PAH - Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of over 100 different chemicals that are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage, or other organic substances like tobacco or charbroiled meat. PAHs are usually found as a mixture containing two or more of these compounds, such as soot.

Some PAHs are manufactured. These pure PAHs usually exist as colorless, white, or pale yellow-green solids. PAHs are found in coal tar, crude oil, creosote, and roofing tar, but a few are used in medicines or to make dyes, plastics, and pesticides.

However, you also might be exposed to PAHs by eating grilled or charred meats, contaminated cereals, flour, bread, vegetables, fruits, meats as well as processed or pickled foods, and drinking contaminated water or cow's milk... to name just a few.

Longterm or delayed health effects include:
1) This chemical is likely to cause cancer. It is considered a Probable Carcinogen.
2) Reproductive Toxicant = Can harm reproductive system
3) Development Toxicant = Can interfere with normal development of a fetus or child
4) Suspected Endocrine Disruptor = May interfere with, mimic or block hormones

And this is why Europe's food agency is calling on scientists across the food industry to contribute data on the potentially carcinogenic compounds, because they have been increasingly pinpointed by consumer organisations as a food safety issue in the food chain.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 466/2001 as amended by Regulation 208/2005 sets maximum levels for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), specifically benzo[a]pyrene, in certain foods. But in view of remaining uncertainties on levels of carcinogenic PAH in foods, especially on those PAHs identified by the former EC Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) to possess both genotoxic and carcinogenic properties, the rules have provided for a review by April 1, 2007.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has developed a database, on the Commission's recommendation 2005/108/EC, to investigate the levels of PAHs in certain foods.

"Data from all kind of laboratories are needed; official food control, research, and the food industry," says EFSA.

I'm certain we will be hearing more on this subject in future.

Sources:

1. Agency For Toxic Substances And Disease Registry
2. Europe's food agency investigates harmful PAHs in food
3. CHEC's Health House - Chemical Summary PAH
4. Department of Health and Family Services - Wisconsin

Nobel Prize Winners May Help Stamp Out Stomach Ulcers

Over 25 million Americans will suffer from an ulcer at some point during their lifetime, according to the Center for Disease Control.

If you think, like many medical experts once thought, that bacterium cannot live in the acidic juices of the stomach, think again.

Drs. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren of Australia discovered that helicobacter pylori could actually survive, and thrive, in the lining of the stomach as well as the upper duodenum... and more important, this tiny bacteria could be the "trigger" for an ulcer -- not stress, anxiety, low immune system or diet as once believed by the medical community.

After much ridicule from the scientific and medical community, both doctors perservered in proving their findings and have finally received the top award -- the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Their work has stimulated research into microbes as possible reasons for other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis, the Nobel assembly said in its citation.

What Is Helicobacter Pylori?

Here is some general information from the Helicobacter Foundation Website

Helicobacter pylori is a spiral shaped bacterium that lives in the stomach and duodenum (section of intestine just below stomach). It has a unique way of adapting in the harsh environment of the stomach.

The inside of the stomach is bathed in about half a gallon of gastric juice every day. Gastric juice is composed of digestive enzymes and concentrated hydrochloric acid, which can readily tear apart the toughest food or microorganism. Bacteria, viruses, and yesterdays steak dinner are all consumed in this deadly bath of chemicals. It used to be thought that the stomach contained no bacteria and was actually sterile, but Helicobacter pylori changed that.

The stomach is protected from its own gastric juice by a thick layer of mucus that covers the stomach lining. Helicobacter pylori takes advantage of this protection by living in the mucus lining.

Urea hydrolysis: urea is broken down to ammonia and carbon dioxide

Once H. pylori is safely ensconced in the mucus, it is able to fight the stomach acid that does reach it with an enzyme it possesses called urease. Urease converts urea, of which there is an abundant supply in the stomach (from saliva and gastric juices), into bicarbonate and ammonia, which are strong bases. This creates a cloud of acid neutralizing chemicals around the H. pylori, protecting it from the acid in the stomach. The reaction of urea hydrolysis is important for diagnosis of H.pylori by the breath test.

Gram stain of H. Pylori

Another defense H. pylori has is that the body's natural defenses cannot reach the bacterium in the mucus lining of the stomach. The immune system will respond to an H. pylori infection by sending white cells, killer T cells, and other infection fighting agents. However, these potential H. pylori eradicators cannot reach the infection, because they cannot easily get through stomach lining. They do not go away either, though, and the immune response grows and grows. Polymorphs die, and spill their destructive compounds (superoxide radicals) on stomach lining cells. Extra nutrients are sent to reinforce the white cells, and the H. pylori can feed on this. within a few days, gastritis and perhaps eventually a peptic ulcer results. It may not be H. pylori itself which causes peptic ulcer, but the inflammation of the stomach lining; i.e. the response to H. pylori.

H. Pylori causing a neutrophil reaction (active chronic gastritis) in the lining (mucosa) of the stomach

H. pylori is believed to be transmitted orally. Many researchers think that H, pylori is transmitted orally by means of fecal matter through the ingestion of waste tainted food or water. In addition, it is possible that H. pylori could be transmitted from the stomach to the mouth through gastro-esophagal reflux (in which a small amount of the stomach's contents is involuntarily forced up the esophagus) or belching, common symptoms of gastritis. The bacterium could then be transmitted through oral contact.

Food Recall Alerts

Three food recalls top the list this month, as follows:

USA - Minnesota - Ready-Made Dole Salad Packs (3 types)

A potential outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Minnesota has resulted in three of the popular Dole Salads landing on the food recall list -- Classic Romaine, American Blend and Greener Selection, all of which contained three common ingredients: romaine lettuce, carrots and red cabbage.

And in the UK - Two Confectionary Products

Bassett's was forced to recall all of its milky babies confectionery range after small pieces of plastic were found in some packs. With the product being aimed at young children, the company saw no option other than a total recall due to the potential choking hazard. (This recall does not affect other Bassett's products.)

Meanwhile, Sainsburys is recalling its Basics plain chocolate owing to undeclared milk proteins that were found. The recall was essential because of the risk to anyone allergic or intolerant to milk who might have inadvertently bought the chocolate.

Nutrition News - brain food, learning power, tasty food wraps and more

It's time for some great news on the nutrition front. Here's a short collection of news items that have surfaced recently in areas of nutrition:

Keeping Our Brains Sharp Through Aging
Friedman Nutrition Notes - September/October 2005:

According to a recent report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, folate, a B vitamin found in foods like leafy green vegetables and citrus fruit, may protect against cognitive decline in older adults. The research team, led by Katherine L. Tucker, PhD, was conducted by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.

Tucker and her colleagues found that men who obtained more folate in their diets showed significantly less of a decline in verbal fluency skills over the course of three years than did men with lower dietary folate intake. High folate levels, both in the diet and in the blood, also appeared to be protective against declines in another category of cognitive skills known as spatial copying.

Enhance Your Learning Power With -- Breakfast!
Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, September 9, 2005:

What simple practice seems to have one of the greatest effects on how well children do in school? The answer is: Eating breakfast.

Study after study has shown that children and adult students who eat breakfast do more and better work in school than those who don't. Those who don't eat breakfast tend to tire more quickly, be more irritable and react less quickly than those who do eat breakfast.

In a recent study conducted in the United Kingdom, school children were randomly given one or four breakfasts on four consecutive days, then tested for cognitive skills (attention, working memory and episodic memory) throughout the morning. The breakfasts consisted of wheat cereal and milk, oat cereal and milk, a sugar-based beverage or nothing at all. The children scored significantly better on the days following the two cereal-based breakfasts than when they had no breakfast or only a sugar-based beverage for breakfast.

USDA Adding New Zing To Sushi-Style Delicacies?
USDA Website - July 2005 News

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at Albany, Calif., and research partner Origami Foods, LLC, based in Pleasanton, Calif., are experimenting with dozens of delicious, attractively colored wraps made from familiar vegetables and fruits. For example, they've tested a bright-orange carrot-based wrap to encircle a cucumber, garlic and rice filling, and a deep-red tomato and basil wrap to hold a spicy tuna and rice filling.

Wholesome, colorful sushi wraps made from vegetables, fruits and spices enhance the flavor of traditional and novel sushi fillings, according to Origami Foods and ARS. In addition to two spinach sushi-style wraps, nine others were being tested in July of this year, including: apple-cinnamon, red bell pepper, mango-orange, carrot-ginger, tomato-basil, broccoli, soybean, strawberry and peach.

Yummy!

It's Pumpkin Season -- And Check Out How GREAT They Are!
Pumpkin Power! Calculating the Carotenoids in a Fall Favorite - ARS Oct. 2005

With the exception of pure juice made from a certain strain of goji berry (believed to be the most dense source of carotenoids on the planet) -- those cans of cooked, pureed pumpkin on your pantry shelf probably have more of a healthful phytonutrient called beta-carotene than any other food in your cupboard.

Our bodies can convert beta-carotene, a carotenoid and antioxidant, into vitamin A -- a nutrient essential for good eyesight and proper growth, according to ARS. Until now, there hasn’t been a fast, simple, and environmentally friendly way to precisely measure the beta-carotene and other carotenoids in pumpkin, but a new study may change this.

Why do we need to measure carotenoids more precisely?

These natural plant compounds, responsible for the orange hues of pumpkins and carrots and the deep reds of tomatoes, continue to capture the attention of nutrition and public health researchers worldwide. That's because these specialists are eager to discover more about carotenoids' health benefits.

"Some carotenoids are thought to help reduce incidence of cataracts, cardiovascular disease, and particular kinds of cancer," explains ARS chemist Betty J. Burri. And although beta-carotene is still the most studied type, the importance of other carotenoids, such as cryptoxanthin, lutein, and lycopene -- and the amounts in which they occur -- may become clear as more is learned about them.

Today, the exact sequence of steps that our bodies use to take up beta-carotene and convert it to vitamin A remains mostly mysterious. But it's thought that other carotenoids may play a role.

Besides being the star of that traditional pie dessert favored by many at Thanksgiving dinners, pumpkin can add a pleasing taste and texture to everything from appetizers to soups, stews, and even chili.

Enjoy it with zest, knowing how much it could be doing for YOU!

Troubles Rising For The UK's FSA Profiling

The UK's Food Standards Agency's (FSA) profiling proposal, developed at the end of July, used zero as a benchmark, with positive scores indicating unhealthy products and minus scores pointing to healthier options, according to NutraIngredients/Europe.

Using this benchmark process has lumped some foods/drinks formerly believed to be quite healthy into the unhealthy category...

For example, using the new FSA benchmark, whole, semi-skimmed and flavoured milk have the same health value as diet fizzy drinks -- they would be no better for you than drinking a Diet Coke. All got a score of zero.

In another example, olive oil is portrayed through this new profiling, to be less healthy than a range of potato crisps, chocolate biscuits and cakes. Olive oil received a score of 20, despite a number of studies showing that a so-called Mediterranean diet, with a high ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids (mostly olive oil) to polyunsaturated fatty acids, has a protective effect on the heart.

The current profiling scheme means that even breast milk would fall into the bad-health category of 'high in saturated fat, salt or sugar' and the positioning of cheese on the 'scorecard' would result in being similarly unsuitable.

Dairy UK was reported to have serious concerns about the FSA's profiling. "We question the omission of micronutrients such as protein quality, minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, as well as vitamins A and B," said Ed Komorowski, Dairy UK's technical director, as part of an FSA consultation period that ended this week.

Don't feel too bad. When the USDA came out with it's ORAC testing/rating system to rate the antioxidant power of foods/juices... the test didn't even acknowledge carotenoids.

Methinks both groups should go back to the drawing board ...but that's just my humble opinion.

The Top 5 Children's Menu Items As Surveyed By Mintel

In 2002, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) cited that 16 percent of children aged 6-11 were overweight, with the same percentage holding true for 12-19 year olds, according to a recent report by NutraIngredients.

In a recent survey by Mintel, more than 77 percent of adults surveyed cited that parents are to blame for the national crisis -- indicating that most parents/families are time-starved, spending more time commuting from jobs, to schools and activities leaving less and less time for sitting down to well-balanced home-cooked nutritious family meals. Approximately 42 percent of Mintel's respondents surveyed identified someone in their households as being overweight.

However, a whopping 93% of surveyed respondents felt that junk food continues to play a strong role in childhood obesity issues.

"Children's eating habits are suffering due to the lack of structured meal time, and this is as big a challenge as the lack of balanced meals," said Amanda Archibald, analyst and registered dietitian for Mintel. "Compressed schedules and cramped time availability for both children and parents may play a more important role than previously thought in making healthy food choices."

Then, when you add television into the mix -- of the estimated 40,000 television commercials children view a year, 32 percent are for candy, 31 percent for cereal, and 9 percent for fast food.

According to Mintel's Menu Insights, a menu-tracking system, more than 47 percent of children's menu items were fried. Here's a look at the top five menu items (listed in order of most often eaten) for what most children are eating these days:

1. Chicken fingers
2. Grilled cheese sandwiches
3. Burgers
4. Macaroni and cheese, and
5. Hot dogs

Any of those items sound familiar on your child's menu?

I have a confession to make -- they also top the list of our son's favorite foods. Our family doesn't get home-cooked well-balanced meals as often as we should -- even though both my husband and I only work part time, not commuting like many other parents, but from home running our businesses by phone and through the Internet. I can't even imagine how poor our diets would be if we had to commute like so many other parents are forced to do these days.

It's one of the main reasons we go through 3 cases of Goji Juice per month in our home... because I know our 5 year old son is at the very least, getting the benefits of the 4 "master" LPB polysaccharides and the nutritional value from the juice that we can't get through our irregular eating schedule.

Considering the poor condition of "fresh" produce in our area, it's doubtful a well-balanced meal could even give us what we need.

Both my son and I are quite slim ...and my husband's large frame maybe could stand to lose a pound (or three)... but it isn't anywhere near the weight problems that seem to exist in our area.

It's not our diets keeping us slim. Is it the Goji Juice?

Who knows for certain. I'm just happy our son prefers Goji Juice way above any of the sugary soda's and other far inferior juice products flooding the market these days. The convenience of grabbing a delicious glass of goji whenever we feel the need for a boost in our day also makes it so easy to fit into our often hectic unstructured lifestyle. For us, at least, it appears to be working well.

Three Interconnected Crises Facing Our World

It's no secret. In our world today there are 3 interconnected crisis facing us:

1. the crisis in water security,


2. the crisis in energy security, and


3. the crisis in food security.

I ran across some startling statistics today from ISIS regarding the water supply on our tiny planet which might lend a sense of urgency to #1 above.

"In terms of water, within the 20th Century, global water consumption increased six fold -- twice the rate of population growth.

There's a fair majority of people who will expect, within reasonable circumstances, to still be alive in 2025. Many will have children of their own by 2025 that they don't have now.

But the figures for global water crises suggest that by 2025, in twenty years time, the proportion of people on the planet who will be living in areas of 'significant water stress' will rise from 34% to 63%.

In absolute numbers it's a total sum of about six billion people, which is the entirety of today's world population."

When you stand back and look at the BIG picture of where we are now in our history, and where we will be twenty years from now, the above numbers do NOT look promising.

Consider this: water in its pure form is essential to all known forms of life and is known also as the most universal solvent.

The percent water that makes up the human body (by weight) varies with age, sex, and physical conditioning -- but generally speaking, about 72% of the fat free mass of the human body is made of water. To function properly the body requires between one and seven litres of water per day to avoid dehydration, the precise amount depending on the level of activity, temperature, humidity, and other factors.

Wikipedia states: "Water that humans consume is called potable water. This natural resource is becoming more scarce in certain places as human population in those places increases, and its availability is a major social and economic concern."

When you also consider how important water is to plant life -- specifically agriculture and our food supply -- the picture that is forming shape based on ISIS statististics should cause concern for all of us.

If you are on our customer-only newsletter mailing-list, you'll be receiving your copy in the mail (no, not by email -- by snail-mail) early next week with some additional informtion on this thought-provoking subject.

Until then, stay well and be healthy.

Bird Flu Has Scientists On Alert Around The World

Every now and then I like to take a "virtual trip" around the world to find out what health concerns are floating about. The latest threat isn't floating... it's flying... and it's called Influenza A (H5N1) -- better known as avian influenza or bird flu.

On Sept. 21, 2005 environment and health authorities in Abu Dhabi have placed a large order of four million pills for victims of bird flu, according to Gulf News, a news service in the Middle East. "Ali Al Marzouqi, head of preventive medicine at the General Authority for Health Services (GAHS), said that an order of four million pills for bird flu has been placed to cover 400,000 citizens."

And if you think that's a rather high "prevention" measure, the USA Government has ordered 2 million doses of a new vaccine (which has seemed to have positive results fighting this flu strain) from Sanofi-Aventis (from France) for a national stockpile and is negotiating with the company to order more, according to a Reuters, Washington news release reported in USAToday in August. The vaccine is grown in chicken eggs and production can take months.

U.S. scientists say they have successfully tested a human vaccine against H5N1, but it could be several more months before it is approved for manufacture and distribution here.

On August 30, 2005, "Voice Of America" reported that Vietnam, the country hardest hit by bird flu, is starting to target the virus at its source by vaccinating its entire poultry population.

The outbreak of avian flu in Vietnam has forced the country to slaughter some 50 million chickens and ducks.

A few months back, the World Health Organization stated that since 2003, at least 112 people have contracted the bird flu in four Southeast Asian countries, and 90 of them have been Vietnamese. The majority of human deaths have occurred in Vietnam.

Other cases have occurred in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Tens of millions of chickens and other birds have died or been culled in Asia because of the virus.

The epidemic devastated Vietnam's chicken farmers last year. The government ordered the culling of chickens in infected areas so they could not pass the virus on to humans, and the economic cost has been estimated at more than 200 million dollars. Vietnam is seeking to control avian flu at the source by injecting chickens and ducks throughout the country with vaccines imported from China.

"The head of the program, Van Dang Ky, chief of epidemiology at the Ministry of Agriculture, says the goal is to have all chickens vaccinated before the winter flu season starts." -- according to the Voice of America article

What health officials around the world fear most is that the H5N1 virus may change to a form that can spread as easily among people as it now does among poultry. If that happens, health experts say, the result could be as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed between 20 and 40 million people. That virus was a highly infectious avian flu much like H5N1.

H5N1 quickly destroys a patient's lungs. Most flu has a fatality rate of less than five percent, but H5N1 has so far killed half the people who contracted it in Southeast Asia.

Public health experts say the virus is mutating and could develop the ability to spread easily from person to person and kill millions in a flu pandemic. The "Nature Weekly Journal of Science" reported in May of this year that the spread of avian flu to, and probably between, humans, has already started across Asia.

There are conflicting reports as to how many people the H5N1 flu has killed ... some sources state more than 60 people have died from it in Asia since 2003, but the actual numbers could be far higher since exact figures have not been fully reported in China, according to "recombinomics" ...however, they have an unofficial report that estimates over 8,000 birds AND ANIMALS have already died from the virus in China. They indicated in June of this year that the machine translated list of animal deaths linked to H5N1 bird flu in and around the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve in Gangcha County is more than 10 fold higher than the official report of May 21 by China to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

Since the reserve is a breeding ground for bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) that migrate over the Himalayas, scientists warn the birds could carry the virus to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe.

"The occurrence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus infection in migrant waterfowl indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat," Jinhua Liu of China Agricultural University and colleagues wrote in the journals Science and Nature.

One rumor claims that as many as 120 people have already died of the avian flu in China alone... but this is just a rumor at this time.

About Bird Flu:
(Adapted from The Center For Disease Control Website)

Influenza A (H5N1) -- better known as avian influenza or bird flu -- occurs naturally among wild birds worldwide. The virus is very contagious among birds and can be deadly to them -- especially to domesticated birds like chickens.

15 subtypes of influenza A virus are known to be circulating in bird populations. Many forms of avian flu virus cause only mild symptoms in the birds, or no symptoms at all. However, some of the viruses produce a highly contagious and rapidly fatal disease, leading to severe epidemics, such as the H5N1 strain. These virulent viruses are known as "highly pathogenic avian influenza" and are cause for concern.

About Bird Flu Infection:

The virus doesn't typically infect humans. But in 1997, the first instance of direct bird-to-human infection resulted in six deaths in Hong Kong. Since then, there have been other instances of bird flu infection among humans. Since January 2004 at least 53 people are known to have died of the virus - in Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand.

Meanwhile, bird flu has claimed the lives of four Indonesians since July of this year, and three children who died this week are suspected of having had the disease. Laboratory test results are expected within days, doctors said, noting that 13 other patients were under observation, according to an Associated Press report earlier today. "With the high human population density, we can expect to see more cases here, more perhaps than even in Vietnam and Thailand," says WHO representative Georg Petersen. Currently Tamiflu tablets are the only treatment so far proven effective against bird flu in humans.

About How Bird Flu Spreads:

Infected birds shed H5N1 in their saliva, nasal excretions and feces. Bird flu viruses spread among birds when the animals come into contact with contaminated excretions. Scientists believe most cases of human (and other animal) infection have resulted from contact with infected poultry or contaminated surfaces.

The virus kills chickens but rarely ducks, according to one source. At the Chinese reserve, it infected wild brown-headed gulls (Larus brunnicephalus) and great black-headed gulls (Larus ichthyaetus), causing symptoms in birds such as tremors, diarrhea, head tilt and paralysis.

Bird flu can cause a range of symptoms in humans. Some patients report fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. Others suffer from eye infections, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and other severe and life-threatening complications.

Athough the World Health Organization claims that so far humans have only contracted bird flu after coming into contact with infected animals, many experts agree that it is possible that H5N1 could merge with a human flu virus and create a new virus that could be easily passed between humans with catastrophic consequences.

There are 2 ways the virus could easily mutate, according to BUPA...

In humans - if a person who already has flu is comes into close contact with birds who have highly pathogenic avian flu, there is a tiny chance that the person could become infected with the avian flu virus. If this happens, the person would now be carrying both the human flu virus and the avian flu virus. The two viruses could meet in the person's body and swap genes with each other. If the new virus had the avian flu's genes that made it rapidly fatal and the human flu's genes to allow it to be passed from person to person, a flu pandemic could result.

In pigs - pigs are susceptible to both human and bird flu viruses. If a pig became infected with both viruses at the same time, it could act as a "mixing vessel", allowing the two viruses to swap genes and produce a new virus.

There is no evidence that H5N1 has mutated yet, however every time an avian flu virus jumps from a bird to a person or animal, the risk of a new flu virus being produced increases.

Postmenopausal Women Have One More Reason To Cheer About Soy

Other studies have shown a link between soy products and bone mineral density but a new research study conducted by Dr Xiao-Ou Shu and colleages published Sept. 12, 2005 in the "Archives of Internal Medicine" (vol 165, pp1890-1895) is the first large study to investigate the association between soy consumption and the risk of fracture.

Even after accounting for age, calorie intake, socioeconomic status, other nutrients, and osteoporosis risk factors, higher soy protein consumption was significantly associated with lower risk of fracture in postmenopausal women participating in the Shanghai Women's Health Study.

They added that the inverse association was more pronounced among women in early menopause. For women within ten years of menopause onset the risk of fracture was reduced by 48 per cent among those with the highest intake of soy protein intake compared to those in the lowest consumption. For women who had been menopausal for more than ten years, the risk reduction was 29 per cent.

Ladies ... are you ready to find out how great Ultimate Soy Shakes taste?

Have a healthy and happy day!

Resigning From The FDA For Ethical Reasons?

The latest resignation from the FDA comes as quite a surprise when the reasons for resigning were stated. Before I go into the details and an excerpt from the actual resignation letter, I'd like to state for the record:

1. I'm not really a total fan of the OBGYN website (where I found the news article) mainly because they do seem to push a LOT of drugs and don't seem too concerned with "natural" alternatives for women in many cases, or at least that's my perception based on all the links to buy drugs on their site. (Kinda makes me wonder if the drug companies are sending them royalties/kickbacks too, like many doctors across our nation are getting.)

2. Let's face it, the more women that require OBGYN medical help, the more money they make... so I'm not entirely positive that all their research is really in the best interests of women's health since there are other potential motives here. I mean it's not like asian healers who get paid if you stay healthy... here, healers get paid if you get sick. I'm not being skeptical --- just realistic that there may be other motives at play and considering the high incidence of unnecessary historectomies in the USA, it's possible my skepticism is justified. Who knows for sure?

However, they have been strong supporters of moving women's health issues forward through science and research ... so my skepticism might be unjustified.

With that being said, here's the scoop on the latest resignation at the FDA.

Susan Wood, Ph.D., resigned yesterday as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assistant commissioner for women’s health and director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health. Her resignation was prompted by the FDA’s recent decision to delay action on deciding whether to approve the Plan B emergency contraceptive for over-the-counter use. Below is a copy of Dr. Wood’s resignation letter (as posted on the OBGYN website).

“Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I regret to tell you that I am leaving the FDA, and will no longer be serving as the Assistant Commissioner for Women's Health and Director of the FDA Office of Women's Health. The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women's access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women's health. I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health policy decisions. I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled. I therefore have submitted my resignation effective today.”

What is the Plan B emergency contraceptive referred to in her letter and above?

I'll do some serious digging and see what I come up with. Be sure to stay tuned to BLV Health Watch for subscriber-only future editions.

Until then... have a wonderful healthy day!



PS: we've fixed the AOL subscriber problem by changing newsletter services. If you subscribed to the old service, you might not be getting new editions. You might want to hop over to our subscribe page to renew your subscription now.

Shocking Info from the Sustainable World Conference

On July 14-15/2005, a quiet gathering took place in the UK Parliament in Westminster, London. Independent scientists from four continents joined national politicians and many interested individuals and groups to discuss strategies for changing agriculture worldwide to a diversity of locally-based sustainable systems that can provide food sovereignty and security to all and protect the earth from the ravages of global warming.

It was the Sustainable World Global Initiative's first-ever International Conference, organised by the Institute of Science in Society [ISIS].

The first shocking info was about WATER:

Alan Simpson MP warned that by the year 2025, 6 billion people will suffer water stress, causing ‘water wars' ...and he states decades of overproduction by agribusiness is a major cause of water depletion.

I didn't have to search very far online to uncover some startling evidence that would appear to support his claims. Check out this article regarding nitrate contamination of an Aquifer in Southwestern Spain.

The article starts out with the statement: "Inappropriate farming techniques and 4 years of drought (1992–1995) produced conditions for high nitrate concentration in an aquifer located in the Province of Seville (Southwest Spain)." And it's backed by an 8.9 Mb .pdf clinical study document following a thorough study of the problem.

The second piece of shocking info was about WEATHER:

Sure, many have heard about the value to our ecosystem that the Amazon rainforests present, but here's something I didn't know.

"The Sahara and Amazon Basins are connected by weather systems that are the inverse of each other and the circulation is recharged by the Amazon, which is now failing, turning it into a carbon source instead of a sink. The oceans are losing the ability to regulate terrestrial temperature, and that too, will affect climate irreversibly."

And then I read the shocking info about NUTRITION:

Quoted From Sustainable World Coming:

Hywel Davies MD of Weston A Price Foundation from Switzerland gave an account of the relationship between early coronary artery disease and the lack of nutrient dense food in the western diet.

Autopsies on children who died of accidents showed thickening of tissue inside arterial muscle laminae due to multiplication of cells and large deposits of calcium phosphate. These, he said, derived from an excess of vitamin D and other additives present in large quantities in babies' feeding formula and many common foods. They contain supplements to compensate for nutrition removed by food processing, but cause problems that can only be remedied by understanding the importance of natural nutrients to our health and well being.

For this reason, we must grow the food that meets these requirements.

There's more... much more. Maybe it's time for all of us to take another look at the BIG picture. Go ahead, check out the notes from the Conference here.

Also, our new articles will be up at BLV Health Watch Online by midnight tonight. You can check them out on Friday here.

Health and Wellness Blogs

The Confusion Surrounding Clinical Studies

Before I dive into this article, keep in mind that I'm not a fan of the flimsy ORAC scale --- a relatively inexpensive test performed by some manufacturers on their own products in order to elevate their products' perceived health benefits (anti-oxidant content).

You see... if the manufacturers have no way of standardizing their product, meaning they can't guarantee the same health values/content in each and every bottle/package (like we do with our Goji Juice), then the results of their testing remains suspect at the very least --- and completely unreliable at worst --- since results will vary depending on the quality/nature of the sample used to perform the test. (Added to the fact, that the ORAC test itself is weak in what it is capable of reporting, but that's another full-length article coming your way soon.)

Scientists only really respect studies published in peer-reviewed journals. There are 65 such peer-reviewed published studies completed thus far on goji (lycium barbarum) following rigorous clinical testing by independent 3rd parties (not our company)... with many more such studies underway.

Essentially, there is nothing wrong with companies carrying out their own research and communicating their findings in their marketing efforts....

...BUT...

Companies should never take advantage of their target audience's respect for science by using poor methodology or over-emphasizing/tweaking unremarkable results. Rather, they need to carry out the research as rigorously as if the consumer had all the know-how of the leading scientist in their field.

For example, Connecticut-based beverage company SoBe - South Beach Beverage Company - paid a $219,000 penalty earlier this year for falsely claiming that its drinks protect against colds and other illnesses and increase energy levels. SoBe, which was bought by PepsiCo in 2001, was pulled up by the Connecticut attorney general's office and department of consumer protection over the claims on advertising and packaging.

In a separate incident, PepsiCo also had to change the labeling on two of its fruit-flavored Tropicana beverages to reflect the fact that they actually contain little or no fruit juice.

In another example, PepsiCo-owned Tropicana Products reached a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission earlier this year over claims that its Healthy Heart orange juice could reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and homocysteine levels. The FTC alleged that there was no clinical data to back up these claims.

What surprises me is that the company could even make those claims in the first place, with the current FDA legislations regarding marketing and advertising. After all, there are 34 known and clinically proven health benefits for the lycium barbarum bloodline we use in Goji Juice, and yet only 4 of them are we legally entitled to use in our advertising with links to their related peer-reviewed clinical studies.

Chances are... based on the historical evidence in our industry... if we were to advertise publicly all 34 health benefits for goji, we'd be shut down in a heart-beat. However, the soft-drink industry giant gets away with a relatively small fine/settlement (in comparison to revenues and percieved "healthy image" publicity this form of advertising was able to generate for them).

It's a juice --- far better than orange juice with a much wider range of nutrition and health benefits and far more delicious, too in my personal humble opinion --- and yet, I can't tell anyone what the full 34 third-party peer-reviewed clinically proven health benefits are for the berry we use to make Goji Juice, unless someone asks me. (Sure, go ahead and ask me through our contact form at BestLiquidVitamins.com. I'll be happy to send a list of the 34 benefits to you.)

So, ummmmm... what's up?

Is it because we're a supplement supplier producing products designed to help everyone live longer, healthier, happier lives ... and NOT a multi-billion-dollar general food or soft-drink producer?

If you are a subscriber to our "customer-only private newsletter" you'll be finding out some of the answers soon.

Until then, live long and be healthy!


More Blogs On Health and Wellness

What's The Weather Like On The Moon?

On Wednesday, September 7/2005, the sun unleashed one of the largest solar flares on record, according to CNET News.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) said the powerful flare that emerged from region 808 on the sun Wednesday afternoon rated the fourth-largest in the last 15 years. Intense radio emissions were associated with the flare.

Here on earth, our planet's thick atmosphere and magnetic field protects us from protons and other forms of solar radiation coming at us from the sun when larger solar flares occur.

The Moon is a different story.

"The Moon is totally exposed to solar flares," explains solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. "It has no atmosphere or magnetic field to deflect radiation." Protons rushing at the Moon simply hit the ground --- or whoever might be walking around outside.

If an astronaut were to be caught outside on the moon's surface when such a storm hits, at first he'd feel fine, but a few days later symptoms of radiation sickness would appear: vomiting, fatigue, low blood counts. These symptoms might persist for days.

One rem, short for Roentgen Equivalent Man, is the radiation dose that causes the same injury to human tissue as 1 roentgen of x-rays. A typical diagnostic CAT scan, the kind you might get to check for tumors, delivers about 1 rem [ref].

To die, you'd need to absorb, suddenly, 300 rem or more.

The key word is suddenly, according to NASA. You can get 300 rem spread out over a number of days or weeks with little effect. Spreading the dose gives the body time to repair and replace its own damaged cells. But if that 300 rem comes all at once ... "we estimate that 50% of people exposed would die within 60 days without medical care," says Francis Cucinotta, NASA's radiation health officer at the Johnson Space Center.

Such doses from a solar flare are possible. For example, the large solar storm of August 1972. A large sunspot appeared on August 2, 1972, and for the next 10 days it erupted again and again... Researchers have been studying it ever since.

Cucinotta estimates that a moonwalker caught in the August 1972 storm might have absorbed 400 rem.

An Apollo command module with its aluminum hull would have attenuated the 1972 storm from 400 rem to less than 35 rem at the astronaut's blood-forming organs. That's the difference between needing a bone marrow transplant ... or just a headache pill, according to Cucinotta.

Back in January 20th of 2005, a giant sunspot named "NOAA 720" exploded. The blast sparked an X-class solar flare, the most powerful kind, and hurled a billion-ton cloud of electrified gas (a "coronal mass ejection") into space. Solar protons accelerated to nearly light speed by the explosion reached the Earth-Moon system minutes after the flare --- the beginning of a days-long "proton storm."

A powerful solar flare on July 14/2000 triggered an ongoing radiation storm around our planet. The eruption also sent a fast-moving coronal mass ejection toward Earth.

As for last Wednesday's solar flare, what happened here on earth?

"This event created a complete blackout of high-frequency communications on the day-lit side of Earth, which included the entire U.S. and basically anywhere the sun was shining at this time," Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center, said referring to Wednesday's solar flare in a prepared statement.

"Communications used by emergency services along the Gulf Coast may have experienced problems due to this flare. Low-frequency navigation systems may also have experienced a period of significant degradation," he added.

It rated an R-4, or severe, on NOAA's space weather scale for radio blackouts.

Who faces the most health risk when solar flares/storms occur? Both astronauts and high-altitude airline pilots/crew. Airline pilots that fly at great altitude, and especially near the poles, are exposed to more radiation from solar storms reaching our atmosphere. The same goes for astronauts. This results in a higher incidence of cancer among airline pilots and cabin crew. Astronauts have even reported seeing flashes of light because of high energy protons hitting their eyes.

Last Wednesday's solar flare is not the end for this year... more are expected. Click this link to see the current Space Weather Alerts directly from NOAA.



CNET News Trackback

Technorati Health And Wellness Blogs

Benefits of Soy Protein in the News Again - New Study!

By now we all know about the benefits of soy protein for the heart and cholesterol... but a new study appears to suggest it may also have benefits for the liver.

In a new study conducted at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición in Mexico and published in the Journal of Lipid Research, the researchers set out to investigate whether soy protein may also regulate the transcription factors involved in lipid metabolism, and thus prevent the development of fatty liver.

Although further research is needed on the subject, particularly insofar as it relates to humans since the study was conducted using rats, the researchers believe that their results indicate that consumption of soy protein could reduce insulin resistance, renal damage and fatty liver.

---

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Products on this site are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Information presented in our news articles and elsewhere on this website are presented for educational purposes.

He Who Controls The Food Supply, Controls The Earth?

Gravity existed before Newton "discovered" it and the Earth revolved around the sun for hundreds of thousands of years before Galileo.

And plants on our tiny blue planet 3rd from the sun have existed for... well, that would depend on which theory of "existance" you subscribe to... but certainly it's somewhere near the beginning of life on our planet, right?

Then it makes enquiring minds like mine wonder why, in recent years, certain companies have been acting like they invented the process of growing plants.

The investigations I've been doing to uncover who owns what in the food supply chain has all the ingredients of a fiction thriller novel ...filled with conspiracy theories, hype, half-truths, lies, and even bribery.

You don't want to miss this first article in a serious of articles:

Who Controls The Food Supply, Controls The Earth?

Be sure to subscribe to BLV News for more on this subject. You might be as shocked as I was at some of the information I've been uncovering.

Health Risks Lurking After Katrina Disaster

What outbreaks of communicable disease could occur in the wake of hurricane Katrina? A plethora of health concerns have been raised following the hurricane Katrina disaster, including injuries, outbreaks of disease spread through sewage contamination of drinking water, spoiled food, insects, and bites from snakes and other animals.

New Orleans in particular is "a potentially toxic bathtub" as described by one Associated Press article.

If you are wondering about:

- Risks Of Rare and Deadly Exotic Diseases
- Water Health Risks In The Wake Of Katrina
- Food Health Risks Following The Katrina Disaster
- Other Health Risks Attributed To Hurricane Katrina
- What Types Of Communicable Disease Outbreaks Could Occur?

The above issues are covered and more in our latest article: "Health Risks Lurking After Katrina Disaster"

To assist with Katrina Disaster Relief, here is a link to reputable charities in urgent need of support.

International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day

Second-Hand Smoke and Benefits of Fruits and Soy Fiber

"A new study finds early life exposure to second-hand smoke can produce life-long respiratory problems. The study of 35,000 adult non-smokers in Singapore found that those who lived with a smoker during childhood had more respiratory problems, including chronic cough.

Study participants who reported eating more fruit and soy fiber as adults seemed to be protected against some of the negative health effects often associated with early tobacco exposure."

Visit through this link to read the entire NIEHS press release.

Here's How You Can Help Hurricane Katrina Victims

Some are calling it the worst natural disaster in our country's history... an entire city flooded, coastlines wiped out... loved ones lost, homes lost and more.

For a number of different charities seeking donations and volunteers to help vicitims of Hurricane Katrina, visit here.

Also note, beginning September 1/2005, we are donating $10 for every case of Himalayan Goji Juice purchased through Best Liquid Vitamins website to charities helping in the long road to recovery in the Gulf states.

Secrets of Salmonella Food Poisoning Exposed

Researchers at the UK's Institute of Food Research (IFR) claim to have unlocked the key secrets of success for the salmonella pathogen responsible for a raft of food poisoning outbreaks.

Carried in eggs, poultry, raw milk and chocolate the salmonella bacteria can cause bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps and in extreme cases kidney failure. Incidents are a major problem in most countries across the globe, leading to hefty costs for the public and private sector.

One hundred million years ago Salmonella evolved from E. coli bacteria that lived freely in the environment. Salmonella developed the ability to parasitise animals by losing many genes and gaining new ones from other bacteria, explains the IFR.

Learn what secrets the IFR have discovered in our current health and wellness news through this link.

Fun Facts - Science And Foods In Space

At zero gravity (space conditions) the body demineralises, resulting in bone and muscle loss. For astronauts this happens fast, as much as 1 per cent a month, compared to on Earth where bone loss occurs when we grow old. Between 50 and 60 years of age we experience 10 per cent of bone loss.

A few innovative food manufacturers have come up with unique formulations for food products that can stand up to harsh conditions in space, yet still taste at least marginally good. Here are just a few of the latest.

Nissin Food Products announced that its newly developed instant noodle product Space Ram was loaded on the space shuttle Discovery and went into space last month. Space Ram – available in soy sauce, miso, curry and pork bones - was co-developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The soup powder has been made with increased viscosity and can be cooked in water at 70 degrees Celsius.

Danish food firm Arla Food Ingredients, working with US food technologists at the Johnson Space Centre, recently developed a new yoghurt for consumption by NASA's astronauts. When the expedition 11 crew took off to the International Space Station in mid-April, Arla's fruit flavoured yoghurts were on board.

Arla Food Ingredients has also come up with ‘milk bites' for astronauts which are essentially a chewy, bite-size protein bar that gives the space travellers a dose of calcium and protein.

A NASA space food competition held in spring of 2004 resulted in a vegetable spread called Veg@eez, a red, white and green mix of tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and radishes, as the winning entry. It was created by U.S. students from Penn State University who won the year's NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center competition.

Astronauts' tastes in food changes when they are in space. In space the zero gravity means that bodily fluids move up towards the head. It's like having a stuffed nose. People's perception of food changes, and most astronauts tend to go for spicy foods in space.

In July 2001 it was reported that the European Space Agency started building a recycling system that will convert astronauts' waste into food, oxygen and water.

The Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative (MELISSA) system could enable future astronauts to travel to Mars and back, an epic voyage that would take three years to complete. It could also be a vital feature of space bases on other planets.

The miniature ecosystem will be divided into five interconnected compartments. The first three are being constructed at universities across Europe and are designed to break down waste through a number of fermentation processes.

The fourth, being built at the University of Guelph, will contain plants and algae that grow to produce oxygen, water and food, fed by the decomposed waste. The fifth compartment will contain the astronauts themselves and will be constructed at the project headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.

During the development of the system, rats will be used in place of astronauts to test the system. ESA says that the complete facility will be assembled in Barcelona by 2005.

Recycling is already an important part of space travel. Systems used aboard Mir and the International Space Station allow astronauts to breath air converted from carbon dioxide and drink water purified from waste. The new system performs the more complicated task of recycling food.

The next step in food science? It may be "Micro-M.R.E.'s," meal tablets with enough calories to sustain a soldier in the battlefield for 24 hours. According to Air Force 2025, a study of future military concepts conducted by the Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, M.R.E.'s are being developed.

Also in the works: transdermal patches that will allow soldiers to feed themselves through their skin. The "transdermal nutrient delivery system" is currently being studied by the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Program.


Sources:
NewScientist - Space toilet key to conquering final frontier
ABC News/Australia - New food for happy little astronauts
FoodQualityNews - Soup rockets to space on new formulation
RetroFuture - Spacefood

A Quick Test - Do You Trust The Food You Buy?

The test is simple: would you rate a product as healthy if you were given all the facts?

For example, it's ridiculous to claim a cereal is healthy if you later discover it is super high in salt and sugar content. Similarly, I don't want to be misled into believing a yoghurt is made with organic ingredients because it is branded as ‘Bio', or discover that a fruit drink contains very little fruit juice.

Remember the article I wrote about how PepsiCo is changing the labeling on two of its fruit-flavored Tropicana beverages to reflect the fact that they actually contain little or no fruit juice?

Well, what you might not be aware of is the fact that in July of this year the FDA urged the soft drink industry to review the ingredient statements on their soft drink labels following the withdrawal of a proposed “and/or” ruling on sweeteners. Beverage makers now have to ensure that the sweetening ingredients used in products are listed accurately. Up to that point, there had been continuous demand from the soft drinks industry for “and/or” sweetener labeling for over two decades.

Why not just be honest and label their products with what is REALLY inside?

Go back to an article I wrote in April of this year regarding the new reduced sugar cereals, most of which carry BIG BOLD LABELS about LESS SUGAR blazing across the box, as though to imply they are now so much healthier for you. The Associated Press asked nutrition experts at five universities to review the new reduced-sugar cereals to see how they stacked up with the regular versions. The nutrition scientists found that while the new cereals do have less sugar, the calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and other nutrients are almost identical to the full-sugar cereals.

In other news, food makers in the USA are scrambling to meet the January 1 2006 deadline for the new trans fats labeling requirements, and the debate over Country of Origin (COOL) labeling - whether it should be voluntary or mandatory - rumbles on.

Meanwhile, Nestle UK has found a way to refer to the calcium content in its cheesecake without it being considered a health claim, according to Dominique Patton, reporting for FoodQualityNews. The company used a cartoon of a woman to advertise its Little Notions Cheesecake, superimposing on her hair the following text: "Lemon Cheesecake's made with cheese. Cheese is full of calcium. Calcium makes bones strong. If I don't eat cheesecake I'll fall over." Now that's a pretty sad use of subliminal advertising, in my humble opinion.

If a tasty food can't really be healthy, and a healthy food is not tasty, manufacturers would do better to concentrate on being real about which category it honestly falls into rather than disappoint us on both.

I sincerely believe companies that take the high road, with fair labeling, will do better than those who create a wake of suspicion by deliberately writing around products' vices.

Whether its aspartame, soya, GM foods or high fructose corn syrup, in today's information-driven world, pressure groups quickly move to raise public awareness of missing, or conflicting, scientific evidence. Wouldn't it be nice if manufacturers took a more proactive role in replacing foods where the doubts cannot be laid to rest?

Even more important, ingredients should be of the highest possible quality.

Let's face it... health risks are as worrying to producers as consumers, and only where ingredients are the finest available, will food manufacturers be deserving of our trust.

Sure, our Himalayan Goji Juice is more expensive than some of the kool-aid-type knock-offs appearing lately (ever since this remarkable berry started popping up in the media) --- and for good reason. We ONLY USE goji berries that are GUARANTEED SCREENED using our proprietary spectral signature process to be the most potent containing ALL the health benefits in perfect balance with the most important 4 master molecules not found in any other food on our planet.

The truth is, we reject more goji berries than we accept in order to produce a premium product that will deliver consistent results that compound over time the longer you drink it.

There is no other goji juice on the market --- and there never will be one --- that can deliver the powers of the original bloodline for lycium barbarum quoted in ancient Asian medical texts. Our spectral signature seal is our guarantee that you are getting the highest quality with the best of the best goji berries in every single bottle.

In a perfect world, other manufacturers would bend over backwards to ensure their products also meet such exacting standards in production, formulation and delivery.

Sidenote: And if you knew what we know about drinking Himalayan Goji Juice everyday, you would be crazy not to add it to your daily diet.

Sad Statistics Regarding Hysterectomy In The USA

Did you know that more hysterectomies are performed in the USA than anywhere else in the developed world, and many are totally unnecessary?

Hysterectomy is the second most common major surgery among women in the United States. (The most common major surgery that women have is cesarean section delivery). Each year, more than 600,000 hysterectomies are done. About one-third of women in the United States have had a hysterectomy by age 60. The average age of a women undergoing hysterectomy is 42, according to the American College of Surgeons.

One of the leading reasons for historectomies is uterine fibroids.

Almost all uterine fibroids are benign and their growth is most likely promoted by an imbalance of good and bad estrogens. Since fibroids tend to shrink and disappear after menopause, the idea behind performing hysterectomy is essentially to bring on menopause.

Many doctors prescribe estrogen for their historectomy patients but claim the women "don't need" progesterone. Loss of progesterone is part of the reason tissues breakdown when women stop ovulating, according to Elizabeth Plourde, author of the book, "A comprehensive look at hysterectomy: The Ultimate Rape." It carries out several functions that help maintain our cardiovascular health.

Studies also prove that it helps build new bone. Bones contain receptors for the 3 primary ovarian hormones: estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, which reveals that all 3 are involved in maintaining a strong skeletal structure.

For all women, whether they have their uterus and/or ovaries or not, it is crucial to maintain a balance of these 3 hormones. Ever heard about women having bone density problems after menopause (or historectomy)? My best guess is that you probably have.

Doesn't it make more sense to try to balance estrogen levels first before considering such drastic surgery?

The good news is there are many natural ways to gain estrogen balance.

But the very first step if you are a woman is to have your estrogen and progesterone levels checked and then find a physician to help you who is familiar with nutritional and natural healing. In most cases uterine fibroids are uncomfortable, but not life-threatening. Take some time to try some alternatives before resorting to surgery.

To read all our newest articles, visit our Health And Wellness newsletter online at BestLiquidVitamins.

No, Psoriasis Is Not Contagious, But...

No, psoriasis is NOT contagious. The psoriatic lesions may not look good, but they are not infections or open wounds. People with psoriasis pose no threat to the health or safety of others.

With that said, August is Psoriasis Awareness Month in the USA, and we've written a news article describing the five types of psoriasis, some common triggers for psoriasis outbreaks and have a few helpful tips and resources... all available in our online news today.

Visit through this link and read the August/2005 article "August Is Psoriasis Month In The USA" to get all the details.

Sidenote: Some of our visitors and customers have had great success controlling outbreaks of psoriasis through dietary changes and a few all-natural products we have access too. (Contact us for details if you would like to learn more.)

Shingles - Where Did The Chickenpox Cross The Road?

When my father called me from Canada to tell me he had a painful fight with shingles ...then not long after, an old high school friend (also from Canada) told me she had also gone through a bout with shingles, I wanted to know more and my search began. Here's what I found out.

Shingles generally affects the elderly, but occasionally occurs in children who have had chickenpox within the first year of their lives and in people with an immune deficiency.

What is the relationship to chickenpox?

Shingles is a painful rash caused by the Varicella-zoster virus (Herpes varicellae), which is the virus that causes chickenpox.

"For reasons that are not clear, after a chickenpox infection, the varicella virus remains in our bodies forever." states Dr. Paul on the Children's Health And Wellness website.

After the chickenpox virus has been contracted, it travels from the skin along the nerve paths to the roots of the nerves where it becomes inactive. The chickenpox virus then "hibernates".

Shingles occurs in people who have had chickenpox. It is a reactivation of the dormant virus and often occurs many years after the initial chicken pox infection.

When the virus is reactivated, it travels via the nerve paths to the skin. It is not known what factors trigger a reactivation of the virus. Some health websites indicate the virus can be triggered by immune-suppressing medicines, emotional stress, with another illness (such as cancer), or after major surgery. One site mentions that advancing age and chronic use of cortisone-type drugs may trigger shingles. Also, shingles can be a sign of immunodeficiency, caused by HIV or chemotherapy, for example.

"In most cases, however, a cause for the reactivation of the virus is never found. The herpes virus that causes shingles and chicken pox is not the same as the herpes virus that causes genital herpes (which can be sexually transmitted) and herpes mouth sores. Shingles is medically termed Herpes zoster," according to MedicineNet.

What are the signs for shingles?

The first sign of shingles is often burning, sharp pain, tingling, or numbness in or under your skin on one side of your body or face. The most common site is the back or upper abdomen. You may have severe itching or aching. You also may feel tired and ill with fever, chills, headache, and upset stomach.

Before a rash is visible, you may notice several days to a week of burning pain and sensitive skin. Shingles start as small blisters on a red base, with new blisters continuing to form for 3-5 days. The blisters follow the path of individual nerves that comes out of the spinal cord (called dermatomal pattern). The entire path of the nerve may be involved or there may be areas with blisters and areas without blisters. Generally, only one nerve level is involved. In a rare case, more than one nerve will be involved. Eventually, the blisters pop and the area starts to ooze. The area will then crust over and heal. The whole process may take 3-4 weeks from start to finish. On occasion, the pain will be present but the blisters may never appear.

Shingles is contagious and may itself cause chickenpox in people who have never had it, as long as there are new blisters forming and old blisters healing. However, contact with a person with shingles or chickenpox cannot cause shingles. Shingles is not an airborne virus. It is passed by touch or via contact with fluid from the infected area.

If you think you have shingles, see your health care professional and avoid contact with infants, children, pregnant women, and adults who have never had chickenpox or the chickenpox shot until your blisters are completely dry.

Generally, shingles heal well and problems are few. However, on occasion, the blisters can become infected with a bacteria causing cellulitis, a bacterial infection of the skin. If this occurs, the area will become reddened, warm, firm, and tender. You might notice red streaks forming around the wound. If you notice any of these symptoms, contact your health care professional.

A more worrisome complication occurs when shingles affect the face, specifically the forehead and nose. In these cases, it is possible, although not likely, that shingles can affect the eye leading to loss of vision. If you have shingles on your forehead or nose, your eyes should be evaluated by a health care professional.

The most common complication of shingles is postherpetic neuralgia. This occurs when the pain associated with shingles persists beyond one month, even after the rash is gone. It is a result of irritation of the nerves of sensation by the virus. The pain can be severe and debilitating and occurs primarily in persons over the age of 50.

I've heard some therapeutic grade essential oils are quite effective for dealing with the pain and discomfort of shingles (contact me for info and a high quality scource) and of course, your health care professional will be able to provide you with medications should you require them.


Sources:

University of Michigan Health System - Shingles (Herpes Zoster)
Children's Health And Wellness - Zoster(Shingles) And Chicken Pox
MedicineNet - Shingles (Herpes Zoster)
Yahoo! Health - Varicella virus (Chickenpox) vaccine

UK Catches The Functional Beverages Wave

Fruit juice sales are currently soaring in the UK, and over the past two years alone, sales of chilled, high quality and natural juice have increased by a staggering 60 per cent to some £768 million (€1.1bn), according to Mintel.

We just returned from the FreeLife Convention held last week in Irvine, California with the great news that we will soon be able to bring Himalayan Goji Juice to all our European friends.

This will appeal to the increasingly health-conscious British consumer, who views fruit juice as a healthier alternative to coffee and fizzy drinks.

When you learn about the power of the tiny goji berry (aka lycium barbarum), you will definitely see why this juice is a category creator all its own. Its remarkable "adaptogen" abilities appear to come from the 4 unique polysaccharides not found in any other fruit or vegetable on our planet (LBP1, LBP2, LBP3 and LBP4). The longer you drink Goji Juice, the more positive health changes you will notice... and the compounding effects over time have been absolutely stunning for thousands of people around the world.

In fact, Dr. Mindell, who just returned from the annual Goji Berry Festival held in China, was extremely excited about the latest clinical studies that have been completed. He calls this berry his most powerful discovery in health and nutrition ever, and time is proving him right once again. After 40+ years working in natural health sciences and with more than 50 published books to his credit on the subject of health and wellness, he knows the value this tiny berry brings to us better than anyone else.

We've been drinking Dr. Mindell's Goji Juice everyday for more than 14 months now, and I can tell you we've seen some phenomenal results in our own health. Contact us at Best Liquid Vitamins and as us to "Share The Secret" of what Goji Juice has changed in our health over time. It will surprise you!

The main secret is --- KEEP DRINKING IT --- just 2 to 3 ounces a day, everyday, could DRAMATICALLY change your health, and your future looks, health and mood! I'm speaking from personal experience here!

When Science and Business Clash, Ethics Must Rule

Former Metabolife chief executive Richard Ellis now awaits sentencing following his conviction for fraud in his safety claims for herbal extract ephedra. Vitamin E producers are reporting sales dives as great as 40 per cent on the back of consumers’ safety concerns about high doses of the supplement. And just last week, lutein makers, too, began grappling with the findings of one unexpectedly unwelcome study, according to a recent article at BeverageDaily.

If people consuming a lot of beta-carotene suffer fewer heart attacks, is it actually the beta-carotene that are delivering the heart bonus? Or something else, that is often present alongside beta-carotene?

Do you really get the same results for a synthetic Vitamin C as you would from say... eating an orange, or from drinking the whole unpasteurized juice from the extremely high Vitamin C goji berry?

In nutrition we rarely yet have insight into the precise mechanism through which a nutrient delivers a health benefit. In some cases, isolating one single nutrient from a whole fruit or vegetable may not be as beneficial as originally thought. So our chief way forwards is by testing over and over for correlations, with different populations, in different circumstances, to build a body of evidence.

Those with strong scientific understanding appreciate that science is not the body of perfect knowledge that it is often viewed as by outsiders. It hypothesizes, tests, and re-hypothesizes, in an endless circling in on the fullest picture.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... one single clinical study doesn't necessarily mean "absolute proof" exists.

In fact, if one were to see the results of many studies completed, one might find the following recommendation popping up quite a bit: "further study recommended."

Even the tiny goji berry is still under very serious study --- an entire research center in China is actively studying every little bit they can learn about this powerful fruit. With 63 astonishing health benefits already confirmed thus far, there are still many many more studies underway.

What's interesting to note is how many studies confirm findings from earlier less intense studies.
This is not always the case in other nutrition scientific studies.

Sadly, consumers often choose the nutrients they purchase basing their decisions on normally grossly simplified science, brought to them as commercial marketing, or by a media with an eye on word-count, accessibility and drama.

The latest ORAC scoring system is one example of some pretty lousy science, in my humble opinion. Many manufacturers are racing to get their latest and greatest product the highest ORAC rating they can. The misguided public gets fed the rating, often believing this makes the product/s powerful in the antioxidant realm. Sadly, owing to lack of information and education about this poor measure of antioxidants in a substance, these ratings will most likely cause a great many consumers to be innocently fleeced.

Even worse, the way many manufacturers and distributors report their ORAC rating in many cases without even mentioning the unit of measure their score relates to ...well, that's positively unethical, in my humble opinion.

For manufacturers, here are the advantages of the ORAC assay:

-- the test score will reflect the antioxidant activity of any and all antioxidants in the liquid, whether they are known or unknown, named or unnamed.
-- the ORAC assay does not bother to try to measure presence or absence of individual antioxidants (a task which is difficult and very expensive), but rather, it measures total antioxidant reactivity (against only one type of oxidative radical known as the peroxyl radical) of any and all substances present in the liquid, whether known or unknown, and even those as yet unknown to, and unnamed by, modern science.
-- the ORAC assay is not particularly expensive, and often costs well under $400.
-- the test is quick and simple
-- the assay is offered by a number of commercial independent testing laboratories in the USA and around the world
-- the turnaround time on a test is quick, on the order of a week or less
-- as with any "single-score" "total antioxidant" measure, the score is seductive, because it allows a vendor to offer a single score on their label (or on their website) which purports to state the minimum antioxidant-power value per gram (or per 100 grams or per liter) of a food or nutritonal supplement product. This is obviously simple, clean, clear and neat, or at least it appears so at first glance.....

However, there are some marked drawbacks to the ORAC score.

The disadvantages of using the ORAC score, or at least in relying too much upon it, are several, beginning with the #1 reason, as follows...

The #1 Disadvantage of Using the ORAC Score

Despite the fact that it is sometimes touted as a "Total Antioxidatve Power" score, the ORAC assay can only measure one particular type of antioxidative activity, namely the ability of antioxidants to quench or neutralize only one specific type of oxidizing free radical (aka “reactive oxygen species”, or ROS) known as the peroxy (e.g., as found in peroxide) radical. Thus, the ORAC score offers only a partial picture of the true antioxidant power of an antioxidant or mixture of antioxidants, since some will have little or no activity against peroxides but great quenching activity against other oxidizing free radical species commonly found in the body such as superoxides, triplet oxygen, singlet oxygen, the hydroxyl or nitroxy radicals, and others. Indeed, some highly powerful and effective antioxidants show no activity at all against peroxide radicals (in other words, they are not peroxide-specific), but show great activity against other types of oxidant free radicals, and such antioxidants would score extremely poorly on an ORAC assay.

Two excellent examples of such antioxidants (and in reality there are plenty more) are:

1) The carotenoid family of antioxidants, which includes beta carotene, lycopene, canthaxanthxin and zeaxanthin, among others, and which are found extensively in strongly-colored fruits and vegetables, and in some shellfish. Most carotenoids show little activity against the peroxy radical.

2) The simple hydride family of antioxidants, also known as the negative hydrogen ion, or hydride ion, and also known as active hydrogen, which is a primitive and primeval hydrogen antioxidant which existed on earth even before life evolved, and which may be found in fresh raw fruits and vegetables, raw meats, and in some natural and unprocessed sources of water (such as some deep wells, some high-altitude mountain wells, and glacial runoff water.) The hydride antioxidant may also be found in so-called “alkaline ionized water” (more accurately described as “electrolyzed reduced water” or ERW) produced by commercial countertop devices known as water ionizers, and also in some nutritional supplements, which give only a very modest score on the ORAC assay.

Most of the members of the two antioxidant families cited above show little or no antioxidant activity against peroxide radicals, but show strong antioxidant activity against other oxidizing free radicals, including singlet oxygen and the superoxide radical.

Sidenote: some later off-shoots of the ORAC Assay (such as ORACHO) also look at one additional oxidant radical, the hydroxyl radical, as well, but this hardly solves the deficiency which has been briefly addressed here.

Have you noticed... we're one of the few companies NOT playing the ORAC marketing game? For good reason. When a scientific test that is this high for being potentially misleading, it would not be ethical (in my humble opinion) to wave the ORAC banner... at least, not until a considerable amount of scientific advances are made to render it more useful, make sense?

I hope so. Because there are many many more reasons you should NOT rely on the ORAC score ...and I'll be bringing those reasons to you here at Best Liquid Vitamins in a very special feature article coming at the end of August.

Stay tuned. Stay healthy... and whenever possible, stay informed.

Health - Week In Review

So much has been happening this month in our industry it's been hard to keep up with the news...

For example, on July 19 the USA Senate confirmed the nomination of Lester M. Crawford as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration by a vote of 78 to 16.

He was nominated for the post by President Bush in February, but the nomination was put on hold because several senators were unsatisfied with his explanation of why a "morning after pill" has not been approved for use without a prescription. The FDA is expected to decide by Sept. 1/05 whether the pill could be sold without a prescription. We'll bring you more info on this controversial subject in September.

In other news, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed a petition to place warning labels on soft drinks that contain caloric sweeteners. They want a series of rotating health notices on containers of all non-diet soft drinks - carbonated and non-carbonated - containing more than 13 grams of refined sugar per 12 oz.

And the glycemic index (GI) is being embraced in some areas of the world as a tool to help control appetite, weight, obesity, diabetes and other health concerns but it's not being too warmly received by American scientists, according to panelists at a session held during the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo.

There's more... much more.

Have you read all our latest articles online? They're posted at:
http://www.bestliquidvitamins.com/news.shtml

- Pfizer Drug Giant Warned By FDA
- SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora The Explorer, and Kids Nutrition
- Is It The Low-Carbs ...Or Is It The Protein That Helps Shed Pounds?
- Are We Unintentionally Killing Our Kids With Fluoride?
- Why Use Pharmaceutical Grade Bottles For Supplements?
- Fun Facts: How Do You Get Better Bubbles In Chocolate?
- Women and Infertility - New Study

More on the way. Stay tuned... and stay healthy!

SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora The Explorer, and Kids Nutrition

Nickelodeon, the children's television programmer, has licensed several of its characters - including SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer - to several fresh produce distributors that will begin introducing a range of fruits and vegetable packages featuring the Nickelodeon characters in supermarkets next month.

Starting this fall, Grimmway Farms, Inc., Arvin, CA, will produce 1.6-oz single serving to 5-lb bags of baby cut and peeled carrots in pkgs featuring SpongeBob, Dora, and Sportacus & Stephanie. Boskovich Farms, Oxnard, CA will feature SpongeBob on its bags of spinach. And LGS Specialty Sales, NY, distributors of oranges, tangerines and clementines, will feature SpongeBob, Dora, Blue's Clues and The Backyardigans characters on its bags of fruit. Upcoming deals also include using Nickelodeon characters on cartons of low fat milk.

"Nickelodeon recognizes the importance of health and wellness for kids and is proud of the efforts the network is making to encourage kids to eat right and make healthy food choices," said Sherice Torres, vice-president, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products. "We're thrilled to be able to add to the fun of eating fruits and vegetables."

The network also plans to unveil a series of public service announcements that focus on the importance of starting the day by eating a balanced breakfast.

According to "Kids Food and Eating Behaviors," a research study conducted by Nickelodeon and Cogent Research, only 50% of kids in the USA eat breakfast everyday and only 39% of kids eat 3 meals per day on a daily basis.

On-air, the network has committed $20 million and 10% of its air time to health and wellness messaging.

I think they need to hear about Goji Juice :-)

Source:
Food Business News July 26, 2005

Pfizer Drug Giant Warned By FDA

FDA regulators warned Pfizer Inc. about "misleading promotion" of its antibiotic drug Zyvox in a professional journal, according to a letter released Tuesday, July 26, 2005.

The advertisement does not include information about Zyvox's risks, implies it is superior without supporting evidence, and claims it can treat more infections than for which it was approved, the Food and Drug Administration letter said.

The agency called on the drugmaker to halt the advertisement and take the extra step of sending out new, more accurate promotions.

"Because the violations ... are serious, we request, further, that your submission include a comprehensive plan of action to disseminate truthful, nonmisleading and complete corrective messages," the letter said.

Patients using the drug can experience blood disorders like anemia and a build-up of lactic acid in the cells and blood -- but those risks were not included in the ad, the FDA said.

Source: CNN Money, Reuters News Release - FDA warns Pfizer about drug ad: Regulators warn the drugmaker about "misleading promotion" of its antibiotic drug Zyvox. July 26, 2005: 11:36 AM EDT

Are We Unintentionally Killing Our Kids With Fluoride?

Fluoride in tap water can cause bone cancer in boys, a disturbing new study indicates, although there is no evidence yet of a link for girls.

New American research suggests that boys exposed to fluoride between the ages of five and 10 will suffer an increased rate of osteosarcoma - bone cancer - between the ages of 10 and 19.

The recent Associated Press Release on the subject points out that about 10 per cent of the UK population, six million people, receive fluoridated water, mainly in the Midlands and north-east, and the government plans to extend this, with Manchester expected to be next.

About 170 million Americans live in areas with fluoridated water.

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway , Switzerland, West Germany, Netherlands and Italy have all banned the addition of hydrofluorosilic acid to drinking water. So have Japan and India, where fluoride occurs naturally and skeletal fluorosis (thickening of bones) is prevalent.

The increased cancer risks, identified in the newly available study conducted at the Harvard School of Dental Health, were found at fluoride exposure levels common in both the US and Britain. It was the first examination of the link between exposure to the chemical at the critical period of a child's development and the age of onset of bone cancer.

Although osteosarcoma is rare, accounting for only about 3 per cent of childhood cancers, it is especially dangerous. The mortality rate in the first five years is about 50 per cent, and nearly all survivors have limbs amputated, usually legs...

To read our complete article on this subject and view sources, visit our online version of BLV Health Watch through this link.

For text version recipients of this newsletter, here's the link again:
http://www.bestliquidvitamins.com/news.shtml

Our son who just reached 5-years-old last week, is not allowed to use fluoridated tooth paste. He is allowed to use Dr. Mindell's toothpaste, or a children's toothpaste from another company we are affiliated with --- made from all-natural ingredients neither of which contain ANY harmful chemicals such as fluoride. Plus we live in an area without public water. Our water comes from our own well and we also use a purifyer for our drinking water.

Plastic Softeners - Some Dangers Confirmed

The next time you grab that soft squeezable bottle of water, soft drink, juice... or even liquid supplement, keep in mind that plastic softeners (also known as phthalates) are used to make that bottle soft.

In a big move this year, the European Parliament has voted to permanently ban the use of plastic softeners used in children’s toys. A total ban extends to three phthalates, DEHP, DBP and BBP, which have been classified as reprotoxic and linked with cancer, as reported recently in "Chemistry & Industry Magazine."

A recent clinical study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) appears to support the fact that dangers do exist for us in regards to DEHP.

And when you read the recent UK Guardian article on the subject, you might think twice about drinking from that soft bottle. And you might get a better understanding from the USAToday news article why leaching of these chemicals (phthalates) from soft plastic products should get more research attention.

Get the details in our full article "Why Use Pharmaceutical Grade Bottles For Supplements?" with some links to both sides of the story.

For those of you receiving the text version, here's the link:
http://www.bestliquidvitamins.com/news.shtml

New Clinical Study - Infertility And Women

New research suggests that medications commonly referred to as fertility drugs may be ineffective for women who lack a gene called the estrogen receptor beta, as reported in a recent press release by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

View BLV Health Watch online for the full details through this link.

Hormone That Controls Appetite Linked To Memory And Learning

Researchers from Dundee University have found a link between the hormone leptin, thought to control appetite, and the brain's memory and learning process.

The Scottish scientists involved in the research note that there is already much evidence to show how the hormone leptin signals information regarding the status of fat stores to specific receptors located in the hypothalamus region of the brain. According to them, this controls our desire to eat, and therefore, our weight.

But leptin and its receptor are widely expressed in many brain regions outside the hypothalamus and evidence is accumulating that it has other neuronal functions that are unrelated to its effects on energy homeostasis.

This includes research showing that leptin has a significant influence on learning and memory processes in the hippocampus region.

Jenni Harvey, one of the Dundee researchers, told the BBC: "Leptin enhances the level of communication between brain cells in the hippocampus in a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP). Defects in either leptin or genes that regulate leptin result in obesity and also cause impairments in LTP."

Previous studies have found that people who are obese throughout life are more likely to lose brain tissue, and scientists have already predicted that the current obesity epidemic will give rise to a major increase in dementia.

Earlier this year California based Kaiser Permanente, a health care delivery organization, cautioned that developed countries may face an explosion in age-related dementia in the next 20 years if they fail to contain the present obesity crisis.

In a longitudinal population-based study conducted over a 27-year period and published in May 2005 in the online version of the British Medical Journal, researchers concluded that being overweight or obese in middle age considerably increases risk of dementia in later life.

According to the May 2005 research, the initial onset of dementia may also affect appetite and cause weight loss.

In my humble opinion, I feel a whole lot better knowing I have 4 master molecules going to work inside my body everyday. They're my "little generals" organizing and instructing my cells and hormones to do what they were intended to do.

Sources:

Hunger hormone also involved in memory and learning
Overweight countries face dementia epidemic
Obesity in middle age and future risk of dementia: a 27 year longitudinal population based study
BBC - Hunger hormone linked to memory

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Read our latest articles online at:
http://www.bestliquidvitamins.com/news.shtml