MCVitamins News
Your Nutritional Education Site
1. Study Finds
Drug-Related Poisoning Causes Nearly 700,000 ER Visits a Year
(Prescription Drugs)
2. Diet as "Health Insurance"
3. The Nightmare of GM Foods (Genetically modified)
4. The Difference Between Drugs and
Nutrition Supplements for the treatment of Neuropathy - or for any
drug and natural treatment.
Study Finds Drug-Related Poisoning Causes Nearly 700,000 ER Visits a Year (Prescription Drugs)
Drug-related poisoning deaths are second only to motor vehicle crashes among the leading causes of injury death, according to the study, which was published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Diet as "Health Insurance"
You can't tune into the news today without hearing about rising food prices. But rest assured, by knowing what foods to spend your money on, you can still protect and optimize your health without going bankrupt in the process.Men's Health offers a list of 40 nutrient-dense food items—and that's really the key here. By opting for foods that are rich in vital nutrients, your body can thrive. This will automatically cut down on the inevitable health care costs you'd incur by making foolish dietary choices.
Read a list of foods rich in nutrients that can help stave off a majority of health problems—foods that really give you lots of value.and which are a ripoff:
The Nightmare of GM Foods
July 29, 2009
By Melanie Segala
Managing Editor, Total Health Breakthroughs
"You have to know where your food is coming from." These words of warning were spoken by biologist and plant expert, Arpad Puszati at a gathering of concerned citizens in St. Catherine’s, Ontario earlier this
year.*
As far back as 1998, Dr. Puszati’s research at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland showed that genetically modified potatoes caused health problems in rats, including a weakened immune system and abnormal growth. For blowing the whistle on Big Agra, he was dismissed from his job.
Eleven years later, as companies like Monsanto successfully silenced their critics, genetically modified organisms have gained a stronghold in taking over the world’s food supply — in spite of the fact that a growing body of evidence shows the alarming health effects that are being seen in people and animals who are consuming GM foods. But unlike years ago, concerned physicians and scientists are now banding together and advising their patients and the general public to avoid GM foods altogether.
The latest professional group to voice their warnings is the American Academy of Environmental Medicine
(AAEM) who is advising physicians to educate their patients and the medical community about the health risks of GM foods — including “infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal
system.”**
Why are these medical professionals so sure that GM foods are to blame for the growing list of health problems? Because of the reason and method they were manufactured. GM corn and cotton for example, are produced with a built-in pesticide called Bt. When the insect bites the plant, the poison kills it. The problem is that the Bt toxin in GM plants is thousands of times more concentrated and toxic than the spray version — and it cannot be washed off — it’s part of the plant.
And as health professionals for the AAEM have pointed out, there are precious few human studies to document the safety of GM foods. The animal studies however, tell a frightening story.2 Here are just a few examples:
When GM soy was fed to female rats, most of their babies died within three weeks—compared to a 10% death rate among the control group fed natural soy. When male rats were fed GM soy, their testicles turned from a natural pink to dark blue.
In India when grazing animals fed on the remainder of harvested GM cotton plants, all of them died including thousands of sheep. Those that grazed on natural cotton plants remained healthy.
In the US, farmers have reported that thousands of pigs became sterile after eating GM corn.
In Germany, GM corn is thought to have caused the death of both cows and horses.
There is only one human study so far that demonstrates what GM foods might be doing to us — and it is chilling indeed. The modified gene that is inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of our intestinal bacteria and is still functional. This means our own gut flora could continue to produce the pesticide long after we have eaten the food — perhaps
forever.**
Could GM foods be the cause of skyrocketing numbers of obesity, diabetes, autism, and even cancer? According to researchers, it may be, but we may never know for sure. The link to GM foods can’t be traced and the onset of the disease may take several years.
But that doesn’t mean we should take any chances, or wait for the results to come in. If Big Agra has its way, any damning evidence that links GM foods to chronic diseases will be stifled and the epidemic of immune and degenerative diseases will continue to rise.
What you can do is stay away from all processed food unless it clearly states on the package that it is organic or made from
non-GMO ingredients. According to the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Center for Food Safety, you should also steer clear of soy or corn derivatives, cottonseed and canola oils, and GM sugar beets. These two organizations provide a downloadable
Non-GMO Shopping Guide for consumers to refer to help with their food choices.
Let’s not be lab rats for the benefit of Big Agra. Together we can take a stand and just say no to the foods that are not fit for human or animal consumption.
References
*Scientist Issues Genetic Food Warning, January 19, 2009, The St. Catherines Standard (Canada).
**Doctors Warn: Avoid Genetically Modified Food, http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=2989
The Difference Between Drugs and Nutrition Supplements for the treatment of Neuropathy
No matter what the cause of your neuropathy, a person has only a few choices about what to do about it..
The Drug Approach
What a drug does is it forces the body to do something that it normally wouldn't do.. When it comes to a medication, the body reacts in certain ways to this medication and it is done in order to achieve a desirable effect. For instance, in order to balance itself and handle the effects of a drug, the body has to lower its blood pressure. If this is what you want to happen because its a blood pressure medication, it's a good thing. However, there are also various other ways the body can react to the drug and sometimes this is not such a good thing - this is called a "side effect". It is the reason someone can wind up on 4 blood pressure medications. Each drug is given in an attempt to balance another drug so as not to create the various side effects of the other drugs. It is a balancing act.
The Natural Approach
What a nutritional supplement does is give the body the actual tools it needs to fix the body.
In the case of neuropathy, it is the nerve cell that is damaged. The body needs certain tools (nutritional factors) to do this repair. Drugs don't repair anything; they treat the symptom, not the cause of the problem.
As with our example of blood pressure, if they don't know what is causing the high blood pressure, the drug just lowers it artificially.
The cause of nerve damage is known - it can be the result of too much sugar in the blood, the chemicals used in cancer treatments, etc. - but one thing is known, the damage is done to the cell and this causes the pain.
You can cover this up with pain killers, or with other drugs that are manufactured to handle this, but the drugs aren't repairing anything. They are trying to forces the body to not give you pain, not give you numbness, etc., And sometimes more damage to the nerve cell might happen due to the drug or other drugs you are taking,
The Nutritional Approach
Nutritional supplements are actually vitamins and minerals that the body needs to build healthy cells.
In the case of neuropathy, there are specific ingredients needed by the body to build healthy nerves. These are the supplements you want to take.
Another difference is that if you are taking a drug and just covering up symptoms, you have to continue to take the drug to get relief and sometimes even have to increase the drug to get the same relief.
If you take natural supplements, the body can fix the problem, and as long as you don't do anything to damage the cells again, there is an end to taking the supplements.
For neuropathy
see: Nerve Support
Formula