There is a great deal of advice out there about water :  from drinking an ounce for every pound of half your body weight, to nonsense!  you need no extra water.

See my motto above.

Nothing quite beats a good study, and here is a report of two which indicate that many elderly people, having lost the impulse to drink water, are dehydrated and suffering both physical and cognitive consequences.

Summary of studies here.

While it still comes as a surprise to have to think of myself as an elderly person, let me add on a personal note that I do have to REMIND myself several times a day to drink a glass of water.  I have found that filling a container with water and putting it in the fridge each day serves as an aide memoire. If it is still full at the end of the day, I have not had enough to drink.  Just a suggestion.

More about hydration

Cell phones tend to bring out the curmudgeon in me.  I consider driving an art form, and I just KNOW for a fact that one cannot drive intelligently and talk on a phone at the same time.  It doesn't matter whether a head set is being used:  the human mind cannot concentrate on two things at the same time.

Conclusion:  cell phones are dangerous to drivers.

But they are also potentially deadly if there is an electric storm in the area.  If there is lightning about, do not, I repeat DO NOT hold a cell phone to your head.

This is why.

My daughter went through a brief period when she loved to find things to criticize about her Mother.  I can remember when she fastened on the fact that my housekeeping is less than brilliant - I won't go  into details. Suffice it to say I could never get enthusiastic about something I had to do all over again the next day!

In order to lessen the outcry, I swamped her in research that showed a connection between immaculate houses with heavy antispetic and chemical residue, and allergies, eczema and asthma.

I don't know how convinced she was - but now she has a daughter of her own I hope it's comforting her when things get left undone.

Here comes another study connecting the lack of a little healthy dirt with our health.

Read my article on Healthy Children here.

If so, it would be worth checking with your Doctor to see whether your absorption of Vitamin A has been impaired.

Researchers published these findings in the British Journal of Ophthalmology :

The researchers base their report on three patients with increasingly poor eyesight or night blindness, who attended a specialist eye clinic within the space of a year. None of the patients had a family or personal history of eye problems.

All three patients, who were all over the age of 65, had had extensive intestinal surgery between 20 and 35 years earlier.

The operations included intestinal bypass, surgical removal of diseased tissue as a result of inflammatory bowel disease, and gallbladder removal.

All the patients were diagnosed with vitamin A deficiency, and this was in spite of having taken vitamin supplements.

Read more here

I posted this in August last year:

I don't know why, but we have not heard much about this study in the mainstream press .....

"In a small but startling preliminary new study, Texas researchers have found that after just three months, every one of a dozen children treated for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with the drug methylphenidate experienced a threefold increase in levels of chromosome abnormalities—occurrences associated with increased risks of cancer and other adverse health effects.

The researchers say that to their knowledge this is the first study addressing the potential chromosome-breaking effects associated with treatment of children with methylphenidate, the generic name for a group of drugs that includes Ritalin, Concerta, Metadate CD and others."

Continue reading"

Now we have a new study from the CDC intimating that app. 3000 visits to Emergency rooms are caused by these same drugs each year, many of them resulting in hospitalization.

A report on the is study here

I ask myself. what has to happen before Doctors stop handing out these drugs right and left? (I almost said "like candy"...)

Consider that first of all, this disorder has no true objective diagnosis; and second, many of the children who are put on Ritalin are in any event not diagnosed. This is not to say ADD/ADHD does not exist: but my position is that while many children ARE misdiagnosed, where the condition does exist, before possibly damaging drugs are used, other less dangerous, more supportive and natural methods should be used.

Read my article on ADD/ADHD here

Read about raising healthy children here

I posted this in August of 2005:

Affirming yet again the power of anthocyanins (plant colors) , new research links Blueberries to lowered inflammatory conditions, and anti-cancer activity.

And the research is here

Now comes new research in June 2006 showing that compounds in blueberries stop liver cancer cells in vitro.  As an added bonus, they also appear to help lower cholesterol.

Read about it here.

Check out our Blueberry Solid Extract here

Our Blueberry capsules here

I posted this in  August of 2005, and the new information that follows my original post tends to suggest it was prescient in the extreme:

"TeenScreen is planting the seed of mental illness in the minds of children. School kids are being conned into taking a survey full of loaded questions and the results are being used to convince parents their children are mentally ill and need dangerous brain-damaging drugs.

All children at times feel depressed or different from others, or not smart enough, or not good-looking enough. This is normal adolescent thinking. The TeenScreen survey asks whether the child has ever felt this way and phrases questions to solicit one answer, yes. It takes advantage of impressionable kids when it raises questions about normal feelings."

Be aware!  Who will protect our children from this kind of manipulation if we do not arm ourselves with knowledge.  Read the rest of the story here.

Now (June 2006) comes a report from the National Institute of Health showing that the rate of prescribing off label drugs for psychiatric use in young people has increased exponentially in recent years, and that 77% of those prescribed the drugs have not been diagnosed with any mental disturbance whatsoever... additionally, the drugs have neither been approved for this use, nor tested for pediatric use.

More children and teens prescribed anti-psychotic drugs

I do believe the time has arrived where the connection between statin use, low Co-enzyme Q10 and heart problems is pretty well known and acknowledged - finally!

But here is something new.

Women on birth control have also been  found to be low not only in C0-Q10, but also in vitamin E.  Not much of an extrapolation from that to HRT.  Nor from that to heart disease.

Protect yourself, ladies - don't wait! 

The study

My article on Co-enzyme Q10

My article on Vitamin E

There doesn't appear to be any end to the gifts this marvelous spice offers!  I have written at length about the research being done to support its value in cancer, but now UCLA announces that it is also apparently helpful in preventing,m  and possibly treating, Alzheimer's disease.

They began their research for the best possible reason:  Alzheimer's disease is virtually unknown in countries where curry is a staple.

Here is a delicious way to add turmeric to your cooking.

Take 1 cup brown rice, and rinse it.  This is to remove some of the starch. Set it to drain.

Heat 1 tblsp ghee or coconut oil in the bottom of your rice saucepan.  Chop app. half a cup of onion.  If you have black mustard seeds, put 1 tsp in the hot oil until they begin to pop.  Add onion, and cook on medium heat until limp (the onion, that is!) . Add 1/2 tblsp turmeric.  Add rice, and stir until all is coated with oil and turmeric.

Add two cups of water, and cover.  Cook over low heat for 45 minutes, turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes more without uncovering.

Here are The Vitamin Lady's Own Turmeric extract capsules.

Here is the UCLA report on Turmeric and Alzheimer's Disease.