Do Pestisides Really "Bug" You?

In the U. S., many of the chemicals responsible for contaminating the food supply have been banned. However, other countries continue to manufacture and use those chemicals, and their residues are carried across the globe by air, water currents and precipitation. "United States consumers have a right to know that chemicals banned in this country years ago continue to contaminate their food," said Kristin Schafer of Pesticide Action Network.

The group's evaluation of POP residue data yielded hard-to-believe findings, including the following:


*Virtually ALL food products are contaminated with POPs which have been banned in the U.S., including baked goods, vegetables, fruit, poultry, meat and dairy products.

*It is not unusual for daily diets to contain food items contaminated with 3 to 7 POPs.


*A typical holiday dinner menu of 11 food items can deliver 38 "hits" of exposure to POPs - a "hit" is one persistent toxic chemical on one food item.

*The sample daily meal plans used in the study were each found to deliver between 63 and 70 hits.separate exposures to POPs per day.


*The 2 most pervasive POPs found in food are dieldrin and DDE. Dieldrin is a very persistent and highly toxic organochlorine pesticide banned since the late 1970s. DDE is a breakdown product of DDT, which has been banned in the United States since 1972.

The report shows rather convincing and compelling evidence that organic foods are much less likely to have any residues. That when organic foods have residues they have fewer and that the levels of the residues are generally lower.


The report's findings are based on pesticide residue data collected on a wide variety of foods by the United States Department of Agriculture from 1994 to 1999, tests conducted on food sold in California by the state's Department of Pesticide Regulation from 1989 through 1998, and tests by Consumers Union in 1997. The combined data covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 crops. 1,291 of those samples were organically grown, about 1.3%.

The Agriculture Department data showed that 73% of the conventionally grown foods had residue from at least one pesticide and were 6 times as likely as organic foods to contain multiple pesticide residues. Only 23% of the organic samples of the same groups had any pesticide residues.

The data obtained from the FDA shows that levels of contaminants in food are often at, or near, the levels found by the federal government to cause public health concern. In addition, recent scientific studies have discovered that exposure to minuscule levels of POPs at crucial times in fetal and infant development can damage or disrupt human hormone, neurological, reproductive and immune systems.

Botanical Health Magazine understands that in our current economy buying organic may not always be feasible to your budget. We have compiled a list of fruits and vegetables with the least amount of pesticide contamination:

Fruits
Pineapples
Plantains
Mangoes
Bananas
Watermelon
Plums
Kiwi Fruit
Blueberries
Papaya
Grapefruit


Vegetables
Avocado
Cauliflower
Brussels
Sprouts
Asparagus
Radishes
Broccoli
Onions
Okra
Cabbage
Eggplant

What is Gout?

Gout is a form of joint inflammation that is caused by excess uric acid in the body. This happens due to poor diet, stress and not enough sleep. Gout causes a sudden and severe pain — you’ll notice the skin over the affected joint is usually red and glossy. Often times, gout attacks come on as fast as overnight. Men between 30 and 50 years old are mostly affected by gout, for pre menopausal women, the uric acid level is lower, but after age 50 uric acid tends to increase along with the increase of gout incidents.

Primarily, gout affects one and sometimes two joints at a time; more often it attacks the feet and ankles. Even without healing, the pain subsides for about a week. It takes months or years before it returns, during this time attacks become more frequent and more severe, more joints are now involved. And when gout becomes chronic, the damage to the joint is deforming and crippling.

Can gout be cured naturally?

Curing gout naturally takes time, especially if a body has accumulated toxins over a lifetime, but it will be well worth the effort. Cleansing your system of accumulated toxins promotes proper functioning of your body and puts you on the road to natural good health.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Maintain a healthy weight and diet. It is not recommended to be 30 pounds (or more) overweight, as this increases the risk of gout.
2. Loose weight if you need to. By loosing weight you reduce the pressure on weight-bearing joints and also lower uric acid levels. You don’t want to use practices that encourage rapid weight loss such as fasting as it can raise the uric acid level temporarily.
3. Avoid excessive eating of high protein foods. It is suggested for a person to eat no more than six ounces of lean meat, fish and poultry, especially those who already have gout. A high-protein food increases the blood level of uric acid. Natural treatment for gout
Eating simple and natural food in proper combination and preparation helps your body restore and maintain vibrant health. The best diet for people with gout is 80 percent raw food or if possible organic food; these include live foods like sprouts, wheat grass, and fresh picked garden salads, and more grains, fruits and vegetables in place of protein.
The protein you need can come from non-animal food sources like legumes, such as beans, peas and lentils. Nuts are also essential and can include almonds, apricot nuts, and hazelnuts, as well as seeds such as hemp seed hearts, flax, and sesame. A substance in some foods known as purines is a danger to gout patients and should be limited or avoided as much as possible.

The foods that contain high levels of purines include,
• Organ meats like liver, brain, kidney, tongue, tripe, and sweetbread
• Anchovies, herring and mackerel
• Meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, fish roe, scallops
• Peas, lentils, and beans though they have small amounts of purines, they should still be avoided by people suffering from gout.

Balancing the pH in a person’s body is a crucial factor in curing gout; proper pH produces a healthy immune system and internal environment. Healing of chronic illness occurs when the blood is restored to normal or slightly alkaline pH.

Exercise is another essential for curing pains caused by gout. Stretching increases and maintains a range of motion in the joints and helps to strengthen and stabilize them. This also increases the endurance and stamina of the body overall.

Reducing repetitive use of joints, and avoiding sports injuries by including proper warm-ups are also important, as it choosing suitable sports equipment for exercising.

Another way is treat gout naturally is to avoid alcoholic beverages; consuming excessive alcohol like beer inhibits the excretion of uric acid and can lead to gout. It is advised for a male to have two drinks of alcohol per day, one drink per day for women. It is best for a person who is having a gout attack to refrain from drinking alcohol.

Drinking water and is also a natural way of curing gout because it has the ability to dilute uric acid in both blood and urine.

For a natural anti-inflammatory, and pain reliver try Arnica Lotion, from Salmon Creek Botanicals. To order visit www.salmoncreekbotanicals.com today!

What is Alopecia Areata?

Alopecia areata is a hair-loss condition which usually affects the scalp. It can, however, sometimes affect other areas of the body. Hair loss tends to be rather rapid and often involves one side of the head more than the other.
Alopecia areata affects both males and females. This type of hair loss is different than male-pattern baldness, an inherited condition.

What causes alopecia areata?

Current evidence suggests that alopecia areata is caused by an abnormality in the immune system. This particular abnormality leads to autoimmunity. As a result, the immune system attacks particular tissues of the body. In alopecia areata, for unknown reasons, the body's own immune system attacks the hair follicles and disrupts normal hair formation. Biopsies of affected skin show immune cells inside of the hair follicles where they are not normally present. What causes this is unknown. Alopecia areata is sometimes associated with other autoimmune conditions such as allergic disorders, thyroid disease, vitiligo, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. Sometimes, alopecia areata occurs within family members, suggesting a role of genes and heredity.

How is alopecia areata treated naturally?

In approximately 50% of patients, hair will regrow within a year without any treatment. The longer the period of time of hair loss, the less likelihood that the hair will regrow.
A study reported in the journal Archives of Dermatology (vol. 134, 1998;1349-52) showed effectiveness of aromatherapy essential oils (cedarwood, lavender, thyme, and rosemary oils) in some patients. As with many chronic disorders for which there is no single treatment, a variety of remedies are promoted which in fact have no benefit. There is no known effective method of prevention, although the elimination of emotional stress is felt to be helpful. Much research remains to be completed on this complex condition.

This story is close to our heart here at Botanical Health Magazine as one of our close friends has a child stricken with alopecia. They are currently trying different combinations of essential oils and herbs. We will keep you posted with the results.