Beat Big Pharma Drug Prices And Chemical Additives – Make Your Own Safe, High Quality, Natural Topical Ointments At Home

February 24th, 2012

Natural News

By: JB Bardot

Consumers are bombarded daily by pharmaceutical company hype over the promise of clear skin and painless backsides achieved by using ineffective and sometimes dangerous topical applications for everything from hemorrhoids to eczema and acne.

While people are emptying their wallets for Big Pharma’s witch’s brews, they could be making their own high quality ointments with healthy, natural ingredients. Instead of suppressing symptoms with medicines that dovirtually nothing, are expensive and may have damaging long-term effects, mix your own salves using effective, inexpensive and natural ingredients.

Most salves, ointments and lotions are simple to make from medicinal tinctures mixed with ingredients like lanolin, glycerin, cocoa butter, olive and coconut oil or aloe vera.

Lanolin

Lanolin is a rich emollient made from sheep’s wool. It makes an excellent base for medicinal salves and naturally moisturizes skin. Lanolin has been used for thousands of years as an all-purpose vehicle for a long list of skin-care products for both medical and cosmetic purposes, including hypoallergenic preparations. The myth that lanolin causes allergies, is just that — a myth — and in actuality, the incidences of a lanolin allergyare negligibly low.

Glycerin

Glycerin is a byproduct of the soap-making process and provides a wonderful natural base for making medicinal lotions. As a humectant, glycerin attracts moisture to the skin. It’s a naturally sweet-tasting, clear liquid which, when frozen, becomes a sticky paste. It mixes well with alcohol or water but not with fats or oils. Straight glycerin is dehydrating when used on its own; however, when diluted with water, it’s an excellent skin-softening moisturizer.

Medicinal Tinctures

Many medicinal tinctures can be purchased over-the-counter from homeopathic pharmacies. Some tinctures require a prescription from a doctor. Tinctures are similar to herbal extracts in that they are made from herbs and preserved with alcohol. Tinctures are not quite as strong as liquid extracts. Although extracts may be more potent, they lose their potency faster than tinctures and they contain plant matter suspended in the mixture, making them less desirable for use in topical applications. Tinctures are the preferred choice for making most medicinal salves and lotions. Ointments made from lanolin tend to be greasy. Glycerin lotions absorb into the skin in most cases, leaving no residue.

Tincture Percentages

Percentages of tinctures to base ingredients vary; however, a safe guideline is to add 10 to 15 percent tincture to the mix. When making salves and ointments with lanolin, the texture may be too thick. In order to thin, add a small amount of olive or coconut oil. For example, try 2/3 lanolin to 1/3 olive oil, then add the tincture and mix by hand or in a food processor until well blended. Decant into dark glass containers and store covered in a cool, dry place.

Medicinal Applications

Here are some suggestions for making ointments and lotions for personal use using tinctures and either lanolin or glycerin. Other natural bases and tinctures can also be used andexperimented with. Tinctures should be 1X potency if you can get them. If not, get the lowest potency available.

Wounds, scrapes, infections, acne — equal parts Echinacea, Calendula, Hypericum, Arnica montana

Bruises and muscle strain –Arnica montana

Foot problems, aches, corns, plantar warts — Thuja

Scar removal including acne scars and keloids — Thiosimaminum

Hemorrhoids — equal parts Hamamelis virginicus, Aescus hippocastanum, Arnica montana, Calendula (Mix in lanolin base. Do not use glycerin.)

Sprains and joint pain — Arnica montana, Rhus toxicodendron, Ruta gravolens, Calcarea florica, Symphytum

(Author’s note: I cannot recommend places to buy products; however, here is a list of U.S. homeopathic pharmacies. http://www.homeopathyhome.com/directory/usa/pharmacies.html

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Chemical Used in Food Containers Added to U.S. List of Carcinogens

June 14, 2011

Bloomberg

By Jeffrey Young

The widely used preservative formaldehyde, and styrene, found in food containers and coffee cups, are among eight agents added to a list of known and suspected carcinogens by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Formaldehyde, linked to leukemia and a rare type of nasal cancer, is “known to be a human carcinogen,” according to the congressionally mandated report published today on the health agency’s website. Styrene is categorized by researchers as “reasonably anticipated” to be cancer-causing.

The new compounds bring the total number of substances linked to cancer to 240. Aristolochic acids, found in herbal products used to treat arthritis and gout, were also listed as a known carcinogen because they can cause bladder or urinary-tract cancer in people with kidney disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautioned consumers against taking supplements containing aristolochic acid in 2001, according to the report.

“A listing in the report does not by itself mean that a substance will cause cancer,” said John Bucher, associate director of the National Toxicology Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, in a conference call with reporters.

The cancer-causing risk from formaldehyde and styrene comes from the products’ widespread use in industrial applications and less from their presence in consumer products, Bucher said.

Click here to read the full report from Bloomberg.

Facebook Sharing Private Data

October 18th, 2010

The Wall Street Journal

By: Emily Steel and Geoffrey A. Fowler

Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.

The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook’s strictest privacy settings. The practice breaks Facebook’s rules, and renews questions about its ability to keep identifiable information about its users’ activities secure.

The problem has ties to the growing field of companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online—a practice the Journal has been examining in its What They Know series. It’s unclear how long the breach was in place. On Sunday, a Facebook spokesman said it is taking steps to “dramatically limit” the exposure of users’ personal information.

“A Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user’s Internet browser or by an application,” the spokesman said. Knowledge of an ID “does not permit access to anyone’s private information on Facebook,” he said, adding that the company would introduce new technology to contain the problem identified by the Journal.

“Our technical systems have always been complemented by strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information,” the Facebook official said.

“Apps” are pieces of software that let Facebook’s 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found that all of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users’ IDs to outside companies.

The apps, ranked by research company Inside Network Inc. (based on monthly users), include Zynga Game Network Inc.’s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user’s friends to outside companies.

Most apps aren’t made by Facebook, but by independent software developers. Several apps became unavailable to Facebook users after the Journal informed Facebook that the apps were transmitting personal information; the specific reason for their unavailability remains unclear.

The information being transmitted is one of Facebook’s basic building blocks: the unique “Facebook ID” number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, anyone can use an ID number to look up a person’s name, using a standard Web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private. For other users, the Facebook ID reveals information they have set to share with “everyone,” including age, residence, occupation and photos.

The apps reviewed by the Journal were sending Facebook ID numbers to at least 25 advertising and data firms, several of which build profiles of Internet users by tracking their online activities.

Defenders of online tracking argue that this kind of surveillance is benign because it is conducted anonymously. In this case, however, the Journal found that one data-gathering firm, RapLeaf Inc., had linked Facebook user ID information obtained from apps to its own database of Internet users, which it sells. RapLeaf also transmitted the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms, the Journal found.

RapLeaf said that transmission was unintentional. “We didn’t do it on purpose,” said Joel Jewitt, vice president of business development for RapLeaf.

Facebook said it previously has “taken steps … to significantly limit Rapleaf’s ability to use any Facebook-related data.”

Facebook prohibits app makers from transferring data about users to outside advertising and data companies, even if a user agrees. The Journal’s findings shed light on the challenge of policing those rules for the 550,000 apps on its site.

Click here for the full report from the Wall Street Journal

Applications For Jobless Benefits Rise To 462,000

October 14, 2010
Associated Press
Christopher S. Rugaber

More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first rise in three weeks and evidence that companies are reluctant to hire in a slow economy.

Initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was only the second rise in two months.

Jobless claims have been stuck near 450,000 all year. Few employers see much reason to create many jobs, and some are still laying off workers. Rail operator CSX Corp., for example, said Wednesday that it can lengthen its trains to handle rising shipments, reducing its need to hire more employees.

“The labor market is kind of frozen right now,” said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities. “There’s not a lot of hiring going on, not a lot of quitting, not a lot of layoffs.”

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened in August by 8.8 percent to $46.3 billion. The gap grew because of a 2.1 jump in imports, driven by demand for foreign-made semiconductors, generators and other types of industrial machinery. Exports edged up a slight 0.2 percent.

A third report noted that prices at the wholesale level remained tame outside a sharp rise in food and energy costs. Excluding those two volatile categories, core wholesale prices rose just 0.1 percent, the Labor Department said.

The data illustrate a weak economy that is slowly recuperating more than a year after the recession officially ended. Businesses are unable to raise prices because of high unemployment that is not expected to ease for months, perhaps years.

The initial claims figure, while volatile, is considered a real-time snapshot of the job market. It is also a measure of the pace of layoffs and an indication of companies’ willingness to hire. The four-week average of claims, a less volatile measure, rose by 2,250 to 459,000 — the first increase after six consecutive declines.

Claims have fallen significantly since June 2009, the month the recession ended. First-time claims topped 600,000 at the end of that month.

But most of the improvement took place last year. Since January, claims have fluctuated around 450,000.

Cash-strapped state and local governments are cutting jobs, adding to the ranks of those out of work and likely driving up the initial claims for unemployment aid.

State and local governments shed 83,000 jobs in September. The economy lost a net total of 95,000 jobs overall and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.6 percent.

Local governments cut the most jobs in 28 years last month, most of them teachers and other school employees.

Private employers, meanwhile, added a net total of 64,000 jobs, about one-third what’s needed to make a dent in the unemployment rate. Pandl and other economists don’t expect hiring by companies to accelerate much from that pace this year.

Total unemployment benefit rolls, meanwhile, fell last week, most likely because many of those out of work are using up their benefits.

The number of people continuing to receive benefits fell by 112,000 to just under 4.4 million, the department said. But that doesn’t include several million people who are receiving benefits under extended programs approved by Congress.

The number of people on extended benefits dropped by about 340,000 to about 4.8 million in the week ending Sept. 25, the latest data available. All told, about 8.6 million people received unemployment aid that week.

Layoffs are continuing in some sectors. Sanofi-Aventis SA, the world’s fourth-largest drug maker, said last week that it is eliminating 1,700 jobs in its U.S. pharmaceutical business due to growing generic competition.

And insurance conglomerate Aon said Thursday that it will cut 1,500 to 1,800 jobs over the next three years as it consolidates its acquisition of Hewitt Associates, a human resources firm.

Click here for the full report from the Associated Press.

Less Jobless Claims As Of Last Week

June 10, 2010

Bloomberg

By Shobhana Chandra

June 10 (Bloomberg) — More Americans than anticipated filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign firings remain elevated even as the economy is expanding.

Initial jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 456,000 in the week ended June 5, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected 450,000 claims, according to the median forecast. The number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell to the lowest level since 2008, while those getting extended payments climbed.

While payrolls rose for a fifth month in May, hiring by companies was less than forecast, underscoring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments yesterday that there will be “only a slow reduction” in the unemployment rate. Job gains are needed to spur consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, and ensure a sustained expansion.

“The labor market is not as healthy as it should be at this stage of the recovery,” said John Herrmann, senior fixed- income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston, who forecast claims at 453,000. “Hiring isn’t ramping up and this means there are downside risks to growth, income and consumption.”

The U.S. trade deficit widened in April to the highest level in more than a year as exports dropped more than imports, a report from the Commerce Department showed. The gap grew 0.6 percent to $40.3 billion, the most since December 2008.

Click here for the full report.