Japan's Earthquake - Natural Or Engineered?
By Stephen Lendman
3-31-11
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Simple foods provide protection against radiation exposure
Simple foods provide protection against radiation exposure
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 by: T.M. Hartle
(NaturalNews) In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster it is crucial to understand the protective nature of foods in order to protect yourself and your family against radiation exposure. Research on food based radiation exposure after the Chernobyl disaster can give us insight on what foods can reduce radiation exposure from our diet. We also have research from Hiroshima after the atomic bomb attacks that has highlighted the protective nature of fruits and vegetables in the diet against cancer. Research following previous nuclear disasters gives us insight into the measures we can take to protect against the damaging effects of radiation exposure.
The Swedish Government monitored the radiation level of foods following the Chernobyl disaster. They found that most animal based foods including meat, dairy, and fish had higher levels of radioactive substances than fruits, vegetables, grains, and potatoes. Eating plant based foods can reduce exposure to radioactive substances by avoiding concentrations of these substances in animal fat and tissues. A plant centered diet in the midst of radiation exposure provides lower levels of radioactive substances as well as fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that have the potential to reduce cancer rates associated with radiation exposure.
Radiation exposure causes cellular damage by forming free radicals that can have damaging effects on health, including the development of cancer. A study evaluating over 30,000 atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki found that those with the highest consumption of fruits and vegetables had a 13% lower risk of dying from cancer over the twenty year study period than those who consumed fruits and vegetables less than once per week. Sulfur-containing antioxidants found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale, and cabbage, have been found to provide protection against radiation exposure through their detoxifying properties. Pectin in fruits has also been shown to reduce levels of the radioactive substance Cs-137. Plant based foods provide protection against free radical damage and they can reduce the absorption of radioactive substances.
A study published in Russia reviewed the protective nature of dietary fiber against radiation. Researchers used concentrates of dietary fiber from lemon peel and beet root among other plants and found that the fiber did have radioprotective properties. The authors concluded that concentrated dietary fiber can be used in human nutrition to accelerate the elimination of nuclides or radioactive elements.
Whether or not the Fukushima plant meltdown materializes into a global disaster, the simple change to a strong plant diet can provide significant protection and health benefits for you and your family. Consuming a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables can provide powerful protection against the ravaging effects of radiation exposure.
Sources:
http://perfectformuladiet.com/plant...
http://www.juicefeasting.com/LinkCl...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://books.google.com/books?id=RY...
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/2...
About the author
T.M. Hartle has a Bachelors degree in Natural Health Science with a concentration in Clinical Nutrition as well as a Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from Cornell University. She is a student midwife who teaches pregnancy nutrition courses to midwives and childbirth educators throughout the country. She has a certificate in the Essentials of raw culinary arts from Living Light Culinary Arts Institute and is the Owner and Chef of The Peaceful Kitchen. http://www.thepeacefulkitchen.blogs...
http://www.healthydietplanrecipes.com
Articles Related to This Article:
• Americans Exposed to Atomic Bomb Levels of Radiation through Medical Imaging, CT Scans, Mammograms
• Radiation scientists agree TSA naked body scanners could cause breast cancer and sperm mutations
• Rosemary Found to Offer Best Protection against Radiation Poisoning
• Mammograms cause breast cancer (and other cancer facts you probably never knew)
• FINALLY: NIH takes a step to track radiation exposure from medical tests
• Doctors use Fukushima-like radiation to "treat" thyroid disorders
Related video from NaturalNews.TV
Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here.
Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031878_radiation_protection.html#ixzz1I6Z3jPhD
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 by: T.M. Hartle
(NaturalNews) In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster it is crucial to understand the protective nature of foods in order to protect yourself and your family against radiation exposure. Research on food based radiation exposure after the Chernobyl disaster can give us insight on what foods can reduce radiation exposure from our diet. We also have research from Hiroshima after the atomic bomb attacks that has highlighted the protective nature of fruits and vegetables in the diet against cancer. Research following previous nuclear disasters gives us insight into the measures we can take to protect against the damaging effects of radiation exposure.
The Swedish Government monitored the radiation level of foods following the Chernobyl disaster. They found that most animal based foods including meat, dairy, and fish had higher levels of radioactive substances than fruits, vegetables, grains, and potatoes. Eating plant based foods can reduce exposure to radioactive substances by avoiding concentrations of these substances in animal fat and tissues. A plant centered diet in the midst of radiation exposure provides lower levels of radioactive substances as well as fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that have the potential to reduce cancer rates associated with radiation exposure.
Radiation exposure causes cellular damage by forming free radicals that can have damaging effects on health, including the development of cancer. A study evaluating over 30,000 atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki found that those with the highest consumption of fruits and vegetables had a 13% lower risk of dying from cancer over the twenty year study period than those who consumed fruits and vegetables less than once per week. Sulfur-containing antioxidants found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale, and cabbage, have been found to provide protection against radiation exposure through their detoxifying properties. Pectin in fruits has also been shown to reduce levels of the radioactive substance Cs-137. Plant based foods provide protection against free radical damage and they can reduce the absorption of radioactive substances.
A study published in Russia reviewed the protective nature of dietary fiber against radiation. Researchers used concentrates of dietary fiber from lemon peel and beet root among other plants and found that the fiber did have radioprotective properties. The authors concluded that concentrated dietary fiber can be used in human nutrition to accelerate the elimination of nuclides or radioactive elements.
Whether or not the Fukushima plant meltdown materializes into a global disaster, the simple change to a strong plant diet can provide significant protection and health benefits for you and your family. Consuming a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables can provide powerful protection against the ravaging effects of radiation exposure.
Sources:
http://perfectformuladiet.com/plant...
http://www.juicefeasting.com/LinkCl...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...
http://books.google.com/books?id=RY...
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/2...
About the author
T.M. Hartle has a Bachelors degree in Natural Health Science with a concentration in Clinical Nutrition as well as a Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from Cornell University. She is a student midwife who teaches pregnancy nutrition courses to midwives and childbirth educators throughout the country. She has a certificate in the Essentials of raw culinary arts from Living Light Culinary Arts Institute and is the Owner and Chef of The Peaceful Kitchen. http://www.thepeacefulkitchen.blogs...
http://www.healthydietplanrecipes.com
Articles Related to This Article:
• Americans Exposed to Atomic Bomb Levels of Radiation through Medical Imaging, CT Scans, Mammograms
• Radiation scientists agree TSA naked body scanners could cause breast cancer and sperm mutations
• Rosemary Found to Offer Best Protection against Radiation Poisoning
• Mammograms cause breast cancer (and other cancer facts you probably never knew)
• FINALLY: NIH takes a step to track radiation exposure from medical tests
• Doctors use Fukushima-like radiation to "treat" thyroid disorders
Related video from NaturalNews.TV
Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here.
Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031878_radiation_protection.html#ixzz1I6Z3jPhD
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Radiation Toxicity Antidotes
Radiation Toxicity Antidotes
(C) 2010 by John W. Apsley, II, MD(E), DC - www.doctorapsley.com
Here you will learn:
Ø What radioactive elements are the threat from Fukushima
Ø What the Government is not telling you
Ø What is The Petkau Effect
Ø What are the specific health risks to you & your family
Ø What the sequence to these threats will be over the next 5 years
Ø What history has taught us
Ø What misinformation are we being told?
Ø What you & your family can easily and effectively do to potentially overcome these risks
NOW!
(C) 2010 by John W. Apsley, II, MD(E), DC - www.doctorapsley.com
Here you will learn:
Ø What radioactive elements are the threat from Fukushima
Ø What the Government is not telling you
Ø What is The Petkau Effect
Ø What are the specific health risks to you & your family
Ø What the sequence to these threats will be over the next 5 years
Ø What history has taught us
Ø What misinformation are we being told?
Ø What you & your family can easily and effectively do to potentially overcome these risks
NOW!
Chernobyl And What To Expect From Fukishima -The Facts
Chernobyl And What To Expect
From Fukushima - The Facts
3-29-11
1) Radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl meltdown spread over 40% of Europe.
2) Nearly 5 million people still live with dangerous levels of radioactive contamination.
3) Most of the Chernobyl radionuclides (up to 57%) fell outside the former USSR and caused noticeable radioactive contamination over a large area of the world practically the entire Northern hemisphere.
4) Levels of radioactive contamination in the first days and weeks after the catastrophe were thousands of times higher than those recorded 2 or 3 years later.
5) When the reactor exploded, it expelled not only gases and aerosols but also particles of U fuel melted together with other radionuclides firm hot particles. When absorbed into the body (with water, food or inhaled air), such particles generate high doses of radiation even if an individual is in an area of low contamination.
6) Lastly, the impact of the 2400 tons (some authors estimate 6720 tons) of lead dumped from helicopters onto the reactor to quench the fire has not been adequately evaluated. A significant part of this lead was spewed out into the atmosphere as a result of its fusion, boiling and sublimation in the burning reactor.
7) In Wales, one of the regions most heavily contaminated by Chernobyl fallout, abnormally low birth weights (less than 1500 g) were noted in 1986 and 1987 (Busby, 1995).
8) Children from the contaminated areas of Belarus have digestive tract epithelium characteristic of senile changes (Nesterenko, 1996; ebeshko et al, 2006).
9) The biological age of inhabitants from the radioactive contaminated territories of Ukraine exceed their calendar ages by 7 to 9 years (Mezhzherin, 1996)
10) Adverse effects as a result of Chernobyl irradiation have been found in every group that has been studied. Brain damage has been found in individuals directly exposed...Premature cataracts; tooth and mouth abnormalities; and blood, lymphatic, heart, lung gastrointestinal, urologic, bone, and skin diseases afflict and impair people, young and old alike. Endocrine dysfunction, particularly thyroid disease, is far more common than might be expected, with some 1,000 cases of thyroid dysfunction for every case of thyroid cancer, a marked increase after the catastrophe. There are genetic damage and birth defects especially in children of liquidators and in children born in area with high levels of radioisotope contamination.
11) 5.1 Blood and lymphatic system diseases For both children and adults, diseases of the blood and the circulatory and lymphatic systems are among the most widespread consequences of the Chernobyl radioactive contamination.
12) The incidence of diseases of the blood and blood forming organs was 3.8 fold higher among evacuees 9 years after the catastrophe.
13) Diseases of the blood and circulatory system for people living in the contaminated territories (Ukraine) increased 11 to 15 fold for the first 12 years after the catastrophe (1988-1999) Prysyazhnyuk et al 2002).
14) Incidence of hemorrhages in newborns in the contaminated Chechersky District of Gomel Province (Belarus) is more than double than before the catastrophe (Kulakov et al, 1997).
15) In the observation period 1992-1997, there was a 22.1% increase in the incidence of fatal cardiovascular disease liquidators compared to 2.5% in the general population
(Belarus) (Pflugbeil et al, 2006).
16) Changes in genetic structures in both reproductive and somatic cells determine and define the occurrence of many diseases. Ionizing radiation causes damage to hereditary structures. The huge collective dose from the Chernobyl catastrophe (127-150 million persons/rad) has resulted in damage that will span several generations, causing changes in genetic structures and various types of mutations: genomic mutations (change in the number of chromosomes), chromosomal mutations (damage to the structure of chromosomes - translocations, deletions, insertions and inversions), and small (point) mutations.
17) In 1991 in Norway, a 10-fold increase in the number of chromosomal aberrations was found in 56 adults compared to controls (Brogger et al, 1996, Schmitz Feuerhake, 2006).
18) In 1987 in Austria, among 17 adults examined there was a 4-6 fold increase in the number of chromosomal aberrations.
19) There was a doubling of Down syndrome in Lothian, Scotland one of the territories contaminated by Chernobyl (Ramsey et al, 1991).
20) In Norway, cataracts in newborns occurred twice as often
1 year after the catastrophe (Irgens et al, 1991).
21) Incidence of neural tube defects in Turkey increased between 2- and 5-fold after the catastrophe (Hoffman, 2001; Schmitz-Feuerhake, 2006).
22) The most recent forecast by international agencies predicted there would be between 9000 and 28,000 fatal cancers between 1986 and 2056, obviously underestimating the risk factors and the collective doses. On the basis of I-131 and Cs 137 radioisotope doses to which populations were exposed and a comparison of cancer mortality in the heavily and less contaminated territories and pre- and post-Chernobyl cancer levels, a more realistic figure is 212,000 to 245,000 in Europe and 19,000 in the rest of the world.
23) More than 1000 cancer deaths in Norland Province, Sweden, between 1986 and 1999 have been attributed to the Chernobyl fallout (Abdelrahman, 2007).
24) After 20 years the incidence of thyroid cancer among individuals under 18 years of age at the time of the catastrophe increased more than 200-fold (National Belarussian Report, 2006).
25) In the Marne-Ardennes provinces (France) cancer incidence increased 360% in women and 500% in men between 1975 and 2005 (Cherie-Challine et al, 2006).
26) From 1985-1989 to 1990-1992 in Connecticut, USA, rates of thyroid cancer for all age groups increased by 23% (from 3.46 to 4.29 per 100,000, after 10 previous years without change (Reid and Mangano, 1995).
27) In Greece, infants born between 1.7.86 and 31.12.87, exposed to Chernobyl fallout in utero, had 2.6 times the incidence of leukemia compared to children born between 1.1.80 and 31.12.85 and between 1.1.88 and 31.12.90. (Petridou et al, 2004)
28) Changes in the sex ratio and the stillbirth odds ratio for gender were significant for Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Latvia and Sweden (Scherb and Wiegelt, 2000).
29) Great Britain. Ten months after the catastrophe, a significant increase in perinatal mortality was found in the two most contaminated areas of the country (Bentham, 1991).
30) Sweden. Infant mortality increased immediately after the catastrophe and increased significantly in 1989-1992 (Korblein, 2008).
2. COWS' MILK SHOWS FIRST SIGNS OF RADIATION
First Japan suffered an earthquake, then a tsunami, then nuclear meltdowns and radiation.
Experts advised the Japanese people not to panic.
Experts advised people that the food was safe to eat, and that radiation had not entered their food supply.
This past week, the world learned that Japanese food and water were tainted with radioactive iodine.
Food is now routinely tested in Japan. The first food to show signs of radiation was cow's milk. This makes sense, as cows are eating 50-80 pounds of feed each and every day. Radiation is concentrated in their bodies like sponges soaking up water. In a cow, the water is filtered and excreted and the concentrated toxins are consumed by milk drinkers. Twenty-one pounds of milk are required to produce one pound of butter.
Eating butter further concentrates toxins; in this case, radioactivity.
Armed with the knowledge that milk is the perfect barometer to test for the presence of radiation, it would make sense to test for levels of radiation in America's milk as plumes from Japan are carried by the jet stream over California, Kansas, and then onto New York.
Here is where today's stupid human trick kicks in.
It would make perfect sense to test milk from California Happy Cows, just in case...Sadly, this is news that the United States Department of Agriculture just does not want to know.
As of March 22, 2011, California milk is not being tested for radiation on a daily basis. As a matter of policy, California's Department of Public Health routinely tests California milk for radiation once every month. One would assume (love that word) that with jet steams being what they are, and with Japan's tragedy having the potential to radiate to Americans, it would be a logical human conclusion to want to test milk.
The spokesperson for California's Department of Public Health, Mike Sicilia, had this stupid human trick comment:
"This is typical routine testing and has been done for many years."
Routine once-per-month testing will continue, because the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sees no reason for caution. California's Department of Public Health reLIES upon FDA's lead.
From Fukushima - The Facts
3-29-11
1) Radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl meltdown spread over 40% of Europe.
2) Nearly 5 million people still live with dangerous levels of radioactive contamination.
3) Most of the Chernobyl radionuclides (up to 57%) fell outside the former USSR and caused noticeable radioactive contamination over a large area of the world practically the entire Northern hemisphere.
4) Levels of radioactive contamination in the first days and weeks after the catastrophe were thousands of times higher than those recorded 2 or 3 years later.
5) When the reactor exploded, it expelled not only gases and aerosols but also particles of U fuel melted together with other radionuclides firm hot particles. When absorbed into the body (with water, food or inhaled air), such particles generate high doses of radiation even if an individual is in an area of low contamination.
6) Lastly, the impact of the 2400 tons (some authors estimate 6720 tons) of lead dumped from helicopters onto the reactor to quench the fire has not been adequately evaluated. A significant part of this lead was spewed out into the atmosphere as a result of its fusion, boiling and sublimation in the burning reactor.
7) In Wales, one of the regions most heavily contaminated by Chernobyl fallout, abnormally low birth weights (less than 1500 g) were noted in 1986 and 1987 (Busby, 1995).
8) Children from the contaminated areas of Belarus have digestive tract epithelium characteristic of senile changes (Nesterenko, 1996; ebeshko et al, 2006).
9) The biological age of inhabitants from the radioactive contaminated territories of Ukraine exceed their calendar ages by 7 to 9 years (Mezhzherin, 1996)
10) Adverse effects as a result of Chernobyl irradiation have been found in every group that has been studied. Brain damage has been found in individuals directly exposed...Premature cataracts; tooth and mouth abnormalities; and blood, lymphatic, heart, lung gastrointestinal, urologic, bone, and skin diseases afflict and impair people, young and old alike. Endocrine dysfunction, particularly thyroid disease, is far more common than might be expected, with some 1,000 cases of thyroid dysfunction for every case of thyroid cancer, a marked increase after the catastrophe. There are genetic damage and birth defects especially in children of liquidators and in children born in area with high levels of radioisotope contamination.
11) 5.1 Blood and lymphatic system diseases For both children and adults, diseases of the blood and the circulatory and lymphatic systems are among the most widespread consequences of the Chernobyl radioactive contamination.
12) The incidence of diseases of the blood and blood forming organs was 3.8 fold higher among evacuees 9 years after the catastrophe.
13) Diseases of the blood and circulatory system for people living in the contaminated territories (Ukraine) increased 11 to 15 fold for the first 12 years after the catastrophe (1988-1999) Prysyazhnyuk et al 2002).
14) Incidence of hemorrhages in newborns in the contaminated Chechersky District of Gomel Province (Belarus) is more than double than before the catastrophe (Kulakov et al, 1997).
15) In the observation period 1992-1997, there was a 22.1% increase in the incidence of fatal cardiovascular disease liquidators compared to 2.5% in the general population
(Belarus) (Pflugbeil et al, 2006).
16) Changes in genetic structures in both reproductive and somatic cells determine and define the occurrence of many diseases. Ionizing radiation causes damage to hereditary structures. The huge collective dose from the Chernobyl catastrophe (127-150 million persons/rad) has resulted in damage that will span several generations, causing changes in genetic structures and various types of mutations: genomic mutations (change in the number of chromosomes), chromosomal mutations (damage to the structure of chromosomes - translocations, deletions, insertions and inversions), and small (point) mutations.
17) In 1991 in Norway, a 10-fold increase in the number of chromosomal aberrations was found in 56 adults compared to controls (Brogger et al, 1996, Schmitz Feuerhake, 2006).
18) In 1987 in Austria, among 17 adults examined there was a 4-6 fold increase in the number of chromosomal aberrations.
19) There was a doubling of Down syndrome in Lothian, Scotland one of the territories contaminated by Chernobyl (Ramsey et al, 1991).
20) In Norway, cataracts in newborns occurred twice as often
1 year after the catastrophe (Irgens et al, 1991).
21) Incidence of neural tube defects in Turkey increased between 2- and 5-fold after the catastrophe (Hoffman, 2001; Schmitz-Feuerhake, 2006).
22) The most recent forecast by international agencies predicted there would be between 9000 and 28,000 fatal cancers between 1986 and 2056, obviously underestimating the risk factors and the collective doses. On the basis of I-131 and Cs 137 radioisotope doses to which populations were exposed and a comparison of cancer mortality in the heavily and less contaminated territories and pre- and post-Chernobyl cancer levels, a more realistic figure is 212,000 to 245,000 in Europe and 19,000 in the rest of the world.
23) More than 1000 cancer deaths in Norland Province, Sweden, between 1986 and 1999 have been attributed to the Chernobyl fallout (Abdelrahman, 2007).
24) After 20 years the incidence of thyroid cancer among individuals under 18 years of age at the time of the catastrophe increased more than 200-fold (National Belarussian Report, 2006).
25) In the Marne-Ardennes provinces (France) cancer incidence increased 360% in women and 500% in men between 1975 and 2005 (Cherie-Challine et al, 2006).
26) From 1985-1989 to 1990-1992 in Connecticut, USA, rates of thyroid cancer for all age groups increased by 23% (from 3.46 to 4.29 per 100,000, after 10 previous years without change (Reid and Mangano, 1995).
27) In Greece, infants born between 1.7.86 and 31.12.87, exposed to Chernobyl fallout in utero, had 2.6 times the incidence of leukemia compared to children born between 1.1.80 and 31.12.85 and between 1.1.88 and 31.12.90. (Petridou et al, 2004)
28) Changes in the sex ratio and the stillbirth odds ratio for gender were significant for Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Latvia and Sweden (Scherb and Wiegelt, 2000).
29) Great Britain. Ten months after the catastrophe, a significant increase in perinatal mortality was found in the two most contaminated areas of the country (Bentham, 1991).
30) Sweden. Infant mortality increased immediately after the catastrophe and increased significantly in 1989-1992 (Korblein, 2008).
2. COWS' MILK SHOWS FIRST SIGNS OF RADIATION
First Japan suffered an earthquake, then a tsunami, then nuclear meltdowns and radiation.
Experts advised the Japanese people not to panic.
Experts advised people that the food was safe to eat, and that radiation had not entered their food supply.
This past week, the world learned that Japanese food and water were tainted with radioactive iodine.
Food is now routinely tested in Japan. The first food to show signs of radiation was cow's milk. This makes sense, as cows are eating 50-80 pounds of feed each and every day. Radiation is concentrated in their bodies like sponges soaking up water. In a cow, the water is filtered and excreted and the concentrated toxins are consumed by milk drinkers. Twenty-one pounds of milk are required to produce one pound of butter.
Eating butter further concentrates toxins; in this case, radioactivity.
Armed with the knowledge that milk is the perfect barometer to test for the presence of radiation, it would make sense to test for levels of radiation in America's milk as plumes from Japan are carried by the jet stream over California, Kansas, and then onto New York.
Here is where today's stupid human trick kicks in.
It would make perfect sense to test milk from California Happy Cows, just in case...Sadly, this is news that the United States Department of Agriculture just does not want to know.
As of March 22, 2011, California milk is not being tested for radiation on a daily basis. As a matter of policy, California's Department of Public Health routinely tests California milk for radiation once every month. One would assume (love that word) that with jet steams being what they are, and with Japan's tragedy having the potential to radiate to Americans, it would be a logical human conclusion to want to test milk.
The spokesperson for California's Department of Public Health, Mike Sicilia, had this stupid human trick comment:
"This is typical routine testing and has been done for many years."
Routine once-per-month testing will continue, because the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sees no reason for caution. California's Department of Public Health reLIES upon FDA's lead.
When The Fukushima Meltdown Hits Groundwater
When The Fukushima Meltdown Hits Groundwater
By Dr. Tom Burnett
3-27-11
Fukushima is going to dwarf Chenobyl. The Japanese government has had a level 7 nuclear disaster going for almost a week but won't admit it.
The disaster is occurring the opposite way than Chernobyl, which exploded and stopped the reaction. At Fukushima, the reactions are getting worse. I suspect three nuclear piles are in meltdown and we will probably get some of it.
If reactor 3 is in meltdown, the concrete under the containment looks like lava. But Fukushima is not far off the water table. When that molten mass of self-sustaining nuclear material gets to the water table it won't simply cool down. It will explode not a nuclear explosion, but probably enough to involve the rest of the reactors and fuel rods at the facility.
Pouring concrete on a critical reactor makes no sense it will simply explode and release more radioactive particulate matter. The concrete will melt and the problem will get worse. Chernobyl was different a critical reactor exploded and stopped the reaction. At Fukushima, the reactor cores are still melting down. The ONLY way to stop that is to detonate a ~10 kiloton fission device inside each reactor containment vessel and hope to vaporize the cores. That's probably a bad solution.
A nuclear meltdown is a self-sustaining reaction. Nothing can stop it except stopping the reaction. And that would require a nuclear weapon. In fact, it would require one in each containment to merely stop what is going on now. But it will be messy.
Fukushima was waiting to happen because of the placement of the emergency generators. If they had not all failed at once by being inundated by a tsunami, Fukushima would not have happened as it did although it WOULD still have been a nuclear disaster. Every containment in the world is built to withstand a Magnitude 6.9 earthquake; the Japanese chose to ignore the fact that a similar earthquake had hit that same general area in 1896.
Anyway, here is the information that the US doesn't seem to want released. And here is a chart that might help with perspective.
Making matters worse is the MOX in reactor 3. MOX is the street name for 'mixed oxide fuel' which uses ~9% plutonium along with a uranium compound to fuel reactors. This is why it can be used.
The problem is that you don't want to play with this stuff. A nuclear reactor means bring fissile material to a point at which it is hot enough to boil water (in a light-water reactor) and not enough to melt and go supercritical (China syndrome or a Chernobyl incident). You simply cannot let it get away from you because if it does, you can't stop it.
The Japanese are still talking about days or weeks to clean this up. That's not true. They cannot clean it up. And no one will live in that area again for dozens or maybe hundreds of years.
By Dr. Tom Burnett
3-27-11
Fukushima is going to dwarf Chenobyl. The Japanese government has had a level 7 nuclear disaster going for almost a week but won't admit it.
The disaster is occurring the opposite way than Chernobyl, which exploded and stopped the reaction. At Fukushima, the reactions are getting worse. I suspect three nuclear piles are in meltdown and we will probably get some of it.
If reactor 3 is in meltdown, the concrete under the containment looks like lava. But Fukushima is not far off the water table. When that molten mass of self-sustaining nuclear material gets to the water table it won't simply cool down. It will explode not a nuclear explosion, but probably enough to involve the rest of the reactors and fuel rods at the facility.
Pouring concrete on a critical reactor makes no sense it will simply explode and release more radioactive particulate matter. The concrete will melt and the problem will get worse. Chernobyl was different a critical reactor exploded and stopped the reaction. At Fukushima, the reactor cores are still melting down. The ONLY way to stop that is to detonate a ~10 kiloton fission device inside each reactor containment vessel and hope to vaporize the cores. That's probably a bad solution.
A nuclear meltdown is a self-sustaining reaction. Nothing can stop it except stopping the reaction. And that would require a nuclear weapon. In fact, it would require one in each containment to merely stop what is going on now. But it will be messy.
Fukushima was waiting to happen because of the placement of the emergency generators. If they had not all failed at once by being inundated by a tsunami, Fukushima would not have happened as it did although it WOULD still have been a nuclear disaster. Every containment in the world is built to withstand a Magnitude 6.9 earthquake; the Japanese chose to ignore the fact that a similar earthquake had hit that same general area in 1896.
Anyway, here is the information that the US doesn't seem to want released. And here is a chart that might help with perspective.
Making matters worse is the MOX in reactor 3. MOX is the street name for 'mixed oxide fuel' which uses ~9% plutonium along with a uranium compound to fuel reactors. This is why it can be used.
The problem is that you don't want to play with this stuff. A nuclear reactor means bring fissile material to a point at which it is hot enough to boil water (in a light-water reactor) and not enough to melt and go supercritical (China syndrome or a Chernobyl incident). You simply cannot let it get away from you because if it does, you can't stop it.
The Japanese are still talking about days or weeks to clean this up. That's not true. They cannot clean it up. And no one will live in that area again for dozens or maybe hundreds of years.
Is Fukushima About To Blow?
Is Fukushima About To Blow?
The Doomsday Scenario
By Mike Whitney
3-27-11
Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
If spent fuel rods catch fire from lack of coolant, the intense heat will lift radiation plumes high into the atmosphere that will drift around the world. That's the nightmare scenario, clouds of radioactive material showering the planet with lethal toxins for months on end. And, according to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics of Vienna, that deadly process has already begun. The group told New Scientist that:
"Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl. ("New Scientist", March 24 ---thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
So, volatile radioactive elements are already being lofted into the jet stream and spread across continents. What's different here is that the quantities are much larger than they were at Chernobyl, thus, the dangers are far greater. According to the same group of scientists "the Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site" (while) "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes." The troubles at one nuclear facility now pose a direct threat to humans and other species everywhere. Is this what Obama meant when he called nuclear power, "Safe and green?"
This from CNN:
"Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation."
And this from the New York Times:
"A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said....
"There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel - it's up and down and it's large," he said. "The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller." (Thanks to Washington's Blog)
So, there's a breach in the containment vessel and radioactive material is being released into the sea killing fish and marine life and turning the coastal waters into a nuclear wasteland. This is from the Kyodo News:
"Adding to the woes is the increasing level of contamination in the sea near the plant....Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850.5 times the legal limit was detected in a seawater sample taken Saturday around 330 meters south of the plant, near a drainage outlet of the four troubled reactors, compared with 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said.
Nishiyama told a press conference in the morning that he cannot deny the possibility that radioactive materials are continuing to be released into the sea. He said later that the water found at the basement of the turbine buildings is unlikely to have flowed into the sea, causing contamination." ("Woes deepen over radioactive water at nuke plant", Kyodo News)
Predictably, the media has switched into full "BP Oil Spill-mode", making every effort to minimize the disaster and to soothe the public with half-truths and disinformation. The goal is to conceal the scale of the catastrophe and protect the nuclear industry. It's another case of profits over people. Still, the truth is available for those who are willing to sift through the lies. Radiation has turned up in the Tokyo water supply, imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of Fukushima have been banned, and the evacuation zone around the plant has widened to an 18 mile radius.
Also, monitors have detected tiny radioactive particles which have spread from the reactor site across the Pacific to North America, the Atlantic and Europe...According to Reuters: "It's only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere," said Andrea Stahl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research."
Here's more from Brian Moench, MD:
"Administration spokespeople continuously claim "no threat" from the radiation reaching the US from Japan, just as they did with oil hemorrhaging into the Gulf. Perhaps we should all whistle "Don't worry, be happy" in unison. A thorough review of the science, however, begs a second opinion.
That the radiation is being released 5,000 miles away isn't as comforting as it seems.... Every day, the jet stream carries pollution from Asian smoke stacks and dust from the Gobi Desert to our West Coast, contributing 10 to 60 percent of the total pollution breathed by Californians, depending on the time of year. Mercury is probably the second most toxic substance known after plutonium. Half the mercury in the atmosphere over the entire US originates in China. It, too, is 5,000 miles away. A week after a nuclear weapons test in China, iodine 131 could be detected in the thyroid glands of deer in Colorado, although it could not be detected in the air or in nearby vegetation." (Washington's Blog)
The smoldering Fukushima hulk is a perpetual death machine poisoning everything around it--sea, sky and soil. Here's a clip from the Collin's article:
"...The soil contamination is really high. Soil found 40 kilometers away.... the levels on the soil were very high-in fact, a thousand times iodine, 4,000 times the cesium standard. And we just got a report from the Kyoto Research Reactor Institute, Dr. Tetsuji Imanaka, that said that-he had to look a little bit more into the sampling of the Japanese government, but depending on how the sampling was done, this level of contamination in the soil could be twice the amount that was compulsory evacuation for Chernobyl. Aileen Mioko Smith, March 24 (thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
Twice as high as Chernobyl already, and the disaster is likely to persist for months to come. Things are getting worse, much worse.
The Japanese government has been downplaying the crisis to make it look like they have matters under control, but it's all a sham. They control nothing. The rescue mission has been a flop from the get-go and now things are at a boiling point. The emergency effort has been overtaken by events and now it's a matter of "wait and see". We're approaching zero hour.
So why the cover up? Why is the media trying to soft-peddle the real effects of a nuclear cataclysm? Does the Japanese government really believe they can make things better by tweaking their public relations strategy? They should focus on saving lives and abandon "perception management" altogether. This is from the Union of Concerned Scientists website:
"Our assessment is that the Japanese government is squandering the opportunity to initiate an orderly evacuation from larger areas around the siteespecially of sensitive populations, like children and pregnant women. It is potentially wasting valuable time by not undertaking a larger scale evacuation at this time."
The Japanese government is trying to protect the powerful nuclear lobby. The same is true of Obama, who continues to promote nuclear energy even while radiation belches from battered Fukushima. He's not thinking about the public; he's thinking about the deep pocket constituents who fill his campaign coffers.
Japanese workers are putting their lives on the line to regain control of the broken facility, but with little success. The probability of another fire, another monstrous explosion, or a full-core meltdown increases by the day. The Fukushima fiasco is gaining pace putting tens of thousands of people at risk of thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia and other life-threatening ailments.
On Saturday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, said the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant was ''serious''. That might be the understatement of the century.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.
The Doomsday Scenario
By Mike Whitney
3-27-11
Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
If spent fuel rods catch fire from lack of coolant, the intense heat will lift radiation plumes high into the atmosphere that will drift around the world. That's the nightmare scenario, clouds of radioactive material showering the planet with lethal toxins for months on end. And, according to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics of Vienna, that deadly process has already begun. The group told New Scientist that:
"Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl. ("New Scientist", March 24 ---thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
So, volatile radioactive elements are already being lofted into the jet stream and spread across continents. What's different here is that the quantities are much larger than they were at Chernobyl, thus, the dangers are far greater. According to the same group of scientists "the Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site" (while) "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes." The troubles at one nuclear facility now pose a direct threat to humans and other species everywhere. Is this what Obama meant when he called nuclear power, "Safe and green?"
This from CNN:
"Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation."
And this from the New York Times:
"A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said....
"There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel - it's up and down and it's large," he said. "The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller." (Thanks to Washington's Blog)
So, there's a breach in the containment vessel and radioactive material is being released into the sea killing fish and marine life and turning the coastal waters into a nuclear wasteland. This is from the Kyodo News:
"Adding to the woes is the increasing level of contamination in the sea near the plant....Radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,850.5 times the legal limit was detected in a seawater sample taken Saturday around 330 meters south of the plant, near a drainage outlet of the four troubled reactors, compared with 1,250.8 times the limit found Friday, the agency said.
Nishiyama told a press conference in the morning that he cannot deny the possibility that radioactive materials are continuing to be released into the sea. He said later that the water found at the basement of the turbine buildings is unlikely to have flowed into the sea, causing contamination." ("Woes deepen over radioactive water at nuke plant", Kyodo News)
Predictably, the media has switched into full "BP Oil Spill-mode", making every effort to minimize the disaster and to soothe the public with half-truths and disinformation. The goal is to conceal the scale of the catastrophe and protect the nuclear industry. It's another case of profits over people. Still, the truth is available for those who are willing to sift through the lies. Radiation has turned up in the Tokyo water supply, imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of Fukushima have been banned, and the evacuation zone around the plant has widened to an 18 mile radius.
Also, monitors have detected tiny radioactive particles which have spread from the reactor site across the Pacific to North America, the Atlantic and Europe...According to Reuters: "It's only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere," said Andrea Stahl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research."
Here's more from Brian Moench, MD:
"Administration spokespeople continuously claim "no threat" from the radiation reaching the US from Japan, just as they did with oil hemorrhaging into the Gulf. Perhaps we should all whistle "Don't worry, be happy" in unison. A thorough review of the science, however, begs a second opinion.
That the radiation is being released 5,000 miles away isn't as comforting as it seems.... Every day, the jet stream carries pollution from Asian smoke stacks and dust from the Gobi Desert to our West Coast, contributing 10 to 60 percent of the total pollution breathed by Californians, depending on the time of year. Mercury is probably the second most toxic substance known after plutonium. Half the mercury in the atmosphere over the entire US originates in China. It, too, is 5,000 miles away. A week after a nuclear weapons test in China, iodine 131 could be detected in the thyroid glands of deer in Colorado, although it could not be detected in the air or in nearby vegetation." (Washington's Blog)
The smoldering Fukushima hulk is a perpetual death machine poisoning everything around it--sea, sky and soil. Here's a clip from the Collin's article:
"...The soil contamination is really high. Soil found 40 kilometers away.... the levels on the soil were very high-in fact, a thousand times iodine, 4,000 times the cesium standard. And we just got a report from the Kyoto Research Reactor Institute, Dr. Tetsuji Imanaka, that said that-he had to look a little bit more into the sampling of the Japanese government, but depending on how the sampling was done, this level of contamination in the soil could be twice the amount that was compulsory evacuation for Chernobyl. Aileen Mioko Smith, March 24 (thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
Twice as high as Chernobyl already, and the disaster is likely to persist for months to come. Things are getting worse, much worse.
The Japanese government has been downplaying the crisis to make it look like they have matters under control, but it's all a sham. They control nothing. The rescue mission has been a flop from the get-go and now things are at a boiling point. The emergency effort has been overtaken by events and now it's a matter of "wait and see". We're approaching zero hour.
So why the cover up? Why is the media trying to soft-peddle the real effects of a nuclear cataclysm? Does the Japanese government really believe they can make things better by tweaking their public relations strategy? They should focus on saving lives and abandon "perception management" altogether. This is from the Union of Concerned Scientists website:
"Our assessment is that the Japanese government is squandering the opportunity to initiate an orderly evacuation from larger areas around the siteespecially of sensitive populations, like children and pregnant women. It is potentially wasting valuable time by not undertaking a larger scale evacuation at this time."
The Japanese government is trying to protect the powerful nuclear lobby. The same is true of Obama, who continues to promote nuclear energy even while radiation belches from battered Fukushima. He's not thinking about the public; he's thinking about the deep pocket constituents who fill his campaign coffers.
Japanese workers are putting their lives on the line to regain control of the broken facility, but with little success. The probability of another fire, another monstrous explosion, or a full-core meltdown increases by the day. The Fukushima fiasco is gaining pace putting tens of thousands of people at risk of thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia and other life-threatening ailments.
On Saturday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, said the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant was ''serious''. That might be the understatement of the century.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.
These 7 Foods are a MASSIVE Waste of Your Money... Posted By Dr. Mercola
These 7 Foods are a MASSIVE Waste of Your Money... Posted By Dr. Mercola
March 29 2011
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PreviousNextDid you know that even the lowest-priced supermarket is brimming with complete rip-offs? From health foods that aren't healthy to gourmet foods that aren't gourmet, every store is chock-full of items that can be a big wallop to your pocketbook, unless you know the secrets to shopping wisely.
A sample rip-off list comes with a couple surprises – for example, did you know that gluten-free bread may not be the bargain you expect or that cereal packages with cartoons on the front are red lights for rip-offs?
The good news is there's a nice long list of 40 items that not only give you a good bang for your buck, but a boost to your health as well, such as blueberries, cinnamon, and sweet potatoes.
Sources:
Yahoo Health March 4, 2011
Menshealth.com 2010
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
When it comes to the price of food, I think it's extremely important to remember that a food cannot be judged by its sticker price alone. Whether or not you're actually getting any nutrition from it is far more important. Believe me, a diet consisting of daily $1.99 hamburgers and other fast foods, while appearing to be frugal, is far from it when you consider what these foods are doing—or not doing—to your health.
This will be a progressively increasing concern as we are virtually assured in the United States and many other countries that there will be serious inflation coming as a result of the massive devaluation of the dollar.
Processed Foods are Massive Rip-Offs
While trying to list every single food that's a complete rip-off would result in a very thick book, I firmly believe it's safe to say that virtually all processed snacks and the majority of processed, pre-packaged meals are a massive waste of money. These types of foods consist mainly of fillers and additives, and very few actual nutrients. So while Funyuns made it onto Yahoo Health's list of rip-offs, I can't think of a single chip or puffed snack that doesn't belong on that list.
The same goes for virtually all breakfast cereals, whether they have cartoons on the box or not. Most cereals are frightfully high in sugar, and any nutrients they boast are in the form of suboptimal synthetic additives, or worse.
For example, iron fortified cereals can contain actual iron filings, which is a far cry from the bioavailable iron you get from iron-rich vegetables like spinach. If you haven't seen this eye-opening demonstration of what's really in that fortified breakfast cereal, take a look now—you'll probably never buy another box of cereal again, and rightfully so.
Organic Rip-Offs
I do agree with the contention that some organic foods are rip-offs, when their conventional counterparts are already grown using low amounts of pesticides and the food in question must be peeled anyway, such as bananas.
The Environmental Working Group is a reliable source when trying to decide on what to buy organic. According to their latest 2010 pesticide review, the following 12 foods rank as the most pesticide-free produce, even when conventionally-grown, so you can save a few bucks by opting for the conventionally-grown version of these:
Onions Avocados Frozen sweet corn
Pineapple Mango Frozen sweet peas
Asparagus Kiwi Cabbage
Eggplant Cantaloupe Watermelon
The foods you want to splurge on by buying organic are foods that have permeable or edible skins, and/or that are conventionally grown with higher amounts of pesticides. Based on the EWG's report, the top 12 foods to buy organic include:
Grapes Potatoes Kale / Collard greens
Cherries Spinach Sweet bell peppers
Nectarines Blueberries Apples
Strawberries Peaches Celery
For the whole list of produce, ranked from best to worst in terms of pesticide load, please see the EWG's listing.
Another major organic rip-off is organic milk. Because while organic milk must come from a cow that hasn't been fed artificial growth hormones or pesticide-laden feed, they're not necessarily pastured, or grass-fed cows. And worst of all organic milk (unless RAW) is still pasteurized, which destroys vital nutrients.
So, just because it's organic, doesn't mean it's worth a much higher price.
Rip-Offs in the Meat and Fish Aisles
When it comes to meats and fish, a lot of what you find in your local grocery store is not worth their price when you consider their nutrient to contamination ratio.
Yahoo Health' rip-off list includes swordfish, which is still considered a luxury by many. But when you factor in the high amounts of mercury you get from that swordfish, it just doesn't rank so high on the wish list anymore. Why would you want to pay $20 a pound or more knowing it's so contaminated that children and pregnant women shouldn't have a single serving of it?
I would also add any and all farmed fish to the list of rip-offs.
Nature didn't intend for fish to be crammed into pens and fed soy, GM corn, antibiotics, poultry litter and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result of this practice, farmed salmon, for example, is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT.
As for meat, I advise everyone to avoid conventionally-raised beef.
Why?
Because cattle were designed to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. Compared with corn-fed beef, organically-raised grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Conventionally-raised beef is also very high in pesticides (due to eating conventionally grown grains, and perhaps even genetically modified grains). In fact, non-organic meats can have up to five times more pesticides than non-organic vegetables!
This is why I recommend always buying organic, grass-fed beef. If you have to choose between buying organic beef or organic produce—get the organic beef. It'll give you the greatest bang for your buck in terms of health benefits.
Diet as "Health Insurance"
You can't tune into the news today without hearing about rising food prices. But rest assured, by knowing what foods to spend your money on, you can still protect and optimize your health without going bankrupt in the process.
Men's Health offers a list of 40 nutrient-dense food items—and that's really the key here. By opting for foods that are rich in vital nutrients, your body can thrive. This will automatically cut down on the inevitable health care costs you'd incur by making foolish dietary choices.
Below is a list of foods rich in nutrients that can help stave off a majority of health problems—foods that really give you lots of value.
As I've discussed on numerous occasions, one of the primary risk factors of diseases of all kinds is chronic inflammation in your body. Low inflammation levels and a strong immune system typically go hand in hand, and together these two factors lay the groundwork for robust health.
Some of the foods below are both inexpensive and highly nutritious, while others do cost a bit more but can go a long way toward healing your body of chronic inflammation and boosting your immune system naturally, without resorting to either supplements or drugs.
High-Value Foods
Unpasteurized (raw) grass-fed milk -- Raw organic milk from grass-fed cows contains both beneficial fats, bacteria that boost your immune system, and a number of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Although raw milk availability is limited in the US, depending on where you live, you can locate the source closest to you at RealMilk.com.
Whey protein -- Even if you don't have access to raw milk, you can use a high-quality whey protein derived from the milk of grass-fed cows to receive much of the same health benefits. Whey protein contains beta-glucans and immunoglobulins, which protect your immune system and support your body's natural detoxification processes.
Fermented foods -- One of the most healthful fermented foods is kefir -- an ancient cultured, enzyme-rich food full of friendly microorganisms that balance your "inner ecosystem" and strengthen immunity. Besides kefir, other good fermented foods include natto, kimchee, miso, tempeh, pickles, sauerkraut, and olives.
Raw organic eggs from pastured chickens – Raw, free-range eggs are an inexpensive and amazing source of high-quality nutrients that many people are deficient in, especially high-quality protein and fat. To find free-range pasture farms, try your local health food store, or go to http://www.eatwild.com or http://www.localharvest.org.
Grass-fed beef or organ meats -- Grass-fed beef is very high in vitamins A, B12 and E, omega-3 fats, beta carotene, zinc and the potent immune system enhancer CLA (conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid). But don't confuse "organic" with grass-fed, since many organically raised cows are still fed organic corn, which you don't want. However, most grass-fed cows are raised organically.
Coconut oil -- Besides being excellent for your thyroid and your metabolism, coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which converts in your body to monolaurin – a compound also found in breast milk that strengthens a baby's immunity.
Its medium chain fatty acids, or triglycerides (MCT's) also impart a number of health benefits, including raising your body's metabolism and fighting off pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. Make sure you choose an organic coconut oil that is unrefined, unbleached, made without heat processing or chemicals, and does not contain GM ingredients.
Berries -- Blueberries and raspberries rate very high in antioxidant capacity compared to other fruits and vegetables. They are also lower in fructose than many other fruits.
Broccoli – Broccoli contains the highest amount of isothiocyanates, a cancer-fighting compound, of all the crunchy vegetables. Studies have shown that just 10 spears a week (5 servings) can make a difference in your health.
Chlorella –This single-cell freshwater algae acts as an efficient detoxification agent by binding to toxins (most of which promote chronic inflammation), such as mercury, and carrying them out of your system. The chlorophyll in the chlorella helps you process more oxygen, cleanses your blood and promotes the growth and repair of your tissues. (For more information, please see my interview with expert, Ginny Banks.)
Tea – As for beverages, clean pure water is a must for optimal health, but if you want another beverage, a good choice with added health benefits is high quality herbal teas.
Matcha tea is the most nutrient-rich green tea and comes in the form of a stone-ground powder, completely unfermented. The best Matcha comes from Japan and has up to 17 times the antioxidants of wild blueberries, and seven times more than dark chocolate. Tulsi is another tea loaded with antioxidants and other micronutrients that support immune function and heart health.
Krill Oil—Krill oil is the only dietary supplement that makes it to this list, and that's only because the ideal food source for these essential omega-3 fats has been destroyed by widespread pollution. The dangers of eating fish simply outweigh the benefits due to the toxic mercury levels they now contain, with very few exceptions.
Antarctic krill oil is a pure marine oil loaded with powerful antioxidants and omega-3 oils, with NO heavy metal contamination.
I hope you'll find these suggestions helpful in making the most of your food budget in these economically challenging times.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Is Fukushima About To Blow?
Is Fukushima About To Blow?
By Mike Whitney
March 28, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- - Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
If spent fuel rods catch fire from lack of coolant, the intense heat will lift radiation plumes high into the atmosphere that will drift around the world. That's the nightmare scenario, clouds of radioactive material showering the planet with lethal toxins for months on end. And, according to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics of Vienna, that deadly process has already begun. The group told New Scientist that:
"Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl. ("New Scientist", March 24 ---thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
So, volatile radioactive elements are already being lofted into the jet stream and spread across continents. What's different here is that the quantities are much larger than they were at Chernobyl, thus, the dangers are far greater. According to the same group of scientists "the Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site" (while) "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes." The troubles at one nuclear facility now pose a direct threat to humans and other species everywhere. Is this what Obama meant when he called nuclear power, "Safe and green?"
This from CNN:
"Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation."
And this from the New York Times:
"A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said....
“There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel — it’s up and down and it’s large,” he said. “The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller.” (Thanks to Washington's Blog)
The media has switched into full "BP Oil Spill-mode", making every effort to minimize the disaster and to soothe the public with half-truths and disinformation. The goal is to conceal the scale of the catastrophe and protect the nuclear industry. It's another case of profits over people. Still, the truth is available for those who are willing to sift through the lies. Radiation has turned up in the Tokyo water supply, imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of Fukushima have been banned, and the evacuation zone around the plant has widened to an 18 mile radius.
Also, monitors have detected tiny radioactive particles which have spread from the reactor site across the Pacific to North America, the Atlantic and Europe...According to Reuters: "It's only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere," said Andrea Stahl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research."
Here's more from Brian Moench, MD:
"Administration spokespeople continuously claim "no threat" from the radiation reaching the US from Japan, just as they did with oil hemorrhaging into the Gulf. Perhaps we should all whistle "Don't worry, be happy" in unison. A thorough review of the science, however, begs a second opinion.
That the radiation is being released 5,000 miles away isn't as comforting as it seems.... Every day, the jet stream carries pollution from Asian smoke stacks and dust from the Gobi Desert to our West Coast, contributing 10 to 60 percent of the total pollution breathed by Californians, depending on the time of year. Mercury is probably the second most toxic substance known after plutonium. Half the mercury in the atmosphere over the entire US originates in China. It, too, is 5,000 miles away. A week after a nuclear weapons test in China, iodine 131 could be detected in the thyroid glands of deer in Colorado, although it could not be detected in the air or in nearby vegetation." (Washington's Blog)
The smoldering Fukushima hulk is a perpetual death machine poisoning everything around it--sea, sky and soil. Here's a clip from the Collin's article:
"...The soil contamination is really high. Soil found 40 kilometers away.... the levels on the soil were very high—in fact, a thousand times iodine, 4,000 times the cesium standard. And we just got a report from the Kyoto Research Reactor Institute, Dr. Tetsuji Imanaka, that said that—he had to look a little bit more into the sampling of the Japanese government, but depending on how the sampling was done, this level of contamination in the soil could be twice the amount that was compulsory evacuation for Chernobyl. Aileen Mioko Smith, March 24 (thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
Twice as high as Chernobyl already, and the disaster is likely to persist for months to come. Things are getting worse, much worse.
The Japanese government has been downplaying the crisis to make it look like they have matters under control, but it's all a sham. They control nothing. The rescue mission has been a flop from the get-go and now things are at a boiling point. The emergency effort has been overtaken by events and now it's a matter of "wait and see". We're approaching zero hour.
So why the cover up? Why is the media trying to soft-peddle the real effects of a nuclear cataclysm? Does the Japanese government really believe they can make things better by tweaking their public relations strategy? They should focus on saving lives and abandon "perception management" altogether. This is from the Union of Concerned Scientists website:
"Our assessment is that the Japanese government is squandering the opportunity to initiate an orderly evacuation from larger areas around the site–especially of sensitive populations, like children and pregnant women. It is potentially wasting valuable time by not undertaking a larger scale evacuation at this time."
The Japanese government is trying to protect the powerful nuclear lobby. The same is true of Obama, who continues to promote nuclear energy even while radiation belches from battered Fukushima. He's not thinking about the public; he's thinking about the deep pocket constituents who fill his campaign coffers.
Japanese workers are putting their lives on the line to regain control of the broken facility, but with little success. The probability of another fire, another monstrous explosion, or a full-core meltdown increases by the day. The Fukushima fiasco is gaining pace putting tens of thousands of people at risk of thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia and other life-threatening ailments.
On Saturday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, said the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant was ''serious''. That might be the understatement of the century.
By Mike Whitney
March 28, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- - Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
If spent fuel rods catch fire from lack of coolant, the intense heat will lift radiation plumes high into the atmosphere that will drift around the world. That's the nightmare scenario, clouds of radioactive material showering the planet with lethal toxins for months on end. And, according to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics of Vienna, that deadly process has already begun. The group told New Scientist that:
"Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl. ("New Scientist", March 24 ---thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
So, volatile radioactive elements are already being lofted into the jet stream and spread across continents. What's different here is that the quantities are much larger than they were at Chernobyl, thus, the dangers are far greater. According to the same group of scientists "the Fukushima plant has around 1760 tonnes of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site" (while) "the Chernobyl reactor had only 180 tonnes." The troubles at one nuclear facility now pose a direct threat to humans and other species everywhere. Is this what Obama meant when he called nuclear power, "Safe and green?"
This from CNN:
"Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation."
And this from the New York Times:
"A senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has broad contacts in Japan said that there was a long vertical crack running down the side of the reactor vessel itself. The crack runs down below the water level in the reactor and has been leaking fluids and gases, he said....
“There is a definite, definite crack in the vessel — it’s up and down and it’s large,” he said. “The problem with cracks is they do not get smaller.” (Thanks to Washington's Blog)
The media has switched into full "BP Oil Spill-mode", making every effort to minimize the disaster and to soothe the public with half-truths and disinformation. The goal is to conceal the scale of the catastrophe and protect the nuclear industry. It's another case of profits over people. Still, the truth is available for those who are willing to sift through the lies. Radiation has turned up in the Tokyo water supply, imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of Fukushima have been banned, and the evacuation zone around the plant has widened to an 18 mile radius.
Also, monitors have detected tiny radioactive particles which have spread from the reactor site across the Pacific to North America, the Atlantic and Europe...According to Reuters: "It's only a matter of days before it disperses in the entire northern hemisphere," said Andrea Stahl, a senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research."
Here's more from Brian Moench, MD:
"Administration spokespeople continuously claim "no threat" from the radiation reaching the US from Japan, just as they did with oil hemorrhaging into the Gulf. Perhaps we should all whistle "Don't worry, be happy" in unison. A thorough review of the science, however, begs a second opinion.
That the radiation is being released 5,000 miles away isn't as comforting as it seems.... Every day, the jet stream carries pollution from Asian smoke stacks and dust from the Gobi Desert to our West Coast, contributing 10 to 60 percent of the total pollution breathed by Californians, depending on the time of year. Mercury is probably the second most toxic substance known after plutonium. Half the mercury in the atmosphere over the entire US originates in China. It, too, is 5,000 miles away. A week after a nuclear weapons test in China, iodine 131 could be detected in the thyroid glands of deer in Colorado, although it could not be detected in the air or in nearby vegetation." (Washington's Blog)
The smoldering Fukushima hulk is a perpetual death machine poisoning everything around it--sea, sky and soil. Here's a clip from the Collin's article:
"...The soil contamination is really high. Soil found 40 kilometers away.... the levels on the soil were very high—in fact, a thousand times iodine, 4,000 times the cesium standard. And we just got a report from the Kyoto Research Reactor Institute, Dr. Tetsuji Imanaka, that said that—he had to look a little bit more into the sampling of the Japanese government, but depending on how the sampling was done, this level of contamination in the soil could be twice the amount that was compulsory evacuation for Chernobyl. Aileen Mioko Smith, March 24 (thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")
Twice as high as Chernobyl already, and the disaster is likely to persist for months to come. Things are getting worse, much worse.
The Japanese government has been downplaying the crisis to make it look like they have matters under control, but it's all a sham. They control nothing. The rescue mission has been a flop from the get-go and now things are at a boiling point. The emergency effort has been overtaken by events and now it's a matter of "wait and see". We're approaching zero hour.
So why the cover up? Why is the media trying to soft-peddle the real effects of a nuclear cataclysm? Does the Japanese government really believe they can make things better by tweaking their public relations strategy? They should focus on saving lives and abandon "perception management" altogether. This is from the Union of Concerned Scientists website:
"Our assessment is that the Japanese government is squandering the opportunity to initiate an orderly evacuation from larger areas around the site–especially of sensitive populations, like children and pregnant women. It is potentially wasting valuable time by not undertaking a larger scale evacuation at this time."
The Japanese government is trying to protect the powerful nuclear lobby. The same is true of Obama, who continues to promote nuclear energy even while radiation belches from battered Fukushima. He's not thinking about the public; he's thinking about the deep pocket constituents who fill his campaign coffers.
Japanese workers are putting their lives on the line to regain control of the broken facility, but with little success. The probability of another fire, another monstrous explosion, or a full-core meltdown increases by the day. The Fukushima fiasco is gaining pace putting tens of thousands of people at risk of thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia and other life-threatening ailments.
On Saturday, Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, said the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant was ''serious''. That might be the understatement of the century.
The Insidious Effects of Japan's Disaster
The Insidious Effects of Japan's Disaster
March 23, 2011 - 6:11am — europac admin
By: John Browne
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
March 23, 2011 - 6:11am — europac admin
By: John Browne
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sixth study in recent months links mercury in flu shots to brain damage, autism
Sixth study in recent months links mercury in flu shots to brain damage, autism
Monday, March 28, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031870_flu_shots_brain_damage.html#ixzz1HuLkCAGz
Monday, March 28, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031870_flu_shots_brain_damage.html#ixzz1HuLkCAGz
Radiation detected in Massachusetts rainwater as Fukushima crisis worsens
Radiation detected in Massachusetts rainwater as Fukushima crisis worsens
Monday, March 28, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
(NaturalNews) The Fukushima crisis continues to worsen by the day, with nuclear experts around the world finally realizing and admitting we've all been lied to. "I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California, in a Reuters report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...). That same article revealed that recent radiation readings at Fukushima show "contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea."
Massachusetts rainwater has also been found to be contaminated with low levels of radiation from Fukushima, indicating just how widespread the radioactive fallout has become. It's not just the West Coast of North America that's vulnerable, in other words: even the East Coast could receive dangerous levels of fallout if Fukushima suffers a larger release of radioactive material into the air.
Rolling blackouts are now continuing throughout Japan due to the drop in power production from Fukushima diminishing Japan's electricity generating capacity (http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/20...). The only reason Japan isn't experiencing widespread power blackouts right now is because so many factories were damaged or swept away from the tsunami itself. Once a serious rebuilding effort gets underway, Japan is going to find itself critically short of electrical power.
The radiation leaking from Reactor No. 2 is now measured at 1,000 millisieverts an hour -- more than enough to cause someone's hair to fall out from a single exposure event. Radiation sickness can begin at just 100 millisieverts. The extremely high levels of radiation are, in fact, making it nearly impossible for workers to continue working at the reactor. "You'd have a lot of difficulty putting anyone in there," said Richard Wakeford, a radiation epidemiology expert at the Dalton Nuclear Institute in Manchester. "They're finding quite high levels of radiation fields, which is impeding their progress dealing with the situation." (http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...)
Taiwan looking to ditch nuclear power?
The worsening Fukushima situation is also starting to spook nearby nations such as Taiwan, which also depends on nuclear power. The DPP opposition party there announced today that it wanted to see nuclear power phased out by 2025. Taiwan is a relatively small island nation, and a Fukushima-like catastrophe would leave most of the island residents with nowhere to go. And like Japan, Taiwan is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis (as well as hurricanes).
In Germany, massive demonstrations (200,000 people in four large cities) have brought the nuclear safety issue to the forefront, contributing heavily to the defeat of Merkel and the rise to power of the Green Party in southwestern Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/w...). Germans tend to have very strong opposition to nuclear power, in much the same way that most Europeans despise genetically modified foods.
The nuclear power industry turns out to be just as corrupt as Big Pharma
The truth is that many nations are rethinking nuclear power right now, thanks to the corruption, cover-ups and outright deceptions that we're now finding out were behind the Fukushima power plant catastrophe. The nuclear industry, it turns out, is one big profit incest fest where the regulators are deeply in bed with the very industry they're supposed to regulate (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...).
Then again, what rich, powerful industry isn't in bed with its regulators? It's true with Big Pharma and the FDA just as much as it is with the nuclear power industry and its corrupt regulators. Every government-run regulator eventually becomes a marketing extension of the industry it was supposed to regulate.
That's why Big Government never really works: Most of the regulators who are supposed to protect the people inevitably end up operating as industry whores. This entire Fukushima incident is a direct result of that deep-rooted corruption coming back to haunt humanity.
Watch for more reporting on this incident here at NaturalNews.com, and subscribe to our daily email alerts to be kept up to date on the situation: http://www.naturalnews.com/ReaderRe...
The Fukushima situation is nowhere near over. Now regulators are saying this might take not just weeks or months to sort out, but even years to fully rectify.
The half life of plutonium, it turns out, is a whole lot longer than the entire history of human civilization (24,000 years) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium). We would be wise to remember what we're playing with when we attempt to harness the power of fission.
Articles Related to This Article:
• Radioactive fallout from Fukushima approaching same levels as Chernobyl
• Fukushima Reactor No. 3 suffers likely core breach, now leaking water at 10,000 times normal radiation levels
• Fukushima update: Emergency evacuation of workers ordered after Reactor No. 3 emits grayish smoke
• Some progress at Fukushima, but no coolant at reactors 3 and 4 (corrected)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031871_radiation_rainwater.html#ixzz1HuL4TRZt
Monday, March 28, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
(NaturalNews) The Fukushima crisis continues to worsen by the day, with nuclear experts around the world finally realizing and admitting we've all been lied to. "I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California, in a Reuters report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...). That same article revealed that recent radiation readings at Fukushima show "contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea."
Massachusetts rainwater has also been found to be contaminated with low levels of radiation from Fukushima, indicating just how widespread the radioactive fallout has become. It's not just the West Coast of North America that's vulnerable, in other words: even the East Coast could receive dangerous levels of fallout if Fukushima suffers a larger release of radioactive material into the air.
Rolling blackouts are now continuing throughout Japan due to the drop in power production from Fukushima diminishing Japan's electricity generating capacity (http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/20...). The only reason Japan isn't experiencing widespread power blackouts right now is because so many factories were damaged or swept away from the tsunami itself. Once a serious rebuilding effort gets underway, Japan is going to find itself critically short of electrical power.
The radiation leaking from Reactor No. 2 is now measured at 1,000 millisieverts an hour -- more than enough to cause someone's hair to fall out from a single exposure event. Radiation sickness can begin at just 100 millisieverts. The extremely high levels of radiation are, in fact, making it nearly impossible for workers to continue working at the reactor. "You'd have a lot of difficulty putting anyone in there," said Richard Wakeford, a radiation epidemiology expert at the Dalton Nuclear Institute in Manchester. "They're finding quite high levels of radiation fields, which is impeding their progress dealing with the situation." (http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...)
Taiwan looking to ditch nuclear power?
The worsening Fukushima situation is also starting to spook nearby nations such as Taiwan, which also depends on nuclear power. The DPP opposition party there announced today that it wanted to see nuclear power phased out by 2025. Taiwan is a relatively small island nation, and a Fukushima-like catastrophe would leave most of the island residents with nowhere to go. And like Japan, Taiwan is also vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis (as well as hurricanes).
In Germany, massive demonstrations (200,000 people in four large cities) have brought the nuclear safety issue to the forefront, contributing heavily to the defeat of Merkel and the rise to power of the Green Party in southwestern Germany (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/w...). Germans tend to have very strong opposition to nuclear power, in much the same way that most Europeans despise genetically modified foods.
The nuclear power industry turns out to be just as corrupt as Big Pharma
The truth is that many nations are rethinking nuclear power right now, thanks to the corruption, cover-ups and outright deceptions that we're now finding out were behind the Fukushima power plant catastrophe. The nuclear industry, it turns out, is one big profit incest fest where the regulators are deeply in bed with the very industry they're supposed to regulate (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...).
Then again, what rich, powerful industry isn't in bed with its regulators? It's true with Big Pharma and the FDA just as much as it is with the nuclear power industry and its corrupt regulators. Every government-run regulator eventually becomes a marketing extension of the industry it was supposed to regulate.
That's why Big Government never really works: Most of the regulators who are supposed to protect the people inevitably end up operating as industry whores. This entire Fukushima incident is a direct result of that deep-rooted corruption coming back to haunt humanity.
Watch for more reporting on this incident here at NaturalNews.com, and subscribe to our daily email alerts to be kept up to date on the situation: http://www.naturalnews.com/ReaderRe...
The Fukushima situation is nowhere near over. Now regulators are saying this might take not just weeks or months to sort out, but even years to fully rectify.
The half life of plutonium, it turns out, is a whole lot longer than the entire history of human civilization (24,000 years) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium). We would be wise to remember what we're playing with when we attempt to harness the power of fission.
Articles Related to This Article:
• Radioactive fallout from Fukushima approaching same levels as Chernobyl
• Fukushima Reactor No. 3 suffers likely core breach, now leaking water at 10,000 times normal radiation levels
• Fukushima update: Emergency evacuation of workers ordered after Reactor No. 3 emits grayish smoke
• Some progress at Fukushima, but no coolant at reactors 3 and 4 (corrected)
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031871_radiation_rainwater.html#ixzz1HuL4TRZt
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Missing Nutrient to Blame for Heart Attacks and Osteoporosis
The Missing Nutrient to Blame for Heart Attacks and Osteoporosis (Nope - NOT Calcium or Vitamin D) Posted By Dr. Mercola
March 26 2011
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The past decade has brought an explosion of research revealing the many beneficial roles vitamin D plays in keeping you healthy.
But there's a new kid on the block that could end up being "the next vitamin D," and we are finding that some of vitamin D's benefits are greatly enhanced when combined with this other vitamin.
That "new kid" is vitamin K.
Much new research is now focusing on the synergy between vitamin K (specifically, vitamin K2) and vitamin D3, particularly in terms of bone strength and cardiovascular health.
Before discussing the influence of each of these vitamins, let's review a bit about vitamins D and K and what their roles are.
Vitamin D: A Brief Review
Vitamin D is a key player in your overall health. The name is misleading -- it isn't actually a vitamin at all but a potent neuroregulatory steroidal hormone that influences nearly 3,000 of your 25,000 genes.
It literally turns on and off genes that can exacerbate -- or prevent -- many diseases. Vitamin D has been shown to influence dozens of conditions, including:
Cancer Hypertension Heart disease
Autism Obesity Rheumatoid arthritis
Diabetes 1 and 2 Multiple Sclerosis Crohn's disease
Cold & Flu Inflammatory Bowel Disease Tuberculosis
Septicemia Signs of aging Dementia
Eczema & Psoriasis Insomnia Hearing loss
Muscle pain Cavities Periodontal disease
Osteoporosis Macular degeneration Reduced C-section risk
Pre eclampsia Seizures Infertility
Asthma Cystic fibrosis Migraines
Depression Alzheimer's disease Schizophrenia
One of the key factors explaining today's high rates of chronic disease, besides poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. It is estimated that 85 percent of Americans have insufficient levels of vitamin D.
Sadly, when the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) released their updated recommendations for vitamin D (and calcium) on November 30, 2010, it caused shockwaves of disappointment through the natural health community.
According to the IOM, the new recommended daily allowance (RDA) for pregnant women and adults up to 70 years of age is the same as that for infants and children -- a measly 600 IU's. This despite the overwhelming evidence showing that vitamin D is extremely important for a wide variety of health conditions besides bone health, and that most people need about ten times this amount or more.
For more information about the IOM's new vitamin D recommendations, please see this recent article in which Dr. Cannell, founder of the Vitamin D Council, and Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, share their concerns.
The best ways to increase your vitamin D levels, in my order of preference, are by:
1.Exposing your skin natural sunlight. Vitamin D from sunlight acts as a pro-hormone, rapidly converting in your skin into 25-hydroxyvitamin D, or vitamin D3.
2.Using a safe home tanning bed like the Sun Splash to achieve similar results as that from natural sunlight exposure.
3.Taking an oral vitamin D3 supplement whenever natural sun exposure is not an option.
For more about vitamin D and how to get the appropriate test of your blood levels, please listen to my free one hour lecture about vitamin D, and refer to my vitamin D resource page.
Vitamin K Basics
Vitamin K may very well end up being as important for you as vitamin D, as research continues to illuminate the growing list of its benefits for your health. Vitamin K is probably where vitamin D was ten years ago, with respect to its appreciation as a vital nutrient that has far more advantages than originally thought.
And, according to Dr. Cees Vermeer, one of the world's top researchers into vitamin K, nearly everyone is deficient in it -- just like most people are deficient in vitamin D.
Most of you get enough K from your diet to maintain adequate blood clotting, but NOT enough to offer protection against the following health problems -- and the list continues to grow:
Arterial calcification, cardiovascular disease and varicose veins Brain health problems, including dementia (the specifics of which are under study)
Osteoporosis Tooth decay
Prostate cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer and leukemia Infectious diseases such as pneumonia
Vitamin K exists in two basic forms, K1 and K2:
1.Vitamin K1: Found in green vegetables, K1 goes directly to your liver and helps you maintain a healthy blood clotting system. (This is the kind of K that infants need to help prevent a serious bleeding disorder.)
2.Vitamin K2: Bacteria produce this type of vitamin K. It is present in high quantities in your gut, but unfortunately is not absorbed from there and passes out in your stool. K2 goes straight to vessel walls, bones, and tissues other than your liver.
Making a long story even longer, there are several different forms of vitamin K2: MK4, MK7, MK8, and MK9. The form of vitamin K that has the most significance for our purposes here is MK7, a newer and longer acting form with more practical applications.
Most vitamin K2 supplements are in the form MK7.
MK7 is extracted from the Japanese fermented soy product called natto. You could actually get loads of MK7 from consuming natto as it is relatively inexpensive, and is available in most Asian food markets. Few people, however, tolerate its smell and slimy texture, so most people who find natto unpalatable prefer to take a supplement. You can also get MK7 by eating fermented cheeses.
For a comprehensive exploration of all the research and functions of vitamin K, refer to this article on the Weston Price website.
Now, how do vitamin D and vitamin K play together?
Vitamins D and K: "The Gatekeeper and the Traffic Cop"
One of the undisputed benefits vitamin D provides for you is improved bone development by helping you ABSORB calcium. This is not news -- we have known about vitamin D and the absorption of calcium for many decades.
But there is new evidence that it is the vitamin K (specifically, vitamin K2) that directs the calcium to your skeleton, while preventing it from being deposited where you don't want it -- i.e., your organs, joint spaces, and arteries. A large part of arterial plaque consists of calcium deposits (atherosclerosis), hence the term "hardening of the arteries."
Vitamin K2 activates a protein hormone called osteocalcin, produced by osteoblasts, which is needed to bind calcium into the matrix of your bone. Osteocalcin also appears to help prevent calcium from depositing into your arteries.
You can think of vitamin D as the gatekeeper, controlling who gets in, and vitamin K as the traffic cop, directing the traffic to where it needs to go.
Lots of traffic -- but no traffic cop -- means clogging, crowding and chaos everywhere!
In other words, without the help of vitamin K2, the calcium that your vitamin D so effectively lets in might be working AGAINST you -- by building up your coronary arteries rather than your bones.
There is even evidence that the safety of vitamin D is dependent on vitamin K, and that vitamin D toxicity (although very rare with the D3 form) is actually caused by vitamin K2 deficiency.
Vitamin K, Vitamin D, and Cardiovascular Disease
When your body's soft tissues are damaged, they respond with an inflammatory process that can result in the deposition of calcium into the damaged tissue. When this occurs in your blood vessels, you have the underlying mechanism of coronary artery disease -- the buildup of plaque -- that can lead you down the path to a heart attack.
Vitamin K and vitamin D work together to increase Matrix GLA Protein (or MGP), the protein responsible for protecting your blood vessels from calcification. In healthy arteries, MGP congregates around the elastic fibers of your tunica media (arterial lining), guarding them against calcium crystal formation.
MGP is so important that it can be used as a laboratory measure of your vascular and cardiac status.
According to Professor Cees Vermeer:
"The only mechanism for arteries to protect themselves from calcification is via the vitamin K-dependent protein MGP. MPG is the most powerful inhibitor of soft tissue calcification presently known, but non‐supplemented healthy adults are insufficient in vitamin K to a level that 30 per cent of their MGP is synthesized in an inactive form.
So, protection against cardiovascular calcification is only 70 per cent in the young, healthy population, and this figure decreases at increasing age."
As you would predict, scientific studies confirm that increased dietary intake of vitamin K2 does indeed reduce your risk for coronary heart disease:
•In 2004, the Rotterdam study was the first study demonstrating the life-extending effects of vitamin K2. People who had the highest intake of vitamin K2 had 50 percent lower risk of death from coronary heart disease and calcification than people with the lowest intake of vitamin K2.
•In a subsequent study called the Prospect study, 16,000 people were followed for 10 years. Researchers found that each additional 10 mcg of vitamin K2 in the diet resulted in 9 percent fewer cardiac events.
•Animal studies show that vitamin K2 not only prevents hardening of the arteries but can actually reverse calcification of highly calcified arteries, by activating MGP.
•People with severe calcifications have high percentages of inactive osteocalcin, which indicates a general deficiency of vitamin K2.
Let's take a look at how calcium supplements play into all of this.
Does Your Calcium Supplement Actually Increase Your Risk of Heart Attack?
If you take calcium and vitamin D but are deficient in vitamin K, you could be worse off than if you were not taking those supplements at all, as demonstrated by a recent meta-analysis linking calcium supplements to heart attacks.
This study did indeed find that people taking calcium supplements were more prone to heart attacks. However, that doesn't mean that it was the calcium supplements themselves that caused the heart attacks.
Please remember that calcium is only ONE of the players in your bone and heart health.
This meta-analysis looked at studies involving people taking calcium in isolation, without complementary nutrients like magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K, which help keep your body in balance. In the absence of those other important cofactors, calcium CAN have adverse effects, such as building up in coronary arteries and causing heart attacks, which is really what this analysis detected.
And the FORM of calcium you take matters greatly, which I will address in a moment.
You simply can't take isolated supplements "willy-nilly" and expect to optimize very complicated physiological processes.
Vitamin D itself has been found to protect your heart. A study in the Netherlands provides compelling evidence that a high vitamin D status is associated with improved survival in heart failure patients.
If you are going to take calcium, you need to balance it out with vitamin D and vitamin K, at the very least. It is also important that you get adequate magnesium, silica, omega-3 fatty acids, and weight-bearing exercise, which are all important to the health of your bones.
Which leads us to the next important topic: osteoporosis.
Dense Bones are NOT Necessarily Strong Bones
One of the great health concerns for menopausal women is osteoporosis.
The classic way osteopenia (decreased bone density) and osteoporosis are diagnosed is by an x-ray called a DEXA scan, which specifically measures bone density, or the degree of mineralization of your bones.
But bone strength is MORE than bone density -- which is why drugs such as biphosphinates have failed so miserably.
Your bones are made up of minerals in a collagen matrix. The minerals give your bones rigidity and density, but the collagen gives your bones flexibility. Without good flexibility, they become brittle and break easily.
So, density does NOT equal strength!
Drugs like Fosamax build up a lot of minerals and make the bone LOOK very dense, but in reality, they are extremely brittle and prone to fracture, which is why there have been so many cases of hip fracture among people taking these damaging drugs.
Biphosphinates are poisons that destroy your osteoclasts, which interferes with your normal bone-remodeling process.
You are much better off building your bones using exercise and nutritional therapies, hormones like progesterone and vitamins D and K.
The Calcium Myth: Revising Our Theory of Bone Mineralization
Countries with the highest calcium consumption have the highest rates of osteoporosis -- namely, the U.S., Canada and Scandinavian countries. This is commonly known as the "calcium paradox."
This is because nutritional guidelines have been based on an incorrect theory of bone mineralization.
When you take the wrong form of calcium, or when your body's ability to direct calcium to the right places becomes impaired (as when you are deficient in vitamin K), calcium is deposited where it shouldn't be -- like sand in gears.
David Wolfe, raw food "guru" and nutritionist, has extensively studied and written about calcium physiology. In an interview, Wolfe discusses the myth about calcium's role in bone health:
"Calcium does not build bones, and that is one of the biggest misconceptions ever, and it actually goes to the real core of our problems with science. That is, the human body is a complex biological machine and an unbelievable mystery.
There is strong evidence that if you eat calcium—let's say it's calcium from coral calcium, for example, oyster shell calcium—it is almost impossible to get that into your bones to increase bone density. The amount of increased bone density, at best, is 1 or 2 percent. That is not good enough."
He goes on to explain that many calcium supplements (such as coral calcium, oyster shell calcium, calcium citrate, and calcium carbonate) are not well handled by your body. These forms of calcium can't be broken down and form miniature "rocks" that get deposited in your soft tissues -- kind of like hard water calcium deposits in your showerhead that eventually impede the flow.
According to Wolfe and others, these silty calcium deposits are major contributors and even causative factors in many conditions, including:
Aging Gallstones, colon cancer and Crohn's disease
Coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis Kidney stones
Dental plaque and gum disease Ovarian cysts
Hypothyroidism Cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration
Obesity and diabetes Bone spurs, stiff joints, osteoarthritis, tendonitis and bone cancer
Alzheimer's disease Cellulite and scar tissue
Breast cancer and cysts (fibrocystic breasts)
How Vitamin K Prevents You from Turning into a Walking "Coral Reef"
Complicating the problem of calcium deposits are nanobacteria that actually use this bad calcium to their advantage, forming hard shells of calcium phosphate that serve as defensive armor against your body's immune system, like a clamshell shields a clam.
When the shells harden, toxins such as mercury, pesticides, and plastics are trapped in there, which is why it is so hard for you to get those toxins out of your body. This encapsulated space also forms an excellent hiding area for opportunistic viruses, bacteria and fungi.
Overconsumption of calcium creates other mineral deficiencies and imbalances, and Western civilization vastly overconsumes calcium.
According to Rudolf Steiner, creator of biodynamic farming:
"Most calcium is gravitational and channels or conducts forces which accelerate gravity. The more calcium supplements one takes, the quicker one is dragged back into the Earth for recycling."
You don't want to turn into a human coral reef -- or be "recycled into the Earth" before your time!
By getting adequate vitamins D and K, your body will work synergistically to escort calcium to where it's needed, while preventing it from accumulating where it shouldn't.
So, What REALLY Increases Bone Strength?
As it turns out, you need a combination of plant-derived minerals for strong bones.
Your bones are actually composed of at least a dozen minerals. If you just focus on calcium, you will likely weaken your bones and increase your risk of osteoporosis as Dr. Robert Thompson explains in his book, The Calcium Lie.
It's more likely your body can use calcium correctly if it's plant-derived calcium. Good sources include raw milk from pasture-raised cows (who eat the plants), leafy green vegetables, the pith of citrus fruits, carob, and wheatgrass, to name a few.
But you also need sources of silica and magnesium, which some researchers say is actually enzymatically "transmuted" by your body into the kind of calcium your bones can use. This theory was first put forth by French scientist Louis Kevran, a Nobel Prize nominee who spent years studying how silica and calcium are related.
Good sources of silica are cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and a number of herbs including horsetail, nettles, oat straw, and alfalfa.
The absolute best source of magnesium is raw organic cacao. Yes, healthy high quality chocolate is extremely rich in magnesium!
A great source of trace minerals, which are important for many of your body's functions, is Himalayan Crystal Salt, which contains all 84 elements found in your body.
The bottom line?
The absolute best way to achieve healthy bones is a diet rich in fresh, raw whole foods that maximizes natural minerals so that your body has the raw materials it needs to do what it was designed to do.
Of course, the same can be said for your heart -- or any other part of your body.
To Wrap it Up ...
In order to achieve the best possible health, you have to devise a plan of attack from multiple angles. These suggestions will synergistically help keep your heart, blood vessels, organs and bones healthy.
1.Optimize your vitamin D either from natural sunlight exposure or an oral supplement, as described above. Check your blood levels regularly.
2.Optimize your vitamin K through a combination of dietary sources (leafy green vegetables, fermented foods like natto, raw milk cheeses, etc.) and a K2 supplement, if needed. Although the exact dosing (for oral supplementation) is yet to be determined, Dr. Vermeer recommends up to 185 mcg daily for adults. You must use caution on the higher doses if you take anticoagulants, but if you are generally healthy and not on these types of medications, I suggest 150-300 mcg daily.
3.Make sure you do weight-bearing exercise, which has profound benefits to both your skeletal and cardiovascular systems. My favorite is the Peak Fitness system but it is also very important to do strength training exercises to produce the dynamic electric forces in your bones which will stimulate the osteoblasts in your bone to produce new bone..
4.Consume a wide variety of fresh, local organic whole foods, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, organic meats and eggs, and raw organic unpasteurized dairy. The more of your diet you consume RAW, the better nourished you will be. Minimize sugar and refined grains.
5.Consider a high-quality animal source of omega-3 fatty acid supplement—my favorite is krill oil.
6.Make sure you are getting enough restorative sleep each night.
7.Handle the stress in your life since it has a significant impact on your physical and mental well-being. My favorite de-stressing tool is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
Friday, March 25, 2011
Why 95% of Japanese May Not Suffer from Radioactive Iodine Exposure Posted By Dr. Mercola
) Why 95% of Japanese May Not Suffer from Radioactive Iodine Exposure Posted By Dr. Mercola
March 25 2011
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1) Dr. David Brownstein on Iodine - Total Video Length: 31:42
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2) Dr. Mercola and Ori Hofmekler Discuss Radiation Protection - Total Video Length: 20:26
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The nuclear power disaster unfolding in Japan, following a 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami, has not only Japan, but also large portions of the US and even parts of Europe on edge. What could possibly be worse, however, is fear itself, according to some health experts.
The Washington Post writes:
"Although radiation escaping from a nuclear power plant catastrophe can increase the risk of many cancers and other health problems, stress, anxiety and fear ended up in many ways being much greater long-term threats to health and well-being after Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and other nuclear accidents, experts said Monday.
"The psychological effects were the biggest health effects of all — by far," said Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico professor emeritus and one of the world's leading authorities on radiation, who studied Chernobyl for the World Health Organization. "In the end, that's really what affected the most people."
Fears of contamination and anxiety about the health of those exposed and their children led to significantly elevated rates of suicidal thinking and anxiety disorders, and rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression about doubled, Mettler and others said."
Needless to say, the fears are not unfounded. Radioactive exposure is clearly dangerous. However, what the most appropriate remedy might be is a controversial issue.
Sources:
Washington Post March 14, 2011
HubPages: Spirulina
VitalityHerbsandClay.com
MIT News March 16, 2011
Cellular & Molecular Biology January 31, 2011 [Epub Ahead of Print]
Acta Pharmacologica Sinica December 2001; 22(12):1121-4
MSNBC News March 17, 2011
Harvard Health Publications March 16, 2011
USA Today March 18, 2011
ABC News March 17, 2011
Time Magazine March 18, 2011
Dr. David Brownstein - Video Transcript
Ori Hofmekler - Video Transcript
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
I've received many requests from concerned readers, particularly in California, asking for guidance on strategies to help protect against radioactive fallout from the recent nuclear disaster in Japan.
Unfortunately the timing of this, even from a personal perspective, was less than optimal as I was at Expo West and then outside the country for another five days with very poor internet connection and a massive backlog of urgent projects. But even beyond that, this is not a simple issue and I typically take many weeks, more typically months, before I give a recommendation that I can stand behind as there are simply too many variables to carefully analyze.
I realize that many other health sites have been commenting on this but the danger of providing recommendations without detailed analysis is that there is a risk one will not carefully consider the implications of the recommendations.
Nevertheless I am providing you with what I have compiled so far. Please understand that these are only preliminary recommendations that are still pending more careful analysis.
I simply wasn't convinced that the standard recommendation to load up on potassium iodide was the best recommendation, as it is controversial at best. Above, you'll find interviews with health experts Dr. David Brownstein and Ori Hofmekler, both of whom offer further insight into the best ways to protect your health from radiation damage.
Before You Do Anything Else, Address Your Stress
It is crucial to recognize the importance of remaining calm and avoiding panic, despite the dire outlook of the current situation. As discussed in the Washington Post article above, fear in and of itself may actually be one of the most dangerous side effects of this horrific tragedy:
"In the unprecedented disaster in Japan, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami that was followed by a major nuclear power plant emergency, all those negative psychological effects are being magnified in ways that no one can predict.
… In the long run, such incidents can negatively transform entire cultures. In the areas affected by the 1986 Chernobyl accident, a crippling sense of hopelessness set in and was passed down through generations. "What we know from experience is the psychological footprint from a nuclear disaster can not only be massive, but in many ways greater than the effect of radiation," Becker said. "
On an individual level, these range all the way from anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse to a kind of culture of fatalism and hopelessness that has gripped the population in many areas, and it continues today."
There's no doubt that this kind of emotional stress and trauma can have far-reaching and devastating effects on your health, so please, first and foremost, I urge you to address your emotions and stress levels during this challenging time.
The first step is to relax and seek not to worry as it is likely that will cause you far more damage than this relatively small exposure to radiation will. One potent method that I can wholly recommend is the Emotional Freedom Technique which is a form of psychological acupressure. For more information, please see my EFT page, which includes detailed instructions and illustrations for how to apply this powerful technique.
Radiation Fallout—How Dangerous is it?
Unfortunately, there are many variables involved when trying to determine the level of danger a particular area may face, this question is virtually impossible to answer—especially since the nuclear crisis is still ongoing, and it's anyone's guess what will happen next.
Our sense of reassurance that this is not anything serious is bolstered by CNN reports yesterday with readings in Washington and California. It was expected to find trace amounts of the isotopes released from the Japanese plant. "There is no health risk," Gail Shibley, administrator of Oregon's Office of Environmental Public Health, Oregon Public Health Division, said in a statement.
However, going by what we currently know about the situation at the time of this writing, let's put some things into perspective, because proper perspective is the key.
Please remember that nearly everything in life you do has a risk. Let's take driving a car. No one would deny that every time you get in your car you could be killed by a drunk or texting driver. That is why we wear seat belts and have air bags. Yet we all are willing to take that risk as we believe the benefits we receive from travelling outweigh the relatively minor risk.
Likewise, according to John Boice Jr., a radiation expert at the International Epidemiology Unit in Rockville, MD, you are exposed to a number of other more potent carcinogens on any given day than nuclear radiation (barring direct exposure within the area of the nuclear reactor or atomic blast, of course.)
"The average amount of radiation that victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were exposed to would increase the risk of dying from lung cancer by about 40 percent. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day increases the risk of dying of lung cancer by about 400 percent," Boice is quoted as saying.
These statistics are not very reassuring to a lot of people though, especially anyone in Japan or on the West coast of the United States.
It is my belief and understanding that NO amount of radiation is "safe."
Even medical diagnostic scans have been attributed to causing tens of thousands of unnecessary cancers each and every year, so the fear of heavy fallout is understandable. But I urge you to remain calm; unless you are in Japan this is a relatively low threat to your health.
Educate yourself, follow the situation closely as it unfolds, and be prepared—but don't over-react, as some prophylactic strategies against radioactive fallout have their own health risks and should not be used willy-nilly.
Understanding Radiation Measurements
The Editor of the Harvard Health Letter recently published a short but helpful article about radiation measurements, and how to put them into perspective. We've been hearing a lot about radiation levels of 400 millisieverts being registered in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear plant, but what does that mean?
Four hundred millisieverts is the equivalent of 40,000 millirem, or 40 rem. Rem is an older unit measure still frequently used in the US.
The Harvard Health Letter included the following chart, showing how a 400 millisievert per hour exposure compares to other common types of radiation exposure.
Millisieverts Millirems
Chest x-ray 0.1 10
Two-view mammogram 0.36 36
Average annual background exposure in the U.S. 3 300
Cardiac nuclear stress test 9.4 940
CT scan of the abdomen 10 1,000
Coronary angiogram 20 2,000
Average exposure of evacuees from Belarus after 1986 Chernobyl disaster 31 3,100
Annual dose limit* for nuclear power plant workers 50 5,000
Spike recorded at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 400 40,000
Acute radiation sickness begins 1,000 (or 1 sievert) 100,000
Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Physics Society, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency
As you can see, the situation is far from inconsequential within the vicinity of the Japanese power plant. However, it remains to be seen what kind of radiation levels end up reaching the American west coast.
Helpful sites for more information about radiation measurements, the regulations, and guidance on protective limits of nuclear radiation include:
•The EPA
•The CDC
•The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
In addition, here's a helpful web page showing the latest radiation measurements in various parts of Japan.
Is Potassium Iodide a Good Idea?
If you've been following the news, you've probably heard that many stores have already sold out their supplies of potassium iodide, which is the conventional recommendation to ward off some of the health dangers of radiation exposure. In Japan, stores even report having sold out their stocks of iodine-enriched salt!
First, please understand that loading up on commercial table salt will simply NOT protect you against radiation exposure, and may be quite harmful to your health! The best salt you can get is Himalayan salt. You can see my previous interview with the person who discovered it on my main article on it.
Like many questions in life the answer is - - it depends. In the case if you are near active radiation fallout it is wonderful idea as the benefit outweighs the risk. But for virtually everyone reading this that is not their personal circumstance and taking 130mg of potassium iodide is NOT a good idea and could result in thyrotoxicosis.
I believe many "expert" health resources that are advising this are highly irresponsible. This is part of the problem with rushing to press with recommendations without carefully considering the implications of those recommendations, and they can be quite severe.
At this time the radiation exposure from Japan does not appear to be at high enough levels to warrant taking a large amount of potassium iodide. The problem with this large a dose is that if you have an autonomously functioning thyroid nodule and take this large a dose, you can precipitate a thyroid crisis.
Why is Iodine Even Recommended in the First Place in a Nuclear Disaster?
Many people are relatively deficient in iodine, and because of this they will readily absorb iodine from the environment. Your body is unable to recognize the difference between regular iodine and radioactive iodine. It will absorb them equally well. So if you are deficient in iodine and a radioactive cloud passes by, your body will tend to suck that radioactive iodine into your thyroid gland to fill up its iodine stores
In an ideal situation you will have been taking adequate amounts of iodine from safe sources which will not only protect you from radioactive iodine but from environmental toxins that can poison your thyroid gland like fluoride, bromine and chlorine.
If you have not been taking iodine and a radioactive cloud comes near your area then it would make sense to take large doses of prophylactic iodine to prevent your thyroid gland from absorbing the radioactive iodine. However it is important to understand that the large dose of potassium iodide only protects your thyroid for one to three days, no longer and it does absolutely nothing to protect you from detoxifying the radiation.
At this time there does not seem to be a serious threat in the US from the Japanese radiation cloud. However, it would seem wise to have doses of potassium iodide for yourself and your family should another nuclear crisis emerge that would affect you. It is just a wise safety resource to have on hand.
Although a sounder long term strategy would be to make sure you are getting enough iodine from high quality food sources that will protect you more naturally. But these need to be done over long periods of time to build up your iodine stores.
More on that below.
Just How Many People are Deficient in Iodine?
This past weekend Dr. David Brownstein was gracious enough to do an interview with me on this topic. It is important to understand that he has compiled a tremendous amount of clinical data on this topic and can be considered a true expert in this area.
Dr. Brownstein has been working with iodine for the last twenty years and has tested over 5000 patients in his clinic and found over 95% of them to be iodine deficient. This is an incredible result as it puts iodine on par with the percentage of people that are deficient in vitamin D.
An interesting side note on vitamin D is that Dr Brownstein has worked with iodine and vitamin D as understood by the principles I have been teaching and his clinical experience suggests that iodine replacement is even more important than vitamin D in seeing immediate clinical improvement. This is quote a bold claim and I assure you I will be providing more details from him in future interviews.
Fluoride and Bromide are the REAL Dangers to Your Thyroid
As we review in the interview, the massive prevalence of iodine deficiency is a new phenomenon that is likely a result of an absolute deficiency of iodine intake combined with exposure to other environmental halogens that compete for iodine receptors. This would be the fluoride and chloride that is pervasive in our water supply, along with the halogenated byproducts. Additionally we have bromine, which is part of most white flour products and added to many items like rugs, carpets and pesticides added to commercial fruits and vegetables. Dr. Brownstein has measured these levels on thousands of patients and he actually finds bromide to be the most serious culprit.
Adverse Side Effects of Potassium Iodide
Dr. Brownstein has been using iodine supplementation in large doses for over two decades and found side effects from supplementation to be very uncommon. However when using the higher dose recommendations of potassium iodide, there have been some concerns expressed by others.
Recent media reports are starting to document the side effects of taking potassium iodide. Then there is also the issue of unscrupulous vendors selling fake potassium iodide.
According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), general side effects of potassium iodide include:
•Intestinal upset
•Allergic reactions (possibly severe)
•Rashes
•Inflammation of the salivary glands
Although detrimental side effects involving the thyroid gland are rare, you're at an increased risk of damaging your thyroid gland when taking potassium iodide if you:
•take a higher than recommended dose
•take the drug for several days, or
•have pre-existing thyroid disease
According to the CDC:
"Newborn infants (less than 1 month old) who receive more than one dose of KI are at particular risk for developing a condition known as hypothyroidism (thyroid hormone levels that are too low). If not treated, hypothyroidism can cause brain damage.
Infants who receive potassium iodide should have their thyroid hormone levels checked and monitored by a doctor. Avoid repeat dosing of potassium iodide to newborns."
This is important advice, as Poison Control Centers have already received seven cases of iodide over-exposure at the time of this writing… MSNBC reported that two of these cases suffered more serious symptoms such as vomiting, racing heart and vertigo (dizziness), adding that:
"Panic could spark a "mini-epidemic" of potassium iodide ingestion and overdoses, predicted Dr. Leonard Wartofsky, spokesman for the Endocrine Society and a thyroid expert.
He warned that the drug could cause serious reactions in some people and even backfire in the case of an actual emergency, putting people past a two-week window of safe dosage. After that period of time, the drug can induce severe hypothyroidism, a condition that essentially shuts down thyroid function.
"It is inappropriate, foolhardy and dangerous to be taking iodine supplements at this time," Wartofsky said. "It's very important to hold off until it's absolutely necessary."
Taking potassium iodide can be harmful to people who are allergic to iodine, those who have certain skin disorders and people with thyroid diseases including goiter, Graves' disease or autoimmune thyroid disorders."
It is also important to remember that potassium iodide only provide temporary protection and should only be taken immediately prior to the radiation exposure, because it's cleared from your body within 24-72 hours after swallowing it . More importantly, it does absolutely nothing to counter the effects of the other radioactive isotopes that you would be exposed to. It ONLY decreases exposure to radioactive iodine, nothing else. It also does not help your body detoxify any radiation exposure.
Let's View this Nuclear Crisis as a WAKE UP CALL!!
The good news is that in all likelihood this is NOT a serious threat to your health. The even better news is that the attention this has brought to focus has highlighted the fact that 19 out of 20 people are deficient in iodine, and have toxic levels of bromide, which could lead to thyroid impairment, breast and prostate cancers.
Fortunately this is easily remedied with sources of supplemental iodine. Dr. Brownstein recommends about 12.5 mg every day, which is about what the Japanese typically would consume in their diet. He believes this will provide about 95 percent of the protection that the 130 mg one-time adult dose that is currently recommended by public health authorities for radiation prophylaxis.
It is tragic for a nuclear crisis to occur anywhere but Japan is probably better prepared than any country in the world from a health perspective, as it is likely that 19 out of 20 Japanese have enough iodine and will not be at risk from the radioactive iodine exposure.
So the lesson is that you and your family should ideally be on a comprehensive iodine/iodide supplement. I actually have been researching this for the last three years and we were in the process of bringing a unique product to carry on our site.
Considering the US has loads of older nuclear plants that are susceptible to disasters and the high incidence of iodine deficiency, it would make sense to start supplementing.
This may not be the best time to start however, as this specific crisis has made it very difficult to find supplies at a reasonable price. If you have access to them then it would seem to make sense to supplement with 10-15 mg of an iodide/iodine supplement right away. If you have to wait until the hysteria dies down, there seems to be very little harm in waiting until the supply becomes more readily available.
The REAL Issue for Americans is NOT the Radioactivity but Bromide Toxicity
One of my favorite strategies to live life by is W. Clements Stones being an inverse paranoid and believing that the universe is conspiring to make you better, that for every apparently bad experience there is some hidden good that you typically just can't see because you are all wrapped up in the emotions of the "bad" experience.
So while it is clearly tragic that so many thousands lost their life in Japan in this crisis and many more will suffer for long periods, the saving grace is that we are more aware of this issue to be prepared for future disasters.
But from my perspective the more important point is that virtually all of us have an issue with overexposure to bromide that would benefit from iodine supplementation.
I have previously written an excellent article on this topic but when I can assure you that when I wrote it I was virtually clueless as to the full impact of what I wrote about.
This crisis has brought this to my attention and I am now even more focused on it.
There is not enough time to go into all the details now but I can assure you that I will be providing much more insightful thyroid information in the future that will be able to really help bring light to this important topic.
Issues Other than Radioactive Iodine You Need to Know About
It's also worth mentioning that radioactive iodine is certainly not the only danger you face from nuclear fallout. There are a number of radioactive compounds that wreak havoc on the environment and the human body, and iodine will not protect against those.
Dr. Brownstein and I agree that taking a comprehensive mineral supplement to make sure your entire mineral stores are replenished is a good idea, to decrease your potential for absorbing other radioactive isotope minerals.
Additionally, you'll want to make sure you stay well hydrated, and Dr. Brownstein also highly recommends taking vitamin C to keep your antioxidant defense mechanism strong.
"If you do get exposed to toxicity, vitamin C is one of the best anti-toxicity nutrients you can take," he says. "In this case, it's wise not only to be taking vitamin C going into the situation, but if you know a radioactive cloud is coming, to increase your intake of vitamin C to give your body a little cushion against this toxic load."
To that, I would add taking Co Q10, or Ubiquinol if you're over 40, along with the vitamin C.
Why?
Because vitamin C only works when it's reduced. Once it donates an electron, it's oxidized and cannot work. Therefore, you need something to recharge it and Ubiquinol tends to do that—it's a powerful, synergistic combination.
Are Sea Vegetables Like Kelp a Healthier Alternative to Potassium Iodide?
Typically, vegetables provide enormous health benefits and those from the sea should provide loads of additional benefits over terrestrial vegetables. However, just like eating fish, the issue of contamination is a major factor here.
You probably know that I don't advise eating most fish because they typically are contaminated with heavy metals like mercury, and chemicals like PCBs and dioxins. Well, similarly most sea vegetables are contaminated. So while they were an ideal source of nutrition you need to be VERY careful about consuming them as an alternative to supplemental iodine.
Dr. Brownstein actually sent out many sea vegetable samples to labs and found that most of them were contaminated with heavy metals and had bromine instead of iodine. So if you chose to use sea vegetables like kelp, nori, and kombu, then make sure you have independent third party lab verification that they are not contaminated and indeed have iodine.
Another concern here is that kelp harvested after the Japanese radiation leak could be contaminated with radiation. So if you chose to use kelp you will certainly want to not only select organic versions, but also make sure that the company is able to prove to you that it has been screened for radioactivity by an independent third party and passed.
In conclusion I believe that toxin free sea vegetables are likely the ideal way to obtain your iodine. Just as toxin free fish is the best source of animal based omega-3 fats. However, with all the 20th century industrial pollution that is an increasingly difficult challenge to acquire. But if you can be certain the sea vegetables or seaweed supplement you want to use is toxin free it would likely be the ideal way to receive your iodine.
Spirulina—Another Potent Protector Against Toxic Radiation
Spirulina—a blue-green algae—might be another great alternative to protect against the effects of radiation, and there is in fact research backing this up. Spirulina was actually used to treat children exposed to chronic low-levels of radiation after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
According to a scientific review of spirulina's benefits:
"Up to very recently, the interest in Spirulina was mainly in its nutritive value. Currently, however, numerous people are looking into the possible therapeutic effects of Spirulina.
Many pre-clinical studies and a few clinical studies suggest several therapeutic effects ranging from reduction of cholesterol and cancer to enhancing the immune system, increasing intestinal lactobacilli, reducing nephrotoxicity by heavy metals and drugs and radiation protection."
But what is it about this blue-green algae that gives it this radiation-protective capacity?
Spirulina has a 16 percent phycocyanin content—a blue pigment that is attached to its photosynthetic membranes. Phycocyanin is also a nitrogen storage molecule. The nitrogen atoms can form a complex with heavy metals such as radioactive cesium and stronium, hence "cleansing" these radioactive metals from your body.
In one animal study from China, published in 2001, the authors concluded that "spirulina has chemo-protective and radio-protective capability, and may be a potential adjunct to cancer therapy."
Another study published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Biology in January this year found that spirulina was effective in the treatment of anemia and age-related decrease of immune function in seniors.
Spirulina, and chlorella, have similar concerns as sea vegetables though. They can easily absorb the radiation so if you are purchasing any that were harvested after last week you will want to make sure they have been screened for radiation.
What about Chlorella?
Chlorella is another amazing tool for detoxification and is also loaded with chlorophyll which will increase your resistance to radiation.
Ginseng Kelp and other seaweeds (high in natural iodine)
Zeolites (to neutralize radiation) or bentonite clays Ashwaganda (an adaptogenic herb)
Fulvic Acid Reishi mushrooms (strong immune support)
High-dose vitamin C Magnesium
Selenium Coconut oil, which supports optimal thyroid health
Astaxanthin is another supplement I'd seriously consider, as it too has been found to have some protective function against ionizing radiation.
Additional Resources You Need to Aid with Radiation Detox
I also interviewed Ori Hofmekler on this topic for alternative viewpoint with regards to how you can decrease the risk to your health from radiation. The interview can be accessed by clicking the link at the top of this page. Ori makes some compelling arguments for the use of sweet whey to help protect against absorbing radioactive minerals.
One of the reasons for using sweet whey in a situation like this is because whey protein contains all the precursors that help your body produce glutathione, which is one of the best ways to detoxify these toxins.
"The other reason is that sweet whey is a whole whey… It's the highest source of all minerals and trace minerals that exist in nature. It has every possible mineral and trace elements—including organic sodium—that your body needs in the most bioactive form.
For more detailed information and explanations, please listen to Ori's interview, or read through the transcript. It's a fairly compelling argument, and I wanted to offer you a number of perspectives.
Clearly, consuming whole whey has so many other health benefits (and I recommend consuming it daily anyway for optimal health) so you can't go wrong by taking it now if you've never tried it before.
If you want to use whey as a source of minerals, I strongly recommend making sure it's grass-fed organic whey from raw milk.
References
1.Galofre JC, Fernandez-Calvet L, Rios M, Garcia-Mayor RV. Increased incidence of thyrotoxicosis after iodine supplementation in an iodine sufficient area. J Endocrinol Invest. 1994;17(1):23-27.
2.Koutras DA. Control of efficiency and results, and adverse effects of excess iodine administration on thyroid function. Ann Endocrinol (Paris). 1996; 57(6):463-469.
3.Minelli R, et al. Effects of excess iodine administration on thyroid function in euthyroid patients with a previous episode of thyroid dysfunction induced by interferon-alpha treatment. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). Sep, 1997; 47(3):357-361.
4.Rev Environ Health. 2001 Jul-Sep;16(4):233-51. Adverse health effects of selenium in humans. Vinceti M, Wei ET, Malagoli C, Bergomi M, Vivoli G.
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