Helene Silver's E-Body Smart News

"Providing simple, natural solutions to your health problems."

Breast Cancer Linked To Toxic Chemicals...

It is probably not a coincidence that California leads the US with 17,800 new breast cancer cases and 4,400 mortalities every year and also tops the list of America’s toxic waste sites, with 258 sites...this is nearly 100 more than second placed Alaska and almost 200 more than third placed Maryland...

In fact, white women in the San Francisco Bay Area have the world’s highest rate of breast cancer with 104 cases per 100,000 women...this rate is double that of Europe and five times higher than Japan...two thirds of the victims have no known risk factors and are asking why...

Additionally, rates of breast cancer in Long Island communities are as much as 6% higher than the rest of the country...some believe that the increase is nothing more than better detection, but many women and concerned citizens fear that the rates are due to a very specific local threat—the indiscriminate use, in years gone by, of DDT and other pesticides on the islands once vast potato fields...

In both communities, experts are querying whether exposure to radiation, pesticides and chlorine-based chemicals may be contributing factors to these epidemic rates.

Environmental pollutants may be linked to many illnesses...

Researchers at the World Resources Institute in Washington D.C. explain that pesticides and chemicals can behave in the body like hormones, increasing estrogen or blocking testosterone and may be partially responsible for the increase in breast, testicular and prostate cancers...

As if the environmental pollution that finds its way into our food, water and air supply isn’t bad enough, agribusiness has been busy adding contaminants to our food supply—artificial hormones, antibiotics,  preservatives, and colorings...

Our bodies are not designed to metabolize these man-made compounds, which are stored in our tissues as toxic waste...it’s just plain common sense that this internal pollution is more than our bodies are meant to deal with and that these substances may contribute to the development of future diseases...

The childhood cancer rate increased 21.3% from 1950 to 1988, and toxic chemicals and diet are the prime suspects...in fact, a spokesperson for the American Dietary Association admitted that the pesticide issue is more compelling with infants and children because the safety levels have been set for adults, not for children...

More and more, the news is full of contamination alerts...

This past Thanksgiving I heard my favorite radio green grocer giving advice on which fruits and vegetables were safe to feast on, that is, free of dangerous contaminants...a couple of days later I heard that many thousands of people had gotten ill in one of our major metropolitan areas from drinking polluted tap water...recently, school children in another major city had to be rushed to the hospital due to overexposure to chlorine in a public pool, and on a recent trip to Texas, I became quite ill from eating contaminated “fresh, Gulf seafood”...

Pure food and water is available and, today, it’s easier than ever to take responsibility for your health by changing your diet to one free of chemicals....

Look in your local health food store or supermarket for organically grown fruits and vegetables, free range chickens and eggs, additive free meats, pure baby foods and filtered water...it may be a bit more expensive, but your health is worth it...

We’re also learning that organic food is more nutritious; in fact, studies have shown that pesticides lower the vitamin content in vegetables...organically grown crops also seem to be hardier...at the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm, corn grown with organic fertilizers survived the recent drought better than similar corn grown with chemicals...

If you’re not always able to obtain organic produce, don’t worry!  You can remove harmful contaminants by using the following cleansing soak:  wash your fruits and veggies with a detoxifying hydrogen peroxide solution before storing them, so that you will not introduce more toxins into your body...fill a dishpan with 2 gallons of water, add 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide, soak for 15 to 30 minutes and rinse well for 10 minutes... this health wash not only purifies your produce but also helps it to stay fresh longer...

How Safe Is Our Drinking Water?

We’d like to trust that the water we drink to maintain our health is safe, but that’s not always the case...

The quality of tap water in the U.S. varies widely from place to place...in fact, more than 700 toxic compounds have been identified in water drawn from U.S. water systems...according to recent reports from the Natural Resources Defense Council, drinking water in the U.S. is increasingly becoming a health risk...

Even if your municipal water supply is free of bacteria, it may contain high levels of chlorine, lead and rust, which, combined with other substances, can form unhealthy compounds...the EPA sets safety standards for the maximum contamination levels allowed, yet in 1992 and 1993, over 8,000 of the nation’s local water systems reported exceeding these levels...

Lately, several cities have issued warnings to their citizens to boil their drinking water because of contamination ...

According to recent reports, over 100 million Americans drink water that contains significant levels of at least one of three cancer causing chemicals-arsenic, radon and chlorine by-products...

Adding chlorine as an anti-microbial is a common practice in many municipalities, yet  many cancer producing chemicals are the by-product of chlorine, which has been banned from the drinking supply of many European countries...

In addition to chemical contamination, chlorine resistant viruses and parasites can slip through the more than 1,000 large water systems lacking proper filters...according to the Center for Disease Control, more than 900,000 people become sick in the US each year from these water borne microorganisms...

Despite these problems and more, enforcement of current regulations is weak...

In 1991 and 1992, for example, the EPA issued fewer than 4,000 fines, although there were more than 250,000 violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act....

According to the National Academy of Science, the EPA sets its safety levels according to adult tolerances; thus children, pregnant women and older people may be especially vulnerable to the pollutants in water...

Polls show that the public wants more stringent drinking water laws.  In fact, many people have decided to deal with the problem themselves by installing home water filtration systems and using bottled water...yet, some bottled water may not be much better than some tap water, as water bottling is still an unregulated industry...one company was found to be selling municipal tap water that had been labeled spring water... yet another was getting its water from a well adjacent to a toxic dump site...

The best health protection today is to either be completely confident about the purity of your bottled water or to install a water purifier on your tap...

Take action to determine how good or bad your water is:  ask your water company for the results of their quality tests...check to see whether bacteria, lead, hardness, fluorine, chlorine and nitrates fall within safe levels...even if your municipal system tests clean for lead, contamination may still occur from your pipes...lead is a recognized health hazard and is especially harmful for infants, small children and pregnant women...in order to decrease your exposure to lead, let your water run for 3-5 minutes in the morning or after a period of disuse...never use hot tap water for drinking or cooking as it more readily leaches contaminants and probably contains impurities from sitting for long periods in the heater tank..and, if you must drink tap water, let it stand for a few hours to allow some of the chlorine to dissipate..

HOW DO HORMONES REALLY WORK?

We hear a lot these days about hormones, especially in relationship to changing moods, attitudes and bodily functions...but just what are they and how do they really work...

Hormones are tiny chemical messengers continuously secreted into the bloodstream by your endocrine glands...these are the pituitary and pineal in your brain, thyroid in your throat, thymus in your chest, and adrenals deep in your abdomen...

Hormones regulate the activities of your vital organs...they stimulate a multitude of life-giving processes throughout the body which in turn maintain health, healing, growth, and repair...yet, they also decline dramatically with age, producing many of the problems associated with aging itself including heart disease, memory loss, osteoporosis, reduced energy and skin tone deterioration...

You are probably familiar with the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, and the male sex hormone, testosterone which, by the way, is needed in small doses by some women...less commonly known are the human growth hormone produced in your pituitary, DHEA, made in the adrenals, and melatonin, produced by your pineal gland...there is a great deal of research being done today on the anti aging and health stimulating factors in all of these hormones...some researchers believe that they may actually contain the secrets of the fountain of youth... 

For example, the hormone melatonin is produced naturally by the pineal gland at the onset of darkness and is often in the news these days... it is available in synthetic form in most health food stores and its proponents are touting it as a powerful antioxidant...it is the first effective remedy for jet lag and is a safe and effective inducer of natural sleep...it also increases the activity of some components of the immune system and appears to be completely nontoxic...although some health professionals are somewhat reluctant to recommend it as a long term supplement until more is known, it is certainly a safer alternative for sleep than the pharmaceutical options...

Progesterone, together with estrogen, is the female sex hormone...it is synthesized from cholesterol and is important for menstruation, fertilization, uterine health during pregnancy and lactation...

There is a lot of worldwide research being done today on how natural progesterone can help build bone back even in older women, thus reversing some osteoporosis...

Osteoporosis is caused by many factors including genetics, endocrine function, lack of exercise and nutritional deficiencies...it is actually a loss of bone mass as the result of the loss of both minerals and protein ...once upon a time, we thought only of calcium when we discussed osteoporosis...but we now know that nutrients other than calcium are of equal importance, including vitamin D, magnesium, copper, manganese, zinc and boron...research has demonstrated the necessity of these trace elements for bone development and maintenance and has validated the need for their supplementation in post menopausal women...look for calcium supplements that contain these ingredients, as well...

While some studies show a modest correlation between calcium consumption and bone density, many have not...in fact, the prestigious journal Science claims that there is no relationship between actual calcium intake and bone density...rather, they focus on how well the ingested calcium is absorbed...in fact, many researchers now advocate that the best way to improve actual bone uptake of calcium and other minerals is through exercise and hormone balancing with natural progesterone...

Natural progesterone, made from the popular wild yam herb, can also restore or prevent the occurrence of vaginal dryness, a common complaint among menopausal women...according to extensive research in England, it can also reduce many symptoms associated with PMS, especially mood swings, depression, bloating and breast tenderness...

A cream containing 3% natural progesterone is sold over the counter in many pharmacies and health food stores...you may be surprised that a cream applied to the skin can be so effective...we sometimes forget that the skin not only moves wastes from the inside out but is also capable of absorbing substances directly into the body...progesterone cream, estrogen patches for menopause, nicotine patches for cessation of smoking, and nitroglycerin patches for cardiovascular pain are just a few examples of your skin’s absorptive powers...

"Helene Silver's BODY SMART NEWS keeps you current with the latest in longevity research, nutritional advances and anti-aging techniques from around the world."