While there are many effective household cleaning products available in your local supermarket, you might be surprised to find ingredients that are considered hazardous when checking the labels. Many commercial cleaning products contain harmful chemicals such as chlorine bleach, ammonia, petrochemicals, and VOC’s. Breathing the fumes of toxic chemicals, especially over time, can be damaging to your health. In addition, small amounts of residual product can be left on surfaces or in the air following cleaning, adversely affecting your home’s air quality. Following are some important facts that may inspire you to switch to nontoxic cleaners this Spring Cleaning season:

• According to a five-year EPA study, the air in an average American home has chemical contamination levels 70 times greater than outdoor air. The EPA maintains that half of all illnesses occurring in the US can be attributed to chemical contamination of indoor air. In fact, a 1985 EPA report states that household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor pollution.
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission states that more than 150 chemicals found in ordinary household products are directly responsible for producing cancer, allergies, birth defects and numerous psychological disorders.
• 90% of all accidental poisonings occur in the home. In 1990 alone, more than 4000 children under the age of four were treated in the ER for household cleaner poisoning.
• The EPA states that the typical American household is “the number one violator of chemical waste per capita” with nearly 168 tons of household cleaners being released into kitchen and bathroom drains every year, potentially polluting our water supply.

Clearly, the benefits of removing toxic household cleaners from your home are many. It is easy to make your own all-purpose cleaners for just a few dollars. It’s as simple as filling a spray bottle with vinegar, water and a few drops of lavender essential oil! Lavender oil contains antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties and white distilled vinegar is effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs, due to its level of acidity. With just a few store bought items, you can clean every room in your home, stay healthy and improve the environment.

CLICK HERE for a shopping list and natural cleaning recipes you can make at home.

Warmer temperatures have led to earlier springs and longer allergy seasons, while higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have led to more potent and allergenic pollen.

The good news is foods rich in vitamin C and folic acid help reduce the inflammation associated with allergic reactions, and studies are finding that some herbs are just as effective as expensive drugs.

It’s as simple as visiting your local farmers market and loading up on the following items:
1. Broccoli
2. Citrus fruits
3. Kale
4. Collard Greens
5. Stinging Nettle
6. Butterbur
7. Elderberries
8. Onions and Garlic
9. Parsley
10. Anti-Allergy Soup

CLICK HERE to read the full article at Yahoo Health for recipes and to find out how these simple natural remedies can help.

Remember hearing as a child at the dinner table, “finish eating your vegetables, they’re good for you” or “have a piece of fruit instead” when you really wanted a cookie as a snack? Why didn’t we ever hear, “eat your toxic chemical contaminated vegetables,” or “have a piece of fruit sprayed by 37 different types of pesticides instead” when you asked for that cookie? Strangely, that cookie is now looking like the healthier choice!

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) compiles a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the highest amounts of pesticides and fungicides to help consumers make informed decisions. This list is compiled annually and the research has found that many of the items on the list contain multiple pesticides, some as high as 60 different types!

Pesticides and fungicides are sprayed on crops and inserted into the soil to protect our food supply from bugs and pests. Unfortunately, water and produce wash won’t rid the produce of this toxic residue. The multiple amounts of pesticides and fungicides penetrate our foods, and as we eat these foods, we also ingest the harmful chemicals.

The easiest way to avoid this toxic residue is to choose organic fruits and vegetables. By avoiding the following “Dirty Dozen” list when buying conventional, you can limit the amount of exposure and reduce the many hazardous health risks posed by these chemicals.

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Imported nectarines
7. Imported grapes
8. Sweet bell pepper
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/collard greens

Click Here to download your own shopping guide or mobile phone app directly from the EWG website.

CBS News 60 Minutes Reports Sugar is a Toxin

For this broadcast, CBS News asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta to interview scientists from some of America’s most respected institutions. The consensus was that sugar consumption is strongly linked to diseases such as type II diabetes, hypertension, obesity and heart attack.

One of the scientists interviewed was particularly startled by how quickly sugar consumption causes the liver to produce dangerous small-dense LDL particles that accelerate atherosclerosis.

60 Minutes also explained the pathway showing how sugar ingestion promotes cancer by stimulating excess insulin secretion. Certain cancer cells thrive in the presence of surplus insulin, which is why taking steps to suppress glucose and insulin blood levels has long been a cornerstone of a scientific disease-prevention program.

View the broadcast here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n

If you want to learn how to take better care of yourself and discover a deeper sense of ease and peace of mind—and if you are willing to actively engage in your own health and well being, we welcome your participation in our eight-week MBSR program.

MBSR is based on a form of meditation known as mindfulness.  Mindfulness is a basic human quality, a way of learning to pay wise attention to whatever is happening in your life that allows you a greater sense of connection to your life inwardly and outwardly.  Mindfulness is also a practice, a systematic method aimed at cultivating clarity, insight, and understanding.  In the context of your health, mindfulness is a way for you to experientially learn to take better care of yourself by exploring and understanding the interplay of mind and body and mobilizing your own inner resources for coping, growing and healing.  Mindfulness is not something you have to “get” or acquire.  It is already within you—a deep internal resource available and patiently waiting to be reawakened.

Jon Kabat-Zinn started MBSR at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979.  Nearly three decades of scientific research at UMASS and at medical centers all over the world suggest that training in mindfulness and MBSR can positively and often profoundly affect participants’ ability to reduce medical symptoms and psychological distress while learning to live more fully.

The Stress Reduction Program has benefited people reporting a variety of conditions and concerns:

Stress—with work, school, family, financial, illness, aging, grief, uncertainty about the future, and feeling “out of control”.

Medical conditions—chronic illness or pain, hypertension, cardiovascular disorders, allergies and asthma, skin disorders, GI distress and many other conditions.

Psychological distress—anxiety, panic, depression, fatigue, and sleep disturbances.

Prevention and Wellness—health enhancement and wellness focused on prevention and learning the “how” of taking good care of yourself and feeling a greater sense of balance.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction is meant to work synergistically as a compliment with medical and psychological treatments.  Studies over the last three decades suggests that doing what you can for yourself, coupled with what your healthcare provider can do for you, can be far more effective than either approach on its own.

Dates

The program consists of eight weekly 2 hour classes and one day long practice (on a weekend) between sessions six and seven.  Classes will include meditation practices, mindful movements such as yoga and qi gong, and group discussions.

Our first class will be a free introduction to MBSR held on Thursday, March 1.

Classes will be held from 6-8pm on Thursday evenings starting on March 8.

Cost

$295 for the module (8 sessions plus the day long practice) + $20 materials fee (includes MBSR workbook)

Teachers

Christopher Gunst, MFTI

Dr. Jennifer Gunst, DAOM, L.Ac

Links

For additional information please visit www.cnmhealth.com and www.umassmed.edu/cfm/stress/index.aspx.

Please contact the front desk at 650-323-7345 or email info@cnmhealth.com to sign up.

www.CNMvirtualhealth.com.  We would like to invite you to visit our newest clinic website that focuses entirely on the Medical Bio-Communication technology that we have used successfully to treat many of our patients in person and remotely.  We have found that this technology can accurately discover imbalances in the body and guide the appropriate treatment.  The discovery and implementation of this technology into our clinic has helped us solve many of the medical mysteries that we see everyday in practice.  We are also very excited that we have finally found a Bio-Communication platform that we can now offer to patients who may not be able to visit our clinic due to illness, distance, or for those whose lives are just too busy to take time out of their day for a doctors visit.  Health has just become a lot easier!  All you need is a computer and a purchased hand cradle and you can take your medical visits completely virtual from anywhere in the world.  For more information please call our office at (650) 323-7345 or visit www.CNMvirtualhealth.com.

I wanted to give an update, based on the data that I have evaluated, on the possibility of increased radiation levels on the West Coast.  We have had several calls into the clinic this morning with individuals concerned that there has been an increase in radiation levels found in our area.  I have not found any data to support this finding.  As of now, I would not recommend supplemental iodine or iodide formulas.  I have included two links below in which individuals can view current data pertaining to radiation levels in San Francisco.  This information is updated daily.  I will keep you posted if there is any cause for alarm pertaining to changes in radiation levels.

In Health,

Dr. Bryan Skinner, ND

Radiation Monitoring for San Francisco

Radiation Daily Data Summary

We will use our blog in order to update our patients on actions to take due to the possibility of increased radiation exposure.  It is now Saturday, March 19, 2011 and the first signs of radiation particulate secondary to the Japanese nuclear situation have been detected on the West Coast.  The new California reading came from a measuring station of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, and the monitor was apparently located in Sacramento.  It was reported that the level detected was one billion times beneath levels required to be health threatening.  Due to the primary nuclear event being approximately 5000 miles from San Francisco, it is highly unlikely that levels will increase to those required to create disease.  Most likely the increased levels of radiation are stemming from the radioactive particles that were able to travel upward enough from the reactors to get caught in the jet stream.  The jet stream is a very fast flowing, narrow air current that occurs at approximately 30,000 ft. above sea level.  Very few radioactive particulates will actually reach this level.  For all the radioactive emissions that did not reach this level, the light easterly surface winds across Japan has forced them over the Pacific Ocean.  The primary radioactive elements involved in the emissions are cesium and iodine.  Once these have been deposited into the ocean they will form cesium chloride and iodine chloride, which are both harmless.

Due to the information that we have now, we would not suggest that any patients consume additional supplemental iodine or iodide formulations.  We are keeping tabs on this situation and will add additional suggestions if conditions change.  Again, the levels of radiation that the West Coast is experiencing is not enough to be of harm.  Please abstain from the unnecessary use of iodine and iodide products unless levels of radiation significantly increase.

We will keep you posted if information changes.

In Health,

Dr. Bryan Skinner, ND