He will be missed...

An Obituary printed in the London Times - not a joke and makes you
think!

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the
worm; Life isn't always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more
than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in
charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy
charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended
from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for
reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly
children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could
not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an
abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses;
and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents: Truth and Trust, by
his wife: Discretion, by his daughter: Responsibility and by his son:
Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights

I Want It Now

Someone Else Is To Blame

I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and
do nothing.

More MD offering vaccine alternatives

Yes, a flu sucks. But is it killing people? Not as many as the media would have you fear. Would you like to help protect your children against a similar future viral outbreak?
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/news/h1n1update.asp

My MD's response to the H1N1 vaccine according to a friend of mine who also sees this doc:
"Just saw Dr. K & asked her opinion about the vaccination. Her suggestion was boosting daily Vit D supplements to at least 5000 I.U.& all the other lifestyle suggestions you'd mentioned in your article instead of the shot. I'm still working on getting enuf sleep!"

H1N1 craziness!

The other day a patient of mine told me about the crazy encounter she had at her doctor's office this week. She went in to ask for some testing and when her doctor entered the examination room she looked so frazzled that my patient asked if something was wrong. The doctor asked her patient if she swore sometimes. The response being "yes" caused the doctor to sigh in relief and say "f$%#, f@#%, f*&%" through gritted teeth! Definitely not a professional thing to do in front of her patient! But she was so exasperated with the demands that were being placed on her and her staff by impatient, rude, and angry patients insisting on being next in line to receive the H1N1 vaccine.

The thing is that those patients are scared. They are being given conflicting information and promises. One moment we are told that there is plenty to go around; then we are told that vaccination clinics are being closed. We are told that this virus is the main flu (some say only flu) of the season, yet testing is not being done. That is a huge assumption. We are told that this one is more virulent than previous seasons, yet the numbers have not reflected that. In countries that have completed their flu season, their numbers are comparable, if not better than previous years. For example, Australia saw fewer deaths from the flu this year than in years past. We are told that the vaccine is safe, but the pharmaceutical companies have been waived of their responsibilities should their drugs go terribly wrong.

I have patients who have received the vaccine. I have patients who have chosen not to have the vaccine. I am not pushing anyone in either direction as that's not my way. I think it is up to each to become informed and to make his or her own decision.

But, PLEASE, if you do seek the vaccine, be considerate of those who are doing their best to provide the service and respectful of those who are put before you to receive it.

I myself am choosing to boost my own immune system with herbs, supplements, food, exercise, sufficient sleep, and acupuncture treatments.

Have you had any experiences like my patient had?

"Mother Grain" to Boost Immunity

The Incas called quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) the "mother grain" because it is so nutritionally rich. It contains all 8 essential amino acids, vitmain B2, B3, iron, calcium, magnesium, and fibre. It is also a good source of vitamin E and zinc, necessary for a healthy thymus gland which is important for immune cell production.



Quinoa Pilaf
3 3/4 cups water
3/4 lb quinoa
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tb okra, sliced finely
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Boil water in saucepan. Add quinoa, bring to boil again and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain. Heat oil in a wok, add okra and stirfry for 3 minutes. Add the other ingredients except cilantro and quinoa and stirfry for 5 minutes. Lower heat and cook for 10 more minutes. Mix in quinoa and cilantro. Serves 4.

From "The Top 100 Immunity Boosters" by Charlotte Haigh

Hinny, AKA H1N1

Check out these bits of info on the H1N1 virus, fear mongering, and vaccine:
From Rick Mercer: http://www.rickmercer.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/11/3

From an old 60 minutes report on the swine flu of 1976: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9mh9f_swine-flu-1976-propaganda_webcam

Dr. Mercola has a ton of info on H1N1 and has interviewed a number of experts.
Either watch the long video or read the text below the video at this link: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

Here's an exerpt that's making me correct what I've been saying about how H1N1 is pretty much THE seaonal flu of this season:

"How Many Cases are Really Swine Flu?

CBS, to their credit, conducted a three-month long investigation that indicates that we have all been hoodwinked by the governmental “protection” agency called euphemistically, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.³⁴

What they tried to learn from the CDC was just what percentage of the “flu cases” were in fact H1N1. The CDC did all they could to protect this information and only after filing a Freedom of Information request and waiting 2 months did they finally release the data. Now we know why they wanted it protected and why they stopped testing for the H1N1 virus in late July.

The data revealed that in fact very few cases reported as swine flu were in fact H1N1 variant virus. CBS examined the data in all 50 states. What they found, for example, was that in Georgia only 2% of reported cases were H1N1 (97% negative for H1N1); in Alaska only 1% of reported cases were H1N1 (93% negative for flu and 5% seasonal flu) and in California only 2% of reported cases were H1N1 with 12% being other flu viruses and 86% negative for flu.

A recent release from the CDC found that their survey reported that of 12,943 specimens tested from around the country, only 26.3% of cases tested positive for H1N1 variant virus, but that 99.8% of the specimens tested positive for some type of other flu virus, most of which were regular seasonal flu.

The CDC has now changed all data reporting on the flu effects. They did this by stopping viral typing and subtyping and rolled back all previous numbers based on prior data. The new system for collecting data now started on August 30^th, 2009.

The only reason I can imagine they did this is that the prior data was clearly demonstrating that the H1N1 variant virus was causing a very mild illness in most people (99.99%) with fewer hospitalizations, fewer cases of pneumonia and fewer deaths for all ages and groups than the prior seasonal flu in past years. This was true for the United States and the Southern Hemisphere, which has gone though the worst of its flu season.

Now that they are no longer typing the virus, they can attribute all cases of pneumonia, hospitalizations and deaths to H1N1, even though the majority of cases appear to be from a long list of other causes. In fact, they can classify many cases of primary pneumonia as caused by H1N1."

Several experts and physicians speak out against H1N1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1K74Tnrrok&feature=player_embedded

We're going to PumpKin you up!

Halloween is now over.
I knew this to be true not just because October is done. Not just because I put my dogs' Halloween costumes (yes, I am one of those people, but only once a year...well maybe once or twice a year). And not just because the kids I see are all hyped up on candy. I knew this to be true because the Christmas commercials started and all the Christmas decorations are being put up.

But, just because Halloween is over doesn't mean that you can't still enjoy pumpkins. Pumpkins are a great source of carotenoids and vitmain C, both of which can help the immune system. With H1N1 news plastered everywhere and every other person coughing, sneezing, and sniffling, all of us could use some extra help with our immune systems, so here's a yummy treat for immune boosting.

Pumpkin Fritters

1 medium pumpkin, cut into thick slices
1 1/2 cups plain wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cumin
yolk and white of 1 egg
3/4 cup water
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed (also great support for fighting off colds and flus)
2 tsp olive oil

Steam the pumpkin for 10 minutes, then leave to cool. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and cumin, then add the egg yolk and the water, a little at a time, stirring to form a smooth paste. Add the onion and garlic, then whisk the egg white and fold it ino the mixture. Heat the oil in a skillet, then dip the pumpkin slices in the mixture and fry a few at a time, turning regularly until crisp and brown. Serves 2.

From the book "The Top 100 Immunity Boosters" by Charlotte Haigh

H1N1; no comment, but a great pic

Pain and the Brain

Last weekend I was in Phoenix for an Integrative Medicine conference on Pain Management.

One of the biggest lessons for me, however, came the day after I returned home. I spent the holiday Monday out with my husband and my dogs. I noticed that my right knee was a bit limited and I had trouble bending it, but it wasn’t painful and I still chased the dogs and ran around.

It wasn’t until that night when I finally happened to look at my knee that I realized it was hugely swollen. And a funny thing happened. I then started to limp and it started to bug me more.

I laughed at myself and told myself that it was partly in my head, but visually seeing that I had cause to be limited made me more limited!

Pain is physical, but there is so much more to it than that, so when I use acupuncture, herbs, and supplements to treat pain, I keep that in mind.

Words Taken Out Of My Mouth

This is exactly what I say to my patients. Well, maybe not word for word, but certainly exactly this idea, from Frank Lipman, MD:

"Creating balance rather than just treating symptoms

When you are driving your car and the oil light goes on, you don’t cover the oil light and drive on. You take the car to the garage and see why the oil light has come on. Or when the fire alarm in your house goes off, you don’t (or you shouldn’t) take the battery out so you won’t hear the alarm anymore, you look for what triggered the alarm, where the smoke is coming from.

Similarly, when you have a symptom, for instance heartburn or a headache, it is your body’s alarm going off, it is a cry for help. It is telling you something is off, something needs to change, something needs to be done to see why your body is crying out for help. Unfortunately in Western Medicine, what we do is put a band aid over the oil light or we take out the battery to stop hearing the alarm. We suppress the symptom with a drug. For instance, if we have heartburn, we take Nexium or an antacid, if we have a headache, we take Tylenol, for depression, Prozac. When we do that, we think of heartburn as a Nexium deficiency, a headache as a Tylenol deficiency and depression as a Prozac deficiency.

We usually do not look to see why we have that symptom, what is the cause, what are the underlying imbalances. I learnt in Chinese Medicine that a symptom is a pointer to some imbalance in the system, it is telling us that something needs to be done to create balance again. Instead of suppressing the symptom, we try to create balance. Sometimes you do need to suppress symptoms, for instance if you are in a lot of pain, but it is essential to see symptoms as pointers to some underlying imbalance and try to see why your oil light is on.

In this new model of Medicine, we look for the underlying imbalance or dysfunctions and look for the root causes and address those to treat dis-ease rather than automatically resorting to drugs to suppress the symptoms.

One Love,
Frank"

Standing on the back of an expert...again

I love getting great information! Even better when it's from an expert. And, better yet, when it's free. This is from the last David Suzuki newsletter and it's about GMOs. Why do we not learn from our past mistakes of the dangers in technology used wrongly and in messing with Mother Nature without sufficiently considering its consequences?

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

In gearing up for the 2010 release of its super-genetically modified corn called “SmartStax”, agricultural-biotechnology giant Monsanto is using an advertising slogan that asks, “Wouldn't it be better?” But can we do better than nature, which has taken millennia to develop the plants we use for food?

We don’t really know. And that in itself is a problem. The corn, developed by Monsanto with Dow AgroSciences, “stacks” eight genetically engineered traits, six that allow it to ward off insects and two to make it resistant to weed-killing chemicals, many of which are also trademarked by Monsanto. It’s the first time a genetically engineered (GE) product has been marketed with more than three traits.

Canada approved the corn without assessing it for human health or environmental risk, claiming that the eight traits have already been cleared in other crop seeds – even though international food-safety guidelines that Canada helped develop state that stacked traits should be subject to a full safety assessment as they can lead to unintended consequences.

One problem is that we don’t know the unintended consequences of genetically engineered or genetically modified (GM) foods. Scientists may share consensus about issues like human-caused global warming, but they don’t have the same level of certainty about the effects of genetically modified organisms on environmental and human health!

A review of the science conducted under the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development in 2008 concluded that “there are a limited number of properly designed and independently peer-reviewed studies on human health” and that this and other observations “create concern about the adequacy of testing methodologies for commercial GM plants.”

Some have argued that we’ve been eating GM foods for years with few observable negative consequences, but as we’ve seen with things like trans fats, if often takes a while for us to recognize the health impacts. With GM foods, concerns have been raised about possible effects on stomach bacteria and resistance to antibiotics, as well as their role in allergic reactions. We also need to understand more about their impact on other plants and animals.

Of course, these aren’t the only issues with GM crops. Allowing agro-chemical companies to create GM seeds with few restrictions means these companies could soon have a monopoly over agricultural production. And by introducing SmartStax, we are giving agro-chemical companies the green light not just to sell and expand the use of their “super crops” but also to sell and expand the use of the pesticides these crops are designed to resist.

A continued reliance on these crops could also reduce the variety of foods available, as well as the nutritive value of the foods themselves.

There’s also a reason nature produces a variety of any kind of plant species. It ensures that if disease or insects attack a plant, other plant varieties will survive and evolve in its place. This is called biodiversity.

Because we aren’t certain about the effects of GMOs, we must consider one of the guiding principles in science, the precautionary principle. Under this principle, if a policy or action could harm human health or the environment, we must not proceed until we know for sure what the impact will be. And it is up to those proposing the action or policy to prove that it is not harmful.

That’s not to say that research into altering the genes in plants that we use for food should be banned or that GM foods might not someday be part of the solution to our food needs. We live in an age when our technologies allow us to “bypass” the many steps taken by nature over millennia to create food crops to now produce “super crops” that are meant to keep up with an ever-changing human-centred environment.

A rapidly growing human population and deteriorating health of our planet because of climate change and a rising number of natural catastrophes, among other threats, are driving the way we target our efforts and funding in plant, agricultural, and food sciences, often resulting in new GM foods.

But we need more thorough scientific study on the impacts of such crops on our environment and our health, through proper peer-reviewing and unbiased processes. We must also demand that our governments become more transparent when it comes to monitoring new GM crops that will eventually find their ways in our bellies through the food chain.