Medical Treatments To Avoid
Posted by Michelle Moquin on May 31st, 2011
Good morning!
My New Warning: Avoid THESE Medical Treatments Whenever Possible
By Dr. Mercola
In 2008, U.S. health care expenditures continued to skyrocket, growing at an annual rate of 4.4 percent for the year, slower than some recent years, yet still outpacing inflation and the growth of national income.
The total spending was about $7,681 per American and accounted for 16.2 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the highest of any industrialized country.
Medically unnecessary procedures, hospitalizations and prescription drugs all contributed to this figure of almost $8,000 per person living in the US.
So, what exactly are we getting for our money?
The Medical Paradigm Today: Promoting Profits over Prevention
Currently, the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the world. According to the Kaiser Foundation, health care costs in 2008 in the U.S. were over $2.3 trillion. That’s more than three times the $714 billion spent in 1990, and over eight times the $253 billion spent in 1980. With these continually rising costs of healthcare in the US, you would think the quality of medical care would be the best on the planet.
The question is this – what are we buying with all this money?
Authentic health?
Or is this money just fueling a booming profit center for the corporations supplying us with a commodity that they are marketing as “health care”?
Are Americans Actually Living in a “Sick” Care Model?
Americans’ overall (declining) health and their access to state-of-the-art medical facilities factor into these exorbitant yearly health care expenditures. But a majority of these costs, when put under the microscope, clearly have more to do with promoting ever increasing corporate profits than with making Americans healthier. From government agencies like the FDA to the insurance empire, to health care providers and big pharma, the new primary goal of health care industry in the US has transformed into making money off of sick people.
The drug industry in particular is now primarily focused on treating illness, not promoting health, and has an industry market outlook projection of over $880 billion in sales in 2011. That’s equal to one-third of TOTAL health care expenditures in 2008!
And guess what?
Top selling drugs have nothing to do with preventive health either physical or mental! The vast majority of them are sold to you based on their ability to lower or reduce isolated symptoms coming from an underlying imbalance in your body.
The more imbalance inside you, the more symptoms, and the more symptoms the more drugs you need.
That’s what the drug companies have been telling America for the better part of two centuries, starting with the “patent medicines” formulations from yesteryear. It seems to me that the drug companies have now taken patent medicines to their ultimate pinnacle: a pill for every symptom needed every day.
Is this not a phenomenal business model?
The only thing they need to keep raking in their billions in profits is an endless supply of symptoms, which precludes allowing you to regain your optimal health, because that would drive you out of their business model. An optimally healthy American does NOT fit in their business model.
The sooner you realize this, the sooner you and your family can “opt out” of the health industry’s current “sick care” model and truly begin to regain your health.
Drug Companies are NOT the Only Profit Center in the “Sick Care” Business Model
What may shock you — it’s not just the drug industry that looks at sickness as a Wall Street commodity. Hospitals, surgeons, anesthesiologists – even medical schools – make costly treatments the primary tenets of their health care goals, rather than stressing far more cost effective preventive care.
For years the business of putting people in the hospital was so great that in 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) started a campaign to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations.
As an example of the cost of these unnecessary admissions, the state of Texas determined it could save $13.5 million a year by preventing just one unnecessary hospitalization in every health agency in the state! Multiply that by every state in the union, and that would equall hundreds of millions of dollars in savings each year.
Hospitals aren’t alone in cashing in on your continuing sickness. Surgeons, for example, are always looking for ways to maximize their profits. The online Becker’s Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC) Review even tells surgeons how to add to their bottom line by increasing outpatient services:
- Ear, nose and throat specialists (ENTs) are advised to put tubes in children’s ears (myringotomies), and to perform tonsillectomies, corrective surgeries on noses, and endoscopic procedures which take very little time but add to the coffers. It takes 15 to 30 minutes to do a septoplasty (nose reconstruction) and insurance companies pay an average of $1,600, the Review advises the ENTs. Endoscopy can take 30 minutes to two hours and pays up to $10,000.
- Orthopedic and spinal surgeons are encouraged to pad their paychecks by adding ancillary services such as physical therapy, performing MRI/Imaging and electromyography nerve testing (EMGs), selling durable medical equipment for use in a patient’s home, and to invest in their own private ambulatory surgery center, if they haven’t already.
- Urologists are told to consider doing endoscopic procedures on the urethra, prostate, and bladder, and to perform a variety of incontinence procedures for both men and women.
- They also can add to their income by using a neurostimulating device with patients with overactive bladder – a procedure that typically brings in $15,000 per patient – and by performing kidney and urethral stone removals, penile implants, and vasectomy reversals. The penile implants can be done on patients as young as 19 or as old as 90, the Review says, to the tune of $9,000 to $10,000 per patient.
While I would hope none of these procedures are ever done unnecessarily, how can you tell what’s necessary and what’s frivolous?
You can’t.
The Mental Health Industry-The Most Absurd of All
Surgeons aren’t the only specialists padding their paychecks. The mental health industry, for example, is so eager to find something new to treat that they are constantly updating their psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
Their manual has been controversial in the past, but the latest version, DSM-V, has to be regarded as the most questionable ever devised because they’ve now listed people with a variety of previously ordinary conditions as suddenly having a treatable mental illness, such as children who struggle with math problems or kids who can’t easily master writing skills!
If you think that’s crazy, then know that one disorder that didn’t make the manual was something they were planning to dub “psychosis risk syndrome.” Had it been approved, “PRS” would have “identified” treatable children by predicting they would get a mental illness as early as at birth, which could then be treated before it occurred.
I’m not making this up.
Psychiatrists actually supported this lame-brained idea. Luckily, the former chair of a previous DSM task force, Allen Frances, had enough ethics to stop that one, stating that this “syndrome” stood out as:
“…the most ill-conceived and potentially harmful” diagnosis they’d ever contrived, and that it would “misidentify many teenagers who are not really at risk for psychosis.” He also said “the treatment they would most often receive (atypical antipsychotic medication) has no proven efficacy.”
Allen then added that such a “diagnosis” would encourage more drug marketing (surprise, surprise!), as well as influence parents and clinicians to use this contrived new “disorder” to treat children. I agree – particularly since we already know that drug prescriptions for antipsychotic medicines have nearly tripled in the past 15 years, with unprecedented numbers of children under age 18 taking them.
In fact, according to Medscape.com, the number of children on Medicaid (an entity the government can easily track) who were prescribed antipsychotics doubled (twice as many profit centers for big pharma) between 2001 and 2005.
In four years the number of Medicaid children on antipsychotics doubled, is this not cause for serious alarm? Why haven’t you heard about this in the mainstream media, if indeed the number of psychotic children in the Medicaid population has doubled so rapidly?
And there’s more, a whopping 41.3 percent of these “psychotic” children have no identifiable reason to support taking these mind-altering drugs!
The Wall Street Journal added that between 2002 and 2007, antipsychotic prescriptions for children increased by a staggering 44.6 percent – making up a now incredible 15 percent of TOTAL antipsychotic drug sales. Is this merely a newly identified market for these legal drug pushers to infiltrate? Or have our children suddenly all become “unhinged” at once?
And if the latter is truly the case, why aren’t alarm bells going off at government agencies if 15 percent America’s TOTAL diagnosed psychotic population is now under 18 years of age?
Isn’t this a pretty profound statistic about the future of the US?
Ironically, this takes us back to where we started – the overprescribing of prescription drugs. When you consider that health officials say that many other drugs like cholesterol medicines and antibiotics are also overprescribed, it’s easy see why our drug-based health care costs are skyrocketing.
Newer Technology Means Higher Bills but Few Additional Benefits
Another factor in escalating medical costs in the U.S. is the ever-increasing use of new technology – again, often when it’s not indicated or needed. Hospitals claim their largest expense is connected to wages and labor-related benefits, but the Kaiser Foundation reports that the development and use of new medical technology may account for one-half or more of long-term medical cost growth.
In simple language that means that hospitals are acquiring and using the latest new equipment. That is supposed to mean better outcomes for patients – but as bnet.com points out, it also raises questions about whether all that new equipment really is necessary? A 2009 study found that Americans spent $85.9 billion each year for imaging, surgery, drugs, and doctors’ visits for lower-back pain-most of it for no benefit.
According to Ray Baker, president of the North American Spine Society, in Newsweek Magazine in March 2010:
“The use of MRI within six weeks of the start of lower-back pain is not only not useful, but it increases the number of surgeries, treatments, and costs.”
It’s no secret that the U.S. is the world’s No. 1 user of MRI scans. But did you know that orthopedic surgeons are notorious for padding their pockets by ordering them, and then performing them in their own offices? This is a concern because it’s estimated that the U.S. spends $700 billion every year on all kinds of unnecessary medical tests that do not benefit patients. Again, that would be nearly ONE-THIRD of what the US spent on total health care in 2008!
That means prescriptions drugs and unnecessary medical tests equals TWO-THIRDS of all health care expenditures in 2008 dollars! Now I hope you are beginning to understand where this staggering amount of money the US spends on “health care” is actually going.
These unnecessary tests include:
- Routine CT scans in the ER.
- Antibiotics for cold viruses that are not even treatable with antibiotics.
- Pap tests for women who don’t have a cervix.
Sadly, unnecessary screenings and treatments in themselves are also part of the “sick care” model that are particularly dangerous – 30,000 Americans covered by Medicare are killed every year by unnecessary medical procedures, according to Dr. Elliott Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School.
Do you see the FDA moving to warn Americans to be wary or unnecessary medical procedures? It’s a rhetorical question, because the FDA now views the drug and medical industries as their “partner” and “client”, not as industries that the public needs to be protected against!
And while this information may not sit well with orthopedic and spine surgeons who were hoping they could increase the number of spinal procedures this year, the truth is that ineffectual spinal fusions surgeries could be adding as much as $11.1 billion to the annual cost of medical care in America. As reported in an April 2010 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers concluded that patients who had a complex – and expensive – spinal fusion were nearly three times as likely to develop a life-threatening complication and the surgeries didn’t result in dramatically better outcomes.
Even Conventional Medicine Questions these Practices
This above referenced JAMA article questioned why these types of operations had increased 15-fold in just six years (surprise!)while the hospital charges increased 40 percent (surprise!).
The authors’ answer:
“The introduction and marketing of new surgical devices and the influence of key opinion leaders may stimulate more invasive surgery, even in the absence of new indications.”…Financial incentives to hospitals and surgeons for more complex procedures may (also) play a role as may desires of surgeons to be local innovators.”
What more can I say?
The author is outright admitting that one reason medical care is so expensive in the U.S. is because of financial incentives and themarketing of new devices. And surgeons who are “local innovators” are innovating what, exactly?
Better marketing techniques for expensive procedures?
Remember, according to the same article, the patients who received these new procedures did not have dramatically better outcomes. Did I mention that the article also points out that life-threatening complications from these unnecessary surgeries nearly TRIPLED, and that hospital stays also increased – making the average cost for one of these procedures balloon from an average of $23,724 to $80,888?
Profits promoted over preventative care. Is this not a fitting picture of exactly what’s wrong with health care in America?
Female Patients Translate into Huge Possibilities for the Bottom Line
Women stand the greatest risk of receiving an unnecessary medical procedure. If you are a female living in the US, when it comes to healthcare, you might as well have a target on your back.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that one-third of American women have had a hysterectomy by age 60; and half of them have had one by age 65. Yet 85 percent of these surgeries are unnecessary, according to Ernst Bartsich, a clinical associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.
This adds up to more than $17 billion a year on direct doctor and hospital charges for hysterectomies.
If you’ve had a complete hysterectomy, meaning you’ve also had your ovaries and cervix removed, you don’t need a Pap test, which examines cells scraped from your cervix. Yet, a study in 2004 showed that 10 million women a year who don’t have a cervix are still getting Pap tests consisting of a scraping of cells from their vaginal walls – when no professional organization recommends this screening for women without a cervix!
For younger women who are in their child-bearing years, the health profession has found a different way to make money off you, to the tune of an extra $3 billion a year.
Spontaneous deliveries – waiting for a baby to come on its own – can be time-consuming for modern doctors, and can test your patience if you’re the mom-to-be. That’s why today 32 percent of American births today are through Caesarean sections (C-sections).
According to Intermountain Healthcare, C-sections are costly in more ways than one:
- They are the most common surgical procedure performed in America, increasing more than 50 percent since the 1990s.
- They cost an average of $16,671, compared to $9,428 for a vaginal delivery.
- Many are being done after a pre-term, elective induction that hasn’t proceeded quickly enough.
Additionally, a New England Journal of Medicine study showed women have up to four times the risk of complications with a C-section than a vaginal birth, ranging between $2,000 and $200,000 in additional costs.
And the complications can be serious, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, putting the babies at increased risk of brain, liver, and lung development problems. Caesarean-delivered babies are also more likely to need CPR, and to have significantly higher rates of respiratory distress, sepsis and hypoglycemia.
So why are C-sections so prevalent?
It’s largely a desire for control on the part of families, physicians and hospitals, the WSJ reported.
And according to USA Today, there’s another reason: “economic incentives” for doctors and hospitals to use these procedures,including bonuses for labor inductions which add costs and increase the risks for C-sections (surprise!).
So there you have it: for the sake of economic incentives, convenience, and control over what day and even time of day the birth occurs, babies’ lives are being put in danger – at an additional annual cost of $3 billion to the U.S. health care system.
From birth through teenage years, our current health care system has a goal of maximizing each new little profit center we usher into their business model. Because that’s what the system is designed to do, put profits first at the expense of everything else, including the health of our babies.
What chance do YOU have against this system?
Educating yourself and your family to their business model and their seemingly endless tricks to maximize profits. Because an educated and healthy consumer is the worst enemy of our current “sick care” model that passes for health care in the US.
Wait a Minute, Isn’t This Outrageous?
The drug and medical industry’s mounting greed IS outrageous, especially when you consider in this specific instance of C-sections the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that 33 to 75 percent of C-sections are totally unnecessary! What’s really maddening is that a study done between 2005 and 2006 showed that the cost of hospital charges for maternal and newborn care rose from $79 billion to $86 billion in just one year, with $2.5 billion of it as a result of unnecessary C-sections. In fact, delivering babies is the #1 profit center in hospitals, and rising every year.
Some points to ponder:
- In 2008 (latest data available) facility charges billed for “mother’s pregnancy and delivery ” and “newborn infants” ($98 billion) far exceeded charges for any other hospital condition in the United States.
- “Mother’s pregnancy and delivery” and “newborn infants” were the two most expensive conditions billed to Medicaid in 2008, involving 26 percent of hospital charges to Medicaid, or $46 billion.
- Nineteen other countries in the world have lower C-section rates than the U.S.; 29 nations have lower maternal mortality rates; 35 have lower early neonatal mortality rates; and 33 have lower neonatal mortality rates.
This last statistic is particularly concerning, because despite outspending every nation on the planet on healthcare, there are 29 or more countries ahead of the US in key childbirth related mortality rates. Simply stated, the US spends more money to have more mothers and both pre-term and full-term children die than just about 30 other nations.
But I’d venture a guess that our profit margins for corporations contributing to these staggeringly bad mortality numbers is NOT below those in the other 30 nations that are safer places to have a baby.
And if there were stockholders who held shares in something called the “public health” corporation, they would be in absolute revolt over these numbers and boards of directors of this corporation would be under pressure to resign. Wait a minute, isn’t the US Government the head of something much akin to a “public health” corporation?
So where is the outrage in the shareholders (you)?
Some Top-Selling Drugs Cause More Harm than Good
I don’t even need to say the word Vioxx to explain how some drugs do more harm than good. From anti-psychotics to pain-killers, cancer drugs and statins, many top-selling drugs are nothing more than ways to make drug companies and drug prescribers simply richer.
As an example, I’m offering this short list of drugs that, like Vioxx, have shown they can cause harm. But be aware: This is just a sampling. The list of all the drugs that belong in this category is so long it’s not possible to include them all here:
- Avandia, the diabetes drug for which its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, has agreed to pay $250 million to settle 5,500 claims, can cause heart attacks and kill users. GSK said in January it planned to set aside $6.4 billion for costs relating to litigation on this drug. LINE BREAK Avandia was recently pulled off the market in Europe due to its health risks. A 2007 study linked it to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and a 64 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death than patients treated with other methods. More than 80,000 diabetics have suffered lethal heart attacks from this dangerous drug.
- 11 cholesterol drugs, commonly known as statins, are linked with serious side effects. Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, acting by blocking the enzyme in your liver that is responsible for making cholesterol (HMG-CoA reductase). The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established-there are now 900 studies proving their adverse effects, which run the gamut from muscle problems to increased cancer risk
- The birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin were touted to be safer than any other pill on the market when they first came out. But it wasn’t long before a flurry of lawsuits began claiming that they cause numerous health problems including deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the deep veins), strokes, heart attacks and gallbladder disease.
- Levaquin, a powerful antibiotic, has been linked to tendon ruptures of the Achilles, shoulders, biceps, hands and thumb, and is the target of multiple lawsuits.
- Accutane, a drug that was used to treat acne for many years, is also the center of multiple lawsuits. It was pulled off the market in 2009 after users reported side effects that included severe gastrointestinal problems including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Elevated risk of birth defects in the children of pregnant women also were reported.
Other dangerous drugs that have either been pulled off the market or are the center of lawsuits (even as they are still sold) include the smoking cessation drug Chantix, the pain killer Darvocet, the “bone-strengthening” drug Fosamax, which is made up of bisphosphonate compounds that have been found to actually contribute to bone death, the statin drug Crestor, the serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug Paxil, which has been linked to suicides and suicidal thoughts, and many, many others.
At this point I would be remiss not to mention vaccines, which can wreak havoc on your immune system.
The truth is vaccines are just another way that Big Pharma makes money by selling something that might make you sick – or sicker. Just one example is the flu vaccine: officials now know that the seasonal flu vaccine in 2008-2009 did absolutely nothing to prevent flu in children – and actually increased their risk of getting H1N1!
Yet, with the help of the rulings by the World Health Organization (WHO), the CDC, the FDA and individual states’ mandated vaccination schedules, vaccine makers have a guaranteed bank roll in the form of your children.
In stark contrast to times past when vaccines weren’t such an attractive market, they’re now such a guaranteed profit center that Wall Street investors are being told to bank, bank, bank on vaccines.
Take Control of Your Own Health
We know nearly 26 million Americans now have diabetes, and over one in four of all Americans have either diabetes or pre-diabetes. We know the cost to treat heart disease in the U.S. is expected to triple by 2030, and that high blood pressure and cholesterol are “out of control” in the U.S.
We know the U.S. is the most obese country in the world, which has contributed to skyrocketing rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
We also know the U.S. spends more on health care than any other industrialized country. Yet, despite all this spending, the U.S.ranks 14th in mortality rates worldwide – meaning 13 other countries have a lower preventable death rate than the U.S. despite spending less money on health care, and two of these countries are the now nearly bankrupt nations of Greece and Ireland!
But the question is — why?
Some analysts say this poor showing is linked to declining rates of insured persons in the U.S. Others claim the figures are just plain skewed. But I suspect the high U.S. mortality rates have more to do with our obesity rates, lifestyle patterns, and our seriously flawed health care paradigm (“sick care”) than it has to do with insurance coverage or skewed numbers.
The current US “healthcare” paradigm is the one that defines preventive care as ingesting drugs to treat symptoms, not addressing lifestyle changes that can actually create wellness.
It’s a paradigm that’s being perpetuated today, even as our federal health officials tout prevention measures.
Don’t believe me? Look at the Surgeon General’s current “preventive” health plan, Healthy People 2020. While the goals of Healthy People are stated as reduced illness, disability, and death, what the plan actually stresses are assessments, diagnostic criteria, disease monitoring, and data collection.
The plan acknowledges behavior modification with dietary and lifestyle changes are important to reaching the Healthy People goals, but aside from a few sample awareness programs, the main “preventive” strategies are screening, screening, and more screening for diseases and illnesses you already have.
A “blueprint” for reformed health care compiled by the Center for American Progress and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession also has ideas for improving health care but doesn’t mention promoting wellness. The fact is no one seems to be discussingchanging the paradigm of “managing sickness” that the U.S. is currently stuck in.
No one, that is, except the U.S. military.
The U.S. Military is Seeing the Light…
In a just-released, 132-page report, “Total Force Fitness for the 21st Century: A New Paradigm,” our military is advocating a holistic mind, body and spirit approach to getting and staying fit.
That’s right. The U.S. military is advocating a new paradigm in health that not only includes a whole-life, holistic approach, but true preventive health care that goes beyond simple physical performance and emphasizes maintaining health before illness occurs.
For the military, this new paradigm will stress maintaining a healthy weight, with positive lifestyle programs that include proper nutrition and physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. That way, instead of treating disease, military personnel can learn ways to just stay healthy, the publication says.
Just imagine what would happen if everyone, and not just the military, focused on prevention rather than treatment!
It may sound impossible. But it’s not.
I’ve written countless articles as well as a book on how you can take control of your health, and I can assure you that youabsolutely can get an edge on changing the treatment paradigm for yourself - and your children – by adopting a healthier lifestyle, even if it’s just one step at a time.
We need to eliminate the use of all sodas, especially diet sodas which are nothing more than neurotoxic poisons, and concentrate on drinking fresh, pure water and eating more, organic, fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. Adding an exercise program to your day, even if it’s only 15 minutes, is also a step you can take immediately towards taking control of your health.
Have trouble sleeping? Instead of taking drugs, try different combinations of these proven methods to help you get a good night’s rest.
Also, help yourself achieve the goal of optimal wellness by finding a physician who embraces a holistic lifestyle paradigm. Not one who prescribes you an increasing list of pharmaceutical drugs to “manage” your increasing sickness.
It’s not too late. I promise; not only for you, but for your children and future generations. But you have to embrace taking control of your health today.
*************
Padma: Thanks for the addition to the article that I blogged. I learned something yesterday from your post. I had no idea. Thanks for clueing me in. And I agree with Robert…you are a most welcomed addition. :)
And Robert: Thanks too for your additional comments. In case you didn’t know, and perhaps I’ve never told you, but I’m really glad you’re here too. You’ve been a regular for 2+ years now. Thank you.
Readers: Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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May 31st, 2011 at 6:53 am
I agree, Padma’s a good addition, and next to LZ Granderson I dig hearing your opinions very much, Robert. Check out my LZ (yours too, I’m not possessive about my great peeps)http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/31/granderson.rape.abortion/index.html
I’ll come back to read this post, just wanted to check in : ) Luv, Zen Lill
May 31st, 2011 at 6:54 am
Michelle:
The problem seems to be the AMA (another white controlled organization) which is supposed to give the American people unbiased information is wholly
owned by the industry they are supposed to be watching.
Amanda
May 31st, 2011 at 7:04 am
Hanna, Howie is our resident expert on just about all things alien. He has a personal relationship with a God named Carr. It would sound crazy, except anything that he says will happen that the passing of simple time can prove, it does.
He often explains the otherwise unexplainable. We had archives that you could have visited to learn more. But Michelle felt that they were vulnerable to theft and copy by the usual criminals, so she took them down.
Actually, it made us way-back regulars(2plus Years) feel more privileged because we know or have records to check on everyone. So we get to educate the newbies like you.
WELCOME TO A NEW UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.
Scott
May 31st, 2011 at 7:19 am
UNUSUAL ALLERGIES
People have allergic reactions to some surprising and funky things — like sex, cell phones and underwear. While everyone knows to watch out for dust mites, dairy, ragweed and the like, many people are dealing with rashes, hives and sinus issues without realizing that they have an allergy. What are some of the lesser-known things that people may be allergic to?
I called Thomas Brunoski, MD, a practitioner of nutritional and preventive medicine in Westport, Connecticut.
PUT DOWN YOUR CELL PHONE
Cell phones regularly come under fire for raising the risk of brain cancer — an assertion that has not yet been proven — but one thing we know for sure is that heavy users can develop nasty skin rashes.
The condition has even been given a name. Doctors in Italy documented the first case in 2000 and appropriately categorized it as “mobile phone dermatitis.”
Dr. Brunoski explained that this is because people react to nickel, which is commonly found in the exterior casings, menu buttons, headset logos and the fancy trim on mobile devices.
But, he adds, while the itchy, bumpy rash may be annoying, it is usually not severe.
What you can do: You can be tested for a nickel allergy. Many more women than men have nickel allergy, probably because of exposure during ear piercings.
Another place nickel is typically found is in the cheap buttons on jeans, which cause a steady stream of complaints.
Some women report that putting clear nail polish on jeans buttons helps with that problem, and they suggest that a similar tactic on cell phones might be useful, although there is no data on this. Another alternative is one of the many cell-phone covers that are commercially available.
Or opt for a hands-free device (e.g., a Bluetooth wireless headset or wired headset). This will protect you from both the allergy and the cell phone’s radiation.
ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO EXERCISE?
You’ll sometimes hear people jokingly complain that they are allergic to exercise… and in fact, some actually are.
If you suffer from the rare disorder known as exercise-induced anaphylaxis, a game of tennis or a jog in the park may leave you wheezing, broken out in hives or running to the bathroom in gastrointestinal distress.
Dr. Brunowski finds that these reactions can be the result of eating a specific food, often shellfish or peanuts, before exercising.
For these people, eating the foods in question might cause no problem. But eating them and then exercising causes a storm of symptoms. Apparently the increased blood circulation moves the allergenic food around the system several times faster during exercise.
Some drugs, most often painkillers, can cause a similar reaction. It’s a rare form of severe multisystem hypersensitivity and worth paying attention to as the hives and wheezing can, in the worst-case scenario, lead to cardiopulmonary arrest. Weather conditions such as extreme heat, cold or humidity can set off this reaction as well.
What you can do: Don’t skip the gym — but do consult your physician about steps you can take to prevent allergic reactions when you work out.
For example, ramp down your activity level or take antihistamines before you exercise… avoid the trigger food for 12 hours before exercise… don’t exercise during weather extremes — extremely high or low temperatures or high humidity… carry an EpiPen for emergencies.
CHEMICALS AND CLOTHING — AN ILL-FITTING CLASH
Some women have reported suffering rashes and blistering from wearing bras — and not just because the bras are too tight for them.
Formaldehyde is widely used by the clothing industry to prevent mildew from exposure to high humidity during shipments from China, India and other countries.
Formaldehyde aside, many potentially allergenic chemicals go into glues, dyes and other materials used in the manufacture of fabric clothing, shoes, belts and watchbands.
Some of them are allergenic and toxic in their own right and in addition release formaldehyde. You won’t see these strange-sounding chemical names on the labels. (Examples: Quaternium-15, imidazolidinyl urea, morbicid acid and methylene oxide.) You’ll know if you’re allergic if you develop a rash. Rubber, plastic and glues are among the worst offenders.
What you can do: Try natural cottons and other fabrics that are easy on your skin. If you find a manufacturer you are happy with, stick with it.
Many people react to clothing when it’s brand new, says Dr. Brunoski. If you have sensitive skin, make it a point to wash new garments before wearing them, to clear out surface-adherent allergens. Dr. Brunoski says washing can be very helpful at getting rid of many offensive elements.
INTIMATE ALLERGIES
On the more intimate side, some individuals are allergic to latex in condoms, chemicals in lubricants and spermicides — or even a partner’s semen. Symptoms of allergy to latex in condoms or female barriers may include localized irritation.
Or there may be a hives-like rash, itching and dryness on the penis or in the vaginal area. Some allergy sufferers get shortness of breath, eczema or sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose. If untreated, severe reactions can be fatal, and about a dozen people die yearly from anaphylactic latex reactions.
What you can do: Purchase latex-free condoms, and be aware of other items that may contain latex in the home.
Avoid latex rubber gloves, and use nonlatex ones instead.
Some other common items that might contain latex include elastic in clothing items — such as the elastic waistband in pants, underwear, sneakers, socks and pantyhose — and even office supplies such as rubber bands and erasers, rubber cement and latex paint. Occasionally toothbrushes with rubber grips contain latex.
Allergic reactions to personal lubricants are fairly common and can affect either partner. Reactions typically are local, and can include irritation and swelling, but they can also involve blisters, hives and more systemic symptoms such as skin rash and congestion.
Dr. Brunoski recommends using natural lubricants for intimate activity rather than chemical ones — one good example is the brand SYLK (www.SylkOnline.com), which is made from the kiwifruit vine.
Another possibility is ID Glide (www.IDLube.com), made with moisturizing ingredients that have a low allergic potential. Any one product can cause a reaction in certain people, so you might have to experiment with different brands. Many people use coconut oil, which is widely available and has the extra benefit of suppressing yeast infections.
Believe it or not, some women are allergic to semen. Being “allergic to sex” or “allergic to my husband” in this fashion is no joke, though.
Allergy to semen can manifest in symptoms such as genital swelling, irritation, itching and even pain — and difficulty breathing. It is generally caused by an allergy to proteins in semen.
What to do? Two types of desensitization are possible. One is allergy shots that include a small amount of the partner’s semen. The other treatment is intravaginal graded challenge — it involves a doctor placing increased amounts of the partner’s semen in the vagina at 20-minute intervals.
Both treatments require that a certain level of exposure to the allergen (i.e., sexual intercourse between the partners at least two to three times a week) be maintained to be successful.
Women are advised to suspect this condition if they have repeated vaginal irritation, because it sometimes masquerades as a common yeast infection and is often mistakenly treated with antifungal medication.
Source(s):
Thomas Brunoski, MD, a practitioner of nutritional and preventive medicine in Westport, Connecticut.
May 31st, 2011 at 7:30 am
Hanna:
Howie is also a bit pompous at times. You know how men can be when they start feeling their importance. But lately he has matured a bit(How difficult is it to get a man to grow up!), he picks his spots and usually he make the grand entrance at the appropriate time with just the information everyone needs to make the crazy things that appear on this blog at first unbelievable, believable.
So most of us give him some slack when goes all pompous on occasion.
Hello, Howie, sorry about talking about you as if you weren’t here, It couldn’t be helped.
Helen
May 31st, 2011 at 7:40 am
Hafa adai, I know I rave about the evils of the whites in America and the shit they do to the rest of us to satisfy their insatiable greed. But they continue to impact the residents of Guam with that greed.
There was supposed to be a public meeting with the representatives with the monopolistic fuel companies that hold all total control on fuel prices on the island.
But as usual they suddenly became private between Mobil Oil and IP&E and Guam SenatorsRodriguez, Jr., chairman of the Committee on Economic Development.
Peter
May 31st, 2011 at 7:45 am
That was a little strong Helen. I mean “pompous?” No. If you had the ear of a God(not sure I believe Carr is a God), how special would you feel?
No, I think Howie has just the right amount of humility and braggadocio for a person with a “God” in his back pocket.
Larry
May 31st, 2011 at 7:51 am
Michelle, that last part in the “HEALTH INFO” comment about women being allergic to her husband’s seaman is just another excuse for the bitch to deny a man his marital rights.
Guys if the bitch was taking all the dick you could give her before she got you to marry her, don’t buy that allergy shit when she tries to weasel out on doing her wifely duty in the bedroom or anywhere else you want it.
If she does, tell her you just developed an allergy to handing out money to her ass. That’ll be an instant cure.
George, WN
May 31st, 2011 at 7:58 am
I forgot who it was that asked about menopause. But if your are still reading here Zen Lill has a nice article on her blog about it. Just click her name and it will take you to her blog. Here is a taste of the article.
=======================
Fat is not what makes you fat…
Posted on May 27, 2011 by ZenLilli
I’ll take the heat on this one bc I can tell you right now, you’re not going to like my advice – whether you’re a female or not, let alone a menopausal one ; ) ahahaha…
Note to you women who are ‘there’: you can get angry with me if you want to and if you’re already having hot flashes you might, just bc : ) ….but, listen…nowhere is it written that you must have all those crappy symptoms or that you must have pain, etc…there are many ways around this and some are as simple as any advice that will help you lose weight.
So, are we chatting about menopause today…or fat not making you fat?!
—————————–
You can comment too there. I didn’t Zen Lill because I don’t want to list my email address.
Lucy
May 31st, 2011 at 8:07 am
Hanna, Howie is into more than Alien information. He has a big following because of that no doubt, but to me his contributions are more about getting the story right.
Sometimes on this blog a story hasn’t been fully told until Howie chimes in with his version. I usually wait a day or two when I read something here that is too incredible to believe. If Howie doesn’t chime in with the 411 in that time, I make up my own mind.
janice
Janice
May 31st, 2011 at 8:09 am
Congress is considering political deals to pay the nation’s bills that could result in harmful cuts to the Medicare and Social Security benefits you’ve earned.
But many Americans don’t even know that these proposals could dramatically increase their health care costs, threaten their access to doctors and hospitals, and cut their Social Security checks.
That’s why AARP needs your help to run nationwide ads, rally grassroots support, and do everything we can to stop Congress from making harmful cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:17 am
Michelle, I see the AMA as merely paid advertisers for the lies any industry wants to disseminate among the public as a good reason to purchase their products.
The food, drug, or medical industry pays to play at the office of the AMA. Then the AMA publishes an article claiming the item has some medical value.
Carol
May 31st, 2011 at 8:26 am
Doug,TMD, your response to George,WN the other day was one of the best post I have read from you. Michelle must be very happy and proud to be married to you.
Ginnie
May 31st, 2011 at 9:00 am
Hi Mischa, I’m back bc I’m allowing myself dawdle time before I go in and actually work on my site, got a growing customer base and have to get videos and paypal button on there asap! I’ll be back to read though…!
Lucy, thank you and if you liked that article then you’ll probably really like today’s, menopause or not, women and men could use this one http://getyourlifebalanced.com/2011/05/psst-whisper-your-subconscious-is-listening-so-say-nice-things/
A friend with a critical eye and ear read my writes and said your writes are like having a convo with you though I can tell your publishing first drafts : ) and yes, I am a stream of consciousness writer and I’m working on editing my parenthetical humourous tid-bits and tangential bon mots bc maybe they mudddy the waters of the info. She also said that as humorous as I am, there is much magic in the words – I say this bc as with Howie, sometimes people have a way of saying and doing things that can be offputting (my tangential humor and Howie’s perceived pompousness) and I’ll only say: don’t shoot the messenger just bc their personal approach to you wasn’t perfectly on target.
Lucy or anyone else checking in on my site, you DO NOT have to leave a real email address, make one up…thanks for that Lucy bc now it’ll be part of my daily ‘disclaimer’ bc the readership is growing and I’ve gotten some comments…(one from that stalker chick who looks like me now, it’s all good, I sent her a polite cease and desist email, yah, she left a real one, duh).
Pax, Zen Lill
May 31st, 2011 at 9:23 am
I read this today.
————————-
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested on Sunday morning that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin could defeat President Barack Obama should she run as the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
“Of course she can,” said the Arizona senator of Palin’s chances in the hypothetical match-up on “Fox News Sunday.” He added, however, that he doesn’t know whether his 2008 running mate will ultimately decide to make a run for the White House.
—————————-
To most whites in this country all that is required to run for president of our country is that you be born white. Considering all the commotion made to pass legislation to enable Swartznegger to run for President of the US, it doesn’t matter what country you are born in if you are born white.
But I am tired of this giving the nod to any dumb as dirt asshole who wants to run just because he or she is white.
OTWs we need to wake-the-fuck-up! White legislators have fucked this country up in so many ways. Whites hold every key office in this country in every state from the CEOs of every Labor, Corporate, Media, Medical, Food, Pharmaceutical, Government or you have you operation except the President of the USA, and they are fucking them up!
We need to do something.
Carilla, of Arizona
May 31st, 2011 at 10:07 am
Michelle, great article. I also like the fact that Obama’s government is targeting the top executives for health fraud. Before the previous white run executive branch of government only when after the companies.
If caught, all the company had to do was write a check, pass it on the the tax payer and no body went to jail. Bring in a black President and now on top of the fines the company has to pay, the senior executives of the company can face criminal charges even if he wasn’t involved in the scheme but could have stopped it had he known. Love it! It closes another loop hole for the slime to slip through.
Obama says that he and the feds are tired of repeat offenders. So he ordered that they the feds use laws that were already on the books that were ignored by his predecessors. These crooks are costing taxpayers $60 Billion dollars a year.
Go Obama!!!!
May 31st, 2011 at 10:12 am
Carilla this white girl agrees with you. I read this on Huff Pt a quote from Mitt Romney article. – Romney, who plans to formally get into the GOP race later this week, says he doesn’t think his Mormon faith will be an obstacle to winning the GOP presidential nod, saying “we’re not electing a pastor in chief, we’re electing a commander in chief.”
———-
If an OTW had the same baggage, white America would be claiming that he/she couldn’t get elected because of their “religious baggage,” not their race. Interesting that white candidates never are strapped with similar baggage.
Tracy
May 31st, 2011 at 10:13 am
Cheating rule #1: the girl you have an affair with must be as hot or hotter than the person you are cheating on.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:26 am
We are in the year 1878:
BODYSNATCHING:
Criminal gangs learned to exhume corpses rapidly by night during the last century, to meet surgeons’ need for cadavers. This trade was terminated by the Anatomy Act of 1832, after some bodysnatchers started killing people to obtain “subjects.”
An inspectorate to determine the provenance of cadavers stopped both murder and grave-robbing entirely.
But in America, the trade has continued even after the surgeons have no need of it. Relatives, or even the great public(Lincoln’s attempt 1867) can be blackmailed into paying for the restoration of a corpse. So bodysnatching continues in America.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:32 am
My husband says Apple has closed a deal with his company to allow store their labels in the clouds and play them back at their convenience.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:49 am
Michelle, Your article is so timely. The pharmaceutical industry is about making drugs that you have to take for he rest of your life.
They and the medical profession have teamed up to prevent the introduction of medical techniques, procedures, medicines or any treatment that could CURE a disease or ailment.
They want the public taking a pill that they have to take for life to “help” you live with the ailment.
Take AMD(Age related Macular Degeneration) for example, in 2000 PDT(Photodynamic Therapy) became available to the public. It is a cold laser, as opposed to a burning type.
But the drug companies developed a drug, Lucentis, to do the job. But the drug only works if you keep taking the drug.
However, it is considered the “Gold Standard” for treatment of AMD, so you get a partial cure and they drug industry get paid every time you need a refill.
Norma
May 31st, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Ah, the part about being part of the ‘sick care’ model is key, a lot of people bought into that one and hat’s what I’ve been rambling about for a while, take care of your machine/temple/body and it’s possible to live without all the docs people routinely get Rx’s from, listen to good info and to your own body (and subconscious : ) and you might make the great escape from this ‘business model’ – great article, I’m going back to reread, there’s a lot of content there.
George, if your wife/gf is allergic to latex, you could switch to a non-latex condom, that’s if you give a shit. Frankly, I’m sure gf’s or wives give you excuses bc you, dear, are not a lover and ask any woman, there are males who screw, there are males who have sex and there are even males who make love, but then there are MEN who are the real lovers, the BF/hubbies who are the Don Juan DeMarcos of the I’m-going-rock-her-world designation and trust me, you are not one of them, I can tell by the way you speak. This must be a source of great frustration for you. Many =males= are like you so maybe you find solace in that.
Boggzy, you are da main dude : ) here and I’m quite sure you rock at home as well, I like when you speak here bc so many males need to hear what you have to say so maybe someday they can become MEN. Thank you.
Luv, Zen Lill
May 31st, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Ja, what, we don’t get your input bc Ryan won’t show up? – ZL
May 31st, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Hello Hanna, Scott and Helen:
First of all, Hanna #10 May 30: You can remain a serious Christian and take what you believe from this blog and disregard the rest. It is up to you and your beliefs. No one is ever telling you what to believe in.
Scott #3 May 31, thank you for your explanation of my personal relationship. We do not have an archive to look back upon, so as you say, old timers sometimes have to explain things to “Newbies”.
Last but not least — Helen #5 May 31: I thank you for acknowledging my personal growth. I do try to keep my ego out of my comments but sometimes I might seem to come across as “pompous”. I am constantly working on bettering myself, however, as you yourself admit, I do take the crazy things that appear on this blog and simplify them so that everyone can understand what is going on. That is my objective.
Thank you all for commenting.
HOWIE
May 31st, 2011 at 2:18 pm
i0Ke
First let me say I am flattered that you would single me out and ask my advice.
However I would need further input from you before I could give sound advice.
Do you want to come down and play? We can explore your options and each other.
May 30 Anonymous 1
May 31st, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I do not have time to play games. I am an advance explorer for my ship. So I am asking anyone who can help to give me some advice. I will repeat my question to Anonymous #1.
I have on visits to other planets(23) made connections with the males there. I will do the same here. I would ask if the males here will be threatened by my ability to perform technologically what they would perceive as magic.
Would it be best if I said I was a Goddess from one of their myths or admitted to being an alien?
Please don’t answer with the pretentious human morality that “honesty……etc” hypocrisy. Whatever I tell a human will be believed as they have no way of understanding the wonders I can perform mechanically, hence I am only interested in the emotional ability of human males to bond with a much more powerful woman.
What would be your advice? Alien or Goddess, if Goddess do you have one or should I pick according to the race or nationality of the male I select?
i0Ke
May 31st, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Michelle, if you have any power to help Obama come the next election, you had better use them.
I have received information that explains the huge victories of the Republican party. They have the computer controlled counting software under their control and when that is not available they have bought off the election officials who count the votes.
There orders are to make their candidates win by margins so large that the question of a recount would appear ludicrous. So Dems are conceding without checking the election count.
Here is just such an example in the race for the state of Wisconsin Supreme Court.
=================
MADISON, Wis. — The challenger for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has conceded defeat to a conservative incumbent justice in an election seen as a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s divisive union rights bill.
Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg announced her decision Tuesday in Madison. Justice David Prosser, who has served for 12 years on the court, begins a new 10-year term in August.
Kloppenburg declared victory the day after the April 5 election after initial returns showed her leading by about 200 votes. But a county elections official said the next day that she failed to report 14,000 votes. Those votes gave Prosser a 7,316-vote lead.
Kloppenburg picked up 312 votes from the recount.
Walker’s legislation would strip most public workers of nearly all collective bargaining rights.
=======================
The votes just magicaly appeared to give the republican judge the big win.
Michelle, the republican party is made up of a bunch of thugs who are willing to do anything to take over the country. If they get the White House which would give them total control over the law enforcement of the country, they will control the country for the next few hundred years, if the country survives their salvaging its treasury.
I think this info came for the Anonz group.
Robert
May 31st, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Interesting info, Robert, and thanks for the wake up bc here I was sitting and smugly thinking that if Mitt Romney (and his stupid Obama shenanigans) and SP are the best the GOP can do, Obama is a winner hands down, but maybe not if they’re busy selling lies AND rigging software. – ZL
May 31st, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Wow! Robert I am in Wisconsin reading this about that election official who discovered those 7,000 plus votes that reversed the election and gave it to the republican.
This very interesting since she was under indictment for rigging a previous election. How the hell was she allowed to continue at that post during the sequent elections?
======================= Sore looser birther Beaten fails miserably at honesty once again as Dems were outspent $3:$1 and didn’t rely on a partisan vote-counter “Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus” who is under investigation for vote FRAUDS dating back 5 years, where she also pulled just enough “Magic Electronic votes” out of her cookie to now face prison i.e.
=====================
The republicans are stealing elections at every level. Soon no courts will grant anything that punishes them. They will own all the judges.
David
May 31st, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Robert, here is a report I got from the net.
==========================
Sore looser birther Beaten fails miserably at honesty once again as Dems were outspent $3:$1 and didn’t rely on a partisan vote-counter “Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus” who is under investigation for vote FRAUDS dating back 5 years, where she also pulled just enough “Magic Electronic votes” out of her cookie to now face prison i.e.
WSJ reported in 2010: The Milwaukee police department’s Special Investigative Unit conducted a probe.
Its February 2008 report found that from 4,600 to 5,300 more votes were counted in Milwaukee than the number of voters recorded as having cast ballots. (This is a recurring theme among WI Repubs!) /online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704671904575193930226978178.html
Ryan & Walker are both toast with Kathy Nickolaus in huge legal trouble as cons also reported http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/conservative-pundit-sees-vote-fraud-in-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-video.php
May 31st, 2011 at 6:58 pm
The Koch brothers are one of the major players. They own State and US Supreme Court Justices and most of the Republican party. My husband is always strutting around bragging about the surprise Obama is going to get.
He says “the Republican party can run any white bitch against nigger and win by a landslide.” My husband in a really big player in politics. He would not be this confident if he didn’t know something.
Robert, I fear you may be right. The Republican party is anxious for the election. They will take the Presidency , the Senate and the House in a landslide. They will do the same in every state election including all state elective Supreme Court Justices.
The country is doomed
Mia
May 31st, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Hafa adai
Talk about controlling the media and cover ups. Here is a story about a recorded convicting tirade by the Lt. Governor of Guam’s wife. But rather than hearing the tirade or where it could be found or any comments that would mention what was said in the tirade we get 5 minutes of bullshit by the governor.
Control by the republican party. That what it is all about. /www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14502:staffer-defends-her-recording-of-angry-tirade-by-lt-governors-wife&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156
=================
We want to know what she said on that tape.
Peter
May 31st, 2011 at 7:36 pm
i0Ke
My advice is to tell the man whatever the you think he will be most comfortable with. To do that you have to feel him out. If you are put to the rush, I would go with alien.
As egotistical and self absorbed as most men are, most hardly believe that a real God would give their lies the time of day. On the other hand many men think they can lie their way out of or into anything. So they will naturally believe they could lie to an alien.
Sheila
May 31st, 2011 at 7:49 pm
These are dangerous times! Cabals are making plans to take over the country and plunder it. What are our options?
Harris
May 31st, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Why am I still with a woman who is never available when I am so horny for her that my balls ache?
Maybe I need a i0Ke. Hell, I could believe in a Goddess loving me. I that good in bed and out of it.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Anon35, if you are THAT good in bed, why isn’t she making herself available?
May 31st, 2011 at 8:41 pm
You fucking liberals need to wake up and smell the technology. Why shouldn’t we use the talent in this party to get you socialists out of the way?
Someone has to protect this country from your giveaway philosophy. Whites made this country what it is. We will not allow a few liberal whites to give it to the minorities.
Whatever it takes will be done!
Terry
May 31st, 2011 at 8:44 pm
i0Ke
Yes, a man would be threatened by your technological advancement. I would advise appearing as a Goddess, not an alien. An alien would be threatening to a man. A Goddess, in my mind, evokes a sensuality and since men all think with their dicks, being sexy would lure more men and you would have a greater potential to get them emotionally involved, if they are the type to get emotionally involved.
I like your idea to pick one from their culture because the vision of the Goddess for them is already in their imagination and probably more inviting than threatening.
Then men here may be more helpful with insight into what makes a man emotionally attached but that’s how I see it.
Much success to you on your mission.
Holly
May 31st, 2011 at 8:47 pm
POLISHING THE APPLE’S HEALTHY IMAGE (YES, AGAIN!)
My grandmother was one of those women — I’m sure you know the kind — warm and smart and full of time-tested truisms.
We’ve all heard them, especially, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Well, not only does it turn out that Grandma Gertrude was right about that — new research shows that apples can actually keep the grim reaper away, too.
That’s according to a study conducted at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.
The study shows that fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) fed a diet high in apple polyphenols (antioxidant substances) lived 10% longer than fruit flies fed the same diet without the polyphenols. Plus, the polyphenol-fed group retained the ability to walk, climb and move about for longer than the nonpolyphenol group.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: Fruit flies? How does that relate to me? The truth is that fruit flies are commonly used as human stand-ins in research because their genes are remarkably similar to ours.
And the positive result of this apple polyphenol research simply adds to the loads of evidence that apples do a body good. Previous studies have shown that the chemicals in apples can be beneficial in reducing the risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Apples also promote weight loss and improve pulmonary function (good news for asthma sufferers!).
The trick, of course, is figuring out how many apples you’d need to eat each day to see a benefit.
“We do not know yet the optimum amounts of antioxidants required per person per day,” says Chang Yong Lee, PhD, a professor in the department of food science at Cornell University who specializes in bioactive phytochemicals.
“But since there is no known negative effect from consuming large portions of natural fruits and vegetables, I would say that at least one to two apples a day is very reasonable.”
And, Dr. Lee points out, a recent USDA report has shown that Americans typically eat only about one-quarter of a raw apple a day, on average, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.
It’s not that hard to eat a few apples a day — for example, you can include one in your breakfast and then eat another after dinner. But if that seems a little monotonous, it’s easy — and fun — to incorporate apples into more of your meals.
The rule of thumb: According to Dr. Lee, a raw, unpeeled apple retains the most beneficial chemicals — you can add it to meat salads and garden salads. Cooked apples with the skin still intact are nearly as beneficial and can be added to many dishes, ranging from pork chops to roast chicken to desserts like apple tarts, apple upside-down cake or simple baked apples.
And of course, there are processed apple products (applesauce, juice) that have lower amounts of beneficial phytochemicals. With this information in mind, I called David Joachim, chef and author of numerous cookbooks, including Perfect Light Desserts, The Science of Good Food and Fire it Up: More than 400 Recipes for Grilling Everything, to get his thoughts on an interesting apple recipe.
“I’d make an apple-jicama salad, with an orange-lime vinaigrette,” Joachim said. “The salad and dressing are colorful and sweet enough that even kids will gobble it up, and the ingredients pack a load of health-boosting nutrients. Plus it’s easy to make any night of the week.” Here’s how to put it together. Try it tonight — and enjoy those apples!
APPLE-JICAMA SALAD
Core two apples (a firm red variety is best — these include honeycrisp, jazz, empire, jonathan and others — with skin intact) and julienne into matchsticks. Place in a bowl.
Julienne one peeled medium-sized (about one pound) jicama (a crisp, slightly sweet root vegetable) and add to bowl.
Add a handful of orange segments (cut into smaller pieces if you prefer) and a handful of chopped mint.
Mix together with an orange-lime vinaigrette — one to two tablespoons each of orange juice and lime juice with two to three tablespoons of olive oil, plus salt and pepper to taste.
Serve on a bed of watercress with some toasted pecans scattered on top.
Serves four.
Source(s):
Chang Yong Lee, PhD, a professor in the department of food science at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
David Joachim, chef, based in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, and author of numerous cookbooks, including Perfect Light Desserts (William Morrow), The Science of Good Food (Robert Rose) and Fire it Up: More than 400 Recipes for Grilling Everything (Chronicle)
May 31st, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Michelle, this is one helluva blog. Aliens, politics, conspiracies, gods, sex maniacs, bigots, good guys, bad guys, evil villains, heros and anti heros.
Girls against the guys, guys showing their feminine side, women taking the men’s side. Gods who act out for all to see and mortals who have them as pals. Presented in a format that is free for all to express themselves unlimited in presentation and length.
Congratulate yourself Michelle, you have pulled off the FANTASTIC! A blog for everyone!!!!!!!!!
Now that you have presented THE MOLD, Let the copying begin.
Reese
May 31st, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Humans are so stupid. They actually believe that their salvation is inside the workings of a computer.
How easy we would have it if the Emperor would allow us to have our way with them. The TWO are wasted on this cattle planet.
Children of the GODS belong to the Universe of intelligence. We would not only respect their presence, we would revere them.
110k65ru
May 31st, 2011 at 9:35 pm
i0Ke
I didn’t mean to offend you. My apologies.
I don’t have a lot of experience with male forms that make emotional attachments. My male experience is rather unique.
My advice for what its worth would be to be a Goddess if the choice were Goddess or Alien. An alien would be a threat to a man because the alien represents power the man doesn’t have. Men don’t usually like power in women. They want women weak so they can dominate them.
The Goddess would be sexually appealing to the man and I think he would be more relaxed and unguarded, leaving him more emotionally vulnerable. That’s just a guess though. Like I said, my male experience is unique and probably not of much value to your mission.
I’d be interested in hearing a little of your AAR when your mission is complete and see what you learned about men however.
May 30 Anonymous 1
May 31st, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Anonymous 35
Maybe we should get together. My dick is alwasy giving me excuses about work keeping him busy when I need to take a pleasure ride. But I’m still with him because when he does get a chance to plant his pole he puts me in orbit.
June 1st, 2011 at 6:41 am
Terry,
I will take an educated guess, just based on numbers and odds, that you are not a billionaire. And, based on the English and rhetoric with which you spewed herein, I take another stab that you are not a CEO or politician. Therefore, you exemplified yourself to be a white, uneducated, male, working class, with little real world intelligence. You watch FOX to learn what is “happening” in your little world. On Friday’s, you go to Chili’s Restaurant and then go bowling. You drink Budweiser beer and go to church on Sunday. You still believe that Boehner is attempting to do something with jobs and the economy rather than simply wasting time and tax dollars (if you know who that is). You also believe that taxing the wealthy is a bad idea, because you “know” that you are going to be part of the gang one day, and don’t want to have to pay taxes. You or someone in your family has collected unemployment before in your lifetime. Your parents collect or are planning and needing to collect Medicare or Medicaid and social security. You allow your kids to go to the public swimming pool or public park to play with others…You couldn’t truly define socialism, communism, capitalism without the use of a dictionary…I’m sure I don’t need to go on…
August 13th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Akkuschrauber…
Michelle Moquin’s “A day in the life of…” » Blog Archive » Medical Treatments To Avoid…
August 25th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
best video card for gaming…
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