Fluoride: It's Poison

Good Day Everyone!

Today's topic is fluoride. I know we all grew up brushing with fluoridated toothpaste. Did you know that there's enough floride in one tube to kill a small child! And not only that, it's bad for your teeth. Sigh. What have they been selling us all these years? That better living through chemistry stuff.

Fluoride
Excerpts from Fluoride—What's Wrong With This Picture?
By Andreas Schuld - head of Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC).

Fluoride, according to the 1984 issue of Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, 5th Edition (1984) is more poisonous than lead and just lightly less poisonous than arsenic. It is used as a rat poison. The EPA has set 0.015 ppm as the maximum “safe” level for lead in drinking water—yet the maximum “safe” level for fluoride is currently set at 4.0ppm, over 250 times the permissible level for lead.

Studies have shown that fluoride causes motor dysfunction, IQ deficits and/or learning disabilities in humans. Fluoride exposure impairs memory and concentration, and causes lethargy, headache, depression and confusion in humans. Interestingly, suicide occurs more frequently than expected in populations of fluoride workers.

In 1957 it was found that even waters containing a mere 0.1ppm (0.1 mg/l) could cause dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of fluoride overdose. Moreover, there is not one single double-blind study to indicate that fluoridation is effective in reducing cavities.
Dental fluorosis is a condition caused by an excessive intake of fluorides, characterised mainly by
mottling of the enamel (which starts as ”white spots"). Dental fluorosis can only occur during the stage of enamel formation and is therefore a sign that an overdose of fluoride has occurred in a child during that period. The dental profession describes the defect as merely “cosmetic."
What is now becoming apparent is that this “cosmetic" defect actually predisposes to tooth decay.

The world's largest study on dental caries, which looked at 400,000 students, revealed that decay increased 27 percent with a 1ppm fluoride increase in drinking water.
In Japan, fluoridation caused decay increases of 7 percent in 22,000 students, while in the US a decay increase of 43 percent occurred in 29,000 students when 1ppm fluoride was added to drinking water.

Currently up to 80 percent of US children suffer from some degree of dental fluorosis, while in Canada the figure is up to 71 percent.

Before the push for fluoridation began, the dental profession recognized that fluorides were not
beneficial but detrimental to dental health. In 1944, the Journal of the American Dental Association reported: “With 1.6 to 4ppm fluoride in the water, 50 percent or more people past age 24 have false teeth because of fluoride damage to their own teeth."

The fluoride compound in “naturally" fluoridated waters is calcium fluoride. However, this is NOT the compound used to fluoridate water! Sodium fluoride and hydrofluorosilicic acid are used in over 90 percent of fluoridation programs. Hydrofluorosilicic acid is a direct by-product of pollution scrubbers used in the phosphate fertilizer and aluminium industries.
Animal studies have revealed that hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium fluoride are much more toxic thancalcium fluoride.

Fluoride facts
1. The assertion that fluoride is good for teeth is a myth
2. Countries with the best dental health do not fluoridate drinking water
3. There is enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a small child

European Fluoride facts:
1. 98% of Europe's drinking water is fluoridation-free
2. The fluoride added to Irish drinking water is toxic waste from the fertiliser industry
3. Less than 2% of Europe's population have fluoridated water.
4. Sweden banned fluoridation in 1971.
5. West Germany discontinued fluoridation in 1971.
6. Norway rejected fluoridation in 1975.
7. Holland banned fluoridation in 1976 and changed its constitution so that it could never again be introduced.
8. Denmark rejected fluoridation in 1977. The Minister for Environment stated, "no adequate studies had been carried out on the long term effect on human organ systems".
9. France rejected fluoridation in 1980. The Chief of Public Health declared it was too dangerous.
10. 25 out of 26 Councils in Northern Ireland have recently rejected fluoridation.
USA Fluoride Facts Since 1990 over 45 US cities have rejected fluoridation.

In 1990 forty US dentists brought a case against the American Dental Association contending that the Association purposefully shielded the public from data that links fluoride to genetic defects, cancer and other health problems.
All US fluoride toothpaste must carry a poisons symbol, with a warning to contact the nearest poisons unit if more than a pea-sized amount of toothpaste is swallowed.

In 1997 the Union of Government Scientists of the United States Environmental Protection Agency voted unanimously to co-sponsor a Californian initiative to ban fluoridation, stating "Our members review of the body of evidence over the last 11 years, including animal and human epidemiology studies, indicates a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment and bone pathology."

So there you have it. What to do? One Group in their Miessence Line of Certified Organic Personal Care Products offers a 100% natural with no synthetic chemical toothpaste that I can vouch for. It works. It tastes good. It whitens my teeth and I have no worries if someone should try to eat it.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

REnew Yourself!

Greetings Everyone!

A good day to be alive, yes? YES!

I love to report serendipitous events. So here's how today's blog came about. I was searching for a detox system to start the New Year off. So I wandered into Sprouts, a local health food store, and right inside the door was a display of "kits". Guess I'm not the only one?

I chose the organic one, of course, and having read all the whole herbs included, I threw it into the cart.

This morning I read the directions, but not only that, there was included a DVD in the kit. So I watched it and met Barbara Watson. This lady knows her stuff.

I am, by no means, a clinical nutritionist, a doctor, or herbalist. I am a lay person on all these counts. But I do have a background in science (premed and nursing); I do have an extensive background in herbs as a organic grower; and I have my intuition which functions perfectly.

For the past year I've been conducting a research project of my own regarding nutrition and auto immune diseases. It's been a very interesting and enlightening journey. One thing leads to the other as what you ask to know is answered.

My hypothesis has been that we are so toxic (exposed to and consume) that our immune systems are simple pooped out. They are gasping, "Enough!" It's what I call (see previous blog) the "Drip, Drip, Drip Syndrome".

Certainly there are "tolerable" amounts of any poison(s) that the body can adjust to, eliminate and transmute. But toxins in the water, food, air, skin care products, everywhere have caused American bodies to reach "critical mass" of sick.

Back to Barbara Watson. In her video she explains so clearly and simply how the body disposes of toxins (her 7 channels of waste elimination) and how we can support them back to health.

Further she describes a load of symptoms that in listening to them I can say almost everyone I know has those complaints.

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. It's primary functions are protection from external toxins and elimination through perspiration of internal toxins. So whenever you apply to your skin a product that contains mineral oil or other petroleum based product which blocks the pores from perspiration, you hinder a fundamental and primary function of toxin elimination.

Take Home #1 for Today: Go through absolutely every skin care, hair care, sun screen, lotion and potion in your cupboard and throw out anything with mineral oil or petroleum. This includes children's products! And get rid of anything that is a "deodorant" . Deodorants were designed to stop sweating. Instead, use a "deodorant" which has no synthetic chemicals in the formulations.

Barbara Watson talks about how toxins and a poor digestive/elimination system back up and have effects on the skin. She advocates probiotics as a daily supplement! These supplements such as InLiven and Fast Track by One Group are essential to daily INTERNAL cleansing.

Take Home #2 for today: Start today and eliminate as many toxins as you can from your own internal and external environment. How?
Stop using plastic to heat your food.
Get rid of your plastic water bottle and replace it with stainless steel or glass.
Eat/use/consume only organic products whenever possible. The strategy for today is "pick your poison". I personally love a lovely glass of wine. But I can drink organic milk, eat organic produce (or grow my own); I can insist on organic meat, chick, and wild raised fish.

All things affect everything else. The human body is a most miraculous "machine", but we are at "critical mass" of toxic.

Be critical about what's in the products you consume. Read the labels. Buy organic whenever possible and even better, certified organic if you can find it. You can send me an e-mail and I will send you the list of toxins that are in your skin care products.

Beauty beings as an inside job.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

Discover Your Fountain of Youth

Hello Everyone!

Well, it's a New Year - again! Yikes!
And we all know what that means...another year older. Earth years, anyway. What a concept to understand that we all get older and then accept that for yourself. Yuck! Not their versions, anyway!

So I'm thinking that making peace with that would be a good thing to achieve in the New Year!

So, here's a concept to work with in 2008: ageless and timeless; beautiful and radiant; love(ly) inside and out.

Ageless and timeless:
I hear people all over the place talking like this, "when you get to be a certain age," or "at our age," or "when you're young", or any other variation of this limiting theme.

It pretty much used to make me furious. Like I was doomed to their experiences (all bad) of achieving their age.

Well first of all achieving another year is a blessing, to be sure. I get to be here! I get to love! I get to create something new! I get to have adventures! I get to choose again and again! So I resolved to celebrate achieving another year, because I get to be here and be alive!

But I don't have to accept any label about the number of my years. I don't have to accept that if I'm a teenager, then I have no wisdom. Bah!

I don't have to accept that if I'm approaching middle age, I start to shrink and wrinkle like an apple. Those ideas are "their" concepts of life, not mine.

So I started constructing my working concept of achieving another year. It's WELL. It's ageless and timeless. It's gorgeous, sexy,vital and wise no matter what the year's number says.

I get to write my own book on how that looks and feels for me.

And so do you!!!

Believing in yourSelf is step one of this beauty regime. Knowing how lovely You Really Are, and subsequently adoring, loving and championing yourSelf.

So, try this on for your New Year's Resolution: Fall in Love with YourSELF. Have you ever noticed how beautiful someone is when they're in love? It's the magic potion, the fountain of youth, and the healing exlir.

Love ThySelf first.


Happy New Year!


Thanks for Reading!


Kath

A Tangled Web - The Trail of Wellness

Good Day Everyone:

You know, little did I know when I found myself growing my own herbs and formulating my own skin care potions that there was a "movement" going on out there. Yikes!

It is simply impossible to separate good, honest skincare from good health, which leads us to toxins, which leads us to organics, which leads us to industrial gardening, which leads us to ....good grief!

Ok. I have always thought good health or good anything was and is pretty much a matter of "common sense."
I could be the last of the breed. But I don't think so, rather I think that having common sense is a species that neared extinction and is now being resurrected.

There is a marvelous book out there (see link above) called the 100 Year Lie. But I even hate to refer you to this as your authority, when in the end, it is your own Inner Guidance and Common Sense that should be and IS your own authority.

Further, I really am not inclined to stir up your "fear" factors. Decisions and reactions made from fear are always a downward spiral into nothing good. So. I can explain to you that when I make decisions about what I consume, it is because it feels GOOD to me, as it should for you. That is a well decision.

I am surprised as heck that "Going Green" is now politic. I cannot remember a time when I was not "green" at least as much as was possible in the market place, which is why I started concocting my own herbal potions. Just because it felt better and growing things is a whole lot of fun.

So I'm not going to motivate anyone out of fear. Period. If you look around you, observe things that are displeasing or alarming to you in others or even yourself with respect to health care or potions or ointments or your food; well, then, LISTEN UP!

If you can begin to eliminate synthetic chemicals from your own consumption in anyway, shape or form: food, skin care, air, soil, clothing, medicines: well, take responsibility and go for it. I call it "picking your poison."

But the most important single thing that you can begin doing is trusting yourSelf as your own authority; not "them". Them could be anyone: parents, friends, government agencies, corporate spokespersons - you have to be the one to "feel" the correctness of whatever concerns you, for you.

How does this figure into Honest Skincare? In an early post I found myself unable to compartmentalize all the information. It's all interconnected. So I began trying to give you straight information about skincare and find that I cannot compartmentalize it from your food, your environment, politics, but you are the ultimate decision maker for you.

When I was a little girl I remember DuPont coming out with their ad campaign of "Better Living Through Chemistry." I can recall the question mark feeling inside myself even then. It wasn't fear, it was simply - "Hmm, we'll see about that...." kinda thing.

At the same time I believe and trust in the inherent wisdom of the human body and its resiliency and desire to be in its normal state of wellness. So if you are afraid of becoming sick, you will become sick; therefore I don't want to and will not motivate you from a fear basis. Fear Not. But rather, move always towards what feels better, what feels good, what feels right, what feels true. And as you do this, you will notice that the decisions keep changing and ultimately get easier. What once felt right, doesn't have the same correctness now. So, you choose again, and again, and again.

One thing I will say is that American is waking up from a long slumber of giving away personal power to "other" authorities. When you find yourself stepping into the world of alternative medicines, supplements, cleansing programs, organic foods, you will find the old habit still operating - trusting someone else's authority on a subject rather than your own. The Lemming Response, I call it. But don't give up on yourself. The correctness of a pill, a powder, a potion or a lotion for you, lies within You. You can feel it. And it may only be correct for awhile, and then you move on, change and choose again.

Exercise because the activity feels wonderful. I personally hate the formal "gym" and all the machines involved. I would rather swim, haul firewood, garden or build a rock wall. Dancing! Now there's my kind of exercise, where I don't even notice that I'm exercising. It's painless, it's fun and, by the way, I moved my body.

Eat what FEELS lovely to you. Be involved with the process of growing, cooking and really tasting your food. Does it taste divine? Do you even remember what you ate? Did you listen to your body and what it was asking for? Are you consuming via rote, habit and no-thought?

Take your "treatments" where they feel correct and good. Does your mind tell you that massage is for sissy's or a complete indulgence or certainly not for real men? A waste of money? Challenge your thoughts. To feel good is our right. To feel stressed is what we have come to accept, and it is making us sick.

Sniff out your trail of wellness for yourself. YourSelf will guide you, if you but listen to It.

Meanwhile here's a site to get unbiased "news" for your mind to chew on. http://www.newstarget.com/015020.html
Your intuition doesn't need the news, but alas, your head loves this stuff.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

Intuition and Skincare

Hello Everyone,

I keep thinking with my human mind that you can compartmentalize the areas of your life, but find constantly that you cannot.

I was just looking at the polling results for "how do you choose your skincare" and find that someone checked that they use their intuition. Brilliant!

There is no escaping it, if you're tuned into that channel. And it would be my hope that you are always, always tuned into your Inner Channel.

There are several methods for physically testing what your Intuition would have to say about a product or a food or whatever thing in the physical world you are contemplating. One method of course if muscle testing, which is really (I think) hard to do on yourself. When I go to the chiropractor, she has me hold a product then checks my up lifted arm for strength or weakness. If it's strong and firm, it's good for me. If it falls down weakly, it's not for me.

The method one can use on your own is to simply hold the product in both hands, close your eyes and see if your body leans forward, backward or sided to side. Forward leaning indicates your body wants it; backward is a no; and side to side results indicate that something in it is desired and something in it is not.

Of course these are methods used if you don't trust your Intuition, your knowing, yet. But keep practicing and cultivating it until you do.

You simply can't separate out good skincare from your Self. It's an integrated system. And always your Intuition or Self is whispering to you what you need and guiding your always towards your GOOD.

Ever stood at the refrigerator door looking for "something". You go through the frig: hamburger, no; apple, no; eggs, that sounds good. Well, that's it. That's your Inner Self telling you what it needs and wants. Oddly, sometimes it's the potato chip or milk shake.

Your Inner Self is not in sync with the mental labels we're conditioned to think about things. Eggs for example. The "world" would have you limit your consumption of eggs for cholesterol reasons, fear. But you Body, your Knowing, has no idea of that human construct and guides you to use, consume what it Knows to be good for it. It does not fail; it cannot lie. But usually what happens if we consume that egg is the internal conflict, thus pretty much negating the benefits of that egg.

Once you learn to trust your Knowing, the inner conflict goes away. That is to say, once you shift your "authority" from "out there" to "in here", you are at peace with your Self and usually quite healthy and happy.

In all this discussion about honest skincare, of course, the "honest" part is with you ultimately.
I can only speak for me. My body likes pure. My body thrives on pure. My body delights in pure. So that's what I use, that's what I enjoy, that's where I thrive.

But I also believe that most bodies do. Why? Because they are alive and organic organisms. And like loves like. And more, in the "aliveness" is Quality. Quality, to my mind, being a noun, here.
The more Quality in a substance, the more our bodies and beingness respond with joy because that's who we really are: Quality.

Thanks for reading!


Kath

Potent Herbs, Health and You

Good Day Everyone,

I'm on a kick....just finished reading my favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver's newest book, Animal, Vegetable and Miracle.

I am a writer, as well, but Barbara Kingsolver is the master. She has such a way with her words.
In this book you can learn a bunch, laugh out loud and be inspired to change your life. The journey is about how they moved to Appalachia to the family farm to eat locally for one year.

In the book Kingsolver describes how and why organically grown food is up to 60% more nutritious than commercially and industrially grown food. It's because the plant has to build up it's resistance and fight off bugs and infections. In the course of this "struggling" it builds up character in the form of high nutrition and antioxidants.

Kingsolver is a biologist, yet tells her story in lyrical ways and you hardly know you're learning something profound. No you don't have to smear blueberries on your face, but definitely eat them in season and freeze some or can some for eating later in the year.

Honest Skincare is about the honest naked truth. And the Truth is that the food we eat from the grocery story is largely produced by genetically modified seed and in worn out ground and replete with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, non of which is good for the plant or the human.

Recently (within the last year) I have been conducting my own personal research on the subject of compromised immune systems. Why? Because people all around me, including myself, have been dealing with compromised immune systems. This startles me because most of the folks I know still really "cook" dinner, don't eat fast foods or junk foods, and pay attention. So I started my sleuthing and it seems (although the final results are still not in) that it all points to our food.

If you want a healthy body, lovely skin, you must start with the nutrition that used to come potently and naturally in the foods we eat. In like if you are using "organic" skin care, then you MUST be certain that it is CERTIFIED ORGANIC. Certified Organic will insure that the plants or herbs are NOT genetically modified and that they are potent and the life force in them viable and available to feed your skin, your body, your hair, your teeth.

Buy now, the Quality you deserve. If not, buy later - the medical bills to fix it.
Quality is a noun...it says Life. You get to choose.

Thanks for reading,

Kath

Probiotics - What is THAT?

hello Everyone!

More and more we are seeing the "probiotics" entering the market place. I think probably that most of us are familiar with them in conjunction with yogurt or kefir. I am supplying a link (www.usprobiotics.org/basics) so that you can read as much data as you heart desires first hand.

At the start here, let me lay the ground for this discussion. We're talking about skin care and health care; we are talking about the skin as an integral part of your overall health. You might like to treat the symptom, wrinkles, acne, sagging, whatever) but this blog is about treating the source of the problem, which is ill-health.

Aging is about years, not about health and beauty. So when I talk about your health, you can substitute beauty, skin, well being. Because you are a complete organism and you cannot separate one part from the other.

Having said that, we'll get on to the discussion of probiotics.

Basically in layman's terms, probiotics (for-life) vs. anti-biotics (against life) are a natural method of staying healthy. In other words, it is a built in system supplied to everyone at birth and is with you your entire life. Natural self-defense, and it works great.

The human body, much as we might not like to think of it in such a way, is a living breathing organism with bugs - good bugs!!! And it is these good bugs that help us digest food, eliminate waste, fend off "bad" bugs, and they are absolutely and utterly essential to a healthy organism - your body. Of course, your skin is another one of those organs that helps you eliminate wastes and toxins, as well. In fact, your skin is your largest organ. It lives and it breathes. It's your natural cooling system, it absorbs and protects. It's ingenious.

And you thought this blog was going to be fluff....well, it's not for the superficial. In order to have beautiful and healthy skin, your body has to eliminate the wastes and the toxins. These "pro-biotics" or good intestinal bugs are the lifeline to that.

There are many things in our modern culture that cause us to become imbalanced and therefore the good bugs get out numbered. The first thing that comes to mind is stress, and certainly none of us has any of that, right? Another huge offender to the good intestinal flora and fauna are antibiotics. While they might kill the infection in your foot or your bladder, they are also killing the intestinal flora and fauna that help you stay well. A common symptom among women is a vaginal yeast infection, telling you your bugs are out of balance.

Antibiotics, which are normally prescribed for acne and roseacea, actually run counter to your own body trying to regain balance by destroying the natural flora and fauna that would be assisting in eliminating toxins and waste products. What doesn't get eliminated, backs up not just in your colon, but in your skin and elsewhere.

So, it is imperative to keep that intestinal track in a probiotic favored state. There are many, many products on the market for this, and there is eating yogurt and drinking kefir. One of the ideas I would like to suggest here, is that you start to have a "feel" for how you're insides are doing. Pay attention. Your diet has everything to do with this balance and imbalance. I know that my body will tolerate about one glass of wine. Give it two and it is not happy. That's me. Check yourself and start noticing what you "feel" like.

If your probiotics are in balance and flourishing, you probably can drink milk, eat wheat, etc. The body is a miraculous device that adapts well, but when overloaded, struggles to compensate.

Now here's the really big news about probiotics. Probiotics are actually now being used as methods for treating acne and roseacea. After cleansing the skin, a probiotic is sprayed onto the face and afflicted areas restoring the good bugs, which eat the bad bugs. Now how cool is that?

Now wait, there's more....probiotics are now being used instead of disinfectants as cleaning products. Imagine this: you spray a probiotic on the toilet seat, on the kitchen counter, on the surfaces in the baby's room....live, good bugs destroy the bad ones. That's the new method. The old one is to kill every bug in town, Hiroshima for bugs. How insane is that?

Let's get rid of these hand sanitizers, and disinfectants that actually diminish out body's ability to respond to bugs, and replace our cleaning supplies with probiotics.

If you want to be Pro-Life---here's the place to cast your vote.

I'm sure in the near future we are going to see many more applications for probiotics - perhaps in water sanitization? Where else? The sky is the limit.