More Way's to Help in the Battle of Cancer

I know my last articles covered quite a wide area of information but I cannot stress enough the importance of  taking steps to battle cancer before you get it. Especially after hearing some information from the American Medical Association which said they estimate 60 percent of the 2.1 billion prescriptions that were prescribed to treat condition's were either not tested or approved to treat those conditions. Many of the prescriptions you find on shelves are not even tested by the FDA before ending up on the shelves. It's easier to just approve them and use us as guinea pigs and then when the drugs cause horrible symptoms and people die and the drug ends up on the list of lawsuits then the FDA comes in to test it to see and finds out it causes horrible side effects after the damage was already done.

While you might not think about it there is at least ten things that we do everyday which can cause cancer and to give you an idea of what I mean I'll explain.

Cosmetic Phthalates- Many of the cosmetic products which you use on a daily basis will contain phthalates (plasticizers) and you can find them in many products like for example deodorants, fragrances, hair spray, shampoos and many other bath and beauty products. Besides increasing durability and binding the lovely smells we enjoy but also have been shown to damage reproductive and developmental in lab test animals. The state of California has banned phthalates in the manufacturing of child toys. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes a potential for lowered sperm count in boys and premature breast development in girls but they continue to do research on the effects meanwhile we are still using products containing this chemical in many cases. The FDA claims that other products have safe levels for adults. But again when your using many different products which each contain this chemical your giving yourself a double or triple dose of it every day so it must have some negative effects on your body not to mention I know when I was a kid I used the same products my parents used.

 Flame Retardants- Many products which contain flame retardants are things like mattresses, circuit boards,  computer casings, television, and upholstery. These contain what is called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs for short which can cause learning and memory problems, lowered sperm counts and poor thyroid functioning in rats. These chemical's can either be ingested by eating animal products which contain it or they can be inhaled from dust or air. These chemicals are so strong that they have even shown up in waterways so once they get into your body you cannot get rid of them. Women can pass the chemical to infants because PBDE's can build up in the womb and breast milk.

Baby Bottles which contain BPA- Canada has already outlawed baby bottles made from polycarbonate plastics because they are made using a chemical bisphenol-a (BPA). These bottles when heated release BPA which is a hormone disputer which can effect natural hormones in young children.

Cleaning Solutions and Air Fresheners- The University of California found that in small or unventilated area's many cleaning solutions and air fresheners which are used to make the room smell clean and fresh can release toxic chemical's which are ethylene-based glycol ethers and terpenes. When these chemical's mix with the ozone in the air they can cause a poisonous combination. Air fresheners especially can contain nitrogen dioxide which can cause cancer in some animal's. Other air fresheners can contain paradichlorobenzene which in California is known to cause cancer and can be found in pesticides, deodorants, and disinfectants. They build up in your body's fatty tissues and while they claim it could be a carcinogen but say there is no direct evidence to support that there is proof that animals given very high levels in water have developed liver and kidney tumors.

Lead Paint- This applies if you own a house which was built before 1978 if you have to do any repainting make sure you do not remove paint by sanding, burning, or scraping it. Make sure to have a professional do it so you do not end up subjecting yourself to toxins. 

Chemical's from Laser Printers- This one I found surprising a University in Australia found that some printers can give off fine particles which can cause serious health problems. Another study which was done by the National Institute of Public Health also confirmed that laser and ink-jet printers can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone, and particulates. Depending on the amount of exposure it has been linked with lung and heart disease.

Chemical's from the ink and glue of Carpet- Carpet installed indoors can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) because of the glue and dye which is used during the installation process. Best way to avoid this is have your carpet retailer air out the carpet before installing it or keeping the room well ventilated to prevent VOC's from building up in the room.

Pressed Wood Products- Many products which are made with pressed wood contain a chemical known as urea-formaldehyde which with heat and humidity can increase the release of this chemical. Exposure to formaldehyde can be very dangerous and include side effects such as burning eyes and throat, possibly setting off watery eyes, difficulty breathing and asthma attacks it has also been known to cause cancer in animal's.

Pesticides- This includes all types they are made with poisonous chemicals to kill bugs and animal's and many of them contain chemicals which cause cancer and other serious effects. Like was mentioned above paradichlorobenzene is also used in many pesticides.

Mothballs- These have a bad smell and because they are made from a gas you would not want to breath these in too much. They contain paradichlorobenzene which causes cancer like I explained above. Other types can also contain naphthalene which can damage or destroy red blood cells and can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. A natural way to avoid using mothballs is cedar chip because bugs don not like the smell of cedar.

That was only ten things daily and many of us do a combination of all of the above daily which is increasing our risk for either developing different diseases or the possibility of getting cancer. And if you work in an environment which contains these you also are subjecting yourself to even more danger.

If your cleansing your body of metals like lead above or mercury which is contained in fish. You would want to eat cilantro of course a easier way to tackle this would be herbal supplements such as heavy metal detox which contains cilantro and other herbs which help to cleanse your body of metals which you might have been exposed too. Vitamin C is also good it can help your body speed up the removal process of lead but also helps build a strong immune system. Fiber is also very useful and it can be found in red beat roots, figs, oat bran, and prunes.

Other herbs which can help aid with cleansing lead or just cleansing the liver in general include milk thistle and milk thistle this can also help other toxins besides lead. These can help you by removing toxins that you might have been exposed to over the years at your job or at home.

Calcium and Vitamin D are also helpful in fighting colon cancer by reducing colon polyps. You can also help your body by eating sauerkraut or having garlic with everything you eat both contain cancer fighting compounds which can lower the risk of getting cancer. Cantaloupe is another great fruit which contains carotenoids that help fight lung cancer.  And in another article I spoke of barbeque being bad because of the charcoal causing cancer if you coat the barbeque in a thick sauce or precook the meat in the oven before finishing it on the grill you'll reduce the amount of chemical's the flames create.

Riding Your Charlie Horse to Victory

It is late at night and your sound asleep. You stretch your leg out and all of a sudden you feel a painful cramp that feels like someone is tearing your leg off. It is so bad it makes you jump out of bed and you try to walk it off but your sound sleep was already ruined and for the rest of the day it feels like that leg is bruised or sore.

They are called many things depending on the country your from such as dead leg, chopper, granddaddy, or corked thigh. But I have always heard them called charlie horses. They are the most painful experience that anyone could have at night. And last night I had a really bad one so bad that even now it is still bothering me. I find myself limping around my apartment.

Of course I decided to do some research about Charlie Horses and ways to win the war over them and I'm kind of surprised that I did not find too much information. My next door neighbor saw me limping and asked what was wrong and I told them it was a Charlie Horse and she said you should be eating banana's because it has to do with potassium deficiency but for me that should not be the case because I take daily supplements.

So I went over to the library and  I found some more information it actually can be caused by quite a few different things besides the potassium deficiency while it is a main cause there is a few other things that can cause them too such as:

•     Muscle fatigue
•     Heavy exercising
•     Dehydration
•     High weight (not necessarily obesity)
•     Electrolyte imbalances
•     Medications (statins, prednisone, others...)  

 Now I know I have not done any over exercising but I have not been drinking enough water I can tell because my lips have also been chapped and painful I just have not had the time and have been busy. So I've realized that I need to try and fit more water into my daily schedule. I at least wanted to do a blog post about it because most of us do not think about this. Sometimes we get caught up in our work and we drink soda or sugar drinks which do not keep ourselves hydrated well enough.

Update on Tea's And Other Information

I know it has been quite a few weeks since I last posted. I apologize in preparation of 4th of July I lost track of time and computer upgrade of my computer but I have not forgotten about the tea's. One unfortunate thing is that not all of the manufactures actually have given responses. And some that have also lied about whether or not their tea used Epichlorohydrin.

So the best way to find out is use the trick which I posted here. Otherwise you might not get accurate information. But way to avoid cancer is to have your tea loose. While it might be more annoying because you have to strain the tea you will not have to worry about any type of toxins. Even if the bag is sealed with a form of plastic seal some of the plastics can break down with the water heat and also release chemicals which can cause cancer.

Any steps that you can take to limit your exposure to certain chemicals will increase your life in the long run. While things can happen which we have no control over we do have control over what we eat and how well we take care of ourselves and what we use on a daily basis. Even the smallest steps can help to improve our health. This does not mean you have to spend a fortune to improve your health either cause I do realize that much of the food that you buy from health food stores can be very expensive and not everyone has access to these types of stores. But everyone does have access to your local grocery stores. All you have to do is learn to make food which does not come prefrozen or in a can.

Avoiding food that is process is another important way to stay healthy not just because of the massive amounts of salt that these processed foods contain but the unneeded chemicals which are used to preserve or give it a flavor or color that is pleasing to the person that eats it. Even in your favorite snacks you'll find dye colors to make your food look a certain way like for example I'm sure everyone has had Doritos at one time or another. If I can draw your attention to the wikipedia page for Doritos if you look at the ingredients you'll see artificial color (including Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40). Just so you know when I'm talking about them I'm not making it up.

Of course processed food is not the only one at fault. Canned food deserves some blame too especially that it also contains a vary of preservatives  and also the metal that it is contained in gets into the food and contaminates it. You should always at least wash food that comes from a can that will not only remove some of the contamination but will also improve the taste of the food.

That's all I have for now but I will not forget about you guys now that things have calmed down I'll have another interesting medical related article soon for you. I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog.

How to tell if Epichlorohydrin is in your tea?

Since I've found a lot of interesting information about epichlorohydrin I had to see if there was a way of finding out if a tea really did contain epichlorohydrin. From what I researched epichlorohydrin when it interacts with water turns into 3-MCPD but that does not really tell us what it looks like or anything like that. So I asked a fellow friend who's studying to become a biochemist and he told me that when 3-MCPD if formed it appears as a oil on the top of the water.

So I decided to try an experiment to see if that was the case so I went to the store and picked up a small box of Lipton tea since it is on our list of tea's which contain epichlorohydrin. So I boiled some water in my kettle and put a tea bag into a cup. When the water was boiled I poured it into the cup and I did not notice anything at first and I put some milk into it because I was going to end up just drinking it thinking that there was nothing wrong with the Lipton tea bag. As I poured the milk into the cup that is when I noticed the small layer of oil on top of the tea. I took a piece of cotton which absorbed the oil on top of the tea but decided against drinking the tea because I value my health.

So this is a way to test tea if you have tea at home you can actually figure out whether it has epichlorohydrin in it by looking to see if you see oil on top of the tea. If no oil is there then chances are the tea bag does not contain epichlorohydrin to seal the bag. And if you do that means the bag uses epichlorohydrin or a polyamine-epichlorohydrin resin.

Ultimately I think if your really concerned with your health it is best to avoid drinking tea which uses tea bags to begin with. Tea made just from leaves contains more flavor and aroma and there is no worrying about some kind of poison glue or chemical used in either the bag creation or the bag sealing.

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List of Epichlorohydrin Free Tea Products

After finding the information about the cancer causing chemical epichlorohydrin bonding agent I had to look to see if I could find out if there were any tea companies which bagged there tea without the harmful products. Some of the responses from tea companies where very contradictory they claimed their product does not contain epichlorohydrin and when questioned further then claimed that there paper manufacture uses epichlorohydrin based resin but it's still within safe levels.

Of course avoiding using tea which is contained in bags is one way or buying a tea kettle which has a porcelain filter for leaves also works but some people might not like the fact that it is not as easily to drink it or store it on you while your on the move. So I've been emailing different companies trying to find out which do and which do not. And because some of these companies are slow to respond it might be a long process of modifying the list and adding more to it as I find them. But for the time being I do have some which I can list.

Tea companies which did not provide enough information to prove they don't actually use the chemical:

• Numi tea response:
  Hello,
  Not containing the material of concern.
  Best,
  The Numi Tea’m

So far this is the only information Numi provided so I do not know if they are just trying to avoid answering it or the person answering emails does not know english but regardless of the case I will not add it to the list if there is not enough proof.

Tea companies that contain polyamine-epichlorohydrin resins:

• Bigelow Tea company claims that they do not use epichlorohydrin in there tea but they say there paper manufacture uses resin which contains epichlorohydrin at safe levels.
• Yogi tea currently uses a non-heat sealable filtration paper made from a select blend of high quality manila hemp (abaca) fibers and wood pulp. This paper is oxygen bleached using a natural process free of chemicals or toxins. With regard to your question, our tea bag filter paper does contain epichlorohydrin. This is a resin approved by the FDA for use in food contact materials to provide wet strength.

 Tea companies that contain epichlorohydrin:

• Lipton Tea

 Tea companies which do not have epichlorohydrin:

• Twinings uses a thin layer of polypropylene plastic to seal the tea bags. 

 

 

Companies which have not responded yet:
Ahmad tea
Salada tea
Tazo tea
Celestial Seasonings
Harney & Sons Fine Teas 
Girnar tea
Stash tea

These are most of the tea's of which I see on a daily basis so if I missed one which you'd like me to try and contact and find out whether they use epichlorohydrin in the bagging process feel free to comment and tell me.  

How to Infuse Tea

You’ll need a tea pot, a teaplate to collect runoff water; one bowl for the spent leaves, one teapot brush one tea leaf pick, six tea cups, six tea snifter cups, one ewer, one tea filter to sit inside the ewer, one towel. 

Boil the water its best if you use the most clean and pure water you can get because the better the water the better the tea will taste. 

Pick the type of tea you want.

Teas have two categories baked and raw. Baked leaves (Shou Cha) are darker in color and rich in flavor. When they are infused they produce red colors and have been oxidized or fermented excessively and on occasion are baked with fruit or flowers. Such as jasmine, plum, chamomile, or apricot which give them strong flavors that are unique. Baked teas can be infused multiple times without turning bitter or losing flavor. 

Raw tea’s (Sheng Cha are green and have light armoa’s. They produce a light green or yellowish green color when they are infused.  These teas’s have been lightly oxidized and fermented and produce a light flavor and aroma. Raw teas such as green tea are much more sensitive they can only be infused four to five times before losing their flavor and turning bitter.

Water temperature is very important in properly brewing loose leaf tea. Baked teas require boiled water to be cooled to eighty five to ninety degrees. Raw tea requires one hundred degree boiled water. 

You will need to use boiled water often so keep the pot nearby if possible. Open the package of tea and place the teapot in a large bowl or pan or on a tea plate and open it. Place the tea cups around the tea pot on the tea plate or in the bowl. The larger bowl will serve as a container for any excess water. Prepare an extra bowl or container for the spent leaves.

Measure the leaves from the tea bag into your hand just enough to fill the cup of your palm should be enough leaves. Pour the leaves into the teapot and fill the teapot with the boiling water. Fill it up and allow the water to overflow. Bubbles will begin to form at the top of the pot as the infused leaves start to activate. Scrape the teapot lid across the top of the teapot to remove bubbles and drop it into the teapot opening. 

Pour more hot water over the top of the teapot to stabilize the temperatures inside and outside of the teapot. In the winter you’ll want to preheat the tea wear to prevent it from cracking.

Preheat and wash the teacups by pouring the first infusion over them. It is usually recommended to pour out the first infusion to remove any grime or other impurities attached to the tea leaves.

Place a ewer closer by and put a tea strainer into the ewer. Using strainers is optional but it is more convenient to remove small leaf particles when pouring infusions into the ewer.

Return the teapot to the tea plate and refill it with hot water. 

Allow the hot water to infuse for another thirty seconds to one minute. The first drinkable infusion should be the best so be sure to monitor the infusion time carefully. If the infusion tastes bitter then you’ve infused for too long. Thirty to forty seconds is just about right.

Pour infusions into the ewer by inverting the teapot and sitting it into a strainer in the ewer.

Return the teapot to the tea plate or bow and repeat the infusion process to infuse the leaves again. 

Infusing tea properly takes practice it took me quite a few attempts to get the method down but now that I know how to do it properly it comes naturally.