Welcome to my blog - please tell me what YOU think about some of the things I post. I enjoy your comments. Remember,many of the links to other articles in these posts have a finite existence: there is no way to tell how long they will be in place before being moved or removed!
I sent this letter of to McCain/Palin - of course, I am no economist - but doesn't it make wonderful sense??
Dear Senator McCain and Governor Palin,
Between the two of you, you have reputations for independent thinking, and common sense.
Please consider this proposal seriously. The Government has 7 billion dollars to give away. If, instead of bailing out the companies whose poor judgment brought us to this pass, something the taxpayers DO NOT WANT, you gave 1/2 million dollars to every legally resident adult in this country ( perhaps setting up Trust Funds for convicted felons), reserving 250,000 of that in a personal savings account, what would be the result?
* Social Security could be done away with
* A portion of the money could be mandated for health insurance - medicare could be done away with
* There would be no inequity in proposing a flat tax - the IRS could be drawn down
* Government would actually be affordable
* We would not need huge companies to lend money. Instead of companies that make money off money, we could actually use our ingenuity once again to produce worthwhile THINGS.
* Possibly even some of the money, if used for housing, could be mandated for energy efficiency, addressing our energy problem.
Of course, I see that McDonald's and Garbage Collectors might have a problem - but wait! We could hire the entire country of Mexico on a documented basis: we could afford it. And tax them and charge them for medical care. Think how many problems THAT would solve.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST - should the Republican party think along these lines and propose it, you would surely be elected.
Hot on the heels of my post about the compounds in broccoli which may help COPD - (see "Broccoli is Smoking") comes a scary analysis of the risks of taking the most commonly prescribed prescription drugs for that condition.
Common drugs prescribed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are associated with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems, researchers report.
It seems that even though years of effort have reduced the direct risk of lead burden on children, they can still inherit that risk from their Mother.
However, studies have proven that calcium supplementation will substantially reduce the risk. Here comes the surprise, for me: they suggest that Obstetricians should recommend calcium supplementation to their pregnant patients, particularly if they have had exposure to toxins.
Recommending calcium for pregnancy is news? Nutritionists have ALWAYS insisted on maximizing beneficial mineral intake for pregnant Moms: after all, they are building bones in the fetus, as well as maintaining their own bone mass.
Rumors have been abounding for some months that there is a connection between Vytorin ( for high Cholesterol) and cancer risk. In fact, the results of a study concluded that in the 2,000-patient SEAS study, patients taking Vytorin died of cancer twice as often as did patients taking an inactive placebo.
I have appended a Q and A piece by WebMD you may find interesting - please read it all, or you may come to the wrong conclusion half way through!
The part I find interesting is where Merck asserts that Vytorin is a statin drug, and statins do not cause cancer. There is persuasive research on-going that connects Coenzyme Q10 to cancer prevention, and statins deplete CoQ10.
Recent studies at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a substance in broccoli may prevent the free radical cascade in COPD that causes the narrowing of airways.
Dr Peter Barnes, of the National Heart and Lung Institute in London, wrote:
"Increasing NRF2 may also restore important detoxifying enzymes to counteract other effects of tobacco smoke."
"This has been achieved in vitro and in vivo by isothiocynate compounds, such as sulforaphane, which occurs naturally in broccoli and [wasabi]."
As always, I advocate increasing dietary intake of your actual broccoli as a first response, but there is also an excellent Broccoli concentrate, which I myself take as part of the anti-cancer regimen I follow. It is called SGS, and Jarrow markets it as BROCCOMAX. If you are at risk for this disease, the 4th leading cause of death in the US, with app12 million sufferers, using the supplement may be an effective prophylactic strategy.
Going under the knife is not a valuable answer for osteoarthritic knees, it would appear. An English study showed that where there were no actual tears to the tissue, patients who had arthroscopic surgery showed "no difference in pain or disability two years later than patients who received only non-surgical treatment."
What to do?
1) Lose weight 2) Exercise gently 3) Use Glucosamine Chondroitin and MSM 4) For pain, try CURAMIN
A new study has shown that the stress level of Mothers in low income households is actually more important to the healthy weight of their children, than the child's own stress level or worries about the availability of food.
In other words, even in food secure households, if Mom is stressed, a young child suffers.
In an ideal world, our schools and our churches would teach our children how to face adversity with serenity. Being a cynic, I can't help but wonder whether this study is simply a prelude to prescribing mood enhancers for an entire group ..
