Mr. President

President Barack Obama                   1600 Pennsylvania Avenue              Washington, D.C.

Mr. President,

This is me, your adoring fan  ranting!    I am more than disturbed by your apparent lack of resolve to  make the effort to “shoot for universal health care,”  as you clearly indicated during your campaign.   Most of the other educated, enlightened major countries of the world and even many countries who do not measure highly to certain social standards have already done this.  But it appears they have all left us in the dust – - as people who don’t really know what we want or how to get it if we did know.  Why the indecision?   Wha’sup?

With our multitudes either without insurance or under- insured,  the prospects aren’t looking that rosy for the near future any time soon, but the need is NOW  and REAL.    People hunger for relief.  Our nation is in need of it on every level, families, corporate,  – - all the people.  Our majority enables us to accomplish this – we all know it.  The majority of people are in favor of the single-payer system.  We know how to do that and it works.  Of course it must be paid for – there are ways to figure that out.  We must have this reform,  single-payer gets it done.  So why have you decided that we must include “everyone” at the table?  This is not meant to be  for the Insurance Companies and Big Pharma – - it is for the PEOPLE.  If the power people (corporate interests) remain at the table, nothing will get fixed, it stays broken, stays the same.  They own Washington now and already either run everything or influence it.  They already have the power and they will not give it up.  Surely you must know this.  Stop wanting everyone to be happy!  It can’t happen if you hope to fix this problem.  Stay focused and remember it is the “people” you are working for.  Get back to priorities and forget the Mr.  Nice Guy award.  Just do it.

Most of us lower down on  the ladder are well aware of the TLC you have shown to many of the elite on Wall St. (3/4 trillion in 3 days time),  the banking system (though bailed out and infused with fresh capital, still doesn’t want to play fair)  You are trying to change things and bring sanity, I know that, but it hasn’t trickled down to most of the suffering masses. The credit card companies are still raising rates and playing those fun games, even with the new laws in the wings.

Between the insurance companies, Big Pharma and the agricultural giants, citizens continue to lose more and more of their rights and freedoms of choice.  All of it is done in the name of protecting the people, but the people’s voices do not count – they are not heard – they have no one to fight for them other than the elected officials who unfortunately are  already in the pocket of all these big corporate interests.  But I don’t need to tell you about all this – you know it well and spoke of it on the campaign trail.   Millions of us believed you.   You cannot allow the bottom lines of corporate America continue to rule in Washington.  You cannot allow them to continue to challenge and change the rules to suit greedy corporate interests.  The EPA and the FDA must return to the business of protecting the people, the little guys, the families, the consumers.

Health care is so broken.  It is disgraceful.  Not only  ordinary people, but medical professionals as well are demanding this reform and want the single-payer system.  I am personally  so disillusioned with medicine as it is practiced today that I am ready to trade it in for simple prayer and feel I would have a better shot at survival.   So, since health care is so broken, there is no fixin it with just tinkering around the edges – - it won’t work.   It needs a new beginning.  One cannot take the insurance  industry at their word – they tricked Jimmy Carter and  The Clintons with their promises and they are trying that again with you.  You are not a slow learner – I know you are not.    But you cannot have your cake and eat it too with this one.  It is going to be a really tuff fight.  You don’t want that I know.   There is NO arbitration or agreements which will allow both sides to win on this one.  So who are you fighting for Mr President?  Its them or us – - not both!  If we keep the insurance industry at the table,  the game is over, we are sunk.  It will be more of the same no matter what you call it.   They have to go.  Its back to square one and we start this game over on a level playing field. We don’t pay for insurance, we pay taxes (like the rest of the world), and Government pays the bills eliminating all the middlemen.  This should save around 400 million annually just on  the health care “administrators” whose job it is to keep doctors from spending money (wasting it on us).  Effectively, we should be able to save about 4 Trillion annually just by getting rid of the insurance industry.  I am led to understand that this is the norm in Canada as well and that “private practice” remains the norm.  Whereas here in the USA, we are forming corporations and now the doctors are mostly working for these corporations.  Where is the sense in that?  We need to disrupt the insurance industry.

My biases and predilections come from living too long on this planet.  The assorted dollar figures I am using here and there I gleaned from  a show I saw on PBS recently – Bill Moyers Journal May 22, 2009.   I am not known to play fast and loose with money but I wouldn’t call any of it the gospel without checking it out for yourself.  The two doctors were just fabulous and should have been on your panel when it comes to making decisions which affect our citizens.  I believe their names were  Dr. David Himmelstein from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts and the other man was Dr. Sidney Wolfe   citizen.org.

Be clear President Obama,  the people are with you for there is great good will and flat-out affection in our hearts for you.  But remember,  all of us want little pieces of that possible dream too.  It is supposed to be “our time” now.  We will wait with patience, but there must be right action,  showing clear intention.   Stop worrying about everybody loving you,  you are loved.  You have invited and welcomed everyone,  it is for others to determine what they will and won’t accept.  Do not shelve our dreams that are so -possible, for the time is now.  We all know that.

While I’m ranting, I also want to tell you that your silence on the “don’t ask, don’t tell”  is a huge disappointment.  All people should truly be equal under the law, no ifs, ands or buts.   That is the primary issue  – how can anything else even be a consideration with it?

Crazy about your candidate for the supreme court – Sonia  Sotomayor.  Good job,   Mr. President.

Thanks for listening

B.E.D. Clears myths

Donna Gates of B.E.D. clears up the confusing mystique surrounding some of the foods we love best.   Useful and vital information on butter,  meats,  eggs,  fish and raw vegetables.  With so many “authorities” – - many of whom we really trust at odds over whether we should even eat these foods,  it is often a confusing task to take care of our bodies for the highest and best good.   So where do I come down?  (This is Jan in deep conflict!)  I have been convinced through evidence of my own experience that to omit animal products from my diet immediately relieves my body of the pain of arthritis, swelling and stiffness.  Since I won’t take medications for the condition, I found this a blessed relief.  It is easy to stay on a vegetarian diet and  need I say – - far cheaper  (a  boom to my struggling budget).  I LOVE veggies,  fruit,  nuts,  most starches such as red potatoes,  rice, lentils and so on.  I like everything from peas,  artichoke,  okra,  zucchini,  summer squash, patty pan(when I can find it), broccoli,  crazy about crisp green beans with mushrooms, and all the goodies for salads – EVERYTHING!.  Corn is one of my flat-out favorite things, but I will have nothing to do with Monsanto and their Genetically Modified corn or soy or whatever.  So unless the corn in the store says “organic”,  I’ll have nothing to do with it.  Isn’t that a crime? Does anyone else agree with me?

I have posted on Fermented Veggies – I make them regularly and noticed a huge improvement in digestive problems. I used to think I had celiac troubles, but I don’t – - it was unbalanced intestinal flora which the probiotics of fermented veggies have been instrumental in correcting.  I actually enjoy the hassel of doing the kitchen stuff – always have.  So while it IS kind of a big deal to make your own fermented vegetables,  its a couple of hours well spent which then carries you for several months depending on how much volume you have created.  I try to have about 1/2 cup at each of 1 – 2 meals daily and have found that an ounce of Dong Quai first thing in the morning can start my whole organism off splendidly.  Drink lots of water (distill my own) Furthermore, I have always tended toward middle of the road “balance”.  I don’t go easily to extremes, something about it is off-putting.  No problem in living without bovine meat stuff, same with porcine meat.  I am fond of chicken and really love fish.  The way fowl is raised in todays environment no longer agrees with my sense of whats healthy for my body. I won’t take anti-biotics for my own illnesses, so why should I eat animal protein which has been raised on chemicals and antibiotics? Can not do it.  Still buy wild Salmon, love sardines, have given up cheeses (one of my passions), don’t drink milk tho I love it. But I have never given up butter.  For over 40 years, I have been concockting my own butter in the kitchen.  I used to make it in a blender,  but use a food processor as it is easier and gets the job done better.  A pound of butter (I prefer unsalted and as close to raw as I can get – hard to do), I add to this 5 – 7 ounces of my distilled water and  same with Saff-flower oil (cold- pressed).  Blend at top speed a minute or so and voila – delicious, healthy (lower calorie), whipped butter – which is so easy to spread on whatever you plan to put it on.  One can go crazy with flavored butters (garlic and so on).   So my family has always used butter and we all have low cholesterol – go figure!

Enuff digression!  Back to B.E.D.,  Today’s newsletter instucts vital info on butter,  eggs,  meat,  fish,  and raw vegetables.  All really good info I wanted to pass on to you.  I couldn’t manage to get it over here to my blog, so I just copied the first one on butter.  You can access B.E.D. from my blogroll to get the rest of the newsletter (5-14-09)   Enjoy and stay healthy. . . . .   .    .

The Body Ecology Newsletter

Body Ecology’s Health and Wellness e-newsletter

There can be a lot of conflicting information on the following five different types of common foods.  Below are the myths, truths and important insights for you:

The 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter

By Donna Gates for BodyEcology.com

Are you worried about your health? Contrary to popular belief, completely eliminating butter from your diet may be BAD for your health! Learn all the benefits of eating butter here!

The origins of butter go back thousands of years to when our ancestors first started domesticating animals. In fact, the first written reference to butter was found on a 4500- year old limestone tablet illustrating how butter was made.¹

In India, ghee (clarified butter) has been used as a staple food, and as a symbol of purity, worthy of offering to the gods in religious ceremonies for more than 3000 years.²

The Bible has references to butter as the product of milk from the cow, and of Abraham setting butter and milk from a calf before three angels who appeared to him on the plains of Mamre.³

For millennia, people around the globe have prized butter for its health benefits.

So how did butter become a villain in the quest for good health?

At the turn of our century, heart disease in America was rare. By 1960, it was our number one killer. Yet during the same time period, butter consumption had decreased – from eighteen pounds per person per year, to four.⁴

A researcher named Ancel Keys was the first to propose that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet were to blame for coronary heart disease (CAD).

Numerous subsequent studies costing hundreds of millions of dollars, have failed to conclusively back up this claim.⁵

Yet the notion that a healthy diet is one with minimal fat, particularly saturated fat, has persisted. While Americans drastically reduced their intake of natural animal fats like butter and meat, the processed food industry, particularly the low-fat food industry, proliferated.

When the baby boomers were children, concerned mothers began to replace butter with margarine. The margarine manufacturers told them it was the healthier alternative and mothers believed them. In those days no one asked, “where is the science to prove it? I want to know before I give this man-made, plastized stuff to my children. After all we humans have been eating butter for thousands of years?”.

As a result, since the early 1970’s, Americans’ average saturated fat intake has dropped considerably, while rates of obesity, diabetes, and consequently, heart disease, have surged.

Reducing healthy sources of dietary fat has contributed to a serious decline in our well-being, and those of us that speak out against the anti-fat establishment are still largely ignored .

Is Margarine Better than Butter?

No! This is a tragic myth. Butter is a completely natural food essential to your health – especially when you eat organic. Also, please make the extra effort to obtain high-quality organic, raw butter.

Margarines, on the other hand, are a processed food, created chemically from refined polyunsaturated oils. The process used to make these normally liquid oils into spread-able form is called hydrogenation.

Margarine and similar hydrogenated or processed polyunsaturated oils are potentially more detrimental to your health than any saturated fat.⁷ For more information on why you should avoid all processed oils read Why the Processing of Consumable Oils Has Devastated America’s Health.
Include Real Butter as part of Your Body Ecology Lifestyle

As many of you already know, I am a strong proponent of including a variety of healthy oils and fats into your diet. Together they work as a team to supply your body with essential fatty acids for longevity, hormone balance, heart health, sharp vision, glowing moist skin and energy. The wonderful variety of oils and fats certainly includes organic, preferably raw butter. Cultured raw butter is even better.

And why would I be so insistent that you eat butter? Take a look at the long list of the benefits you receive when you include it in your diet:⁸

1. Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.
2. Contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and candida.
3. Contains lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.
4. Contains anti-oxidants that protect against free radical damage.
5. Has anti-oxidants that protect against weakening arteries.
6. Is a great source of Vitamins E and K.
7. Is a very rich source of the vital mineral selenium.
8. Saturated fats in butter have strong anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.
9. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster
10. Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium.
11. Protects against tooth decay.
12. Is your only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints.
13. Anti-stiffness factor in butter also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland.
14. Is a source of Activator X, which helps your body absorb minerals.
15. Is a source of iodine in highly absorbable form.
16. May promote fertility in women.⁹
17. Is a source of quick energy, and is not stored in our bodies adipose tissue.
18. Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children’s brain and nervous system development.
19. Contains Arachidonic Acid (AA) which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes.
20. Protects against gastrointestinal infections in the very young or the elderly.

Raw, Organic Butter is the Best

Believe me this is only a partial list. If a woman is pregnant, hopes to become pregnant or is nursing her baby, I think it should even become a law for her to eat butter for her baby’s developing brain, bones and teeth.

The best butter you can eat is raw, organic butter because pasteurization destroys nutrients. Unfortunately, the sale of raw butter is prohibited in most of our 50 states.

Are you finding it difficult to get organic, raw butter? Don’t worry! Making your own delicious cultured butter with Body Ecology Culture Starter is an easy way to get on the right track towards health

You can, however, make your own healthy butter, and it is easier than you think. Look into our Body Ecology Culture Starter, which you simply add to organic cream. After letting this mixture sit at room temperature for 24 hours, chill it, beat it with a whisk, and voila! You’ll have healthy, probiotic butter that is delicious!

Cultured butter is full of health sustaining good bacteria like lactobacillus planterum, and lactococcus lactis. These microflora are essential for a healthy inner ecosystem.
Sources of Healthy Butter

If you don’t want to culture your own butter, I recommend butter from grass-fed animals only. A good source is U.S. Wellness Meats.

I also recommend Activator X and Vitamin rich butter oil, made by Green Pastures.
Heart Healthy-the Body Ecology Way

Completely eliminating butter and other healthy animal source fats is NOT the Body Ecology way. It is not how our ancestors thrived, and not what nature intended.

How much should you eat each day? Like sea salt, your own body will tell you how much to eat. If you crave it, eat it, your body needs it. If the quality is excellent you can feel confident it will be good for you and you’ll soon see the benefits yourself. If you are following the Body Ecology Food Combining Principle and eating as we recommend (adding at least one source of fermented food or drink to your diet) you will see your body reach its idea weight. The raw butter will help you develop beautiful muscles.

The Body Ecology program is gaining recognition for being a premier way of healing candida and other immune dysfunctions. And what’s more, it’s a heart-healthy, super-slimming, anti-aging way of life, which is crucial to your health as a whole.
Sources:

1 History of Butter
http://www.dairygoodness.ca/en/consumers/products/butter/history-of-butter.htm
2 “Butter” from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter#Worldwide
3 Princely Packets of Golden Health
http://webexhibits.org/butter/ref/MiltonEParker.pdf
4 Why Butter is Better
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/butter.html
5 The Soft Science of Dietary Fat, Science Magazine, March 2001
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/taubes.html#linktop

6 Ibid
7 Polyunsaturated Oils Increase Cancer Risk
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/fats_and_cancer.html
8 From The Skinny on Fats
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html
and Why Butter is Better
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/butter.html
9Fertility Awareness, Food, and Night-lighting
http://www.westonaprice.org/women/fertility.html and
High Fat Dairy May Boost Fertility
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/printnewsbis.asp?id=74590

Special pain relief

I know,   I know, I’ve already posted on EFT and Tapping – - but it’s like I’m a kid in a candy store and having such good results and fun doing it.  This is great stuff!  I’m downloading many of  the letters that Gary offers on his site written by EFTers who are having such success that they seem to need to share so that more people can take advantage of this incredible tool.  If one isn’t told these things – one doesn’t know about them.   Until one has tried it personally,  it is hard to believe.  I’m a newbie so I don’t know a lot about this, but I’m learning and lovin it and want to get better.

It has crossed my mind that it is going to be very difficult to change the way America does business in the medical community.  It is part of the great marketplace and therefore,  profit is a major driving factor.  But just think about this a moment,  if all practitioners of any ilk or classification were recompensed on a scale relevant to the benefit accrued to the patient – - everything would change overnight and I’m afraid many would find themselves unemployed and/or with limiting income.    But imagine what that could do for average families struggling to get by.   Tap, Tap, Tap and pains and problems just go away.   Sounds like fiction?  I know.  But have you really looked into it?   The following is an archived letter from Gary Craig’s 4-27-09 (FREE) newsletter.  Hope you are impressed with it as I am.

#                                 #                                 #                            #

Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to get our Free EFT Get Started Package or our Affordable DVDs for a more complete understanding. For more, read our EFT Info and Disclaimer Document

Physical therapy like it should be–dramatic improvements in a rehab center

Hi Everyone,

Roseanna Ellis recently spent some time applying EFT in a nursing home rehab center.  Her prolific results are given in this article.  This would be a good one to show to other rehab centers as a way to show how much could be done to dramatically accelerate healing.

Hugs, Gary

By Roseanna Ellis

Dear Gary,

With business being slow due to the fact that I live off the beach, I decided to work for a month or so doing physical therapy in a rehab center within a nursing home. These are people that were in hospital who can’t go home yet because they are unable to care for themselves and thus must spend a few weeks getting better.

Normally I hate working in a nursing home because it is not challenging enough for me. But to my surprise I have had an amazing time in the past two weeks. I have been going around tapping everyone, from nurses to aids to bosses to patients.

First my boss complained of severe Right knee pain and tightness. Her 0-10 intensity level was an 8 for pain and in Range of motion she was only 70/90. I only worked on her for about 10 minutes for pain and for tightness. She got off the mat and wide-eyed said, ” I can’t believe it but my pain is completely gone. I checked her hamstring range and it had increased to 90/90 a perfect hamstring.

Next one of my patients who was in her 80’s was feeling sick to her stomach and had been that way for a few days. The nurse had called the doctor and he agreed to send her to the hospital for tests. I was to walk her in therapy first. I asked her if I could tap her to get rid of her stomach pain. She agreed and within 10 minutes she was up and moving fine without much pain.

I saw her in the hallway later that day and asked how the tests went? She answered, ” I changed my mind and decided I was feeling much better and the nurse canceled my hospital visit.

This kind of stuff happened all day every day with all my patients. I won’t bore you but two I must tell.

One gentleman, in his 50s, not my patient, but I interfered in his therapy (like I know everything right?) Well he had had a brain operation and was left paralyzed on his left leg. To make matters worse his right shoulder was classified as a frozen shoulder which was hindering his progress because he needed his arms to pull himself up in the parallel bars. His range was about 90 degrees and normal range was 180. He also had severe pain upon movement of that arm.

Well I worked with him for five minutes while his therapist was seeing to another patient. Within that time I got about 30 degrees extra movement and the pain had diminished about 20%.

The next day I asked his therapist if I could work a little more on him. I allowed her to test his range. She tested it at 130/180 which was where EFT had got him the day before. I worked EFT for 10 min. and I called his therapist over again to re-measure him. Now normally range like this takes weeks and weeks to achieve, that is why I wanted her to re-test. She looked a little annoyed thinking that she had just tested him and why was I asking her again. To her shock it was 175/180, and the man had no pain through the motion. I downloaded your EFT manual and gave it to him today to read and told him to apply it to himself every hour on the hour for a few days.

Another EFT miracle happened yesterday. One of my patients who is 72 years old, has had a very difficult time walking. Her balance is very poor. I had been working with her for a few days just doing regular therapy, when yesterday she said ” I am so afraid of falling, what happens if I fall and I can’t get up?. Well I began to tap her for her fear of falling, I worked for about ten minutes until I felt secure enough to walk her again to test her fear. Well she walked with so much control that it shocked me (which usually doesn’t happen too much any more). Then she shocked me further when she stated” I have not walked this good since I was in my 30s. You should have seen her smile.

Today I worked on her some more. Then I had her walking backwards, without loss of balance. She pushed herself around the nursing home shouting how great she was able to walk. She told me that her husband didn’t believe it and that he wants to come to see her in therapy. She is forbidden to walk unless she is in therapy because of her history of falls.

If only out-patient facilities were willing to let me work on patients like this. But I know it would never happen. To get a frozen shoulder or a replaced knee better within a few visits would put them out of business in a very short time. For now I grab what I can get away with.

Love, Roseanna

Metabolic Syndrome

This post is about a subject  which my blog has devoted quite a bit of time and space to i.e.,  Belly Fat;  Brown Fat;  Syndrome X and of course, Metabolic Syndrome; Belly Fat and Blueberries and so on.  Since it encompasses so many  of what appears to be different disease elements – it is all confusing.  There are variables.  On top of that, everyone seems to have something to sell.  What we need is definitive answers, clear choices.  Like most of you, I’ll gladly buy what works (no one would ever believe I once had a 24″ waistline) – - just help me understand!  So see your doctor, get checked up on the blood work department, make sure your systems are mostly a ‘go’ and keep trying to figure out what works for you.  I have thyroid issues, so there is much to juggle when making decisions.  We are all different.  But some things just make sense and I trust you’ll know,  and judge accordingly.

My source today is Swanson Vitamins.  I have been buying various supplements there for years as it is convenient for me; they send me catalogs; they carry many lines and they have good (sometimes great) prices.  Lee Swanson seems driven to give the latest on information and that always sets well with me.  I like his newsletters (free).  This is a good thing.

Dear Friends and Valued Customers,

Metabolic syndrome is sweeping the country. In the United States it’s estimated that 32% of the adult population has the condition. In Europe the numbers are lower with about 15% of adults affected.

Actually, the term metabolic syndrome describes a grouping or set of conditions that collectively form the syndrome. The Mayo Clinic says: “Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Having metabolic syndrome means you have several disorders related to your metabolism at the same time, including: obesity, particularly around your waist; elevated blood pressure; an elevated level of the blood fat called triglycerides and a low level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol; plus resistance to insulin, a hormone that helps to regulate the amount of sugar in your body.”

The good news is that researchers in The Netherlands have found a connection between increased intake of carotenoids and a reduction in the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. Find out more in my first report below.

I am also including a couple of studies that relate to cardiovascular health. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology shows that people with low blood levels of magnesium may be at greater risk of suffering a stroke. Another study, published in the European Heart Journal, emphasizes how omega-3 fatty acids from fish can help cut the chances of heart failure in men.

As always, I wish you the very best of health.

Lee Swanson

Lee Swanson Research Update

Carotenoids may cut risk of metabolic syndrome in half

May 2009

Increased intakes of antioxidant carotenoids, and particularly lycopene, may reduce the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome by about 50%, according to a new study.

Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, Dutch scientists report that middle-aged and elderly men with highest average intake of all carotenoids had a 58% lower incidence of metabolic syndrome, while the highest intake of lycopene was associated with a 45% lower incidence, compared to men with the lowest average intakes.

A potentially protective effect was also observed for beta-carotene intakes, report the researchers, led by Ivonne Sluijs from the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a condition characterized by central obesity, hypertension and disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism. The syndrome has been linked to increased risks of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

“Higher total carotenoid, beta-carotene, alpha-carotene and lycopene intakes were associated with lower waist circumferences and visceral and subcutaneous fat mass,” wrote Sluijs and her co-workers. “Higher lycopene intake was related to lower serum triglyceride concentrations,” they added.

The findings were based on data from a population-based, cross-sectional study involving 374 men aged between 40 and 80, 22% of whom had metabolic syndrome. Intakes of the carotenoids, including alpha- and beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin, were assessed using a food frequency questionnaire.

Sluijs and her co-workers report that high intakes of all these compounds was associated with lower incidence of the syndrome, and that lycopene and beta-carotene in particular were linked to apparent protective effects.

“In conclusion, higher total carotenoid intakes, mainly those of beta-carotene and lycopene, were associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and with lower measures of adiposity and serum triglyceride concentrations in middle-aged and elderly men,” wrote the researchers.

Journal of Nutrition 139(5):987-992, 2009

Star Light, Star Bright

Its a mystery to me,  I  don’t understand how Ohio keeps producing these remarkable athletes!  Is it in the water?  The Air? Or is it just in the hearts of so many great, families who just happen to luck out with these super-remarkable, gritty and determined,  capable, ambitious  offspring?  What ever it is  my hat is off to the magic which dwells in their homes.  They must be doing many things right.     Once again, as I was when I posted on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,  I am truly awed by the majesty of the human spirit.  It is humbling to realize what people can go through, what obstacles can be overcome when the desire from the heart is great.

In this case, there is obviously more than desire, there is also great inner strength and the acquaintance with “joy”, love of others and pure and simple, the joy of doing.   I am delighted that aspirations reach beyond school and athleticism to the desire to become a physician in a field Katie knows so well – orthopedic surgery.

Katie, dear person, just keep on dancing to the beat of your own drummer.  I betcha anything the fellas upstairs are listening and celebrating joyfully.    Go girl. . . . . .     .      .

NO BOUNDARIES

Westerville South goalkeeper has never let spina bifida stop her

from pushing the envelope — in sports or life

By Mark Znidar
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

KELLIE MANIER DISPATCH
The only courtesy Katie Bondy asks of referees is a 30-second head start to the goal before the game and at the start of the second half.

“HTMLImage” style=”border: 1px solid; left: 0pt; width: 452px; position: relative; top: 0pt; height: 303px;”>put the braces back on and gave her the walker; she threw the walker away. My mother said, ‘Oh, she’s going to be a pistol.’ Nothing was going to hold her back.”
Katie suffers from a type of spina bifida called lipomyelomeningocele, a birth defect in which there is incomplete development of the spinal cord and/or its protective coverings. Her left leg is 2 inches shorter than the right, and she has a 28-degree backward curvature of the spine. The Bondys were told that even after multiple corrective surgeries, Katie wouldn’t be able to do many things other kids did.
In a way, the doctors were correct.
“Katie tried waterskiing, but it just didn’t work,” Kim said. “But let’s see now. She was dribbling a basketball at 3 years old and playing soccer at 4. She has gone snowboarding, rollerblading and rock-climbing. Am I forgetting one?”
Katie completed the list.
“I bike ride. I’m going to bike ride to school tomorrow,” she said. “I’ve played softball and volleyball. I threw the shot in track in seventh grade, and now I’m doing this.”
“Doing this” is serving as captain and goalkeeper for the Westerville South girls lacrosse team. At 5 feet and about 100 pounds, Katie is one of the best players at her position in central Ohio.
Katie , a senior with a 4.0 grade-point average, is thinking about entering pre-med at Wittenberg with hopes of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. She also will play lacrosse.
The only courtesy she asks of referees is a 30-second head start toward the goal before the game and for the start of the second half. She walks with a pronounced limp, even with a left shoe that has a sole 2 inches thicker than the right.
Otherwise, she’s one of the girls.
“Katie always has been one of us,” junior attacker Kaelyn Bildsten said. “Katie can’t run with us before the game, but you can see her doing pushups and other exercises on the side. She just doesn’t care about her disability. I met her when we played volleyball in middle school, and, I’ll tell you, she was a player. In lacrosse, she is skilled. She tells us where to line up defensively.”
First-year Westerville South coach Laura Reynolds, who was a standout lacrosse player at Bloomsburg (Pa.) State, knew about Katie’s disability before meeting her.
“You know what? All I needed to know was that she had the second-best goals-against average in our league,” Reynolds said. “She has lived up to everything I heard about her. This is a team that has been learning for three years, and she has had to be our leader. She is just so driven. What a pleasure to coach.”
But when Katie is at a shopping mall, restaurant or other public place, people still gawk, especially when they see her leg brace.
“Some people will ask, ‘What happened to your leg?’ ” she said. “I will give them the short version. If they continue to stare, I’m thinking, ‘OK, enough of that. You’re being ignorant.’ What I’ve done is deal with things and just move on. I’ve been able to excel because of my parents, my friends and God.”
Her parents have never thought about reining her in. Katie plays clarinet in the school wind ensemble and saxophone in the jazz band, and is a school athletic trainer.
“We call what has been dealt Katie a handicap, but our family is not big on enabling,” Kim said. “We’ve never — ever — thought about pulling her back in anything. And Katie is fearless.”
A lacrosse ball is composed of hard rubber. No one knows better than Katie that her pads don’t cover the entire body.
“I got hit here last week, and, boy, did it leave a big, red welt,” she said, pointing to her upper right arm. “I’ve never been scared to get hit. That’s all part of the game. I love this game. You get pelted, but you don’t worry about getting hurt. You worry about winning the game.”

Eat Meat? (price we pay)

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

Posted on April 22, 2009
by AlterNet – Premier Partner

The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortageand pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet.

My first post on the effect of eating meat on the environment provoked quite a bit of discussion, so in honor of Earth Day, I thought I should follow up with more information about how our natural resources (e.g., air, water, and soil) are depleted and devastated by animal agriculture.

Of course, Earth Day is also a good time to remember that animal agriculture only exists at astronomical levels because people are purchasing vast quantities of chicken, beef, pork, and fish. The market for meat (i.e., we, the consumers) drives the depletion and destruction.

1. Excrement produced by chickens, pigs, and other farm animals: 16.6 billion tons per year — more than a million pounds per second (that’s 60 times as much as is produced by the world’s human population — farmed animals produce more waste in one day than the U.S. human population produces in 3 years). This excrement is a major cause of air and water pollution. According to the United Nations: “The livestock sector is… the largest sectoral source of water pollution, contributing to eutrophication, ‘dead’ zones in coastal areas, degradation of coral reefs, human health problems, emergence of antibiotic resistance and many others.”
2. Water used for farmed animals and irrigating feed crops: 240 trillion gallons per year — 7.5 million gallons per second (that’s enough for every human to take 8 showers a day, or as much as is used by Europe, Africa, and South America combined). According to the UN: “[t]he water used by the sector exceeds 8 percent of the global human water use.” As just one example, “[O]n average 990 litres of water are required to produce one litre of milk.” So drinking milk instead of tap water requires almost 1,000 times as much water.
3. Emissions of greenhouse gases from raising animals for food: The equivalent of 7.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, according to the UN report. Concludes the UN: “The livestock sector is… responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.” That’s about 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships in the world combined (transport is 13%). And “The sector emits 37% of anthropogenic methane (with 23 times the global warming potential-or GWP-of CO2)… It emits 65% of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (with 296 times the GWP of CO2). These figures are based on the power of these gases over 100 years; in fact, over 20 years-a more important timeframe for dealing with global warming-methane and nitrous oxide are 72 times and 289 times more warming than CO2. And Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC (which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore) has been saying that the 18% figure is probably an underestimate.
4. It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein.
5. Soil erosion due to growing livestock feed: 40 billion tons per year (or 6 tons/year for every human being on the planet-of course if you don’t eat meat, none of this is attributed to you; if you’re in the U.S. where we eat lots more meat than most of the world, your contribution is many times greater than 6 tons/year). About 60% of soil that is washed away ends up in rivers, streams and lakes, making waterways more prone to flooding and to contamination from soil’s fertilizers and pesticides. Erosion increases the amount of dust carried by wind, polluting the air and carrying infection and disease.
6. Land used to raise animals for food: 10 billion acres. According to the UN: “In all, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.” And “70 percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures, and feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder.” And “About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction and erosion created by livestock action.”
7. According to the UN, animal agriculture is a leading case of water pollution. The main water pollutants in the US are sediments and nutrients. Animal agriculture is responsible for 55 percent of the erosion that causes sedimentation, and for a third of the main nutrient pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorous. On top of that, animal agriculture is the source of more than a third of the United States’ water pollution from pesticides, and half of its water pollution from antibiotics.
8. Livestock are also responsible for almost two-thirds of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.
9. Grain and corn raised for livestock feed that could otherwise feed people, according to the UN: 836 million tons per year (note that the more commonly used figure, 758 million tons, is metric). That’s more than 7 times the amount used for biofuels and is much more than enough to adequately feed the 1.4 billion humans who are living in dire poverty, and the number doesn’t even include the fact that almost all of the global soy crop (about 240 million tons of soy) is also fed to chickens, pigs, and other farmed animals.
10. An American saves more global warming pollution by going vegan than by switching their car to a hybrid Prius.
11. Razing the Amazon rainforest for pasture and feed crops: 5 million acres of Amazon per year. Former Amazon rainforest converted to raising animals for food since 1970 is more than 90% of all Amazon deforestation since 1970.
12. According to the UN: “Indeed, the livestock sector may well be the leading player in the reduction of biodiversity…” And “[l]ivestock now account for about 20 percent of the total terrestrial animal biomass, and the 30 percent of the earth’s land surface that they now pre-empt was once habitat for wildlife.” And “Conservation International has identified 35 global hotspots for biodiversity, characterized by exceptional levels of plant endemism and serious levels of habitat loss. Of these, 23 are reported to be affected by livestock production. An analysis of the authoritative World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species shows that most of the world’s threatened species are suffering habitat loss where livestock are a factor.”
13. United Nations scientists, in their 408-page indictment of the meat industry, sum up these statistics, pointing out that the meat industry is “one of the … most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global,” including “problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.”

Perhaps it’s time to explore vegetarianism. Click here for tips. Happy Eating!

AlterNet.org is a Premier Partner of SustainLane. AlterNet.org – Discover a progressive perspective on Environment and Water issues from two-time Webby award-winning independent national news site.

(more on) BROWN FAT

(This is an excerpt from a communication from Dr. Clark Research Assn. today.   Tho,  it is somewhat  humorous  it is nevertheless, something I’ve posted on before, so here goes. . . . . .   .     .)

This Fat Can Burn Your Calories!

The German Priest Sebastian Kneipp, who became famous because he cured 42 cases of cholera in Munich in 1854, and who recommended that his patients take baths in the wintery Danube river as a treatment, was of the opinion that people should not pamper themselves too much and that it was good to freeze and be cold on a regular basis. In one of his books he complains about the fashion of wearing scarves, and says that those who do should not be surprised if they come down with colds and all kinds of other problems.Well, now there is yet another reason to turn those heaters down and open the windows at night, namely the brown fat that will turn up the body’s own heaters when we are cold. What a convenient way to shed calories while you sleep! Beats sweating in a gym — if you don’t mind being cold:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1890175,00.html.

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Brown Fat:  A Fat that Helps You Lose Weight?

by Alice Park             April 8, 2009

For most people, fat is a burden. It doesn’t really matter whether it appears as cellulite on our thighs or cholesterol in our veins — we just don’t want it.

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But it turns out that our bodies also make a unique form of fat tissue that behaves remarkably unlike any other: rather than storing excess energy, this fat actually burns through it.

But it turns out that our bodies also make a unique form of fat tissue that behaves remarkably unlike any other: rather than storing excess energy, this fat actually burns through it.

It’s called brown fat (as opposed to the more familiar white fat that hangs over belt buckles and swings from the backs of arms), and a series of papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirm for the first time that healthy adults have stores of this adipose tissue, which researchers hope to study further as a potential new weight-loss treatment.

Until now, only rodents and human newborns have been known to have any significant deposits of brown fat, so called because of its abnormally high concentration of dark-colored mitochondria, the engines that sustain cell activity. The primary purpose of brown fat is to regulate body temperature: the mitochondria-packed cells are designed to burn high quantities of sugar, the body’s fuel, and release that energy as heat — a mechanism that newborns, fresh from the warm confines of the womb, rely on to keep them toasty.

As people age, however, the body becomes more adept at regulating temperature, so brown-fat stores shrink and white fat starts to emerge. (From a biological perspective, brown fat is also highly inefficient, since cells don’t need heat to run; rather, they use ATP, another chemical produced by mitochondria.) Adults with appreciable amounts of brown fat are usually those who have certain types of cancer or hyperthyroidism, conditions that stimulate the growth of brown fat.

But Dr. Sven Enerbäck at the University of Göteborg in Sweden has shown, using the latest imaging technologies, that healthy adults retain a sizable amount of brown fat in the front and back of the neck. (That was a surprise, since in rodents, the depots tend to be along the back, around the shoulder blades.) Enerbäck and his team studied five patients and confirmed, using genetic analysis, that the cells around the neck were indeed brown fat.

In a sense, scientists have known this for years. While scanning patients with positron emission tomography (PET), an imaging technique often used on cancer patients to detect the spread of tumors, scientists have long noted the excess activity of brown-fat cells in their images. They just didn’t realize what they were looking at.

Since PET picks up glucose-burning activity in cells, hot spots on PET scans of cancer patients generally indicate actively growing tumors. But after doing biopsies, doctors found that hot spots in the neck of most of their patients (More on weren’t cancerous at all. These turned out to be brown-fat deposits.

“We set forth to actually pinpoint whether the PET glucose-uptake areas corresponded to true brown-fat tissue, and I think we more or less proved the case,” says Enerbäck, who found that those mystery cells in the neck expressed the same proteins as brown fat.

Identifying the presence of brown fat is one thing, but activating it to burn more glucose is another. Two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, including Enerbäck’s, confirmed that brown-fat cells become more active in the cold — that is, when study participants needed to boost their body temperature. Enerbäck saw increased activity when he plunged one foot of each volunteer into an ice bath while in the scanner. In a separate study, scientists at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands also saw upticks in brown-fat activity in subjects who had been chilling in a 16�C (61�F) room for two hours. (PET technicians have also long known that putting patients in warmer rooms tends to keep that bothersome extra activity from showing up on their images.)

But before we all turn our thermostats down or consider joining the Polar Bear Club, can brown fat actually cause weight loss? Brown fat may indeed shift the balance of calorie intake and expenditure — allowing a person to burn more calories with the same amount of consumption — without the chore of going to the gym or sweating through a workout. “We have very few interventions aimed at increasing energy expenditure,” says Dr. Franceso Celi, a clinician at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. “And here we have a tissue that works exactly with the purpose of burning energy.” On the basis of animal models, researchers calculate that 50 g of brown fat — less than what the scientists in the current series of papers documented in their volunteers — could burn about 20% of an average person’s daily caloric intake.

In a third study in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that leaner people tended to have more brown-fat deposits than overweight or obese individuals. Interestingly, women were twice as likely as men to have active brown fat, according to the study, conducted by Dr. Ronald Kahn and his colleagues at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Still, the findings don’t necessarily mean that activating brown fat leads to a trimmer waist. For one thing, the body is especially good at maintaining equilibrium, which is why a boost in calorie-burning can often trigger a hunger signal and prompt people to eat more to make up for the loss. And even if drug companies could find a way to activate brown fat safely, that excess activity could throw off other metabolic systems and damage your health. After all, the people who have the most active brown fat so far are those with cancer and hyperthyroidism.