• Antidepressants: Are (they) ever necessary? EFT potential.
• Arsenic: Is the Chicken you eat Poisoned with .. Feed additive?
• Away from the TV: Why You Want to Keep Your Baby ..!
• Body's Bacteria: How You can use your .. for Better Health.
• Drugs Made the Flu WORSE: even in 1918

• Glutamine: .. maintaining pH homeostasis.
• "Manuka" honey ... healing properties ..(Staph infections).
• Pointless Worries: 10 Simple Strategies to Eliminate
• Stroke: How Sleep Apnea injures your brain ...
• Toenail Fungus: Can Vicks VapoRub treat ..?
• Toe Nail fungus: alleviation methods ...
• Too Much Water can Kill Even a Fit 22-Year-Old.

• Strengthen cancer cells: How Stress can .. in your body.
• "Superbug" Infections: LASIK Surgery ... Drug-Resistant ..
• Why Grass-Fed Beef: .. Costs More.
• Your Backup: Lost .. You thought you had problems ...

April 3, 2007 - Issue 932
How Sleep Apnea Injures Your Brain
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
How-Sleep-Apnea-Injures-Your-Brain-8018.aspx

Patients with sleep apnea have an elevated risk of stroke if they also have higher serum levels of certain precursors to coronary artery disease and lesions associated with silent brain infarction.

Researchers examined silent brain infarction and brain tissue death in 50 male patients with sleep apnea. The percentage of silent brain infarction was higher for those with moderate to severe sleep apnea (25 percent) than it was for obese subjects with similar problems (6.7 percent).

Use of nCPAP, which is designed to reduce episodes of stopped breathing associated with sleep apnea, also lowered serum levels of proteins associated with cerebrovascular disease.

... An antidepressant called mirtazapine may help people with a potentially life-threatening sleep disorder, sleep apnea, and may also help heavy snorers.

... Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the most common effective treatment for sleep apnea. The patient wears a mask over the nose during sleep, and pressure from an air blower forces air through the nasal passages. The air pressure is adjusted so that it is just enough to prevent the throat from collapsing during sleep. The pressure is constant and continuous. Nasal CPAP prevents airway closure while in use, but apnea episodes return when CPAP is stopped or used improperly. ...

April 5, 2007 - Issue 933
Can Vicks VapoRub Treat Toenail Fungus?
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Can-Vicks-VapoRub-Treat-Toenail-Fungus--8124.aspx

Hundreds of people wrote to me to confirm that VapoRub really works on toenail fungus ... My experience tells me that when so many people anecdotally confirm something, it is likely true.

Toenail fungus can be a vexing problem that can last for years with no obvious solution, so if it does work it would be a boon for many people. Conventional medical anti-fungal treatments can cost thousands of dollars and result in dangerous side effects.

One way to reduce your risk of fungal infections -- cut down on sugar, which helps fungus to grow.
Spending some regular time in the ocean or another body of salt water can also help, if you have access to one.

There are a number of good posts below that expand on different options you can use for this problem, which is GREAT!! That is the purpose of Vital Votes: to allow you to post YOUR solutions and vote on others. ...

Russ Bianchi
Ingredients of Vicks VapoRub ...
Camphor at 4.8% by total weight (claimed as a cough suppressant & also a topical analgesic)

Eucalyptus Oil at 1.2% by total weight (claimed as a cough suppressant)

Menthol at 2.6% by total weight (claimed as a cough suppressant & topical analgesic)

EXCIPIENTS (bulking ingredients) for the remaining 91.40% include:
cedarleaf oil, nutmeg oil, mineral petroleum jelly (P&G is one of the largest producers of mineral oil & why they tried to hoist Olestra off on the public, along with glycerin/glycerol, from their lard rendering & tallow soap holdings, as a byproduct), thymol, & turpentine oil.

Based on this information, I think it fair to say the mineral petroleum oil, thymol, & turpentine, might be killing more than the fungus, including human tissue, it is applied to. ...

Debleanne, South Australia
One brand of medicinal honey readily available online is pure "Manuka" honey. It is derived from two plants found in Australia (a different strain)and in New Zealand where its healing properties are extensively studied. The results have been phenomonal in hospitals facing closure due to different types of Staph infections & the results have been close to %100 effective. The honey's medicinal properties wont deteriorate with age, it is available in varying strengths, can treat a wide variety of health problems, can be used internally or externally safely for children and adults and is good for general well being

I tried this product on my 14 year old daughter who developed MRSA and had several operations for abcesses which left her bed ridden with home nursing to pack the wounds and intravenously treat her with massive doses of antibiotics. It recurred several times but her kidneys were reacting to the drugs. One of the nurses suggested the honey which I gave her internally and applied to the wounds which was not only successful in healing the new infection but healed the sore quickly reducing scarring on the older and new scar tissue.

Joshua Rubin, San Marcos, CA
http://www.eastwesthealing.com
Toe Nail fungus is a sign of a systemic/chronic fungal infection.
This can be alleviated in many ways:
1. --- 2 month herbal protocol of Cancid Forte (orhtomolecular), ADP (biotics) and SF722 (thorne).
I add in oregano essential oils as well.

2. --- Six month Kaufmann fungal diet. This includes food elimination.

3. Acupuncture works great for fungus and there are certain empirical points that are known to assist in the erradication process.

Witch Doctor
DigitalNaturopath.com:
"The body has an exquisite mechanism for maintaining pH homeostasis. If the pH of the blood is too acidic, more glutamine is directed to the kidneys, where a certain type of glutamine results in the release of bicarbonate ions to correct acidosis. If the pH is too alkaline, more glutamine is sent to the liver, where a different kind of metabolism releases hydrogen ions to correct alkalosis." Also: "Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in the serum".

It would seem a meat eater has an advantage here, in having a tremendous store of glutamine to draw on as a buffer against acid or base swings. A vegetarian may have less glutamine stores to draw on, which may explain your sensitivity to acid - base swings of such a dramatic extent that you describe. Perhaps you should increase glutamine intake.

Others:
Apple Cider Vinegar for my dandruff.
White Vinegar spiked with Hyd. Per. or Baking Soda.

April 7, 2007 - Issue 934
And You Thought You Had Problems
When You Lost Your Backup
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
And-You-Thought-You-Had-Problems-When-You-Lost-Your-Backup-8092.aspx

If there was ever a good reason to recommend backing up your computer's data on an external hard drive, this case of an Alaskan computer technician accidentally deleting files worth a cool $38 billion certainly justifies it.

While doing maintenance work last July, the technician deleted what amounts to nine months of applicant information from the Alaska Permanent Fund, including dividend information, 800,000 electronic images and birth certificates, and accidentally reformatted a backup hard drive too.

Even worse, backup tapes were found to be unreadable and consultants from Dell and Microsoft were unable to retrieve the hard drive data. The only backup left was the original documentation in more than 300 boxes that had to be rescanned in a hurry to meet scheduled oil dividend payments. ...

April 17, 2007 - Issue 938
Are Antidepressants Ever Necessary?
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Are-Antidepressants-Ever-Necessary--9354.aspx

A new study suggests that about a quarter of the people who have been diagnosed with depression may actually be dealing with the normal and expected emotions associated with loss or traumatic events.

It is not unusual to experience depressive feelings when you have lost your job or marriage. But researchers are now suggesting that such feelings should not usually be diagnosed as depression.

The study was based on a survey administered to more than 8,000 Americans, which asked questions based on diagnostic criteria for mood problems.

The researchers found that extended periods of depression-like symptoms are common in people who have been through life stresses, and that this does not necessarily constitute illness. Only a fraction of people, however, had severe symptoms that could be classified as clinical depression. ...

When I first started practicing in 1985 I was very sensitive to the issue of depression and diagnosed many thousands of my patients with it. No matter what you call it, there are many millions of people who are not doing well emotionally and as a result have major physical complications.

So I am not sure if I agree with this study, as my experience suggests many are suffering out there. However, the central issue is what do you do? If you are cluelesss like I was over 20 years ago you put people on antidepressants because that is the "standard of care." ...

... there are many (Options) that do address the underlying causes.
You can also start an exercise program today, as it clearly is one of the best-kept secrets for treating depression. Omega-3 fats like fish and krill oil are also very effective.

... Emotional Freedom Technique ... and ...
list of guidelines and practitioners compiled by Dr. Patricia Carrington.

April 24, 2007 - Issue 941
How Stress
Can Strengthen Cancer Cells in Your Body
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
How-Stress-Can-Strengthen-Cancer-Cells-in-Your-Body-10240.aspx

The stress hormone epinephrine changes prostate and breast cancer cells in ways that may make them resistant to cell death. This means that emotional stress could both contribute to the development of cancer and reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments.

Epinephrine levels increase sharply in response to stressful situations, and can remain continuously elevated during long periods of stress or depression.

When cancer cells are exposed to epinephrine, a protein called BAD, which causes cell death, becomes inactive.

An earlier study found that men who take beta blockers, which block the effects of epinephrine, can have an 18 percent lower risk of prostate cancer. ...

Comment:
.. Stress is a key factor in any illness, and it plays a major role in the health of nearly every one of the more than 20,000 patients I have seen. It's not surprising how stress can harm your body, considering that in a state of depression, your brain can even rewire its own emotional circuitry and destroy nerve cell connections. ...

April 30, 2007 - Issue 943
Is the Chicken You Eat Poisoned With Arsenic?
Roxarsone, an arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, could pose health risks to humans.
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Is-the-Chicken-You-Eat-Poisoned-With-Arsenic--10528.aspx

Roxarsone is the most common arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve the color of chicken meat. It is normally benign, but under certain conditions that can occur within live chickens or on farm land, the compound converts into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic.

Arsenic has been linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and colon cancers, and low-level exposure can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes.

A number of food suppliers have stopped using roxarsone, including Tyson Foods, which is the largest poultry producer in the United States. But even so, 70 percent of the 9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the United States are fed roxarsone.

May 3, 2007 - Issue 945
LASIK Surgery Can Cause Drug-Resistant
"Superbug" Infections
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
LASIK-Surgery-Can-Cause-Drug-Resistant--Superbug--Infections-10410-s.aspx

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a form of drug-resistant bacteria, can be a serious post-operative complication. A recent study found MRSA infections in the eyes of 12 patients after LASIK surgery.

One case involved a nurse whose LASIK-corrected vision took a quick turn for the worse within two weeks. He developed an infection in his left eye that got worse despite treatments, until doctors discovered it was related to MRSA. ...

Cases of MRSA acquired outside of hospitals are becoming more and more of a problem -- no surprise to anyone who knows about the antibiotics that are pumped into conventionally-raised livestock and dumped into the water supply in the form of antibacterial soaps.

This constant low-level antibiotic activity allows bacteria to develop resistance in the wild. ...

May 3, 2007 - Issue 945
Why Grass-Fed Beef Costs More
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Why-Grass-Fed-Beef-Costs-More-11075-s.aspx

Central Texas rancher Betsy Ross is one of only 100 beef producers in that state -- out of some 140,000 total -- who feed cattle naturally with rye, clover, Bermuda, alfalfa and native prairie grasses.

For a while, the Ross ranch was like any other conventional one; the cattle were fed corn and regularly dosed with antibiotics. ...

Ross says it took her 12 years to clean up her pasture land.
Her hormone-free cattle now take 29 months to reach a slaughter weight, compared to half that time for conventionally raised animals. ...

.. besides being free of chemicals, authentic grass-fed beef contains richer amounts of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which can be instrumental in helping you beat cancer.

An important point to understand when purchasing your beef is that certified organic beef is not necessarily as healthy as grass-fed, non-factory-farmed beef. Most of the organic beef I have seen are fed organic corn, which still causes most of the negative problems that have traditionally been associated with eating beef. ..

May 3, 2007 - Issue 945
Even in 1918 Drugs Made the Flu WORSE
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Even-in-1918-Drugs-Made-the-Flu-WORSE-10940.aspx

... Most importantly, St. Louis officials took steps sooner than Philadelphia did to limit exposure to the flu once the first cases were reported.

However, St. Louis did not act by doling out drugs; instead, officials enforced shutdowns of public schools, churches and other places where people congregate and very likely pass around the flu, while quarantining the infected from the healthy.

Because Philadelphia officials delayed their preparations by two weeks, the death toll in that city was more than double that of St. Louis. More than 700 out of every 100,000 Philadelphians died during the 1918 flu epidemic (a total of more than 12,000) versus 347 per 100,000 in St. Louis.

The CDC noted that "those who used nonpharmaceutical measures effectively were able to mitigate the impact of the severe pandemics, and this is consistent with some of the 21st-century simulation models."

May 12, 2007 - Issue 949
Too Much Water Can Kill
Even a Fit 22-Year-Old
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Too-Much-Water-Can-Kill-Even-a-Fit-22-Year-Old-12263.aspx

The 22-year-old London marathon runner David Rogers, a fitness instructor who completed the race in less than four hours, collapsed after he crossed the finish line. He was rushed to the hospital where, sadly, he died.

Rogers died as a result of hyponatremia, a lack of sodium in his body that can be caused by drinking too much water.

He was the ninth athlete in the 27-year history of the London marathon to die.
Almost 60 of this year's more than 36,000 runners ended up needing hospital treatment.
Ambulance volunteers treated more than 5,000 runners, generally for heat exhaustion and dehydration. ...

About five years ago, I warned about the perils of drinking too much water in connection with the deaths of three U.S. military trainees. Unfortunately, many forget or have never learned this tragic lesson.

Drinking too much water is dangerous because your body has a fixed upper limit of fluid that it can process. Once you exceed that limit, any excess water then goes to your bowel, which pulls salt into it from the body, diluting the concentration of salt in your blood.

Your heart requires a very precise amount of salt (sodium) in your blood, and once that level falls below a certain threshold it will either beat irregularly or stop beating altogether.

Once again, the important point worth making here is there's a big difference between optimizing your health by drinking the right amount of water and overdoing it. What's important is to let thirst be your guide when it comes to water. In general, depending on your size, your body can process slightly more than a glass of water per hour.

A simple guideline that is easy for everyone to follow is to look at the color of your urine.
If you are not taking a multivitamin with vitamin B2 (which will falsely color your urine bright yellow) then an ideal color for your urine would be a very light yellow. The brighter and darker it is the more dehydrated you likely are. ...

May 12, 2007 - Issue 949
Why You Want to Keep Your Baby
Away From the TV!
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/
Why-You-Want-to-Keep-Your-Baby-Away-From-the-TV--12053.aspx

Allowing children under 3 to watch television can impair their linguistic and social development, and also put them at risk of health problems including attention-deficit disorder, autism and obesity.

Before the age of 3, children's brains go through rapid development and are being physically shaped in response to whatever they are exposed to.

Exposing children to fast-moving images for sustained periods at this time can inhibit their ability to sustain attention, and hinder their development of social skills.

Research suggests that television can also cause irregular sleep patterns for infants and toddlers, and decrease their resting metabolic rate, which compounds the physiological problems that come with lack of exercise.

At least one study suggests that early exposure to TV can be a trigger for autism. ...

In addition, TV can:
• Change your child's views and food choices
• Make your kids more materialistic
• Cause your children to go into more debt as adults
• Cause your children to be more aggressive
• Lead to smoking
• Increase your child's risk of becoming seriously injured

May 15, 2007 - Issue 950
How You Can Use Your Body's Bacteria
for Better Health
http://vitalvotes.com/blogs/public_blog/
How-You-Can-Use-Your-Body-s-Bacteria-for-Better-Health-13144.aspx

Many scientists have begun to argue that the trend of using antibacterial soap and other antibacterial products may actually cause diseases like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and even diabetes.

What's more, the solution may be to feed patients bacteria.

Probiotics, which are pills containing bacteria, have resulted in complete elimination of eczema in 80 percent of the patients treated with it. Probiotics have also been used to treat irritable bowel disease, acne and premenstrual syndrome. In one recent study, infants given a probiotic were, after two years, 25 percent less likely to develop eczema.

From 50 trillion to 100 trillion bacteria live in your digestive system, where they have a complex relationship with digestion and health. Antibacterial products can disrupt the balance that protects you from allergies and malfunctioning immune responses. ...

In fact, some scientists suspect the disappearance of H. pylori, the bacteria responsible for peptic ulcers, may contribute to the obesity epidemic, as it regulates the production of leptin and ghrelin.

Because the nutritional origin of many diseases we face is connected to a lack of balance in our intestinal bacteria, one of the first suggestions I make to a new patient is for him or her to start taking a good probiotic.

Optimizing your diet is certainly beneficial, but frequently that alone won't be enough to replenish the good bacteria that are eradicated after you take an antibiotic or eat sugar -- which is another good reason to reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars from your daily diet, too.

Total health begins in the gut, folks.

If your GI tract isn't functioning very well, it's guaranteed your overall health will be compromised. Although I am not a big fan of nutritional supplementation, probiotics are the exception. I don't believe you need to take them constantly throughout your entire life, but one to three months is usually beneficial for just about everyone.

June 5, 2007 - Issue 959
10 Simple Strategies to Eliminate Pointless Worries
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/
10-simple-ways-to-save-yourself-from-messing-up-your-life.html
Adrian Savage is a writer, an Englishman, and a retired business executive, in that order.
He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
How you feel is how you feel. It’ll pass soon. What you’re thinking is what you’re thinking. It’ll go too. Tell yourself that whatever you feel, you feel; whatever you think, you think. Since you can’t stop yourself thinking, or prevent emotions from arising in your mind, it makes no sense to be proud or ashamed of either. You didn’t cause them. Only your actions are directly under your control. They’re the only proper cause of pleasure or shame.

2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.
The more you think about something bad, the more likely it is to happen. When you’re hair-trigger primed to notice the first sign of trouble, you’ll surely find something close enough to convince yourself it’s come.

3. Ease up on the internal life commentary.
If you want to be happy, stop telling yourself you’re miserable.
People are always telling themselves how they feel, what they’re thinking, what others feel about them, what this or that event really means. Most of it’s imagination. The rest is equal parts lies and misunderstandings. You have only the most limited understanding of what others feel about you. Usually they’re no better informed on the subject; and they care about it far less than you do. You have no way of knowing what this or that event really means. Whatever you tell yourself will be make-believe.

4. Take no notice of your inner critic.
Judging yourself is pointless. Judging others is half-witted. Whatever you achieve, someone else will always do better. However bad you are, others are worse. Since you can tell neither what’s best nor what’s worst, how can you place yourself correctly between them? Judging others is foolish since you cannot know all the facts, cannot create a reliable or objective scale, have no means of knowing whether your criteria match anyone else’s, and cannot have more than a limited and extremely partial view of the other person. Who cares about your opinion anyway?

5. Give up on feeling guilty. Guilt changes nothing.
It may make you feel you’re accepting responsibility, but it can’t produce anything new in your life. If you feel guilty about something you’ve done, either do something to put it right or accept you screwed up and try not to do so again. Then let it go. If you’re feeling guilty about what someone else did, see a psychiatrist. That’s insane.

6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you.
Nasty people can’t make you mad. Nice people can’t make you happy. Events or people are simply events or people. They can’t make you anything. You have to do that for yourself. Whatever emotions arise in you as a result of external events, they’re powerless until you pick them up and decide to act on them. Besides, most people are far too busy thinking about themselves (and worry what you are are thinking and saying about them) to be concerned about you.

7. Stop keeping score. Numbers are just numbers.
They don’t have mystical powers. Because something is expressed as a number, a ratio or any other numerical pattern doesn’t mean it’s true. Plenty of lovingly calculated business indicators are irrelevant, gibberish, nonsensical, or just plain wrong. If you don’t understand it, or it’s telling you something bizarre, ignore it. There’s nothing scientific about relying on false data. Nor anything useful about charting your life by numbers that were silly in the first place.

8. Don’t be concerned that your life and career aren’t working out the way you planned.
The closer you stick to any plan, the quicker you’ll go wrong. The world changes constantly. However carefully you analyzed the situation when you made the plan, if it’s more than a few days old, things will already be different. After a month, they’ll be very different. After a year, virtually nothing will be the same as it was when you started. Planning is only useful as a discipline to force people to think carefully about what they know and what they don’t. Once you start, throw the plan away and keep your eyes on reality.

9. Don’t let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions.
To hold yourself responsible for someone else’s success and happiness demeans them and proves you’ve lost the plot. It’s their life. They have to live it. You can’t do it for them; nor can you stop them from messing it up if they’re determined to do so. The job of a supervisor is to help and supervise. Only control-freaks and some others with a less serious mental disability fail to understand this.

10. Don’t worry about your personality.
You don’t really have one. Personality, like ego, is a concept invented by your mind. It doesn’t exist in the real world. Personality is a word for the general impression that you give through your words and actions. If your personality isn’t likeable today, don’t worry. You can always change it, so long as you allow yourself to do so. What fixes someone’s personality in one place is a determined effort on their part—usually through continually telling themselves they’re this or that kind of person and acting on what they say. If you don’t like the way you are, make yourself different. You’re the only person who’s standing in your way.