May 11, 2009

by Kathleen Barnes

We all love our cotton T-shirts, shirts, pants, underwear, towels and sheets. They feel comfy and safe.

The cotton industry fosters that illusion with its “fabric of our lives” campaign, pushing the notion that this “natural “ fiber is healthy and creates happiness.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Cotton is the most intensive pesticide-use crop in the world, accounting for approximately 25% of all insecticides used worldwide, although cotton is grown on only 3% of the world’s farmland.

Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S (cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite and triflurin) are known cancer-causing chemicals. All nine of the top pesticides used on cotton crops in the U.S. are classified by the EPA as Category I or II, the most dangerous categories of chemicals.

Cotton weevils are resistant to pesticides

The reason for the intensive pesticide use on cotton is that weevils and other cotton pests develop immunity to these chemicals very quickly, in about five or six years. It takes 8 to 10 years and approximately $100 million to develop new pesticides for use on cotton, so the new chemicals are ever more toxic and quickly become obsolete.

The cotton toxic waste is everywhere

In California, it has become illegal to feed the leaves, stems, and short fibers of cotton known as ‘gin trash’ to livestock, because of the concentrated levels of pesticide residue. Instead, this gin trash is used to make furniture, mattresses, tampons, swabs, and cotton balls. The average American woman will use 11,000 tampons or sanitary pads during her lifetime.

According to the Organic Consumers Association (http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/224subsidies.cfm), about 80% of all the cottonseed and almost all the gin trash go right into feed for dairy cows and into our milk. The other 20% of the cottonseed is made into oil, meal and cake and winds up in many different junk foods.

Toxic substances are absorbed by skin

Cotton clothing places some of these pesticides right on your skin, which is the largest and most absorbent organ of your body. Not only is your skin in contact with that T-shirt, underwear or pants for most of the day, if you’re sweating, the increased body heat can accelerate absorption of the pesticide residues in the fabric.

The problems with clothing production don’t stop in the field. During the conversion of conventional cotton into clothing, numerous toxic chemicals are added at each stage— silicone waxes, harsh petroleum scours, softeners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde— to name just a few.

Other toxic clothing

Other common types of clothing aren’t much better. Clothing made from synthetic fibers like acrylic, nylon and polyester is coated with formaldehyde finishes that continuously give off minute plastic vapors as the fabric is warmed against your skin, causing allergies and breathing problems from the airborne particles and unknown effects of formaldehyde in contact with large skin surfaces

It’s really no surprise that a recent study of the cord blood of 71% of newborn babies shows extensive exposure to toxic substances passed to the baby through the placenta, including some of those used in cotton production. Worse yet, the majority of these toxic substances are carcinogenic, 75% are toxic to the brain or nervous system and 72% cause birth defects or abnormal developments.

Healthy clothing

Clothing that is made from 100% organic cotton, silk, linen, hemp, or tencel (made from natural cellulose found in wood pulp) will be free of these toxic residues.

If al new clothing isn’t in your budget, you can also buy used clothing, which may outgas less and the continued washing may have removed some of the residues.

If none of these works for you, wash any new clothing several times before you wear it.

Resources:

http://www.ecochoices.com/1/cotton_statistics.html

http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/224subsidies.cfm

http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/execsumm.php

April 22, 2009

I couldn’t let Earth Day pass without offering some simple ways each of us can contribute to the healing of the planet.

I know. The enormity of the problem is often overwhelming.

The starfish story

It reminds me of the story of the small boy who came upon a beach littered with thousands of starfish, all in their death throes because the tide had carried them beyond the waterline.

The boy set about picking up the starfish and tossing them back into the sea. An old man walking the beach ridiculed the child for engaging in a hopeless cause.

“Why bother? You can’t save them all,” the old man proclaimed.

“That’s true. But I can save this one. And this one. And this one,” the boy replied as he continued returning the stranded starfish to the sea.

You can’t save the world by yourself, but you can do your part. Each of us together can make the change that will make a difference.

Do these today

Here are some really easy ways you can live sustainably, starting today. They will cost you nothing or almost nothing. In fact, most of them will save you money:

1. Get a stainless steel water bottle and stop drinking bottled water.
2. Invest in a few shopping bags and just say “no” to plastic bags.
3. If you don’t already do it recycle, at least your cans, bottles and paper.
4. Turn off the water while you’re brushing your teeth.
5. Limit your showers to five minutes.
6. Turn off the lights if you’re out of the room for more than five minutes.
7. Replace your regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents.
8. Eat organic foods as much as possible, especially fruits and coffee, which carry heavy pesticide loads.
9. Buy locally produced products, especially food. This saves on your gas, gives you fresher, more nutritious food and saves on the pollution and fuel consumption of long distance shipping.
10. Say “no” to acquiring additional plastic goods for your household.

Bonus

Finally, here’s your bonus:
Honor Earth Day by planting a tree on the south side of your house. In a few years, it will shade the house and lower your cooling costs in summer.

Happy Earth Day!

–Kathleen Barnes

In the last couple of days, I’ve had several conversations with people who want to keep toxic chemicals out of their homes, protect the environment and to save money at the same time.

It sounds like a big order, but there are actually easy answers:

You can clean almost anything in your home with seven ingredients. You probably already have most of them in your kitchen:
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Borax
• Lemon juice
• Olive oil
• Vegetable-based liquid soap
• Washing soda

Many people seem to think that cleaning naturally is expensive and inconvenient ad only minimally effective.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s cheap. It’s easy and it’s effective. AND you’re not exposing yourself to a toxic soup that that includes allergens, carcinogens, neurotoxins, hepatotoxins, central nervous system depressants that can cause everything from liver failure to life-threatening allergic reactions to cancer to death.

We are all exposed to toxins every day. We can’t avoid them. Research tells us that even newborn babies already have nearly 300 toxic substances in their bodies, passed on from their mothers. Over our lifetimes, that toxic load builds and builds until, one day, we may tip the balance and experience one of the terrible side effects of toxic overload.
So if we can reduce our toxic load as much as possible, we can avoid that toxic load, we can postpone or even overcome toxic overload.

Ok. I’m back from my toxin rant.

Homemade natural cleaning products work. They are safe, easy and cheap. What’s not to love?

What could be simpler than combining ½ teaspoon of vegetable based oil, 3 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle to make your windows sparkling clean for a nickel a bottle? Add a few drops of lemon essential oil to long-lasting shine, a great scent and to help energize the window washer!

How about scrubbing sinks, tubs and showers with a gentle paste of baking soda and borax? It works just as well as commercial cleaners with no toxic fumes and again, it costs mere pennies.
Pour a cup of borax in your toilet and leave it overnight. That’s it takes to wipe out my least favorite household task. Add a few drops of tea, tree, lavender or white thyme essential oil for disinfection.

If your oven is an embarrassment like mine can be, try this:

Sprinkle water in the bottom of the oven, then cover the yuck with baking soda. Sprinkle some more water on top and let it sit overnight. In all but the worst cases, you’ll be able to simply wipe it clean the next morning. If there is still stubborn baked on grease, add a little washing soda to the mixture to cut the grease. Rinse well.

The best book I’ve read on non-toxic cleaning is Annie Berthold-Bond’s Clean and Green. Annie website is http://www.anniebbond.com.

All of these recip0es are nontoxic and they don’t require any power tools. If you have a truly untenable stain or grease sploch, you might consider buying a Scunci steam cleaner. It uses nothing but water. In fact, you’ll damage it if you try to add any cleaners to it, and the superheated water will clean just about anything for a few pennies worth of electricity.

Finally: If you want to help keep outside toxins from entering your home, have all family members leave their shoes at the door. I actually have “indoor ” and “outdoor” shoes and I scrupulously keep them apart to avoid tracking in toxins that attach themselves to our shoes as we walk around our toxic world.

–Kathleen Barnes

http://www.kathleenbarnes.com

I’ve been a yoga teacher for more than 30 years. I’ve taught yoga breathing techniques to hundreds of students. I know the importance of the breath for health and emotional well-being.

But the teacher can always be taught.

In this case, Dr. Andrew Weil showed me a new/old breathing technique that is the most powerful and simplest method I have ever known to power up my health literally in three minutes a day.

Dr. Weil, author of 8 Weeks to Optimum Health and integrative medicine guru supreme, was a featured speaker at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim a couple of weeks ago.

I want to share with you the simple technique he taught the audience as a means of addressing stress, insomnia and as an overall health enhancer.

Here goes:
1. Inhale through your nose to the count of four.
2. Hold for a count of seven.
3. Exhale slowly through pursed lips to the cont of eight.
4. Repeat four times.
5. Do this twice a day.

That’s it! You don’t have to build up to more repetitions (although Dr. Weil says you can do it as many as eight times in a session). You don’t have to do anything except breathe. Here’s the link for Dr. Weil’s directions for this technique and a couple of others that are almost as valuable.

This type of breathing balances your autonomic nervous system erases stress and rebalances your energy. Breathing is the only bodily function we can control consciously, but if we stop thinking about it, it continues on its own (good thing or we’d all die from forgetting to breathe!). So doing this little exercise balances the conscious and unconscious body functions. Voila! Better health.

I’ve been religiously following Dr. Weil’s advice for the past two weeks and I can tell you that it has profoundly changed my life.

I often wake up in the middle of the night and find myself unable to go back to sleep because my brain starts thinking of all the things I need to do. I toss and turn for a couple of hours and finally wind up getting up and working at 4 or 5 a.m.

Now when I wake up, I simply do this breathing technique and I am rarely awake more than a minute or two.

Of course, we all lead stressful lives, so I do this a couple of times a day (more if I am very stressed). I can immediately feel my heart rate slow (and probably my blood pressure). This breathing technique stops the toxic stress cycle that leads to a multitude of health problems and it even stops my 4 p.m. low cortisol “I gotta have some coffee and chocolate” obsession.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m not a superlative type of person.
But I have superlatives for this simple technique. It has changed my life and I know it will change yours, improve your health and give you control over stress. If you’re not feeling these challenges, then do the breathing to keep yourself in balance.

It’ll cost you nothing. Just about three minutes of your time every day.

Who could ask for more?

By Kathleen Barnes
Natural Living Now

Startling new statistics on diabetes released by the National Institutes of health this week show that the rates of diabetes and impaired blood sugar in American are increasing at alarming levels.

Nearly 13% of American aged 20 and over have diabetes, but 40% of them don’t know it. This puts them at high risk for the tragic side effects of diabetes, including heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, impaired circulation that can lead to amputations and more.

If that’s not gloomy enough for you, consider this: From 1995 to 1997, there were 4.8 new cases of Type 2 diabetes per 1,000 Americans. Ten years later, that rate had increased by 89% to 9.1 new cases per 1,000 Americans.

Worse yet, 36% of men and 23% of women and 16% of teenagers have “pre-diabetes,” says the NIH.

Pre-diabetes is a con

The term “pre-diabetes” is a con. It means that you have impaired blood glucose function and without drastic measures, you will soon have diabetes and all of its ugly companion diseases. It lulls too many patients into complacency.

It’s even more frightening when you consider the number of teenagers who are being diagnosed with diabetes or more benign-sounding “pre-diabetes.” The disease
Now known as Type 2 diabetes was once known as adult onset diabetes.

Diabetes was once the province of senior citizens. The dread companion diseases are more-or less accepted turf there. But there is something inherently wrong when we think of obese teenagers with arterial blockages, having heart attacks at 30 and bypasses at 35, if they survive that long. Just think about where these poor kids will be when they’re 40.

These statistics aren’t just numbers, folks. They are our mothers, father, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives and, sadly, our children. They are real people and this illness takes a toll on everyone around someone with diabetes.

This a tragedy of national proportions. Diabetes is a terrible disease. There are no two ways about it. Once you’re diagnosed, the changes of reversing diabetes are diminished. The chances of controlling it are better. But the best bet is prevention.

Prevention

How can you prevent diabetes?

1. Stay away from sugar and foods with hidden sugar: This is a good start, but it’s not the entire answer.

2. Control your weight: Most of us know that obesity is a factor in almost all cases of Type 2 diabetes. Studies also show that just losing 10% of your body weight can dramatically lower blood sugars.

3. Exercise is another key factor in diabetes management and prevention., not only for the obvious reasons. Muscle activity actually helps your body to better use the insulin that your pancreas is producing.

4. Know your mineral status and correct mineral imbalances to help prevent a downward spiral of metabolic problems that lead to diabetes and a host of other health problems, according to Robert Thompson, M.D., with whom I wrote The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You (InTruth Press, 2008). Learn your mineral status by getting a hair tissue mineral analysis and following the recommendations tailored to your specific needs.

Finally, do what ever it takes to fend off the diabetes monster. It is one of the most terrible diseases we face and one of the most preventable. It’s up to you.

This entry was also posted on Dr. Scott Olson’s website. Check it out. He’s got some great information and he’s an especially good resource for busting sugar addictions.

When you quit smoking, the health benefits are almost immediate. In fact, your blood pressure will begin to drop within 20 minutes after your last cigarette.

It gets better every day you continue your journey to health.

I found this timeline to regaining health taped to a wall in my doctor’s office several years ago. I’ve never been able to verify the source, but the physiological benefits are widely reported.

As most of you know by now, I am a passionate advocate of natural health. No lectures here, but if you smoke or you know someone who smokes, you know that there is no single behavior that is more destructive to your health. Do whatever it takes to break this life-stealing addiction. That includes the use of pharmaceuticals.

I know how hard this addiction is to break, so take advantage of what medical science can offer to help you, whether it’s Wellbutrin, Chantix, nicotine gums or Zyban. Use whatever works. The side effects of these aids are so much less than the damage that accompanies smoking that they are well worth the tiny cost.

If you’ve decided to give up smoking, check out these easy assists and print out this timeline to re-inforce to your choice to become healthier:

Week 1:
What’s going on in your body: Blood pressure and pulse have returned to normal 20 minutes after your last cigarette.
What you should do now: Calm your cravings. Studies show nicotine cravings are strongest in the first 6 weeks of quitting, so begin using patches, gums and even prescription medications like Zyban from Day One. Drink lots of water and juice to help flush nicotine out of your system, which takes about 5 days.

Month 1:
What’s going on in your body: Lung function improves 30%. Taste and smell enhanced. Energy increases.
What you should do now: Continue to calm your cravings by using gums, patches, etc. Plus, begin to make behavioral changes. Quite drinking coffee, alcohol and change other behaviors that lead to smoking, such as sitting at the dinner table after the meal is finished.

Months 2-3:
What’s going on in your body: Heart attack risk has fallen 25%. Cancer risk has fallen.
What you should do now: Take a hike! The average ex-smoker gains 10 pounds because smoking raises your metabolism, but in one study, those who exercised avoided the metabolism slowdown and gained substantially less.

Months 3-6:
What’s going on in your body: Coughing, sinus congestion and shortness of breath decrease.
What you should do now: Join a support group. You’re over the physical addiction to nicotine, but the psychological addiction is much harder to kick.

One Year:
What’s going on in your body: You’ve cut your risk of heart disease in half in just one year! Congratulations!
What you should do now: Continue what you’ve been doing. It’s working!

Five years:
What’s going on in your body: Lung cancer death rate has decreased by 50%. Stroke risk is reduced to that of a non-smoker. Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is reduced by 50%.
What you should do now: Watch out for stresses that may sneak up on you and get your back to smoking before you even realize it. Be especially aware if you or a family member has health challenges or there are relationship problems or financial worries. Unfortunately, many people who have kicked the habit for as long as 9 years go back to smoking when they meet a major stressor.

Ten years:
What’s going on in your body: Lung cancer death rate is similar to that of a nonsmoker. Risk of cancer of mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases. Precancerous cells are replaced with healthy cells.
What you should do now: Throw a big party and congratulate yourself. You’ve made it past the nine-year relapse danger zone. Good for you!!

Five powerful tools for success

OK—most of us make these wildly unrealistic New Year’s resolutions and in a week, they’ve gone by the boards and we’re back to our old habits.

If you’ve decided this is really the time to stop smoking, congratulations. This isn’t the time for lectures, it’s a time for encouragement. Stick by your guns and this time, you’ll succeed.

If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably tried to quit more than once and you know how difficult it is.

If you’re not a smoker and you’re giving support to someone, be patient. This may take some time and there may be some slipups. However, friends and supporters are a key element to success.

Forty million of us try to quit every year – and many succeed, although it usually takes 2 or three serous attempts before a smoker actually quits, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are a few ways to make the process easier:

1. Try l-glutamine every time you feel like lighting up. This amino acid is exceptionally effective in quelling cravings, says my friend Dr. Hyla Cass, my co-author for 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women (Take Charge Books, 2008). (There’s lots of information in the book that applies to men too.) Just take a capsule and empty it on your tongue (no real taste). The craving will disappear in 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Take a walk. Exercise in any form takes helps de-tox your body of the addictive nicotine and it also re-focuses your mind on something healthy. Replacing smoking with a new healthy habit is an especially effective method if you are concerned about gaining weight after you quit.
3. Identify and avoid the triggers. If you’ve always had a cigarette with your morning cup of coffee or with an evening cocktail or after a meal, change those behaviors. You may need to give up that morning cup of coffee for a while or substitute a cup of tea at coffee or cocktail time until you get through the detoxification process. If you tend to smoke after a meal, create a new habit by getting up from the table immediately when you finish eating and engaging in some other activity, like checking e-mail or, better yet, taking a walk.
4. Drink lots of water and other liquids to help flush the toxins from your system faster. Some researchers say that drinking orange or grapefruit juice can help because it makes cigarettes taste bad.
5. Consider pharmaceutical help. Anyone who has read my posts knows that I am passionately committed to natural health. However, smoking is such a destructive behavior to your health that the use of pharmaceuticals like Chantix or Wellbutrin is a worthwhile tradeoff, I think. Ask your doctor for help. Do anything it takes.

Watch for my next post later this week to give you some specific health improvements you start reaping within minutes after you stub out that last cigarette.

Dec. 15, 2008

Any of us who have teenagers know what a pain in the you-know-what they can be to get up in the morning.

I remember the epic wake-up-get-dressed-get-to-the-bus battles when my daughter was a teenager. Everyone was pretty miserable.

Now it turns out there is actually a biological reason for this: Teenagers need more sleep than adults (a minimum of 8 hours and some need as much as 10) because of their sleep patterns naturally shift to a later bedtime and a later rising time during teen years. Their rapidly developing bodies and hormonal fluctuations offer continual physiological challenges.

There could be a simple answer.

Schools that have shifted to later start times, say from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., says the National Sleep Foundation, find measurable positive results:
• Better academic performance
• Less absenteeism
• Fewer car accidents

Experts say the later start time doesn’t mean that teens get to bed later (typical teen bedtime is 11 p.m. on school nights), but that they get an hour extra sleep each night. That extra five hours of sleep a week can make a big difference in health and alertness.

“Most high school students need an alarm clock or a parent to wake them on school days. They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best,” says the National Sleep Foundation.

So if your teen goes to bed at 10:30 or 11 p.m., letting him sleep until 7:30 a.m. could make everyone’s life easier.

It’s also important for everyone to lighten up a bit. I can’t resist adding this hilarious YouTube video called The Mom Song. I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks.