Dreaming A Beautiful World

Sharol Tilgner's Blog Has Moved

2019-05-04T14:59:00.001-07:00

This blog has moved to Dr. Tilgner's new website, called You Are The Healer. A link to the new blog is easy to find on the front page, in the menu bar, or you can click on this blog link. This old blog site will remain in place, as many people visit it each day to read blogs all the way back to 2010. The more important blogs from this site have been updated, and placed on the new site in categories that makes it easier for you to find them. You can browse through the many features offered by youarethehealer.org which are linked below, including a list of the brand new blogs at the bottom of this page. For those of you who receive email notices about blogs, you will need to sign up for Dr. Tilgner's monthly blog notice to continue getting them. Please look to the sidebar on this page (near the top) for her brief signup form. You will also find the signup form at her new blog site.

Herbal Medicine

This menu selection has many subsections to choose from.

1. Herbs A-Z

Herbal monographs where you can look up individual herbs by common or Latin name.

2. Making Herbal Products
This is where you will find information on everything from harvesting herbs to making herbal products. Let Dr. Sharol know what you want added to this section by clicking on the email icon at the top of each page.

3. Herbal Articles
Here you learn how to use herbs as medicine. There are articles that highlight herbs used for a variety of health conditions, or simply focus on the herb itself.

4. Herb Walks and Herb Research
These sections are under construction.

Health Conditions
This menu section has a few subsections to choose from.

1. Health Conditions A-Z
This is where you will find information on various health conditions. You are more likely to find an article on bed bugs, or demodex mites here than on treating croup as Dr. Sharol writes about those things she thinks need more attention.

2. Optimize Your Health
This section examines how to optimize your health, and currently emphasizes the support of biotransformation (detox) systems in your cells to energize your mitochondria, energize you, and promote longevity.

3. Health Conditions By Body System
Currently being built, but there are a few articles here. More will appear soon.

Food As Medicine
This section of the website has not yet been built, but if you go to the links, you can get an idea of what will be here in the future. This section will be fully operational by the winter of 2019-2020.
1. Recipes
2. Growing Food
3. Healthy Food Research

Mold And Toxins
This is an extensive list of articles and a site map is provided for you at the link above. You will also find the more common mold articles in the drop down menu at the top each page. The drop down menu has the following selections.
1. Biotoxins
2. Mold & Mycotoxins
3. Moldy Food
4. Moldy People
5. Moldy Buildings
6. More Nasty Toxins - This section is still being built

Book Store
The new book store is easier to use and will make it easier to order Dr. Sharol's books.

Inner You
This is a look at the spiritual side of health. Here you will find articles such as "The Vital Force And Epigenetics" and "The Conscious Manifestation Of Health."

Blog
Dr. Sharol has a new blog at youarethehealer.org, where you will find all her new articles organized in a much easier manner to find. Additionally, you can search the entire site, and find many of her old blog articles from dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com in revised form, revised articles from her old website, and many brand new offerings on this website.

New Blog Topics

Building Strong, Resilient Bones - Osteopenia & Osteoporosis Prevention, and Treatment Of Osteoporosis through lifestyle, nutrition, herbs, and supplements.

Will Skin Care Prevent Dementia
Sounds unbelievable to some, but indeed the research shows it may and for a very good reason.

Mold Making You Sick?
Have you ever wondered if your long-term illness is related to mold. If so, this is the blog to read. It will provide you with addition links to follow for more in-depth information.

Fluoride In Our Water - A Convenient Way To DIspose Of Hazardous Waste
If you have city water that is fluoridated, or water that has natural high fluoride in it, you will want to read this.

Milk Is Transferring Genetic Information To Babies
Well actually, it is transferring genetic information to anyone who consumes it and therein lies the issue. Good for babies, but perhaps not so good for adults. This is a synopsis of a research review article that is amazing.

The Humanure Handbook, 4th Edition, Reviewed
This is one of those books that you feel would change the world if only everyone would read it.

For those of you who receive email notices about blogs, you will need to sign up for Dr. Tilgner's monthly blog notice to continue getting them. Please look to the sidebar on this page (near the top) for her brief signup form. You will also find the signup form at her new blog site.

GMO Canola Rearing Its Head In Oregon Again

2019-03-19T10:18:00.001-07:00

Back in 2012 we fought to keep GMO Canola out of the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The fact that the Canola was GMO was not even discussed with government officials at that time, as back in 2012 talking about glyphosate (RoundUp) and GMOS was like talking about aliens landing and those of us talking about such things were not to be taken seriously. So, the tiny group of anti-GMO folks joined up with the specialty seed growers who also wanted to keep any type of Canola out of the valley, as it cross pollinates their crops, and they can't sell the seed. There was some dirty business going on with our politicians but we persisted and at least got a compromise that gave 500 acres with some other safety precautions to the Canola growers who wanted to grow in the Valley. However, the ruling will sunset in July and this has created a flurry of bills to be proposed that will continue the limits on Canola production in the Valley. This includes both bills only on limitation of the Canola such as (SB 885, HB 3026 and HB 3219) as well as genetically engineered liability bills, SB 434 and HB 2882.

Please tell your Oregon representatives that you want them to support these bills. Please take a look here at "Cultivate Oregon" for additional data. Times have changed and we all know how bad RoundUp Ready Canola and other forms of genetically engineered food can be to our health and the planets health. Now, when we talk to our reps about genetically engineered food they will listen. So, please send them an email or call them about this issue.

1. It will devastate the specialty seed growers in the Willamette Valley if the Canola is not contained (I wish removed). At minimum we need to reinstate the ruling but really need a bill passed for protection.

2. We have to have liability laws on genetically engineered seeds to protect those who are harmed by them.

This is a close to home issue and your reps will listen!

Please go to this site and sign this petition that will be taken as testimony to Salem to keep Canola under control: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1h8BhmuBO0HdDEfjNh069duvgJpmstbTFGs7UImYPieI/viewform?ts=5c69dd0b&edit_requested=true

The more who sign up, the more we will be taken seriously. I was intimately involved with this before and this list of names really does help the folks representing our best interests. Please give them a helping hand by showing our officials you support this.

Time For Stinging Nettles

2019-03-11T20:00:00.005-07:00

Spring Is The Time For Nettles

Photo by J Brew https://www.flickr.com/photos/brewbooks/2544110170

Thoughts of spring cause my mouth to start watering in anticipation of tasty herbal greens waiting to grow out of the earth. You too can enjoy the bounty of spring. Let me introduce you to one of my special weed friends called stinging nettle. Nettle is an edible and medicinal treasure provided freely from our wonderful and nurturing planet. It can be used both as a food as well as a medicine.

Where You Find Stinging Nettles

Nettle is a bold, strong plant that likes moisture and shade. You will find it growing near creek banks, in partially shady areas. Nettle prefers moving water where its roots do not get bogged down in stagnant muck, but can grow in the muck also, especially if there is high nitrogen in that muck. This plant tends to spread out by sending its rhizomes in all directions. Therefore you find Nettles growing in thick patches. If you invite Nettles to your home to live, provide a semi-shaded spot and give her plenty of liquids and a rich, well-drained soil. If she is grown in poor soil, she will enrich the soil herself. She does love nitrogen. If you give her a rich compost she will grow big and her leaves will be a very dark green.

Whats The Skinny On Eating Nettles

As a food both the roots/rhizomes and the aerial leafy parts can be eaten. Although the roots are fine as soup stock, I mostly eat the tops of the nettles, and I prefer the early, supple, spring greens best. The most choice part is the top 4-6 inches.

I usually stir fry Stinging Nettle or cook it in soups. I think it tastes like spinach with an attitude. It is much tastier than spinach. I have also eaten it as a pesto made by a lovely student (warning fresh pesto probably won't sting you if you grind it down really good like my student did, but no promises), it is great as a side with fish and a nice sauce, or in casseroles, and as a substitute for spinach in any recipe that is cooked.

How To Collect Nettles

Watch Out For Those Stingers

Photo by Mari Subb https://www.flickr.com/photos/54496854@N08/

A few words of caution for those of you unacquainted with Stinging Nettle; treat this plant with utmost care or she will sting you. Wear gloves when harvesting and processing nettles. I have more than once, been on a hike and been surprised by a patch of nettles. In my overwhelming glee at finding the first spring nettles, I have temporarily lost my mind and decided to collect them without gloves. Each time I have nursed my wounds, questioning such a crazy decision. No matter how carefully I harvest this tasty plant, she reminds me that she is protecting herself and she is to be respected. Luckily, once the plant is cooked the sting disappears and you can savor this delicacy without concern.

Helpful Tip

If like me, you decide to harvest without gloves, remember that the leaves do not have stingers on the top of the leaf and this will help guide you in how to collect it without so many stings.

Talk About Odd Jobs

I once spent the summer as a student volunteer helping a researcher named Anna MacIntosh who had been hired to run a variety of experiments for an herb company named Eclectic Institute. I spent most of an entire day that summer, pulling stingers off of Nettles with a pair of tweezers. Now that is dedication. I did find myself asking if this was a prudent thing to be doing with my time. By the way histamine, serotonin , and acetylcholine are concentrated in the fresh stinging hairs on the leaves according to one research article.

When To Harvest

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the best time to harvest the aerial tips for food is from the end of February to the end of March. They can be harvested to dry as a medicine up until they begin to go into flowering stage.

As far as the rhizomes, they can be harvested fall through spring. Harvest after the plant dies back and before it starts to grow again.

The seed cam be harvested when it is ripe.

Caution About When To Harvest The Greens

Only collect aerial Nettles (the upper green parts) in the spring prior to flowering. Once it flowers, the aerial part is not safe to consume as a food or as a medicinal tea. After they flower they can be irritating and may inflame the urinary tract.

Why Nettles Are Used As Food And Medicine

High In Minerals And Vitamins For Nutritious Support

The abundant minerals in those leafy greens make it a wonderful addition to our diet. Nettle is rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and silicic acid. Nettle also contains vitamin A, C and K as well as various B vitamins. The high mineral content may be part of the reason for nettle tea’s ability to reduce the severity and occurrence of leg cramps as well as menstrual cramps (magnesium specifically) and its ability to support strong bones. The high mineral content also benefits anemic (iron), undernourished individuals.

Stinging nettle is beneficial as a spring tonic and rejuvenator. As a medicine it tends to be very stimulating and drying. It has a supportive effect on our immune system, spleen, circulatory system, urinary tract, nervous system, respiratory tract, digestive system and the endocrine system; including the adrenals, thyroid, and the pancreas. It nourishes our entire body as well as nourishing us spiritually by increasing receptivity to the natural energetic flow of our spirit.

I find long term use of nettle can be beneficial for support of multiple body systems. An example is the lungs. People with hay fever use the tea daily starting a month or more prior to allergy season beginning. They find it decreases their allergy symptoms during the season if they start early and continue throughout the season. People with other recurrent lung issues such as asthma have also found it beneficial when used over time.

Nettles have shown in-vitro inhibition of several proinflammatory substances that cause the symptoms of seasonal allergies. This includes decreasing the release of histamine, as well as inhibition of prostaglandin formation through inhibition of Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and Hematopoietic Prostaglandin D(2) synthase (HPGDS), which are enzymes involved in the pro-inflammatory pathways. Nettle is thought to possibly have anti-inflammatory potential in allergic rhinitis by the following pathways: antagonizing H1-receptor, reducing of PGD2 production (allergy specific prostaglandin), and inhibitory effect on mast cell tryptase.

Nettle is also beneficial in excessive menstrual bleeding. It helps supply lost iron as well as helping to decrease the bleeding. Nettle favors elimination of uric acid and is therefore useful in gouty arthritis. It may be used as a diuretic. The root and seed are also diuretic. Nettle greens are best used long term in treating chronic illnesses.

A 2016 research study found a tea of Nettle was shown to significantly increase endothelial nitric oxide (and Super Oxide Dismutase) over an eight week period of treament for type 2 diabetes. This may be another reason for its ability to lower blood pressure other than its activity as a diuretic and supplying magnesium.

Nettle Root and Seed

I am focusing on the leafy parts and have ignored the wonderful root and seed of this special plant. Both are used medicinally. The root is often used for BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy), while the seed is used to support kidney and thyroid function.

The root is astringent, and has diuretic properties. It is used to arrest bleeding and to treat lower urinary tract symptoms in males (LUTS)/benighn prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). It has anti-inflammatory activity and has been shown to inhibit aromatase. Aromastase is the enzyme that convenrts testosterone into estradiol and is implicated in BPH. Clinical studies show use of the root improves BPH symptoms such as reduced urinary flow, incomplete emptying of bladder, post urination dripping and the constant urge to urinate.

The seed has more recently (past 20 years or so) been used for kidney inflammation and to support people in chronic kidney failure. I have only used the seed in tincture form and in 1/2 - 1 teaspoon (that is equal to about 60-120 drops) per day, 2 times per day.

Nettle Tea, Tincture OR Capsule

The tincture will not provide the minerals this lovely plant so graciously offers. I like to make an overnight infusion of nettles or if in a hurry a 25 minute decoction. I will warn you that the decoction is not as tasty as overnight infusion. The decoction in fact tastes a bit bad when compared to the overnight infusion. I once measured the magnesium content in an overnight infusion in comparison with a 25 minute decoction and there was the tiniest bit more magnesium in the decoction, but so tiny that it was not worth the loss of the beautiful taste you get with the overnight infusion. I was surprised as I thought the decoction would have had much more magnesium in it by comparison. Nettles can be taken as a tea (1 cup 2 times per day), a capsule (3 capsules 2 times per day), or eaten as part of your food. I do not suggest tincture as the tincture will usually not have the minerals intact unless they were added back into the tincture in ashen form as is done in Spagyric tinctures. Since the minerals add to it’s effectiveness for respiratory support, a tea, capsule or food would be more efficacious. Do not eat them fresh though as they will sting you. The part you want to use for vitamins and minerals is the aerial parts.

General Suggested Use

Leafy parts: Tea - 2 heaping tablespoons per cup of water infused overnight (best) or simmered for 25 minutes Tincture - 60-120 drops. This dose can be consumed 1-3 times per day. Roots: Tea - 1 tablespoon per cup of water as a decoction Tincture - 1:2 fresh strength: 60-120 drops 2-4 times per day. Seed: Eat it - simply eat 1/2-1 teaspoon 3 times per day. Tea - ½ - 1 teaspoon per cup of water after crushing it a little and made as over night infusion, three times per day. Tincture - 1:5 dry strength: 60-120 drops 2-4 times per day. Besides building strong bodies with her minerals, Nettle also shares her strength with us in the form of strong rope that can be made from the skin of its stalk.

Contraindications

Nettle is listed as contraindicated by many authors in pregnancy, due to emmenagogue and abortifacient effects. However, the tea is sometimes consumed by pregnant woman to tonify the uterus and for the vitamin and mineral content. I have had trouble finding the data on Nettles causing abortions and I want to thank Francis Brinker who was kind enough to supply me with the data I was seeking. There is mention of its use in an Indian journal where it is listed as an emmenagogue that should not be used in early pregnancy. They mentioned it being used as a decoction. It has also been listed by Farnsworth in 1975 as having the active ingredients betaine and serotonin which have been shown to stimulate uterine tissue when used as an isolated substance. This is the only supporting evidence I can find for Nettles being an abortifacient. I can’t find any actual animal or human studies to support this. The use of this plant as a raw green is contraindicated due to skin and mucous membrane irritation from the plant. This irritating and painful feature disappears when the plant is cooked well, or mashed to a fine pulp. Dried herb is usually safe, however I have had even dry herb cause irritation on the rare occasion. I would caution people who tend to be dry and thirsty that this plant will exacerbate that situation and this may not be a good herb for them. For anyone who tends to urinate a lot, be thirsty all the time and have low blood pressure, I would not suggest Nettles on a continual basis.

How To Tincture Herbs With the Folk Method

2019-01-16T21:54:00.000-08:00

The Folk Method Makes Herbal Tinctures Easy

People are often confused about how to make herbal tinctures using the "formula" or "calculation" or "weight to volume" method that I teach in my book. I give very detailed directions and these directions will result in a very precise product. However, if you are not making tinctures to sell, you can fudge a bit and do not have to be so precise. For those of you who do not like the math or are confused, I suggest trying the folk method in the beginning. This involves no math and makes the process very easy. Once you have used the folk method and feel confident, you can go on to using the formula method of extraction if you want to be more consistent and precise in your herbal tincture making. I suggest you read this in its entirety before beginning as the tips on type of alcohol and water content in plants might change how you approach your project.

The Type of Alcohol You Use Is Important

In the pure folk method of tincturing herbs, people often use whatever hard liquor they have around. When I make a tincture using the folk method, I usually use organic grain alcohol which is 95% alcohol strength and has no flavor. (I don't like to support GMO derived alcohol.) However, people can use whatever they have as long as it is something that is 80 proof or 40% alcohol such as vodka. This will generally ensure enough alcohol to preserve the product and extract most of the constituents desired.

Herbal Tid Bit

The "Folk Method" does not calculate for the percent of alcohol used. Some plants are better extracted with a higher amount of alcohol such as resinous herbs, and there may be a concern about having a high enough alcohol strength to extract the resin or other materials. If you know your herb should have more alcohol used to extract it you can use 95% alcohol found in the liquor store. I purchase organic alcohol from Organic Alcohol Co.

There is nothing precise about this method, so forget using it if this is going to bother you. There are also some times where it is best not to use the folk method. We will cover this at the end.

Adding the Alcohol and Herb

Peppermint Herb

Start by filling a jar about 1/3 -1/2 full with fresh or dried
plant material. Pour alcohol over the top of the herbs. Please realize that dry herbs will really soak up the alcohol so you may need to add extra liquid later. You can check the next day to see if you need to add more alcohol. The alcohol must stay over the top of the plant by at least 1/4 inch at all times to keep it from oxidizing. If you are making a tincture with a fresh plant rather than a dry plant, you won't need to add more alcohol later. This is due to the water content in the fresh plant. In the case of the dry plant extract, the plant material will suck alcohol into its dry cells. So you will have to add more alcohol later. If you are adding alcohol to dry plant, you will definitely need to check it the next day to see how much more alcohol needs to be added to it.

Blenderize Your Herb and Alcohol

A vitamix makes this easy. A regular blender works too.

Now in its simplest form, you don't even use a blender to mix the herb and alcohol. You just pour the alcohol over the herb, shake it off and on and wait. However, most people using this method will use a blender to mix the alcohol and the herb together. This breaks up the plant into smaller particles and lets the alcohol get absorbed into the plant quicker and allows it to come into contact with more plant material, thereby extracting more of the goodness from the plant. This can also be accomplished with a mortar and pestle. It is just much slower than a blender, but does give you a good work-out.

Herbal Tid Bit

You have a choice of purchasing whole dry herb or cut and sift herb. For many herbs, whole form is best to purchase as the more it was cut up and pulverized, the more oxidized the herb becomes while sitting on the store shelf. Being oxidized means it will loose its healing powers quicker. Some plant roots or barks can be so hard that you can not cut them up yourself, so in these cases using whole plant might just exasperate you. If you do find yourself with some tough roots or bark, I suggest you pre-soak them in alcohol to allow them to soften up before trying to blend them. (I once had to soak a root for months to soften it up before blending it.) Otherwise you might break your blender.

Let It Extract And Then Press It Out

Echinacea Tincture being pressed.

Once your herb and liquid are mixed together, and there is adequate liquid (at least 1/4-1/2" above the plant material) to keep the herb from oxidizing in the air, put a lid on the container and steep for 4 to 6 weeks in a cool, dark place such as a pantry or closet. Shake it often. Then strain or press out the liquid or menstruum. You can press it with a potato ricer or by using a strainer, cloth and some muscle power.

Usually in the folk method you don't even bother filtering the tincture after it is strained. You simply use as is. This is really all there is to the folk method. In many cases this will work just fine. If you want it filtered, let it sit for 24 hours or more to settle out some of the debris, then decant it off, leaving the debris behind and pour the liquid through a filter in your kitchen such as a non-bleached coffee filter.

Improving the Folk Method In Special Situations

Echinacea Tincture Macerating

The folk method is best used to extract dried plant materials. As I mentioned previously, people usually use an alcohol such as Vodka when using the folk method. Fresh plants have moisture in them and as soon as you mix the fresh plant with the alcohol, you are diluting the alcohol. If the plant has 75% moisture in it, you are diluting the alcohol a lot. For this situation, a 190 proof or 95% alcohol is really a better choice. Fresh plants that have little moisture content or fresh plants that have constituents in them that you can extract with low amounts of alcohol will do well with the folk method and using an alcohol like vodka that has 40-45% alcohol.

When you want to use this method with dry plant material that needs high amounts of alcohol, I would again suggest using 190 proof (95%) alcohol. Doing this will allow you to get a good extraction from plant material such as resins. Another situation necessitating 95% alcohol is when the plant being tinctured is fresh and it has a high moisture content and/or has constituents that necessitate a moderate to high amount of alcohol to extract them. Yet another situation would be when you want to make a fresh plant tincture stronger by extracting additional plant material in the menstruum. This makes the final product stronger and necessitates more explanation than I am going to go into here.

Reasons I often don't use the Folk Method

• This method does not allow me to know the strength of my product.

• Lack of consistency in my products & not being sure about how much to give since I don't know the strength.

• This method can lead to an alcohol strength that is too little or too much which can lead to inadequate extraction as well as excessive, unnecessary alcohol in a product.

Weight to Volume Method

Method

This method is also called the formula or calculation method. It is much more tedious, has extensive directions, and yes it does involve math. You will find these directions in my book "Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth". You can also look for an herbalist living in your area that teaches classes on how to make herbal tinctures. Getting hands on experience is really the best thing when learning how to make herbal products.

by Sharol Tilgner (Author)

57 customer reviews

Celebrating the Circle of Life

2019-01-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Celebrating the Circle of Life
Through the Teachings of The Medicine Wheel

with Deborah Frances R.N., N.D. / Beautiful Little Dancing Crow
Naturopath, Herbalist, Lakota Elder

When: Saturday and Sunday
February 9th & 10, 2019 • 10AM - 5PM

Where: PrayerPHarm
Ashland, OR

Class participants will have an opportunity to experience the Healing Power of Spirit and Nature as we circle through each of the Four Directions of The Medicine Wheel with ancient Earth-centered teachings and shamanic journeying.

Plant and Animal Spirit Medicines will be welcomed through each of the Four Directions and teachings will be shared.
Students will participate in building a Medicine Wheel on the land.

Tuition:
Sliding Scale: $150 - $250

Older children are welcome to attend and price includes on-site childcare for younger ones. Let us know ahead if you will need this service.

To Register:
Using Paypal - Send $50 deposit to deborah.frances@yahoo.com
Please be sure to include your NAME & PHONE number

For more information please contact Dr. Frances at 971-322-9626

To read Dr. Frances’ blog go to:
www.drdeborahfrances.wordpress.com/blogwww.drdeborahfrances.wordpress.com/blogCelebrating the Circle of LIfe Throught the Teachings of The Medicine Wheel.pdf

Toxic Mold Summit & Some Basics On Mold & Related Illness

2019-01-05T10:50:00.001-08:00

I thought many of you would be interested to see there is a mold summit being put on by Jeffrey Smith. (The same person who educated so many people on GMO dangers in the past.)

Don't forget I have a ton of data about mold and how to prevent water damage in your home, how to clean it up if you already have it and the steps to take if reacting to a water damaged building and the treatment process at my website (I will be moving my website soon and changing the name).

You Are Actually Dealing With Much More Than Mold

There is so much more than mold in water-damaged buildings that cause this biotoxin response that we call a "mold" illness/susceptibility. It is technically more appropriate to call it CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome) due to a water-damaged building, rather than "mold illness" or toxic mold illness or mold susceptibility. However, "mold illness" is largely what it is called by people. It is important that people realize they are dealing with much more than mold. Water-damaged buildings have a variety of nasties growing in them and releasing biotoxins. They contain a variety of pathogens inflammagens and toxigens. Secondary metabolites of mold and bacteria have been found in carpeting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, wallpaper and dust.

Culprits in a Water Damage Building That Causes the Illness

Some of the specific nasties you can find in a water-damaged building are mold, bacteria, amoebas, actinomycetes and mycobacteria. Additionally, the chemicals in the building materials can create an environement that alters these oranisms as well as adds to the release of toxins. You can have a release of mycotoxins, bacterial endotoxins, beta glucans, mannans, proteinases, hemolysins, c-type lectins, spirocyclic drimanes, and volatile organic compounds. It is thought that the combination of these various toxins from a variety of organisms is what causes the illness. Indeed, mycotoxins which are the toxins molds make, have been identified in body fluids as well as tissue samples of people exposed to water-damaged buildings. Indeed in one clinical study Ochratoxin A (a mycotoxin) was found in 83% of over 100 individuals tested with chronic illness and a history of water-damaged building exposure. Since it is so hard to test for all of the offending organisms and their biotoxins they release into the environment and there are not tests to test for many of them in body fluids, it is easier to test for the inflammatory reaction to these toxic elements. I will talk about this in a later blog.

Today We Will Examine What Mold Really Is

Molds are a type of fungi. They are multicellular and grow in filamentous hyphae (long thread-like branches). Networks of these hyphae form a mycelium which is considered a single organism. They produce airborne spores. They break down organic waste and are therefore an important part of natures recycling system. They cannot photosynthesize and just like humans they rely on organic matter for nutrition.

Mold can grow on virtually any organic material as long as moisture and oxygen are present. There are molds that grow on wood, paper, carpet, food, and insulation. Because mold eats or digests what it is growing on, it can damage a building and its furnishings. If left unchecked, mold eventually can cause structural damage to building materials.

They reproduce using both sexual and asexual methods. Molds may produce mycotoxins which can be harmful to our health as well as our animal's health.

Yeast is not mold: Yeast is also a type of fungi but it is not a mold. They are single celled microscopic fungi with an oval shape. They reproduce by mitosis (budding). There are different types of yeast such as Saccharomyces in wine and beer or Candida albicans (can bud and also grow via hyphae as well as make chlamydospores) which creates opportunistic infections in humans and animals. Candida and other yeasts, like molds may produce toxins which can be harmful to humans and animals.

It has been known for some time that fungi and the mycotoxins they create can cause health problems. However, we have focused mainly on mold allergies and mold infections (colonization). We were aware of the internal exposure to fungi such as Candida overgrowth in our intestines, or athlete's foot, as well as the infectious growth of various unusual and more serious molds seen mainly in immunocompromised individuals. There are also chronic rhinosinusitis problems caused by fungi such as Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Trichoderma. It was Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker that brought our attention to the mold toxicity in our environment which has been causing illness in genetically susceptible individuals. This illness has been overlooked for many years by practitioners simply due to our ignorance of it. It is my opinion that much of what we call "Chronic Fatigue", Chronic Lymes", "Fibrolyalgia", and "Morgellans" is really "Mold" Illness or more specifically illness due to water-damaged buildings. I also have no doubt that this susceptibility is associated with many other inflammatory diseases.

The Bottom Line

"Mold Illness" is a biotoxin illness caused by exposure to a water-damaged building.

Other Illness That May Cause Similar Symptoms

Mycotoxins (mold toxins) are a subset of biotoxins. There are other biotoxins besides mycotoxins that can cause a similar disease symptomology as mycotoxins do. They can come from toxic algae, a bite from a toxic insect or snake. I will discuss this in the future.

Learning About Mold Susceptibility

Some years back I realized I had a mold susceptibility and was reacting to water-damaged buildings. No one seemed to know much about it in the medical community and initially it was hard to find data. However, I read all the research I could find on the subject (There was more than I would have thought, but hard to find.) and all of Dr. Shoemakers data as it was being made available. He was not teaching Docs at the time or I would have taken his classes. I took his wonderful clinical data, the research I read mixed with what was known about biotransformation (detox) processes in the body and put together enough knowledge to help myself and others by using a mix of binders, herbs, diet, supplements and lifestyle changes. If you think this may be an issue for you or someone you love, I suggest you learn more about "mold illness/susceptibility" as something can be done about it. You can read some prior blogs I wrote on my own experience as well as more details on mold susceptibility here:

Mold and Your Health. What you don't know can hurt you.

I have also made it my new years resolution to educate folks more on mold, so you will be seeing more blogs on this very soon. Additionally, I have a book in the works.

FluMist ® Quadrivalent - The Cautions & Side Effects

2019-01-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

If you or your family members get immunized for the flu, you might want to take a quick look at the possible complications and the contraindications for FluMist ® Quadrivalent as listed by the company that makes it. Usually your practitioner does not have time to tell you about these cautions and may not even have time to read the cautions and side effects themseleves, so I am taking some pertinent points from the manufacturers data and sharing it with you. I have organized them below. None of this is my own personal opinion. This is all from the manufacturer and I have provided links to their "Prescribing Information" so you can fact check yourself if you like or get more details.

Just The Facts

• Contains MSG -monosodium glutamate - Here is the inactive ingredient list: monosodium glutamate, gelatin, arginine, sucrose, dibasic potassium phosphate, monobasic potassium phosphate, and gentamicin. (gentamicin is an antibiotic)

• Contains egg residue. If you have an egg allergy, you should not be using it.

• Do not give to children and adolsescents up to 17 years of age who are receiving aspirin therapy due to the association of Reye's syndrome with aspirin and wild-type influenza infection.

• There is a risk of hopsitalization and wheezing in children under 2 years of age who receive FluMist ® Trivalent and they list this as possible with the Quadrivalent also .

• Children younger than 5 years of age with recurrent wheezing and persons of any age with asthma may be at increased risk of wheezing following FluMist Quadrivalent administration.

• FluMist Quadrivalent has not been studied in persons with severe asthma or active wheezing.

• If Guillain-Barré syndrome has occurred within 6 weeks of any prior influenza vaccination, the decision to give FluMist Quadrivalent should be based on careful consideration of the potential benefits and risks.

• The most common solicited adverse reactions (occurring ≥10% in vaccine recipients and at least 5% greater than in placebo) reported after FluMist were runny nose or nasal congestion in all persons 2-49 years, fever >100°F in children 2-6 years, and sore throat in adults 18-49 years. Among children 2-17 years who received FluMist Quadrivalent, 32% reported runny nose or nasal congestion and 7% reported fever >100°F. Among adults 18-49 years who received FluMist Quadrivalent, 44% reported runny nose or nasal congestion and 19% reported sore throat

• How Does FluMist ® Quadrivalent work? Immune mechanisms conferring protection against influenza following receipt of FluMist Quadrivalent vaccine are not fully understood; serum antibodies, mucosal antibodies, and influenza-specific T cell may play a role.

• FluMist and FluMist Quadrivalent contain live attenuated influenza viruses that must infect and replicate in cells lining the nasopharynx of the recipient to induce immunity. Vaccine viruses capable of infection and replication can be cultured from nasal secretions obtained from vaccine recipients (shedding). FluMist Quad FluMist and trivalent has not been studied in immunocompromised persons. The effectiveness of FluMist has not been studied in immunocompromised persons.

• The safety of FluMist Quadrivalent in individuals with underlying medical conditions that may predispose them to complications following wild-type influenza infection has not been established.

• Management of Acute Allergic Reactions Appropriate medical treatment and supervision must be available to manage possible anaphylactic reactions following administration of the vaccine

FluMist ® Quadrivalent may not protect all individuals receiving the vaccine. I did not see a test of effectiveness for FluMist Quadrivalent but did see this one for FluMist

The primary endpoint of the trial was the reduction in the proportion of participants with one or more episodes of any febrile illness, and prospective secondary endpoints were severe febrile illness and febrile upper respiratory illness. Effectiveness for any of the three endpoints was not demonstrated in a subgroup of adults 50 through 64 years of age. Primary and secondary effectiveness endpoints from the age group 18 through 49 years are presented in Table 8. Effectiveness was not demonstrated for the primary endpoint in adults 18 through 49 years of age.

One last list of cautions from their paperwork:

Who may not be able to get FluMist Quadrivalent?

Tell your healthcare provider if you or your child: are currently wheezing, have a history of wheezing if under 5 years old, have had Guillain-Barré syndrome, have a weakenedimmune system or live with someone who has a severely weakened immune system, have problems with your heart, kidneys, or lungs, have diabetes, are pregnant or nursing, are taking Tamiflu®, Relenza®, amantadine® or rimantadine®. (Remember that your practitioner may not even know these are issues regarding FluMist® Quadrivalent and you may need to educate them.)

For more details or to check up on my data, here is the manufacturers disclosure and prescribing information.

GMO Labeling Law is Out & I Reviewed it For You

2019-01-02T21:04:00.003-08:00

The Federal Register document on National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standards has arrived. I read through it and will share the important points here with you.

The national bioengineered food disclosure standard or NBFDS

The Ten Important Points Covered Below Are:

• The Name

• How The Govt. Identifies a Bioengineered Food

• The Types of Food That Have to Be Labeled

• Which Foods are Exempt

• Demonstrating Existance or Non-existance of a Bioengineered Substance

• List of Bioengineered Foods

• Threshold for Contaminated Product
• Label and Labeling Placement

• Enforcement or Should We Say Lack of Enforcement

• When The Labeling Begins

The Name

You know genetically modified food as GMOs or genetically modified organisms. Most people in the United States use the term genentically modified organism. However, in research the title used for GMOs is genetically engineered or bioengineered food. Bioengineered food is what the govt. is using and what you will see on labeling. So don't look for GMO, look for bioengineered food.

How the Govt. Identifies a Bioengineered Food/Substance?

A food that contains genetic material that has been modified through in vitro

recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) techniques and for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature.

The Types of Food That Have to Be Labeled

Bioengineered substances that humans consume. Animal food was specifically mentioned to be left out. It was not omitted by accident. Additionally, those animals who are fed bioengineered food and then fed to you are also not included even though RoundUp used on many bioengineered crops and fed to animals is known to accumulate in animal tissue. Therefore most consumers would want to know if RoundUp Ready soy or RoundUp Ready corn was fed to the steer, pig or chicken they are consuming. However, that is not going to happen.

Besides meat being excluded, so are eggs. Chewing gum was included as well as items used for drink, dietary supplements, processing aids and enzymes. Distilled spirits, wines and malt beverages are not subject to this labeling law, with the exception of wines with less than 7% alcohol by volume and beers brewed without malted barley and hops. Yes, it seems weird but this has to do with the agencies and rules already responsible for labeling these items. I doubt you want the details. (Trying to keep this short so you will read it and pass it on.)

If the food has multiple ingredients listed on the label it comes under this law only if the most predominant ingredient (by weight and first on list) would be subject to the labeling requirements or if the most predominant ingredient of the food is broth, stock, water or a similar solution and the second-most predominant Ingredient in the product would be subject to the labeling requirement. This means if a multi-ingredient food product that contains meat, poultry, or egg product (none of which need to be labeled) is the first ingredient of the ingredient list on the food label, it would not be subject to the national bioengineered food disclosure standard (NBFDS) rules even if it contained other ingredients that were bioengineered. An example given for the ruling is if a multi-ingreidnet product had pork as the first ingredient and bioengineered corn as the second ingredient on the label, it would not be subject to this ruling and would not have to be labeled as bioengineered. Seafood except for catfish and meat such as venison and rabbit are subject to the NBFDS and therefore if a multi-ingredient product contained one of these as the predominant ingredient that product would be subject to declaring any and all items that were bioengineered.

Refined bioengineered foods don't count: For refined foods that are derived from bioengineered crops, no disclosure is required if the food does not contain detectable modified genetic material. Basically, this means if you started with bioengineered corn but now you have modified it chemically to the point that it is so refined that you can't tell the product started as bioengineered corn, it does not have to be labeled. In fact, just the processing records can be used to prove lack of bioengineered material for some processed foods as it is known the end product is no longer anything similar to the food it started with and therefore does not test positive as a bioengineered food any more. This means it would not require additional laboratory testing to prove the lack of modified genetic material.

How Existance or Non-existance of a bioengineered Substance is Demonstrated

A companies records can be used to demonstrate that modified genetic material is not detectable.
1) The company can demonstrate that modified genetic material is not detectable with records verifying that the food is sourced from a non-bioengineered crop or non-bioengineered salmon.

2) Companies can demonstrate that modified genetic material is not detectable in the food with records verifying that the food has been subjected to a refinement process

“validated”to render modified genetic material undetectable.(What we talked about above.)

3) Testing can also be used to show GM material is not detectable.

List of currently known bioengineered foods

This list includes bioengineered foods that may be produced in other countries.

The list: alfalfa, apple (Arctic^TM varieties), canola, corn, cotton, eggplant (BARI Bt Begun varieties), papaya (ringspot virus-resistant varieties), pineapple (pink flesh), potato, salmon (AquAdvantage®), soybean, squash (summer), and sugarbeet.

Anyone may submit recommendations about foods that could be added to or deleted from the list at any time. The list will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Companies have 18 months to change their labels when revisions to the list are made.

If a company has knowledge that they are selling a bioengineered food that is not on the list, they must still label their food as bioengineered.

Exempt Foods

Incidental additives that are present in food at an insignificant level and do not have any technical or functional effect in the food are exempt from certain labeling requirements under the FDCA and are also being exempted here for what appears to be a matter of consistency in labeling.

incidental additives are: Substances that have no technical or functional effect but are present in a food by reason of having been incorporated into the food as an ingredient of another food, in which the substance did have a functional or technical effect. An example of incidental additives would be: Substances migrating to food from equipment or packaging or otherwise affecting food that are not food additives.

With respect to treatment of yeasts, enzymes, or any other microorganisms, AMS agrees that if they qualify as incidental additives that are not required to be labeled as ingredients on a food label, then they do not require disclosure as bioengineered foods. However, bioengineered yeasts, enzymes, and other organisms that do not qualify as incidental additives that are not required to be labeled as ingredients may require disclosure as bioengineered foods unless they meet the requirements of another provision (for instance, by establishing that their modified genetic material is not detectable).

There are exemptions for some establishments. Food served in a restaurant or similar retail food establishment and very small food manufacturers with annual receipts of less than $2.5 million are exempt.

As mentioned previously, food derived from an animal will not be considered a bioengineered food solely because the animal consumed feed produced from, containing, or consisting of a bioengineered substance.

Threshold for Contaminated Product

What if someone accidently buys and sells a bioengineered food as non-bioengineered and does not label it as bioengineered?

A threshold for the inadvertent or technically unavoidable presence of bioengineered substances of up to five percent (5%) for each ingredient is given as an allowance. However, no such allowance for any bioengineered presence that is intentional is given.

Label And Labeling Placement

The placement of bioengineered disclosure is to be on the information panel, although it can also be on the main panel or for small packaging an alternate panel.

Regulated companies have several disclosure options (text, symbol, electronic or digital link,

and/or text message, with additional options available to small food manufacturers or for small or very small packages.

The product can list text that says it contains a bioengineered product or it can use a symbol.

The black and white adopted symbol can be seen here. The colored symbol can be seen here.

You want to make sure you and everyone else knows exactly what this symbol looks like as it was made to look as if it was depicting something beautiful in nature and will likely be ignored by anyone who does not know what the symbol is.In fact they might assume it is some "green" feature.

The third disclosure option available for regulated entities to use is an electronic or digital

link disclosure. Such a link must be accompanied by the statement “Scan here for more food information” or equivalent language that reflects technological changes. If a regulated entity decides to utilize electronic or scannable technology to convey bioengineered food information, they must also provide options for the consumer to access the disclosure by calling a phone number.

Enforcement (or lack of enforcement) Of This Labeling Rule

This act authorizes AMS to enforce compliance with the standard only through record audits and examinations, hearings, and public disclosure as a summary of the results of audits, examinations, and similar activities. There is no authority to recall any food subject to the labeling rule “on the basis of whether the food lacks a disclosure that the food is bioengineered.” There are no fines, no ramifications except that any company who is not complying will be known to the public through the public disclosure of the results. The public will simply have to vote with their wallets if they see a company is not complying.

When This Begins

Mandatory compliance begins on January 1, 2022, and all regulated entities must comply with the requirements of the NBFDS beginning on that date.

There are a couple of places you can read all these sordid details:The Federal Register or This public inspection document also at the federal register.

Toxic Biosludge Solution

2018-12-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

Most of you probably know what toxic biosludge is, but if not, here is some background data. There is also a documentary link listed below which I suggest you watch.

Toxic sewage sludge is being used as compost to grow conventionally grown food. It is sold as compost in a store near you, and growers around you may be using it unless they are organic. Did you buy a bag of non-organic compost? If so, sewage sludge may be in it. Currently it does not have to be labeled as such. What went into its making? Well, everything that goes in the toilet or down the drain. That would be 80,000 synthetic chemicals, bacteria and viruses, legal and illegal drugs, run off from roads, hospital waste, etc.

How To Solve the Toxic Sewage Sludge Issue

• Label biosludge - Ask your senator to support the "Act" I share with you below.

• Create a healthier manner of handling human waste (urine and feces). See details below.

A Bill To Label Biosludge

You can ask your congress person to cosponsor "The Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act" here. Tell your friends and family to notify their congressional representative also.

An Alternative Method of Handling Human Waste

As a society, do we really want to be spreading all these drugs, and other chemicals all over United States on our beautiful soil? Do we want to kill off the natural healthy microbiome of the soil everywhere? Do we want to continue polluting our water ways and ourselves? We need to come up with better methods to get rid of our waste. What if we could turn it into something that would beautify the world? I would suggest you read the book called "Humanure". (I suggested this years ago and hope you read it then, but if not I implore you to read it now!) This book will give you a completely different idea of how human waste could be handled and how to take these horrible pollutants out of our rivers. This method of composting human waste would revolutionize our sewage system. It is simple and doable for much of the population. It could even be done on a city wide basis if as a society we examined this thoughtfully and with an open mind. Please read this wonderful book that thoroughly explains how to compost humanure safely on a small scale and the science behind it. Reading this book will change how you think of composting and how you think of human waste. The third edition of the paperback can be purchased at Amazon. Do something for yourself and the planet by reading this book.

The kindle edition is also available.

Form more information on

If you want to know more about biosludge check out this documentary here.

Names of Products that May Contain Biosludge. Is your Compost listed here?

Agresoil (MA)
All-Gro (Synagro)
A&M Composting plant, owned by J. P. Mascaro & Sons (Lancaster, PA) ComPro (Washington, D.C)
Amend (Kellogg Garden Products, Los Angeles, CA)
Bay State Fertilizer (Boston, MA)
CompostT (Pennsylvania)
Chesapeake Sunshine
ComPro (Washington, D.C.)
Dillo Dirt (Austin, TX)
EarthBlends (New York City, a product of Synagro, sold by WeCare subsidiaries)
Earthlife (New England, a product of New England Organics)
EarthMate (Philadelphia, PA)
EKO Compost (Missoula, MT- Lewiston plant on Idaho-Wahington border)
Glacier Gold (Olney, MT)
Granulite (Synagro)
Gromulch (Kellogg Garden Products, Los Angeles, CA)
GroCo (King Co, Seattle, WA)
Growers' Blend by Earthwise Organics (a Synagro subsidiary)
Hawk Ridge (Maine)
Hou-Actinite (Houston, TX)
Landscapers' Advantage (Camden, NJ)
Kellogg Nitrohumus, Gromulch, Amend and Topper (Kellogg Garden Products, Los Angeles, CA)
MetroGro (Madison, WI)
Milorganite (Milwaukee, WI)
Mine Mix (Philadelphia, PA)
N-Viro Soil
N-Viro BioBlend
Nutri-Green (Virginia Beach, VA)
ORGRO (Baltimore, MD, Veolia Water North America)
Natural Soils Products (Good Springs, PA)
New England Fertilizer Company (North Quincy, Massachusetts)
New England Organics
New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYC pellets, a Synagro companyLL
Oceangro (NJ)
PocoNite (Sumter, SC)
SilviGrow (Seattle, WA)
SoundGro (Pierce County, WA)
TAGRO (Tacoma, WA)
TOPGRO (Los Angeles, CA)
Unity Fertilizer (Unity Envirotech LLC, Florida-baded)
WeCare Compost (NY)

If your product is listed above and does not carry biosludge or has removed it, please notify us. If we have left out products that should be on the list, please notify us also.

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Preventing Colds and Flu, Plus Alternative Treatments For Them

2018-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Ten Things You Can Do to Prevent Colds And Flu

• Stay away from sick people - seems simple but needs to be said. If you have to be around them, wear a mask. Consider a mask when out shopping during cold and flu season. They work great.

• Wash your hands regularly.

• Use an antiviral herbal spray on phones, door knobs or

other devises and instruments that are shared with people at work. Use a lavender spray or another antiviral essential oil spray made for this application. See directions below on how to make your own antiviral spray.

• Eating antioxidant rich, organic foods, (lots of colorful fruits and vegetables), which is also a diet rich in Vitamin C, beta-carotene, polyphenols and essential minerals, which will help your body protect you from viruses.

Health Tip For Colds & Flus

I like to squeeze 1/4 - 1/2 a fresh lemon (depends on size of lemon) into a large tea cup, add the leftover lemon peel and pulp to the cup (just drop it all in), then add hot water and a tiny bit of honey. I mush up the lemon pulp and peel a bit with the back of a spoon while mixing the honey in. This is a great way to get your vitamin C and other antioxidants. It keeps both colds and flus away and is helpful if you have a sore throat and/or cough. Both lemon and lime help decrease colds and flus as well as reduce mucus.

• Increase immune system supportive nutrients such as vitamin C with bioflavonoids 500 mg in the AM and PM at minimum. If someone is sick they usually take vitamin C up to bowel tolerance. (This is the amount that causes your stools to become slightly loose.) Once they reach bowel tolerance they lower the dose slightly so they don't have loose stools. Also zinc, about 15-30 mg per day. If taking zinc for more than 3 months you should take copper in a ratio of 8 parts zinc to one part copper. So if taking 15 mg zinc per day you would take 2mg copper also. Last but not least consider vitamin D (sunshine, supplements (needs to be D3-check lab levels to decide on amount to take-see below), cod liver oil) . A multiple B vitamin can be helpful in addition for general cellular energy production.

• Getting a 25-hydroxy-vitamin D test is a good idea as many people do not have adequate levels of vitamin D, and often these people find they can prevent flu by enhancing their low vitamin D levels. Research shows that low levels of vitamin D predispose one to getting the flu as well as the common cold. The vast amount of new research has shown we need much more vitamin D than thought previously. People who test low in vitamin D usually need to use D3 supplementation to raise their levels to within normal limits. One should not take large amounts of Vitamin D without testing occasionally. Although it is best to work with a professional health care worker, many cities have independent labs that will let you order this test without a physicians order. (When taking vitamin D, make sure you have adequate amounts of K2 and magnesium first. Many people are deficient in magnesium and K2 should be taken with D to avoid calcification.) The D needs magnesium to be able to make it active.

• Immunomodulating herbs such as Echinacea and Garlic help prevent colds and flu. I use a lot of fresh as well as cooked garlic in my food during flu season. If I am around others who are sick or if I feel I am starting to get sick I take one teaspoon to one tablespoon of Echinacea every few hours for 2-3 days to keep from getting sick. This works well for me. Yes it is a lot of Echinacea, but I find for myself this is what is necessary.

• Congestion of tissues decreases the ability of your cells to take care of business in that area. Nipping congestion in the bud at the first signs of it can turn around the situation. So, do everything you can to keep from getting congested or attempt to keep it down to a low roar. You can do this with salt water gargles in the throat, nasal washes in the nose (use either a neti pot or snort the salt water from your hand), or saline nasal sprays. Use 1/2 teaspoon of salt in one cup of water, 4 times per day. To reach congestion in the sinuses and lungs you really need to use an herbal inhalation. You will find directions for an herbal inhalation here. If you are using a neti pot for the first time, see directions below for how to use a neti pot.

• Get as much sleep as possible. This is necessary for your body to stay healthy. It also needs to be quality sleep to allow your body to rest and recuperate.

• Homeopathic flu solutions called Dolicoccil or Occilococcinum are helpful in preventing flus also.

Health Tip For Nasal Congestion

When you need to get rid of nasal congestion short term, using Yarrow tea or tincture can do just the trick. A few drops of tincture under the tongue will start to clear up your nose and decrease the congestion in your tissues quickly. Yarrow can be used safely short term, but should not be used continuously over a long period of time. People use it orally and in the nasal passages. The tincture will irritate the nasal passages, so a tea is best for snorting it or spraying it in the nose.

An Antiviral Spray to Use on Phones

How to Make it: You can make a simple antiviral spray by starting with a water/alcohol base of 40% rubbing alcohol and 60% water or a Base of 20% grain alcohol and 80% water. Once you make your liquid base put the base into a spray bottle. For each 1 oz of base add 40 drops of lavender essential oil.

How to Apply it: Spray this on items you are sharing with others such as phones. Make sure you don’t spray it on anything you think will be damaged by the essential oil or the alcohol. (I spray this on most things with no problem, but it can damage wood and may damage some fabrics etc. You can test an area first to make sure it will not harm the item.) I usually spray a paper towel or rag with the liquid and then wipe the phone or other item down to ensure I get it everywhere.

How Neti pots are Used

Fill the neti pot with sterilized isotonic water. Lean over the sink and turn your head 45 degrees, so one nostril is above the other. Gently insert the tip of the pot into the upper nostril. Breathe through your mouth and raise the handle so the water enters the upper nostril and then drains from the lower nostril.

When the neti pot is empty, exhale through both nostrils to remove excess solution and mucus. Gently blow your nose.

Repeat with your other nostril.

Health Tip For Colds & Flus

Yes, chicken soup really is healthy, especially when cooked low and slow for a long time to get all the collagen out of the bones. I add a lot of cilantro, and parsley at the end to give me beta carotene and vitamin C. I also add Garlic at the very end as partially cooking the garlic, keeps it's antimicrobial activity more intact and helps ward off bacteria that can attempt to take advantage of your respiratory tract when you have a viral cold or flu in process. (Pressing a Garlic clove and throwing it into your bowl right before consuming the soup is the best way to gain it's antimicrobial action.) You can also add Ginger or Astraglaus earlier on, making sure it simmers for some time. You can get really creative with adding herbs that support the immune system and/or help with cold and flu symptoms. Just make sure the soup still tastes good. Luckily Astragalus does not change the flavor much and Ginger adds to the flavor. Astragalus is used to prevent colds and flu, and in research with chickens, Astragalus has been shown to decrease the replication of the H9N2 virus.

There is also something to be said for comfort food which makes you feel you are being cared for. Comfort food carries a placebo effect, that is VERY powerful.

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Herb Books On Holiday Sale

2018-12-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

Do you want to be an herbalist or know what they know?

Dr. Tilgner's books are on sale for a short time & include Free shipping.

Both books cost $29.95 normally, BUT are on holiday discount for $25.45 each, or buy one of each book for $22.46 each or two of one kind for $22.46 each.

Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth

• Medicinal uses of 192 herbs with dosage, active constituents and contraindications.

• Herbal formulas organized by body systems.

• Learn how to collect herbs and make herbal extracts.

• Charts for harvesting.

• Dictionaries of herbal properties, actions and preparations.

“A wonderful guide for those new to herbs as well as an excellent formulary for those already skilled in herbalism. Sharol Tilgner has combined her triple skills of healing, farming and medicine making in her unique work with the plants.” ~Rosemary Gladstar, author, herbalist,

founder of United Plant Savers.

“Dr. Tilgner has written an impressive well-researched guide on the use of herbs that professionals and lay people alike will find very practical and informative.” ~Christiane Northrup M.D.

Herbal ABC's - Learn All About Her Newest Book Here

The Foundation of Herbal Medicine

This book will give you the foundational information you need to understand herbal medicine. This will be conveyed to you through a mixture of herbal wisdom, scientific knowledge and the stories of the plants. You will learn the properties and actions of herbs presented in the context of the body’s major organ systems. This is how I have taught my students this knowledge in the past, and I wish to share this information with you now.

Properties and Actions of Herbs

Understanding the properties and actions of herbs will lay the groundwork for a thorough understanding of herbal medicine. Each plant has it’s own special blend of properties and actions that creates it’s unique story that enables us to understand how to utilize it’s gift of medicine.

Each chapter focuses on a specific body system, and the properties and actions of herbs that are most often used in that body system will be emphasized in that chapter.

Properties and actions have some differences as well as areas which overlap. I think of properties of an herb as being their personality while actions are something the herb does. Actions are more of a verb, while properties are like adjectives that can masquerade as verbs. You will find properties discussed throughout each chapter while actions are given a special well defined area of explanation in each chapter. In other words, I am constantly writing about the personality traits of herbs but when it comes to actions, I specifically list them, plain as day. You will find each chapter emphasizes one specific organ system and within each chapter, there are subchapter sections that investigate various herbal actions with a focus on how they affect that body system.

Organ System Overview

Each organ system is introduced with a short overview of that specific body system. Each section of the chapter contains a definition of the herbal actions studied, details on those actions, examples of herbs used and their indications. Additionally, there are highlighted herbs with detailed explanations about those specific herbs as they relate to the herbal actions we are studying. Please note that some herb examples and highlighted herbs are labeled as having possible toxicity. These herbs should not be used by unskilled people. There are also patient cases chosen to highlight an herbal action and/or words of wisdom scattered throughout the book. Additionally, there is data on how to prepare the herbs for consumption or use when it is pertinent and any special contraindications for herbs with that specific action. Constituents are discussed if they are known. I list the main active constituents and give details on how those constituents are known to support the actions that the herb is known to produce clinically. Most of the herbs also have a category called “Mechanisms of Action” where you can find scientific details on known mechanisms.

Formula Ideas

There are a number of formula idea boxes in each body system chapter where secondary activities of the herbs are listed for other body systems. These formula idea boxes list additional organ systems of the body that are affected by the various herbs used. Examples are given for each section of the chapter. This is useful when you are making an herbal formula, and you need an herb with a specific action, but also want the herb you pick to have secondary actions that are needed in the formula. An example of how this becomes helpful is when someone has a digestive issue and needs a bitter herb, but they also need an herb that would decrease their anxiety. You would look at the list of bitter herbs under the formula idea box called “Formula Ideas: Secondary Activities of Bitter Herbs in other Body Systems” and identify the herbs that also act on the nervous system. You see there are at least five possibilities listed. In this example the tool has allowed you to narrow your choice of herbs from the numerous bitter herbs and nervous system herbs, down to five herbs that you can examine closer to see which of these herbs best fits the situation. This tool saves you a lot of time when you are creating an herbal formula.

Learn More About Herbs

These wonderful books make great gifts for friends and family with an interest in herbs and health. One book is 15% off and two or more are 25% off until December 15th, 2018 - Only at my website and only available in the U.S.A.(For now, I have left this link to the sale price, but only the people who look at this old post will find this discount. It is our little secret.)

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How to Reduce Inflammation

2018-11-25T21:24:00.001-08:00

Inflammation is the root of many disease processes, but it is an important part of our healing mechanism. How we keep it within healthy limits is what we will examine here.

An antiinflammatory Lifestyle

Start With the Basics

• Moderate Exercise
• Clean water
• Clean air
• Organic, fresh food
• Sunshine
• Restful sleep
• Reflection/Prayer/Meditation

An Antiinflammatory Diet

Morning hydration is important to start the day off right since you become dehydrated at night. Consider a glass of water, waiting for you beside your bed. Most people start off with a cup of coffee which dehydrates them even more. A 16 oz glass of water first thing is a better choice for your first morning beverage.

A healthy diet has lots of dark green leafy vegetables as well as other colorful vegetables and fruits. Eating vibrantly colored food means you are eating a diet high in polyphenols. Polyphenols provide antioxidants to help decrease inflammation. Polyphenols have been shown to decrease a variety of inflammatory disease processes. I would stress that fresh, raw food should also be eaten at every meal. So make sure you include salads and fresh uncooked fruit as often as possible. They provide nutrients you do not always get in a cooked meal. Don't forget to include a healthy source of protein which means grass fed animals with room to roam, healthy seafood (getting harder to find) or a mix of complex carbohydrates and legumes.

The Gastrointestinal Chapter of my book "Herbal ABCs book" has a review of a general healthy diet that will help decrease inflammation. A low carbohydrate diet is often useful for "O" blood types and sometimes for other people who are having gastrointestinal inflammation. Carbohydrates in the diet should be complex carbohydrates. These can be healthy for many people, but simple sugars are generally inflammatory.

What we don't eat is as important as what we eat. Remove any food sensitivities, allergens and unhealthy foods from the diet. Elimination diets are a good method to find offending foods. Reducing your intake of fried fatty foods is also helpful.

Supplementing Key Nutrients

Additionally, supplementing basic nutrients may be necessary to support the diet. Supplements to lower inflammation might include omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin C, and magnesium. Additionally, supplements that support the bodies biotransformational (detox) system can be key in keeping inflammation under control. Glutathione is an important factor in making sure this detoxification system is well oiled. Supplements that either replace glutathione such as acetyl glutathione or those that help support healthy glutathione levels such as cysteine or alpha lipoic acid can also be beneficial. (More to come on glutathione.)

Healing the Gut

Heal the gut with gut healing herbs such as Calendula , Marshmallow, Turmeric and Chamomile. You can also see the digestive System chapter of "Herbal ABC's" for more ideas on herbs to heal the gut.

Calendula officinalis

Matricaria chamomilla

Eradicate Infections

Bacteria can increase or decrease inflammation depending on who you feed in your large intestine. Think about increasing biodiversity of good gut bacteria. Support healthy gut bacteria with water soluble fiber and use fermented foods or if you can't make or get fermented foods, add a variety of probiotics to the diet. The idea is to enhance biodiversity in the large intestine. (There are times when probiotics and prebiotics or certain types of probiotics can be contraindicated such as in d-lactic acidosis and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth - also called SIBO.)

Infections outside of the gastrointestinal tract also increase general body inflammation. This can be acute or chronic infections, and include examples such as herpes, cytomegalovirus, various parasites or smoldering dental bacterial disease. These have to be addressed to regain health.

Remove Environmental Toxins

Make sure your toxic load is low. Remove yourself from water-damaged environments that have toxins such as mycotoxins, bacterial inflammagens, volatile organic compounds or other hazards. These substances will use up all your antioxidants, stress out the biotransformational system and leave you inflamed. Examine your environment for possible sources of these and other toxins such as a water-damage in a building, off-gassing from flooring materials, off-gassing furniture , paints, propane or natural gas appliances, tainted water from natural or human additives, tainted food (from growing, processing, packaging or shipping), lead/mercury/aluminum (in paint, water pipes, mercury amalgams, cookware, jewelry, tableware, toys), food packaging/containers, dry cleaning, cleaning products, toxins brought into the home on your shoes (leave them at the door), flame-retardant products, etc. Please go to the Environmental Working Group for more ideas on where you will find toxins in your environment.

Enhance The Biotransformational (detox) System

Enhance biotransformational (detox) capacities to remove toxins from the body. This can be done by supporting the liver in general and by specifically supporting any biotransformational enzyme system that is not working up to par. Enhancing glutathione is one of the more important aspects of supporting the detoxification capacity of the body. Turmeric and Milk thistle both assist in healthy glutathione levels and removal of toxins. Saunas are helpful for removing toxins if they are traditional saunas or infrared saunas with low electric and magnetic fields that do not use toxic glues and/or chemically treated wood to make the sauna.

Support the Parasympathetic System (The Rest and Digest part of the Nervous System)

Enhancing the parasympathetic nervous system helps decrease inflammation. It has been shown that stimulating the vagus nerve and enhancing acetylcholine cools down inflammatory cytokines and decreases inflammation in the body. One of the simplest ways to do this is to breathe deeply and slowly. Meditation, prayer, Qi gong, breathing exercises and anything that creates a joyful sense of peace and relaxation will enhance parasympathetic tone in the body.

Specific Antiinflammatory Herbs

I thought you might like to have some ideas of herbs to use as acute antiinflammatories for areas of the body where we most often have acute reactions. Most of the ideas I have given you are for long term use to lower over-all inflammation in the body.

Skin: For the skin, I think of oatmeal as a wonderful topical herb and almost everyone has it in their kitchen. Look for the directions on how to use it as an oatmeal bath in my book, Herbal ABC's.

Respiratory Tract: In the mouth, throat and nasal passages, I would have to say that warm salt water is my first go-to treatment to reduce inflammation and edema. This inexpensive and easy to use treatment is often neglected and I can't stress how useful it is. For acute inflammation from infection, irritation or allergies, I always use salt water first to decrease the inflammation, edema and pain. An herb that I like to use for acute respiratory situations is Yarrow. This astringing herb acts as a wonderful antiinflammatory, diaphoretic, and antimicrobial. It should not be used long term or I would use it for chronic cases also. Both the salt water and a tea of Yarrow can be either gargled, swished around the mouth or snorted up the nostrils. They will both decrease the redness swelling and pain associated with inflammation. Add some salt to the Yarrow tea and you can use both treatments at one time.

Digestive Tract: For acute inflammation I would suggest Peppermint, Chamomile, or Licorice. Peppermint and Chamomile also help remove gas and decrease the pain associated with gas. I will often use either Peppermint or Chamomile and add some licorice to the tea also. Make sure you read about the side effects associated with Licorice. Not everyone can use this wonderful herb.

Some general antiinflammatory herbs, supplements that I like to use in my own life as part of my food, as a tea or supplement is as follows:

Green tea (great antioxidant and a nice change of pace rather than coffee), Licorice (especially helps people who have low blood pressure, thirsty, static shocks and pee a lot.) Turmeric (I add this to a lot of my food as it makes a great flavor in many foods, but not so great as a tea.), Milk thistle (An amazing herb that benefits almost everyone and supports mitochondria.) These are all some power-hitters when it comes to lowering inflammation. Licorice has side effects and should not be used by everyone. Read up on Licorice before using it.

These are just a few ideas. There are many antiinflammatory foods and herbs. I have 39 different herbs listed as antiinflammatories in "Herbal ABCs". Each has their own special properties and actions to give them their own unique abilities.

A Word Of Wisdom

Living a non-inflammatory life can sometimes be difficult to maintain or even costly in our current world. However, the cost of not living this way also needs to be examined. It is helpful to set up our schedules and prioritize our lives in a way that allows for us to rest, eat well, live well and support ourselves. The other option is to find ourselves spiraling into one of the many inflammatory diseases. Ultimately, health and a radiant mind can be had by keeping inflammation under control.

Learn More About Herbs

I currently have a super-duper holiday sale on these wonderful books, as they make great gifts for friends and family with an interest in herbs and health. One book is 15% off and two or more are 25% off until December 15th, 2018 - Only at my website and only available in the U.S.A.

For additional information on Biotransformation (detoxification) And Inflammation:

Broccoli and Biotransformational Detox

Inflammation as The Root of Much Evil

Causes of Inflammation

Cinnamon, Is it Safe? Not For Everyone.

2018-11-22T23:01:00.001-08:00

• It turns out that some people have some genetic differences that might make Cinnamon an unsafe spice for them.

• The idea that the coumarin in Cinnamon is a blood thinner is not true.

• All Cinnamons are not alike.

A Review of Cinnamon's Side Effects

Cinnamon is a much used and loved herb. Since recently writing about the study involving a research participant experiencing 4+ edema after ingestion of Cinnamon powder, I have been thinking about all the confusion around Cinnamon and it's safety. I thought it might be beneficial to go over the possible safety issues associated with Cinnamon and attempt to alleviate some of the confusion. Although, we use Cinnamon as a flavoring, and as a medicine, any food, flavoring or medicine can become toxic when used inappropriately. So, let's delve into the sometimes confusing world of cinnamon. The information available is quite conflicting, even in the research world. Consumers, practitioners, researchers - basically, most of us have been confused by the world of Cinnamon in a variety of ways. Lets unravel this confusion to get to the truth.

What Is Being Sold as Cinnamon

I think we have to start by looking at what is on the market called Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a bark that is usually offered as a powder or as quills (rolled up thin inner bark), but it can also be purchased as cut whole bark. It can be one of many Cinnamomum species and they can differ greatly as far as the amount of constituents in them that give them flavor, medicinal effect and side effects.

The kind of Cinnamon most commonly found on the market is Cinnamomum cassia (also called Cinnamomum aromaticum). Common names for it are Cassia or Chinese Cinnamon. This is the type grown and produced in China and Indonesia. It is the cheapest Cinnamon on the market and quite spicy and therefore the most commonly purchased Cinnamon. Cinnamomum verum (also called Cinnamomum zeylanicum) carries the common name of true Cinnamon tree or Ceylon Cinnamon tree or Sri Lanka Cinnamon. Records show "true Cinnamon" was confused historically with Cassia or Cinnamomum cassia. The spice traders were careful to keep its origins a secret so they could have control of the Cinnamon market. They did not actually want it known that the delicate, sweet Ceylon Cinnamon was from Sri Lanka and Southern Indian areas. (It is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nyanmar.) There continues to be confusion about Cinnamon species among consumers to this day. You will see many non-Cassia Cinnamons being called Cassia on the market. Additional Cinnamon species you will see on the market are Cinnamonum burmannii (Korintje, Padang cassia, or Indonesian Cinnamon), Cinnamonum loureiroi (Saigon Cinnamon, Vietnamese cassia, or Vietnamese Cinnamon). There are others, but these are the ones we most commonly see.

These Cinnamons differ slightly in taste. Ceylon or "true" Cinnamon is lighter in color than the others and has a sweeter, milder, fragrant, less harsh taste and contains less coumarin. Sometimes it is listed as Sweet Cinnamon, but I have seen other species listed as Sweet Cinnamon also. Usually when used in cooking, more of it is needed to get a similar flavor as one of the stronger tasting Cinnamons, such as Cassia. Many people think Vietnamese Cinnamon has a more complex taste in comparison with others. Both Cassia and Vietnamese Cinnamon have been found to have more flavor than most other Cinnamons.

Constituents
Some of the more important medicinal constituents found in Cinnamon are procyanidinoligomers, various cinnamaldehydes, coumarin, trans-cinnamic acid, catechin, epicatechin, coumarin and eugenol. One important difference between Ceylon cinnamon and the other Cinnamons such as Cassia, is the coumarin content. You will soon see how this may be important when it comes to side effects.

Actions
Astringent, Diaphoretic, Carminative, Hemostatic, Antiseptic, Flavoring, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Gastrointestinal tonic, Analgesic, Hypoglycemic, Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory, Antidiabetc, Anticarcinogenic.

Side Effects And Contraindications

Cinnamon as with many spices may be contraindicated in pregnancy due to the possible emmenagogue effect. (Check with your practitioner.) Due to its ability to lower blood sugar it may exacerbate low blood sugar in hypoglycemics as well as add to the hypoglycemic effects of people taking hypoglycemic drugs.

Doses exceeding 2 grams of Cinnamon have been reported to be narcotic and may cause convulsions, delirium, hallucinations and death. However, research 2003 claimed to safely used Cinnamomum cassia in as much as 6 grams and listed no adverse effects, although I noted the research did not test for liver and kidney damage and had only 60 people. Another small group was given 6 grams "safely" but again did not test liver and kidney function. A larger group needs to be tested, along with monitoring liver and kidney function, and for a longer period of time. Research using a different species called Cinnamomum verum has been tested longer term with an extract that was equivalent to 6 grams of raw Cinnamon powder and it was shown to be non-harmful to the liver and kidney. As you will soon see though, this species has much less coumarin than Cinnamomum cassia and is considered safer.

Part of the issue is that Cinnamon species differ from one another in the amount of constituents that can cause toxicity, but additionally different samples taken from the same tree bark have even contained different amounts of these constituents. So, when it comes to knowing how much whole herb is safe, we really can't say for sure. We can only extrapolate from the clinical research studies we have available. There are safety studies with animals, but this does not tell us what will happen in humans. It just gives us inklings of an idea, as there are similarities and differences between our biotransformation (detox) systems and those of the animals tested.

The Cinnamon constituents most notable for toxicity are coumarin and cinnamaldehyde. Coumarin has been such a concern (due to animal studies largely) that it is regulated in some countries. Both of these constituents also have medicinal effects. What doses cause toxicity of these constituents has not been properly discerned, and coumarin appears to effect some people more than others. A review of safety concerns for these two constituents follows. However, I want to remind you that constituents in a plant act differently by themselves than they do in concert with all the other constituents in a given plant. I will say more about this in regards to Cinnamon, later in this article.

Cinnamaldehyde
The aroma and flavor of cinnamon comes from its essential oil that makes up 0.5 to 1% of its composition, and a constituent in the oil, called cinnamaldehyde is about 50%-95% of the essential oil from the bark (I specify bark, as other parts of the plant are also used, but the bark is what is mainly consumed as spice and medicine on the market) depending on the species of Cinnamon. Cinnamaldehyde is one of the constituents responsible for the health effects of Cinnamon.

Cinnamomum cassia barks contain high contents of cinnamaldehyde (13.01−56.93 mg/g). The highest content of cinnamaldehyde (up to 93.83 mg/g) was found in debarked cortex (inner bark), which is traditionally thought to be the best quality and what is sold in herb shops. In contrast, the researchers found other Cinnamomum species, C. wilsonii Camble, C. japonicum Sieb., C. mairei Levl. and C. burmanii, contained lower contents of cinnamaldehyde.

A 2018 research review of adverse events resulting from cinnamon use reported gastrointestinal disorders and allergic reactions as the most frequently reported side effects or what some call allergic reactions. These effects are thought to be due to the cinnamaldehyde content in the Cinnamon. These reactions include mouth sores, which are often from eating excessive Cinnamon, although some people may be more sensitive to cinnamaldehyde than others. In addition to mouth sores, other symptoms of a cinnamaldehyde reaction include tongue or gum swelling, a burning or itching sensation and white patches in the mouth. While these symptoms aren’t necessarily serious, they can cause discomfort. This cinnamon contact stomatitis (inflamed mouth and lips, with or without ulcers) is usually from an individual reacting to cinnamon or cinnamon flavored gums, candies, mouthwash, toothpaste or other foods. They will recover completely and quickly within a matter of days after discontinuing all sources of Cinnamon.

Skin irritation can take place from direct application of Cinnamon to the skin and again is thought to be due to cinnamaldehyde. It may cause a red, itchy rash. For most people it is just annoying, but some people have stronger reactions than others.

A study published in 2007, found the median lethal dose value (LD₅₀) of orally administered cinnamaldehyde in rats was 1850 ± 37 mg/kg. Be aware that this is not a human study, but a rat study. Studies on animals can not be assumed to be the same for humans. It just gives us ideas of safety or harm.

Coumarin - 2H-1-benzopyran-2-one
Coumarin is aromatic. It gives cut hay that wonderful aromatic smell that many people notice. Coumarin's from plant are used in soap, perfumes, fabric softener, some alcoholic drinks and the tobacco industry. Coumarin can be in high levels in Cinnamon as well as Sweet woodruff, and Tonka beans which are also used as a flavoring. It can be found in smaller amounts in a variety of foods. Coumarin has been studied for its health benefits, but it also has received a lot of concern around it's possible toxicity.

Research has shown that the coumarin content of cinnamon bark varies by cultivation site. It has also been reported that there is as much as 21 times difference in the coumarin content of Cassia varieties from different places of cultivation and that some Cinnamon species do not contain coumarin.

Research (mostly in animals) has found that eating too much coumarin may harm the liver, the kidneys and increase the risk of cancer. Studies in rodents have found that large doses of coumarin can cause cancerous tumors to develop in their lungs, liver and kidneys. However, the fact is that this research on rats and mice makes it hard to extrapolate to humans since they metabolize coumarin differently than most humans (there is even some genetic difference in humans).

I would also point out that it is possible that other constituents in whole Cinnamon such as cinnamaldehyde may protect the body from some of the organ damage that might otherwise occur with coumarin. Other constituents such as cinnamaldehyde are antioxidants and have been theorized to have a protective effect. This is why the sum of the individual parts in a whole plant is very different than the individual constituents on their own.

Liver damage: There is credible evidence of coumarin causing liver toxicity but this is largely in rats and a small subset of the human population. In fact in a 1989 study of 2173 patients treated with coumarin in a clinical trial, only 0.37% of them developed elevated liver enzymes during the study. We have learned more recently that there are a small number of sensitive people who have been noted to have liver damage from large doses of cinnamon. Although, not confirmed yet by research, it appears to specifically be a problem for people with a genetic variation of CYP2A6. This variation has at this point been found to be more common in Asian populations. Coumarin appears to have the potential to cause hepatotoxicity in this subset of people who have insuﬃcient CYP2A6 activity to break coumarin down into safe catabolites. Unfortunately, the association between hepatotoxicity and CYP2A6 genetic polymorphism has not been investigated and really needs to be. I will tell you what appears to be going on from the available research so far.

Most people's biotransformation (detox) system alters ingested coumarin to 7-hydroxycoumarin and its byproducts. These compounds are nontoxic and are excreted without harm. A reduction in CYP2A6 activity will lead to shunting of coumarin into other metabolic pathways. For instance, coumarin is metabolized by CYP3A4 to form 3-hydroxycoumarin, the major metabolite in mice and rats. It has been shown that an increase in the 3-hydroxycoumarin ratio is associated with an increased production of the significant cytotoxic product o-hydroxyphenylacetylacetaldehyde (o-HPA), suggesting that a shunting of coumarin metabolism away from 7-hydroxylation is the cause of the toxicity. Some people with insufficient cytochrome P450(CYP)2A6 have a predominant 3-hydroxylation metabolic pattern or are slow metabolizers, and this can lead to liver damage. I also have to wonder if we will eventually find these slow metabolizers of coumarin will also be predisposed to other damage from insufficient CYP2A6 in other organs such as the kidney, lungs and intestines with excess ingestion of coumarin containing plants.

Not only is the damage to the liver from coumarin seen in rats and much less often in humans, but whole herb Cinnamonum cassia which contains quite a bit of coumarin has actually been shown to protect rats from toxin induced liver damage as well as kidney damage.

Kidney damage: Although coumarin may be able to cause kidney damage when studied as a single constituent, we can't say that the whole herb or extracts will do the same thing. In fact Cinnamon and it's constituent cinnamaldehyde may have protective effects upon the kidney. Cancer: Although there is some research to support the possible carcinogenic activity of coumarin. Evidence for Cinnamon causing cancer is not so evident. In fact, Cinnamonum as a whole herb, as well as various constituents in Cinnamon have been found to be anticarcinogenic. Coumarin Never Shown to be a Blood Thinner: There is tremendous confusion around coumarin being a blood thinner. You will see many research articles, and herbal/health articles listing coumarin as a blood thinner, but to my knowledge coumarin has never been shown to act as an anticoagulant. I have searched for proof of coumarin's use as a blood thinner and simply can't find it. How this incorrect information has taken root is as follows: Fungus (such as Penicillium and Aspergillus sp.) that grows on plants can change coumarin into a mycotoxin that can thin the blood, and these mycotoxins have then been eaten by farm animals which have hemorrhaged, some to their death. This is one way the confusion exists. This blood thinning of the mycotoxin has been blamed on coumarin due to people thinking it was a reaction from the plant, and not realizing it was a fungus created mycotoxin that caused the anticoagulant activity. This mycotoxin is called dicumarol. However, the actual coumarin itself has not been shown to act as a blood thinner. Additionally, drugs that are synthesized from coumarin are used as blood thinners. These drugs get confused with coumarin, so let's examine that closer.

A synthetic coumarin analog is used in the synthesis of synthetic anticoagulant pharmaceuticals similar to the dicumarol created by the fungus from natural coumarin. The most well know synthetic anticoagulant made from a coumarin analog is warfarin (Brand name Coumadin). You can see how the drug name Coumadin could be counfused with coumarin. Even research articles will list the name coumarin when they mean Coumadin.

Due to the animal research showing coumarin is hazardous, there are restrictions in some countries on how much coumarin is allowed in food items such as Cinnamon. The tolerable daily intake for coumarin in Germany is 0.1 mg per kg of body weight or 6.8 mg per day for a 150-pound person. This is based on a subacute chronic toxicity study for dogs, as they are considered the most sensitive to coumarin. However, trying to figure out how much coumarin is actually in a given amount of Cinnamon is fairly impossible. To give you an idea of how much variation can occur, the BFR claims Cassia Cinnamon on average contains 2.1-4.4 g of coumarin per kg of Cinnamon powder. (However, the highest measured levels were as high as 10000 mg ((10 g)) of coumarin per kg of Cassia Cinnamon.) which means 1 teaspoon of Cassia powder would contain around 5.8-12.1 mg of coumarin. This is above the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for coumarin of 0.1mg/kg body weight/day recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The BfR in its report specifically states "Ceylon cinnamon only contains low levels of coumarin which in the opinion of the BfR are safe in terms of their health effects. Cassia cinnamon contains higher levels of coumarin. For this reason, people are advised, not to consume large quantities of Cassia over prolonged periods of time." From a collection of data available, it appears Cinnamomum verum as having 0.017 g/kg coumarin, while Cinnamomum aromaticum/cassia had 0.31 g/kg, Cinnamomum burmanni had 2.15 g/kg, and Cinnamomum loureiroi had 6.97 g/kg. (Again, remember that these amounts can change from plant to plant and even in the same plant.)

As you can see Cinnamomum verum or Ceylon cinnamon has a much lower coumarin content than other Cinnamons. You might ask, if you will still get the medicinal results you are hoping for by using this species. Although, Cassia has been largely used medicinally due to it being the main and cheapest form of Cinnamon on the market, Ceylon Cinnamon has research to support its medicinal activity including a 2017 published article of the first human trials on this species of Cinnamon regarding antidiabetic activity. (Other species also have studies on various health effects.) It included safety data. I will include a brief review of it here.

In 2017 Cinnamomum verum (AKA zeylanicum) - Ceylon Cinnamon was used in a study with human diabetics for the first time. They used varied doses up to 500 mg twice per day (1000mg per day) of the powder for a 4 month study. There was no change in kidney, liver function tests, prothrombin time (measures coagulation which of course was normal) or adverse events during the study.

Safety study of Ceylon Cinnamon: As we noted, Ceylon Cinnamon has been thought to be safer than the other species on the market due to low coumarin levels, and in this study with 30 adults they wanted to see just how safe it might be. This 3 month study examined a water extract (not the powder, but an extract). The corresponding doses of cinnamon for 1 g, 3 g, 6 g of raw cinnamon was as extract 85 mg (1st month), 250 mg (2nd month) and 500 mg (3rd month). The effects of Ceylon Cinnamon's on the participants was measured each month by examining a variety of lab parameters. The full blood count, kidney and liver function tests and fasting blood glucose as well as HDL-c, VLDL-d and triglycerides remained in normal range for the 3 months of the study. The participants blood pressured reduced significantly in the first month and stayed reduced the full time. There was a significant reduction in total cholesterol and LCL-c. Four participants had stomach irritation and two of them stopped the study due to the irritation.

My Ultimate Take on This Herb Unless, I found I had a CYP2A6 variant (more common if I was Asian), which would not allow me to properly biotransform (detox) coumarin, I plan to keep enjoying Cinnamon in my food. Additionally, I personally feel fine about using it as a medicine should I need it. If concerned about coumarin, I could use the Cinnamomum verum unless I am wanting another species for a particular medicinal reason. In fact, if I want one of the health benefits of coumarin such as using it for lymphadema, I would need to use another species since Cinnamomum verum has little coumarin to speak of. I will continue to watch the research and expect that the whole issue around Cinnamon, coumarin and safety will be resolved, although it may take another five to ten years. It is likely that the other species of Cinnamon will not be harmful in medicinally used amounts, but I don't know that for sure. I would certainly tell anyone with a CYP2A6 variant (or concern they may have this variant) to remove Cinnamon from their diet to be on the safe side or at least consider only Ceylon Cinnamon. Additionally, if I had a patient who had elevated liver enzymes or elevated kidney indices, I would certainly include checking their Cinnamon intake as one of the many possible causes. If you are looking for a low coumarin content Cinnamon, Diyesta linked below is a nice organic Cylon Cinnamon I purchased recently. Yes, I purchase a pound at a time, as I go through that much in a year or less. Plus I can pay the same amount for a small bottle of Ceylon Cinnamon from some suppliers. If you want a small amount of Ceylon Cinnamon, Frontier herbs usually has decent spices for sale. They also have a 1# bag available. The only one I have actually tried below is the first one that is from Diyesta in Sri Lanka.

5 G Network - Scientists Predict Devastating Health Effects

2018-11-16T15:52:00.003-08:00

The telecommunications industry plans to unleash the 5G, wireless network everywhere on earth. No person, no animal, no bird, no insect and no plant on Earth will be able to avoid exposure, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to levels of RF radiation that are tens to hundreds of times greater than what exists today, without any possibility of escape anywhere on the planet. These 5G plans threaten to provoke serious, irreversible effects on humans and permanent damage to all of the Earth’s ecosystems.

For more information on why this will be devastating to the planet and each of us, and to sign an international appeal to the world's governments, PLEASE go to this link. I am copying a few paragraphs from the website below to entice you to use the link and learn more.

Excerpts From International Appeal - Stop 5G on Earth and in Space

Despite widespread denial, the evidence that radio frequency (RF) radiation is harmful to life is already overwhelming. The accumulated clinical evidence of sick and injured human beings, experimental evidence of damage to DNA, cells and organ systems in a wide variety of plants and animals, and epidemiological evidence that the major diseases of modern civilization—cancer, heart disease and diabetes—are in large part caused by electromagnetic pollution, forms a literature base of well over 10,000 peer-reviewed studies.

Stakeholders thus far in the development of 5G have been industry and governments, while renowned international EMF scientists who have documented biological effects on humans, animals, insects and plants, and alarming effects on health and the environment in thousands of peer-reviewed studies have been excluded. The reason for the current inadequate safety guidelines is that conflicts of interest of standard-setting bodies “due to their relationships with telecommunications or electric companies undermine the impartiality that should govern the regulation of Public Exposure Standards for non-ionizing radiation”.

Current safety guidelines are based on the obsolete hypothesis that heating is the only harmful effect of EMFs. As Markov and Grigoriev have stated, “Today standards do not consider the real pollution of the environment with nonionizing radiation”. Hundreds of scientists, including many signatories to this appeal, have proven that many different kinds of acute and chronic illnesses and injuries are caused without heating (“non-thermal effect”) from radiation levels far below international guidelines.

Public notice requirements and public hearings are being eliminated. Even if there were a hearing and 100 scientific experts were to testify against 5G, laws have been passed making it illegal for local authorities to take their testimony into consideration. US law, for example, prohibits local governments from regulating wireless technology “on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency radiation”,and courts have reversed regulatory decisions about cell tower placement simply because most of the public testimony was about health. Insurers will not provide coverage against EMF risks, and there is zero clarity as to what entity will bear legal responsibility for damage to life, limb and property arising from exposure to 5G, whether ground- or space-based^.

To learn more go to Interntional Appeal.

Contact your Local Talk Radio

After you read about it and sign the appeal, please email your local talk radio stations about this ASAP. You can copy what I sent to my local stations. Here is what I sent:

Subject of email: 5 G Network Health Effects - Scientists Appeal to World

Main body of email: Scientists around the world, explain 5G network effects, current RF effects and appeal to the world governments to rethink implementing 5G.

Please take a look at the scientists article here: https://www.5gspaceappeal.org/the-appeal/

This is the best collection of research links regarding health effects to people and animals from EMF exposure that I have seen.

Thanks for your time, Your name here.

Check out our related blogs
How cell phones effect your health
Are you a smart meter guinea pig?

Causes of Inflammation

2018-11-11T16:24:00.001-08:00

Why Am I Inflamed

In our last blog about inflammation we examined the changes that take place in the body during chronic inflammation. This time, I am going to give you a list of some general, common causes of chronic inflammation that you can control, once you know what is causing the inflammation. The purpose is for you to recognize these causes of inflammation in your body currently. You have to know what is causing the problem if you want to remove the cause, rather than treating symptoms.

What Are The Main Causes of Chronic Inflammation

• Gut Flora Imbalance

• Environmental Toxins

• Chronic Infections

• Poor Diet

• Lack of Nutrients

• Food Allergens/Sensitivities

• Poor Sleep

• Lack of Movement

• Excess Weight

• Smoking/Alcohol

• Stress

Understanding the Causes of Inflammation So You Can Control Them

Gut Flora Imbalance

An imbalance of gut flora with too many “bad guys” producing toxins can create quite a reaction in your immune system.

A large part of the immune system is in the gut lining. This is called the gastrointestinal associated lymphatic tissues (GALT). 80% of the antibodies in your body are made here. This makes sense as the outside world has somewhat easy access into the digestive tract by way of hitchhiking in, on food and drink.

Bacterial population patterns in the human gut predict occurrence of a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases, so the health of our commensal intestinal bacterial flora is very important if we want to decrease inflammation in the body. Intestinal inflammation may lead to leaky "tight junctions" between intestinal cells, which leads to bits of substances (antigens) getting past the tight junction barriers that should provide a protective barrier in the lumen of the gut. These antigens can cause antibody reactions and lead to inflammation in distant areas of the body and autoimmune disease.

Environmental Toxins -

Examples are heavy metals (mercury and lead), light metals (aluminum), herbicides, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, biotoxins (mycotoxins from mold, toxins from algae). Mercury is in our teeth and vaccinations, lead is in our water and some products, aluminum is everywhere as are herbicides and pesticides. Our homes are built with many toxic products and then we make these homes air-tight, which keeps all that bad air in. If we have a water leak in the house, we now have mold and bacteria growing in conjunction with the toxic building products soup. These toxins in our body can cause a tremendous amount of chronic inflammation.

Chronic Infections

Viral, bacterial, fungal or parasite infection - Examples are chronic Herpes or Cytomegalovirus infections, Candida, and Giardia. Many people have unfriendly guests taking up residence in their body and this adds to the inflammatory load when they get out of control.

Lack of Necessary Nutrients to Support the Body

Lack of necessary nutrients to support antioxidant and, or biotransformational systems. (due to inadequate diets or eating food grown in low nutrient conditions or grown, shipped, packaged or stored in manners that strip the food of their nutrients) Without adequate nutrients, our cells can not function. They are unable to build new healthy cells as needed or to operate normally including protecting the body from toxins from infections, or detoxing the body from the environmental toxins previously mentioned.

Poor Diets that Promote Inflammation

Diets high in sugar, bad fats, inadequate protein, eating low nutrient foods, chemical laden food (pesticides, herbicides, chemicals to keep food preserved or make it pretty). There are many toxins disguised as food in the standard American diet. This is a case where what should cure us and make us strong and healthy, actually adds to the chronic inflammation and malaise.

Food Allergens or Sensitivities

Eating foods you "react to" contributes to inflammation.

Lack of Sleep

Sleep is often neglected as being important. This is the time your body rests and is nourished back to health. This is when your cells rejuvenate themselves. This includes housekeeping for your brain. Sleep is of utmost importance.

Lack of movement

Considering that exercise has been linked to many chronic diseases, I think we all know how important it is. Now we just need to all act upon this knowledge. Too little and too strenuous movement can cause inflammation, so a happy medium is necessary.

Excess weight

Obesity goes hand and hand with inflammation and they appear to exacerbate each other. Any poundage you can loose when overweight will help decrease inflammation.

Smoking cigarettes, excessive drinking

They are both bad ideas and lead to inflammation and disease.

Stress

Chronic stress eventually leads to dampening of cortisol and ramps up the immune system, causing inflammation.

Next time we will look at how to decrease inflammation in the body.

This post is an excerpt from "Herbal ABC's" with slight changes since it is taken out of context of the book. You can purchase this book from my website or at Amazon.com. (Amazon link below)

Learn More About Herbs

For additional information on Inflammation:

Inflammation as The Root of Much Evil

How to Reduce Inflammation

Bringing the Left and the Right Together With A New Movement Called Bridging

2018-11-09T08:18:00.001-08:00

I am receiving emails lately that are from people wanting to exterminate all the people in the other party. In fact the most recent email I received reminded me of things said about Jews when they were rounded up and put into concentration camps. Have some of us really come to this? I have friends in both parties and have always been nonpartisan myself. I hear about good ideas from people in both parties and actually find my friends from both parties usually want the same things as the "other side" but they are often not educated as to what the individuals in the other party really want. Each party focuses their attention on the radical outlying wings of the other party and they imagine that the whole party is like those radicals. Sadly, they often do not want to talk to, or know people in the other party, so their uneducated ideas about each other remain and the divide gets bigger.

There are creative and positive thinkers talking about bipartisanship thankfully. (Things were not always this divided.) However, some would thwart such attempts. I am now getting emails that seem to want to take us into a a very ugly space, even though the two main party leaders are talking about bipartisanship. I received an email today that said, "Naive thoughts of bipartisanship will quickly fade. "Sharp knives" will replace kumbaya in no time." Additionally, the email quoted another person saying, "Those that remain in the "other" party are "bad people." They went on to say we are in a civil war. I have been ignoring these emails trying to divide people as I thought they would disappear, but that is not the case. I feel I should share a wonderful, creative, bipartisan solution that could make these dismal ideas fade away. It involves putting aside the emotions that are leading people to this divide and using critical thinking to examine each others and our own ideas.

I think this new movement is going to sweep through our nation and I am hoping sooner, rather than later. We do have the ability to create our future. Which future would you like? Do we want civil war or do we want to take a few hours of our day and learn more about each other? Preventing a civil war seems worth the time to at least take the step to learn more. I actually think bipartisanship can work. It is simply a matter of some of us (We know there are some people who will not want to do this and that is okay. It only takes a few of us to get the ball rolling. ) taking some time to actually examine our own ideas and other peoples ideas in a well thought out manner. Seeing the ideas anew and without the emotions attached allows us to critically examine them with an open mind and heart. When we do this there will be some surprised people.

There is an organization that has formed to use education as a way to bridge this divide between the republicans and democrats. They are called Bridging.Online. You can invite them to your area as they are happy to come talk to people. I listened to them on this podcast from Jefferson Radio and found they had an uplifting point of view and it is my belief they are starting a new movement that could take hold very fast.

What will you learn from them - Critical thinking and getting beyond the left and the right. I suggest you listen to their podcast and take a look at their website or go to their facebook page.

We create our reality by focusing on what we want to happen. Creating bridges is a good point of focus and a good place to put our energy.

Inflammation as The Root of Much Evil

2018-11-07T20:15:00.001-08:00

Is Inflammation Causing My Problems

Inflammation underlies most chronic disease. knowing what inflammation is will help you understand how to use natural healing methods to prevent and treat inflammatory disease processes.

1) I am going to share some some of the basic concepts regarding chronic inflammation, and causes of inflammation.

2) We will examine changes you can implement to decrease inflammation.

3) This information will be broken up into 3 blogs to keep it easier to assimilate. The links to the additional blogs are at the end of this blog.

Inflammation is involved with health issues in all bodily organ systems and may well be the root of most disease. The topic of inflammation and anti-inflammatories is extremely important to everyone's health.

What is Inflammation

Inflammation is the body’s process of protecting and healing and is a natural defense response to irritation such as an injury or noxious stimuli like pathogens (such as viruses, bacteria or parasites) or toxins. Inflammation comes about as part of the immune system’s activity. It is vital for clearing infectious pathogens from the body and helps wounds to heal. Inflammation in small amounts comes and goes as a necessary part of healing. However, excessive or chronic inflammation is not healthy and usually indicates your body is either under continued assault in some manner or that your body is not able to react in a normal manner to remedy the inflammatory reaction. If the process does not resolve on its own, it is necessary to evaluate the reason for the inflammation and remove or treat the underlying cause. In cases where inflammation is life threatening, it must be addressed immediately. Chronic inflammation that is not attended to can turn into atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disease, cancer and neurodegenerative disorders to name a few diseases associated with inflammation.

Chronic Inflammation

In chronic inflammation, there is either constant input inducing inflammation, or your body’s reaction to protect and heal may not be working well, or both can be taking place at the same time.

The constant input can be from a continuous viral, bacterial or parasite infection. The infection might be low level and you might not even realize you have it. Chronic inflammation could also be a reaction to heavy metals such as mercury or from the continuous bombardment of volatile organic compounds in a new building, herbicides in the park or one of many other environmental toxins. When an overabundance of pathogens and toxins continue to drain our reserves, eventually the body simply runs out of supplies to protect itself. A continual state of toxicity from one or more causes is often the source of chronic inflammation.

There are various reasons the body might not be able to respond appropriately. There may not be enough of the appropriate dietary nutrients to support production of enzymes that are necessary for the biotransformational (detox) system to remove toxins. The body needs nutrients to make anti-inflammatory cytokines (the body makes both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines) as well as antioxidants to protect the body from the reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. There may be a genetic alteration that decreases the ability to biotransform toxins to a lesser or greater degree, or individual genetics might alter the immune system to make a person more susceptible to certain pathogens and toxins. A lack of antioxidants can also stress this system as it will result in an increase in reactive oxygen /nitrogen species that add to inflammation. Although, this is a simplistic view, you can get an idea of how chronic inflammation can take hold. In chronic inflammation the mechanisms to shut down inflammation are not working well, there is disrupted homeostasis and chronic disease ensues.

Inflammatory cytokines can increase production of reactive oxygen species and reactive oxygen species can increase the production of inflammatory cytokines. So you can get a vicious circle going on here. Luckily there are anti-inflammatory cytokines that kick in to decrease inflammation if everything is working correctly.

When oxidative stress starts to accumulate, inflammation in the tissue is increased, which can overwhelm the antioxidant system.

Chronic damage to cells leads to constant repair and replacement of cells. When there is constant, excessive inflammation and creation of reactive oxygen species over a long period of time, the ability to repair and replace cells can become compromised. In chronic inflammation the immune system and reactive oxygen species overwhelm the antioxidant system.

In chronic inflammation, a person may feel inflamed all over. There may be joint pain that comes and goes or a person may feel tired, and lack strength. Cytokines can affect the brain and cause a person to be forgetful, have trouble finding words, or trouble paying attention. (If not remedied this can become the beginning of a variety of various disease processes.)

Inflammation effects our mitochondria. Mitochondria are called the power-house of our cells as they supply energy for the cells of the body. Chronic inflammation damages mitochondria. This leads to a lack of energy and lowers the bodies ability to heal.

In my next post we will look at some causes of chronic inflammation.

This post is an excerpt from "Herbal ABC's" with slight changes since it is taken out of context of the book. You can purchase this book from my website or at Amazon.com. (Amazon link below)

Look for my special super-duper holiday sale on these wonderful books, as they make great gifts for friends and family with an interest in herbs and health. I will send out an email with the discount link in a few weeks. Look for it to arrive in your email box.

Causes of Inflammation

How to Reduce Inflammation

Cinnamon Caused Edema (swollen ankles and legs) In Patient

2018-11-06T11:48:00.001-08:00

Severe Edema Caused By Cinnamon During Research Study

A recent article in The Journal of American Board of Family Medicine presents a case of edema from taking Cinnamon to treat diabetes. An adult man was taking 1000 mg of cinnamon powder daily (this is similar to about 2, tightly packed double-ought capsules) when he got edema. The edema resolved after he stopped taking the Cinnamon. The authors warned that "Physicians should be aware that consumption of cinnamon bark powder could cause fluid retention and possibly worsen congestive heart failure."

This man was a part of a type 2 diabetes clinical trial and started the trial with trace (a small amount) amount of edema. (It is not normal to have edema and may have been the beginning of congestive heart failure at this point, since he was diagnosed with it 16 months later.) He took 1000 mg of the powder daily and one week after starting the study, he presented with rapidly increasing leg swelling. His treatment was immediately stopped. He presented with no abnormal heart sounds you would expect with congestive heart failure but did have 4+ pitting edema to the knees on both sides of the body. His kidney, liver, and urine tests drawn on that day were normal. Five days after stopping treatment with the cinnamon bark powder, swelling improved back to the trace of edema he started the study with. The patient developed congestive heart failure over the next 16 months.

The researchers evaluated the coumarin dose in the cinnamon to see if it was above the .1 mg/kg that may theoretically cause liver dysfunction (which can cause edema). It was found to have 5 mg per daily dose which was under the daily dose thought to be an issue.

Therefore the researchers theorized that the cinnamon bark powder may have caused edema through mechanisms that are similar to drugs called thiazolidinediones or glitazones that are used to lower insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. One of the most common side effects of thiazolidinediones is peripheral edema and 5% of patients using them develop peripheral edema. This percentage can increase up to 18% if used with other antidiabetic drugs. The constituent cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon bark powder activates peroxisome proliferated activated receptors with some similarity to thiazolidinediones. Cinnamaldehyde has been shown to cause enhancement in insulin sensitivity and fatty acid β-oxidation and energy uncoupling in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. Data also suggests that cinnamon in its water extract form (the form studied) can act as an activator of both peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors α and γ, and have been suggested in the pharmaceutical world as an alternative to the thiazolidinedione peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ activators.

So, my take home on this is to be weary of having anyone with even a trace of edema take cinnamon and be especially concerned about anyone with overt edema taking cinnamon. Additionally, it would be good for anyone using cinnamon regularly as a medicine or as a food flavor to be aware new edema or increased edema could be related to their cinnamon intake.

I will be presenting an article in a few weeks that examines Cinnamon in detail, as I know many of you probably want to know more know about it. We will look at the various types of Cinnamon on the market and what we know about safety and use. I notice the data available online is quite confusing. I plan to clarify it a bit for you.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children associated with fluoride exposure to pregnant moms

2018-10-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Fluoride Associated With ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

A recent study posted in Environmental International measured flouride in 213 pregnant women living in Mexico City. They found a higher concentration of maternal urinary fluoride was associated with more ADHD-like symptoms in school-age children.

“Our findings show that children with elevated prenatal exposure to fluoride were more likely to show symptoms of ADHD as reported by parents. Prenatal fluoride exposure was more strongly associated with inattentive behaviours and cognitive problems, but not with hyperactivity,” said Bashash (lead researcher) .

This work builds off of previous research the team published on this population demonstrating that higher levels of urine fluoride during pregnancy are associated with lower scores on tests of IQ and cognition in the school-age children.

These findings are consistent with the growing body of evidence suggesting neurotoxicity of early-life exposure to fluoride.

Cell Phones - Are they Causing Serious Harm

2018-10-20T18:13:00.001-07:00

Cell Phones Appear to Be Causing Harm

In 2011 the World Health Organization decided use of cell phones was a probable carcinogen risk.

Most people don't seem to know this. For some reason most people do not know the additional data below either.

Cellphones are two-way microwave radios that should not be kept on the body. Look at the legal data that comes with your smart phone and you will find they warn you of this. The data is buried in your phone, so you might have to look for it. However, it is there as they are attempting to protect themselves from litigation.

Cellphone use is associated with odd types of breast cancers for women who keep cellphones in their bra.

Cellphones kept in men's pant pockets have been found to be causal for significant decreased sperm count. Studies also show damage to sperm in addition to lower sperm count.

Studies in Europe show that people who used cell phones heavily for over ten years have a doubled risk of brain cancer, and those who begin using cell phones as teenagers have a four to five times higher chance of being diagnosed with brain cancer.

If you put a mobile phone that is operating in a honey bee hive, the workers will not come back to the hive. Could the mobile phone radiation or tower radiation be affecting the bees?

Women who have higher use of cell phones during pregnancy have more miscarriages than those who have less cell phone use.

Scientists in Korea have found something called Digital Dementia in children. They report that children who are heavy technology users have brains that are underdeveloped on the right side. This has been characterized by memory loss, attention disorders, lack of eye contact, lack of empathy, and difficulty feeling or showing emotions. As a result the Korean government is instituting programs to reduce uses and exposures especially to young children.

Other countries have laws limiting the amount of radiation that can come from towers, laws regarding cell phone use for children and in schools, laws for safe headsets etc. No laws to protect people from cell phone radiation have been passed in the United States though.

For more data on cell phones, go to the Environmental Health Trust. I also suggest you watch Dr. Debra Davis' YouTube presentation.

Check out our related blogs
Are you a smart meter guinea pig?
5-G Network Health Effects - Scientists Warn World

Home Remedy for Childs Ingestion of Button Batteries

2018-10-16T21:35:00.001-07:00

There has been a serious increase in children eating button batteries. There are 3000 ingestions of these tiny batteries each year in the United States. They are small enough to pop into the mouth and look like a possible candy. Unfortunately they can cause serious esophageal damage or even death. However, most parents have a common food in their pantry that will help protect the childs esophagus until they can get her/him to a health care facility. This food is honey. In recent research, honey slowed the discharge of the button battery, neutralized the increased tissue pH at the battery contact site to clinically optimal levels, and protected against deep tissue injury, the authors reported in a June 11th issue of The Larygoscope.

Serious damage such as esophageal perforation, vocal cord paralysis, and erosion into the airway or major blood vessels can occur within 2 hours of ingestion of the battery. The authors suggest using the honey for witnessed or suspected early-stage battery ingestion as soon as possible after the ingestion.

The amount of honey used in this experiment was 2 teaspoons every 10 minutes. It is meant to be used as a home remedy until the parents can get the child to a health care facility where the battery can be removed.

Some children are allergic to honey and it is suggested that children under 1 year of age do not eat honey due to concern of botulism. (Not a common occurance according to experts I have asked in the past.)

Are You a Smart Meter Guinea Pig

2018-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Health Concerns of Smart Meters

My neighborhood is putting Smart Meters on all the houses except for mine. I have to pay a monthly fee to keep my analog "Safe Meter". It is outrageous to me that I have to pay to keep my old meter, but concern for my health and privacy are the reasons I am willing to do it. I suggest before you become a guinea pig in this experiment on human health, that you look a little bit closer at what you are inviting into your home. You are becoming a guinea pig to save the utility company money as they no longer have to hire people to read the meters. The smart meter is not benefiting you in any way and the company has not researched the effect on humans. Please don't blindly allow them to effect the health and privacy of you and your family without at least doing a little investigation. I have provided places below where you can learn more about the effects of smart meters.

RF radiation is put out by the meters but additionally they can create dirty electricity or what people call electric smog by disrupting the power current in your house. (This is constant by the way, creating new electric fields in your house.) There is a great book on dirty electricity written by Dr. Milham that you should read. It is a real eye opener. Also see the interview of Louis Donovan to see how a smart meter and dirty electricity effected someone with a pace maker.

RF radiation is classified as a 2B carcinogen by the World Health Organization.

The American Board of Environmental Medicine wrote a letter to the Utilities Commission of the State of California that you might want to read at this link. In the letter they state that the existing FCC guidelines for RF safety being used to justify installation of so called “smart meters” look only at thermal tissue damage and this is inadequate since many modern studies show metabolic and genomic damage from RF and ELF exposures below the level of intensity which heats tissues. There are medical and biological effects from RF and ELF at these lower energy densities. There is accumulation over time which is also not considered but should be since there is chronic exposure over time from the “smart meters”. Here is a two minute video by a public health physician on smart meters.

There are many websites that examine damage from various electromagnetic energies. Here is one that you can get some further information regarding "smart meters". http://emfsafetynetwork.org/smart-meters/ You will find a long list of "smart meter" data on this site from health symptoms people have had to problems with the meters catching fire or exploding.

As far as the smart meter surveillance, the utility companies are supplying data about households to the government and other paying parties. California utility companies have admitted they are providing smart meter data to the government and third parties. I suggest you watch this video .

If you are interested in opting out of a smart meter and you have Pacific Power you can go to this page and scroll to the bottom to read about opting out of the smart meter.

Check out our related blogs
How Cell Phones Effect Health
5-G Network Health Effects - Scientists Warn World

Help Write Oregon Laws With Crowdsourced Lawmaking

2018-09-18T19:58:00.001-07:00

I got this amazing email from the Oregon secretary of State, Dennis Richardson. He came up with some wonderful ideas to make the Oregon government more transparent and accountable to "we the people". Ideas that "we the people" on both sides of the isle and even those like me who are unaffiliated with a "side" will like. In fact, I liked his ideas so much (things I have thought should be done in the past), that I am listing them here for you. If you are an Oregonian, he wants your feedback and any additional ideas you have to make Oregon more functional, transparent and accountable. I have corresponded with him in the past and he really does want to hear from you and he responds. I have had to reformat his data to put it on this blog and relink all his draft concepts, so if a link is bad or incorrect, blame me, not him. If you are not an Oregonian, perhaps you want your secretary of state to work on similar ideas and you can send this list to your states secretary.

Help Write Oregon Laws
Oregon’s laws affect you, and they should be written with your input. This is an opportunity for you to participate in crowdsourced lawmaking.

As Oregon’s Secretary of State, I work for you. That is why I’m asking for your input as my team drafts law improvement ideas for the 2019 legislative session. We haven’t even discussed most of these concepts with legislators yet, so you are seeing this list first.

My mission is to increase transparency, accountability, and integrity in the four focus areas I oversee: Elections, Audits, Corporations (business registration/assistance), and Archives (public records and administrative rules). Each of the concepts below is intended to improve one of these areas.

All of these concepts are works in progress, and there is still much more drafting to be done. As you consider them, please keep in mind that there are potentially some things we’ve overlooked, so please let us know of any issues you may notice. We may choose not to move forward on some of these concepts, but I believe they are all worthy of serious consideration.

Will you help us make these concepts better? Please send your thoughts or suggestions to my Governmental & Legal Affairs Director, Steve Elzinga, at stephen.elzinga@oregon.gov by September 25.

This is democracy in action. Embrace your inner policy wonk, and let’s dive into this together!

Transparency and Accountability Concepts

Financial Transparency
Oregonians deserve to know how state government spends their hard-earned tax dollars. Full transparency is needed to ensure every agency is accountable while restoring public trust in state government. Years ago, the state launched the Oregon Transparency Website and began posting selected financial information online. Although a good first step, more transparency is needed.

Under the current process, expenditure reports for state agencies are out-of-date, since they are belatedly updated only once a year. Furthermore, non-payroll data does not include the payment date, agency division, budget sub-category, invoice description, vendor city, or reference document numbers. Payroll data does include annual salaries, but omits the many associated monthly payments for overtime, special pay, benefits, retirement, etc. that make up the true cost for each employee. Missing details inhibit transparency about when or where agencies are actually spending money.

For over a year, the Secretary of State’s office has posted significantly more financial details and updated monthly expenditure reports with data from the Department of Administrative Services system used by most agencies. This draft concept would require the Oregon Transparency Website to report similar available financial data for all state agencies.

Audit Accountability
The audit process is critical for identifying needed improvements for state agencies. However, key aspects of the current audit process are not currently codified. This draft concept would ensure that audits include specific recommendations and that agencies specify whether they agree or disagree with those recommendations. This bill would require agencies to report on the implementation status of agreed-to recommendations, and it would require the Audits team to brief appropriate legislative committees on findings.

Audit Whistleblower Protections
Whistleblowers are key to exposing important information about ongoing problems in state agencies. In order to increase transparency and accountability in Oregon government, whistleblowers should be encouraged to share information with auditors by keeping whistleblower reports confidential. Similar to confidential press sources, the prospect of retaliation makes many whistleblowers hesitant to come forward if their identity will be known to their managers, co-workers, and others.

We consolidated several possible solutions into a draft concept to protect the identity of whistleblowers who request to remain confidential when talking with auditors. Also, it would allow the Director of the Division of Audits, with written approval from the Secretary of State and subject to review by an independent entity, to keep specific information confidential if necessary to protect the identity of a whistleblower. Protecting whistleblowers will provide more overall transparency to the public because information that would not otherwise come out will now be available.

State Email Records Access
With the increased availability of auto-delete features in private email services, it is critical to ensure that state public records are properly retained and available. Use of private email accounts for state business by disgraced former Governor John Kitzhaber and First Lady Cylvia Hayes made it difficult to obtain these public records. This draft concept seeks to prevent state officials and employees from using private email to conduct state business, unless all private emails concerning state business are promptly forwarded to a state account.

Agency Public Records Response Accountability
We are working with the Public Records Advocate on a draft concept that would require state agencies to report certain statistics relating to their response to public records requests. This would be similar to the requirements in the federal Freedom of Information Act and would help hold agencies accountable for how long they take to respond to requests for public records.

Public Records Advisory Council Fixes
We are working with the Public Records Advocate on a draft concept that would make the Public Records Advisory Council permanent to continue the work they are doing on public records reform.

Helping Small Business Concepts

Electronic Notice and Tribal Economic Development
Almost every business in Oregon, both small and large, interact with Oregon’s business registration system. The system is one of the best in the nation, but there is still room for the two improvements in this draft concept.

First, it will provide a more user-friendly experience for Oregon small business owners and nonprofits, while reducing the approximately $400,000 we spend each biennium to mail out over 700,000 notifications. We envision this as being similar to how most utility, banking, and other private sector businesses allow customers to choose to receive email notifications. Specifically, we would like to email our annual notifications and allow business owners and nonprofits to just click on a link in the email to take care of their annual report obligations online. At the same time, we recognize that some business owners will likely want to continue using paper notices and forms, so we will continue to make both options available.

Second, it will allow Oregon businesses owned by tribes or enrolled tribal members to register in a manner that respects tribal sovereignty while receiving the same rate as other Oregon businesses. This will help promote new tribal businesses and enhance economic development.

Red Tape Reduction
We need to reduce the number of unnecessary regulations and rules in Oregon, especially those that hurt Oregon’s small businesses. We’ve launched a website with key facts about Oregon red tape. For example, did you know that Oregon’s Administrative Rules contain over 14.8 million words, which would take the average person 821 hours to read? Also, Oregon can look to the model set by progressive British Columbia, Canada. Their focused effort on reducing unnecessary regulation resulted in over 40% reduction in their regulatory burden since 2001.

As an incremental step toward reducing red tape, this draft concept would require administrative rules be reviewed every five years and that reviews must examine whether a rule is currently the least restrictive alternative to achieving the rule’s purpose. The goal of this bill is more efficient regulation, not deregulation, to help Oregon small businesses thrive.

Elections Reform Concepts
2020 Primary Date Change

Currently, only a handful of states vote for president after Oregon’s May primary. Moving our primary earlier could elevate Oregon’s priorities in the national discussion, give Oregonians more access to presidential candidates, and increase turnout. This draft concept would move the 2020 Primary Election to March instead of May. All contests would be moved, as well as connected deadlines (e.g. candidate filing) to avoid having them fall during the winter holiday. The Secretary of State would have the ability to move the date of the primary (and adjust connected deadlines) in order to coordinate a regional primary with other west coast states.

Nonaffiliated Primary
Although nearly one-third of Oregon voters are not affiliated with a political party, these nonaffiliated voters often feel left out of Oregon’s primary elections. In order to increase voter engagement, this draft concept would create a nonaffiliated primary that allows nonaffiliated voters to have ballot access and empowers nonaffiliated voters to have a larger voice in the primary. Nonaffiliated candidates could file for office like major party candidates, and nonaffiliated voters would have the opportunity to nominate one of the nonaffiliated candidates to appear on the general election ballot. To minimize costs, ballots will include only contests where at least one candidate filed, major/minor party candidates not eligible for write-in votes, and write-in candidates must file a declaration of candidacy with the county elections officer by 8pm on election night for their votes to be tabulated. There will be state reimbursement for county elections costs due to this change.

Voter Choices and Party Equity
Oregon laws impacting political parties currently are written in ways that benefit long-established major parties at the expense of smaller parties. The goal of this draft concept is to help level the playing field between Oregon political parties in order to promote equity and encourage voter choice.

We are currently considering whether the following provisions would achieve these goals:

•State-funded primaries for minor parties that choose to opt-in for some or all of their races. To minimize costs, ballots will include only races where at least one candidate filed, parties may adopt rules setting minimum thresholds of support to win their nomination by write-in, and write-in candidates must file a declaration of candidacy with the county elections officer by 8pm on election night for their votes to be tabulated. There will be state reimbursement for county elections costs due to this change.

•Smaller parties are at risk of losing their party status as a side effect of the complex interaction between political party laws and the fact that most new Motor Voter registrants are nonaffiliated. One option to address this is to change party maintenance threshold requirements to a percentage of voters registered with a party, instead of a percentage of all voters.

•Another idea under consideration is to allow all political parties the option of adopting party rules allowing candidates to run for their nomination who are not members of the party or who have been members of the party for shorter periods of time than the current 180-day minimum.

•Make other conforming changes to align rights of major and minor parties for vacancy nominations, special elections, presidential electors, etc.

Write-In Efficiency
County elections officials work hard every election to count all the votes we cast. One of the most time-consuming (and thus costly) parts of their job is tallying write-in votes. There are write-in votes for many serious candidates, as well as for Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, None, and many more. We can ensure that serious write-in candidates can still easily run for office while also reducing the cost of counting non-serious votes, and having final write-in vote totals faster. The draft concept would enable county elections officials to count write-in votes only for candidates who file a short form by the end of voting—8pm on Election Day. This would also save elections officials the cost of mailing confirmation forms to write-in winners, since they will have already confirmed their desire to accept the office if they win.

Campaign Finance Transparency for Ballot Measures
Current law requires contemporaneous campaign finance reporting by those who support or oppose a petition drive only if they are the chief petitioners. After a petition is certified to the ballot, other groups must begin reporting, including with initial assets. This massive loophole allows unreported spending during the summer before the election and allows zero reporting if a petition does not qualify for the ballot. This draft concept closes this anti-transparency loophole.

Miscellaneous Fixes
Each session, the Elections Division submits a list of needed fixes and updates to Oregon’s election laws. The current version of this draft concept includes numerous improvements: protect the right of voters to receive a ballot even if they vote infrequently; allow military and overseas voters to register electronically; campaign finance transparency for ballot measures; remove unconstitutional gender discrimination; remove inefficiencies and ambiguities from the voter list process; protect a period for public comment on explanatory statements; repeal several unconstitutional laws the inhibit free speech and violate the one-person-one-vote standard; change party maintenance thresholds to account for changes from Motor Voter; give political parties more freedom in choosing their own nominees; and align rules for major and minor parties. There were several other elections concepts that we considered adding to this bill or drafting as standalone bills, but we decided to narrow our focus to just these concepts for this session.

Final Thoughts
I know that this was a particularly lengthy newsletter, so thank you for reading all the way to the end. Although it is a bit wonky, I believe that you should be involved in crafting the laws that affect you. My team and I are looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
Do you have an idea beyond the above concepts? I’d also very much like to hear your ideas on other ways to increase transparency, accountability, and integrity in the four focus areas I oversee: Elections, Audits, Corporations (business registration/assistance), and Archives (public records and administrative rules). Please send your ideas to my Governmental & Legal Affairs Director, Steve Elzinga, at stephen.elzinga@oregon.gov by September 25.
Together, we are making Oregon a better place to live, work, and thrive. Thank you for your assistance and involvement.
Secretary Richardson Signature

Fires in Our Forests – Why Old Growth And Sustainable Tree Farming Can Save Us From Fires

2018-08-26T21:35:00.001-07:00

I realize the causes of the forest fires are many and complicated. However, we are focusing on symptoms just as we do in health care. As always there are underlying causes that can not be ignored.

Monocropping Trees (Industrialized Tree Farming)

It is my opinion that the main issue that has turned our forests into tinder boxes is monocropping of our forests. This is the underlying issue that creates a sick forest. This type of industrialized forest practice grows trees that are prone to stress from lack of nutrients and water. This in turn results in infestation of insects, that in turn leads to dead trees, which are tinder waiting to burn. To understand what I am talking about, I need to share a little bit more information with you.

Commercially trees are monocropped for lumber. It is often conifers that are grown in these forests, generally fir or pine. Growing large swaths of one tree species is similar to growing big fields of one type of vegetable, fruit or herb. These plants usually do not do well unless they are coddled by the farmer. They lack community and protection. The environment lacks the soil biology that supports their ability to receive nourishment and moisture from the soil. This sets them up for poor health and eventually they attract insects that see the large monocrop area as a smorgasbord of their favorite food. The lack of health and vitality of these monocropped plants/trees makes them more susceptible to the insects, drought and disease. Monocropping of plants/trees additionally leads to greater use of insecticides and herbicides by the industrialized farmer.

Trees like to grow in tight groups. They grow their branches away from each other but their roots are intertwined in a loving embrace. Groups of trees grow together from the time they are young. Scientists have found that mother trees support their young and many trees share resources. Older, mother trees are the most important to the network. When mother trees are removed this social network collapses and it is a disaster for the trees left. They will most likely die. When trees in a forest are harvested and the older mother trees are removed, bushes, fungi, and other plants, lichens, bacteria, and other commensal soil critters that keep a forest healthy all disappear or at least have a very hard time trying to eek out an existence.

In contrast to a natural forest where trees grow together, and share resources, monocrop trees are a vast group of loners who do not communicate and support each other. They don’t receive help from the others as takes place in an older interconnected forest and are more susceptible to any type of environmental stress.

The fungal web

Trees have an amazing fungal, world wide web under the soil that interconnects them. This underground fungal mycelium network allows them to communicate and share resources. All of the forest, both under and above the ground are interdependent on one another. For details on how this works see Suzanne Simard’s Ted Talk on how trees talk to each other.

How trees share resources through this underground network is interesting. The mass of fungal micorrhiza connect to the trees and network the trees together. This fungal mycelium connects to similar species as well as disparate species. They move things like nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, water, defense signals, and hormones form one tree to another. This shows a mutualistic symbiosis between many trees.

These micorrhizal fungi associate with trees all over the world. The fungi help the trees take up minerals and water, while the trees provide sugars from photosynthesis to the fungi. This relationship protects the trees from stress and drought. Under the soil, the fungi create a vast network that links the trees. The network becomes a hi-way for the trees to send messages or nutrients to each other.

Mother Trees and Tree Networking

Older mother trees tend to share their resources more with their young than they do with the other trees. They favor their children. They assist them in their growth to help them get established when young, and continue to communicate more with them than other non-related trees. Mother trees feed their young with a carbon solution. The biggest mother trees have the most links to others. When the mother tree dies they send out carbon and defense signals to their children.

The trees nourish each other and warn each other of impending threats. Trees under attack, tell the others of the issue by using the fungal network.

Trees need other trees and need a variety of trees and other plants, fungi, and critters to be healthy. Like us, they need community to be healthy and productive.

When you take out too many mother trees, the forests networking system collapses. Trees become stressed and sickly. They are unable to share nutrients, water, and information. They are more susceptible to stress. Insects can more easily devastate a monocrop forest. This has been happening to the beetle infested evergreen forests in the United States for years. Beetles are leaving dead trees all over the place. These dead trees are perfect fire tinder.

Old growth forests have a lot to share with us, as do sustainable forests. The mother trees, the underground world of micorrhizal fungi, and other beneficial organisms are all important, and they all need to be nurtured, and remain as a unified system, or the whole system collapses and the forest dies. This sets the ground-work for unlimited fires, that will continue until all the monocrop forests are burnt to the ground.

Horse Logging, A Sustainable Future

How should we be harvesting trees? Currently, very large machines are removing trees in the forests. They are heavy and damage the micorrhizal fungi under the soil, and they decrease pore size in the soil which in turn decreases the water available. Less water available in the soil leads to stressed and dying trees.

Horse logging is safe to the soil and would not cause the damage to the soil pores and mycorrhiza. Selective cutting with horse logging will protect the forest as an organism. It will also provide additional jobs sorely needed in logging communities. We need to be thinking about growing and logging families of trees in methods that add to the forest's health or at least does not detract from its health. We don’t want to monocrop rows of trees, we want to selectively remove trees in a radiant forest, and only to the point where the forest can still remain intact and healthy.

Additionally, we need to reduce consumption, reuse and recycle what we are able to, as well as reduce population growth on the planet.

I suggest you watch a 45-minute movie from Amazon called "Intelligent Trees"

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Research Shows DDT Causes Increased Risk of Autism

2018-08-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

New research published August 16, 2018 shows elevated levels of a dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) metabolite called p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) in pregnant women, as the first biomarker implicated in autism in children. This research shows a significant increased risk for autism when a pregnant mother is exposed to DDT. The odds of autism were nearly one third higher among offspring of mother's with DDE levels that were in the highest 75th percentile, after adjusting for maternal age, prior offspring, and history of psychiatric disorders. The research writers said, the findings "provide the first biomarker-based evidence that maternal exposure to insecticides is associated with autism among offspring." The scientists controlled for many other risk factors and had a large group of 1500 women.

Although banned in many countries DDT is still present in the environment and found in blood and tissues. It persists in tissues and pregnant women pass it along to their baby.

DDT was banned in the United States, but there are sites contaminated with this pollutant that pregnant woman may be living in proximity to. Additionally, there are countries still using it in agriculture and to kill vectors of disease such as mosquitoes. It has a 1/2 life of 15 years. This means as much as 50% can remain in the soil 15 years after application. DDT can concentrate in the food chain. It persists in the environment and accumulates in fatty tissues. Its metabolite DDE is found in the blood, semen, bones, brains, fat tissue and fatty organs, and other organs of the body. It has been found in the Arctic air, Arctic water and Arctic organisms. It has been linked to the development of breast cancer, Alzheimers, infertility, sperm abnormalities, impairment of neurodevelopment in children, and even obesity. The countries that have banned DDT include Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia,Cyprus, Ethiopia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Lebanon, Mozambique, Norway, Switzerland, and the USA. Countries that have severely restricted its use include Belize, Ecuador, the EU, India, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Panama, and Thailand. In 2004, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants restricted the use of DDT. 170 countries ratified the convention.

Why are we still using it? In 2015 there were over 200 million new cases of malaria in India, with over 400,000 registered deaths. Most of these cases occur in the rural areas. Today, India and sub-Saharan African countries account for over 80% of the malaria cases globally. Although many countries had restricted the use of DDT, in 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) supported the indoor use of DDT in African countries where malaria remained a major challenge. WHO stated that the benefits of the pesticides to African countries outweighed the adverse effects it had on the environment. India and North Korea have continued the use of the pesticides for agricultural use despite the agricultural ban. DDT and its metabolites have been detected in food from all over the world and this route is likely the greatest source of exposure for the general population.

Approximately 4,000 tons of DDT are produced annually to control vectors of disease - largely mosquitoes. It is legal to manufacture DDT in the U.S., though it can only be exported for use in foreign nations. DDT can only be used in the U.S. for public health emergencies, such as controlling mosquito born disease. Today, DDT is manufactured in North Korea, India, and China. India remains the largest consumer of the product for vector (mostly mosquito) control and agricultural use. China produces 4,500 metric tons of the product of which 80–90% is used to produce Dicofol, an acaricide (kills arachnids - ticks and mites mostly). African countries do not use the product for agricultural purposes but countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, and Swaziland use it to control malaria. If you eat non-organic food from a country that still uses DDT, you could be ingesting it. Some people have reported it being sprayed on planes in India also.

More data on DDT can be found at EWG

Additional notes:

There are other insecticides and herbicides that may be implicated in autism. Certainly there appears to be a correlation between the increased use of glyphosate (RoundUp®) since the 1990's and the increased rates of autism that we see in the United States. I would like to see thorough research on the possible relationship between glyphosate and autism.

The research showed no association between total maternal levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and autism.