Your World and You: Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health – Issue 12 (Premium)
Environmental and Nutritional Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health
This feature highlights reports, studies, and feedback from families on efforts that can make a positive impact in our quest for health. We invite you to share material with us that you think would be of interest to our readers.
Topics featured in this article:
- Only one in five doctors tells pregnant women this critical information
- Are your child’s poor grades due to not studying or to arsenic in your water?
- The sugar lobby: “Added sugar, subtracted science”
- A mystery from Australia: If you get sick from eating these chickens and you could be in big trouble
- Could this help others with persistent eye-blinking?
- Are wood heaters the new asbestos?
- Thanks to the internet, these scientists can’t be silenced about the dangers of pesticide-treated GMO corn
1) Only one in five doctors tells pregnant women this critical information
Smoking, drinking alcohol, too much weight gain, and diet or nutrition are common topics with obstetricians. Why don’t they warn pregnant mothers about the dangers of toxic exposures, particularly from plastics? Researchers suggest it is because they don’t know much about environmental issues beyond lead and mercury. Among other sources, dangerous phthalates “are found in air fresheners and dish soap, and have been linked to obesity and miscarriages.” Check it out here.
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2) Are your child’s poor grades due to not studying or to arsenic in your water?
Arsenic can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It is also linked at low levels to IQ deficits in children. The main source is water from a private well; The U.S. Geological Survey that as many as 3 million consume water that wouldn’t meet the EPA standard. See this article from The Center for Public Integrity and find out what you can do.
3) The sugar lobby: “Added sugar, subtracted science”
It’s been happening for decades: studies show the negative effects of sugar on health, and the sugar lobby manages to counter the findings by spending millions to confuse the issue. In a great article by the Union of Concerned Scientists called Added Sugar, Subtracted Science, the behind-the-scenes efforts of the sugar industry are exposed. Article
4) A mystery from Australia: If you get sick from eating these chickens and you could be in big trouble
Researchers have found evidence of a banned antibiotic in chickens for sale in major supermarkets and butchers. More than 280 samples were taken around Canberra. In the samples that were contaminated with E.coli, “almost two thirds of the bugs were resistant to some form of antibiotic.” Read the article that explains if a human got sick from consuming the contaminated chicken, it would be “difficult to treat.” Further, the mystery is that some of the samples were resistant to a type of antibiotic that is banned from use with food-producing animals. See article here. An aside: Supermarket chicken in the UK is to blame for the most number of food poisoning cases (see Mail Online).
5) Could this help others with persistent eye-blinking?
Sheila Rogers DeMare: When I first saw goggles mentioned in a thread on our Tics and Tourette Syndrome Forum, I assumed it was related to swimming. After all, we frequently hear from families who find that swimming in chemically-treated pools can cause an increase in eye-rolling and other eye-tics, as well as tics in general. it is known that typical pool chemicals have the potential to aggravate the nervous system. But I was wrong, it wasn’t the swimming! The person posting was referring to his own discovery that simply wearing tight swim goggles helped his irritating eye-blinking. He said it relieved the impulse to blink. What have you found that is helpful for eye tics? Please see the Forum post, which began with a discussion on eye-rolling, and see if you have something to add. Here’s the link to the recent post on eye tics.
6) Are wood heaters the new asbestos?
Many of you are enjoying some warm summer weather, but for our friends down-under, it’s winter time. Wood heaters are very popular there for taking the chill out. But the CEO of the Asthma Foundation says Australians should be “alarmed” about the dangers posed by wood fire heaters. A spokesman from the Australian Lung Foundation has suggested wood fire heaters should be banned from urban areas. “There is no safe level of wood fire smoke in urban areas,” he said. See the story from the Sydney Morning Herald to find out if burning wood is putting your family’s health at risk.
7) Thanks to the internet, these scientists can’t be silenced about the dangers of pesticide-treated GMO corn
A publication by Channel NewsAsia focuses on the controversy over research that accuses Monsanto of producing a product used on corn crops that disrupts the immune system and causes tumors and illness. Work by French researchers was published and then withdrawn amid controversy. So the authors, who stand by their work, lashed out at the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal for withdrawing it and published all their material online. See it here.
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Thanks for sharing these helpful articles. GMOs have become a real concern for me, since becoming a father. According to a USDA report, “Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States,” about 85% of our corn crops and 93% of our soy crops are genetically engineered for traits including herbicide and/or pest resistance. Looks like we have a long way to go!