Dear Readers,

I have some exciting news to share with you:
I’ve teamed up with my co-authors, Dr. Hyla Cass and Dr. Robert Thompson for two separate series of no-cost teleseminars this spring that are designed to give you a huge amount of information that will set your feet firmly on the path of better health.

The series with Dr. Cass, my co-author on 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women will begin on Feb. 19 and continue every other week through the spring.

The second series with Dr. Robert Thompson,my co-author on the myth busting book, The Calcium Lie: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Could Kill You will be offered on alternate weeks will begin Feb. 26

Watch your inbox for details on both in the next few days.

You’ll also notice that I’m offering some ideas about economic survival in these tough times. I’ve written about these topics for years, and lately have been encouraged to include them in my blog and this newsletter. I hope you enjoy them.

Be well,
Kathleen

Sugar is Killing Us–And Our Kids, Too

Most of us think sugar adds sweetness to life, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sugar is an artificial food that is not only addictive, it causes diabetes and weight gain.

Ask anyone who “needs” that boost of a Coke at 4 p.m. or who can’t get through a day without a donut or piece of cake or handful of cookies.

What’s happening when you get that sugar jolt? The sugar travels fairly quickly through your system and gets to your brain, which loves sugar because it actually causes a “high.”

Sugar highs and lows

The high doesn’t last long because blood sugars begin to crash and so, a couple of hours later, you find yourself looking for another sugar high. Maybe this time it’s a cocktail or a pre-dinner snack because you’re tired and need energy to get dinner ready. Dinner, presumably containing a little protein, will even out the sugars for a few hours, but the inevitable crash comes again, perhaps just before bedtime, so you need a little “midnight snack,” and on and on.

If you think you’re not addicted to sugar, try this test: Go completely without sugar for three days. If you don’t want it, crave it and eventually find yourself feeling cranky, sleepy and unfocussed, you’re not addicted. But if you’re like the average Joe who eats 1/4 pound of sugar every day, you’re addicted.

What is this doing to your body?

Insulin resistance

Well, among other things, it’s causing insulin resistance. That means your pancreas is producing the insulin you need to properly metabolize glucose in its many forms, but your body has lost the tools it needs to balance out those sugars, causing a vicious cycle of high blood sugar, sugar crashes, low blood sugar and sugar cravings which, when they’re satisfied, lead to sugar highs and crashes. Over and over until your body can no longer handle sugars at all.

You can find this and lots more at Dr. Scott Olson’s website.

Obesity

Among other things, that sugar is making you fat. Yes, sugar is in itself high in calories and completely without any nutritional value. But even worse, the most common types of sugars like high fructose corn syrup actually convert to fat much more quickly than any other type of food.

Genetic damage?

Now comes a new piece of research that suggests that sugar not only hurts you, it can hurt your children and grandchildren.

No, I’m not talking about Moms and Nanas who stuff the kids and grandkids with sweets. I’m talking about sugar causing genetic damage.

The Australian research team found that one hit of sugar can affect you for as long as two weeks. Furthermore, regularly eating sugar can actually cause permanent genetic damage that passed along bloodlines.

“We now know that chocolate bar you had this morning can have very acute effect, and those effects can continue to up to two weeks,” said lead researcher Sam El-Osta, for Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Regular poor eating habits amplify the sugar damage, said El-Osta, with genetic damage that can last month or years and can potentially be passed along bloodlines into children.

If you can’t stop eating sugar for yourself, do it for your future children.

[Note: Tough times call for us all to get stronger. Today I'm starting to talk about economic survival on this blog and on my website. Everyone I know, myself included, is being affected by this economic downslide. I'm offering some thoughts about how to survive and thrive in these tough times. I invite your comments and ideas. --Kathleen]

Sure, you love your kids. I love my kids, too. Sure, you want the best in life for them. We all do. Sure, you want them to have a good education that will give them an opportunity for financial security.

Maybe you’ve even funded 529 plans for them that will give them a big boost
When it comes time to cough up those tens of thousands of dollars it will cost to get a college education.

So it may sound selfish when I tell you not to use your retirement money (this includes home equity) to pay for your kids’ college educations.

Here is the simple and practical reason why: A college education can be funded by loans. There are no loans to cover your retirement.

Yes, it’s tough to graduate from college with a debt burden. But let’s hope your kid has learned something in college and is smart enough to parley that knowledge into a decent income. He’s got his whole working life to pay back the loan. She can be creative and take a public service job that will help write off the loan the longer she stays in the job.

You, on the other hand, have worked your lifetime for your 401(k) and your home. If you’re like most of us, the vagaries of poor economic policy that had nothing to do with you have now robbed you of a large percentage of the value of your portfolio and trashed the value of your home.

I don’t want to sound like Gloom and Doom Panic Monger Suze Orman here, but it’s going to be really hard to regain that lost value unless you have 30 years or so until you plan to retire.

Our leaders simply don’t have experience with this, but the experts tell us that it took the average person 25 years to recover from losses during the Great Depression.

A little personal info: I’m 60 years old. I’d planned to retiree at 70. My husband is 67 and he planned to retire in three years. Now, for both of us, those goals are so far out of sight they’re over the horizon.

Of course, none of us know how long we’ll live. That means we don’t know how many years of retirement we’ll have to fund.

My father, at 86, lives in true terror that he will outlive his money, which has literally been decimated by market downturns in 2001 and this past crisis. We’re not in much of a position to help.

I’ll be talking about this much more as we explore ways to survive in this bleak economic environment, but for now, take this home:

Tell your kids now they’ll be on their own to find financing for their college educations.

Fund your retirement, not your kids’ college educations.

Olive Leaf Extract Fights Colds, Flu, Infections

Olive leaf extract is a staple in my medicine cabinet all the time, but even more so during cold and flu season.

That’s because it’s a broad spectrum anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal compound that knocks out whatever is ailing you.

That means there’s no need to know if that cold caused by a virus is deteriorating into bronchitis caused by opportunistic bacteria that can move in after you’re weakened by the virus.

If you’re anything like my husband, who thinks he is about to die of pneumonia at the first sign of a scratchy throat, olive leaf extract can be immensely comforting, not to speak of exceptionally effective whether it is a cold, the flu or something more serious.

Oleuropein, one of the active ingredients in olive leaf extract, has been shown to search out and inactivate harmful bacteria. Unlike synthetic antibiotics, it leaves the good bacteria alone, so you don’t risk swinging into dysbiosis or unbalanced gut bacteria by taking it.

In fact, olive leaf extract is one of the most effective treatments for dysbiosis recommended by Dr. William Crook, author of The Yeast Connection and other books on yeast overgrowth.

Oiive leaf extract is increasingly being used in Europe instead of synthetic antibiotics.

Because it helps strengthen the immune system many practitioners recommend taking olive leaf for several months for optimal immune system strengthening effects.

Dr. Ray Sahelian recommends 1500 mg or more daily. You can find scientific sources for the benefits of olive leaf extract at his website.

There are no adverse side effects from olive leaf extract, although some people experience a rather unpleasant flu-like effect often called die-off or, more scientifically, Herzheimer’s reaction, caused by toxins released by microorganisms killed by the extract. This usually passes within a few days.

Olive leaf extract has also been shown to:
• reduce blood pressure and cholesterol
• reduce inflammation
• improve blood sugar control
• have antioxidant effects that slow the aging processes
• boost energy
• improve symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome
• diminished herpes viral infections, including shingles

Olive leaf extract is available online and at nutrition outlets and health food stores everywhere. Be sure to get a product that is standardized to at least 15% oleuropein.

Although there are no known drug interaction or side effects, be sure to check with your health care professional before you use olive leaf extract or any other supplements.

Scary Stuff in Your Tap Water

Today is a first: I’m re-posting a blog entry from I’ve never re-posted a blog entry before, but I plan to start now. Anthony Ruffa a master herbalist a/k/a WildAlchemist, is reporting on the latest scientific evidence that should cause us all to re-think any thoughts of drinking tap water. Here’s his blog entry, reprinted with permission:

Top 11 compounds in US drinking water

A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Little was known about people’s exposure to such compounds from drinking water, so Shane Snyder and colleagues at the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas screened tap water from 19 US water utilities for 51 different compounds. The surveys were carried out between 2006 and 2007.

The 11 most frequently detected compounds – all found at extremely low concentrations – were:

• Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease

• Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union, but still used in the US, which has been implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behaviour

• Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilising drug used to treat bipolar disorder, amongst other things

• Estrone, an oestrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing gender-bending changes in fish

• Gemfibrozil, an anti-cholesterol drug

• Meprobamate, a tranquiliser widely used in psychiatric treatment

• Naproxen, a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to increases in asthma incidence

• Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant that has been used to treat epilepsy

• Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used against the Streptococcus bacteria, which is responsible for tonsillitis and other diseases

• TCEP, a reducing agent used in molecular biology

• Trimethoprim, another antibiotic

The concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water were millions of times lower than in a medical dose, and Snyder emphasises that they pose no public health threat. He cautions, though, that “if a person has a unique health condition, or is concerned about particular contaminants in public water systems, I strongly recommend they consult their physician”.

Christian Daughton of the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory says that neither this nor other recent water assessments give cause for health concern. “But several point to the potential for risk – especially for the fetus and those with severely compromised health.”

Daughton says the contamination surveys help people realise how they are intimately and inseparably connected with their environment. “The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment also serves to make us acutely aware of the chemical sea that surrounds us,” he says.

Modern life

While the US government regulates the levels of pathogens in US drinking water, there are no rules for pharmaceuticals and other compounds, apart from one: the herbicide atrazine. The atrazine levels measured by Snyder and colleagues were well within federal limits.

Snyder says water utilities could make drinking water purer. But the costs of “extreme purification” – far beyond what is needed for safety alone – are huge in terms of increased energy usage and carbon footprint. Ultra-pure water might not even be safe, adds Snyder.

The widespread occurrence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors reflects improved detection techniques, rather than greater pollution, says Snyder. Contamination is a fact of modern life, he adds.

“As we continue to populate and aggregate, our wastes will certainly accumulate where we live,” he says. “We as a species have decided to live a modern life, with pharmaceuticals, plastics, transportation – therefore we must accept that there will be a certain degree of contamination.”

Journal reference: Environmental Science and Technology, in press

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16397-top-11-compounds-in-us-drinking-water.html