Middle East problems

Referring to the Middle East problems – my comments on a Blog:

Rather than give an opinion on such a complex issue, I decided to educate myself in this whole issue of Muslims and Christians. To understand I read the book. Infidel, by Ayaan Hirshi Ali. I got a pretty good insight on how Muslim women live. Especially her graphic explanation on how she and her sister suffered when two clerics – not doctors – cut off their “clitoris” in cold blood and without any regard for infection, pain or anything else. Wow! That was a wake up call. The rest of her life is a really profound incite on these Muslim beliefs. If American females were to ever read this, it would surely change their perspective. The person on the enclosed website explains where the next world conflict might be. I make no judgments… you decide.  http://www.agorafinancial.com/reports/OST/NewWar/vp/OST_NewWar_vp.php?code=LOSTM514

Then I read, Hatred’s Kingdom, by Dore Gold. I didn’t even know what a Wahhabi was and how they have fanned the flames of Al-Qaeda’s fury and how and why the Saudi support all of this. On the other side of the fence I read this thick book called, Israel’s Secret Wars.  Westerners, Americans, believe me; we are very innocent about the happenings on this earth. OK so both sides are dead set on that they OWN the TRUE God; so how are we going to consolidate this. Hum! 

Let’s put Christians into the soup. The continents of North and South America believe in the Bible, yet only 31 % have read some parts of it. 24% have never read it, yet they would die for the principle of the bible. Now if you really want to blow your mind read, “The Book the Church doesn’t want you to Read” by Tim C. Leedom. If you are a True Christian, you’re going to have a lot of trouble finishing this book. You are not going to want to release all your beliefs, and neither are the Muslims, nor the Jews. Clash is inevitable.

Why does the Vatican own one of the worlds best telescopes? For that I read, “The Christ Conspiracy” by Acharya S. The entire bible and all Christian belief are based on… astrological readings!? Impossible! Hum!  All current wars, Middle East, Africa, etc… are based on clashes of religious belief. Ah! I found the solution. I found It. The Book, “The End of Faith”. He suggest that if we erase every historical reference from the time the astronauts landed in their Rocket Ship on Mount Sinai to hand over the 10 commandments (which 90% of Christians don’t know what they are anyway) to the invention of the Biblical Christ at the Counsel of Nisea, and we got rid of all reference to a God and replaced it with “something like” the Buddhist belief, all wars would end. Well… wishful thinking, but that is not going to happen… is it?

But wait a minute… what about all this Mythology, by C. Scott Littleyton. Well, it is just a bunch of stories, right. Well maybe not. Why is it that all the mythological stories are very similar regardless of what part of the world they are coming from or referring too? Is there a common point of reference? National Geographic’s thinks so. Ancient Sumerian tablets which date back 20,000 years have begun to be deciphered recently. Some of this secret information is held by the Masson’s… Is it possible that Homo sapiens evolved from Homo erectus, or was there a genetic intervention somewhere? If so who? Well, Graham Hancock in his book Fingerprints of the Gods begins to revel some INTERESTING thing about man kind, but Michael Tellinger, in his book “slave species of god” blow the whole lid wide open, If ALL the people on this planet open up to all this information, we would make a enormous progress. Maximillien de Lafayette makes some pretty wild and extensive claims in the Encyclopedia of the Anunnaki… but maybe it is NOT so wild. NASA is not calling the approaching Neptune size planet Nibiru, but they are calling it Nemisis. So, were we going to end up people? The “48 Laws of Power” shows us that we have no choice. The choice has been made; it is a matter of when the world will act on it. And it is very destructive. Robert Kiyosaki in his book, “Conspiracy of the Rich” demonstrates WHO is doing the pushing and why. Can we mere mortals get prepared? Where did you say your moving to; Costa Rica or was it, never mind… don’t let the Invisible Gorilla get you by Christopher Chabris.

Are Cell Phones Killing The Bees?

Pesticides, climate changes, fungal pathogens and more are thought to cause the world’s rapid bee decline. A new Swiss study tested the theory that cell phone frequencies are confusing and interrupting bees’ communications. Researchers observed the bees after nearby calls were placed. They showed increased swarming activity and increased hive noise by 10 percent. Confused worker bees are unlikely to return to their hive, especially when cell phones are nearby.

It isn’t the first study of its kind. Last year, Indian research found the same results when they attached devices to certain hives. Before that, there were more reports of bees abandoning their hives after cell phone exposure. Some of the information found more incidents of swarming – remember all the strange swarming reports? Just a few days ago, bee swarms and attacks disrupted a Philippines airport, affecting seven flights! At lease one passenger was stung by multiple bees.

An officer was trapped in his patrol car for three hours after 50,000 angry honeybees descended

There’s already an internet backlash claiming that cell phones killing bees is a stretch, that studies did not suggest instant death. Sure, cell phones are not a type of electro-Raid, though disturbances and confusion have been proven. “The study did not show that mobile phones were deadly for bees.” Favre said. ”But one hypothesis is that electromagnetic fields could be contributing to the disappearance of bee colonies around the world,” he added.

But the Indian study did in fact note a population and egg decline with hives carrying a device. The limited use of cellular frequency, however, won’t necessarily stop the bee colony collapse disorder, which can be caused by a number of factors.

It’s unlikely there will be any kind of limited cell phone use, but it is possible to use a different frequency and preclude bee deaths. The lead researcher below concluded that bees in a more natural state away from mobile phone apparatuses could produce hopeful results. Perhaps these findings will lead to changing frequencies and to shifting colonies and replenishing the bee population in cleaner, remote areas, with more nutritional bio-diversity and less cellular frequency and pollution.

~Health Freedoms

Are Cell Phones Killing The Bees?

New experiments find that cell phone signals may confuse bees. What does this mean for our food supply?

Do you enjoy eating? Then you may not be too happy if bee populations plunge. That’s because out of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees–and according to the UN, local drops in the bee population are being reported by beekeepers all over the planet. And the whole thing may be our fault: A new paper (PDF) from Swiss researcher Daniel Favre claims that part of the problem is our obsession with cell phones.

According to Favre, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, phone signals may confuse honeybees so much that they become fatally disoriented. Favre and his team performed 83 experiments that recorded honeybees’ reaction to nearby cell phones in off, standby, and call-making mode. The result: Honeybee noise increases by 10 times when a phone call is made or received. Normally, an increase in noise, or “worker piping,” is used as a signal for bees to leave their hives. But in this case, it just makes them confused. Favre explains:

Worker piping in a bee colony is not frequent, and when it occurs in a colony, that is not in a swarming process, no more than two bees are simultaneously active (Pratt et al. 1996). The induction of honeybee worker piping by the electromagnetic fields of mobile phones might have dramatic consequences in terms of colony losses due to unexpected swarming.

A similar report in 2007 showed that bees won’t come back to their hives when cell phones are placed nearby–another hint that handsets disrupt bee orientation. There isn’t too much we can do about this without dismantling our cell phone culture, and that’s never going to happen. In any case, neither of these studies conclusively prove that cell phones are behind all the recent bee deaths.

Bayer’s clothiandin, a pesticide used to pre-treat corn seeds, is also thought to be killing honeybees. And the UN suspects that several other factors are all working together to kill bees, including air pollution (this can disorient bees), virulent fungal pathogens that are spread via trade, and climate change (altered rainfall patterns can change plants’ flowering times, which in turn affects nectar supplies). It’s possible, in other words, that modern society in general is to blame for the death of the bees. So unless we shut down all of our factories and power plants, nix international trade, stop using pesticides, and turn off our cell phones, we may need to find some other pollination solution–or some more cell-phone and climate change-friendly bees.

Update: Daniel Favre emailed us the following statement regarding his study:

“Active mobile phone handsets have a dramatic impact on the behavior of the bees, namely by inducing the worker piping signal. In natural conditions, worker piping either announces the swarming process of the bee colony or is a signal of a disturbed bee colony. For future experiments, in complement to the present original study and in order to reach more ‘natural’ conditions, mobile phone apparatuses should be placed at various increasing distances away from the hives. We should ask ourselves, whether the plethora of mobile phone masts also have an impact on the behaviour of the honeybees. Among other factors such as the varroa mite and pesticides, signals from mobile phones and masts could be contributing to the decline of honeybees around the world. I am calling the international scientific community for more research in this field.”

BY ARIEL SCHWARTZ

This Should be Banned: Found in 80% of Supermarket Foods

Within 9 years of being introduced, multiple chronic illnesses jumped from 7% to 13% of the population and food allergies doubled. Millions may already be suffering health problems it causes - and thanks to the USDA, the problem is likely to get worse. Stop being taken in and protect your family - choose these foods instead...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/20/most-evil-company-on-planet-soon-allowed-to-police-itself.aspx

Energy 4 Life

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Acids the Good and the Bad

Acids Good And Bad

Para los Naturópatas, esta es una de nuestras mejores herramientas - leelo.

April 25, 2011 by Bob Livingston

There are good acids and bad acids in the body. Unfortunately, most people spend their time and money neutralizing the good acid with over-the-counter medications while they increase levels of the bad acid with a diet of processed foods, too much meat and exposure to toxins and pollutants.

The body needs to be slightly alkaline with a homeostatic pH of 7.35 to 7.45. (The term pH refers to the acidity or alkalinity of a substance, 7.0 being the neutral level of most water. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. Above 7.0 represents increasing levels of alkalinity. Below 7.0, substances become exponentially acidic.)

The bad acid is the acid that builds up in the body tissues. Excess acid in the body — or low pH — causes fatigue and shortness of breath and prevents apoptosis (normal cell death). This leads to malignancies and the breakdown of body tissues and organs. Individuals with chronically acidic systems use up oxygen reserves quickly, whereas the body in an alkaline state produces oxygen.

Over-acidity leads to toxin accumulation and oxygen depletion. The body tries to combat excess acidity by trying to neutralize it with oxygen. To do so it must continually divert oxygen away from its primary metabolic functions and direct it toward the acidic cells and tissues. This means that as we get more acidity we have less oxygen and shorter breath.

Older people are, of course more acidic. Acidity interferes with our electromagnetic currents, creating more acid in the body. An acidic body means death.

Blood pH must be in balance (slightly alkaline) to prevent clumping of red blood cells so they can flow into the smallest capillaries to deliver oxygen.

Acid actually strips away the negative charge of red blood cells and causes them to clump. This means less oxygen gets to your cells.

Acid also weakens red blood cells and they begin to die. We get fewer nutrients and our energy level begins to drop.

Infectious micro-organisms thrive in low pH or acid environments.

The modern American diet of refined foods is highly acidic. This creates a volume of waste acids which is symptomatic of acid indigestion or "heartburn." This is discomfort from fermenting waste acids, not from too much of the good acid, which is the hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach.

Instead, it is a symptom of too little HCl. Adequate HCl would prevent organic acids (waste acids) in the first place, and negative symptoms would never appear.

HCl is the only acid the body produces. All other acids in the body are toxic acids of fermentation created by our environment and diet.

HCl is absolutely essential for life. Without it the body cannot make the proper chemical conversions to alkalinity.

The life-giving and life-sustaining function of HCl is to break down food as it arrives in the stomach. If HCl is insufficient, food becomes a mass of poorly digested acid waste residues called organic acids of fermentation. It manifests itself in what is termed acid indigestion and heartburn. Acid reflux is a symptom.

As most of you know, the pharmaceutical answer to this is antacids. These compound the problem by making the low and insufficient stomach acid even lower. Temporary relief hides this fraudulent commerce.

If you take antacids you must understand that all they do is temporarily quiet the waste acids of fermentation caused by low stomach acid in the first place. The only therapy for low stomach acid — or low HCl — is more hydrochloric acid, not less.

Over time, reduced HCl foretells and guarantees illness — and finally death — with stomach cancer.

Hydrochloric acid begins a disturbing decline around age 40, though today it shows up at all ages because of our refined carbohydrate diets.

Adequate HCl is our first line of defense against the various destructive microbes that enter the body by way of food. HCl actually kills and digests pathogens. It also cleans up detrimental waste acid byproducts. Therefore, it is critical that everyone understands that adequate HCl levels greatly reduce tissue acid waste buildup.

HCl keeps us alive by maintaining proper alkaline/acid balance and then becomes alkaline after its vital job in the digestive process is done. Eight essential amino acids, two vitamins and 15 minerals are dependent on proper HCl for absorption. Vitamin B12 and folic acid simply will not be absorbed from food sources without adequate HCl in the stomach.

So what can we do to help our bodies maintain a proper pH and proper levels of HCl?

First, diet is essential. There foods and drinks that help prevent high acidity:

Water — Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day. To every other glass of water you drink add one-fourth teaspoon of sea salt (unless you are salt sensitive or have high blood pressure). Be sure to alkalize your water using an alkaline supplement available from a company that sells nutritional supplements.

Fruits and vegetables — Most fruits and vegetables are alkaline-forming foods, especially citrus fruits, which are acidic but turn alkaline when consumed. They are best eaten in raw form as often as possible. At the top of the list are pears, apples, watermelon, bananas, strawberries, cucumbers, egg plant, onions, pickles, string beans, asparagus (even canned asparagus is an acid reducer), shiitake mushrooms, spinach, carrots, radishes, cabbage, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips and turnip greens and garlic.

Potatoes — They are alkaline-forming when eaten with the skin on.

Other foods — Coffee, egg whites and cayenne pepper.

Natural sea salt mixed in water or a supplement of betaine hydrochloride can help you maintain adequate levels of HCl in the stomach, which can eliminate the symptoms of heartburn or acid indigestion.

HCl therapy to combat infections was an oft-employed tactic in the first half of the 20th Century. Burr Ferguson, M.D., and Walter Bryant Guy, M.D., advanced the knowledge and use of the principles of HCl therapy.

They and a few other forward-thinking physicians administered HCl intravenously and intramuscularly with astounding results in patients showing severe distress, high fever or with large tumors. The results were recorded at the time in The Medical World Journal. That research was compiled into a book, Three Years of HCl Therapy, by Roy W. Huntsman.

Among the success stories of people were treated with HCl therapy:

• An 87-year-old woman whose large colon tumor disappeared in four months.
• A 50-year-old man with a growth in his gallbladder who was told he was near death but had his tumor vanish in less than a year.
• An 8-year-old girl with tuberculosis whose lungs were healed.
• A 73-year-old woman had her breast cancer disappear.
• A 15-year-old girl, near death with a massive infection after childbirth and suffering from extremely high fever and delirium, recovered after a couple of weeks.
• A 43-year-old man received complete relief from migraines after two weeks of therapy.

There are many more stories just like these. They are stories you never hear from mainstream medicine.

The information for this article was taken from the books Acid and Alkaline by Herman Aihara,Alkalize or Die by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody and Three Years of HCl Therapy.

The book, Three Years of HCl Therapy is no longer in print. It is currently selling on Amazon.com for as much as $51. It contains documented cases of HCl therapy success stories in treating diseases and conditions like diabetes, pneumonia, malaria, meningitis, toxemia and many others.

Acetaminophen may boost blood pressure

For people with cardiovascular disease who need relief from aches and pains, acetaminophen (Tylenol, generic) has long been touted as a safer alternative to aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen. A small but important Swiss trial warns that it may not be. This work doesn’t mean you should ditch acetaminophen if it helps you, but does suggest you should give it the caution that it — and every medication — deserves.

A closer look at acetaminophen

The Swiss team set out to fill a surprising gap in medical knowledge: the effect of acetaminophen on blood pressure among people with coronary artery disease. This includes folks with angina (chest pain with exercise or stress) along with anyone who has had bypass surgery or angioplasty or who has been diagnosed with cholesterol-clogged arteries.

The researchers asked 33 men and women with one or more of these problems to take either 1,000 milligrams (mg) of acetaminophen or an identical placebo three times a day for two weeks. Then, after a two-week break, each volunteer took the other treatment. The amount of acetaminophen used in the study is a standard daily dose for pain.

When the participants took acetaminophen, average systolic blood pressure (the top number of a blood pressure reading) increased from 122.4 to 125.3, while the average diastolic pressure (the bottom number) increased from 73.2 to 75.4. Blood pressure stayed steady when participants took the placebo. These increases aren’t large. But they indicate that acetaminophen, like NSAIDs, somehow affects the cardiovascular system.

A larger, longer trial would have given more reliable results. It would also have been unethical, since none of the participants were in pain. That means they couldn’t reap any benefit from acetaminophen, but could only be harmed by it.

Making choices

The sudden removal of the popular painkiller Vioxx from the market in October 2004 over concerns that it caused cardiovascular problems put all pain relievers under the spotlight — except acetaminophen. It avoided the “black box” warning about increased risk of cardiac problems that the FDA now requires on the labels of all NSAIDs. And the American Heart Association later recommended it as a safe alternative to NSAIDs.

Acetaminophen is easier on the stomach than aspirin and other NSAIDs, and is probably a good option for people who take warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven, generic) or clopidogrel (Plavix). But because it is so widely used and perceived as safe, people tend to take it without thinking, one reason acetaminophen is a leading cause of liver failure and transplantation in the United States.

If you have some form of cardiovascular disease, it makes sense to take acetaminophen rather than an NSAID for a fever, headache, pulled muscle, or other occasional problem. But if you need relief every day for pain from osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, acetaminophen may not be a better option than an NSAID — it doesn’t work that well against inflammatory pain and, like an NSAID, may slightly elevate blood pressure.

The key message from this study is that acetaminophen isn’t free from cardiovascular side effects. It is worth a try as a first-line drug for pain relief, but if it doesn’t control your pain, it is reasonable to switch to an NSAID

These 150 Calories Go Straight to Your Bulging Belly

The Sleeping Habit That Can Make You Hungrier, Plumper, and Forgetful

Provided from the Dr Mercola site:


Experiments on mice have shown that throwing off their ancient circadian rhythms by artificially altering the length of their days has a substantial impact on their bodies and brains. This suggests that the modern, round-the-clock lifestyle, made possible by electric lighting, could disrupt metabolism and interfere with learning in ways that are only just beginning to be understood.

Researchers put mice through 10 weeks in 20-hour light-dark cycles, instead of their natural 24-hour circadian cycle. After six weeks, the mice got fatter, showed less mental flexibility and were more impulsive.

Science Daily reports:

"The researchers believe that [the effects of an altered circadian cycle] may affect how an individual, whether animal or human, responds to additional challenges to the immune or metabolic systems, such as infection ... They are also working on models to understand the impact of different kinds of light-dark shifting such as those experienced by flight crews, shift workers, military personnel and medical residents."

Science Daily February 27, 2011

Time and again, research shows us the hidden price we pay for our 24/7 lifestyles. Lack of sleep due to over-crowded day planners, e-mail, web surfing, and other distractions take a toll on your health whether you realize it or not.

Amazingly, 95 percent of those surveyed in the National Sleep Foundation's 2011 Sleep in America poll report using some type of electronic device within an hour of going to bed, and about 20 percent reported being awakened by phone calls, text messages or email, at least a few nights a week…

As you probably know, the physiological functions of virtually all organisms are governed by 24-hour circadian rhythms.

When your circadian rhythm—which acts like a built-in time-tracking system—is disrupted by late-night artificial light exposure, or being roused from sleep by beeping phones, it can have a profound influence on your physical and mental health and well-being.

One of the worst things you can do to disrupt your body clock is to engage in regular night shift work. I realize many may not have a choice once they've chosen these professions, but it is vital to understand that when you regularly shift your sleep patterns because of a job like police, fire, or ER work, you are in fact sacrificing your health and longevity—in more ways than one.

Round-the-Clock Lifestyle Damages Your Health in a Number of Ways

In this latest study, mice were kept in 20-hour light/dark cycles for 10 weeks to evaluate the effect on their metabolism, mental acuity and behavior. After six weeks, "the disrupted mice got fatter, showed less mental flexibility and were more impulsive than mice kept on their natural schedule," Science Daily reports.

The authors found changes in metabolic hormones, and "loss of dendritic length and decreased complexity of neurons in the prelimbic prefrontal cortex, a brain region important in executive function and emotional control."

Since the circadian system "drives" the rhythms of biological activity at the cellular level, disruptions tend to cascade outward throughout your entire body, which explains why the health effects of sleep deprivation and sleep disruption are so numerous.

The Many Ways Disrupted Sleep Patterns Can Impact Your Health

For example, your circadian clock influences your:

• Short term memory -- Your circadian clock controls your daily cycle of sleep and wakefulness by alternately inhibiting and exciting different parts of your brain through regulating the release of certain neurotransmitters. The part of your brain known as the hippocampus must be excited in order for the things you learn to be organized in such a way that you'll remember them later.
  
  
  If your internal clock isn't functioning properly, it causes the release of too much GABA. According to a previous study, an excess of GABA inhibits your brain in a way that leads to short term memory problems and the inability to retain new information.
• Creativity and learning performance – Proper sleep enhances performance, learning and memory by improving your creative ability to uncover novel connections among seemingly unrelated ideas.
• Weight gain/loss – In addition to the study above, previous research has also demonstrated that lack of sleep affects levels of metabolic hormones that regulate satiety and hunger. For example, when you are sleep deprived, your body decreases production of leptin, the hormone that tells your brain there is no need for more food. At the same time it increases levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.
• Diabetes and heart disease risk -- Both too little and too much sleep may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes. A 15-year study of more than 1,000 men found that those getting less than six or more than eight hours of sleep a night had a significantly increased diabetes risk.
  
  
  A similar pattern has also been observed in the relationship between sleep and coronary heart disease.
• Immune system – Research has found that when you are well-rested you are likely to have a stronger immune response to viruses than when you have not gotten enough sleep. It's believed that the release of certain hormones during sleep is responsible for boosting your immune system.
• Cancer risk -- Disruption of your circadian clock may influence cancer progression through changes in hormones like melatonin, which your brain makes during sleep, and which is known to suppress tumor development.
  
  
  Melatonin is an antioxidant that helps to suppress harmful free radicals in your body and slows the production of estrogen, which can activate cancer. When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, your body may produce less melatonin and therefore may have less ability to fight cancer.

Chronic Diseases Made Worse By Lack of Sleep

Furthermore, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lack of sleep can further exacerbate other serious and chronic diseases, such as:

• Parkinson disease (PD)
• Alzheimer disease (AD)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Gastrointestinal tract disorders
• Kidney disease
• Behavioral problems in children

Disrupted Circadian Cycle Unleashes Stress

Making matters worse, poor sleeping habits also tends to raise your levels of corticosterone, the stress hormone associated with road rage.

When your body is under stress, it releases hormones that increase your heart rate and blood pressure. Your muscles get tense, your digestive processes stop, and certain brain centers are triggered, which alter your brain chemistry.

Left unchecked, this stress response can eventually lead to a variety of health problems including:

• Headaches
• Indigestion
• Increased anxiety
• Depression
• High blood pressure

As you can see, the ramifications of engaging in a 24/7 lifestyle runs the gamut from minor stresses to life-threatening health problems! Yet judging by the poll responses mentioned at the very beginning, precious few are willing to take a much-needed look at their sleeping habits and make the required readjustments to their schedules and habits. I strongly urge you not to be part of the majority in this regard...

Instead, take the following advice to heart.

Reestablish a Natural Rhythm by Optimizing Your Light Exposure

Part of living in accordance with your natural circadian rhythm is to have consistent, regular exposure to bright light during the day, and sleeping in absolute darkness at night.

This optimizes your natural melatonin production.

Unfortunately, while over-exposure to light in the evenings is typical, most of us are also under-exposed to light during the day! Most incandescent- and fluorescent lights emit very poor quality light, and what your body needs for optimal functioning is the full-spectrum light you get outdoors.

If you're stuck in a windowless office for the majority of your day, using full spectrum light bulbs can help ameliorate this lack of high quality sunlight.

The reverse is true for the evenings. Ideally, once the sun sets, you'll want to reduce the overall amount of light you're exposed to. Here, using "low blue lights" can help. These light bulbs emit an amber light, opposed to the blue that suppresses melatonin production. Therefore, these bulbs are ideal for areas such as your living room, bedroom and bathroom.

TVs and computers also emit quite a bit of blue light, which will zap your melatonin if you work past dark, so ideally, you'd want to turn these items off once the sun goes down.

Once it's time to sleep, make sure your bedroom is pitch black.

I strongly recommend installing blackout shades for this reason, or use thick drapes. Make sure all the lights are off in your room and that no light enters your room from other areas, such as night lights in your bathroom or hallway.

It's important to realize that even a small amount of light, like that from a night light, or turning on the bathroom light to go to the restroom, can be enough to suppress your melatonin production for that night. So, if you have to get up, try to resist the temptation to turn on the light.

This may be a bit more than you are willing to invest, especially if you live in temporary circumstances. So what I have found that works really well is a high quality eye mask.

Fine-Tuning Your Sleeping Pattern for Optimal Health

Optimizing your light exposure as described above can go a long way toward reestablishing your natural circadian rhythm and a healthy sleeping pattern.

The next question then becomes, how much sleep do you need?

The right amount for you is based on your individual sleep requirements and not on a one-size-fits-all prescribed number of hours. That said, research has shown that, in general, chronically sleeping less than eight hours a night can have significant cumulativeconsequences. In short, your best bet is to listen to your body and adjust accordingly.

If you feel tired or sluggish upon waking or during the day, you're likely not getting enough.

However, it would be very unusual for anyone to require less than six hours of sleep. The sweet spot is more likely between 7 and 8 hours. There are other variables though, such as the:

• Number of times you awake at night
• Time it takes to fall asleep
• Percentage of your sleep at REM, and
• Time spent in deep sleep.

Later this year I will be providing some articles that go into this topic more deeply.

Unfortunately, many people are quick to pop a pill once they start having sleep problems. But sleeping pills come with numerous side effects and can cause more harm than good. Better alternatives include using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), listening to abrainwave synchronization tape, or trying a natural remedy that can help you relax without the side effects.

Summary of Key Points to Remember to Keep Your Body Clock Running Smoothly

It's important to realize that even if you do everything else right – eat nutritious meals, exercise, manage stress – if you aren't getting high-quality sleep your health is bound to suffer in any of the numerous ways mentioned above. So please, take your sleep seriously, and do your best to live your life in closer alignment with your circadian rhythm.

As a summary, the following guidelines can help to keep your circadian rhythm in its natural cycle:

• Use full-spectrum light bulbs in your home and office during daytime hours.
• Use "low blue lights" in areas where you spend most of your time in late evening, such as your living room, bedroom, and bathroom.
• Turn off computers and electronic gadgets once the sun sets, and avoid watching TV late at night. Again, the blue light emitted from TV's and computer screens mimic the blue light found in daytime sunlight, which can alter your melatonin production.
• Sleep in total darkness! This is the "hidden" secret that most people tend to ignore, but which can dramatically improve the quality of your sleep. Personally, I sleep in a room that is so dark, it's even pitch black at noon. Liberally use blackout shades and drapes to achieve this.
• Sleep when it's dark outside and get up when the sun comes up. At minimum, strive to sleep between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This means you should be in bed, with the lights out, by 10 p.m. and be up by 6 a.m.
• Avoid working the night shift. It's been linked to significantly lower levels of serotonin, which may cause sleep problems, anger, depression and anxiety. If you currently work the night shift, I would strongly suggest trying to switch your hours, or at the very least not keeping the night shift for longer than a couple of months at a time (and giving your body a chance to readjust in between).

For even more helpful guidance on how to improve your sleep, please review my 33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep. If you're even slightly sleep deprived I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one of the most important factors in your health and quality of life.

NEW Studies Reveal Alarming Hidden Cause of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in women worldwide and breast cancer rates are increasing rapidly. 

A compelling number of studies, though not all, have shown that free iron concentrations in breast tissue, especially the ductal tissue, is playing a major role in stimulating cancer development and eventual progression to aggressive, deadly cancers.^1,2

Cancers are Very Dependent on Iron

Iron is needed for DNA replication in rapidly dividing cells.³ A recent report from the Department of Biomolecular Sciences in Urbino Italy, found that fluid taken from the nipple of cancer patients contained significantly higher levels of aluminum than did nipple fluid taken from women without breast cancer—approximately twice as much aluminum.⁴ A number of studies have found that extracting nipple fluid by a breast pump (in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women) is a simple way to study the microenvironment of the ductal tissue, the site of development of most breast cancers.⁵ Examining this ductal fluid is an excellent way to measure such things as iron levels, ferritin (an iron-binding protein), CRP (a measure of breast inflammation) and aluminum.

The researchers also found that women with breast cancer had much higher levels of ferritin, an iron transport protein, in their breast fluid, which was 5X higher in women with breast cancer.⁶
This observation has been confirmed in other studies. In previous studies researchers found that one's intake of iron did not necessarily correlate with risk of breast cancer, but rather the release of iron from its protective proteins, such as ferritin and transferrin was critical.⁷ 

This distinction is very important and explains why some studies found no link between iron intake in the diet and breast cancer incidence.⁸

Free Iron Can Be Very Dangerous

Over 90% of iron absorbed from your diet is normally bound to these protective proteins. Recent studies have shown that some things we do can cause too much of the iron to be released into surrounding tissues, and if this iron exists as free iron, it can trigger intense inflammation, free radical generation and lipid peroxidation. Bound iron is relatively harmless.

So, what can cause these protective proteins to release their iron? One factor is an excessive alcohol intake. Studies by Lee et al have shown that women who drink greater than 20 grams of alcohol a day significantly increase the free iron in their breast tissue and have a higher incidence of invasive breast cancer—the most deadly form.⁹

It has also been shown that excessive estrogen can displace iron from its protective proteins, thus increasing free iron levels and associated breast cancer risk. ¹⁰ This helps explain the link between high estrogen levels and breast cancer.

Of more importance than the total intake of iron is where the iron ends up that is absorbed from your food. As stated, most of it is bound to protective proteins, such as transferrin in the blood and ferritin within cells. If you have a lot of extra space within these proteins for binding iron, then a high dietary iron intake would be less harmful.

Previously it was thought that a spillover of free iron occurred only when the protective proteins (tranferrin and ferritin) were fully saturated, as we see with the condition hemochromatosis.

How Aluminum and Alcohol Worsen Iron Toxicity

We now know that both aluminum and alcohol can displace the iron from its protective proteins, raising the level of harmful free iron, even when these protective proteins are not fully saturated with iron.⁹

If this occurs within the breast, as this study demonstrates, free iron levels in the breast ductal tissue can become dangerously high and over time induce malignant tumor formation.

The question to be asked is--where did the aluminum come from?

The authors of the paper suggested underarm antiperspirants as a possibility. But, there is another source that is becoming increasingly a problem and that is from vaccine adjuvants.

Vaccines are a Major Source of Aluminum for Many

Many inactivated vaccines contain aluminum salts to boost the immune reaction. Studies have shown that this aluminum is slowly dispersed all over the body and may be concentrated in breast ducts.¹¹

The amount of aluminum in vaccines is tremendous, especially in such vaccines as the anthrax vaccine, hepatitis vaccine and tetanus vaccine.

Since many American children are being exposed to multiple doses of aluminum containing vaccines by the time they are 6 years old, one would expect very high exposures to injected aluminum.

A recent study by Lucija Tomljenovik and Chris Shaw found that a newborn receives a dose of aluminum that exceeds FDA safety limits (5mg/kg/day) for injected aluminum by 20-fold, and at 6 months of age a dose that was 50-fold higher than FDA safety limits.¹² 

Aluminum at this young age will accumulate in various tissues and with new vaccine recommendations, children and young adults may be exposed to many more aluminum containing vaccines every year throughout life.

With the ability of aluminum to displace iron from its protective proteins, we may not only see a dramatic increase in breast cancer, but also other iron-related diseases, such as liver degeneration, neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, heart failure and atherosclerosis.¹³ No one is addressing this very real danger.

References

• ¹ Wu T et al. Serum iron, copper and zinc concentrations and the risk of cancer mortality in US adults. Ann Epidemiol 2004; 14: 195-201.
• ² Cade J et al. Case-control study of breast cancer in southeast England: Nutritional factors. Epidemiol Community Health 1998; 52: 105-110.
• ³ Kalinowski DS, Richardson DR. The evolution of iron chelators for the treatment of iron overload disease and cancer. Pharmacol Rev 2005; 57: 547-583.
• ⁴ Mannello F, et al. Analysis of aluminum content and iron homeostasis in nipple aspirate fluids from healthy women and breast cancer-affected patients. J Appl Toxicol 2011; Feb 21,(ahead of print)
• ⁵ Mannello F et al. Iron-binding proteins and C-reactive protein in nipple aspirate fluids: role of iron-0driven inflammation in breast microenvironment. Am J Transl Res 2011;3: 100-113.
• ⁶ Mannello et al and Shpyleva SI et al. Role of ferritin alterations in human breast cancer cells. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2011; 126: 63-71.
• ⁷ Lithgow D et al. C-reactive protein in nipple aspirate fluid: relation to women's health factors. Nurs Res 2006; 65: 418-425.
• ⁸ Kabat GC et al. Dietary iron and heme iron intake and risk of breast cancer: a prospective cohort study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007; 16:1306-1308.
• ⁹ Lee DH et al. Dietary iron intake and breast cancer: The Iowa Women's Health Study. Proc Am Assoc Cancer Res 2004; 45: A2319.
• ¹⁰ Wyllie S, Liehr JG. Release of iron from ferritin storage by redox cycling of stilbene and steroid estrogen metabolites: a mechanism of induction of free radical damage by estrogen. Arch Biochem Biophys 1997; 346: 180-186.
• ¹¹ Flarend et al. In vivo absorption of aluminum-containing vaccine adjuvants using Al-26. Vaccine 1997 15, 1314-1318.
• ¹² Tomljenovic L and Shaw C. 2011 in press.
• ¹³ Weinberg ED. Iron toxicity. Ox Med Cell Longevity 2009; 2: 107-109.