It’s easy to find natural ways to clean your home. Here’s my quick Top 10 list:
1. Use cleaning products made from safe natural and not-toxic ingredients to prevent exposure to the hazardous synthetic chemicals conventional cleaners often contain.
2. Dust with a damp cloth to ensure that household dust, which can collect toxins, is removed from surfaces and not stirred back into the air.
3. Open windows and doors occasionally (even in winter!) to rinse out any air pollutants that have accumulated inside.
4. Spray carefully. Propellant-powered aerosol spray products release their ingredients in the form of easily-breathable microscopic droplets that stay suspended in the air for hours after use. Better bets are hand-powered spray products or those you can apply with a sponge or rag.
6. Use baking soda. Freshen everything from carpets and cat boxes to trash cans and drains with non-toxic baking soda. Just sprinkle, let stand overnight, and vacuum or rinse odors away the next day.
7. Warm water can be best. Synthetic chemicals and other pollutants often accumulate unseen on the surfaces you are cleaning. Since hot water easily turns many of these substances into vapor.
8. Use chlorine-free dishwasher detergent. The chlorine in conventional detergents is easily vaporized by hot dishwasher water and then released into your home’s air.
9. Ask guests to remove their shoes when entering your home. That way, they won’t track in pollutants.
10. Buy a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. These special filters trap unhealthy dust particles.
Jeffrey has led Seventh Generation from its humble beginnings to its current position as the leading and fastest-growing brand of natural products for the home, and the leading authority on issues related to making a positive difference in the health of the planet and its inhabitants through our everyday choices.
www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Swarthmore College Microbiologist Discusses Keys to Swine Flu Response
Swarthmore College Microbiologist Discusses Keys to Swine Flu Response
AScribe News
05-05-09
SWARTHMORE, Pa., May 04, 2009 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Amy Cheng Vollmer has taught biology at Swarthmore for 20 years.
The best way for the public to confront fears of H1N1 Swine Influenza A (swine flu) is to practice basic good health, says Swarthmore microbiologist Amy Cheng Vollmer. In addition to information about transmission, people should be aware of factors contributing to susceptibility.
"Because your susceptibility depends on both the amount of virus to which you are exposed and the overall health of your immune system, the keys are to minimize exposure and maximize your immune responsiveness," says Vollmer, a professor of biology whose research focuses on bacterial stress response. "Think of this as a race - if a pathogen enters at a low concentration and your immune system is ready to respond, you win and don't get sick. If you are either exposed to a high concentration of the virus and/or your immune responsiveness is not at its peak, you'll be sick."
Swine Flu Information for the Swarthmore Community from Worth Health Center
According to Vollmer, minimizing exposure is specific for each pathogen. "The virus is transmitted through aerosol vapors that are the result of coughing or sneezing," she says. "Even if those small droplets that carry the virus alight on an inanimate object like a handrail, computer keyboard, or doorknob, the virus can persist for potentially several days. Hence the recommendation to wash your hands is a good one."
So why then, if handrails and doorknobs have viruses on them, are we not sick all of the time? Vollmer says it depends on how much of the pathogen you are exposed to and for how long. So the key, she adds, is to maximize your immune responsiveness, which "is universal and applicable to all infectious diseases."
How healthy is your immune system? That depends on several factors:
- age - the very young have immune systems that are not fully developed and the very old have immune systems that are no longer able to work to full capacity.
- sleeping habits - it is during sleep when your body restores and repairs; it is also when extra energy is stored away. Since the immune system is one of the most energetically expensive systems to run (and usually the first to be shut down when energy reserves are low), getting enough sleep every day is key.
- nutrition - your body is able to fully extract and store extra energy reserves if you have consumed essential nutrients and vitamins on a regular basis. Failure to do so diminishes the rate of your response to a pathogen.
- exercise - your immune system is most responsive when you are active and have good muscle tone - it helps your lymphatic fluids flow and that allows immune system cells to be most responsive;
- hydration - cells are 80 percent water, including the cells of your immune system. For them to operate maximally, you must drink water. Alcohol, salty foods, caffeine have dehydrating effects. Also mucous membranes in your nose and throat can trap viruses that come in through the air. If you are dehydrated the mucous does not trap as well.
- stress - chronic stress depresses your immune responsiveness.
- being immuno-compromised due to medication, pregnancy, and/or being sick already
Vollmer notes that after being exposed to a pathogen, an immune system will respond faster the next time it is exposed. "That is why vaccines work," she says. "A vaccine is a rehearsal for the immune system, tricking it into acting as if you were infected."
But for a virus that mutates as quickly and easily as the swine flu, Vollmer says finding a vaccine is difficult. "Viruses mutate by swapping viral DNA with other similar viruses," she says. "It would be like mixing two full decks of cards and coming up with a hybrid deck. Because the cards that are swapped cannot be predicted accurately, we cannot easily predict the next rendition of the flu."
Vollmer hopes that learning about swine flu will encourage people to take a more preventative, holistic approach to their health. "As a biologist, I am completely in awe of how healthy most of us are most of the time, given our exposure to many particles and organisms in the air and water," she says. "If we can learn from this outbreak some basic principles about how to maintain good health, then it will be a powerful lesson."
- - - -
Articles featured in Life Extension Daily News are derived from a variety of news sources and are provided as a service by Life Extension. These articles, while of potential interest to readers of Life Extension Daily News, do not necessarily represent the opinions nor constitute the advice of Life Extension.
AScribe News
05-05-09
SWARTHMORE, Pa., May 04, 2009 (ASCRIBE NEWS via COMTEX) -- Amy Cheng Vollmer has taught biology at Swarthmore for 20 years.
The best way for the public to confront fears of H1N1 Swine Influenza A (swine flu) is to practice basic good health, says Swarthmore microbiologist Amy Cheng Vollmer. In addition to information about transmission, people should be aware of factors contributing to susceptibility.
"Because your susceptibility depends on both the amount of virus to which you are exposed and the overall health of your immune system, the keys are to minimize exposure and maximize your immune responsiveness," says Vollmer, a professor of biology whose research focuses on bacterial stress response. "Think of this as a race - if a pathogen enters at a low concentration and your immune system is ready to respond, you win and don't get sick. If you are either exposed to a high concentration of the virus and/or your immune responsiveness is not at its peak, you'll be sick."
Swine Flu Information for the Swarthmore Community from Worth Health Center
According to Vollmer, minimizing exposure is specific for each pathogen. "The virus is transmitted through aerosol vapors that are the result of coughing or sneezing," she says. "Even if those small droplets that carry the virus alight on an inanimate object like a handrail, computer keyboard, or doorknob, the virus can persist for potentially several days. Hence the recommendation to wash your hands is a good one."
So why then, if handrails and doorknobs have viruses on them, are we not sick all of the time? Vollmer says it depends on how much of the pathogen you are exposed to and for how long. So the key, she adds, is to maximize your immune responsiveness, which "is universal and applicable to all infectious diseases."
How healthy is your immune system? That depends on several factors:
- age - the very young have immune systems that are not fully developed and the very old have immune systems that are no longer able to work to full capacity.
- sleeping habits - it is during sleep when your body restores and repairs; it is also when extra energy is stored away. Since the immune system is one of the most energetically expensive systems to run (and usually the first to be shut down when energy reserves are low), getting enough sleep every day is key.
- nutrition - your body is able to fully extract and store extra energy reserves if you have consumed essential nutrients and vitamins on a regular basis. Failure to do so diminishes the rate of your response to a pathogen.
- exercise - your immune system is most responsive when you are active and have good muscle tone - it helps your lymphatic fluids flow and that allows immune system cells to be most responsive;
- hydration - cells are 80 percent water, including the cells of your immune system. For them to operate maximally, you must drink water. Alcohol, salty foods, caffeine have dehydrating effects. Also mucous membranes in your nose and throat can trap viruses that come in through the air. If you are dehydrated the mucous does not trap as well.
- stress - chronic stress depresses your immune responsiveness.
- being immuno-compromised due to medication, pregnancy, and/or being sick already
Vollmer notes that after being exposed to a pathogen, an immune system will respond faster the next time it is exposed. "That is why vaccines work," she says. "A vaccine is a rehearsal for the immune system, tricking it into acting as if you were infected."
But for a virus that mutates as quickly and easily as the swine flu, Vollmer says finding a vaccine is difficult. "Viruses mutate by swapping viral DNA with other similar viruses," she says. "It would be like mixing two full decks of cards and coming up with a hybrid deck. Because the cards that are swapped cannot be predicted accurately, we cannot easily predict the next rendition of the flu."
Vollmer hopes that learning about swine flu will encourage people to take a more preventative, holistic approach to their health. "As a biologist, I am completely in awe of how healthy most of us are most of the time, given our exposure to many particles and organisms in the air and water," she says. "If we can learn from this outbreak some basic principles about how to maintain good health, then it will be a powerful lesson."
- - - -
Articles featured in Life Extension Daily News are derived from a variety of news sources and are provided as a service by Life Extension. These articles, while of potential interest to readers of Life Extension Daily News, do not necessarily represent the opinions nor constitute the advice of Life Extension.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
PERFECT WELLNESS TIDBIT
It's gotten pretty scary out here let's get to work and begin putting more effort into cleaning up our living space inside and out!!!!
We must do something quickly to positively affect the environment.
We're all interconnected and interdependent and part of a larger whole. With that consciousness, we also need to be committed to the awareness of sustainability of our environment. Harmony between us and our planet is crucial to every living creature.
Get rid of those toxic materials and solutions in your home. Try new products. Shop To Earth has an abundance of great products that most people would never try. Sweet Wheat is just one of the hundreds of products sold there that does wonders for the skin and is totally healthy for your body and the earths body...find items for your animals, your home and more. Lets heal our world and ourselves.
Go here and learn more:
www.shoptoearn.net/stepharitshops
www.24hourtour.net/stepharitshops
Thanks
Need health counseling?
www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com
Learn to make your own environmentally healthy cleaning products and therapeutically regain your healthy balance with essential oils:
www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot
We must do something quickly to positively affect the environment.
We're all interconnected and interdependent and part of a larger whole. With that consciousness, we also need to be committed to the awareness of sustainability of our environment. Harmony between us and our planet is crucial to every living creature.
Get rid of those toxic materials and solutions in your home. Try new products. Shop To Earth has an abundance of great products that most people would never try. Sweet Wheat is just one of the hundreds of products sold there that does wonders for the skin and is totally healthy for your body and the earths body...find items for your animals, your home and more. Lets heal our world and ourselves.
Go here and learn more:
www.shoptoearn.net/stepharitshops
www.24hourtour.net/stepharitshops
Thanks
Need health counseling?
www.perfectbeautyinsideout.com
Learn to make your own environmentally healthy cleaning products and therapeutically regain your healthy balance with essential oils:
www.youngliving.org/stephaniewalcot
Friday, May 1, 2009
Frankincense Kills Bladder Cancer Cells
United Press International
03-18-09
OKLAHOMA CITY, Mar 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Enriched extract of the Somalian frankincense herb Boswellia carteri has been shown to kill off bladder cancer cells, U.S. researchers said.
H.K. Lin and his team at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma City VA Medical Center evaluated frankincense oil for its anti-tumor activity in bladder cancer cells.
The study authors investigated the effects of the oil in two different types of cells in culture: human bladder cancer cells and normal bladder cells.
The study, published in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that frankincense oil is able to discriminate between normal and cancerous bladder cells in culture, and specifically kill cancer cells.
Gene analyses were performed to determine how frankincense oil affects bladder cancer cell survival and the researchers found that the oil suppresses cancer cell growth by arresting cell cycle progression and induces bladder cancer cell death by activating multiple cell death pathways.
"Frankincense oil may represent an inexpensive alternative therapy for patients currently suffering from bladder cancer," Lin said in a statement.
FROM LEF.ORG
URL: www.upi.com
FOR THE MOST SUPERIOR THERAPEUTIC QUALITY FRANKINCENSE OIL PLEASE GO TO:
WWW.YOUNGLIVING.ORG/STEPHANIEWALCOT
03-18-09
OKLAHOMA CITY, Mar 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Enriched extract of the Somalian frankincense herb Boswellia carteri has been shown to kill off bladder cancer cells, U.S. researchers said.
H.K. Lin and his team at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Oklahoma City VA Medical Center evaluated frankincense oil for its anti-tumor activity in bladder cancer cells.
The study authors investigated the effects of the oil in two different types of cells in culture: human bladder cancer cells and normal bladder cells.
The study, published in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, found that frankincense oil is able to discriminate between normal and cancerous bladder cells in culture, and specifically kill cancer cells.
Gene analyses were performed to determine how frankincense oil affects bladder cancer cell survival and the researchers found that the oil suppresses cancer cell growth by arresting cell cycle progression and induces bladder cancer cell death by activating multiple cell death pathways.
"Frankincense oil may represent an inexpensive alternative therapy for patients currently suffering from bladder cancer," Lin said in a statement.
FROM LEF.ORG
URL: www.upi.com
FOR THE MOST SUPERIOR THERAPEUTIC QUALITY FRANKINCENSE OIL PLEASE GO TO:
WWW.YOUNGLIVING.ORG/STEPHANIEWALCOT
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