Archive for August, 2011

Plastics are a health hazard. Packaging has become a way to deliver products effectively. Packaging serves up mountain spring water, and soda in easy to handle bottles. We rely on lightweight bottles, storage containers, cups, baby bottles, and shampoo bottles. They are less prone to breakage, and lighter in weight which are factors that make them so popular.

Plastic Products

Plastics product demand keeps growing. This packaging is much more than an aesthetic change, it brings superior functionality while reducing costs. Environmental issues, facts and perspectives on the biodegradability issues are a growing concern. For the most part these products are likely destined for landfills.

The one thing plastic isn’t is “sustainable” in the sense of durable or long-lasting. America’s appetite for convince is at an all time high. On the surface innovative plastic packaging for things like milk, juice, sauces, ready made puddings, jello, and condiments seem to be what the consumer wants.

For the marketplace plastics are considered useful, convenient and cost effective. What is in store for both the planet and consumer is going to be costly. The short term gains are becoming long term headaches.

Dangers of Plastics

What Georgetown University, Plasticpure, and CertChem ( a chemical testing company)  scientists found was that only 70 percent of common plastic products tested positive for estrogenic activity, but the the percentage rose to 95 percent when put into the dishwasher or microwave.

BHA is Bisphenol A, a chemical that has been used for more than 40 years in the manufacture of plastic food containers. The latest research from the University of Missouri shows that BPA causes Male deer mice to become demasculinized and behave more like females in their spatial navigation abilities. They also became less desirable to females.

The World of Plastics

We may be tipping the scales in the evolutionary process. The world is increasingly becoming a different place, that doesn’t celebrate human existence as much as a contemporary interaction of buyers and sellers. Creating brands seems to be the manifesto of America interpretation of free enterprise.

People find brands comforting, it gives a sense of stability. The brands of the past are still visible today, but the warmth and con fort have been replaced by well-tailored marketing. The product is formulated and packaged differently from the past. What has emerged is a new coherent strategy to improve the revenue model. So for most companies the dispensers of their products have to meet the bottom line. Plastic grocery bags made from polyethylene, hold shrink wrapped food,  multi-colored plastic bottles, and clear see through beverage bottles.

Leading scientist have concluded that exposure to plastic products that release chemicals that have estrogen activity during human development may be damaging to both behavioral and cognitive functions that are unique the each sex and critical to reproduction capacity.

Plastic bottles are less prone to breakage, but our we designed to withstand this hormone-disrupting convenience. We may be sterilized along with the bottles.

Depression can be stopped in its tracks. Pharmaceuticals aren’t the only or best way to reduce depression. Administrating drugs for what many times is a lifestyle condition is the wrong approach. High potency drugs can cause more problems then they solve. The numbers and variety of legal drugs are increasingly suspected of causing this problem. Some common drugs that are known to cause depression are: barbiturates, amphetamines, pain killers, beta-blockers, high blood pressure medications, heart medications and psychotropic drugs.

Depression Solutions

A good diet has many benefits that help with mood disorders, ADHD, cognitive function, and depression. The biggest barrier to brain health is a poor diet. After decades of of looking at mental disorders as separate from overall health, the tide is turning. There is a relationship between what you eat, how much you exercise, and what you think.

Essential Fatty Acids

Two-thirds of the brain is composed of specific kinds of fats. The two kinds of fatty acids that your body can’t manufacture and needs from food sources are the ones the brain depends on. These are the essential fatty acids (EPAs): Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) the foundation of the ”omega-3″ group of fatty acids, and Liolic acid (LA) the foundation of the “omega-6″ group of fatty acids.

These are the building blocks of brain cells. Food sources of Omega-3 (ALA) are flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, sea vegetables, green leafy vegetables, salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, olive oil, grass fed beef and dairy. Linolic acid (LA) is found in expelled cold pressed oils, like sesame, primrose, flax, and others. The other sources are pumpkin seeds, avocados, poultry, cashews, acai berry, and spirulina. Many of the foods that have omega 3 contain Linoleic acid.

The brain makes docosehexaenoic acid (DHA) from (ALA) and (LA). Scientist at the National Institutes of Health has associated the increase in depression in North America with the decline of DHA. This is the most important fat for all cognitive functions.

B Vitamins

The B-complex vitamins are essential to both mental and emotional health. The B vitamins can’t be stored they depend on our daily consumption of them. They are destroyed by alcohol, refined sugar, nicotine, caffeine, and stress.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is used by the brain to help convert glucose into fuel, it is the primary source of energy for the brain. Deficiencies can lead to fatigue, depression, irritability anxiety, and insomnia. Simple carbohydrates such as sugar drains the supply of all B complex vitamins.

Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) aids is the processing of amino acids. the building blogs of serotonin, melatonin and dopamine. These are know as the happy hormones.

Vitamin  B12 is important in preventing Anemia, which can cause mood swings, paranoia, irritability, confusion, dementia, and depression.. Folic Acid is need for DNA sysnthesis.

Lifestyle 

With our modern lifestyle many people shouldn’t be a stranger to depression. Depression is more than genetics. This condition is more than minor worries; it is the collapse of our agriculture system. The quality of our food supply is dismal. As our nutritional foundation is giving way our mental illnesses will sky rocket. Just by looking at the rates of autism, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and bi-polar disorders you can see the hair-curling trend. This is unprecedented and is setting the stage for a boon in prescription medications.

Antibiotic resistance strains of bacteria are more than just than MRSA. Every time we turn around we meet the new kid on the block, and each time the danger escalates. Drug development seem to give superpowers to these life-threatening bacteria. The problem seems to be growing too quickly for the pharmaceutical companies. It seems that the drug companies have a working relationship with the infections. The higher the potency of the antibiotic the stronger the bacteria become.

Bacteria

As the bacteria evolve we may be heading for extinction. We live in a challenging times. Creating a way to handle this problem requires new thinking and creative solutions. Antibiotics are losing their luster. Upgrading them may further risk our health. Innovative thinking may manage this scourge better than the drug mentality.

For a society that worries about bacteria, and concentrates on making everything sterile, we seem to be a hot bed for their activity and growth. The evolution of the super bugs are in direct proportion to the aseptically filled syringes, and prescriptive filled antibiotics.

Sanitizing

This is without taking into account hand sanitizers, which are used on just about anything in arms length. The problems is going to grow too quickly unless we put a wrap on sanitizing the planet. Our commercial meat, poultry, produce and dairy supply are become a health hazard thanks to nurturing the big pharma instead of our livestock and vegetation.

Pharmacutical Problem

The pharmaceutical company has put their stamp on every aspect of our lives. This may be the point where we sound the alarm. The potential impact on the quality of our lives isn’t potential anymore, it is here. We have to stop increasingly sponsoring this way of thinking. There is a lot of pressure by consumers for big pharma to save us. This is because of the fear generated by a harmonized network of marketing by the pharmaceutical industry. All treats are either large and global or small and regional but they are all in close proximity to you, and the next blockbuster drug will save you. They may not have drug development down to a science, but they surly have consumer centered marketing down pat.

We need a partnership that gives us a reason to smile, and one that is easy to work with. There are people and companies that it would pay us to sponsor. At this point in time our dollars are sponsoring the companies that are changing the landscape of the planet for the worst.

Coriander Oil

While the scientist ponder the best preclinical drug for eradicating these supper bugs. We already have an arsenal of natural herbs, spices, and plants that can independently eradicate some of the antibiotic resistant bacteria. Case in point, researchers from the university of Beira Interior in Portugal test coriander oil against 12 bacteria strains, including Escherichia Coli, Salmonella enterica, Bacillus cereus and meticillin-resistant Staphylococuus aureaus(MRSA). All the strains showed reduced growth and most were killed by solutions containing 1.6% coriander oil or less.

The coriander oil damages the membrane surrounding the bacterial cell and its environment. This action inhibits essential processes like respiration, which ultimately leads to the destruction of the bacteria. This is without side effects, unless they manage to put it into clinical drugs. To prevent food-born illnesses, and treat antibiotic resistant infections we have to look outside of the current thinking.