It’s Almost Over…

The holiday season is finally almost over, so let’s start the de-stressing process….

Ice cream seems like a quick fix, but you’re better off making some wise stress-busting diet choices such as:

• Eating oatmeal, which provides more of all the B-Vitamins (except for pantothenic acid), than black beans, brown rice, or whole grain bread.
• Trying dried apricots to help keep blood sugar levels even. Stress causes the body to release hormones that cause blood sugar levels to fluctuate, triggering cravings and anxiety.
• Anxiety is associated with deficiency in the mineral selenium; one T chopped Brazil nuts, or 3 nuts, will provide you with your entire 200 mcg. daily requirement; almonds, pecans and walnuts contain 6, 6, & 21 respectively.
• Culinary herbs like basil, ginger and thyme contain mild sedative compounds, but according to experts, cooking them destroys those calming compounds; so, try eating raw in a salad.
• Stress suppresses the immune system; boost immunity by getting at least 200 mg. of Vitamin C daily: 1 C halved strawberries = 86 mg., 1 kiwi = 74 mg., and 1 C of pineapple chunks = 24 mg.
• To end your day, brew a cup of chamomile, lemon balm or valerian tea, which all contain anti-anxiety compounds. Steep the herb (1 tea bag, 3 T fresh or 1-2 tsp. dried) in covered cup of water; strain after 5 min., drink and enjoy (or, drink 1-3 cups throughout your day).

Click here for more tips on how to live an all-natural, drug-free lifestyle and remember to listen to my 24/7 radio show stream on KTRadioNetwork.com!

Yours in health…
KT

Vaccination Theory Crumbles As Science Reveals Antibodies Not Necessary To Fight Viruses

March 28, 2012

Natural News

By Ethan A. Huff

“More evidence that vaccines are virtually pointless.” –KTRN

While the medical, pharmaceutical, and vaccine industries are busy pushing new vaccines for practically every condition under the sun, a new study published in the journal Immunity completely deconstructs the entire vaccination theory. It turns out that the body’s natural immune systems, comprised of both innate and adaptive components, work together to ward off disease without the need for antibody-producing vaccines.

The theory behind vaccines is that they mimic infection by spurring B cells, one of the two major types of white blood cells in the immune system, to produce antibodies as part of the adaptive immune system. It is widely believed that these vaccine-induced antibodies, which are part of the more specific adaptive immune system, teach the immune system how to directly respond to an infection before the body becomes exposed to it.

But the new research highlights the fact that innate immunity plays a significant role in fighting infections, and is perhaps more important than adaptive immunity at preventing or fighting infections. In tests, adaptive immune system antibodies were shown unable to fight infection by themselves, which in essence debunks the theory that vaccine-induced antibodies serve any legitimate function in preventing or fighting off infection.

“Our findings contradict the current view that antibodies are absolutely required to survive infection with viruses like VSV (vesicular stomatitis virus), and establish an unexpected function for B cells as custodians of macrophages in antiviral immunity,” said Dr. Uldrich H. von Andrian from Harvard Medical School. “It will be important to further dissect the role of antibodies and interferons in immunity against similar viruses that attack the nervous system, such as rabies, West Nile virus, and Encephalitis.”

Click here for the full report.

Kombucha Under Attack: Is It Somehow Dangerous To Your Health?

March 26, 2012

Natural News

By Jonathan Benson

“Once a natural product becomes popular, the mainstream machine always tries to say that it’s dangerous – just like they did with colloidal silver.” –KTRN

Kombucha tea is becoming all the rage in popular culture today, with entire refrigerator cases at health food stores now exclusively stocking the stuff, and celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and Orlando Bloom regularly drinking it for increased longevity and improved health. But with its growing popularity has come a whole lot of scaremongering by the disease industry over its supposed dangers, which begs the question — is kombucha tea a potentially-dangerous fad, or is it truly the health-promoting wonder elixir that many people claim it is?

First of all, kombucha tea has been around for thousands of years, and has long been used by traditional cultures to improve digestion, boost immunity, eliminate kidney stones, reduce high blood pressure, and create sustained and lasting energy. Though there is still much debate over precisely where it originated, this unique, fermented tea — kombucha tea is a simple combination of tea, sugar, water, and starter culture — has no doubt been used safely and effectively by Asian, European, and now North American cultures alike for many centuries without issue (http://www.thedailybeast.com).

It is only since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and its cohort of likeminded allies in Western medicine became aware of kombucha’s existence and popularity that it somehow became an untested and potentially dangerous concoction that the public should avoid. Though nobody has ever proven that kombucha is in any way dangerous, the mainstream media has published numerous scare stories over the years questioning kombucha’s safety.

Single death linked to kombucha actually caused by underlying health conditions, pharmaceuticals
One myth you may have heard about kombucha tea is that it can kill you, a claim made by the FDA, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others based on a single incident back in 1995 where a woman was admitted to the hospital with severe acidosis and elevated levels of lactic acid in her body, and later died. According to reports, she had been consuming kombucha every day for two months prior to her death.

But if you read the report in closer detail, it clearly states that no direct link was confirmed between kombucha tea and the woman’s death. In fact, the report states that she had already been suffering from other underlying health conditions, and that she “took medications for hypertension, anemia, and mild renal insufficiency.” An autopsy later showed that her actual cause of death appeared to be “peritonitis with fecal contamination of the peritoneal cavity” (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00039742.htm).

Since kombucha is an alkaline-forming food rather than an acid-forming food, it is illogical to blame kombucha for this woman’s acidosis and resultant peritonitis. In actuality, it appears as though the woman’s underlying health conditions combined with her medication regimen were the actual cause of her death, and that kombucha tea was merely a last-ditch effort to restore her already-declining health.

If anything, drinking kombucha may have been the only thing actually helping this woman, as the anti-microbial, alkaline-forming cultures present in the brew are known to counteract acidosis and actually restore peritoneal function. But rather than perform due diligence and research both the incident and the history of kombucha’s safe use, the mainstream media took the bait and began propagating lies about kombucha.

Click here for the full report.

EPA Dioxin Assessment Raises Red Flag For Some

February 22nd, 2012

CNN

By: David Martin

Nearly three decades in the making, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced its landmark dioxin assessment with the conclusion: “Generally, over a person’s lifetime, current exposure to dioxins does not pose a significant health risk.”

But Dr. Arnold J. Schecter, a University of Texas professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, says dioxins pose a risk for fetuses, newborns and people with immune deficiencies such as AIDS patients.

“Some people are going to be more susceptible because they receive a higher dose or they’re more sensitive,” says Dr. Schecter, who served on an EPA advisory panel on dioxins.

Dioxins are a class of highly toxic chemicals released into the environment by industrial production, waste incineration and forest fires. The chemicals get into the food chain and accumulate in animal fat.

Air emissions of dioxins in the United States have decreased 90% since 1987, thanks to the EPA, state and industry efforts, the agency said Friday. Even so, some dioxins are now present in every man, woman and child on the planet.

The EPA characterizes dioxins as “likely” carcinogens. They are also linked to developmental and reproductive problems, damage to the immune system, hormone disruption, skin rashes and discoloration, and mild liver damage.

Fetuses and newborns have diets relatively high in fat and their bodies are still developing, putting them at greater risk for health problems related to dioxins, Schecter says, as are people whose immune systems are already compromised.

Animal fat in the diet accounts for close to 90% of dioxin exposure in the United States, according to a 2003 National Academies of Science report on dioxins in the food supply.

With the new assessment, the EPA set the threshold for safe dioxin exposure at a toxicity equivalence (TEQ) of 0.7 picograms per kilogram of body weight per day.

Stephen Lester, science director for the Center for Health Environment & Justice, says young children may routinely be exposed to higher levels through their diets.

Lester points to the National Academies report, which found the average 1 to 5 year old’s diet contained 1.09 TEQ. Boys and girls 6 to 11 years old averaged .69 TEQ.

“The EPA has mentioned that the levels in the air are going down and we’ve made great improvements and that we’ve got the problem under control, but that’s not what’s going on here,” Lester says.

Research published in 2009 put the average TEQ exposure for all Americans at .54 TEQ, assuming an average body weight of 165 pounds.

Dioxins cannot be washed off foods. Eating less or leaner meat, chicken and fish; low-fat or fat-free cheese and yogurt; and drinking skim milk will lower the dioxin content of the typical American diet, Schecter says.

“We’re lucky. The same thing that’s good for protecting our hearts and our brains from heart attacks and strokes will also protect us from the toxic effects of dioxins.”

In addition to cutting fat out of the diet, CHEJ also recommends eating grain or grass fed beef. Lester says some cattle are given feed that contains animal fat, essentially recycling the dioxins.

The EPA says the amount of dioxin in food will go decline as dioxin levels in the environment go down.

The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture monitor dioxin in food and feed. A USDA survey of dioxins in meat is expected to be released in 2013.

“Given the success of the current dioxin reduction program, and the low levels of risk posed for consumers, additional regulatory changes by USDA or recommendations to avoid particular foods are unwarranted at this time,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

The 344-page EPA dioxin assessment looked only at non-cancer risks. A second report on dioxins’ cancer risks will follow. No date has been set.

Click here for the full report

Optimum Vitamin D Blood Saturation Reduces All-Cause Mortality By Nearly Thirty Percent

January 26, 2012

Natural News

By John Phillip

“Here is even more evidence that Vitamin D is key.” –KTRN

The importance of vitamin D for human health has been the topic of extensive research over the past decade. Suboptimal levels of the prohormone are known to compromise immunity, cardiovascular health, bone health and normal metabolism. The result of a new meta-analysis study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that adequate circulating vitamin D reduces the risk of all-cause mortality by 29 percent. Vitamin D has been shown to provide the blueprint required for healthy DNA replication of cellular structures; low levels of the sunshine vitamin dramatically increase the incidence of many cancer lines as genetic mutations proliferate. Millions of at-risk people can protect themselves by ensuring normal blood saturation levels through a simple blood test and prudent sun exposure or supplementation.

Vitamin D deficiency runs rampant in the aging population around the world. Researchers estimate that correcting this deficiency by doubling the typically low vitamin D levels would result in a 20 percent mortality reduction. A body of evidence shows that senior adults with the lowest level of vitamin D blood saturation more than double their risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Click here for the full report.

5 Natural Ways To Boost Immunity For Cold And Flu Season

October 20, 2011

The Huffington Post

By: Jim Nicolai

Health and beauty can have an inner wholeness and balance that offers resilience against the external pressures of your environment. Among other things, this means that you can be exposed to certain infectious agents and not necessarily get sick.

As you go about your daily life, you will come into contact with germs — it can’t be avoided, no matter how hard you try.

Sure you need to wash your hands and cough into your sleeve, but what are some ways to shore up immunity during this time when infections of all kinds seem to rear their ugly head?

Here are five tips for entering the cold and flu season to keep your body resilient during this time:

Optimize Vitamin D Levels
This hormone (it’s not actually a vitamin) has receptor sites in every area of the body including the immune system and respiratory tissue. Studies have linked vitamin D as necessary for the production of antimicrobial proteins from immune cells in response to infection.
Low levels of vitamin D in the blood are linked with increased incidence of upper respiratory infection. Adults should keep optimum levels by taking at least 2000 IU daily. Get your levels checked if you think you are low.

Learn About Immune Boosting Tonics
I like medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, reishi and cordyceps. You can take extracts of these in liquid or capsule form. My other favorite is a Chinese root called Astragalus, used to prevent illness and strengthen immunity once you do get sick. You can buy the root and make it into a tea or soup; otherwise, buy extracts in liquid or capsule form and take as directed.

Fight Viruses With Elderberry Extract
The fruit of the elderberry shrub (Sambucus nigra) has a long history of being used for colds and flu. It has been supported scientifically with studies from Israel showing that taking a liquid extract of elderberry reduced the duration of flu symptoms as compared to placebo over a period of a week’s time. Its antiviral properties seem to come from the flavonoids that give elderberry its purple color.

Breathe Deeply
Do this correctly by using the muscles of your abdomen and the ones between your ribs (intercostals) to squeeze more air out of your lungs as you exhale. By moving more air out, you bring more air in. Allowing your breath to be fuller, deeper and more even helps you to optimize immunity and access spontaneous healing in your body.

Live Well
This has to do with proper lifestyle measures that we know we should be doing, but sometimes find difficult to manage. Make a concerted effort to get proper rest, eat and drink well, move your body and manage stress.
I recommend trying to get between at least seven to nine hours of sleep per night. You’ll know how much your body needs based on how refreshed you feel when you wake up in the morning. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet filled with fruits and vegetables of a variety of colors. Try to get some exercise every day even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking, and learn how to breathe well.

Click here for the full report from The Huffington Post

Vitamin C Provides Beautiful Skin, Enhanced Immunity And Cancer Prevention

September 28th, 2011

Natural News

By: Danna Norek

Vitamin C is one of the most well known, cost effective and universally beneficial antioxidants that we know of today. This vitamin topically and internally encourages beautiful skin, helps boost the immune system, and aids in the prevention of several types of cancer.

Vitamin C and skin health

Vitamin C is a key component of collagen and elastin synthesis in our bodies. Collagen and elastin are proteins that make up our skin, muscles and other connective tissue.

Collagen essentially creates a “foundation” for our skin. When it begins to deteriorate with age, we start to see the sagging and wrinkles that are customary signs of aging.

Collagen and elastin are the two main reasons our skin remains smooth and resilient in our youth. Elasticity provides the ability to “bounce back” after repeated movements. Years of facial expressions, exposure to excessive UV light and other damaging dietary or environmental factors really start to show when this elasticity is compromised.

Boosting vitamin C intake can help you regain some of the lost collagen and elastin by encouraging the body to produce more. Since vitamin C is also a very important antioxidant, it helps the body to eliminate the free radicals, which compromise healthy skin cells.

In addition to its internal benefits vitamin C is also useful in external applications. It helps reduce age spots and darker pigmentation from sun exposure. It also helps to provide better skin tone and color.

This is due to its mild exfoliating capabilities, which help rid the skin of dead skin cells to reveal a fresher layer of healthy skin cells. It also helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Vitamin C and immunity

Aside from its skin health benefits vitamin C also enhances immune function. It has been shown to stimulate the production and enhance the function of white blood cells.

White blood cells are essentially our front line defense against infection and they protect us from bacterial and viral invaders. Vitamin C has also demonstrated protective qualities over white blood cells which may lengthen their life span.

Vitamin C and cancer prevention

Numerous studies have linked higher vitamin C intake to a lower occurrence of several types of cancer. In mice, these studies have shown that the vitamin can inhibit or slow the growth of cancerous tumors. These include cancer of the lung, stomach, mouth, throat, and breast.

These studies primarily point to a benefit in eating fresh fruits and vegetables that are rich in numerous vitamins and minerals as well as vitamin C. Eating the whole food offers the greatest benefit since the vitamins and minerals complement one another and enhance overall absorption.

It is important that we replenish this vitamin every day. This vitamin is flushed out of the system daily by our natural bodily functions. Since the human body is not capable of synthesizing this vitamin on its own, it is replenished solely through diet and supplementation.

Preferably it is received via the diet as this is the most complete way to get your daily dose. Some great ways to include this in your diet include adding freshly squeezed lemon juice to your water, consuming citrus fruits and eating a variety of raw or minimally cooked fruits and vegetables.

However, you may also take a supplement. Since vitamin C is water soluble, it does not build to toxic levels in the body. Vitamin C also has the unique capability to “recycle” other antioxidants like vitamin e. This adds even more value to daily supplementation.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Why Is the Flu Vaccine Recommended Even If Kids Got One Last Year?

September 2nd, 2011

The Chicago Tribune

By: AP

The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated flu advice that says even children who got flu shots last year need to be vaccinated this season.

In recommendations released Thursday, the Elk Grove Village-based academy says the 2011-12 vaccine protects against the same three strains as last year.

That includes the H1N1 or swine flu strain that is expected to circulate again this year.

Immunity can drop several months after being vaccinated so new shots are recommended.

Flu vaccine is recommended for ages 6 months and up.

The academy says kids aged 9 and up need just one dose. Younger kids need just one dose if they got at least one last year. But younger kids need two doses at least a month apart if they weren’t vaccinated last year.

Click here for the full report from the Chicago Tribune

Evidence Emerges That E.coli Superbug Was Created To Kill

July 6th, 2011

Natural News

By: Mike Adams

Even as the veggie blame game is now under way across the EU, where a super resistant strain of e.coli is sickening patients and filling hospitals in Germany, virtually no one is talking about how e.coli could have magically become resistant to eight different classes of antibiotic drugs and then suddenly appeared in the food supply.

This particular e.coli variation is a member of the O104 strain, and O104 strains are almost never (normally) resistant to antibiotics. In order for them to acquire this resistance, they must be repeatedly exposed to antibiotics in order to provide the “mutation pressure” that nudges them toward complete drug immunity.

So if you’re curious about the origins of such a strain, you can essentially reverse engineer the genetic code of the e.coli and determine fairly accurately which antibiotics it was exposed to during its development. This step has now been done (see below), and when you look at the genetic decoding of this O104 strain now threatening food consumers across the EU, a fascinating picture emerges of how it must have come into existence.

The genetic code reveals the history

When scientists at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute decoded the genetic makeup of the O104 strain, they found it to be resistant to all the following classes and combinations of antibiotics:

• penicillins
• tetracycline
• nalidixic acid
• trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazol
• cephalosporins
• amoxicillin / clavulanic acid
• piperacillin-sulbactam
• piperacillin-tazobactam

In addition, this O104 strain posses an ability to produce special enzymes that give it what might be called “bacteria superpowers” known technically as ESBLs:

“Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs) are enzymes that can be produced by bacteria making them resistant to cephalosporins e.g. cefuroxime, cefotaxime and ceftazidime – which are the most widely used antibiotics in many hospitals,” explains the Health Protection Agency in the UK.

On top of that, this O104 strain possesses two genes — TEM-1 and CTX-M-15 — that “have been making doctors shudder since the 1990s,” reports The Guardian. And why do they make doctors shudder? Because they’re so deadly that many people infected with such bacteria experience critical organ failure and simply die.

Bioengineering a deadly superbug

So how, exactly, does a bacterial strain come into existence that’s resistant to over a dozen antibiotics in eight different drug classes and features two deadly gene mutations plus ESBL enzyme capabilities?

There’s really only one way this happens (and only one way) — you have to expose this strain of e.coli to all eight classes of antibiotics drugs. Usually this isn’t done at the same time, of course: You first expose it to penicillin and find the surviving colonies which are resistant to penicillin. You then take those surviving colonies and expose them to tetracycline. The surviving colonies are now resistant to both penicillin and tetracycline. You then expose them to a sulfa drug and collect the surviving colonies from that, and so on. It is a process of genetic selection done in a laboratory with a desired outcome. This is essentially how some bioweapons are engineered by the U.S. Army in its laboratory facility in Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

Although the actual process is more complicated than this, the upshot is that creating a strain of e.coli that’s resistant to eight classes of antibiotics requires repeated, sustained expose to those antibiotics. It is virtually impossible to imagine how this could happen all by itself in the natural world. For example, if this bacteria originated in the food (as we’ve been told), then where did it acquire all this antibiotic resistance given the fact that antibiotics are not used in vegetables?

When considering the genetic evidence that now confronts us, it is difficult to imagine how this could happen “in the wild.” While resistance to a single antibiotic is common, the creation of a strain of e.coli that’s resistant to eight different classes of antibiotics — in combination — simply defies the laws of genetic permutation and combination in the wild. Simply put, this superbug e.coli strain could not have been created in the wild. And that leaves only one explanation for where it really came from: the lab.

Engineered and then released into the wild

The evidence now points to this deadly strain of e.coli being engineered and then either being released into the food supply or somehow escaping from a lab and entering the food supply inadvertently. If you disagree with that conclusion — and you’re certainly welcome to — then you are forced to conclude that this octobiotic superbug (immune to eight classes of antibiotics) developed randomly on its own… and that conclusion is far scarier than the “bioengineered” explanation because it means octobiotic superbugs can simply appear anywhere at any time without cause. That would be quite an exotic theory indeed.

My conclusion actually makes more sense: This strain of e.coli was almost certainly engineered and then released into the food supply for a specific purpose. What would that purpose be? It’s obvious, I hope.

It’s all problem, reaction, solution at work here. First cause a PROBLEM (a deadly strain of e.coli in the food supply). Then wait for the public REACTION (huge outcry as the population is terrorized by e.coli). In response to that, enact your desired SOLUTION (total control over the global food supply and the outlawing of raw sprouts, raw milk and raw vegetables).

That’s what this is all about, of course. The FDA relied on the same phenomenon in the USA when pushing for its recent “Food Safety Modernization Act” which essentially outlaws small family organic farms unless they lick the boots of FDA regulators. The FDA was able to crush farm freedom in America by piggybacking on the widespread fear that followed e.coli outbreaks in the U.S. food supply. When people are afraid, remember, it’s not difficult to get them to agree to almost any level of regulatory tyranny. And making people afraid of their food is a simple matter… a few government press releases emailed to the mainstream media news affiliates is all it takes.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Use Natural Remedies To Treat A Urinary Tract Infection

May 25th, 2011

NaturalNews.com

By: Elizabeth Walling

Home treatment for a urinary tract infection (UTI) is often enough to resolve the problem if the right methods are used consistently. In fact, using natural methods to treat a urinary tract infection at the first sign of symptoms may help prevent a more serious infection from setting in.

Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

Common symptoms of a urinary tract infection include:

- urge to urinate more often
- decreased quantity of urine passed
- pain during and after urination ( usually a burning or stinging sensation)

Symptoms of a serious urinary tract infection include nausea, fever, vomiting and constant pain in the abdominal region. If you experience these serious symptoms, please consult a health professional.

Natural Home Remedies for a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

Cranberry. Perhaps the most well known UTI remedy, cranberries have long been prized for their ability to clear a urinary tract infection. One 2002 study showed that cranberry juice or cranberry tablets relieved UTI symptoms better than a placebo. Pure cranberry juice is recommended, as juice blends may not contain a high enough concentrate of cranberry to be effective.

Blueberry. Although not as well known as cranberries for treating a UTI, blueberries have also been shown to be an effective remedy for a urinary tract infection. You can eat fresh organic blueberries, make a smoothie from frozen berries or even blend pure blueberry juice with pure cranberry juice to harness the healing power of both of these berries.

Pineapple. Rich in vitamin C and bromelain, pineapple can help you fight off infection while also reducing inflammation. Bromelain has been shown to help resolve urinary tract infections, while vitamin C is a known immunity booster.

Uva Ursi. This herb is known for its ability to cleanse the kidneys and urinary system. It has antiseptic properties that can help reduce pathogenic bacteria causing the infection. A tincture or tea made with uva ursi is recommended at least once per day during a UTI.

Water. It`s the standard remedy for almost any illness, but drinking plenty of fluids is extremely important in the case of urinary tract infections. It allows the body to flush bacteria out of the urinary tract. You may be tempted to drink less since urination can be painful with a UTI, but if you keep up your fluid intake you will mostly likely notice a reduction in pain more quickly than if you did not.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

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