The Truth About Vitamins & Supplements
by Ronnie Cummins, National Director, OCA

The Organic Consumers Association is proud to announce a new nationwide campaign called Nutri-Con: The Down Side of the Vitamin & Supplement Industry. Nutri-Con will expose the hazards and limited effectiveness of synthetic vitamins and supplements, and strive to create mass consumer awareness and marketplace demand for truly organic, “naturally occurring” vitamins, botanicals, and supplements.
Part of this campaign will be the implementation of a new set of Naturally Occurring Standards (NOS), certification procedures, and labels which are truly “organic and beyond,” and to expose the fact that 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as “natural” or “food based” actually are spiked with synthetic chemicals.

A major underlying theme of this campaign will be to steadily inform and remind consumers that Big Pharma’s prescription and over the counter drugs are generally hazardous substances offering no real solution to our health problems; while preventive health and wellness promotion, traditional holistic remedies, and complementary medicine practices represent the “organic road” to health.

That is what we use. Natural and organic.

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The Basics
To help prevent the development of “superbugs” that are resistant to antibiotics, doctors commonly warn their patients that antibiotics should only be used for bacterial infections, and should be taken at the proper dosage for the full course of treatment.
Industrial farms violate these medical principles every day by feeding healthy animals low doses of antibiotics over long periods of time in order to speed up their growth and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions. This creates the ideal breeding ground for dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria to thrive and spread.
This misuse of antibiotics on industrial farms threatens the health of farm workers, communities and the public.
Did you know?
Up to 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to animals raised on industrial farms that aren’t sick, to offset crowding and poor sanitation. This practice promotes the development of deadly strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans.
Penicillins, tetracyclines, macrolides, sulfonamides and other antibiotic intended for humans are typically pre-mixed in poultry and livestock feed or added to drinking water, often giving food animals constant low doses of antibiotics over much of their entire lives.
Ninety percent of hogs and 97 percent of poultry are grown on factory farms in the United States. More>
For your information: reduce meat consumption, loose weight, use natural supplements to help your body to regulate it’s immune system.
Do not overuse antibiotics:
Infectious bugs increasingly becoming resistant to drugs, experts say

After an imaging test revealed a small nodule in Dr. Len Lichtenfeld’s lung, his doctor ordered a series of CT scans. But Lichtenfeld turned them down.

As deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, Lichtenfeld knew the tiny nodule probably wasn’t dangerous and that new research has documented an increased risk of cancer from CT scans’ X-rays.

“The reality is, I thought the radiation dose from those follow-up scans represented more of a threat than the nodule,” he said.

As physicians find new ways to use diagnostic imaging to discover and deal with disease, concern is growing about Americans’ increased exposure to potentially cancer-causing radiation. Annual radiation doses from medical imaging have soared sevenfold since the early 1980s, according to a report last year from the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Meanwhile, as many as 14,500 people a year may end up dying of radiation-induced cancers caused by CT scans, new research suggests.

Scrutiny is focusing primarily on more than 70 million CT scans performed in the U.S. every year, up from 3 million in the early 1980s. The scans help doctors identify brain tumors, kidney stones and obstructed bowels. They have revolutionized medicine, virtually eliminating exploratory surgery and aiding millions of patients.
Read more>

Now, medical experts say some people who are taking aspirin on a regular basis should think about stopping. Public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target a narrower group of patients who are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin’s side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers, might outweigh the potential benefits when taken by many healthy or older people.
Aspirin acts as a blood thinner, which is believed to account for much of its benefit of protecting against heart attacks and strokes. But that same action, along with a tendency to deplete the stomach’s protective lining, can lead to a danger of gastrointestinal bleeding and possibly bleeding in the brain.
Not all patients accustomed to taking aspirin will want to stop. Maxine Fischer, 55 years old, recently figured out that under the new U.S. guidelines, she wouldn’t be encouraged to continue with the drug. Using an online calculator, which factored such data as her age, blood pressure and medical history, she learned she had just a 1% likelihood of a stroke in the next 10 years. Under the guidelines, only women in her age group with at least a 3% or higher stroke risk should take aspirin.
Full article >

The natural product that we recommend may help. It is OPC-3- the powerful antioxidant that also makes blood cells slippery.

A nutrient that the body needs in small amounts to function and stay healthy. Vitamin D helps the body use calcium and phosphorus to make strong bones and teeth. It is fat-soluble (can dissolve in fats and oils) and is found in fatty fish, egg yolks, and dairy products. Skin exposed to sunshine can also make vitamin D. Not enough vitamin D can cause a bone disease called rickets. It is being studied in the prevention and treatment of some types of cancer. Also called cholecalciferol.
1. What is vitamin D?
Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin. It is the name given to a group of fat-soluble prohormones (substances that are precursors to hormones that usually have little hormonal activity by themselves). Two major forms of vitamin D that are important to humans are vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, and vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol. Vitamin D2 is made naturally by plants, and vitamin D3 is made naturally by the body when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation (in particular, UVB radiation) in sunlight. Vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 can also be manufactured.
The active form of vitamin D in the body is 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, or calcitriol, which can be made from either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3. To make the active form, vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 are modified in the liver to produce 25-hydroxyvitamin D, which travels through the blood to the kidneys, where it is modified further to make 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.
Vitamin D is involved in a number of processes that are essential for good health, including the following:
· It helps improve muscle strength and immune function.
· It helps reduce inflammation.
· It promotes the absorption of calcium from the small intestine.
· It helps maintain adequate blood levels of the calcium and phosphate needed for bone formation, mineralization (incorporating minerals to increase strength and density), growth, and repair (1–3).
Most people get the vitamin D they need through sunlight exposure. It can also be obtained through the diet, but very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. These foods include fatty fish, fish liver oil, and eggs. Smaller amounts are found in meat and cheese. Most dietary vitamin D comes from fortified foods, such as milk, juices, yogurt, bread, and breakfast cereals. Vitamin D can also be obtained through dietary supplements. Fortified foods and dietary supplements usually contain either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), America’s main law governing chemical safety, requires the government prove chemicals are harmful instead of requiring manufacturers to prove they’re safe. As a result, virtually every American is exposed to hundreds of toxic chemicals every day.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with two EDF scientists in this field: Richard Denison, EDF’s Senior Scientist specializing in policy, hazard and risk assessment and management for industrial chemicals and nanomaterials; and Caroline Baier-Anderson, EDF’s Health Scientist providing technical and scientific support on chemical regulatory policy, air toxics and nanotechnology.

Read more: http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=52312

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An interesting article. Is it really an eye opener?

National Institute of Aging

Regular exercise and physical activity are important to the physical and mental health of almost everyone, including older adults. Being physically active can help you continue to do the things you enjoy and stay independent as you age. Regular physical activity over long periods of time can produce long-term health benefits. That’s why health experts say that older adults should be active every day to maintain their health.

In addition, regular exercise and physical activity can reduce the risk of developing some diseases and disabilities that develop as people grow older. In some cases, exercise is an effective treatment for many chronic conditions. For example, studies show that people with arthritis, heart disease, or diabetes benefit from regular exercise. Exercise also helps people with high blood pressure, balance problems, or difficulty walking.

One of the great things about physical activity is that there are so many ways to be active. For example, you can be active in short spurts throughout the day, or you can set aside specific times of the day on specific days of the week to exercise. Many physical activities — such as brisk walking, raking leaves, or taking the stairs whenever you can — are free or low cost and do not require special equipment. You could also check out an exercise video from the library or use the fitness center at a local senior center.

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