July 17, 2009

This is perhaps the most difficult blog entry I’ve ever posted.

I haven’t written in a couple of weeks due to the illness and death of my father.

Ralph Barnes was a wonderful man and a loving father to me and my five siblings and a loving husband to his wife, Betsy. I miss him terribly.

I watched this vibrant and witty man become old, twisted in pain and slowly die a death that was the legacy of 50 years of cigarette smoking.

No matter that Dad quit smoking nearly 20 years ago. The damage had been done.

I write this not as a chronicle of Dad’s death, but as an impassioned plea to those of you who smoke to find a way, any way, to quit. Not only does smoking kill you it kills in a vastly unpleasant way that is immensely painful to you and to those who love you.

If the magic genie would grant me just one wish, it would be that smoking and its effects would be forever eradicated from this Earth.

Dad, I am going to honor you by detailing the pain you endured in those last years, to honor you for your courage. I also offer an earnest prayer that what I write here might persuade just one person to stop smoking and avoid this horror, if not for the sake of the individual, then for the sake of the family who must watch this slow and agonizing death.

COPD (commonly known as emphysema)

This disease directly caused by smoking slowly robbed Dad’s lungs of their elasticity until every breath was labored for the last years of his life. This led to repeated painful bouts of pneumonia that further diminished his lung function.

Congestive heart failure

A weakened heart muscle is the result of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of death related to smoking. Over those last years, Dad grew increasingly lethargic. A trip to the kitchen for a drink of water was a major journey. Over those decades of smoking, the his heart muscle lost its strength. His lungs would frequently fill with fluid, further damaging his already impaired breathing ability. The weakened heart caused Dad to lose his appetite. Eating became a chore rather than pleasure. He became a painfully thin, frail old man.

Osteoporosis

Many people don’t realize that smoking is a major risk factor for osteoporosis. It began with a broken hip on St. Patrick’s Day three years ago, several surgeries and infections and a 100-day stint in rehab. It’s a testimony to Dad’s resilience that he was able to rally and overcome the type of injury that frequently claims the lives of elderly people. After another injury and another rehab stay, the doctors finally diagnosed him with osteoporosis. Too late. Slowly, this handsome and dynamic man began to stoop. By the end of his life, his 6-foot 1-inch frame and shrunk to 5-feet 8 inches. In the last months of his life, the stoop made his breathing unbearably difficult.

Try this for yourself: Hunch your shoulders and round your back. Now try to take a deep breath. You can’t really fill up your lungs, can you? Now imagine how this feels for someone who already has severely impaired lung function and must struggle for every breath.

Please stop smoking!

If you smoke, please stop now! I can’t say it more clearly: You are killing yourself. You’re also causing pain, not only for yourself, but for your family and those who love you.

I know this is an extremely difficult addiction to break. Do whatever it takes.

If you’ve read my blog, my newsletter or my books, you’ll know how committed I am to natural living.

But when it comes to smoking, if it takes prescription drugs, take them! Ask all your friends and family for help. Get hypnotized. Join a support group. See a shrink to help you.

There are effective natural ways to address the smoking habit, which I’ve detailed in other posts. (Scroll down the page on the link to find the articles)

Do whatever you have to do.

Dad, nothing I could do would relieve your pain. All our tears cannot bring you back.

I can only offer these thoughts, pleas and prayers so that this modern day Trail of Tears will end. Forever.

–Kathleen Barnes

by Kathleen Barnes

I know our world is moving faster than most of us like, and now it’s time to be concerned about the way our children are growing up too quickly in the physical sense.

The average American girl now reaches menarche (the onset of menstrual periods, signaling puberty) a full 18 months earlier than girls of just 50 years ago.

A landmark 1997 study of 17,000 girls startled parents with its findings that nearly 7 percent of white girls and 27 percent of African-American girls start developing breasts by age 7. That’s during second grade!

Alarmingly early puberty

In fact, pediatricians are no longer alarmed about breast tissue growth among girls under the age of 2.

I was appalled when I discovered my then 21-month old granddaughter was developing a breast! Her pediatrician told my daughter this is “fairly common” among little girls. But in girls who were not yet even two years old? I was horrified. If it is common, it is even more alarming because it certainly is not normal.

Endocrine disruptors

Many experts theorize that this condition, which now has a medical name: precocious puberty, is caused by xenoestrogens. These are toxins that act like estrogen in the human body and unbalance the delicate dance of hormones. They’re also known as endocrine disruptors.

Many of these hormone disruptors are petrochemical-based and have been found in a multitude of common household plastics, including water bottles, toddlers’ toys and fid packaging. They’re also found in pesticides, dioxin, food dyes and preservatives even in common cosmetics.

Phthalates

Among the most dangerous xenoestrogens are called phthalates (pronounced THAL-aytz) that soften plastics.

We are all exposed to them all the time. They have also worked their way into the water supply by becoming airborne (as in industrial air pollutants) or through agricultural chemicals leeching through the ground.

Growth hormones injected into dairy cattle have brought hormone disruptors into our milkstream and, to a certain degree, into our meat supply.

These xenoestrogens became part of our environment about 70 years ago.

Reproductive disruption

Their effects have been profound. Xenoestrogens disrupt the process of reproduction, causing low sperm count in boys and early puberty in girls. Phthalates are also known to increase the risk of breast cancer.

Prevention is the best path. Here are a few suggestions:

Go organic with dairy: Organic dairy products are a must for all children who have been weaned from breast milk. The hormonal risks and those posed by the antibiotics used in non-organic dairy operations are daunting.

Go organic entirely, if you can: This is not just for kids, it’s for all ages. The harsh chemicals used in food production, processing and preservation are immensely harmful to everyone’s health. If your budget will tolerate it, buy as many organic products as possible,from your meats to your fruits, vegetables, grains, cleaning products and even cosmetics and personal care items like soap and shampoo.

Eliminate pesticides and herbicides from your lawn: The vast majority of these toxic chemicals consumed in America today are used by homeowners and they are often used incorrectly. If you must use them, follow all the precautions, wear gloves and masks and measure precisely the amounts you need. Store them safely and away from your house, garden and water supply.

Banish plastic from your house: I know. This is nearly impossible. But as much as possible, don’t buy food packaged in plastic because the phthalates leech into the food, especially in meat that is packaged on Styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic wrap. Don’t drink out of plastic cups and don’t let your kids do so either. Never heat food in a microwave in plastic containers because that accelerates the phthalate leeching. While you’re at it, get rid of any Teflon-coated cookware. At high heats it offgasses harmful chemicals known to cause various types of cancer. Opt instead for cast iron, or better yet, porcelain-coated cast iron.

Banish plastic and Styrofoam from your life as much as you can. I’m specifically talking about drinking hot liquids out of Styrofoam cups like that lovely latte at your favorite java house. The fumes from hot liquid interacting with petrochemical-based Styrofoam are toxic—and you’re putting the cup to your mouth, so you inhale them with every sip!

Avoid bottled water for the same reasons: Not only is the waste a burden on the environment, the plastic bottle leeches phthalates into the water you’re drinking. The leeching is accelerated if the bottle is left in a warm place, like your car or your gym bag. Opt for a good water filter at home and carry your water with you in glass or stainless steel containers that won’t leech.

Protecting yourself from xenoestrogens as much as possible is important for every human being, but it is especially crucial for children and women of all ages.

By Kathleen Barnes

If I found myself stranded on a desert island, I’d have the assurance of an unlimited source of the healthiest food I could imagine: Omega-3 fatty acids and high quality protein from wild caught fish. Add a few tropical fruits and I could probably live a long and healthy life on my desert island.

Of course, if I am lucky enough to find myself far away from the “civilized world,” I improve my chances of finding fish free of toxins.

Fish may just be the stuff of life. Its healthy fats are essential to optimal cardiovascular function, joint health, brain function and blood sugar metabolism, just to mention a few of its multitude of benefits.

Sadly, most of the fish available on North American markets comes from fish farms which are little more than cesspools of toxic sludge that not only pollute our waterways, but pollute our bodies when we consume them.

They’re completely unsustainable as well Salmon are carnivorous, so it takes 2.2 pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon. Fish farming is rapidly depleting wild fish populations.

Fish farms produce about one-third of the world’s seafood, most notably nearly all the catfish and trout and half of the shrimp and salmon so important to human nutrition.

It’s cheap: Farmed salmon can be $4 to $5 a pound cheaper than wild-caught salmon, but the price is too high in terms of our health and to the health of our environment and wild fish populations.

Toxic mash

In a landmark 2002 study, Canadian researchers found that a single serving of farmed salmon contains three to six times the World Health Organization’s daily intake limit for dioxin and PCBs.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), chemicals once used in the manufacture of electrical and heating equipment, paints, plastics, rubbers, dyes and many other substances, were banned in 1977 after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called them “probable human carcinogens.”

However, PCBs are still present in water, soil, aid and food supplies.
In its Dec. 26, 2005 issue, U.S. News and World Report reported that farmed salmon are raised on fish pellets derived from local fish that often contaminated with PCBs.

The study in the November 2005 issue of the Journal of Nutrition reports that contaminant levels in farmed salmon from certain regions increase the risk of cancer enough to outweigh benefits.

The study showed that farmed salmon from South America, specifically Chile, had the lowest level of pollutants, followed by those form North America. Europe had the highest level, according to David Carpenter, co-author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany’s School of Public Health. Pacific wild salmon also has some contaminants from the natural environment, specifically mercury, but these are at a low enough level that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Mercury can be a big problem with farmed fish. Purdue University nutritionists found that eating as little as one fish sandwich from farmed fish weekly could give a 60-kg. adult a 40% of the safe maximum mercury exposure.

Fish farms are most often composed of huge net enclosures in the open sea. Disease is rampant in these crowded pens.

Large quantities of chemicals are used in aquaculture, including antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, anesthetics, vitamins, minerals and anti-parasitical substances most often dumped directly into the ocean waters.

Not only are these potentially toxic substances incorporated into the tissues of the farmed fish, tides and even simple wave action sweep these chemicals out of the nets and into the open seas.

The use of antibiotics is particularly hazardous to the health of human beings and fish since it promotes the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Farmers dose their captive fish with a potent anti-parasitic drug called ivermectin, to rid them of sea lice and known to kill some species of shrimp.

Damage to the environment

Within a few years after large scale fish farming operations began in Canada, shrimp fishermen began pulling up traps full of a deadly mixture of feces, excess antibiotic –laden fish feed and decayed salmon carcasses that had drifted out of the pens.

It’s estimated that one single pen of 200,000 fish produces as much fecal waste as a city of 25,000 people.

In British Columbia, many inlets are caged off for huge Atlantic salmon farms. Although fish farmers assure that they have contained these genetically modified fish with voracious appetites to encourage fast growth, an estimated 40,000 to 1 million have escaped.

Biologists have found Atlantis salmon from the farms in 77 British Columbian streams. When these super-fish get into the wild, they compete unfairly for food resources, causing an increased rate of starvation among wild fish,” wrote Bruce Barcott in a December 2001 article in Mother Jones magazine.

Yet business is booming for fish farmers. Stricter environmental regulations in Norway have pushed fish farming operators to the Western hemisphere. In early 2002, the Canadian government lifted its seven-year moratorium on expanding fish farms in British Columbia. By 2003, there were 85 fish farms in operation in British Columbia and 90 applications pending. The government has stated its intention to quadruple the province’s salmon production by 2013.

Part of the allure of fish farming is to reduce the pressure on the world’s oceans, but that may be wishful thinking. Fish farming is an inefficient means of producing protein. A Feb. 6, 2003 article in The Christian Science Monitor notes that raising carnivorous fish like salmon and shrimp may actually reduce the numbers of wild fish since it takes 2.2 pounds of ground-up fish to make a pound of farmed salmon.

Answer: Avoid most fish

Yet there seems to be a Gordian knot around fish consumption – and the very experts on whom we rely for the best possible information are sending us mixed messages about the best way to get the healthy fats fish provides.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets much more lenient toxin levels than does its kissing cousin, the Environmental Protection Agency. Most experts recommend being even more conservative about toxin exposure and some advise avoiding fish altogether.

Despite nutritionists extolling the virtues of high fish consumption, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strongly recommends limiting the amount of fish we eat. The health advisory issued in March 2004 does not distinguish between farm-raised and wild-caught fish.

Let’s face it: Nearly all fish contains some level of mercury.

The FDA recommends that all women who are pregnant, may become pregnant, nursing mothers and young children abstain completely from shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish because of the high levels of mercury contamination that may be particularly harmful to unborn babies and the developing nervous system of young children.
The FDA advisory recommends weekly consumption of no more than 12 ounces of fish and shellfish lower in mercury, including shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.

It also advises keeping up to date on local fish safety warnings and, if there is no advisory available, not to eat more than six ounces of local-caught fish weekly.

Yet many of us are still getting too much mercury—some of it due to the 40 tons of mercury released into the atmosphere annually by coal-fired power plants.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study in November 2005 that showed fully six percent of U.S. women of childbearing age had mercury levels above the levels that could put them at risk for nervous system defects.

Natural health advocate Joseph Mercola, D.O., says several more fish should be added to the list of fish to avoid, including tuna steaks, sea bass, oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, marlin, halibut, pike, walleye, white croaker and largemouth bass and urges the FDA to expand the list of fish to be avoided and those acceptable for limited consumption.

“I now warn my patients against consuming any fish, whether farm-raised or naturally-caught: fish of all varieties from any waters are now showing dangerously high levels of the tasteless, but highly toxic metal, mercury,” says Mercola.

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.