If Sen. John McCain has his way, Americans’ access to herbs, minerals and dietary supplements will be severely curtailed.

McCain’s newly introduced bill the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) will give the FDA complete control over all dietary supplements.

The DSSA will repeal parts of the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement and Education Act).

I know this sounds like a bureaucratic an alphabet soup and it is. It also has the potential to turn into a health care nightmare.

Bureaucractic alphabet soup

DSHEA, enacted in 1994, protects two types of supplements: 1. supplements that have been in the food supply and are not chemically altered and 2. supplements that were sold before 1994.

DSHEA as it exists today is far from perfect, largely because it gives the FDA control over new supplements and discourages the development of new products. However, DSHEA does prevent the FDA from arbitrarily banning or reclassifying supplements.

The McCain bill, if passed, gives the very much flawed FDA the power to create a list of approved supplements that can remain on the market and to ban all others.

Switching the focus

I’ll return to the flaws of the FDA in a moment, but it’s important to understand that Sen. McCain apparently has the intention with this bill of protecting us against steroid use by professional athletes. The DSSA is supported by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which is funded by major league baseball, football and other sports teams.

It appears that major league sports is attempting to shift the focus away from its shameless drug use by claiming some players were unknowingly exposed to steroids through supplements.

While that is preposterous and I, for the life of me, cannot understand why legislators need to interrogate athletes about illegal drug use when we’ve got two wars, economic disaster and a health care crisis to deal with, the upshot of the McCain bill is to dismantle the dietary supplements industry as we know it.

Who is the beneficiary?

Who would benefit from the dismantling of the dietary supplements industry? Not you and me, my friends. Plain and simple: The pharmaceutical industry will be the only beneficiaries of the McCain bill.

The FDA receives substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry, so its interests are in protecting the funding source—pharmaceutical industry, not the American people.

The pharmaceutical industry is hostile to supplement companies because natural supplements can prevent diseases that are treated by drugs sold at enormous profits by these very same drug companies.

It’s not a very big leap of logic to the certainty that under the McCain bill, the FDA will be hostile to supplement companies and our access to dietary supplements, minerals and herbs will be severely curtailed.

Here’s where you can read the entire bill.

Contact Sen. McCain and say “NO”

I am very careful not to engage in political partisanship in these pages. However, I feel compelled to engage in political advocacy here for the benefit of every American.

Sen. McCain’s bill, if passed, will have far-reaching and potentially disastrous effects on preventive h ealth care and on eevery single one of us. All of us need to tell Mr. McCain right now that this bill is very misguided.

Contact Sen. McCain by e-mail or by calling (202) 224-2235.

Please contact him now and often until we are absolutely certain this bill is dead and buried.

The new CARD consumer credit protection act takes effect next week—and not a moment too soon.

We’re still in a feeding frenzy of credit car companies raising interest rates through the stratosphere while they still can.

Now, hopefully, those ridiculous rates will slow down. I recently heard of one that was 250%! Most us have experienced rates of 36% or even 44% despite good credit scores and pristine payment histories.

One of my companies recently reduced my credit limit from $9,500 to $500 just because I hadn’t used the card for a few months. I decided to vote with my feet since they had initiated a hit to my credit score, I’d just bite the bullet and say goodbye to them.

The new CARD act doesn’t mean that your credit card company can’t still put the screws to you, but there are some limits.

Here’s what you get starting next week:

• Banks must give 45 days notice before raising the interest rate on future purchases.

• Your interest rate on existing balances can’t be raised until you’re in default for 60 days.

• Your monthly statements going forward will reflect how many years you’ll be in debt if you only make minimum payments.

• Any annual fees must be capped at 25 percent of your card’s limit.

• If you have multiple interest rates on your account, anything you pay over the minimum balance will be applied to the highest rate first. But beware, if you only pay the minimum, the money will still be applied to the lowest balance first.

• Teaser rates on new cards must be honored for one year.

* Credit won’t be extended to people under 21 without a co-signer, except in very specific circumstances.

• Two-cycle billing will no longer be allowed. This was a sneaky way that banks would charge massive interest if one month you paid in full and the next month you didn’t.

If you’ve always followed the religion of annual mammograms and now you’re confused by recent government guidelines recommending fewer mammograms over a woman’s lifetime, you’ve come to the right place.

This is the second part of a three-part series that began with an article discussion the dangers of mammograms.

Thermogvrams are a safe and effective alternative to mammograms.

Here’s some information on thermograms from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom, a book I wrote two years ago with Dr. Ben Johnson:

Thermography is absolutely the best preventive tool because it can pick up a potential problem long before a mammogram might, yet, unlike a mammogram, it is noninvasive, painless and exposes you to no radiation.

Thermography has been FDA approved for more than 30 years and can be used for all types of body tissue, not breasts alone. A thermogram offers information about your breasts that no other technology can provide. Its best use is as a preventive tool to track a woman’s breast health over a period of years and to catch potential problems before they become big problems.

Thermography is an infrared heat digital imaging system. The machine does not even touch your skin. It shows color images of heat in the tissue and gray scale, which shows vascularity or circulation in the breast.

How thermography works

A thermogram is made by a specialized type of digital camera that captures an image of the circulation of blood in your tissues. Having a thermogram is as easy as having your picture taken.

Normal tissue has a blood supply that is under the control of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS can either increase or decrease blood flow to cells. Abnormal (cancerous and pre-cancerous) tissue, on the other hand, ensures its own survival by secreting chemicals that override this ANS regulation, thereby ensuring its own steady blood supply. Cancer can be thought of as being “off the power grid” of the body.

A thermogram monitors changes in circulation that can signal the presence of a tumor.

Thermogram benefits

Breast thermography does not diagnose breast cancer. Instead, it detects changes in breast tissue that indicate the presence of cancer or pre-cancerous states.

Breast thermography has several unique abilities that make it well worth your while:

• It can give tumor warning signals far in advance, up to ten years ahead of invasive tumor growth.
• Unlike after-the-fact warning when a tumor is already present like you’d get with a mammogram, ultrasound, MRI or CT scan, thermography can assess a woman’s risk of developing a tumor and can also assess her hormonal status.
• It can also distinguish between fibrocystic breasts and cancerous tumors.
• It can examine breasts with implants, which cannot be adequately screened with routine mammography because the compression could damage the implant and because the implant can actually block the view of deeper parts of the breast.
• It is effective for breasts of all sizes. Women with very small, very large breasts or very dense often do not receive adequate images from mammograms.
• The rate of false negatives and false positives is less than 10 percent, much better than for mammograms.

What an abnormal thermogram means

Women with a family history of breast cancer are at greater risk of developing the disease, but 75 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease. Regardless of your family history, if your thermogram is abnormal, you run a future risk of breast cancer that is 10 times higher than someone with a first degree relative (mother, sister or daughter) with the disease.

Thermography is the only technology to provide women with a future risk assessment.

The luxury of time

If a thermogram shows a woman is at risk of developing breast cancer, this can be a warning she needs to work to improve her breast health.

Monitoring with regular check-ups and thermography will show improvements with time or possibly the earliest signs that a problem may exist. This information lets a woman and her doctor know when or if there is a risk of a problem developing and measures like those we discuss in this book can be taken to prevent a tumor from growing and spreading.

Since one of the greatest risk factors for the development of breast cancer is total lifetime exposure to estrogen, normalizing the balance of the hormones in the breast may be the first and most significant step in prevention. Breast thermography is the only known non-invasive procedure that can detect estrogen dominance in the breasts.

Correct hormone imbalances

If a woman’s thermographic images suggest a relative progesterone deficiency (estrogen dominance), treatment of this condition may play an important role in prevention.

With treatment from her doctor, a woman can use this information to balance the hormones in her breasts. Follow-up thermograms are compared to the baseline estrogen dominant images as part of the treatment monitoring process.

All women can benefit from thermography, but those between the ages of 30 and 50 have the best results because their breast tissues are more dense than those of older women and therefore other screening methods can be less exact.

Watch for more tomorrow on what to expect when you get a thermogram.

–Kathleen Barnes

Despite the outcry that fewer mammograms will kill women, the truth is that mammograms endanger your health.

I’ve talked about the dangers of mammograms and the
benefits of thermograms in the first two articles in this series.

If you’ve decided to schedule a thermogram, congratulations!

If you’re not sure yet or you don’t know where to get one, read more here.

Here’s what to expect when you have a thermogram.

Preparing for a thermogram

1. Avoid natural or artificial tanning for one week prior to your thermogram.
2. Refrain from saunas, steam baths, and hot or cold packs for at least 24 hours prior to your thermogram. Do not bathe, shower, or exercise during the hour prior to your thermogram appointment. Wait for 36 hours after a high fever before having a thermogram.
3. Refrain from using any tobacco products and consuming any caffeine including caffeinated coffee, tea, or sodas for two hours prior to your thermogram.
4. Remove large jewelry prior to imaging; however, small necklaces actually enable the thermogram technician to sharpen the focus of your thermogram.
6. Avoid shaving your underarms or applying any underarm deodorants or antiperspirants in addition to all powders, creams, or lotions on your arms or chest on the day of your thermogram.
7. Do not exercise, or engage in any activities that will increase your blood pressure.
8. Do not smoke or drink alcohol for a minimum of 24 hours before your appointment.
9. Take only medications that you take regularly. Your physician can give you further information.
10. Wear comfortable clothing that covers your arms and legs to your appointment. A lose button-front shirt is great.
11. Avoid confrontation or emotional stress on the day of your thermogram. That can quite literally raise your skin temperature.

What happens during an exam

When you arrive at your appointment, you be asked to take off all clothing and jewelry above the waist.

You may be asked to wait in an environmentally controlled room for about 15 minutes to get your skin temperature to a definable level.

When you are brought into the imaging room, you’ll be standing in front of the camera with your fingers clasped behind your head, elbows pointing out to the sides. Between 7 and 9 views of your breast will be taken, depending on the size of your breasts.

A second set of images is sometimes taken after your hands have been submerged in cold water for one minute.

Results

Your thermogram will be read by a licensed thermologist and, usually, by your doctor as well. Breast thermograms receive one of five ratings that range from TH1 (no detectable thermal abnormalities) to TH5 (detection of thermal abnormalities correlating with very significant risk for breast cancer).

Any positive result signals a need for further evaluation. Early thermal abnormalities may result in a recommendation to repeat thermography for comparison in 60-120 days.

Depending on the thermology rating and other forms of evaluation, a referral may be made for targeted ultrasound or to a breast specialist.
Doctors trained in holistic medicine may also recommend nutritional, metabolic, environmental, or lifestyle interventions to address early thermal abnormalities.

Cost of a thermogram

The cost of the thermograms is reasonable, generally between $100 and $200, depending on where you live.

Many insurance companies will cover thermography, but since there seems to be an endless variety of insurance plans, be sure to check with your insurer and the provider of the thermogram.

If your insurance plan includes “out-of-network” and non standard-of-care benefits, you will probably receive some insurance reimbursement. Your insurance company may require a referral from your doctor or pre-approval or authorization.

For your doctor’s information, the billing code (known as a CPT code) is 93762. Knowing this number will help you get reimbursement.

If you’re at high risk…

If you are at high risk for breast cancer (biggest risk: breast cancer in your mother or sister and, if you know, the presence of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes) or if you underwent radiation therapy of the chest, your doctor and your insurance company agree that annual MRI screening is warranted. An estimated 1.4 million American women fall into this category, but that doesn’t mean their health insurance companies . will automatically cover the $1,500-$4,000 cost of an MRI. Prepare for at least a minor skirmish, if not a major battle, to get an MRI if you and your doctor think it is necessary.

Some ammo for your battle: Guidelines from the American Cancer Society recommend annual MRI scans in addition to mammograms for all women at high risk of developing breast cancer, starting at age 30.

–Kathleen Barnes
co-author, with Dr. Ben Johnson, of The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom(Morgan James, 2007)

The new government recommendation that women don’t need mammograms before age 50 and then only every two years is a smart one, but not for the reasons cited by the government panel.

The whole thing is explained in simple terms in a book I wrote with Dr. Ben Johnson two years ago.

Here’s an excerpt from The Secret of Health: Breast Wisdom (Morgan James 2007):

Doctors and the medical community have pounded this into our heads throughout our reproductive lives:

We think mammograms are highly detrimental to your body, mind and spirit. We recommend that you avoid them at all costs.

Fortunately there is a safe and effective alternative to mammograms that few of know about, let alone our doctors.

I’ll post in detail about thermograms tomorrow. Stay tuned.

–Kathleen Barnes

The Senate has not yet taken up the measure, and it is uncertain what will happen there, but Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) is pressing for legislation that will freeze interest rates on existing balances until the new law takes effect.

The Federal Reserve has released a bank survey in which 50 percent of the banks responding admitted they are increasing interest rates and reducing credit lines even on credit card holders with good credit scores.

Even more disturbing is a study by the Pew charitable trusts reported by the New York Times on Nov. 9 “Concludes that the 12 largest banks issuing more than 80 percent of all credit cards, are continuing to use practices that the Fed considers ‘unfair or deceptive’ and in many cases have been outlawed by Congress.”

What can you do?

Contact your Senators and urge them to make the new credit card law effective immediately, as the House has done.

Yes, everybody’s talking about the swine flu and whether or not we should get vaccinations or even if they’ll be available.

I’m not going to go elaborate on the politics of the vaccine and the profits Big Pharma is going to make on the vaccines without any liability, thanks to protection from liability given to pharmaceutical companies by the U.S. Congress.

We all want to stay healthy.

The best way to stay healthy is to embrace a healthy lifestyle and keep your immune system strong. It all sounds so very simple. It is!

Yet we are all exposed to viruses and sometimes they get the better of us. I remember that dreadful year my husband taught elementary school when we couldn’t seem to crawl out from under the increasing heap of fast mutating viruses until school was mercifully dismissed for the summer.

We all know now about handwashing and coughing into our sleeves to prevent the spread of viruses. It goes without saying that you’re eating a healthy diet and getting lots of exercise, right?

Here are four ways you may not have encountered that will help strengthen your immune system and help you fight off viruses when they come your way:

1. Salt water washes: Dissolve a teaspoon of unrefined sea salt into a cup of warm water. Gargle morning and night and wash out your nose. If you’re able to use a neti pot or “drink” the water through your nose from a glass, do so. If not, dip a Q-tip in the salt water (after your gargle, please!) and thoroughly swab out your nose twice a day.

2. Get some sunshine: Vitamin D is one of the most effective immune system enhancers known and sunshine is the best way for your body to manufacture the vitamin D that provides a plethora of health benefits, including immune system enhancement. True enough, it’s hard to get enough sunshine in the dead of winter, which is one of the reasons why we are more susceptible to viruses at this time of year. In that case, vitamin D supplementation is the way to go. Dr. Joe Mercola recommends at least 3,000 IU of Vitamin D3 a day at this time of year and more if you have chronic illnesses.

3. Get enough sleep: Studies has shown that people who get fewer than seven hours of sleep a night are three times more likely to catch a cold or flu. If you get sick, it will take longer for your to recover if you don’t adhere to the seven-plus hours of shuteye every night.

4. Try Thieves Oil: This powerful blend of essential oils is reputed to have protect grave robbers form catching the bubonic plague during the Middle Ages. True or not, this sweetly scented blend does really seem to help if you rub it on your temples, under your nose or even gargle with a few drops of the oil added to water a couple of time a day. I’ve found Thieves especially effective in confined places, like the airplanes I needed to ride, somewhat unwillingly, four times in the past three weeks. You can also buy Thieves blends in cleaning products, hand soap, toothpaste and more. Here’s here you can find Thieves.

–Kathleen Barnes

But you got one of those “drop dead” letters from your credit card company. Yikes!

My condolences. It’s gonna hurt, no matter how you cut it.

There are four basic types of love letters credit card companies are sending out these days:

1. Raising interest rates: Your interest rate is going through the stratosphere. Since there is no legal ceiling on credit card interest rates in many states, it could be anything. The highest I’ve heard is 40%. Rates of 19 to 25% have become common.

Many credit card companies are allowing customers to “opt-out,” which means they can keep their old interest rate if they agree to have their accounts closed when the balance is paid and that no new charges will be permitted.

2. Reducing credit limits: Your credit limit is being reduced. That may not seem like a big deal if you’re nowhere near your limit, but it could have a huge negative impact on your credit score. That. In turn will stick it to you big time if you wan to finance a house or a car.

That’s because your credit score is based on the total amount of credit you have form all your credit cards divided by the amount you are using. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have $20,000 in available credit and you’re carrying about $5,000 in credit card debt.

So one or two of your credit card companies get nervous and decides to reduce your available credit to $10,000. That doesn’t seem like a big deal. You’re still only using half of your available credit.

Ah, but here’s the rub. Where you once were using only one-quarter of your available credit, now you’re using half of it. That will ding you to the tune of as much as 100 points on your credit score, even though you did nothing and you didn’t charge so much as an additional dollar.

If you’ve been the recipient of one of the interest rate increases I described in #1, you’ll get a double whammy when you’re a good little consumer and pay off your balance and your account is closed.

3. Raising minimum payments: You’ve got one of those fixed rates and you think you’re sitting pretty because you know your interest rates can ‘t be raised. That’s true so here’ where the credit card companies are doing their “gotcha:” they raise your minimum payment. You scramble through your files to find your agreement, written in “mice type,” as my hero, consumer guru Clark Howard, likes to call it. After spending hours with a magnifying glass, you discover they can raise your minimum payments whenever they like. Now your minimum payment has been increased from 2% of your balance to 5% or more. Ouch!

4. Non usage: You didn’t use that card, so now they’re taking it away from you and closing your account. To prevent this type of punitive account closure, use your cards at least twice a year, even if it’s just to buy a cup of coffee or a tank of gas. Pay it off at the end of the month and feel reasonably assured that your account won’t be closed, dinging your credit as mentioned in #2.

Why are credit card companies doing this?

The answer is simple: New consumer credit protection laws are taking effect over the next few months and the credit card companies are in a feeding frenzy to bring in as much money as they can right now. New consumer credit protection laws are phasing in, and in the coming months, credit card companies will not longer be able to raise interest rates on existing purchases or charge late payment fees.

Credit card companies are also terrified that more and more people will default on their debts, as is already happening. On the first quarter of 2009, Reuters reports, credit card debt increased 16.4%.

It is clear that many Americans are living on their credit cards. With rising unemployment, it is inevitable that the default rates will continue to climb. Bank of America has reported a 14.54 percent charge off rate—accounts the company does not expect to be paid—in August up from 13.81 percent the month before.

In a Big Brother-ish development, CNN recently reported that credit card companies are tracking spending habits. If you were a Sak’s Fifth Avenue customer and you recently started shopping at Wal-Mart, you could be penalized because the company fears you may be in financial trouble. You could be in an even bigger penalty phase if you start using your credit card at bars.

What doesn’t make sense is that the credit card companies are precipitating more defaults by raising their rates or minimum payments to unaffordable levels, for all practical purposes guaranteeing more defaults.

What should a consumer do?

I wish I could give you some easy answers, but there aren’t many

If necessary, accept the interest rate increase and the closure of your account. If you can, immediately apply for another credit card so your available credit doesn’t take a hit when the account closes.

While it’s important to your credit score to have a high amount of available credit, that doesn’t mean you have to use it. In fact, don’t use it!

Use your credit cards

This may seem paradoxical with what I just wrote, but you have to use your credit cards or you may lose them.

Keep track of your cards and be sure that you use each one just twice a year Fill up your tank with gas or buy yourself a modest lunch. Pay off the bill at the end of the month. Many companies are now closing inactive accounts. If this happens to you, it can effect your credit score.

What’s next?

The CARD Act protecting credit card customers is scheduled to take effect in February of 2010. However, there is now talk that the effective date may be pushed up to December 1, 2009 because legislators are so angry about the credit card companies’ draconian activities in the runup to the new restrictions.

Among the protections of the CARD Act are prohibitions of permanent interest rate increases for late payments, restrictions on increasing interest rates on existing balances and prohibiting the issuance of credit cards to anyone under 21 without a parent as co-signer.

I’ll be keeping you up to date on this in the coming weeks.

–Kathleen Barnes http://www.kathleenbarnes.com

Here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, autumn has arrived. There’s a blush of gold across the mountainsides and the reds of the maples flare along the ridge lines.

Fall always means apple time with a visit to the sweetly scented farm store and a bite into the freshest, crispest tangy Gala apple, juice running down my happy chin.

It’s a cherished rite I’ve celebrated for much of my llfe.

The pleasure is amplified by the multitude health benefits of eating apples.

Apples, like all fruits and vegetables, have antioxidant properties that prevent DNA injury and the mental and physical deterioration usually associated with aging.

New research from Cornell University shows that apples contain powerful phytochemicals that may help inhibit breast cancer cell growth. Flavonoid antioxidants, including quercetin and catechins, help apples rank high on the antioxidant list.

Here are some excellent reason to enjoy an apple today:

Lung disease: Those same catcechins found in apples help counter serious lung ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Recent studies also show a relationship between the amount of flavonoid- and quercetin-rich foods you eat, like apples, and protection against lung cancer.

Alzheimer’s: Regular consumption of apple juice helps us maintain mental sharpness and may even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from the University of Massachusetts.

Heart disease and stroke: Apples are excellent sources of soluble fiber that has been shown to decrease the risk of all types of heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association. Furthermore, the flavonoids in apples not only decrease the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol, they also reduce the risk of dying of a heart attack, according to a long-term Finnish study. Apples also help lower cholesterol by helping retain quercetin in your blood, helping usher out harmful fats.

Various types of cancer: Numerous studies have shown that dietary flavonoids, like those found in apples, are protective against several types of cancer, including bladder and lung cancers associated with smoking. Men who eat the most apples have also been found to have a lower rate of prostate cancer.

References:

1Liu, J., Dong, H., Chen, B., Zhao, P. and Liu, R.H. Fresh apples suppress mammary carcinogenesis, proliferative activity, and induce apoptosis in the mammary tumors of the Sprague-Dawley rat. J. Agric. Food Chem. 57 (1): 297-304, 2009.
2Chan, A and Shea, T. Dietary Supplementation with Apple Juice Decreases Endogenous Amyloid 03B2 Levels in Murine Brain. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 16:1, 2009.

Here‘s a little rant about social networking.

In recent times, you were nobody if you weren’t on Twitter. It was an essential business and personal branding tool.

I am on Twitter (@KathleenSBarnes) and am approaching 2,400 followers. Not too shabby. I have some wonderful followers who post interesting stuff.

But lately, I find I have to make myself to go Twitter and post a couple of pithy 140-character comments each day. I actually miss a lot of these.

Why? Because I find my inbox inundated with new followers that offer nothing less than spam. There are the ads to get thousands of new followers effortlessly, multi-level marketing companies promising untold riches and folks who want to sell me coaching packages for “only $997.”

That’s not even mentioning the uptick in pornography. Hey folks, I’m not a guy. Not many people named “Kathleen” are guys.

When Twitter began, it was frankly, silly. I mean, who cares if you’re at Starbucks drinking a latte or sitting in the dentist’s office?

Then Twitter hit its heyday in 6 or 8 months ago with interesting people saying interesting things, folks tweeting from the plane that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River, even tweeting news stories before the conventional news media caught on to the fact that news was breaking and the people on the scene had already gotten the word out. News organizations even began creating Twitter accounts so they could get the early scoops. Who could forget the power of the tweets that came out of Iran after the stolen election? That was social networking at its zenith.

During that heady time, I could hardly wait to logon in the mornings and dip my toes into the unending stream of interesting and thought-provoking information. I found myself enticed back there several times a day. I used TweetDeck to stay up to date with group of followers whose tweets I found the most useful. I probably spent too much tie there, but I know I learned a great deal and I am richer for the experience.

I hope that, in return, I offered information that was of value to them. I will continue to do so, although perhaps less frequently.

I’m waiting out this deluge of scamsters, get-rich-quick schemes and other mindless nonsense. Hopefully, this will pass and Twitter will regain some of its fascination for me. If not, I’ll move on to something more exciting and useful.

Until then, I’m choosing to spend less time on Twitter. Call it asocial networking. I’m spending more time on some exciting new projects I’ll be telling you about soon. It’s more productive and more personally satisfying. I promise not to scam you or spam you. Ever.