots of food prep and shopping were all required as were the on-the-fly arrangements for overnight shipments of supplements that we could not live without for my son.

We had just gotten home and settled when Jen needed a heart catheterization procedure the following Friday to see what has been going on with her heart. You see Jen has had a pacemaker since we were 10, she has Tetralogy of Fallot which is congenital heart disorder. My world was shaken again. She made it through just fine but certainly anytime anything regarding your heart is involved, it is scary. And the findings of the procedure point to the necessity of another open heart surgery in her somewhat near future.

The very next week my husband was out of town and the day he returned, Friday, was the anniversary of HIS Dad's death. We got the stunning news that my mother in law has colon cancer. Eric made the trip back to San Diego to be there with her. I am happy to say it went well and she is recovering now.

The day after her surgery we learned our very good friends who moved to North Carolina last year were hit by a tornado. The blows just seem to keep coming.

This last week Eric was gone again for work. We are finally taking a big breath and just trying to find this new normal and heal as a family. Losing a parent shakes you to the core, and maybe you have no idea what that means until it happens to you. I have been so overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and support though, some from people I only know through the internet. It is humbling and wonderful. It is times like these that you really understand who will be beside you no matter what. And this experience has really shown me how fleeting life can be and I need to support those who are truly there for me and let the rest of the stuff go. The pain of losing my Dad continues to hit me, a memory that I can never again ask him about, a picture that brings me to a time when I could still hug him, the fact that I will never again get his advice on something, and the most searing pain, the fact that my children will grow up without the blessing of this man in their physical lives makes my heart literally ache.

So, that is why I have not blogged much since early March. I am trying to get back into the swing of things but it is taking time. I thank each of my blog readers so much, I have learned so much just doing this blog because of the great questions and interacting with people I would never have gotten the chance to. So please bear with me while I try and get back into my stride. The blog will continue, and I do have lots of wonderful news to share about my son's recovery from Autism. This week has been especially astounding and I will be sharing that soon, I promise. But in the meantime, please know that I have not given up this blog and very soon I will be back to it!! And again, thanks for reading and your support!

Toxins in our kids' foods

2011-04-13T17:38:00.004-07:00

No shocker here, just more information, especially for moms out there feeding our families. This type of stuff should be criminal, using ingredients that are known to cause issues, especially in our little ones. And to add insult to injury, they make a SAFER product to ship overseas? Right, because evidently they have tougher regulations or subscribe to the "dangerous until proven safe" theory. Why don't we subscribe to that as well? Childhood diabetes, on the rise, childhood obesity, on the rise, childhood arthritis, on the rise, Autism, on the rise, ADHD, on the rise, allergies, on the rise. Clearly we are not doing something right. At what point do we wake up and realize what we let little Johnny put into his body is having a detrimental effect? Does it take the call from the teacher suggesting ADHD? Does it take developing diabetes? Does it take them growing up to have a child with Autism? When do we start leaving the crap on the shelves, understanding WHAT those ingredients are and until we KNOW what they do to us, don't feed it to our kids. What happened to fresh fruit, cut up carrots and broccoli? Nowadays the school "snacks" are cheetos and "peanut butter" crackers. Read the ingredients, get involved, know what you are doing to your kids' bodies. WE make the decisions, WE need to take control and make a positive impact on our kids and the next generation. Did you know that the lovely combo of citric acid and sodium benzoate (when heated) create benzene in the body? Benzene is a carcinogen that is only excreted very, very slowly from the body. See how many products have those two (I will give you a hint, quite a few). This was just one tidbit presented at a DAN! conference, the class? Protecting your child from a toxic world by Dr. Freedenfeld. That's right, WE have to protect our kids. Our FDA will not, the food manufacturers will not. If you assume that a product on the shelf is safe then you need to think again. And how many other ingredients react with other ingredients, trying to do that matrix is overwhelming. If you can't pronounce it, it comes in artificial colors/flavors or you don't know what it does, I challenge you to NOT put it in your child for the next week. And just for fun, keep a log of behaviors. We all need to educate ourselves on these ingredients that are commonplace in this country and what detrimental impact they may be having on your child's health. Our kids are counting on us!

From the Enviroblog

Toxins in Our Kids' Foods: Where is the FDA?
April 4, 2011
Guest Post by Laurie David and Robyn O'Brien, EWG Board Member

Yesterday, in the face of a just- released report by the National Cancer Institute that showed a 9.4% increase in childhood cancer between 1992 and 2007(1), the FDA let moms and dads all across America, down. Instead of making the long overdue move to do something serious about getting rid of toxic food dyes so ubiquitous in our food supply, they instead fell back on those two simple words so often used to stall, delay and deny..."more research." In kitchens across this country, eight dyes, currently being used by manufacturers can be found in everything from packaged macaroni and cheese, breakfast cereal to practically every piece of candy your child has ever put in its mouth. Links are being found to hyperactivity in kids (ADHD), cancer and serious food allergies. (2) But here is the truly crazy thing. Kraft, Coca Cola and Wal-Mart have already removed these artificial food colors and dyes from the same products that they distribute in other countries. They did it in response to consumer demand and an extraordinary study called the Southampton Study. The Southampton Study (3) was unusual in that it tested children on a combination of two ingredients: tartrazine (yellow #5) and sodium benzoate. The study's designers knew that a child very rarely has occasion to ingest just a synthetic color or just a preservative; rather, a child who is gobbling up multicolored candies is probably taking in several colors and at least one preservative. What's amazing is that in the U.K., the federal food safety agency actually funded the Southampton Study that led to even U.S. corporations eliminating synthetic colors and sodium benzoate from their U.K. products. And in response, a whole host of companies, including the U.K. branches of Wal-Mart, Kraft, Coca Cola and the Mars candy company (who make M&Ms), have voluntarily removed artificial colors, the preservative sodium benzoate, and even aspartame from their products. Particularly those marketed to kids. Take a close look at the ingredient list for the product below. Our American companies had removed these harmful ingredients from their products overseas--but not here! Kraft, Coca Cola and Wal-mart are living proof that it is possible for giant corporations to make and sell kid-friendly, family-friendly, and healthy processed food without necessarily exposing them to a chemical cocktail that might also give them allergic reactions, brain tumors, or leukemia, or the symptoms of ADHD, as the Center for Science in the Public Interest recently highlighted in their report "Rainbow of Risks". No need to go through all the numbers for increased health problems here. You've heard them all and it isn't pretty. For goodness sake, no more research necessary. Lets stop poisoning our own kids. Lets start assuming chemicals are dangerous until proven safe, not the other way around. Is it too much to ask the FDA and the processed food companies for the same value to be placed on the lives of the American kids in their cost-benefit analyses that has been placed on the lives of kids in the UK? Moms, we can create that same change here. And with 51 million moms waking up to the dangers that toxins present to the health of our kids, our numbers are equivalent to the entire population of Spain. Time to get down to business, level the playing field for our kids, and send a message to these companies. Vote with your pocketbook today, this weekend, next month as you grocery shop for your family. Because while the American children only represent 30% of our population, they are 100% of our future. So while the FDA may not value their lives accordingly, we can. Notes: 1. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 31, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djr141 2. Rainbow of Risks, http://www.cspinet.org/new/201006291.html 3. Southampton Study http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/additivesbehaviourfinrep.pdf

Low Cholesterol in Autism

2011-04-09T12:02:00.002-07:00

We hear a lot about high cholesterol but usually the only thing we hear about low cholesterol is "way to go" from our mainstream doctors. But, too low levels of cholesterol is a bad thing and can inhibit lots of brain functions. Did you know that oxytocin receptors are not activated without adequate levels of cholesterol? Oxytocin and Autism has already been explored and so for ASD kiddos with low cholesterol, this could be even more of an impact from all of the other biomedical issues we know to be at play. We've successfully raised my son's cholesterol into normal ranges using Sonic Cholesterol from New Beginnings because both he and I have low cholesterol AND egg allergies. So, a cholesterol supplement was necessary. Want to know more about this issue? Dr. Woeller, our son's specialist, does free webinars through Great Plains Labs to help parents understand more of the issues surrounding Autism and their next one is on Cholesterol and Autism. Click HERE to go to the link to register. It is April 13th at 6:00 pm Pacific time.

How to make stock

2011-03-31T08:27:00.003-07:00

Here is a video on making stock. If you haven't heard about the benefits of making your own stock, check out the info on that. It is easy and will even save you money so you don't have to buy the boxes or cans of chicken/beef broth filled with junk like "natural flavors" which can be a form of MSG!

More benefits of coconut oil

2011-03-09T10:39:00.002-07:00

So this is probably pretty redundant at this point but hey, I love coconut oil and want to make sure people understand its various health benefits. Here is info from a site http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/nutrition/coconut.htm. Some of this info was new to me so I wanted to share. Oh and Tropical Traditions is running a sale, buy 1 get one free on their 16 oz sizes of coconut oil! Click HERE to go to their site. But read the article below, it is pretty long but I think it is informative.

Coconut Oil
(Plus a book review and a product review.)

How many times must we quote that dark character from the movie (and book), All The President’s Men, by the name of "Deep Throat?"

His statement is simple, but charged: "Follow the money."

Fats, fats, fats. We are told so much about fats. Fats kill. Fats cause heart disease. Fats cause cancer.

The purpose of this article is to break through the junk science we’ve all been spoon fed and bring to light some of the truth about fats.

The American Heart Association (and a sundry of organizations supposedly supporting your healthy heart) since the fifties have been telling us to eat margarine and polyunsaturated oils for good heart health. When you follow the money, you discover that the companies making these products are the largest supporters of these supposed heart organizations.

In 1998, the American Heart Association, in the face of overwhelming evidence (and the fact that Americans can actually read) finally came out telling us to limit our intake of trans fats, the main ingredient in margarine.

Trans fats are also called partially hydrogenated oils. They are in all our junk foods, but some food companies are starting to cut back on their use, as sales have fallen off since revelations about trans fats began circulating.

Now, here’s something you might not know: heating oils (almost all oils) actually starts to turn the oil into a partially hydrogenated oil.

One more thing you might not know: the oils in your store, on those shelves, looking golden and clear, are ALREADY RANCID.

Here’s a little something I learned from a tape sent to me by Karl Loren:

Corn oil is first squeezed from the corn and filtered. This is virgin oil. Virgin corn oil is not very stable to begin with and immediately starts to oxidize (break down/turn rancid).

There is still corn mash left over from the process, and because the food industry wants to make even greater profits, they go on to chemically extract the rest of the oil found in this mash. They add benzene to the corn mash.

The benzene pulls the extra oil out of the corn the same way gasoline pulls oil out of a soiled cloth. Since benzene is not allowed in food, the oil must be heated (burned) to burn off the benzene. The burning process denatures the oil (starts to turn it into a trans fat) and also oxidizes it and makes it rancid.

The oils are all mixed together, the virgin squeezing and the chemically extracted oils. They are bottled in clear plastic. Oh, I forgot: there’s a chemical factory just outside of New Jersey that makes an oil flavored perfume that is added to the oil so you don’t smell the rancidity.

In the clear plastic, the oil is assaulted by light which further breaks it down.

So, when you finally open that bottle of corn oil, it still smells clean and pure, but much of it is already rancid, and rancid oils can attack your arteries and have been linked to cancer.

Now lets tell you a little bit about coconut oil.

Coconut oil is one of the most stable oils you can buy. It does not turn rancid easily. It does not attack your arteries. In fact, coconut oil was one of the foods Weston Price studied in his journeys. He discovered that the coconut was considered, by the local populations, a medicine food. He found that those civilizations that consumed coconut regularly had no knowledge of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and diabetes.

Let’s take a look at the healing properties of coconut oil:

Coconut oil is antiviral, antifungal (kills yeast too) and antibacterial. It attacks and kills viruses that have a lipid (fatty) coating, such as herpes, HIV, hepatitis C, the flu, and mononucleosis. It kills the bacteria that cause pneumonia, sore throats, dental cavities, urinary tract infections, meningitis, gonorrhea, food poisoning, pneumonia, and many, many more bacterial infections. It kills the fungus/yeast infections that cause candida, ringworm, athletes foot, thrush, jock itch, diaper rash and more.
Coconut oil is called the "low fat" fat. It actually acts like a carbohydrate in that it is quickly broken down in the liver and used as quick energy. It is NOT stored like other fats. It boosts one’s energy and endurance. Many athletes use it blended into their drinks. It also supports thyroid function and increases your metabolism (great if you want to lose weight).
Coconut oil improves digestion and absorption of fat soluble vitamins, minerals (especially calcium and magnesium), and amino acids. It improves the body’s use of blood glucose and improves insulin secretion and absorption (great for type II diabetes). In fact, many diabetics (type I and type II) use it to reduce their symptoms. One’s risk of diabetes decreases with regular use of coconuts and coconut oil. And as we already mentioned, cooking with coconut oil does not create any harmful byproducts.
Coconut oil helps the body heal and repair faster. It aids and supports immune function, protecting us from a variety of cancers.
Coconut oil, contrary to much hubbub, is good for your heart. It keeps our blood platelets from sticking together (and causing dangerous clots). Regular users of coconut oils have a much lower chance of atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries), arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and strokes. Coconut oil can lower your blood pressure.
Coconut oil is a natural antioxidant. It protects the body from free radical damage and prevents premature aging and degenerative diseases.
Finally, coconut oil is the best massage oil on the planet. What it does to your skin, you simply have to witness. It forms a barrier against infections, softens and moisturizes your skin, and prevents wrinkling, sagging, and age spots. It promotes healthy hair and complexion, protects from any damaging UV rays. (It is used in Ron Salley’s products.)
So? How come we don’t know about coconut oil? In our research, we discovered that coconut oil was attacked by the oil industry as being an "artery clogger." While doing this research, we were contacted by Bruce Fife, ND, who sent us a copy of his book to review: The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil. (See below for where to get your copy.)

According to Bruce, it was mainly the American Soybean Association (ASA) that began the attack. They were followed by the Corn Products Company (CPC International), and finally got support from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Prior to the eighties, coconut oil was used quite heavily in the US for baking, frying, and even making popcorn at the theaters. Then along came the ASA that contended that saturated fats caused heart disease, and since coconut oil was saturated, it too caused heart disease. Ironically, when they got the backing of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, science went out the window. For something to be truly scientific, it has to be tested. There were lots of assumptions, accusations, and claims, but no tests. During congressional hearings, the truth tried to come out, but as the saying goes, "The truth never stood in the way of a good story," and newspapers hit the stands proclaiming that coconut oil clogged arteries. The poor countries exporting coconuts couldn’t fight the large American food industry, and soon partially hydrogenated soybean oil was in everything.

And that’s when heart disease rates took off. Bruce tells us about India, and how within a year of switching from coconut oil to partially hydrogenated soybean oil the number of death due to heart disease tripled. He goes on to tell us that researchers estimate (this is the low estimation) 30,000 premature deaths each year in this country due to partially hydrogenated oils.

Bruce tells us that 50% of coconut oil is lauric acid. The only other good source of lauric acid is mother’s milk. Dr Mary Enig, one of the leading authorities on fats, tells us

Approximately 50 percent of the fatty acids in coconut fat are lauric acid. Lauric acid is a medium chain fatty acid, which has the additional beneficial function of being formed into monolaurin in the human or animal body. Monolaurin is the antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal monoglyceride used by the human or animal to destroy lipid coated viruses such as HIV, herpes, cytomegalovirus, influenza, various pathogenic bacteria including listeria monocytogenes and heliobacter pylori, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia. Some studies have also shown some antimicrobial effects of the free lauric acid.

Medium chain fatty acid. That doesn’t mean much to most people, however, this gives coconut oil its unique qualities. It is not digested as other fats, but gives you quick energy. In the body it is broken down quickly, but on the shelf, it doesn’t break down as quickly as other fats. It is just plain better than other fats.

In our book, Bypassing Bypass, we point out that the current theory of heart disease points to infections in the blood as being the culprit behind our skyrocketing heart disease rates. Even gum disease can eventually lead to a fatal heart attack, as the germs leave the mouth and travel through our system of blood vessels. Consumption of coconut oil can cut your chances of heart disease better than any drug on the market. We highly recommend you pick up a copy of Bruce’s Book. It is so packed full of information that you’ll read it like a murder mystery, hardly able to put it down. It is well researched and well written.

Coconut oil is NOT a magic bullet. You don’t simply take it when you have been hit by a virus. You have to eat it daily (or get some whole coconut in you) and build up your body’s supply of the nurturing fatty acids in coconut from the coconut.

How much coconut oil to eat? Here’s the figure we get from Bruce: between three and four tablespoons a day. "That’s a lot!" you might say. But we have some ways for you to get it.

In Bruce’s book there are a few recipes. But one simple way we found is this: people love sweets in the morning. With their coffee or just alone, humans love sweets. So, take some coconut oil, add some honey and cinnamon, and spread over toast. You will love it.

Add some coconut oil to your morning or evening smoothie. We even modified our Mock Miracle Whip recipe to include coconut oil.

Instead of that third cup of Safflower Oil, in your heated mixture, stir in a cup of coconut oil. Then blend that in slowly. The taste is fabulous. Everyone who tried it loved the new coconutty flavor. We also tried ¾ cup of coconut oil and ¼ cup wheat germ oil. This too is tasty and very, VERY healthy. Imagine that, really healthy mayo!

Where can you get coconut oil? We had been using a form from Spectrum Naturals. It is supposedly unrefined. Be careful, because most coconut oil is RBD (refined, bleached, and deodorized). The spectrum brand was ok, but then we discovered a brand made by Quality First International, and is called De Coco-Crèam. It tastes SUPERB!

Editor's Note: As we are about to publish this page, we just discovered that the lovely Klahn family, who sent us samples of their coconut oil and who had a web site to purchase this brand mentioned above, have decided to quit the business to spend more time being a family rather than a business. They are very wonderful for helping us and we wish them love and joy in their lives.

Yes, it’s expensive, but you do get what you pay for. Every recipe we tested just tasted better using this brand. If you go to their web site, you can bring the price down considerably by ordering it by the gallon. If you like to deep-fry, this is the one oil that won’t shorten your life span if you deep-fry. When you are done deep-frying, and the oil is still liquid, filter the warm oil into a jar and save in your fridge. It can last up to a year. Imagine, healthy deep frying.

Quality First International's De Coco-Crèam is made by a very simple cold process extraction. No chemicals are used. Another brand we discovered (sold by Tropical Traditions) is made this way: the meat of the coconut is compressed to squeeze out the coconut milk. By the way, the water inside the coconut is NOT coconut milk. It is a liquid that is used medicinally for one purpose: constipation. Drinking this liquid can give you a bad case of the Polynesian plots (Tahitian two-step). The milk is in the meat of the coconut. After the milk is squeezed, it is left to sit and the oil rises naturally to the top, where it is skimmed off. That’s it. Totally unprocessed, unrefined, untreated. It is great stuff.

And do not worry about gaining weight! Using coconut oil increases your metabolism. This is the low fat fat that helps you lose weight. The fats in coconut oil, unlike all other fats, do not circulate through the blood looking for places to be stored. They go directly to the liver and are turned into instant energy. Bruce’s book covers this in depth.

To order Quality First International's brand, you have to call Canada: 877-870-1018. I'm planning on ordering it in a five gallon plastic bucket for $195.00 plus about $33.00 shipping. Ordering by the gallon or greater will save you a lot of money. However, there is a hold up for plastic crossing the Canadian border, so expect a delay (who knows why?)

Tropical Traditions has a web site where you can purchase both coconut oil and Bruce Fife's books: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/. We've not tasted their brand yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be just as good as Quality First International's. And the prices are about the same too.

Any recipe calling for shortening can be changed to coconut oil. Any frying you do, including stir frying, add coconut oil. If you bake, add coconut oil. If you make popcorn, pop it in coconut oil. If you make smoothies, add some coconut oil.

If you have an expensive (and natural) body lotion (like the lotion Master's Miracle or Miracle II sell), first massage in some coconut oil. You'll wind up using a lot less of your lotion and you'll find that coconut oil alone will retard wrinkles and make your skin smoother than the proverbial baby's bottom.

I've just heard that a friend, with very long hair, uses coconut oil as her hair conditioner. And once in a while, she puts coconut oil into her hair, wraps it, sleeps in it, and washes it out in the morning. She says there is nothing better for her hair.

UPDATE (3/2/05):

In our original article on coconut oil, we focused on the many benefits of this wonderful and nutritious product. Well, there is more. There is a lot more.

For instance, the Department of Health in the Philippines (luckily for them they are not yet our 51st state) began a clinical study in February of 1999 to study the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of coconut oil in the fight against the HIV virus.

The study began as the accumulation of anecdotal reports grew to the point where they could no longer be ignored.

Mary Enig from the Weston Price Foundation, a genius when it comes to oils of all kinds, had investigated an AIDS organization, Keep Hope Alive, in order to document the cases in which people with AIDS had their viral loads drop to undetectable levels by eating either a half a coconut a day or 3 ½ tablespoons of coconut oil, which is roughly 20-25 grams of lauric acid.

The initial studies in the Philippines are completed and they did confirm that coconut oil does have an antiviral effect. However, not all people in the study benefited, and as most “initial” studies conclude: “More and longer therapies using monolaurin [the anti-viral part of lauric acid] will have to be designed and done before the definite role of such coco products can be determined.” [http://www.doh.gov.ph/sars/coconut_oil.htm]

I was on the phone to our suppliers, REMOVED BY FDA Naturals, when Annette told me some stories about the performance enhancement qualities of coconut oil. I went online and sure enough, I found nearly everything she’d talked about. We found this by Dr Bruce Fife (whose book we have reviewed in our original article on Coconut Oil):

The fact that MCFA digest immediately to produce energy and stimulate metabolism has led athletes to use them as a means to enhance exercise performance. There are several studies showing this to be true. For example, in one study, investigators tested the physical endurance of mice who were given MCFA in their daily diet against those that weren't. The study extended over a six week period. The mice were subjected to a swimming endurance test every other day. They were placed in a pool of water with a constant current flow like that found in a river. The total swimming time until exhaustion was measured. While at first there was little difference between the groups of mice, those fed MCFA quickly began to out-perform the others and continued to improve throughout the testing period. [http://www.coconut-connections.com/hypothyroidism.htm]

A bit later, refining my web search, I found the actual study:

The effect of chronic administration of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) on swimming endurance (swim capacity) was investigated in male Std ddY mice. The mice were fed a diet containing 80 g MCT + 20 g long-chain triglycerides (LCT)/kg diet for 6 wk; mice fed diet containing 100 g LCT/kg diet were used as controls. After being accustomed to swimming, the mice were subjected to forced swimming every 2 d in the current water pool that we had developed, and the total swimming period until exhaustion was measured. The total swimming period was used as the index of swim capacity. The group fed MCT showed significantly greater swim capacity than the control group (89.5 +/- 2.5 vs. 80.2 +/- 2.0 min). In another experiment, after 4 wk of MCT diet consumption, significantly greater swim capacity was found in untrained mice. The major metabolic consequences of the adaptations of muscle to prolonged MCT administration during endurance training were higher activities of 3-oxo acid CoA-transferase (P < 0.01),
citrate synthase (P < 0.1) and malate dehydrogenase (P < 0.1). These findings suggest that increases in the enzyme activities of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and ketone body utilization associated with the chronic administration of an MCT-containing diet enhance swim capacity in mice. [Fushiki, T and Matsumoto, K 1995, Swimming endurance capacity of mice is increased by consumption of medium-chain triglycerides. Journal of Nutrition 125:531]

The information we could not find is the following. Keep in mind that in investigative journalism, nothing is confirmed till you get three different sources to confirm it. So, this information, for the present, has just one source.

We've learned that more and more horse trainers from the Blue Grass state are feeding their horses coconut oil. I chased down the trainer to last years Kentucky Derby winner, but he’d not heard of coconut oil. Those who are using it, report back to the people at REMOVED BY FDA Naturals that their horses are running better and that they don’t need to worm the horses because coconut oil is anti-parasitic.

So, that’s our update for now. If any of this information is confirmed, we’ll be the first to tell you. If any more information comes in, we’ll gladly update you. And if any of you out there have a story to tell about your use of coconut oil, please, feel free to send it along to Coconut Stories.

References and Further Reading

http://www.ospc.com/coco.htm

www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/coconut_oil_healthy.htm

www.alternative-healthzine.com/html/0108_2.html

Side effects from consuming canola oil

2011-03-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Side effects result from the consumption of canola products
by Shona Botes

(NaturalNews) Canola oil and canola-based products have been at the centre of controversy for quite a few years. While some say that it helps to lower cholesterol levels, it actually has a few nasty side-effects as well (note: Only animal studies have been done regarding the toxic effects that it has on living organisms). Despite no human studies being done, this product was placed on the GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) list. It is in fact a by-product of a highly toxic insecticide product.

The real name for Canola oil is LEAR, or Low Erucic Acid Rape, as it has been extracted from Rapeseed oil. This oil is in fact an industrial oil product which has no place whatsoever in our bodies. In light industry, it is also referred to as penetrating oil. Rapeseed oil is also the source for Mustard Gas, which was used as a chemical warfare agent, and was banned after Word War 1 for causing severe blistering of the lungs and skin.

Canola is in fact a Genetically Modified food which has been classified as a bio pesticide by the EPA. Like mercury and fluoride, Canola is also not eliminated from the body. It is found in almost all fast foods, convenience foods, chocolate, candies, bread, potato chips, baby foods and formulas, most peanut butters and cookies, frozen French fries, rye breads, chocolate syrups, mayonnaise, granola bars, some vegetarian convenience foods, lunch meats, margarines, movie house snacks, tortillas and most other bakery foods.

Studies done on rats and other lab animals showed that after consuming canola oil, there were fatty deposits that accumulated on their hearts, thyroids, adrenal glands and kidneys. When they stopped consuming this oil, the fatty deposits disappeared, but unfortunately scar tissue remained on the affected organs.

Because it is high in glycosides, canola oil has been shown to inhibit enzyme function. Its effects are known to be accumulative, resulting in side-effects taking years to show up. It is also able to inhibit the metabolism of foods. Being a trans-fatty acid, it is also possible that this man-made oil has a direct link to causing cancer (even from just breathing in the toxic fumes created when frying foods in it).

Rapeseed oil is an acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor. This compound is crucial when it comes to transmitting signals from the nerves to the muscles. This is possibly why there has been a dramatic increase in cases of multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy over the past few years. Other side-effects which have been reported include respiratory illnesses, loss of vision, constipation, anemia, heart disease, irritability and low birth weight in infants. It is known to severely deplete Vitamin E levels in the body, as well as cause severe clotting of red blood cells, which can pose a serious health risk.
The best way to avoid consuming this toxic industrial by-product is to prepare meals yourself from scratch, and especially avoid fast foods at all costs.

[Editor`s Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all forms of animal testing. We fully support implementation of humane medical experimentation that promotes the health and wellbeing of all living creatures.]

Sources:

http://www.ehow.com/list_7427295_ha...
http://www.rense.com/politics5/dare.htm
http://organicyogamama.com/canola-oil/
http://www.ehow.co.uk/about_5414785...
http://www.cantola.com/Tricky_Foods...

About the author
Shona Botes is a budding blogger, as well as a fabulous frugalist. Her spare time is spent engaged in blogging, cycling, photography, as well as green living and natural healing and remedies.
Her blog may be viewed here
Some of her photography work may be viewed here
Other articles written by her may be viewed here

Mitochondrial support

2011-03-04T13:04:00.002-07:00

When trying to understand Autism, and why some children have it and others do not, I think it is important to understand a little bit about our mitochondria. They are the powerhouses of the cell and when they do not function appropriately there can be problems. And I believe that we are seeing an impairment of mitochondria through epigenetics involved with the excessively toxic environment we have created in our world. Children with mitochondrial issues can be more susceptible to vaccine injury, they can have low tone and many people associate things like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia with mitochondrial issues. Mitochondria come from mom so if mom has impaired mito functioning, then so does your child. Over the years we've added in supplements to help support mitochondrial function. Some of them include Ribose, L-Carnitine (which was a huge failure as by day 3 my son began to smell of rotting fish), CoQ10 or the more active form known as Ubiquinol and we even use a lot of coconut oil and even MCT oil specifically as I understand that medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are easier for the cell to use.

HERE is an interesting article on supplement supports for mitochondrial function. PQQ is one that I have definitely begun to discuss with our specialist, Dr. Kurt Woeller.

Glutathione depletion

2011-03-04T13:00:00.003-07:00

Glutathione is the main detoxifying hormone in our body. Detoxification is important since we are constantly coming into contact with toxins in our environment whether that be through the food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink and things that are sprayed, poured, sprinkled over our grasses, rocks, carpets, clothing, etc. For many children with Autism, they have problems with their detox pathways, so increasing levels of glutathione can be critical.

HERE is a very concise acticle on some things that deplete glutathione.

Is the Environment Poisoning Our Children? | Sandra Steingraber | Orion Magazine

2011-02-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Did you read the question above? All I can say is "well DUH!". The environment is poisoning all of us, some faster than others based on their choices, but it is harming our vulnerable children probably most of all.

This is a long read, but so worth it. Especially if you are not in the Autism world and especially, especially if you've never had the pleasure of sitting in on the "Defending your child from a toxic world" session at a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conference. Dr. Stuart Freedenfeld, affectionately named Dr. Doom and Gloom, goes over many of these points, outlining just how toxic our world has become and how to mitigate some of that. So, here is the article, I would say enjoy but more than likely you will feel sick to your stomach afterwards....

Is the Environment Poisoning Our Children? | Sandra Steingraber | Orion Magazine

Taking a break from Respen-A

2011-02-24T05:49:00.002-07:00

So, I have a back log of blogging topics, as usual. So, I will attempt to slowly catch up by discussing a supplement break I took with my son's Respen-A a couple of weeks ago. With Respen-A it is required that you give 2,000 mg of calcium and magnesium at a 4 to 1 ratio. The preferred form is calcium carbonate and let me tell you, we have played with various calciums over our year of doing Respen-A. So, when I ran out of calcium carbonate - and because of its form is not widely used - I could not find it locally. So I figured this was a good time to take a break and see if we still needed it. We often become complacent with supplements and I start to think "do we REALLY need this anymore?" and so it is good I think to take a break once in a while after things have stabilized and you are not making any other changes. We don't do that very often. So, we stopped on a Sunday. Ummm yeah.....not so bueno. Meltdowns, screaming, unfocused.....wow deja vue and not in the good way. Monday afternoon I was in the classroom helping out for another mom who couldn't make it. Luckily, I was there at math time and helped him stay on track with his math sheet. He normally comes home with the "In class" sides completed and then we complete the "At home" sides. While we took a break from Respen-A, the only day he came home with completed "In class" math sheet sides was Monday when I sat with him and helped. Emotionally explosive is the only way I can describe his moods. I was back to calling his name several times just to get him to look at me. So Tues/Wed were more of the same. Calcium came Wed afternoon (thank GOD!). We were back to administering the patch Thurs morning. He had a rocky morning but by mid day his teacher reported that it was like a switch was flipped. All of a sudden he was completing his math worksheet, independently, without a word from him. She checked on him and just left him to it, noting the change from the rest of the week.

She and I spent about 45 minutes on the phone after school that day discussing her observations, which fit with mine. It was just so uncanny that she noted the huge change in him the very day the patch went back on. So, this confirmed for us the continued need for Respen-A. Since putting it back on, his moods have leveled back out and his focus is much better. So, Respen-A will be on board for a while longer since there was such a drastic negative change when stopping. Boy, brought us back to what our reality "used to be" and can I say how glad I am to not be there anymore? So I wanted to share our experiences on taking a break from Respen-A. Obviously my hope is at some point most of our supplements will no longer be critical for his functioning. But there is a lot of healing that needs to happen first, and we apparently are just not there yet. That's OK. It took a while for the damage to be done, it will take a while for the healing. But as long as we know the supplement is required and working, we will keep pressing on!

Medical Flex Spending Accounts for 2011

2011-02-20T10:34:00.003-07:00

Please note, any supplements that you normally claim via flex spending will now require a prescription!! Anything that is over the counter cannot be claimed through flex spending without a prescription.

So, check with your doctor and make sure you have your ducks in a row. If you contribute to a flex spending account and try and use it for over the counter items, it will be added to your gross income with a 20% penalty!!! Supplements (as recommended by our doctors) comprise a huge portion of our flex spending reimbursements and I bet many other families are in the same boat. So, make sure you are covered and you get your doctor to write up a prescription for ALL of those over the counter supplements, including cough syrups, homeopathic remedies, even pain relievers like Ibuprofen and Tylenol (which ideally you are not using these days much but just in case....). By the way, if your 2010 plan allows you to spend into 2011 (usually March 15th is the deadline), this new requirement applies! So, if you still have 2010 funds to use, you will be required to submit a prescription along with the reimbursement request!

Read the Kiplinger article HERE

"Did you know" by Doris Rapp, MD

2011-02-20T07:46:00.002-07:00

Anyone who hasn't heard of Dr. Doris Rapp needs to! One of the first books I read on this journey to heal my son was "Is This Your Child" which addresses the issue of food allergies and intolerances and some of the behaviors associated and how to tell what is causing reactions. It was a very eye opening book on the power food has on behavior and the negative health effects from eating allergenic foods. She just did a "Did you know" list that I am copying for you to enjoy. She is amazing, become her friend on Facebook to keep up with her posts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Did You Knows” From Doris Rapp, M.D.
February 20, 2011

•That 2 tsp of baking soda in a half glass of water can relieve a food allergy in a few minutes.
•That celery is one of the most pesticide treated vegetables?
•That strawberries are one of the most pesticide treated fruits.
•That toxic chemicals are stored in the fat of meat so you should buy only lean or organic meat to prevent chemical exposures.
•That the EPA suggests that more than one meal a month of farmed salmon increases your risk of cancer?
•That butter has more PCBs than any other food?
•That mothers who eat fish from the Great Lakes have a greater chance of having a birth defective baby than other mothers.
•That babies float in 287 toxic chemicals while in the uterus and these chemicals are found in the baby’s blood at birth and can damage the baby in many ways.
•That pesticide exposures during the first 3 months of a woman’s pregnancy can cause an increased chance of having a miscarriage, a stillborn or a defective baby.
•That men should avoid chemicals, such as lawn herbicides, for at least 65 days before they conceive so they have a better chance of having normal sperm.
•That men are becoming more effeminate because of all the feminizing chemicals to which we are all exposed. Their sperm counts and testosterone levels are dropping. Young men are developing breasts and needing Viagra.
•That aspartame or Equal can short circuit your nervous system because it can fray the coatings of your nerves causing serious damage to all your nerves. In addition, many studies indicate this chemical does not help you lose weight.
•That an air purifier can sometimes help you in hours to a few days if dust, molds, pollen or chemicals are making you ill. You can get a refund in 30 days if the help is not satisfactory, less $25 and shipping and handling. Call 800-787-8780.
There is a one week allergy diet that will quickly relieve many food allergies in 5 to 7 days if major allergenic foods are your problem. It costs nothing to carry out the diet. In the second week of the diet when you add the foods back, you will quickly see which food cause which symptoms.

Doris J Rapp, MD.

Visit www drrapp.com for more valuable information.

Once you've met one mom with Autism......

2011-02-16T09:08:00.004-07:00

There is a saying "Once you've met one child with Autism, you've met one child with Autism" meaning they all are so different that there is no way to paint every child with a broad brush. Some are sensitive to touch, some crave touch, some are overly friendly, others avoid contact with other people, you get the idea. And so goes the statement about our families as well. Except....knowing quite a few Autism moms as I do, our stories are more similar than they are different with respect to toxicity. Hmmmm....very weird for a "genetic" disorder, don't you think? Tongue in cheek of course because I have been able to change my son's Autism in a way that I would not have been able to with a strictly "genetic" disorder. My son's progress has stunned many, including our family and friends. Where he was is a very different place than where he is and I know our road is still long.

But I did not start out a health nut. I ate a SAD (standard American diet), I believed in vaccinations, I gave Tylenol with those vaccinations and also for other ailments, I myself got the MMR 3 months before conceiving my son, I ate microwaved foods, I ate fast foods filled with GMO's, MSG, soy, etc, and boy did I love my bleach and other toxic "cleaners". It took this journey to realize how toxic this path was.

I feel like my son bore that brunt. He was my wakeup call, I just wish his little body had not had to be the one impacted. I wish I could have woken up about these issues before he was injured (especially at those 4 month shots). I wish I had done research on THAT aspect of his life, like I tried to do with everything else being the Type-A overachiever and all. I went along with things because the doctors told me they were safe. I never looked at the fact that vaccines have not been studied together (which is how they are administered) nor looked up vaccine ingredients, or the fact that many safety studies are funded by the people who have the most to gain from their continued usage. I would have looked at someone like they were crazy to suggest I delay or not vaccinate. Now, I am that crazy person suggesting that. But, it took MY child being harmed. I wish it had not. And yet my old mainstream pediatrician could not help me when he was diagnosed. "Find a speech therapist" was what I was told. What about the fact that he would not sleep more than 4 hours a night or he screamed most of the day or he sat and would spin Tupperware lids all day? Crickets chirping. It took finding an alternative doctor to address things like yeast and bacterial imbalances in the gut, dietary changes, methyl B-12, and for a while melatonin to get my son's body to heal and regulate enough to sleep a full night and look at me or even notice I was in the same room.

So when I read yet another Autism mom's blog (like the one below, copied from her blog) and hear those familiar stories, I find another in my new "tribe". Someone who understands just how I have been changed. And some of these changes have created rifts in my life, in my friendships, even in my family. But it is who I am now. I cannot sit passively as someone touts the flu vaccine, talks about how great soy is or wants to microwave my child's food. Yes, I will be that bitch because I have been forced to be. The old saying "all in moderation" is one I believe in, unless you are talking poison, then not even a little bit thank you very much because we have been slowly poisoning ourselves for decades and I think it is finally catching up to us. It is not my desire to offend but I have spent the last 6 years reading about all of the ways we seem destined to kill ourselves and it is starting with this current generation. Our kids are sicker than EVER. And no one in mainstream medicine seems to care (but they will prescribe you an antibiotic, steroid cream or allergy pill!). So I guess it is up to us to care and to change the world, one child at a time. So read this mom's story and know, we didn't start out like this, but learning and understanding what is harming our children has changed us into this. It is not blind faith or ignorance. This comes from years of research and watching the positive changes that have come from removing and avoiding further toxicity. We're screaming mad and we're not going to take it anymore. So there you go, angry tirade of the day complete, now carry on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GAPS 365 – One Family’s Journey Repair the gut, repair the mind

Tuesday, February 15, 2011, Day 33
Posted on February 16, 2011 by admin

It is difficult to share these events but I do anyway. We need to wake up to the fact that autism is not a neurological disorder but a disease that affects the whole body, not just the brain. Yes, there are trained professionals to help with autism. None of them are mainstream. Mainstream medicine is there to hand you the bad news topped with the attitude that there’s not a damn thing you can do other than behavior modification.

We pay dearly for our all mighty insurance and it doesn’t cover squat diddly do. So us moms scour the internet searching for answers while our husbands (for those of us that are fortunate enough to still be married) make money to pay for it. And we still go in debt.

My understanding is that recovery is about finding what works. These kids are an ever changing mystery. What’s more mysterious is the fact that Western Medicine has nothing to offer. The doctors are waiting for Big Pharma to discover some magic pill.

I have researched two years now about autism. I have watched autism come and go in our own household. At first I thought autism was genetics. Played the blame game, then blamed myself. Then I thought food allergies caused autism. But why would we be so allergic to everything. Then I thought it was vaccines, not just mercury, but the whole overload of toxins into a young child.

After two years of constant reading, Dr. McBride’s theory makes the most sense to me personally. I wasn’t breast fed (yeah, I’m a 60’s child) therefore I had my own gut flora problems from stupid formula. Then I was vaccinated with toxins that created more problems. Followed by a diet that wasn’t horrible. My mom made many things from scratch but honestly ate way too much sugar and grains even back then.

I took birth control pills for five years which further messed up my gut flora. At this point I’m eating crappy foods because the yeast monsters growing in me are controlling me. Had a tetanus shot a few months before I got pregnant exposing me to more toxins and viruses.

Ate the Standard American Diet (SAD) during pregnancy. The SAD diet contains GMO’s (Pesticide written into the plant’s DNA), irradiated veggies and meats, Big Farm inhumanely raised animal meat that is inferior and shouldn’t be consumed, pasteurized A1 milk, (Please look up “The Devil in Milk”), processed foods, microwaved foods, sugar, sugar and more sugar.

Delivered my baby naturally. The birthing canal is a baby’s first exposure to gut flora since all babies are born with sterile guts. My boy gets my horrible gut flora followed with the Hep B vaccine his first 24 hours. Followed by what ever stuff the doctors give your baby boy during circumcision.

I breast feed but even my breast milk wasn’t great. I have six amalgam fillings (That’s 50% mercury per filling) and every time I eat, drink hot liquids or chew gum, I release mercury vapors in my body and subsequently release the mercury in my breast milk. Amalgams are not safe and they are not stable contrary to what the ADA claims. Mercury is the second most toxic element on earth. An ignorant dentist shoves the second most toxic element on earth in your teeth when you’re a kid and everyone pretends that it’s ok to walk around with a head full of toxins.

We continue with Western Medicine’s protocol of vaccination which causes infections and a whole host of problems followed by the doctor recommendation of alternating Tylenol and Advil to bring down the fever. You guessed it. Those medicines cause further damage to gut flora.

We drank the fluoridated city water. Fluoride is a neurotoxin, always has been and always will be. We brushed our teeth with more fluoride. Ever wonder why you’re supposed to drink fluoridated water but spit out toothpaste? There’s enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a toddler. Read the danger warning on the tube. Fluoride is not FDA approved for consumption. Fluoride is used as an herbicide. Does this make any sense?

Personally, had a few things going for us. I have been horribly sensitive to chemicals my entire life because of my own gut dysbiosis. I’ve only used body care products and household cleaners that were unscented, no dyes, and free from toxins. Second, I knew the harmful effects of antibiotics even back then. Antibiotics strip away all of your good gut flora. Had I been the typical American mother and exposed my son to fragrance and other chemicals, he would be far worse off than he is. Had I given him antibiotics and stripped away his gut flora, well, I can’t even imagine.

Dr. McBride writes that every child with autism that she has treated came from a mother with gut dysbiosis followed by exposing each of those children to the modern world. Yep, in a nutshell, this is what causes autism. It’s not one thing gone wrong. It’s a whole host of things gone wrong.

It’s not just autism that is an epidemic because of our modern world. We also have Asperger, depression, dyslexia, schizophrenia, AD/HD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, PDD:NOS, sensory processing disorder, and failure to thrive.

Wonder what the next generation of kids will be like.

All natural alternative to traditional hand sanitizers

2011-02-09T10:02:00.004-07:00

Through our journey to heal our son's Autism, we have had a huge education on the toxicity of our world. And some of the sources of toxicity (like in our air for example) we cannot really control much unless we build ourselves a bubble. But, I think many people understand that as our world has grown more toxic, so have we become more sick. We've seen dramatic rises in auto-immune disorders, even in our children. So, as much as we can reduce our toxicity (even if your child does NOT have Autism) then we are helping their body do what it should be doing like growing and developing, not fending off the chemicals.

I am not a fan of the mainstream hand sanitizers. Why? Well, many of them have things in them that I personally don't want on my childrens' bodies. Click HERE to read just one brand's product info from the Safer Cosmetics database to learn just HOW and WHY some of these ingredients are some you may want to avoid.

So, I decided to take a shot at making my own hand sanitizer. It is made from all natural, quality essential oils and water, that's it!! I have had friends, family and even the daycare at my gym try it and give me feedback! One friend even used it internally as a breath freshener (although I am not suggesting that it be used in that manner). There are no harsh chemicals, no "burn" on cuts and it is actually good for a multitude of purposes. The main essential oil in it is Tea Tree essential oil. Here are some reports on the effectiveness of Tea Tree:

Study on Tea Tree oil vs Triclosan on MRSA
An article on Tea Tree and MRSA with two other scientific citations
Tea Tree oil as a promising anti-microbial

Tea Tree has been shown to work well on nail fungus, athlete's foot, killing germs on wounds (my family uses it directly, undiluted, on all cuts/scrapes), I use it as a house sanitizer rather than other more chemical laden alternatives. It is a powerful antifungal and has been used to treat yeast infections. I also use it in the neti pot to cleanse nasal passages, especially when I feel a sinus infection coming on. I also use it in a diffuser around the house if the "bugs" are going around. It really is a gem around our house.

So, if YOU are looking for an alternative, then get your T*E*E*M Clean hand/cart/house sanitizer right HERE!

Herpes link to Alzheimer's?

2011-01-31T19:51:00.006-07:00

My guy at 6 months with chicken pox, happy as can be

And again at 3 years with chicken pox, withdrawn and non verbal

Anyone trying to heal their child from Autism probably understands the viral link that has been shown. Many children with Autism have viral issues, auto-immunity, brain inflammation, etc. my son included. My son had chicken pox at 6 months of age then again at 3 years of age (neither time did he run a fever). I also had chicken pox twice and both sides of my childrens' family have "interesting" viral issues, specifically with the Herpes strain, such as chicken pox. Many of us also recognize some of the similarities between Autism and Alzheimers. So, I find this article fascinating from the standpoint of maybe finally getting some answers to help those suffering from Alzheimers, and potentially preventing others from having it in the first place. Now, the comment in this article about a new vaccine concerns me, I would rather see us focus more on actually treating the virus, maybe research into the use of Lysine or maybe even homeopathic remedies for Herpes. As we have progressed through homeopathy with my son, I believe we are seeing a resurgence in healing from the virus, potentially even from exposure to a relative who has had shingles and treated it allopathically (per Pierre Fontaine). Yes indeed, could have happened. Maybe these bumps on just one side of his body are his body's way of finally (truly) healing from his double dose of chicken pox long ago. Who knows really until this all plays out. But, fascinating data and this adds a plausible explanation to this mysterious disease. Oh and by the way, the author, David Perlmutter, MD has a new book coming out called Power Up Your Brain, I would look into it if I were you....looks pretty fascinating! So, here's the article.

Story from the Huffington Post:

Alzheimer's And Herpes Simplex Virus: A Link?
Read More: Alzheimer's Disease Herpes , Alzheimer's Herpes , Alzheimers Disease Herpes , Alzheimers Herpes , Herpes And Alzheimers , Herpes Virus Alzheimer's , Health News

David Perlmutter, M.D..Board-Certified Neurologist and author of upcoming book, "Power Up Your Brain."
Posted: January 31, 2011 08:18 AM

Last week an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended the approval of a diagnostic brain scan for Alzheimer's disease. The new technology is based upon imaging and quantifying the amount of a specific protein, beta amyloid, in the brains of patients suspected of having the disease. Research has demonstrated a striking correlation between the amount of beta amyloid in the brain and the degree of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's patients.

Dr. Norman Foster, professor of neurology at the University of Utah, testified before the FDA committee and was quoted in The New York Times stating the approval of the new scan "would be a historic advance in neurology and in the daily management of patients with memory complaints," an interesting comment as the article goes on to say, "If a person has Alzheimer's though, there is as yet no treatment that can slow or reverse the disease ... "

Over the past several decades, the understanding of beta amyloid's role as a causative agent for Alzheimer's disease has served to underpin worldwide research in attempt to develop meaningful treatments designed to rid the brain of this damaging protein. Interestingly, these attempts have met with almost universal failure. Most recently, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced yet another failure in an attempt to chemically reduce beta amyloid in humans. In an August 17, 2010 press release the company noted that their experimental drug semagacestat, an "oral agent designed to reduce the body's production of amyloid beta plaques, which scientists believe play an important role in causing Alzheimer's disease," actually caused more rapid decline in Alzheimer's patients. The company revealed that patients treated with the experimental drug "worsened to a significantly greater degree than those treated with placebo."

If beta amyloid were the cause of Alzheimer's disease, then why would ridding the brain of this protein actually cause patients to worsen? Harvard researcher Dr. Stephanie Soscia and her associates may have the answer. Their recently published research questioned why beta amyloid accumulates in the Alzheimer's brain in the first place, and concluded that in fact, the protein actually serves to rid the brain of a variety of bacteria and viruses. They described beta amyloid as an "antimicrobial peptide" which accumulated in response to an infectious agent. Their work looks upon beta amyloid in a new light as they stated, "If the normal function of beta amyloid is to function as an antimicrobial peptide, then an absence of the peptide may result in increased vulnerability to infection." Rather than causing the disease, beta amyloid may be our brain's natural response to an infectious agent, accumulating as a way of defending us against a pathogen. So perhaps we should reconsider beta amyloid since it has been said that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Assuming beta amyloid is produced in response to an infectious agent, logically we would want to examine the evidence supporting the role of infection in Alzheimer's disease. Over the past several years, compelling evidence has surfaced linking herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) to Alzheimer's disease. In 2008, Canadian researchers Luc Letenneur and Karine Peres demonstrated a dramatic increase in antibodies directed against HSV1 in Alzheimer's patients compared to age-matched individuals without the disease. Professor Ruth Itzhaki from the University of Manchester has explored the relationship of HSV1 to Alzheimer's disease in great depth. In her landmark article published in 2008 entitled "Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in Alzheimer's disease: The Enemy Within," Dr. Itzhaki revealed that HSV1 infects the brains of 90 percent of adults. If HSV1 causes Alzheimer's, this high rate of infection would be a necessary characteristic in light of the very high prevalence of Alzheimer's disease. Further, she points out, HSV1 can remain latent in the nervous system lifelong and may undergo periodic reactivation causing persistent brain inflammation. As an example, HSV1 is the cause of recurrent fever blisters that occur when the virus gets activated in the brain. Undoubtedly the most compelling evidence linking HSV1 to Alzheimer's disease comes from her recent discovery of HSV1 DNA actually located exactly within the beta amyloid plaque, the so-called "hallmark" of the disease.

So compelling are these findings that Dr. Itzhaki has concluded, "Our present data suggest that this virus is a major cause of amyloid plaques and hence probably a significant etiological factor in Alzheimer's disease. They point to the usage of antiviral agents to treat the disease and possibly of vaccination to prevent it."

The FDA's likely approval of technology allowing the quantification of beta amyloid in suspected Alzheimer's patients will clearly provide a valuable tool in defining the cause of dementia in cognitively impaired individuals. But focusing on ridding the brain of this protein may be treating the smoke while ignoring the fire. Indeed, the evidence now suggests that beta amyloid protein may very well represent a positive response in the brain's attempt to deal with a viral infection. Proving the role of HSV1 in Alzheimer's disease could be as simple as treating a group of patients with readily available antiviral medication. Dr. Itzhaki recently sent me an email indicating she stands ready to get this research underway, but as is so often the case, funding the study remains a challenge.

Raw Food Webinar With Sunny Lee Savage Sunday

2011-01-24T20:22:00.003-07:00

I am lucky to call Sunny a friend AND she was the starting point for ALL of my own knowledge of nutrition and special diets. She is finally doing webinars to teach more people about the amazing benefits of food on our health and well being. If you are interested in learning more about incorporating raw foods into your diet and how it can boost your health, ESPECIALLY if you are pregnant, then this webinar is for you!! And no, you do not have to be vegetarian, vegan OR want to go all the way "raw". She will teach you simple and delicious ways to add more raw foods into your diet and why it is important for your family!

“Raw Foods 101: Simple Ways for and Your Family to Benefit from Eating Raw”
Featured Guest: Sunny Lee Savage
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2011
Time: 9:00PM EST, 8:00PM CST, 6:00PM PST
Place: ANYWHERE you have a high speed internet connection.

Here are just a few of the important points she will cover:

The myths of eating raw.
How to apply raw principles to pregnancy and beyond.
What you need to know about natural sweeteners.
The benefits of greens, green smoothies and more!
Eating organic vs non-organic.
What to do if you don’t have easy access to raw food.

Here is a link to the site where you can register. Don't miss it!

Sprouted rice flour by Sol Grains

2011-01-15T08:35:00.003-07:00

I found this little gem a few months back through Azure Standard, the co-op we order from once per month. They do monthly truck shipments all over as long as you meet the minimum for your drop point. I highly recommend them for many healthy food items and even bulk grains. They have standards for pesticide use, etc. from the manufacturers they stock. So, if they don't meet their standards (low or NO usage of the bad stuff) then they don't carry it! I love Azure Standard. As I place my monthly order I always check out the "New Items" page. I saw sprouted rice flour. I regularly soak all the nuts we eat and have sprouted buckwheat and nuts. If you are like me, you do a lot of cooking and prep already. So any short cut I can take that doesn't sacrifice quality, well then I am all over it!!

What are the benefits of soaking and sprouting grains? It increases the protein content of the item and increases the digestibility of it as well. However, if you are on a low oxalate diet, this may not be for you. Sprouting increases oxalates while just soaking reduces them. But if you are looking for a sprouted flour option without having to sprout and grind it yourself, you may want to look into Sol Grains and you can find it at Azure Standard!!

Responsibly farmed Tilapia at Whole Foods

2011-01-14T09:22:00.003-07:00

Are you trying to add more fish into your diet but horribly confused about what is "safe" to eat?? Today, Whole Foods is doing their one-day sale on "responsibly farmed" tilapia for $4.99 per lb. For more info, click HERE.

And in case you haven't heard, this week is Sprouts "Gluten Free Jubilee" and most gluten free products are 25% off. The sale goes through next Wednesday, January 19th so you had better hurry. Happy shopping!

Coconut boosts brain function!

2011-01-11T15:41:00.003-07:00

Oh thank God since we consume a *LOT* of coconut, daily. My son (and now my daughter) also use the MCT oil from New Beginnings to help fight yeast overgrowth. But, in addition, coconut oil is a staple in our house. Being also dairy free it serves as "butter" on gluten free english muffins or cinnamon toast, it is used in cooking and especially in baking!! We also use coconut oil as "lotion", coconut flour in baking as well as flaked coconut daily. I use homemade coconut milk in all of my cooking and baking, even in my coffee in the morning! Coconut is so versatile and I am glad we are talking about this particular fat's good side as it got a bad rap a couple of decades ago. Coconut oil is very healthy for you! I have also read that it is not stored as fat but burned immediately (may have to do with being sent right to the liver...) and so this is a wonderful fat to add to LOSE WEIGHT! You heard me! I continue to lose weight and coconut oil is a very big component in my daily diet. I have also read that our cells utilize MCT (medium chain triglycerides) more effectively for cellular energy so it may also have some impact on mitochondrial function, but that is my guess only. Read on for an article from Natural News with more info on the benefits of coconut oil....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(NaturalNews) The human brain needs a continual supply of fuel. When this continual supply is interrupted brain cells begin to die. In the short-term, this can cause symptoms such as headaches, brain fog, & tiredness. Long-term exposure to environments that deplete sources of brain fuel from effectively getting into the cells leads to neurodegenerative diseases. New research is showing that coconut oil can supply the brain with a very clean source of energy that prevents unwanted short-term symptoms and is effective at preventing and treating neurodegenerative disease states.

In many neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's, neurons in certain regions of the brain have become insulin resistant. Insulin is the necessary hormone that brings glucose into cells where it can be used for energy. This is Diabetes in the brain. When brain cells become resistant to insulin they are unable to get glucose and they become malnourished and begin to die.

Because the brain is unable to lower circulating blood sugar levels these levels remain high. High blood sugar is neurotoxic in that it binds with protein molecules to create advanced glycolytic enzymes (AGEs). These AGEs dramatically increase oxidative stress levels in the body and have a particular affinity for damaging neuronal tissue. This combination of high blood sugar and low energy states within the brain cells is the perfect storm for massive brain cell death.

Coconut oil is considered one of the best fuels for healthy brain function. Outside of mother's milk, coconut oil is nature's richest source of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are not processed by your body in the same manner as long chain triglycerides. Normal fat metabolism depends on bile salts that have been released from your gallbladder before it can be broken down in your digestive system.

MCTs bypass bile metabolism and go directly to your liver where they are converted into ketones. The liver then immediately releases the ketones into the bloodstream where they are transported to the brain to be used as fuel. Research has shown that the ketone bodies produced by MCTs provide a stable source of energy for the brain during periods of low blood sugar without the neurological risks associated with high blood sugar.

This is why ketones appear to be the preferred source of brain food in patients affected by diabetes or any neurodegenerative condition such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, & Multiple Sclerosis, etc. One of the leading authorities on MCT research is Dr. Mary Newport. She has shown that ketone bodies may help the brain recover from lack of oxygen induced brain death in newborns through adults. Additionally, ketones can help the heart patient recover from a heart attack and they can affectively shrink cancerous tumors.

Additional research has shown that regular MCT consumption in dogs with "age-related mental decline" increases the phospholipid and omega-3 fatty acid (EPA & DHA) content in the parietal cortex of the brain. Omega 3 fatty acids are found in fish not coconut oil. The researchers believe that the presence of the MCTs allowed omega 3s to be liberated from fat stores & utilized in the brain where they are most needed to help form solid memory centers.

The average sized adult should consume 3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil daily. This could be taken orally, added to food, or applied onto skin. It can be taken in the form of coconut oil, milk, meat, or flakes. Coconut milk provides approximately 1 Tbsp of coconut oil for every 3 ounces. People with diabetes (type I & II) or neurological disease would benefit from up to 8-10 tablespoons of coconut oil daily.

[Editor`s Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all forms of animal testing. We fully support implementation of humane medical experimentation that promotes the health and wellbeing of all living creatures.]

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030971_coconut_brain_function.html#ixzz1All1iLt5

One parent's view on Dr. Wakefield, vaccines and Autism

2011-01-07T10:04:00.004-07:00

There has been a lot of controversy in the last few days regarding Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his study that linked a new type of bowel disease and Autism. His study was published and then later retracted by the Lancet. His study found and reported that the children in this study suffered from inflammatory bowel disease as well as Autism and the parents in the study reported that the conditions began at the time of their MMR vaccine. He suggested that more research be done on this potential connection and that parents be allowed to choose the single vaccines rather than the combo shot. Since then it has been a hailstorm of conjecture, disagreement, strife even within our very own Autism community. Of course there are parents of children with Autism who feel vaccines had nothing to do with their child's disorder (or who even had unvaccinated children with Autism). I firmly feel that toxicity is the root cause (vaccines being one component in that toxicity). And we can look back at the toxicity of mothers who are bearing these children as well.

I was a good girl, I had my titers run for measles, mumps and rubella and when it was found I did not have immunity, I received the vaccine 3 months before trying to conceive. And I ate the SAD (standard american diet) which I thought was healthy but in reality was filled with hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, the gamut of over 200 forms of MSG, etc. My house was "clean" because I used bleach and antibacterial wipes all the time, both very toxic. But on the flip side most of my son's things were hand-me downs including his crib and clothes which at least were a little better than the new stuff that usually contains toxins in paint, particle board, sizing in clothes, etc. We also bought a new car in time for his arrival, that wonderful new car smell which is the chemical off gassing that we breathed the few months before he arrived and of course he breathed when he was born.

There are theories arising about the issues with mitochondrial function. I used to joke about having chronic fatigue (which is linked to mitochondrial issues), not so funny anymore. Our mitochondria come from mom. I think that we have managed to toxify our environment and our bodies to the point of seeing this huge rise in Autism and other auto-immune disorders (which may have roots in this impact on our mitochondria??). Now this is MY theory, you don't have to agree. But, I see that as the foundation. So my son, I believe, did have this predisposition. My son rec'd Hep B vaccine at birth, which looking back I would have refused all together. I do not have Hep B and there is NO way he could contract that being that it comes from IV drug use and/or sex. There are also other vaccines I would have declined or delayed. But I didn't know any of this, I didn't know of the toxic adjuvants that are in our vaccines, or the fact that multiple vaccines have not had safety studies. We do not really know the impact to our developing babies' immunes systems when we give them more than one vaccine at a time. My son rec'd 6 vaccines in one day, his 4 month birthday. From that moment forward he screamed most of the day and would not sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. By the time those effects were just starting to fade, it would be time for more vaccines and we'd start all over. But, the MMR was not in the 6 vaccines where we saw the biggest change in my son.

So what? Why not just move on? Well, I have and I am happy to say through biomed and detoxifying his body, he has gone from non verbal child with no social interaction who engaged in many repetitive behaviors (like spinning tupperware lids constantly)to a pretty near typical 7 year old with some lingering sensory issues and small deficits in social skills and language. We still have work to do and there are days when I still hate Autism and what it will do to him probably forever. But he is a far cry from where he was when he was 3 and scoring in the severely Autistic range on the CARS eval. His last CARS eval scored him in the not Autistic range. Do I think vaccines are the only culprit? No. Our food supply is pretty toxic for the most part and I had no clue why eating organic was important when he was a baby or about the insidious ingredients that are even in our baby foods and snacks, not to mention pretty much anything that comes out of a box. This whole journey has opened our eyes.

But, I liken this experience to someone who has had a family member impacted by lung cancer as a result of smoking. Remember when the doctors were doing ad campaigns about how safe smoking was?? You would pretty much call bullshit on that, wouldn't you? Or just with anything, if you used a product, ate a food and had a reaction that you knew in your heart was related to that item, how would you feel about the manufacturer saying "That is not true, our products are perfectly safe and you did NOT have a reaction from our products". That is pretty galling and more than anything, I want to share our story to help other new parents make INFORMED decisions about their vaccine choices. I went in blindly and believed they were safe because that is what I was told. I had no idea what aluminum does to the brain, what squalene is, I had never even heard of thimerisol. I wish I had and I wish I had done THAT research before making that choice. And if parents do that level of research and feel comfortable with their vaccine choices, well then that is all I ask for! It took me years before I finally decided most vaccines are not in my childrens' best interest, many are ineffective and we see naturopathic physicians whom I have confidence in should my child contract an illness. Did you know high dose vitamin A can be used for measles? L-Lysine and another herb larrea tridentata are effective against chicken pox and shingles? There are other options.

So, I decided to do this blog to share some of the videos that I feel are worth watching in one place. Some of them are long but worth it. This blog also feeds right to Facebook so some of this will be redundant. And some of you without Autism in your lives are probably saying "shut up about Autism already" and that is ok. We all probably say that about people's hobbies or status updates that we see on Facebook. It is representative of our lives and our interests. The sad thing about Autism is that unless we all start waking up, each and every one of you will have someone in your life who has Autism. And that is why I talk about it so much, plus I firmly believe we are not too far gone and that Autism is treatable. So, for my Autism peeps, here are some videos in case you have not already seen them, and for anyone else interested in the "other side of the coin". Everyone has probably already seen the negative spin campaign and smear stories so I will not post those here.

Dr. Wakefield being interviewed on CNN HERE

JB Handley interviewed on CNN version 1 HERE

JB Handley on CNN version 2 HERE

And if you want to see a very compelling video about the whole GMC mess with Dr. Wakefield and the "journalist" Brian Deer who brought his story to the GMC, see this video HERE. Warning, it is an hour long. But I think you see Brian Deer in action, hear how he speaks to parents of children with Autism, hear THEIR stories of what he did, including listing these childrens' names on a website.

Great tips for recovering from colds and flus

2010-12-31T12:59:00.002-07:00

I found a really informative site talking about natural ways to recover quicker from colds and flus. Many of these tips I have already passed on but I am going to copy the whole section on colds and flus and link to the rest of the site if you'd like to read their info on preventing colds and flus as well as other things like avian flu, etc.

From the Quanta-Gaia website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Combating/Recovering from Colds and Flu’s
Okay, if you couldn’t elude the flu or a cold, what to do? With early and aggressive treatment, it is possible to limit your symptoms to a single day. But if you allow it to gain a foothold, symptoms will be more persistent. Although you may limit your symptoms to a single day and even feel good, it is important to understand that your body is still fighting off an infection; proper care is essential to preventing a “relapse.” Especially important is to get adequate sleep.

If you begin treatment the first day with a couple xylitol nasal washes, elderberry extract, vitamin C, a garlicky meal, and drink plenty of water and get lots of rest, you may find your symptoms disappearing within 24 hours. The nasal wash, water intake and rest are likely the most important elements. The nasal wash is important because it washes away many of the viruses which have been multiplying the previous 72 or so hours, and the water and rest are essential for optimal immune system function, which is necessary to kill the remaining viruses which you can’t wash away. Elderberry, vitamin C and garlic further support and enhance the immune system. Note: a nasal wash may not be appropriate for everyone. Children and seniors may have difficulty following the regimen. For those, a nasal spray may work.

First, get plenty of rest. Sleep is one of the most powerful immune system stimulants. Drink lots of fluids. Many people are chronically dehydrated and water is essential to proper immune system function. Don’t exert yourself. Your body needs its energy reserves for a strong immune function. Stay home from work or school. You will not be productive there, you’ll prolong your illness, and you’ll unnecessarily expose others. Be considerate to everyone: Stay at home, get plenty of bed rest, read a good book, and wash your hands frequently to avoid spreading it to others.

Remember to cover your face when you sneeze, and have something to sneeze into, such as a handkerchief; use your shirt sleeve if you have to. Wash your hands afterward.

Drink lots of water, natural fruit juices, or vegetable juices. Adding 5-15 drops of liquid GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) 2-3 times a day to your juice will have an immune system boosting effect.* Avoid soft drinks, alcohol, coffee and caffeine. You should try to drink at least 8oz of non-chlorinated water each hour. Try to drink continuously throughout the day. Water is essential to help your body fight illness; your immune system cannot function properly without adequate quantities of water. It will also combat dehydration. Dehydration, in severe cases, can be fatal. Drinking adequate amounts of water will also help to abate cold and flu related headaches.

[* NutriBiotic makes a liquid concentrate GSE containing CITRICIDAL,® a formulation which has been endorsed by Dr. Julian Whitaker, Dr. David Williams and others. GSE comes from the seed of grapefruits, as well as the white pulp next to the skin. NutriBiotic’s formula comes from organically grown grapefruit.]
Caffeine and many soft drinks act as diuretics which will actually deplete your body of water. Caffeine or sugar can undermine your body’s immune system (caffeine can also cause a spike in blood-sugar levels). Alcohol, while generally beneficial in moderate amounts when healthy, will both depress the immune system and dehydrate you when you’re sick. It will prolong your illness. The exception might be a glass or two of red wine, which is vitamin and nutrient rich.
If you are having trouble drinking enough water, perhaps due to a sore throat, try adding some lemon juice, natural fruit juice, warming it a bit, or making a naturally non-caffeinated herbal tea. You might also consider making some hot lemonade from fresh lemons, or hot grapefruit juice. If you feel the need to sweeten it, use Stevia (liquid or powder), orange juice, honey, or grape juice — never refined sugar nor aspartame (NutraSweet). Xylitol (a natural Sugar-Alcohol compound), is an acceptable “sugar” substitute, and actually has immune system benefits which could help to combat cold and flu (however it is still relatively hard to find on store shelves in the US).

Elderberry extract is a potent anti-viral (see previous section).

Selenium & Probiotics are both valuable in supporting and enhancing immune function (see previous section).

Eat raw, freshly-crushed garlic. Garlic has anti-viral properties and boosts the immune system in general. It is possible to stop a cold dead in its tracks in three days (with no other treatment) by eating four cloves of freshly-crushed raw garlic three times a day (along with lots of water, vitamins and rest). Although you may find yourself oozing garlic from your pores and smell offensive to your loved ones! However it is more effective to use garlic combined with nasal irrigation and an elderberry extract. And this combined approach requires far less garlic. Deodorized garlic tablets are ineffective (see note about garlic in the section above).

Sore throats (from colds and flu’s) result from irritation by drainage of nasal fluids into your digestive tract. A simple lukewarm salt water gargle will sooth a sore throat and promote healing far better than any drugstore concoction. Pickling salt (sea salt) is preferred, but regular table salt will do. Make the water as salty as you can tolerate, without making it more salty than is comfortable. The salt will tend to sooth the inflamed tissue and promote healing. Adding a few drops of liquid GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) can be beneficial. For a gargle, add one drop per ounce (so about three to six drops for the average gargle preparation). GSE has an anti-bacterial and anti-viral effect yet is safe if ingested (in fact many people take it as a supplement to boost overall immune system function).

Runny nose. The best treatment for a runny nose is to use a xylitol nasal wash in a neti pot. If you don’t have a neti pot, you can use it in a nasal spray, or sniff up a xylitol wash (or salt water). Some people find that lying down is helpful. A natural decongestant, such as Herbal Vapors salve (a non-petroleum based Vicks/Mentholatum alternative), available from Mountain Rose Herbs and other outlets, may provide relief. You’re best off avoiding decongestant medications you find at the drugstore. While these can be effective in suppressing symptoms, they will also prolong your illness. Aggressive treatment with a xylitol wash will wash away the viruses from their habitat in your sinuses, thus reducing the burden on your immune system. That is key to a rapid recovery.

Let your appetite be your guide. Do not force yourself to eat unless you are hungry. If you are hungry, soup is often a good choice. It will help warm you as well as provide nourishment. If you are not hungry, consider drinking natural fruit or vegetable juices for nourishment. Ice cream is best avoided due to its sugar content and cooling effect. A fruit sherbet or sorbet, while not ideal, would be a better choice. So you have a sore throat and you ate the ice cream, sherbet, or sorbet anyhow: Follow it with a hot beverage to warm you back up.

Increase your intake of vitamin C. Those studies suggesting vitamin C is ineffective against colds and flu are flawed (usually because too small a dose was used). The “Recommended Daily Allowance” (RDA) is far too low. A healthy adult should consume around 2000-4000 mg’s (2 to 4 grams) of vitamin C daily. For a sick person, the amount increases. Your body can actually tell you how much vitamin C you should be taking. Vitamin C, taken in sufficiently large doses, loosens the bowels. When you reach the level of vitamin C intake which causes loose bowels, you are taking too much vitamin C (assuming your bowels aren’t loose due to diarrhea, of course). Take up to that amount, then back off slightly. This is called the “bowel intolerance test.” When you’re sick, the amount of vitamin C required to loosen your bowels will greatly increase, thus indicating an increased need for this vitamin. Don’t be surprised if this goes up to 18-20 grams of vitamin C. In very rare instances, this has been known to go as high as 100 grams in certain individuals. In general, Dr. David Williams and Dr. Julian Whitaker each advise: When sick, take 1 gram of vitamin C every hour you’re awake.

Dr. Linus Pauling personally took 18 grams of vitamin C daily, and suggested a minimum of 12 grams for the average person. Although Dr. Pauling based this recommendation on some very compelling reasoning,* this amount seems excessive (as it would be hard to acquire this much vitamin C through diet alone). This begs the question of bioavailability and the form of vitamin C used. Dr. Pauling’s recommendations may have been based on ascorbic acid, which is what most vitamin manufacturers call “vitamin C,” even though it is only a vitamin C precursor. Bioavailability is thus an important factor in considering vitamin C dosage. Most vitamin C supplements are based on ascorbic acid because it is relatively inexpensive, chemically stable and stores well. Ascorbic acid is only an intermediate form, which the body must convert to mineral ascorbates to use; it is not particularly bioavailable. More bioavailable forms are offered by only a few companies. Also, bioflavonoids are known to help the body utilize vitamin C and enhance vitamin C bioavailability.

Two good sources of vitamin C, both of which come in (1000mg) packet form and are dissolved in a glass of water, are Emer’gen-C and Ola Loa. Ola Loa is a more complete multi-vitamin product, contains fewer sugars, but is also more costly. A good compromise is to take one Ola Loa daily, and use additional packets of Emer’gen-C as needed for your desired daily dose of vitamin-C. It is a good idea to distribute your vitamin C intake throughout the day; do not take it all at once.

[* Dr. Pauling found that most mammals’ bodies, except those of humans and guinea pigs, manufacture vitamin C. What’s more, he found that they all seemed to manufacture the same amount of vitamin C per pound of body weight. Dr. Pauling took that constant and multiplied it by the weight of the average human to arrive at his recommended daily dose of 12 grams of vitamin C. Dr. Pauling said that vitamin C strengthens the tissues in blood vessels and that adequate vitamin C intake would virtually eliminate heart disease and stroke. Extreme vitamin C deficiency is known to cause scurvy, a condition in which the blood vessels literally fall apart, so there seems to be merit to Dr. Pauling’s reasoning as regards heart disease and stroke.]
Take Vitamin D3 supplements, and increase your sun exposure. Vitamin D is an under-appreciated nutrient. It plays an active role in a strong immune system response, is known to help prevent at least 22 types of cancer, protects against heart disease, regulates blood sugar levels, regulates nerve function (and useful in treating depression), can protect children from type 1 diabetes, increases muscle strength in older adults, protects against rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, maintains healthy calcium and phosphorus levels for strong bones, and more.

Ultraviolet light from sunshine (not tanning beds) on our skin turns cholesterol into vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). The greater the amount of skin exposed to the sun, the more vitamin D is produced. However the darker one’s pigmentation, either genetically or by tanning, or the older a person is, the less efficiently one produces vitamin D from sun exposure. Using sunscreen or wearing clothing virtually eliminates all vitamin D production in the covered areas. Cold and flu season (and seasonal affective disorder, aka SAD) usually begins as the weather starts to cool and cloudiness increases, or at the same time as our sun exposure (and therefore vitamin D production) dramatically decreases. Vitamin D supplementation is recommended for darker skinned people, the elderly, people with minimal sun exposure, or for everyone not living in the tropics beginning in the autumn.

The US recommended daily allowance (RDA) is too low. Canada has established 2,000 IU/day as the recommended dose, and the Canadians are considering raising that to between 4,000-6,000 IU/day. Up to 10,000 IU/day is considered safe. The lowest dose that any form of vitamin D toxicity has ever been observed is 40,000 IU/day, which can cause hypocalcemia. Supplementing with D2 (calciferol, aka ergocalciferol) is only 20-40% as effective as supplementing with D3 (cholecalciferol).

A note on sun exposure and skin cancer: Most skin cancers which have been associated with sun exposure are benign cosmetic cancers. Melanoma, a dangerous and highly malignant skin cancer, doesn’t tend to occur on the most commonly sun-exposed skin (i.e. face, arms, and legs), but rather on less commonly exposed body trunk areas. Furthermore, occupational exposure to sunlight has been shown to reduce the risk of melanoma, and vitamin D has been shown to inhibit melanoma in cultured tissue samples. Interestingly, five out of ten studies indicated that people who used sunscreen were more likely than nonusers to develop melanoma; three of those studies found no connection with sun exposure; only two suggested sunscreen might confer some cancer protection. It seems a reasonable conclusion that, for caucasians who begin developing a natural, gradual tan in the milder spring sun, or for those with genetically darker pigmentation, unprotected sun exposure is completely safe and beneficial, whereas abrupt, intense summer sun exposure leading to sunburning is unwise, risky behavior. Only in the latter case does sunscreen seem beneficial, to prevent burning, and to promote the gradual tan which should have been acquired earlier in the season, when the natural sunlight was less intense; the SPF would have to be very low, around SPF 2-4, to emulate the spring sun; possibly as high as SPF 6-8 if a fair-skinned individual expected to be out in the hot summer sun most of the day, or on water, with reflected sunlight. A person with freckles is the exception as they are incapable of tanning evenly; regulated sun exposure, or a low SPF sunscreen, may be indicated during extended summer sun, or in tropical regions.

Keep warm. Do not neglect your feet; keep them warm too. Put on extra socks, maybe wool socks, wrap them in a blanket, whatever it takes. If you are cold or chilled, drink hot herbal tea or some other hot, non-caffeinated beverage. Nothing is quite as warming as drinking a hot beverage. You need to be drinking lots of fluids anyhow.

Take zinc. Zinc lozenges, dissolved in the back of the mouth and allowed to flow down the back of your throat has been known to stop a cold dead in its tracks in certain individuals. It is thought to shorten the duration in others (but not everyone). This must be administered at the first sign of a cold to be effective! Note: If you feel nauseous, discontinue use as this is a sign of zinc toxicity.

Do not take commercial cold or flu remedies from the drugstore. These preparations do not fight infection and can actually lengthen the duration of illness. Symptoms like a runny nose and fever actually help your body fight infection; suppressing them with drugs undermines the healing process. A saline-xylitol nasal wash, on the other hand, works synergistically with your body to mechanically flush out viruses and prevent them from re-establishing a foothold. It also provides relief. There is another drawback to commercial medications: they can mask your symptoms, making you feel artificially well. This entices you to over-exert yourself when what you really need is to be taking it easy and getting lots of rest. This usually prolongs your illness and the time you remain infectious to others. (Smart employers insist that sick people take time-off rather than come into work and spread sickness around.)

Pain relievers such as aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, etc. should not be needed if you’re adequately hydrated and keeping your nasal passages clear (e.g. with a saline-xylitol wash).

Fever, in most cases, should not be viewed as a problem; it is the body’s natural reaction to infection and actually helps to shorten the duration of illness. Excessive fever (or prolonged duration) is, however, a concern and may require the attention of a health care provider. Aspirin should NEVER be given to children with fevers!

Make sure your environment is not too dry. Adequate moisture in the air is important. Use of a humidifier, vaporizer, or breathing steam from boiling water on the stove-top can help.

Brush your teeth with a combination of salt and baking soda — or use a tooth powder containing these ingredients. This will not irritate a sore throat and will make your mouth feel clean (at least for a while). The salt will also help to fight gum disease — a side benefit. Also pour a little hydrogen peroxide on your toothbrush before you brush and again as you put it away. Actually, disinfecting your toothbrush like this is good to do from time to time even when you’re healthy. Even better is to allow it to soak overnight in a glass filled high enough to cover the bristles. You may use either 100% hydrogen peroxide, or dilute it down to a 50-50 mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water. (Actually, since a typical bottle drug store “hydrogen peroxide” is a 3% solution, a 50-50 mixture would be a 1.5% solution.)

Crushed eucalyptus leaves or oil and water in a potpourri pot, or eucalyptus oil in a vaporizer, often makes the sinuses feel better.

Avoid using alcohol and tobacco. The exception is a glass or two of red wine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nasal Spray/Wash
This formula is useful for treating and preventing colds, flu’s and allergies. It can be used either as a nasal spray or wash. The spray is most useful as a prophylaxis, or for anyone who might have difficulties using a wash (e.g. children and seniors). A nasal wash will more aggressively fight an infection and treat symptoms. A neti pot is the best way to administer a nasal wash, although you can sniff it up if you don’t have a neti pot.

Nasal Spray/Wash Formula
Ingredient Quantity
US Measure Metric
Water 1 cup (8 fl. oz.) 237 ml
Salt ¼ – ½ level teaspoon † 1.25 – 2.5 ml †
Xylitol 1 level tablespoon (3 tsp.) 15 ml
GSE 4 drops NutriBiotic®
Grapefruit Seed Extract
Baking soda A pinch or two (optional)

Instructions: First, wash your hands with soap and water. Mix ingredients using warm (not hot) water. This helps to dissolve ingredients and, when used as a wash, is comforting. Stir mixture occasionally until the ingredients dissolve completely. Water should be non-chlorinated, filtered or distilled.

Salt is both soothing and therapeutic (in the proper concentration). Too little or too much salt will cause the water to “burn” or irritate your nasal passages and sinuses. Pickling salt, which is usually pure salt, is preferable to regular table salt. Table salt usually has undesirable additives (e.g. iodine and flow enhancers). And additives make it more dilute (per volume) thus throwing off the saline concentration of the formula. Do not use a salt substitute! You want real salt (i.e. sodium chloride, NaCl). Be sure your pickling salt is pure salt and does not contain “alum” or aluminum! Morton Canning & Pickling Salt is pure salt.

†: For a 0.9% isotonic saline solution, the amount normally found in bodily fluids, use 1/3 teaspoon (approx. ¼ heaping teaspoon, or 1.85 ml) of salt. Anything less than this is hypotonic, anything greater is hypertonic. Some research suggests a hypertonic solution may be best when combating a runny nose (as it would have a drying effect), so you might want to go to the higher end of the salt range. You may also want to add a pinch or two of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to help buffer the solution. A hypotonic solution, however, would tend to be moisturizing (i.e. the lower end of the salt range), and may be what you want in a nasal spray for general prophylactic use. Any amount of salt within the range indicated shouldn’t be irritating to the nasal passages/sinuses of most people.

Note: “Neti pot salt” (or “aromatic salt”) is just a marketing gimmick to sell salt at a higher price. It usually has some essential oils added, which might have some therapeutic value, or which some people may find pleasing. However it should be viewed as a luxury at a premium price, with relatively little practical value. Use it if you wish, but pickling salt is usually just as pure and free of additives, is widely available, and generally inexpensive.

Xylitol. While the xylitol is optional, it helps to wash away germs and pollutants in your sinuses, and makes it difficult for germs to colonize or re-establish themselves.

GSE. The GSE is useful to attack germs and acts as a preservative. Without GSE, use formula within a few days or discard. If mixing for immediate use in a neti pot, the GSE may be omitted without much consequence; its primary purpose is as a preservative for a nasal spray. If you have liquid NutriBiotic GSE, add 4 drops. Other brands may have different sized drops or potencies, so adjust as needed. NutriBiotic has fairly small drops and is 33% Citricidal. Some GSE brands are triple strength, or 100% Citricidal. Too much GSE will “burn” or irritate your nasal passages and sinuses.

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Baking soda is optional. It may be useful as a buffering agent when using a hypertonic saline solution.

Garlic nose drops. In his book The Healing Power of Garlic Paul Bergner writes: “Garlic nose drops directly kill the viruses that cause cold or flu.” He also writes about a study with mice where some were inoculated with garlic, and some were not. The flu virus was introduced to the nasal passages of each mouse. Those mice that received the garlic remained healthy, where all the others got sick. To make nose drops, Bergner instructs us to crush some garlic to obtain juice, and add ten parts water and mix well. It could be added to the saline-xylitol formula above, if you like, to enhance its germ killing abilities.

In addition to the nose drops, eating raw garlic is also helpful and has a systemic effect. Note: deodorized garlic tablets are not useful in fighting viral or bacterial infections.

As a wash. There are several ways to administer a nasal wash. Some recommend using a bulb syringe or plastic bottle, however a neti pot is by far the easiest. But if you don’t have a neti pot, here is how to “sniff it up”: First, blow your nose and wash your hands with soap and water. Then, over the bathroom sink, put one or two teaspoons of nasal wash mixture in the cupped palm of your hand, close off one nostril with a finger and put the other nostril in the water, then inhale briskly. Try to take the water far up into your sinuses. Then let the water drain out your nostril and into the sink. Repeat this several times then switch to the other nostril. If done correctly, you’ll have a sensation in your nose which is very similar to having recently taken a swim (at least with a salt water mixture; the xylitol mixture may produce a somewhat different sensation). Repeat this process, alternating between nostrils, until your nose is feeling relatively clear.

Neti pot. First, blow your nose and wash your hands with soap and water. There are two ways to use a neti pot. The standard way (Jala Neti Stage 1) is to tilt your head and insert it into the upper nostril and pour, letting it drain out of the lower nostril. However this method may not be sufficient to attack an active cold or flu infection as it primarily washes only the lower sinuses. My method to more aggressively wash the (upper) sinuses is to lean over a sink and, with the forehead tilted slightly forward, plug one nostril with a finger, insert the neti pot spout into the other, and gently inhale, then remove the neti pot and allow the liquid to drain back down my nostril and into the sink. Anyone who has tried the “sniff up” method described in the paragraph above will find the neti pot draws the nasal wash up with far less effort and in much greater volume (thus doing a better job of washing the sinuses). This technique is similar to “stage two” neti and takes a little practice to master. The key is to proceed slowly when learning how to do this. Sometimes a little fluid goes down the back of the throat. Although not harmful (and actually the goal of stage two neti), for our purposes here it is a sign to stop inhaling, and to not inhale quite so much the next time. We can adequately flush out the viruses by allowing the fluid to drain out our nostrils, and this is less difficult than learning how to master stage two neti technique. None of this should be painful nor induce coughing, nor should you be inhaling so hard as to draw fluid into your lungs! Warning: Inhaling fluid into the lungs can lead to pneumonia!

Once the sinuses have been irrigated with a neti pot, particularly if the more aggressive technique is used to irrigate the upper sinuses, it is normal for the sinuses to retain some of the nasal wash. Ideally, one wants to expel all the wash, but this is not always possible. I sometimes find the nasal wash formula draining, usually in small amounts, hours or even days later. Usually this occurs after leaning forward. Standard practice after using a neti pot is to make a series of short, forceful exhales (without blocking either nostril). I do this to clear out the lower sinuses, then (to drain the upper sinuses) add some forward bends (holding them for 10 or so seconds), and come back to an upright position, then add some side bends and back bends, and repeating as necessary. This helps to minimize drainage later on. Here is a more complete and detailed procedure from The JALA NETI Booklet:

Drying The Nose
Drying the nose properly is a very important part of the practice. Never neglect to do this part properly. People with high blood pressure should be careful of this part. If dizziness results when draining the nose, drying should only be done standing upright.
1. First bend forwards from the waist and hang the head upside down with the nose pointing towards the floor, letting any residual water drain from the nose. Then point the nose towards the knees. In each position, gently breathe in the mouth and out the nose about 10 times. A few droplets of water may run down.

2. Then stand up to do some rapid breathing through the nostrils. First, do 10 breaths through both nostrils together, sniffing in and out moderately with a bit more emphasis on the exhalation. Then close off the right nostril with one finger and do 10 rapid sniffing breaths through the left nostril only. Then do 10 sniffing breaths through the right nostril only. Finally, do 10 breaths again through both nostrils together.

This should clear and dry the nose. If it feels as if there is still some water in there, repeat the whole drying process again. Failure to dry the nose properly may manifest the symptoms of a cold for several hours, or leaving dirty water in the sinus passages or eustachian tubes may result in infection.

About the wash. The salt in the water helps to cleanse and soothe the mucus membranes and sinuses, and helps make you feel better (at least for a while). You are attacking the flu and cold viruses where they live, and diminishing their numbers (particularly if you’ve added xylitol, GSE or garlic juice). Repeating this procedure as often as needed during the day will help to shorten the duration of your illness, and make you feel better. Doing this before going to bed can help to promote sleep. This procedure can also be effective against seasonal allergies as it cleanses the sinuses and washes away irritants. In theory, it should help eliminate or prevent sinus infections.

Important note: Once you start feeling better it is vitally important to continue drinking plenty of water, getting good nutrition & and plenty of rest, and to allow your body to recover before returning to normal activities and habits. Failure to do so can result a very nasty relapse. Remember your body is still fighting an infection, even though your symptoms have abated.

If you cannot or do not wish to make your own nasal spray, a commercial formula is available for purchase called Xlear (pronounced “clear.”) It is a very good product.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to check out the rest of their site, click HERE.

Link between gluten sensitivity and selenium deficiency

2010-12-28T09:11:00.002-07:00

In one of my previous blogs I talked about the role of Selenium in my husband's eczema healing. He has had extensive issues with eczema on his hands. His hands have been cracked open, bleeding, peeling and itching. This was severe eczema with no treatment proving helpful, including homeopathy. When our chiropractor mentioned Selenium, we went home and began giving him Brazil nuts. Now, there can be a big disparity in sources of dietary Selenium and the soil in which things are grown will be a huge factor in the amount of Selenium in the products, so just be aware of that. HERE is a great site describing more about the role of Selenium in our health, dietary sources, the differences in different soils, etc. We always have organic, raw Brazil nuts on hand (found at our local Whole Foods market). So with adding in Selenium, his hands got much, much better. And when we removed gluten from my daughter's diet when she was just a couple of years old, her eczema on her little feet cleared up immediately. All of these things are clicking for me now as I read this information, especially given Selenium's role in our skin health. So, here is another article discussing the role of gluten and its impact on our thyroid and overall health, and also the importance of Selenium. This could be an even bigger issue if you regularly consume gluten. So, please check out this great article HERE.

Our experience with Homeopathy for Autism, day 4 of the remedy

2010-12-23T19:40:00.002-07:00

We started our remedy, just one drop of 1 pill diluted in 1 tbsp water, on Sunday. Since then, it really has been a roller coaster. Yesterday I was beginning to think this was just NOT working. What I had was a screaming, crying mess on my hands who wanted everything HIS way and right NOW! Wow, blast from the past. Then this morning we went out delivering our little goodies to our neighbors. My step-daughter had started to come down with the flu on Tuesday so I pulled out my "doctor Mom" arsenal of supplements, took a "chill day" yesterday and today she is just fine! So we were ready to get those treats delivered! We walked through our neighborhood and I began to notice something very, very different. My son had a pep in his step and more than that he was in FRONT of us! This is HUGE. One of the big things that Pierre Fontaine kept coming back to was about my son's way of walking as if his feet were planted in cement. I have attributed that to his mitochondrial issues and not getting enough energy to those muscles. I often think that my son does not have a "hurry" button. He has one speed, SLOW. My daughter who is 4 is always yelling "He's not keeping up!!!". He usually trails behind and then I need to take his hand so that he can keep up with us. Today he was leading, the whole time. He made it back home before my step-daughter and I did. Holy cow!! Now that is something I have never seen before!!!

I also covered the issue of my son's immediate transition from "I have a need that must be met" to "This need has to be met NOW, I don't care what you have going on!!" with Pierre and we spent a lot of time talking about that. Maybe that healing regression is what we have been seeing with the meltdowns and frustrations that have been higher than normal since starting the remedy. I do see greater clarity in his eyes. There have always been days where he has been "on" and very clear and since starting the remedy, even though he has been ornery as heck, that clarity is there. Then this morning my husband is talking about my son wanting a ball for Christmas and he says "That's PLURAL, ballSSSSSSS". That was pretty funny. So, that's where we are on day 4. I will keep blogging on how things are going as we progress!

Terrorism via our food supply? Too late, already been done!

2010-12-22T14:24:00.002-07:00

This came through on Facebook and I thought it was just too true. If you think your food is safe now, think again. With everything "sugar free" and "diet" (read aspartame or Splenda filled), you are already being poisoned. Look on the next boxed food you go to prepare. Does it say autolyzed yeast or maltodextrin or natural flavors? If so, those are more than likely hidden forms of MSG, another neurotoxin. And then lets talk about lunch "meats" and commercial hot dogs filled with nitrites and nitrates. These beauties have been linked to cancers, including childhood leukemia, and yet they are pretty common place in many children's diets. So here is an article from Natural News on terrorism aimed at our foods. I think the terrorists are too late.....

(NaturalNews) Always on the terror streak, the mainstream media is now warning Americans that terrorists may strike the food supply by dumping poison into restaurant salad bars and buffets, for example. CBS News broke the story, quoting anonymous "intelligence" sources who insist that terrorists might use ricin or cyanide to poison foods in salad bars.

I have news for CBS, the federal government, and the terrorists: If you really want to poison the U.S. food supply, just use aspartame. It causes neurological disorders and yet remains perfectly legal to dump into foods such as diet sodas and children's medicines. You don't even have to dump it into the food supply in secret, either: You can do it right out in full view of the public. Heck, you can even list this chemical right on the ingredients label!

Or get into the MSG business. MSG, which is often hidden on "natural" foods under an ingredient called yeast extract, is a potent neurotoxin that promotes obesity and even cancer, according to some experts. Feed people enough MSG and they'll probably die of cancer sooner or later, and that counts toward the goal of terrorism too, doesn't it?

If you really want to get nasty and up the body count, start a hot dog company and dump sodium nitrite into your processed meat like all the other hot dog companies do. Sodium nitrite promotes aggressive cancers -- even in children -- and yet the USDA and FDA allow its use in the food supply (http://www.naturalnews.com/007133.html).

Better yet, feed the population genetically modified corn and then wait for the mutations to kick in. GMOs might actually be called a biological weapon because they cause so much harm to humans and the environment. (http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html)

Why be a terrorist when you can do so much more damage as a processed food company?
If you're a terrorist looking to poison the U.S. food supply, get in line, buddy! The food companies have beat you to it!

In the U.S. food supply right now, you can find toxic mercury, BPA, acrylamides, petrochemicals, dangerous preservatives, synthetic chemicals like aspartame, pesticide residues and artificial colors that alter brain function. The FDA doesn't seem to care about any of this, of course: All these poisons in the food supply are legal!

So here's a message to Al-Qaeda and all the other terrorists trying to kill Americans: Don't bother with bombs and missiles... just get into the processed food business!

Or, heck, if you really want to kill Americans with poison, get into the cancer industry! The "Al-Qaeda Cancer Clinic" could really rack up some body bags by doing what all the other cancer clinics do: Inject patients with chemotherapy and watch them die (http://www.naturalnews.com/029996_c...).

Seriously, if you want to kill Americans, all you really need to do is keep supporting conventional medicine and the FDA with its do-nothing position on dangerous chemicals that threaten the health of Americans right now. FDA-approved drugs kill well over 100,000 Americans each year -- a statistic that dwarfs the body count of any terrorist group.

Come to think of it, how do we know the FDA isn't already being run by terrorists? Their actions, which blatantly endanger American lives, are entirely consistent with the aims of a terrorist organization. (http://www.naturalnews.com/001894.html)

By the way, this is all depicted in a CounterThink cartoon I created in 2006 called The Food Terrorists: http://www.counterthink.com/The_Foo...

This cartoon anticipated today's terror news alerts by four years. That's because when it comes to the U.S. government's rhetoric on terrorism, it's not that difficult to see where they're taking it.

Want to know what the next four years will bring us? I'll soon be publishing a list of predictions for 2011 and beyond. Watch NaturalNews.com for that announcement.

In the mean time, you might want to steer clear of FDA-approved foods and drugs, because you just never know what's really in them.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030811_terrorists_food_supply.html#ixzz18sV2Wnkz

The flu and illness as cleansing processes?

2010-12-15T05:28:00.002-07:00

Here is a thought provoking article from Dr. Tenpenny on the role of illness in health. I have read other data to suggest that people who do have these illnesses (like stomach flu) and run fevers more often live longer precisely (it was theorized) for the reasons in the article, that our illnesses help cleanse and detox our system.

For many of us, these theories are not so new or "out of the box". Anyone who has had to monitor their child's immune function or learn how their child may have been damage from vaccines or other environmental toxicty can understand this very well. Once the immune system is compromised THEN you get sick. Compromise can come in the form of not enough sleep, too much sugar, a lot of stress, heavy metal burden or other toxicity, etc. We are faced with germs every second of everyday. Why do some people catch the bug and others don't? It is their immune function. My Aunt is a polio survivor, there is a perfect example. She was very young when she contracted polio and lived in a home with her siblings (at least 2 at the time I believe) and her parents. No one else in the family got the disease. It is not necessarily the germ but the way our body fights it.

So get out and do some exercise, sweat (and speaking of sweating, don't clog up those pores needed for sweating with anti-persperants either, sweating is necessary!), eat a clean diet, consider a liver detox at least once a year, or at least add in some liver support like milk thistle and artichoke. Consider sauna therapy, look at chelation if you feel there is an issue with heavy metals, the point is, DETOX. The stomach flu is certainly an effective detox, not a pleasant one but certainly effective. I usually get it every other year, maybe that is my tipping point?? Maybe this year (my off year, fingers crossed) I will put some of these into practice and see what happens for next year. But in any event, I think we need to look at illness differently. It is not some terrible occurrence meant to be feared and avoided at all costs. Illness is how our system gets stronger. See it as a chink in the armor, a sign you need to slow down, look at your diet and really nourish yourself in many ways. And by the way, the germs are ALWAYS around us, the way we don't constantly get sick is through a healthy immune system! Here's Dr. Tenpenny's article:

A Heretic’s View of Influenza’s Role in Health and Disease
Article by Dr Sherri Tenpenny

We’ve all been taught that germs are bad and they are lurking around every corner, waiting to invade defenseless humans. Doctors and the media talk about swine flu as though getting the flu is an inevitable catastrophe unless, of course, we are injected with the life-saving flu shot.
We go to great lengths to combat these potential invaders: frequent hand-washing, learning to cough in our sleeves and grimacing at the thought of eating a morsel retrieved from the floor. Is all this necessary? Or is there a different view? One of the chiasms between conventional medical doctors and those who embrace alternative practices is the view of how the Germ Theory of Disease (credited to Louis Pasteur) impacts health. Many assume a discussion about the Germ Theory is a moot point. Questioning its validity elicits divisiveness and hostility among medical practitioners and laypersons alike. Why? Because challenging Pasteur’s mechanistic idea of disease—finding the right cure (drug) for each germ—was the seed of the pharmaceutical empire. Nonetheless, it is most unfortunate that Pasteur’s premise was accepted as complete to the exclusion of all others. There is little doubt that by the 21st century, a 19th century concept should have evolved. The frailty of the immune system is a medical myth. We need a better understanding of the relationship between humans and microbes to live in optimal health.

The Immune System Explained
The immune system is the complex interaction between white blood cells, antibodies, hormones, proteins, enzymes, and inflammatory molecules called cytokines. All act in silent synchrony to maintain health. The body is exposed to billions of microbes on the skin, in the mouth, in the digestive tract, and on everything we touch. Microbes that coexist with humans are called symbionts—organisms we have a beneficial relationship with, and are considered to be part of, our normal flora.The immune system can easily recognize non-symbionts and effectively eliminates them. This process occurs thousands of times per day with little fanfare. However, it is not the “invasion” by external microbes that leads to symptoms known as an infection; it is the compromise of the immune system due to the contamination of the terrain that allows this to occur. By most historical accounts, Pasteur is considered a luminary hero. Some of his discoveries were undoubtedly noteworthy. For example, Pasteur has been credited with the development of a process known as pasteurization, a method by which microbes are destroyed by heat. Examining his germ theory premises and generally accepted medical history is monumentally difficult, especially regarding someone with the stature of Pasteur. However, there is another view of disease which challenges Pasteur’s 150-year-old premise: Health is about the condition of the body called the “terrain,” or its “soil,” and only when the immune system’s soil is disrupted and contaminated can pathogens propagate.

Renewing the Germ Theory Debate
The germ theory and the opposing view are part of the fabric woven around the history of medicine. Many notable individuals throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s were involved with the debate, but the most vocal figures were Pasteur and his two contemporaries, Claude Bernard and Antoine Béchamp. Both strong critics of Pasteur’s work, it was Bernard—a physiologist and heralded as the Father of Experimental Medicine—who made the statement amidst a group of physicians and scientists, “The terrain is everything; the germ is nothing,” creating the great debate. As contrary as it seems, germs are attracted to the diseased tissues; they are not the primary cause of it. A quote from Dr. Rudolph Virchow, the Father of Modern Pathology, supports this idea: “If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat—diseased tissue—rather than being the cause of dead tissue. In other words, mosquitoes seek the stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant.” The symptoms of the flu or pneumonia—fever, chills, cough, and excess mucous production—are actually secondary illnesses; the first “illness” was loss of health in the underlying tissues. Bernard’s view is that disease is an “inside-out job,” meaning that when the body is disrupted by today’s toxicities—vaccines, chemicals, heavy metals, processed food, preservatives, etc. – disease occurs. These molecules create a cellular shift toward an acidic state. When cells become acidic, pathogens find a favorable environment to replicate. What is little known is that throughout his career, Pasteur had doubts about his own assumptions. On his deathbed, Pasteur said “Bernard avait raison. Le germe n’est rien, c’est le terrain qui est tout.” (“Bernard was right. The germ is nothing; the soil is everything.”) However, by the time of Pasteur’s death, the germ theory of disease had become so profitable that modern medicine dismissed his final confessions as nothing more than the ramblings of a dying man. It should always be remembered: The money is in the medicine—not the cure.

The Benefit of Pathogens?
It may be that the role of both the bacteria and the virus is to induce an inflammatory response, a low-level and modified cytokine storm, to help the body to detoxify. It would be very interesting to test the secretions that are expelled during a bout of the flu for chemicals and heavy metals. For example, if a person reportedly died from “viral pneumonia,” perhaps the body was trying to expel a huge amount of chemical-containing mucous. If the person’s immune system was too weak to muster an adequate response or his lymphatics were too congested to drain the accumulated debris—and more chemicals are added during the acute episode, such as aspirin, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and steroids—the body may have become overwhelmed, leading to the person’s demise. In the presence of faulty detoxification processes, toxic overload occurs. Maybe microbes are handy to have around, inflaming the system and cleaning out the muck. If everything on this planet is here for a reason and there are no mistakes, perhaps an episode of the flu, with the increased mucous, cough, nasal drainage, and diarrhea is the act of cleaning out the internal dross. Supporting the body through this elimination process with homeopathy, herbs, and Chinese medicine – instead of suppressing the symptoms with Western medicine’s tools – may be the key to long-term health and longevity. From this perspective, instead of being the problem, viruses may be part of the solution, the “clean-up crew.”It should be noted that the human race evolved because of its relationship to microbes, not in spite of it. What a novel thought! Instead of fearing the flu and doing everything possible to avoid it – including spending billions of dollars to create an experimental vaccine – it may be okay to spend a week or two in bed, clearing out accumulated toxicities. I’m sure many will think of this heresy bordering on the ridiculous. But in the words of Mark Twain, “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, it’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Adapted from: FOWL! Bird Flu: It’s Not What You Think order today

and the "swine flu fiasco"
http://drtenpenny.com/swine_flu_hype.aspx

Selenium and ezcema

2010-12-14T20:18:00.005-07:00

As you may recall, my husband suffers from severe eczema on his hands, to the point where it has interfered with his life and daily functioning. We have struggled with this, eliminated foods from his diet, added in supplements, even consulted with a homeopath and tried various remedies, all with meager changes. We were in seeing our chiropractor, Dr. Wayne Christensen of Queen Creek Back Care, and he suggested Selenium out of the blue.

Well, I always have raw, organic brazil nuts in the house because I know they are so healthy and full of selenium, just 3 give you your daily dose! The kids each get 1 per day. I gave my husband 3. The next day, his hands were noticeably better! We continued on with a supplement of selenium to give him more potency and more controlled dose as there is no "set" dose in a brazil nut since soil levels impact concentration in the nut.

Now to back up a little, I have had a sneaky suspicion that my husband's hands were related to mercury poisoning as well. I just had a hunch, knowing the way the adult body works to eliminate toxins and metals, that what we were seeing was a desperate attempt at mercury detox. And add to that the fact that we saw a change when I would have him bump up his N-Acetylcysteine, which also contributes to metal detox, mercury was definitely on my mind. Oh and he has a mouth full of fillings and has had his share of vaccines, being a military child and all. So we are seeing progress and on Facebook I keep seeing posts on selenium, its benefits, etc. Then I see one about selenium helping to remove mercury from the body!! Read it here. Ding, Ding, Ding we have a winner!!! Who knew? Not me. I've heard of many other chelators, not selenium. Here is more info on selenium. Were you aware that children with food allergies are more likely to have a selenium deficiency? And people with a selenium deficiency are also likely to have high cholesterol (which my husband also had until recently!). So, I urge you to take a look at this often forgotten mineral and see if this might be a good one to begin adding in. Even if it is just as simple as a brazil nut a day.

Of course, before you add any supplements into your daily regime or that of your child, you should always check with your trusted health care provider first.

More immune systems tid bits

2010-12-09T10:37:00.002-07:00

Here is a great article on growing your own superfoods as well as a source for buying the seeds. Preparedness is key, in any event and in any economy. But the world in which we live now, I feel it is even more important to take some common sense precautions. Understanding what herbs and supplements can help protect your body is one of the most important things we can do to protect our health, in any event. And, the ability to grow our own food and herbs that support that health is a right which we all have and many don't take advantage of. Gardens can be grown anywhere, even in doors. You can use containers, elaborate raised beds, we've even started seedlings in an old plastic bottle that we cut in half! It takes a little effort but the rewards are great.

And, here is a good article on how we overdone it on antibacterial everything. Unless you live in a hospital, you probably don't need to antibacterial wipe everything you own or come in contact with, just sayin'. I am a recovered germaphobe and understanding how the immune system works (and gets stronger) helped cure me of my antibacterial wipes addiction. Add to that the fact that we are contributing to super bugs that are resistant (not to mention exposing ourselves to chemicals which our bodies don't always know what to do with) and the use of these wipes can pose more problems than cures.

But what does work to help prevent getting sick (and remember our bodies NEED to get sick occasionally, that is how our body gets stronger!) is to get good nutrition, cut the sugar, reduce stress, get your sleep and add in some supplements. I have blogged a lot about vitamin D3, here is another article on the importance of D3.

The importance of Zinc

2010-11-30T12:51:00.003-07:00

I recently attended a mental health conference put on by Great Plains Labs. New Beginnings Nutritionals has recently released a whole line of supplements geared to support mental health functioning, with the advice and guidance of Dr. Greenblatt. Dr. Greenblatt is the chief medical officer for Walden Behavioral Care in Massachusetts. He has successfully treated many patients (adults and adolescents) with mental disorders ranging from eating disorders to other psychiatric problems. He was talking about the use of zinc in many functions of the body. I had no idea zinc was so important. Zinc is critical for neurological and behavioral development in young children, immune function and even in DNA replication and RNA transcription.

If you'd like to learn more about zinc, here is a great article written by New Beginnings. We use the liquid zinc as both my children cannot taste the zinc (which means you are deficient). It is so easy to put a few drops in their water cups (away from calcium supplementation).

Gratitude

2010-11-24T15:40:00.003-07:00

As it is Thanksgiving eve, I am reflecting even more on what I am grateful for. I try and start each day with my gratitudes, I believe that gratitude opens the door for even more abundance in our lives. But this year what is going through my head is the statement "What am I NOT grateful for?". I am hard pressed to think of one thing in my life that I am not grateful for. No, I am not going all "Pollyana" on you guys but I think I have tried to change my mindset this year. Could I focus on all the negatives like never having enough money, enough time, enough patience? Sure I could, just like everyone else I have things I like to complain about. But then getting into that negative downward spiral is a bad thing. I am sure you all have those "energy vampires" whom always seem to take a turn to negative town and you can't help but follow them even though you really hate the trip. I feel like I need to sage or do a cleanse after I am around them. That is not how I want to live my life, constantly thinking of the things I don't have, haven't done, can't seem to attain or who has pissed me off (that alone would probably be a long list). Instead, this year all I can think is that I am grateful for every piece (or peace) of my life right now. I am grateful for a loving husband who supports me, listens to me, and loves me in spite of (or because) of my faults. I have the most wonderful children on the planet. There is not a day that goes by where I don't think how much I love them and how proud of them I am. My son is continually able to make his recovery from Autism, he is doing what many say cannot be done, he is DOING IT! He is so full of life, makes everyone laugh and has a smile that will melt your heart. My daughter is simply amazing, funny, sweet, empathetic, charming and sassy as HELL. I love it! She will be able to take my place easily when the time comes. My step-daughter is a beautiful, intelligent and caring young woman. My family listens to me and supports me, even though I am pretty sure many of them think I am a little crazy. Unless they have seen my son's recovery first hand, then they are the ones asking my advice on diet and supplements! My friends are the greatest, new and old and this last year I have been able to reconnect with several of them and it has been the greatest just spending time with them after many years physically apart. And I am so thankful for my blogging friends, ones I know in person or just in the blogosphere. You have enriched my life, made me think even more, encouraged me to look at things I may not have otherwise and I am so grateful. So while this year is lean and we struggle to make the ends meet like many, we never lose our grasp on the truly important things. It isn't what stuff you give your kids, it is the time you spend with them and by that definition our children are rich! We will spend a very quiet Thanksgiving tomorrow, just us, preparing a meal together that nourishes our body and our souls. We will give thanks for our many blessings, the food we have and the love that we share. So from our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving!

Help protect small farmers and growers

2010-11-18T07:49:00.006-07:00

Thanks to your phone calls and emails the Tester-Hagan Amendment is now attached to the Food Safety Bill known as S510! Read about it here. That is wonderful progress but we still have work to do! Now that we know this amendment is at least attached, we can urge Senators to vote NO on the whole bill. Here is a great website that explains why this bill is bad overall and has a link where you can send emails right to your senators. If the bill passes, we at least know there are some safeties put in place to help protect our small farmers. The best things is still to defeat this bill entirely. But, now we at least have a better version, should it pass. Thanks for anyone who made calls/emails. If you can make one more telling them to VOTE NO on S510 that would be awesome!!! Food safety is critically important but this bill does not help protect our food supply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is legislation that is being negotiated today that, if passed without this amendment would severely cripple local growers. I for one am much more comfortable buying my family's food from local growers whom I can meet, ask about their growing procedures, etc. than I am the giant food producers who see our food simply as dollars going out the door. Our food supply should be diverse, as it was intended to be, and we should have local options available to us. Consumers should make the choice to support small, local growers if we want. Legislation should not mandate unrealistic requirements suited to large scale producers, it would effectively shut down most local growers. If legislators want to "protect" our food supply they should focus on things like removing the hidden sources of MSG (a known neurotoxin and chemical designed to addict people to their food) and other chemicals that most consumers don't even know about rather than shutting down the local farmers who are producing the real, healthy food we should be eating. Call your senator today and ask them to support the Tester-Hagan Amendment!! Here are links explaining the issue more.

Letter from an organization supporting the Tester-Hagan Amendment.

Information on what the existing legislation would require and what the Tester-Hagan Amendment would change.

For those in Arizona, our Senators are:

John McCain (602) 952-2410
Jon Kyl (602) 840-1891

Cholesterol levels, Autism, and brain function - how low is too low?

2010-11-17T09:19:00.004-07:00

If you are like me, your trips to the doctor sometimes include lab workups and for the most part, your cholesterol focus is on lowering, not raising. I have always been "blessed" with low cholesterol. I have been praised for my cholesterol levels and even tried to reduce them to below 100, because if low is good, lower is better right?? Well, having a child with Autism has definitely been an education in all aspects of health, including my own. Did you know that adequate levels of cholesterol are needed to activate oxytocin receptors? Maybe that contributed in some way to why I never went into labor on my own, had a failed induction after tons of pitocin, had to have a c-section and then had problems with milk supply (many of these things are influenced by oxytocin). My son also had low cholesterol which we were able to raise thanks to a supplement called Sonic Cholesterol from New Beginnings. My son also had an egg allergy which made it very tough to get dietary levels of cholesterol into him. So, here we are a few years later and I am finally getting my own act together with labs, check ups, etc. Cholesterol levels for me? 119. YIKES! Normal range is about 160. And this is with a hard boiled egg every morning! So, looks like I will be taking Sonic Cholesterol as well to bring my number up to at least 160. Why is cholesterol important? Here is a great article by Dr. William Shaw on the importance of cholesterol and brain function. So maybe we can stop focusing only on high cholesterol and look at people with low cholesterol and how that may negatively impact their brain function. People with low cholesterol suffer more from mental conditions like schizophrenia than people with cholesterol in normal ranges. Please note, a physician's referral is needed to order Sonic Cholesterol. You need to be under the guidance and supervision of a physician while taking this and periodic labs need to be run to check your progress.

Dangers of microwaving food

2010-11-16T07:19:00.005-07:00

Here is a video talking about the dangers of microwaving foods. We stopped using our microwave months and months ago. And quite honestly I cannot even remember when we decided to stop using it, which is rather weird because I thought I would have a very hard time with this. The microwave has been an integral part of our kitchen for as long as I can remember. But I started reading more and more data talking about why it was harmful. It changes the chemical structure of our food, most often turning it into carcinogen filled byproducts of its former nutritious self. And each food category changes in different ways. This disturbed me and motivated me to stop using ours. This video presents some of that data but in a very brief way. I have also included links where you can read more yourself if this video is not enough for you.

Here is an article from Dr. Mercola.

Here is another site with good info on what it does to our food.

So instead we bought a toaster oven that is also a convection oven. It was cheap and works SO well. That handles most of what we used to microwave. And for reheating food, I pull out my pots and pans, add a little water in the bottom and reheat on the stove. It takes a little more time, a little more effort and a little more cleanup. But, if I am going to blog about eating healthy, going organic, etc., why would I then turn my food into a cancer causing organism after all that? So, more food for thought.....we need the info to keep making informed decisions for our families!

More info on Respen-A from Dr. Kurt Woeller

2010-11-02T11:52:00.004-07:00

Dr. Woeller, my son's DAN! physician, was interviewed on The Autism Tomorrow internet TV site yesterday. Clink HERE to listen to what Dr. Woeller has to say about Respen-A. We were among the first of his clients to try Respen-A and it has been one of the most transformational therapies for my son. It is available by prescription, easy to apply and so worthwhile, in my opinion. I have blogged our experiences with Respen-A since we started.

And, if you want some additional info on some of the frequently asked questions about Respen-A, you can click HERE to watch Dr. Woeller answer, and address, some of these issues. Hopefully if you are curious about Respen-A and whether it may be a good therapy to try for your child, this will help.

New research on the impact of Roundup to human cells

2010-10-28T10:25:00.002-07:00

This should not come as any surprise to people. What it should do it force people to wake up and start looking at their environment and food more closely. Monsanto is the creator of Roundup, they are also the main supplier of GMO seed. Their seeds are genetically modified to withstand Roundup. They can spray the plants with this toxin and they will survive. GMO food has been shown to increase inflammation in the body and theoretically would carry a bigger toxic burden since it would be able to withstand Roundup application. Another very good reason to buy organic produce lies in this article HERE. While we cannot control all of our toxin exposures, we have to be mindful of the tipping point. I had to laugh when the article says "Monsanto, Roundup’s manufacturer, contends that the methods used in the study don’t reflect realistic conditions and that their product, which has been sold since the 1970s, is safe when used as directed. Hundreds of studies over the past 35 years have addressed the safety of glyphosate." Well, should we look at Autism rates back then, ADHD rates, juvenile diabetes rates, juvenile obesity rates? Do we not see a correlation? Just because something has been in use for that long does not make it safe. And what does it say that our rates of neurological and auto-immune diseases have skyrocketed during the same time period? Roundup is a piece of that pie, not the whole pie certainly, but a piece. More and more of our food today is GMO food, everything from schools, playgrounds, churches and HOMES are sprayed with these toxins. The human body is miraculous but come on, we have to help it out here (and let's compare this to our mother Earth as well). Pollute it to this level and yes, bad things happen. Lets wake up and smell the dandelions growing wild in our yards (well if dandelions had a distinct smell but you get the metaphor, right?). I have blogged before, weeds are the least of our problems, same thing with germs. These toxic chemicals we spray all over everything are far more harmful. Dr. Stuart Freedenfeld does an amazing talk at DAN! on protecting yourself in a toxic world. Look at the chemicals found in a newborn baby's cord blood. Hundreds of toxic chemicals are already polluting our precious infants. There are other ways, less profitable to the powers that be but when will we learn that we cannot eat or drink money? Every plot of land soon will be developed. We will only produce GMO corn and soy and import all of our "food" from China. And then we will be up in arms and revolt when we are all obese and everyone has been poisoned with melamine. Educate yourself on the quality of food going into your family. Our food should be pure and unadulterated. Put down those coupons for "fruit" by the foot, goldfish crackers, pop tarts and "juice". Head to your local farmer's market. Buy a juicer and expose your family to true, healthy juice with all those live enzymes, not the dead, pasteurized stuff with dyes, high fructose corn syrup and fillers. Enjoy a smoothie with your kids, throw in some frozen bananas and make this your nightly "ice cream", we do! Eat a salad with fresh greens, red and yellow bell peppers, fresh broccoli or put together a stir fry with fresh veggies, organic rice and maybe some organic chicken. That is what we had for dinner last night. It doesn't have to be hard or expensive. But, it does take getting out of your comfort level and maybe some extra time. A whole cart at the farmer's market runs me about $20, a whole cart FULL of beautiful produce. Homemade sweet potato fries are a huge hit in this house. But, it can take some time to get used to the fresh tastes and remove the tricks that high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and MSG (all 200 forms!!!) have played on our brains. I remember grossing out at a date roll. Now I can appreciate the sweetness, I couldn't then. But, take control of your diet and that of your family. Just like anything, it is hard at first but you get used to it. Don't fall into the trap that your kids NEED capri suns or the crap that they see at school. Rise above it and know you are making a better choice. Know that you are giving your child a better chance than the 1 in 3 that will have diabetes in the future. Make sure YOUR child is one of the other 2!! It may not be easy at first, but I promise it WILL be worth it!

L-Carnitine changes

2010-10-28T09:01:00.002-07:00

So some who have been following this blog may know about our issues with L-Carnitine and Acetyl L-Carnitine. When we tried to introduce these supplements, after 3 days of use my son began to smell very strongly of fish. We started with L-Carnitine and then later switched to Acetyl L-Carnitine, same thing occured with both forms. After some talking to Dr. Woeller and a quick internet search we came up with this HERE. Once again, it comes down to enzymes. So, after our success with Respen-A for almost a year and the tanning that we are seeing as a sign of enzyme progress, we decided to reintroduce Carnitine but very, very slowly. We did 250 mg every 3rd day. By the 2nd dose we were seeing lots of emotional outbursts, screaming "NO, I DON'T WANT TO" when we made requests, craziness. That sealed the deal and we will rest knowing we tried yet again. The last thing we wanted to do was flare clostridia since that had happened in the past when we used Carnitine.

That was last week. This week we are making the transition to Ubiquinol (read more about Ubiquinol HERE) instead of the CoQ10 we were using. This morning is the first dose so we shall see what happens.....always interesting around here. But, We always have to be learning and trying new things to maximize our kiddos' healing I think. I came back from the DAN! conference with a few new tidbits and wanted to see if anything I heard would make a difference. I will keep the blog posted on what changes we see (if any) with this new form of CoQ10.

The importance of vitamin D3, especially during cold and flu season!

2010-10-27T14:23:00.003-07:00

I blogged something similar last year as well. Each year there seems to be more data suggesting the important role vitamin D3 has in immune function and protection against the flu, including H1N1. I firmly believe that the only defense is a good immune system. That IS our protection, period. So, the more you can do to boost your immunity, the better you will fare during cold and flu season. And lets remember that contracting and fighting these bugs is what enables our system to continually get stronger. Life is not about NOT getting sick, that is impossible, it is about getting sick, fighting it effectively because you've supported your immune system and then moving on quickly with greater immunity in the future. Nobody likes being sick but it kind of goes with the territory of being human. But our bodies were designed to fight these bugs, we just need to make sure we optimize our health to allow it to do so. Below is an article from www.foodconsumer.org on vitamin D3. (By the way, the 1200 ius that the doctors suggest for children to cut risk of flu by 64% is just 2 drops of the mycellized D3 from New Beginnings, FYI).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News on viruses and viral diseases

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its flu message on its website on Oct 19 to promote use of influenza vaccine and get ready for the 2010-2011 flu season.

In the meantime, some medical researchers suggest people should take high doses of vitamin D in winter to have additional protection because flu vaccine is not as effective as thought.

The CDC said right now flu activity is low, but everyone 6 months and older should get vaccinated even if they received a seasonal or 2009 H1N1 vaccine last year.

According to the agency, the influenza vaccine for 2010 to 2011 season has been updated to include three flu viruses including H1N1, which media reports have said will not be a pandemic in the near future to say the least.

Children, pregnant women, elderly people and those whose immunity such as HIV, cancer patients has been compromised are considered at high risk for flu complications.

At flu.gov, the first message that shows up on the website is for pregnant women. It says "Protect Yourself and Your Baby Get A flu shot." Flu.gov also reminds consumers that other measures like washing hands need to be taken to prevent influenza.

One important preventative measure, taking vitamin D3 to boost innate immunity against influenza, was not mentioned on both cdc.gov and flu.gov. Recent evidence is convincing that taking high doses of vitamin D can highly effectively prevent flu including H1N1 the swine flu.

Lapinsky S.E. in April, 2010 published a study in Critical Care Medicine saying that pregnant women and immunosupressed patients are at increased risk of severe A (H1N1) influenza.

To respond to Lapinsky's findings, Dr. William B. Grant, PhD, Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC) in San Francisco, CA and John J. Cannell, MD, The Vitamin D Council in San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 commented in the journal that the risk of influenza is linked to low serum vitamin D levels.

Vitamin D helps make antimicrobial peptides, which can prevent influenza viruses including H1N1. The role of vitamin D in innate immunity has been known for some time now, even though many people may not have heard of it.

Dr. Cannell said in his newsletter issued last year that two physicians, one in Wisconsin and the other in Georgia reported their observations that taking high doses of vitamin D in winter protected against H1N1 virus effectively.

According to Drs. Grant and Cannell, a Japanese trial has already demonstrated in a trial that children who took 1,200 IU per day of vitamin D3 and no additional vitamin D3 had their risk of influenza reduced by 64 percent.

One needs to know the efficacy of influenza vaccine to appreciate the protective effect of vitamin D reported in the Japanese study. Often, the effectiveness of influenza vaccine is likely no better than what vitamin D3 can provide as shown in the Japanese study.

High levels of serum vitamin D can help prevent other bacterial and viral infections, cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases as well as adverse pregnancy outcomes in addition to influenza and pneumonia, Dr. Grant and dr. Cannell said in their comment.

Drs. Grant and Cannell said in their comment "pregnant women should be encouraged to increase their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to 40 to 80 ng/mL through supplementation with several thousand international units per day of vitamin D3 or solar ultraviolet-B when the sun is high enough that one’s shadow is shorter than one’s height."

It is generally advisable that no matter a person gets influenza vaccine or not, he should make sure to maintain sufficient levels of vitamin D to protect seasonal flu and H1N1 in any flu season. This is necessary because in most cases influenza vaccine does not work as effectively as thought.

Jimmy Downs

Toxins in Halloween face paint

2010-10-26T20:08:00.003-07:00

I posted something similar last year but it is worth repeating. Here is an article from Yahoo Green about face paints. It is worth the read and something to be aware of. There are so many ways our children are exposed to toxins that if you can eliminate one, why not? At least you are armed with the knowledge to make an informed decision!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Food and Drug Administration is warning parents to be wary of Halloween face paint, which the agency has limited jurisdiction over.

Halloween costume makeup is recommended as a good alternative to masks for kids who will be walking the streets trick-or-treating, since masks can obscure vision.

But Halloween face paint can have toxic ingredients (like lead and mercury) if not formulated according to the law; it can cause reactions in those who are allergic to certain ingredients; and it can cause reactions if applied to the wrong parts of the body.

The FDA recommends these simple steps to keep safe:

1. Follow all Halloween face paint directions carefully, including warnings against using around the eyes.

2. Don't decorate your face with products, paints, and colorings that aren't intended for your skin (and check out The Daily Green's 14 favorite homemade Halloween costumes for kids and adults).

3. If your Halloween face paint has a very bad smell, this could be a sign that it is contaminated. Throw it away and use another one.

4. Before using new Halloween costume makeup, perform a simple patch test, particularly if you or your child is prone to allergic reactions, a few days before Halloween.

5. Read ingredient lists and don't buy any product that has non-approved colors. The FDA lists coloring agents approved for use in cosmetics. Go beyond the FDA list and check your Halloween face paint label against The Daily Green's list of six cosmetics ingredients to avoid.

6. Don't use products with fluorescent colors near the eyes. You can identify fluorescent colorings by looking for the following ingredients:

D&C Orange No. 5, No. 10, and No. 11
D&C Red No. 21, No. 22, No. 27 and No. 28
D&C Yellow No. 7
7. Don't use luminescent (glow-in-the-dark) colors (like zinc sulfide) near your eyes.

8. Wash thoroughly (and follow label instructions) once trick-or-treating or the party is over. Don't go to sleep with Halloween costume makeup on your skin.

9. Before using an older product, check it against the information included in the May 2009 recall of Fun Express children's face paints, and the June 2009 expansion of that recall. See all children's product and toxic toy recalls.

10. If you have a bad reaction to Halloween face paint, report the incident to the FDA, so that other consumers can be protected.

The Daily Green adds that you can look for natural makeups and cosmetics to cut down on the chance of an adverse reaction (though allergens come in natural and synthetic forms).

Allergen free Halloween candy list

2010-10-23T06:49:00.004-07:00

Well, if you are like me and dreading Halloween only from the standpoint of the allergen-filled candy bags that we bring home, then you are going to love this list! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the excitement in the air, the dressing up, coming together as a community and seeing everyone fill our neighborhood streets and going door to door. But, I don't love coming home and not being really sure what my kids are allowed to have. Not only do they suffer from food intolerances but we keep a tight rein on any refined sugar as well. Sugar feeds yeast, affects behavior and depresses the immune system. So, we don't use refined sugar at all except for the very rare cupcake or cake and my dairy free "buttercream" frosting recipe. Other than that, we use all natural alternatives like Stevia or we use honey, dates, fruit, or even crystallized coconut sugar which is made from the sap of the coconut tree. But, I do want my kids to have SOMETHING yummy and something on our "no-no list" once in a while. So, while searching the web about candy corns, I found this gem. As always, read labels to double check whether your child's allergen is listed, but I found this resource very helpful. I am passing it on in the hopes you will too, click HERE. Have a safe and fun Halloween!!

Toxins in our environment

2010-10-19T19:53:00.002-07:00

Reducing everyday toxins is a big focus of mine and has been since I have learned more about my son's Autism and some of the things that I believe have contributed to it. It really bugs me to see the hypervigilance on things like disinfecting sprays, wipes, chemicals when our bodies are really designed to handle the bugs, it is the chemicals that it doesn't know what to do with! And we are also contributing to the rise in super bugs. Good handwashing and common sense practices can cut down your chances of getting sick. And common sense things like staying home while sick, and keeping your kids home while sick, covering your cough with your elbow, etc can reduce the risk of you spreading bugs to others, believe me, everyone thanks you for keeping those germs at home! But more than anything, I would challenge you to do an immune system assessment. Our immune system IS our defense. A good, healthy, predominantly plant based diet, maybe a good multi-vitamin, some common sense supplements and herbs and very little "junk" will go a long way to keeping our system working well (did you know that sugar depresses immune function?). Stress and sleep are also big immune system saboteurs. So, finding healthy outlets for stress and getting enough sleep will also help keep you well. Here is a wonderful newsletter by Great Plains Labs, in it Dr. Shaw and others talk about some of the commonplace chemicals that are not so pretty these days, one is Triclosan. It seems that Triclosan, and its evil sister Microban, is showing up all other the place these days. It was even hard to find child's lunchbox or scissors without Microban on them! Do some research of your own on these two gems. I avoid them personally at all cost. Dr. Shaw has some things to say about Triclosan and some great tips on helping the body detox after exposures, and we ALL have exposures. So, understanding what things will help the body get rid of the bad stuff to keep running effectively is important. Read his newsletter HERE.

TEE*M Products

2010-10-13T22:27:00.003-07:00

I always have a ton of new ideas floating around. I usually lack the time (or energy) to implement them. But, I have finally decided to bite the bullet and get started so I am jumping in with both feet! I am introducing T*E*E*M GREEN products. I am starting out small, with reusable sandwich and snack bags at first. But, look for a more broad product line as I get packaging and ingredients together for our T*E*E*M CLEAN line. All of our items will focus on health, wellness and environmental impact with an emphasis on green items. We are T*E*E*M-ing with excitement!

So pop on over to our T*E*E*M blog, there you will find my very first products for sale in the T*E*E*M shop. More colors and designs are coming soon, and special requests welcome! I will also have family size assortments to handle snack sized baggies and even larger baggies as well.

More information on the negative effects of BPA

2010-09-29T14:12:00.002-07:00

I know I have blogged this before, BPA is something I avoid for our family. That can be challenging since it is a very prevalent component in many commonly used things. Plastic bottles, containers, canned goods, etc. all can have BPA exposure. Below is an article talking about why BPA may want to be avoided. We have switched to glass for most food storage and I never put hot food into plastic anymore, even in plastics without BPA. Canned foods are a no-no for me unless they come from EDEN FOODS. Eden foods has a commitment to provide quality foods without GMOs and their cans do not have BPA. Here's a link about their cans, click HERE. They are one of the only companies that does offer a BPA free can. If I find any others I will certainly pass that info on. Food storage is something I have been learning more about for the last few years. I like to be prepared for anything and that means being able to feed my family in the case of an emergency. But, unless they are Eden Foods, we don't use too many cans. I do break down once in a while and get the organic pears from Fresh and Easy but that is about it. Eden Foods has canned tomatoes (which will leech more toxins from cans since they are acidic) along with beans, rice and lentil combos, etc. Check them out and I would encourage you to support them.

From www.FWdailynews.com
BPA: Studies suggest it should be avoided
By Dr. Terry Gaff
Sunday, 26 September 2010 00:00
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used to make plastic and epoxy resins, among other things, that have been both common and useful in our day-to-day life for more than 50 years.

The problem is that it may be toxic, especially to fetuses, infants and young children.

BPA, a key ingredient in polycarbonate plastic, which is clear and nearly shatter-proof, is used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental devices, dental fillings and sealants, eyeglass lenses, CDs and DVDs and household electronics.

Epoxy resins containing bisphenol A have also been used as coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans. BPA is also a color developer in carbonless copy paper and thermal paper, commonly used in receipt paper at your checkout counter. BPA-based products are also used in foundry castings and for lining water pipes.

There are literally millions of tons of BPA produced every year. However, in the U.S., less than five percent of the BPA produced is used in food contact applications. Even that small percent may be too much.

When you look at the bottom of a plastic container, there is a little triangle with a number inside. That number indicates which of the seven classes of plastics is used in making the product.

Type seven includes several types of plastics, some of which contain polycarbonate (identified with the letters PC near the recycling symbol). Type three (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) can also contain bisphenol A. This is particularly true for “flexible PVC”, but not the PVC pipes used in household plumbing.

The concern about bisphenol A is that it can mimic the body’s hormones and may lead to health problems. However, some of that concern is more opinion than science.

A panel of experts appointed by the National Institutes of Health determined that there was “some concern” about BPA’s effects on fetal and infant brain development and behavior. This was seconded by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), regarding “the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures to bisphenol A,” as well as a small concern for effects on the breast tissue and an earlier age for puberty for females in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures.

On the other hand, the NTP expressed no significant concern about exposure of pregnant women to BPA resulting in fetal or neonatal death, birth defects or reduced birth weight and growth in their babies.

Other reviews of BPA data have concluded that BPA exposure before and after birth may increase body weight and obesity.

Some research has suggested a connection between BPA and interference with brain cell connections vital to memory, learning and mood. Highly controversial claims have been made that BPA could be involved in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other neuralgic problems.

There are lots of studies about whether BPA is related to cancer or the sensitivity to chemotherapy treatment of specific tumors. However, those questions have not been clearly answered.

A large study of health effects on 1,500 people associated with bisphenol A exposure found that higher BPA levels were associated with heart disease, diabetes and abnormally high levels of certain liver enzymes. However, these findings need to be confirmed and a second study found an associated increased risk for heart disease but not for diabetes or liver enzymes.

Studies have suggested that BPA exposure is associated with recurrent miscarriage, altered hormone levels in men, declining male sexual function and other concerns.

The problem is that plastics with BPA can break down, especially when they are washed, heated or stressed, allowing the chemical to leach into food and water and then enter the human body. In fact, the CDC has found BPA in the urine of 93 percent of surveyed Americans over the age of six years and 90 percent of newborns.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set the current U.S. human exposure limit set at 50 micrograms/kg/day. The federal government formally declared bisphenol A as a hazardous substance in October 2008 and has placed it on its list of toxic substances.

Companies like Nalgene have stopped using the chemical in their products and Toys-R-Us said it too will stop selling baby bottles made from it. Many U.S. states are considering some sort of BPA ban and other countries, like Canada and Japan, have restricted and/or eliminated the use of BPA in many products.

Even Sunoco, a producer of gasoline and chemicals, is now refusing to sell the chemical to companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3 years.

What I recommend is that you heat your food and drinks in glass, stainless steel or BPA-free plastic containers, which are marked with recycling codes 1, 2, 5 or 7 without the PC (polycarbonate) marking. Also, store food or drinks in these types of containers.

What a difference a new teacher makes

2010-09-25T10:18:00.001-07:00

So I just blogged our experiences from school the last few weeks. As I said, our new teacher has been staying in constant contact, what's even better is that it has all been good news.

So in keeping with that theme, I received a reply from her yesterday. The special ed director was wanting an update on how we felt the transition was going. Since I have not been in the class yet to volunteer, I emailed the teacher to find out how things were going from HER perspective. I heard that all reports had been good into the Principal and special ed from their viewpoint but it really comes down to what the teacher is seeing daily.

The email I got back was insightful and very, very positive! She said he needs gentle reminders to stay on track, but they are nothing out of ordinary from what all of the other (neurotypical) first graders need. He is getting help from parent helpers on the math sheet in class but she feels that once he gets into the groove he won't need that since he is doing really well working independently on the "math facts" sheet already. She said he is a very happy little boy who is very proud of his hard work. She has assessed that his self-esteem can be low and when you encourage him, he thrives!! Usually this is a concept that I have to tell teachers about and she already knew that 1 week in. Positive reinforcement is key with my son, his fear of failure is huge. She had good things to say about his ability to sit and focus, as is age appropriate, and that he is not needing any more "wiggle breaks" than what she is already providing. One of the things I liked best about her class were those chances to move along with learning. She said he is a great kid and she is glad to have the opportunity to work with him.

Hmmm, very different than "He's just not getting it, and he's not going to get it, even with the supports being suggested". OK, I confess, I have been slipping him a "get it" pill for the past week. I know, snarky comment, I couldn't help it. There is an amazing world out there for our special kiddos, and for those who teach them. They will gain as much from these children and the children do, if you are open. So I end this week with a very positive message from his new teacher and the hope that we've once again found a teacher (like his Kindergarten one) who sees him not for his disability but for his ability to shine and to illuminate those around him with the right help, the right direction and the right understanding.

Educational choices for our children with Autism

2010-09-23T10:41:00.005-07:00

So here comes the drama post! It has been a very busy month or so. Here's what happened. I had been in constant contact with my son's teacher. I was volunteering weekly and in contact via email in addition to address some issues we were both seeing. The main issue being focus and needing to be redirected for weekly math tests and math worksheets. It was a very different classroom this year, a big change in classmates as well as schedule and amount of work expected so I expected a period of adjustment. So the teacher and I spoke about many things and one of those was whether the all day format was a better fit for him or not. He was currently in a program where the day is shortened, they only had 1 recess, but he was at school for less time. Now, this is a mainstream school, they support our IEP but it is not a school specifically for children with special needs. At the end of last year we all spoke about which format would be best. I personally believe that our kids spend too much of their time in school and we expect way too much of them too soon at these early ages. I understand people have different viewpoints on this but that is how I feel. That and the fact that we had a very good therapy schedule set and less time in the classroom really seemed like a good idea. I was assured by our 1st grade teacher when I broached this topic that the longer day really wouldn't help in the areas where we needed it and that the pace was not that much slower. OK. So what do we need to do to help him be successful? I came up with some ideas, as did the teacher and I contacted special ed at the school.

I got an immediate response. They had their Autism specialist observe him in the class and had some additional ideas at our meeting. My husband and I felt heard and supported when we left, having a clear vision of what they were going to do to help us make sure our son was successful. We grabbed lunch and then it was time for our parent/teacher conference next. As we walked in my husband said that basically this was just a formality right? I said yes, we've touched base so much, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the situation. The teacher knew about our meeting with spec ed prior and asked us about it. I expressed my enthusiasm and happiness over their response and shared some of what they said. The basic takeaway was that most of what they saw could be handled in the classroom with some supports/suggestions given to the teacher and that pull out did not appear necessary. Apparently that was NOT what she wanted to hear. Again, I thought we were on the same page as to the help my son needed and her feelings on the subject. The parent/teacher conference took a detour south at that point. The bottom line was that she was telling us he could not be successful in that classroom, not even WITH the suggestions/supports special ed had suggested. WOW. I told her that because of issues like fine motor delay and auditory processing and auditory sensitivities, we'd have to adjust the expectations accordingly. I told her how his kindergarten teacher really rolled with the punches and she figured out ways to asses what he knew so that when a task came where it really pushed him in those weaker areas, she could set attainable goals. We were told "I have higher standards". I told her that the Autism specialist at school had the same suggestions, we need to meet him where he is to encourage that feeling of success, not set him up for failure.

My husband said as we left "I thought you were going to ghetto on her". Over the years I have learned that you pull that out only when you really, really need it. Don't get me wrong, catch me on the wrong day and it could get ugly. But, I could tell her words were coming from frustration, not malice. Now my emotions quickly morphed into anger over that weekend but I have worked very hard on NOT responding out of emotion, especially anger, until I can process it a little and look at the various sides. But, here was a teacher who even said to me "I feel like a failure because I don't know how to teach him". I think we are going to see this issue as a common theme in getting our children educated. Especially those kiddos, like mine, who seems to be in "no man's land". They don't need the Autism specific programs anymore but do need a little help in a mainstream class. Sometimes the teachers have a hard time understand all of the issues that go into a disorder like Autism. And one big factor this year was class dynamics as well. Not only were there teacher issues but also kid issues.

So, I sent him back to school Mon/Tues and then said "forget it". I kept him home. I sent an email to the teacher basically saying I can't be fake, I cannot believe you said to me what you did about my child. I did not work the last 6 years of my life removing obstacles from my son's way that prevented him from learning more effectively to short change my son when it comes to his education. I told her that I felt she was telling us that we were letting him off easy in his education by changing the range of what we expect. I told her it was like telling a child in a wheelchair to walk up the stairs to reach the top because everyone else was.

Believe me, I was formulating my next step. Wed I got a call from the Principal. We played phone tag and I tried to set up an appt for the following day. Thurs I got a call from the head of special ed, she must have heard rumblings. I told her the whole story. She was shocked and dismayed. Within 30 min both she and the Principal were on the phone, scheduling a meeting for the following Wed (we had Labor Day holidays in between, Fri and Mon). They asked if I was ok sending him to school after the Labor Day holiday on Tues. I said I would.

Tues he got held in from recess, for not finishing his writing. Oy vey! Can you say fine motor issues??? My meeting on Wed went well, but again, we had very good meetings with special ed before. I told them he was held in from recess, the special ed director looked very upset at that and immediately said that would not happen again. We had even been given suggestions from spec ed to give him MORE opportunities to move, the child (and EVERY child) needs movement to facilitate the learning process. Holding him in from recess is only going to make all of those issues worse, not better. They asked if we were in a place where we'd consider working with them on new placement or working with the teacher to determine how to move forward. We said yes. All that week my son was sent into the hall because he "got frustrated". To me that is a sensory issue that was not addressed and escalated when it probably didn't need to. Or it was (as I saw first hand) an issue of another child antagonizing him to the point where he melts down and yet unless you were watching you can't really tell that it was the interaction with that other child that caused the reaction. On Fri he was sent into the hall 4 times. No one else is sent into the hall. Way to set him apart even more. Mom is done at this point.

I did not send him to school Monday. He'd also had a very busy weekend, his bday party and a friend's birthday party and the foods with sugar and possible cross contamination were catching up. Sending him in with those reactions would have been a recipe for disaster anyways. I got an email saying they wanted to put him into an all day class. I told them no thanks and proceeded with homeschool. We have great therapy schedules set and losing those was only going to make all of the issues worse in my mind. I had already begun to think of the unthinkable....dun dun dun.....homeschool. I only say this because I thought I would fail miserably at it, I was resistant to it, said I would "never" homeschool, etc etc. But you do what you have to do. The school came back and said they were heartbroken over our decision, wouldn't we consider looking at the new class. Then I began to think about potentially regretting it if I did not explore ALL of the options. We sat in for an hour and a half of the new class. It seemed to be made up of those "gentle souls". The teacher gave the kids many chances to move their body in the time we saw, we watched their math lesson since M was struggling there. They use a smart board (which is so cool) that the kids get to use.

After class let out I stood and talked with the teacher. She was honest, she said she had never had a child with Autism in her class before but she considers communication very important back and forth. I totally agreed. I explained some of the issues (food allergies, fine motor, auditory, etc). The next day I took M in to see the class and meet her. Every Fri is a half day so we went just after the kids were released. There were only 2 children in the room, one boy he really seemed to hit it off with in just those few minutes. After just a few minutes, we were ready to leave and he gave her a hug, a good sign. I spoke with a mom whose daughter is in the class, one of our kindergarten families. She had only good things to say about the teacher thus far.

Monday was his 1st day in that new class after being homeschool all of the prior week. We are still in the adjustment period. He is seeing old kindergarten friends he missed in the morning before the whistle blows which he loves. He is coming home with completed math sheets (something he was not able to do before) and math seems to be "clicking" for him this week. I have gotten emails from the new teacher every day after school. I love that! And they have been "He had a good day, stayed focused and on task". NICE! I love to hear that.

See, I KNOW our kids can be successful, it takes the right teacher and the right environment. And that is why I am so thankful (yes you heard me) for this experience. Up to this point, we have had nothing but good experiences with school/teachers. This experience taught me that not only will I do exactly what is necessary for my children, but that I CAN homeschool if I choose. I also see homeschooling in a whole new way. It gave me the freedom to teach my child in whatever way he/she learns best. I could use whatever format, medium, curriculum I needed to. And, I know them best, hands down. We got SO much done in just a few hours! It was amazing how much you could cover without all of the "processes" of school. I am also not scared of the social issue that so many want to bring up when you say homeschooling. Knowing me, I polled lots of people, including my therapist friends who know a lot about Autism and social issues. They all consistently said the same thing, the social part is easy! Parks, playdates, karate class, boy scouts, etc. are all various ways to encourage that social component. My issue was the social interaction he was getting in school was BAD. To me, bad social is not better than less social.

All in all, I only have good things to say about the way special ed and the Principal responded and handled this issue. It clearly was an issue with bad teacher/student fit. As I told the teacher, I get how frustrating it can be *I really do*! I had my own ideas of mother hood and M came along and pulverized them! He challenges you to think outside the box to motivate him, to teach him, to enrich him. It is possible, it can be an amazing experience, and YOU get to grow right along with him. I speak from experience on this one, heck he got me homeschooling him, LOL. M will make YOU grow as much as you make him grow. He is an amazing child, as are both of his sisters, and my commitment will always to give them what THEY need, no matter what.

I am also thankful for my newly acquired meditation skills or the last month would have been harder than it was. This whole process has been stressful but I think my way of dealing with the stress is better, at least I keep on trying anyways! So here's to change (since that is the only thing constant in this house!) and new beginnings! Change used to be a scary word but I have realized, change is much better than sticking with something that isn't working. Hope YOUR last few weeks has been a lot less stressful than mine!!

And my next blogs will be about yummy treats!!

Great information on learning and brain development

2010-09-07T16:03:00.002-07:00

OK so blogging has been lagging, drama on the homefront. The drama deserves its own blog and will get one once we get things a bit settled. I feel as though all my "balls" are in the air right now and I am trying to put my stress aside to focus on a certain someone's 7th birthday this week! But suffice it to say that this article has come at a perfect time for me, as we re-evaluate placement for my son and once again consider the unique education that Waldorf schools provide. This article is amazing and tells us how we SHOULD be teaching, we need to honor brain development and to quit forcing our kids to learn things their brain is simply not READY to learn yet (and I am talking ALL kids, NOT just ones with developmental delays!). It seems like every year they add more requirements, more assessments, even starting in kindergarten, ENOUGH ALREADY! Our children can be forced to learn things too early but then bad things are going to happen later on. They have 1 chance to be kids, they have their lifetime to do tests. Anyways, here is a wonderful article and some enlightening information on ways to tell when your child's brain has developed enough to progress on to reading and writing. Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teaching our Children to Read, Write and Spell

Author: Susan Johnson, M.D.
Issue: Fall 2007: Issue #49, Vol. 12
Order Subscribe

Proprioceptive System
There is a widely-held belief that if we just start teaching children to write, read, and spell in preschool, they will become better writers, readers, and spellers by the time they reach the first and second grades. This is, however, not true. The truth is that children only should be taught to write, read, and spell when their neurological pathways for writing, reading, and spelling have fully formed. There are many neuropsychologists, developmental specialists, occupational therapists and teachers who are concerned that our current trend in this country of pushing “academics” in preschool and kindergarten will result in even greater increases in the number of children, particularly boys, diagnosed with attentional problems and visual processing types of learning disabilities.
In order for children to be able to sit still, pay attention, and remember abstract shapes, like letters and numbers, they first need to have developed their proprioceptive system.
In my clinical practice I see children who are being asked to sit still at a desk who can’t yet “feel” where they are in space. They have to keep their muscles and body moving all the time or sit on their feet or wrap their feet around the legs of their chair in order for their mind to locate the position of their body. They also have difficulty balancing on one foot while their eyes are closed. Their drawing of a person is more like that of a younger child, being stick-like in form and lacking hands and feet. These children are often given the label of Attention Deficit Disorder because they appear fidgety in their movements, have difficulty paying attention, and have poorly developed fine-motor skills. In addition, these same children are often labeled as having learning disabilities in visual processing (for example, dyslexia or other types of nonverbal learning disabilities). They have difficulty recalling letters, numbers, and shapes that are shown to them, and they are unable to recognize letters, numbers, and shapes that are drawn with a finger on their back. These children have difficulty remembering the orientation and direction of letters and numbers when writing, reading, or spelling. They often will confuse the letter “b” with the letter “d” and may write the number 2 or number 3 backwards and not even notice.
The proprioceptive system is strengthened by physical movements, like sweeping with a broom, pushing a wheelbarrow, carrying groceries, emptying the trash, pulling weeds, or hanging from monkey bars. When children do these types of activities they stimulate pressure receptors within their muscles, tendons, and joints, thereby allowing their minds to make a map of the location of these various pressure receptors within the body. A connection is made between the mind of children and the various parts of their physical body. In this way children develop a sense of where their body is in space (proprioception), and even if their eyes are closed, the children will be able to feel or sense the location of muscles, joints and tendons within their trunk, arms, legs, fingers, and toes. In addition, as the children move their arms, legs, hands, and feet forwards, backwards, up, down, left and right, they will start to gain a sense of the spaces around them. Now, when these children look at the shapes of letters and numbers, their eyes will follow and track the lines and curves. The memory of these movements will then imprint upon their mind. They will have the capacity to make mental pictures or images of these numbers and letters. They will easily remember the correct orientation of numbers like 2 and 3 when they are writing. There will be no more confusion between the letter “b” and the letter “d.” The correct orientation of the letter or number will be seen within the mind before it is written.
This proprioceptive system impacts other areas in children’s lives beyond being able to sit still and having a visual memory for abstract forms. It also affects their ability to fall asleep by themselves at night and to stay asleep throughout the night. When the proprioceptive system is not fully developed, children will have difficulties falling asleep at night by themselves. They will frequently wake up during the night and then need physical contact with their parents in order to fall back to sleep. Since their own proprioceptive system is not yet developed, lying next to their parent will activate their pressure receptors and allow them to feel their body, relax, and fall back to sleep. For these children, closing their eyes at night makes their body disappear because their mind has not made a connection to the pressure receptors within their muscles, tendons, and joints. This is why so many children want the light on at night when they go to bed. They need to see their body and the spaces around them since they cannot “feel” their body when in darkness.

Reading, Spelling, and Writing
Our current educational system is teaching children to read in a way that doesn’t make sense developmentally. Children in preschool and kindergarten are expected to memorize letters and words before their minds have developed the necessary pathways to identify letters, easily read words, and comprehend what they are reading. We are asking these young children to read, when the only part of their brain that is developed and available for reading words is the right hemisphere.
The right hemisphere first develops for reading, usually around four to seven years of age. This right part of the brain allows children to recognize words by sight. It enables children to focus on the first and last letters in a word and the overall length and shape of the word. It allows children to guess at words without paying much attention to spelling or matching sounds to letters (phonics). In contrast, the reading center in the left brain and the connecting bridge-like pathway between the left and the right brain don’t start developing until seven to nine years of age (girls may develop these pathways a little earlier, while some boys won’t develop these pathways until ten or 11 years of age). It is this reading center in the left brain that allows children to match sounds to letters and enables them to sound out words phonetically. Now they can remember more accurately how words are spelled.
Because the reading center in the right brain sees abstract forms like letters and numbers as pictures, it makes sense to first teach children to read by relating the shapes of letters to actual pictures that children can relate to and draw. For example, the letter “M” can be represented by two mountain peaks with a valley in between. As teachers we can tell children that the sound “M” is the first sound one hears when saying the word “mountains.” Other examples might include drawing a king out of the letter “K,” a bunny out of the letter “B,” or waves out of a “W.” What doesn’t make developmental sense is expecting children to just memorize the abstract shape of the letter “F,” or memorize phrases like “F” as in the word FOX, “B” as in the word BOY, or “C” as in the word CROCODILE. These words do not make any visual sense to the reading center in the right brain. The letter “F” doesn’t look like a FOX, the letter “B” doesn’t look like a BOY, and the letter “C” does not look like a CROCODILE.
When we push young children to read when they only have access to their right hemisphere for reading, we create learning problems for them in the future. Since children using the reading center of the right hemisphere look at the first and last letters of a word, the length of that word, and then make a guess, they will look at a word like “STAMP” and may guess that the word is “STOP” or “STUMP.” If you show them the word, “TGOEHTER” they may read the word as “TOGETHER,” but will not realize that the word is misspelled. Words like “FRIEND,” “FIND,” and “FOUND,” as well as “FILLED,” “FILED,” and “FLOOD,” will all seem the same.
It takes a lot of mental effort to read words using only sight memory. Sight memory was meant to be used for only small words. Children who are reading using only their right hemisphere often are exhausted after reading just a few paragraphs, and can only parrot back words or sentences by memory. In addition, their minds are busy deciphering each word and therefore are not free to create the pictures and actual scenes associated with the words they are reading. This limits their overall comprehension. These are the children who plagiarize or copy a text verbatim, word by word, when they are doing a report. This is because they can only recall the exact words they read and therefore can’t summarize, condense, or comprehend ideas very easily.
For all of these reasons, reading should be taught in school only after children have developed both their right and left reading centers. This will enable children to use sight memory for small words and the more efficient method of phonics for larger words. In addition, children need to have developed the “bridge” pathway that connects the two reading centers together. When children have developed this connection between the right and left cerebral hemispheres (bilateral integration), they can access both the right and left reading centers of their brain at the same time, and therefore can decide at any given moment whether to read a word by sight, if the word is short (a right hemisphere activity), or sound out the word phonetically if the word is long (a left hemisphere activity).
A physical sign that children have developed bilateral integration and can now read both by sight memory and phonics is shown by their ability to do the cross-lateral skip (swinging their opposite leg with opposite arm forward at the same time) without thinking or concentrating. This is because movements on the right side of the body are connected to the left hemisphere of the brain, while movements on the left side of the body are connected to the right side of the brain. If children can move their opposite arm and leg at the same time, then the right and left hemispheres of the brain are “talking” or connected to each other. If children can only skip using their feet or only skip extending the same arm with the same leg (the homolateral skip), they are not ready to read, since they can’t access both sides of the brain simultaneously.
Children who can simultaneously access their reading centers in the right and left hemispheres of their brain will read easily and will create visual images and pictures in their mind related to the content of what they are reading. They will be able to discuss or write about what they have read using their own words, because they can replay the scenes in their mind and don’t have to think so much about the specific words used in each sentence. Therefore, they will have an easier time understanding the meaning behind the stories and books they are reading. Learning to spell will be easier too.
Besides pushing children to read and spell before their minds are developed, we also ask them to hold a pencil and write before they are developmentally ready. I see very young children being asked to write with one hand while they still have overflow movements occurring in the fingers of the opposite hand. Before six or seven years of age, the vertical midline of the child is not fully integrated. When a child moves the fingers of one hand, the fingers on the other hand will also move, often without the child’s conscious awareness. Children should not be forced to write until this vertical midline is integrated. If we force children to hold a pencil or pen and write before they have integrated this vertical midline, they will develop a tense pencil grip, a cramped writing style, and a spatially compromised and jerky penmanship. It makes more sense first to teach children to write the small letters of the alphabet in cursive before teaching them to print these lower case letters. When doing form drawings or writing in cursive, the right and left hemispheres are both active and working together. Printing of the lower case letters is a more abstract and advanced developmental task that requires the left hemisphere, which often isn’t developed enough for this task until seven to nine years of age. Girls may be ready to do this task by age six while boys often can’t do this task until after nine years of age.
My greatest concern is that I am seeing more and more fourth, fifth, sixth, and even seventh graders from public and private schools who can’t spell easily and are still reading mostly by sight memory. They can now use their left brain to sound out words, but they approach every word they read first by using the reading center in right brain (by sight). For example, when I give these children a sentence to read like: “Six byos wnet on a vaccaiton tohgeter and tehy wnet fsihing in a bule baot,” they often do not notice any of the misspelled words. Furthermore, when I have these same children read another paragraph where every word is spelled correctly, they often tell me that both paragraphs are exactly the same or only note one or two words where the spelling is different.
My worry is that these children were pushed to read too early, when only their right brain was developed enough for reading. They compensated by learning to read everything using only sight memory. When the reading center in their left hemisphere finally developed, the habit was still to read by using the reading center of the right hemisphere. Therefore, these children first looked at the words in a sentence using sight memory, and if the words didn’t make any sense, then they accessed the left reading center to sound out the words. The problem was they weren’t using the reading centers in the right and left brains simultaneously. Many of these children still lacked bilateral integration in their physical movements as well as in their reading. For some of the children, reading was slow and took a tremendous amount of effort. For other children, their sight memory was so strong that they could read quickly but their comprehension and spelling were still poor. Neither group of children could easily picture the scenes from the words they read or remember how individual words were spelled.
Many of these children need cranial therapy because of a history of a c-section birth, prolonged labor, induced labor, or use of suction forceps at delivery. In addition, these children need lots of cross-lateral types of movements (where the opposite arm moves at the same time as the opposite leg) to strengthen bilateral integration. Movements like walking or hiking with the arms swinging, swimming the various strokes, rock climbing and playing tennis will all strengthen bilateral integration. Also, specific movement therapies such as Therapeutic Eurythmy, Extra Lesson, Parelli horseback riding, Spacial Dynamics, Bal-A-Vis-X, Brain Gym, HANDLE, and sensory integration therapy will foster the development of these neurological pathways. These movements need to be noncompetitive, and the therapists needs to avoid over-stimulating the children or activating their fight and flight “stress” nervous systems. For neurological pathways do not form well when children are stressed. Once these pathways and connections are formed, many of these children will need tutoring to relearn the rules of spelling and phonics and to start using their left brains for reading. Even if these children were taught phonics in the first or second grade, they need to revisit these reading skills because they didn’t have access yet to the reading center in their left brain.

Prevention of Learning Disabilities
Overall, schools and parents can support a child’s learning by serving healthy foods that are rich in protein, good quality fats (especially omega-3 fatty acids), and fresh fruits and vegetables, while eliminating partially-hydrogenated oils and trans fats which occur when cooking or frying foods in corn oil. Adequate sleep will increase the percentage of rapid eye movement or REM sleep. A lack of sleep leads to less REM sleep and therefore, less consolidation of the previous day’s learning. Limiting screen time (television, videos, and computer games), and eliminating it altogether on school nights, will keep the mind free to do its own picturing and not stress it with violent images and rapid sequences of pictures that the brain cannot fully process. Regular rhythms and routines in eating and sleeping as well as daily activities will promote a more relaxed nervous system for learning.
In addition, children can’t learn and neurological pathways can’t form as easily when children’s nervous systems are experiencing stress. Forcing children to write, read, and spell, and giving them “standardized” tests before they are developmentally ready, will stress their nervous systems. Furthermore, children will dislike reading and will not want to go to school. If we insist on pushing writing, reading and spelling before the children’s minds are ready, we will continue to create an epidemic of behavior and learning difficulties, especially in our boys.
First grade is the time to introduce form drawing, learn the capital letters (as pictures that children can draw), and practice cursive writing. As the majority of children in the classroom strengthen their proprioceptive skills and integrate their right and left hemispheres (as evidenced by their ability to stand on one foot with their eyes closed, remember the shapes that are drawn on their backs, jump rope forward and backwards by themselves, and easily perform the cross lateral skip), then children can be more formally taught to read, and to learn how to print the lower case letters.
It is time to remove the desks from kindergartens and preschools. Our preschools and kindergartens need to fill their curriculums with play consisting of lots of sensory integration activities that will strengthen fine motor movements, visual motor abilities, balance, muscle tone, proprioception, as well as strengthen children’s social and emotional development. Activities like imaginary play, climbing, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, walking the balance beam, playing circle games, singing, playing catch, doing meaningful chores, painting, coloring, playing hand-clapping games, doing string games, and finger knitting will strengthen their minds for learning. Children need these healthy, harmonious, rhythmic, and noncompetitive movements to develop their brains. For it is the movements of their body that create the pathways in their mind for reading, writing, spelling, mathematics, and creative thinking.

Susan Johnson, M.D. is a Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrician in Colfax, California.
Copyright © 2010 Lilipoh | All Rights Reserved

New Yeast Control Pack for kids with Autism

2010-08-18T14:05:00.004-07:00

If you have a child who suffers from yeast overgrowth and who doesn't swallow pills, this may be what you have been looking for! I just found out that New Beginnings has a NEW yeast control package designed specifically for kiddos who can't swallow pills! I will be ordering mine ASAP! Click the New Beginnings logo/link on the right side of my blog to go to their website. Here's the info:

New Beginnings is now offering a liquid Yeast Control Package designed for younger children who do not swallow capsules. The following potent single herbal products have been placed together in this package to provide better and more palatable (better tasting) broad spectrum Candida and bacteria control. When the suggested protocol is followed, this package provides yeast control support for at least three consecutive months while reducing the possibility of the yeast building resistance to the herbs:

Black Walnut Extract

Golden Seal Extract

Uva Ursi Extract

AlliMax

Suggested Dosage/Protocol: Dose 6 – 10 drops of each herb with breakfast and dinner for five (5) consecutive days or as suggested by your healthcare practitioner. Start with any one herb and keep rotating through all the herbs (every 5 days) for a period of three months. Probiotics should be dosed at bedtime or at least two hours away from herbal doses. This protocol can be used whenever Candida symptoms appear.

Explaining Autism to Classmates

2010-08-11T15:04:00.005-07:00

Well Monday was unexpectedly emotional for me. I had asked M's 1st grade teacher if I could come in and talk to the kids about Autism. Eventually I knew this would happen. As kids get older, differences regardless of how small, do become magnified. Kids are alternately incredibly sweet and terribly mean depending on the situation. We have thankfully gotten to the point where he is virtually indistinguishable from his peers, yet has his unique "quirks". I once spoke with Roseanne, Adam's mother from Autism The Musical (whom I related to on a very deep level, her career, her life, her personality type, etc). She told me she always makes it a point to go into her son's class and tell them about Adam and his Autism. M was in preschool at the time and didn't seem like a time to broach this subject as most of those children also had some form of disability. But, 1st grade, the kids begin developing at different rates, there are the more "mature" kids and certainly any gap in development becomes very apparent. So, now seemed like a good time as there had been a couple of "mother hens" in the class always trying to make M do something he didn't want to. He does not like to take orders from many people, just his authority figures. He gets that from me so I can't say that I blame him. So I searched online for resources. I found a book HERE that I ordered. Then I found this awesome blog HERE

OK so here's where it got emotional. I am so thankful for my children, I am so thankful for my son's progress but I had myself a little pity party. The realization sank in (again) that Autism will always be a part of our lives. I know this, don't get me wrong, I am not delusional. As my son "recovers" we do leave many pieces of the proverbial puzzle behind but Autism will always be in his history, in his now, and probably in his future. I realize this but sometimes it slaps you in the face a little harder than usual. I was sad at the realization that I needed to talk to my son about his Autism. See for him (and his sisters) it has always been this way. Life is filled with OT visits, Speech therapy, music therapy and for a long while, tantrums and screams at sensory issues in his environment. Trouble sleeping, constant supplements and special diets has also been part of our family's status quo. But for the child living it, I realized we had never spoken of it, had to explain it. And it kind of broke my heart just a little to have to do so. I looked at the unfairness of it (Why do I have to talk to MY child about this?). But my true self kicked in and said "Why NOT my child?". So I proceeded to write something that I could say to the kids to help them understand my son better. My goal was to explain in small bits, just how different his brain can be. I used a super hero analogy about a super hero with a cape that makes him fly. But, when you swim with that cape it can be heavy and hard to swim with. The same is true for my son's super sonic hearing. Yeah when he's older he may have a blast with that but right now, trying to listen to the teacher when other kids are talking, rustling paper, etc. can be a real challenge. And, his reaction to noises that no one else can hear may set him apart. I told the class that EVERYONE is different, that's what makes each person special but M's brain does work just a little differently and that is OK! I covered repetitious speech, I used the analogy of getting a song stuck in your head, they could ALL relate to that. I also told them that sometimes he needs to repeat stuff back to himself to make sure his brain hears the important stuff. At the end I passed out silly bands from the National Autism Association in the shape of puzzle pieces, found HERE . I can't even tell you what a hit those were!

Reading the book on Autism to them and then just talking to them about the way M's brain works is something that I never thought I would have to do when I pictured motherhood. But, not only is this a chance for my child to gain greater acceptance of his "quirks" but also for the kids to grow in their tolerance and love for those who are different. I reiterated that M is still just a 1st grader, just like each of them. He wants to come to school, learn, make friends and have fun. His Autism can make that harder for him. Some of his kindergarten friends in the class made some comments about helping him and his kinder class really was just so kind and loving. I can only hope that his 1st grade class is the same way. But whatever comes our way, I promise to use these experiences as ways to grow as individuals and as a family. Sitting down with my son and talking to him about his Autism was certainly never what I expected I would have to do but it is what it is. He asks to read that book now and maybe this process has even helped him understand a little better why some things are just a bit harder for him. And regardless, it gave us another chance to tell him that WE KNOW that he does have to work harder than a lot of people and how proud we are of him and the hard work he does each day.

Dairy and headaches

2010-08-08T08:34:00.002-07:00

A friend from my son's kindergarten class' mom was also a holistic momma and wanted to know who I take my kids to as a pediatrician. I referred her to Dr. Carrie Rittling from East Valley Naturopathic Doctors. Over the summer this child began suffering from headaches and they began to investigate. After her prior pediatrician wanted to send her to a neurologist and then explore medications, her mom decided to take her to our doctor. After a lengthy appointment where her concerns were actually heard and all bases explored, they determined that dairy could be a trigger. After removing dairy, no more headaches.

As a GFCFSF cooking mom, I do have my own weakness, which is dairy. My son get NONE, and I am STRICT on his diet (i.e. fanatical). I don't use enzymes so he can eat regular pizza at birthdays, I don't let him eat gluten or dairy AT ALL, no exceptions. I love enzymes but I am a firm believer there is NO replacement for the diet, period. Immune stimulation and inflammation is still occuring when you give these kids foods that they react to, regardless of what enzymes you want to give them. That is my personal belief. But, I am more loose with my own diet and yet my body continually sends me signals. I am so great at reading my kids but not so great at reading myself.

For years I have suffered from headaches with weather changes. When a system moves in or it clouds over I have a headache for 2 days straight. Not fun. This has gone on my whole life. After a really bad experience with a cheese ball last week I said enough was enough. Besides my last container of greek yogurt, the past week has been dairy free for me as well as wheat free (which I have been very faithful about). As the clouds rolled in yesterday I felt the pressure of the weather changes as usual but there was no PAIN. No headache above my eyes, no throbbing sinuses! I can usually count on this pain anytime we get the monsoons in or anytime the weather goes from clear and sunny to cloudy. This was the first time I had no pain. I could tell my body was still reacting to the changes which is normal but there was no pain associated with it.

So again, I would suggest exploring a wheat and/or dairy free lifestyle if you are suffering from unexplained health issues (gut issues, headaches, etc) as many of these things are closely tied to diet. If I eat or drink anything with excitotoxins like artificial sweeteners or MSG (which also includes autolyzed yeast, natural flavors, maltodextrin, etc) found in so many boxed and prepared foods I immediately get a headache. Sometimes it takes a while to clean out your system but when you do your body is a pretty good barometer of what you should or should not put in it, if we just listen and heed. Clearly I am still working on this one, but getting better at it every day!

What's On Your Food?

2010-08-04T20:32:00.003-07:00

Here is a lovely little website if you are feeling a little too jolly about the world. Take a gander, it will show you the pesticides and chemicals that are sprayed on our foods. It has little color coded pie charts that show which are known carcinogens (cancer causing agents), what are hormone dysrupters, which are neurotoxins, etc. You can click on "Conventional vs. Organic" for each pesticide and see what the range is on organic versions of these products. Take a look at strawberries and see if you want to buy those $1 for a pound baskets on sale at most of the stores right now.

If we take a hard look at reality we see a world that is constantly being polluted. From the oil in our own gulf (and around the world as well) to the air, to our food, it is no wonder we see a rise in almost every auto-immune disorder and even now in our children being born with these disorders. Maybe all of our kids are being poisoned but these days its not just by environmental catastrophes but by juice box and otter pop. Between dyes (and do the research on those bad boys, there is a reason why other countries have banned many food colorings from foods), high fructose corn syrup (data just out about cancer cells feeding off fructose not to mention the other ills of HFCS) and the other crap in the foods that are SO commonplace, especially for children, it is not even funny.

We cannot control oil spills, we cannot control exhaust fumes, toxic waste dumping into our water supply, but we CAN control the foods we put into our children. I try and challenge parents that you can have healthy foods that also taste good. And yes, sometimes it is a process. You do have to get un-used to the heavy sweet tastes of HFCS and the MSG and additives in foods so that you can appreciate the sweetness of pure fruit and REAL ingredients. But what I am saying is that your kids will be healthier for it. There is only so much we can do in this toxic world, but I would challenge you that food is the biggest source of toxins. Household cleaners are probably the 2nd largest offenders. But food is meant to nourish and fuel growing bodies and brains. It is the building block. And if you dare, check this website out HERE and take a look at your top 3 items that you DON'T buy organic. Then learn about what these pesticides can do to us. It may change the way you shop. We vote with every dollar we spend. If we support organic (or local CSA's, local farmers markets, etc) we can have healthier options for ourselves and our families more readily available.

Making nut milks

2010-07-29T13:06:00.003-07:00

So we will play a little guessing game to see who can figure out what type of milk is in each container. So, the choices are cashew milk, coconut milk and almond milk. I made new batches of all three this morning. Are you removing dairy from your diet or your child's diet and trying to keep strict accounting of what is going into their bodies? Do you wonder at those added ingredients, even in the good brands of nut milks? Or are you just tired of paying a lot of money for the commercially made nut milks? Maybe you just ran out and now need some in a pinch? Well if any of those sound like you, then you need these recipes. They are super easy, I made all 3 milks while my kids played upstairs before school, it took me 20 minutes max to make all 3 batches (not including soaking time for the nuts).

3 cups filtered water
1 cup nuts
2 dates (in the almond milk only)
splash of vanilla (in the almond milk only)

Blend then strain with a fine strainer, except for cashew milk which does not need to be strained.

Here is the breakdown, almond milk is sweeter, especially with the dates/vanilla. Cashew milk tastes the closest to cow's milk in taste and texture. Coconut milk definitely has a sweet quality and coconut flavor. They are all great for baking, cooking, whatever you need them for. I use a thicker blend of cashew milk for an "alfredo" sauce over rice pasta. One word of advice, soak your nuts prior to using. Almond can be soaked in a glass bowl overnight with a pinch of sea salt. Cashews can be soaked in a glass bowl with a pinch of sea salt for 2 - 4 hours. Drain, rinse, add to filtered water in blender and blend away. The coconut does not have to be soaked. But, get plain, unsweetened coconut, no additives.

Viola! Fresh nut milk that you made, no additives, no preservatives, no sitting on the shelf for months. And, if you use soaked nuts you are getting even better digestibility out of the deal too! It can be an easy, cheap and convenient alternative to buying prepared nut milks. My son who used to eat dry cereal rather than have the commercial almond milks now asks for the "homemade almond milk" on his rice cereal many mornings.

So here are the answers A) Coconut milk B) Almond milk C) Cashew milk

A safer way to disinfect!

2010-07-23T21:21:00.002-07:00

Check out this little gem, courtesy of another FB Autism mom. I just love these ladies, they share so many awesome things that I could never find all on my own. So, here you go, I am always talking about safer ways to clean that are nontoxic! Courtesy of www.healthychild.org

Get Answers: How can I safely clean my child’s toys and play area?
Janelle Sorensen

Friday, July 23, 2010 .You ask, we answer. Find all of our frequently asked questions or ask your own by visiting Get Answers.

QUESTION: How can I safely clean my child’s toys and play area?

ANSWER:

In your own home, many clean-up duties can be handled by water alone. If your child’s been sick (or someone else in the house has been), you may prefer something stronger.

A homemade disinfectant cleaner can be made with:

I teaspoon of borax
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1/4 cup liquid soap
2 cups hot water

Mix in a refillable spray bottle and you’re good to go! Plain baking soda will remove stains (make a paste by adding a bit of water) as well as deodorize (sprinkle around, leave for 15 minutes, and then vacuum). Browse our website for easy recipes for cleaning products.

Learn more about cleaning specific items like unfinished wood toys and stuffed animals by reading Keeping Toys Clean to Make Playtime Pure.

You may also be interested in watching our Healthy Byte video “How Do I Clean My Scummy Bath Toys?”

Read more: http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/get_answers_how_can_i_safely_clean_my_childs_toys_and_play_area/#ixzz0uZQ9dRnx

Memories explained

2010-07-21T08:03:00.002-07:00

So I had a very weird experience this week with my guy. He started talking about memories that happened over 2 1/2 years ago with old hab workers, at old therapy clinics. I am going to tell parents straight up, don't just accept whatever comes your way. Interview your therapists, interview everyone in your child's life. And just because your child is nonverbal, look for clues of a bad fit. I had to "fire" a clinic and their hab program because of how they were treating my child. They were clique-y, they were selective, they were unprofessional, they were too young and not trained enough. It was once a good program and then it went downhill. My son became resistant to going and I listened to his cries and did something about it. So here we are years later and he is telling me about it. I now get verbal affirmation that what I did was the right thing.

The same is true with other therapists. Dawn Winkelmann, SLP and Feeding therapist is also now one of my best friends. But, when I got the call that she had recently transferred into that clinic that I mentioned and had openings, I wanted to talk with her first. I left messages, no one called me back. It was getting close to the first scheduled appt but I refused to go until I spoke with her. My thought was that I knew what caliber therapist I had already, to make a change for my son I had to know I was getting better. Little did I know I was getting a superstar but I would find that out later. She called just days before our appt and we talked for 45 minutes! We clicked, she understood and supported biomed 100%. YIPPEE!! She even knew of Dr. Woeller's work, seeing some of his other patients when she had her own practice in Huntington Beach (where she once again practices for anyone looking for a rockstar speech and feeding therapist!). When she lectures she tells parents about this encounter, about how shocked she was that a parent wanted to grill her. And I was the first parent to do so.

There was a feeling of "take what you can get" back then, for me early on. Services ARE hard to comeby, I understand that as well as anyone. But, I would challenge the opinion that any service is better than no service. Sometimes a bad therapist or experience will do more harm than good. Finding the RIGHT therapist is key, not just finding any therapist. Your child's eyes should light up when they see this person, they should make therapy fun, they should be loving, not cold and dismissive or ignore your child when they approach them. And if your child does not get that "warm and fuzzy", FIRE THEIR ASS! What else can I say? Trust your instincts, someday your child WILL be able to tell you about these experiences, and you certainly don't want to hear about bad memories. I did intervene and I still feel bad about what he did go through until I found out.

Gluten free english muffins

2010-07-07T07:24:00.003-07:00

So I have a new product to recommend! While in Flagstaff, I always enjoy shopping at their local health food store called New Frontiers. And more than anything, I love shopping with my girlfriend, former OT and eternal food guru. She is a raw foodist and can always be counted on to provide several new recipes that my family loves. I needed some cacao butter but she had also told me about these sprouted grain, gluten free english muffins from Food for Life. I quickly grabbed up 2 bags. They even have chia seeds so they do offer a little more in the way of protein, not just those nasty starches that I worry about in terms of feeding yeast. Now that we are home, they have become a staple. In the morning they are a great option with some fresh made blueberry jam that I got at the Flagstaff farmer's market. Or after an afternoon running out to the chiropractor (hurt my neck and back somehow) and nothing planned for dinner, they made easy "mini pizzas". All I did was broil them with a little Daiya mozzarella cheese and a single slice of home grown tomato. The kids gobbled them up along with some asparagus spears. Perfect! The kids love them! So if you are looking for another bread option, I highly recommend these. I haven't looked to see if I can get them here, and they aren't even on the company's website that I could find. I will definitely be on the lookout for these locally!

Gluten and Casein free diet for gut issues

2010-07-07T06:57:00.002-07:00

So this summer we picked up my step-daughter (12 yo) for our summer visit. Her mom mentioned some stomach issues she had been having, pain, discomfort and a need to GO if you know what I mean. It was happening daily. Since we were in San Diego and I didn't have my full bag-o-tricks, I stopped at Henry's and grabbed just a few things. First off, I took her off of wheat and dairy, not such a stretch considering most of our family eats that way anyways. My step-daughter has also recently gone vegetarian so that was a new twist and provided some challenges but I think we've rocked it overall. Within 1 week, just shy of 1 week actually, her gut issues have resolved! No more pain, urgency to go, etc. just normal bowel function. I added in probiotics and some kombucha, aloe vera and 1 or 2 doses of slippery elm, that was it! Very simple, very easy. So, if you thought this diet was just for Autism or think that those pesky bowel issues are just "you" or they "run in the family" I would suggest you look at diet and whether the wheat and dairy could be problematic for you as well.

How we spent our summer vacation

2010-07-07T06:16:00.004-07:00

So, we survived our trip to San Diego, it was busy but so worth it. Our first night there I ran to the store with my mother in law while my husband took the kids across the street to the neighborhood pool. We pull in the driveway just as they are getting up to come home and I hear a little girl yelling bye to my son. He had already made a friend! A couple of days later we saw Dr. Woeller (our DAN! doctor) and wow, what a different appointment it was this year. He sat and had a conversation with M, asked him who is best friend was. He talked to him about the neighborhood friends he has, what he likes to do, what his favorite toy is. My biggest thrill? Hearing Dr. Woeller say "You're there Terri". Not much was recommended other than staying the course (diet, supps, etc) and maybe getting him onto a basketball team with typical peers. What does this mean for us? Well other than feeling REALLY good about life, not much else. I understand Autism (and its healing) is a marathon, not a sprint. I also know there will be regression. I know these things but to hear my son's specialist confirm what I have known in my heart this past year, that my son is very close to recovery, if not there, was so exciting!

This trip also gave us tons of time with my kids' grandparents. My dad and mother in law are both retired now. We stayed with my mother in law so she was with us the whole time. My dad came and met us for just about everything we did. My kids played with their cousins, swam until they were pruny, ran in the waves and built sandcastles, even sat through the Shamu show at Sea World! It was a vacation like I had never been able to expect until now. No meltdowns, not one. We stayed at Sea World hours later than we thought we would. I could tell he was getting to his limit so we got out of the gift shop quickly and yet still no meltdown.

We got home Saturday and then left town again Friday to see our dear friends in Flagstaff for the holiday weekend. My friend was M's very first Occupational Therapist, she was going back to work as an OT at the same time M was getting an early intervention referral, she specialized in Autism and DIR/Floortime therapy. She helped me navigate this process so much easier and has also been my food guru ever since. Our elder kids have been friends since they were 18 months old. The thing is, her daughter is neuro-typical and until the last year or so, my son wouldn't actually "play" with her daughter to the full extent. Now they talk about being boyfriend and girlfriend and can be found wandering their 5 acres telling secrets and handing out hugs and kisses to each other.

Here's the catch, he will always have Autism and I know that. He will probably always have a hard time with certain sounds. He will probably always do a little self talking, some of these things WILL set him apart from his peers, just like any child who is "quirky" or a bit different. And here's something for the Neuro Diversity crowd, I love him just the way he is! But I know that I have removed many, many stumbling blocks for him. The diet full of wheat and dairy that was clogging up his brain, providing the gliadomorphines and casomorphines that had him "high" off of his food are gone. His pain perception is now appropriate because of it. His speech has developed because of it. He has supplements to help his brain and body work the way they were intended. The methyl B-12 aids in so many processes, including helping with sleep (it is a precursor to melatonin production) and detox pathways. The Respen-A is fixing the enzymatic processes that may have been broken with 20+ hours of pitocin during labor, I credit this therapy for the biggest WOW factor yet. We've treated gut yeast and bacteria, whose toxins also interfere with normal brain functioning. All of these things took roadblocks out of his way. I love him just the way he is but now, he can love me back. Now, he can make meaningful relationships, two-way relationships with peers and family. That he couldn't do. He couldn't even look me in the eye when we started this process of biomed, now he reads ME to see my emotions and to read those unspoken words, something I never thought possible. I remember a day, heartbreaking and vivid, I was exhausted from lack of sleep. He would go about 20 minutes at a time sleeping, that's it. He was screaming most of the day and I was just totally worn out. I began to cry and he thought I was laughing and began to smile. Here I was, totally desolate and my child (who was supposed to FEEL my emotions or so the baby books said) was smiling instead. Flash forward a few years and I was nursing my neurotypical daughter and I began to cry, she stopped nursing, looked up at me and started to cry along with me. So to see his eyes bore into mine and read my unspoken emotions makes me want to shout from the rooftops, it is such a cliche but it really does.

So that is how we spent our summer vacation, actually vacationing. A first for our family. Along with our first fireworks display this year too even after a ride home from Flagstaff and a weekend of staying up later than normal. School will be starting for him in just 2 weeks, 1st grade here we come. It has been an amazing summer, lots of memories made, lots of fun times had. I am sad that it is over but excited to see what the new school year has in store. Once again, I do this blog for me as a way to document our story but also to offer hope to other parents out there. I was the parent crying each night, wondering what was going on with my child. I was the mom carrying a screaming toddler out of the grocery store because some sound set him off and I had no clue what had happened. My child was the one who could never "play" at playgroups, I was chasing him out of their back bedrooms, out of their kitchen cupboards, etc. So I stopped going to playgroups because of it. He wanted nothing to do with the kids or the toys, he wanted to sit and spin Tupperware lids, chew on things and make all of the musical toys go at once. Now he makes friends at the chiropractor's office, not wanting to leave because they are playing (with a child 2 years older than him who is the other chiropractor's son!). He makes friends wherever we go now! So for me, biomed has given my son the future he deserves. It has helped remove those barriers to love, learning, sleep, etc. that were impacting him greatly. It will always been a hard road but I feel like we are past one huge hill. Who knows what lies ahead but I am ready for the journey!

Life on the Roller Coaster

GFCFSF Chickpea "Chicken nuggets"

Dow and Monsanto

Update Feb 2012

Homemade cough drops/throat losenges

GFCFSF Newton style cookies

Camel's milk.....2 1/2 weeks in

Food and Nutrition for Autism Course by Julie Matthews!

DIR Floortime therapy??

Camel milk, healing or hype by Julie Matthews

GFCFSF BBQ sauce

ARI Conference

What's really in the food, by Natural News

More reasons to add Milk Thistle into your supplement program

Julie Matthews is coming to GILBERT!!!!

Great advice on shopping from Michael Pollan

Puffed Amaranth homemade GFCFSF cereal

Strawberry cake/cupcakes

Canola and soybean oil used as pesticides

NEVER give up!

The sunscreen myth

Sugar free raspberry coconut milk (frozen) yogurt

Homeopathy update

Tears of an Autism mom

Mercury in HFCS

The impact of diet and lifestyle on prostate cancer - a case for epigenetics

B-12 deficiency

The Canary Party - Get behind it!

Cell phones and brain health

Foods to avoid by Dr. Mercola

GMO-based bug threatens US food supply

Are YOU a real foodie??

The effect of diet on health and disease

Gratitude

Toxins in our kids' foods

Low Cholesterol in Autism

How to make stock

More benefits of coconut oil

Side effects from consuming canola oil

Mitochondrial support

Glutathione depletion

Is the Environment Poisoning Our Children? | Sandra Steingraber | Orion Magazine

Taking a break from Respen-A

Medical Flex Spending Accounts for 2011

"Did you know" by Doris Rapp, MD

Once you've met one mom with Autism......

All natural alternative to traditional hand sanitizers

Herpes link to Alzheimer's?

Raw Food Webinar With Sunny Lee Savage Sunday

Sprouted rice flour by Sol Grains

Responsibly farmed Tilapia at Whole Foods

Coconut boosts brain function!

One parent's view on Dr. Wakefield, vaccines and Autism

Great tips for recovering from colds and flus

Link between gluten sensitivity and selenium deficiency

Our experience with Homeopathy for Autism, day 4 of the remedy

Terrorism via our food supply? Too late, already been done!

The flu and illness as cleansing processes?

Selenium and ezcema

More immune systems tid bits

The importance of Zinc

Gratitude

Help protect small farmers and growers

Cholesterol levels, Autism, and brain function - how low is too low?

Dangers of microwaving food

More info on Respen-A from Dr. Kurt Woeller

New research on the impact of Roundup to human cells

L-Carnitine changes

The importance of vitamin D3, especially during cold and flu season!

Toxins in Halloween face paint

Allergen free Halloween candy list

Toxins in our environment

T*E*E*M Products

More information on the negative effects of BPA

What a difference a new teacher makes

Educational choices for our children with Autism

Great information on learning and brain development

New Yeast Control Pack for kids with Autism

Explaining Autism to Classmates

Dairy and headaches

TEE*M Products