Antibacterial Soap Myth
Have you noticed that practically everywhere you go you see pump bottles of antibacterial soap on the bathroom sink in stores, offices, homes, etc.? Pump. Pump. Signs urge us to protect each other from illness by pumping this liquid soap onto our hands. For many people, this act has become automatic. But is it any better than simply washing our hands the old-fashioned way with regular soap and water? Turns out it isn’t. Antibacterial soaps are no better than ordinary soap and water for germ removal or disease prevention. Researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...
Read MoreBloom Into Your Best Self
Spring flowers are popping bright colors into the landscape everywhere. Reawakened branches are unfurling their tiny buds into intensely green leaves. The long winter is finally over and spring is here! With the warmer temperatures and frequent bursts of sunshine, my body wants to bloom as well!! But there is this underlying feeling of stagnation that I’m experiencing. I think it’s time for a good spring cleaning! According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), both the liver and the season of spring are Wood Elements, which symbolize our bodies’ need to be flexible, yet strong, like...
Read MoreOur Body’s Toxic Burden
You don’t want to think about this. . . but you have to. There are hundreds of chemicals (xenobiotics) inside you, in me, in everyone. We are exposed to a multitude of chemicals everyday in our food and water and air, yet also in the most unlikely places: Teflon and non-stick cookware, water-repellent jackets (yes, even Gore-Tex, my NW friends), shampoo, cosmetics, bath and beauty products, household cleaners, plastics, food-can linings, stain repellents on carpet, clothing and furniture, microwave popcorn bags, nail polish, dental floss, and baby’s toys. Stuff most of us use...
Read MoreAre you a “Processed Person”?
It’s not up to the government , your parents, your favorite restaurant , or your supermarket to make the lifestyle changes critical to good health, it’s up to you. Educate yourself! Don’t be a “processed person”. My friend, Jeri, has this written in the ‘About’ section of her Facebook page, Hard Core Nutrition for the Prevention of Cancer. When I commented about it, she shared this link with me for the trailer of a documentary entitled Processed People. It literally put shivers up my spine! Do you know that at least 90% of the money Americans spend on...
Read MoreDitch the Table Salt and Switch to Sea Salt
Every cell in the body requires salt to function. In fact, salt is needed for countless functions in the body. Salt . . . helps with nerve stimulation, muscle contraction and expansion, proper functioning of the adrenals, and other biological processes contains magnesium which is important to nerve conductivity, bone density, resistance to heart disease, producing enzymes, and forming tooth enamel provides chloride which helps produce acid necessary for protein digestion and enzymes for carbohydrate digestion is necessary for proper brain development and growth, especially in the...
Read MoreChoose a Lifestyle, Not a Diet
While hiking with a friend, she asked me what I thought about an “all-protein-for-a-week-to-lose-weight” diet she was thinking of starting based on a book she’d recently bought. I checked out the book review on Amazon. They claim it is all the rage and has been working for French women for 10 years. Surely it would do the same for us in American, right? Probably not. The French are not “fat phobic.” Americans are. In the 1950’s, Ancel Keys conducted research that claimed that if saturated fat remained a major component of our diet, our blood-cholesterol...
Read MoreHeat or Radiation?
This summer I started hearing more reports about the radiation risk from mammograms. Most sources will tell you there is always a slight chance of cancer from excessive radiation exposure. But surely, if the medical community has recommended yearly mammogram for women over 40 since 1976, the amount of radiation exposure isn’t “excessive”, is it? Hm-mm . . . You might want to rethink that. You Have Cancer… Five years ago this month I underwent the removal and reconstruction of my left breast and became cancer-free. My yearly mammogram eight months earlier had detected clustered...
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