This blog is being used to convey some of my insights into living a happy, healthy life.    Feel free to use the request information form to add comments.

9/29/06

Recently there has been attention paid to some of the frightening, violent behavioral effects of some prescription medications.  Up until now, very little attention was given to this connection in part because the information was considered private to the individual taking the medication.  I think it rather interesting that nutritional supplements are about to be required to report adverse reactions and that pharmaceuticals are not.  I ask you, which is the more dangerous substance?

for some reason we have lost logs between this 9/29/06 and 2/17/06

2/17/06

There seems to be a problem with Google's  This was a letter from a correspondent in Sweden.  It gives food for thought.

Is Quackwatchers" taking over the web ? 
It seems that the US big corporate PR-machine is on the way to take control of the web. A year ago Google only returned real alternative web sites when searching for any kind of CAM search terms.

Now, quackwatch (and other similar sites) almost always comes up as one of the top web sites on Google. I checked quackwatch and it only have around 950 incoming links so it should not be that high on the ranking.

Though, I found one link from BBC that might have helped lifting it - and I am sure there are numerous links from right wing media and the medical establishment that contributes to the high ranking.

It is hard to combat this, all alternative web sites needs to link each other but also try - by any means - to be linked from top ranked web sites. We need to learn to google-optimize. Perhaps also by a credible challenge of Quackwatch and requests that public institutions remove their links to quackwatch.

A more sinister explanation is that Google manually gaves quackwatch a high ranking (their algorithm is not fully automatic, to reduce the computational complexity, Google manually assigns top rank to some sites).  Read more at: http://www.google-watch.org/

2/6/06

Lately I have been hearing from people that they are having problems with acid reflux. They want to know what they can do before taking the medicine route.  One problem that people often get as they age, is a reduction of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.  Hydrochloric acid helps to digest our food.  When it is low, the digestive system slows down.  There have been several recommendations for this problem.  One is not to lay down within two to three hours of eating.  Another that I have had good feedback on, is not to drink liquid with your meals.  Wait about half an hour after a meal, before consuming a beverage and avoid caffeine and soft drinks.  The rationale behind this is that liquids dilute the hydrochloric acid thus making it less effective.  Do go and see a holistic physician if you have this problem.

1/31/06

The Vitamin Layers has asked for our help.  It is time to take action to make all nutritional research, not just some of it, accessible to the public.

I ask you to please join me in an email campaign to Mr. Sheldon Kotzin, Executive Editor of the U. S. National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE. Medline is the world's largest index for all health-related scientific research. It appears to have a bias against high-dose vitamin nutritional medical journals.

Many have already written to Medline and received useless pat-on-the-head answers from low-level government contractors. So we would like you to please write to the top man. Executive Editor of Medline Mr. Sheldon Kotzin's personal email address is kotzins@mail.nlm.nih.gov .

Please send him a polite email requesting that he please include the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in the MEDLINE electronic database and index.

1/30/06

We received a question from a reader:  I just read about a new pill for hypertension and heart diease. It's called a "Tuna pill" made from bonito tuna and helps lower blood pressure quickly and is kind to angina sufferers.  Do you folks know anything about this?

Our answer:  No I have not heard about the "Tuna pill".  Fish oils help lower cholesterol.  It is these fatty deposits in the arteries that increase blood pressure.  I am not sure that I would want to take too much tuna because of the danger of mercury.  Hope this helps.  Karen

12/8/05

At first when you see that your bread, tomatoes or milk does not go bad after a few days, you think this is great.  I won't have so much spoiled food.  The problem is that the processes and chemicals that are added to foods to make this phenomenon happen are not particularly healthy.  Food is intended to break down and this is particularly important for the digestive track.  To stay healthy, try to buy fresh produce that has not been unnaturally altered.  If you have a loved one for whom you can not find the right present, then consider giving him or her a healthful supplement.  The gift of health is a gift that says you care.  Some studies have shown that Vitamin E taken by heavy smokers did not help prevent cancer.  The problem may have been that they were already to far along.  The best time to start a healthy regimen is before an illness manifests itself.  A healthy lifestyle will slow down the aging process.  We will all age, but not at the same rate as our chronological years indicate.  Make sure you are one of those people who end up looking more youthful than their years.

11/7/05

Some thoughts on colds and flu:  When some people feel they have a cold, the go for herbal teas.  One herbal tea is Chamomile.  The problem with this choice is that Chamomile comes from the ragweed family and can cause allergic reactions to those sensitive to ragweed.  Another product that appears to be effective for colds is the zinc lozenge.  Be careful not to take too much of these.  Follow the instructions.  Although zinc is a wonderful anti-oxidant, is also a metal and possible to over dose, resulting in a toxic accumulation.  Honey is a great choice with its natural enzymes and immune boosting nutrients.  We also like the old favorite, chicken soup, for dealing with the flu.

10/28/05

First let me say, I don't think supplements should replace eating a healthy meal.  That said, many people are taking too many pills.  It is a good idea to show all of the prescriptions you are taking to your pharmacist.  In some cases you may be taking a drug to counteract a side effect of another medicine.  Also, you want to make sure that none of the supplements you are taking will either negate the effect of your medicine or make it more potent than your physician intended.  One of the reasons I like people to take supplement formulas is that many nutrients work in concert with others.  By taking a well designed formula, you insure that you get the benefit you are expecting.  We like you to take a multi-vitamin along with an omega oil such as Evening Primrose Oil or Signal369 bend.  It is a good idea to augment this with a calcium/magnesium/vitamin D formula and possibly a Vitamin C.  We formulated our products to complement each other (see The Green Turtle Bay Vitamin Co. supplements).

10/24/2005

I recently was sent some information written by a holistic doctor about what she would recommend an individual protect himself from the Avian flu.  It is food for thought.

10/10/05

There seems to be a lot of concern over the potential avian virus or "bird flu."  This virus is present in wild fowl and can pass to humans who are in close proximity to domestic birds which have become contaminated.  A large percent of the people who contract this virus die.  At present the virus does not appear to pass from person to person.  If we look at past history, it is unlikely that a vaccine will protect us from this virus as viruses tend to mutate and it is likely that the flu you or I would contract would be different from the original flu vaccine.   There is an anti-viral drug that will be offered to health care workers.  It is my understanding that this medicine must be taken for the entire period of the outbreak.  So the question arises, what is the ordinary individual to do!  My advise is to make sure you wash your hands frequently -especially after being in public places where your hands are on handrails and door knobs or handling money.  Boost your immune system with anti-oxidants.  These tend to work better when you have been taking them prior to getting ill.  I personally like our PowerVites multi-vitamin and PowerMate herbal anti-oxidant formulas.  If you do get this particular flu, you may want to take extra Vitamin C as I understand one of the ways it works is to deplete the body of Vitamin C.

 8/25/05

One concern many people have in the natural products business is that the health industry seems to be run by the pharmaceutical companies.  They fund non profits who in turn recycle their study money in drug studies.  Here is an interesting article with food for though:  Forbidden vitamins and other health concerns

8/22/05

Consumers of nutritional supplements should be very concerned about the trend in legislation both internationally and nationally.  The opposition's strategic approach seems to be to slowing erode your ability to purchase the supplements that will keep you healthy.  They way this is currently being approached is to limit the amount of a nutrient you can purchase.  What this does not take into account is that some people who are not absorbing nutrients efficiently, may need a larger amount than the average person, just to have a sufficient quantity to function optimally.   See our consumer section on vitamin-lawyer updates and more recently vitamin companies in legislative times of turmoil..  The vitaminlawyer.com

8/18/05

When you see a new study reporting findings that are contrary to information you have assimilated, you must question the new information.  The media likes to report on anything sensational.  This makes news.  What you really want to know is who has funded the study.  Very often researchers come up with the results their funders are looking for.  This is because they want additional funding and we all know you can lie with statistics.  Was the study conducted properly.  An example would be a study on cancer patients.  It is possible their disease is too far advanced to be helped with nutrients.  Is the study group large enough.  If there are hundreds of studies showing the benefits of a nutrient, I would not put too much credence on one study that comes up with the opposite conclusion.

8/14/05

This story was sent to me in an email by a friend.  I think it is charming.  It is about a turtle that becomes a surrogate mother for a baby hippo.

8/11/05

One thing we should keep in mind, that vitamins and minerals are really foods.  My grandmother used to take a rolling pin the crush egg shells into a fine powder.  She then included this as an ingredient and source of calcium when she made cookies for us.  She wanted to make sure we got our nutrition.  One of the problems with our young people (and adults too) drinking so many soft drinks is that it contains ingredients that tend to leach calcium from the body.  So instead of being neutral, they are actually a negative.  When people have a blood test that shows their blood contains a large amount of calcium, this is not necessarily a good sign.  When calcium is leached from the bones it appears in the blood.  We really want calcium to stay in our bones to keep them strong and prevent osteoporosis.  Sunlight is an important factor in maintaining strong bones.  If you live north of Baltimore, you probably are not getting enough exposure to the sun.  In this case it is advisable to take a calcium supplement that also contains magnesium and vitamin D.

8/8/05

In homeopathy, they say it is important to eat foods grown from your own area of the country where you live.  These fruits and vegetables contain minerals in the right proportion to what you need for your climate.  My grandmother used to say that one should eat food that is "in season".  This would possible mean eating more fruits in the summer and root vegetables in the winter.  These help to regulate your body temperature for the season.  With foods offered from all over the world in our local grocery stores, it is hard for us to understand and get back to what is really natural for us.

8/6/05 

We understand plants and yet generally do not see the correlation to humans.  While the plant has roots that function to absorb water and nutrients, we have intestines.  Intestines are a kind of inside out root.  They absorb liquids and nutrients.  It is interesting that as many different kinds foods are consumed, after they leave the digestive track the end product is always the same.  What is it that transforms the food we eat into a soft, brown, smelly mass?  This is the roll of enzymes and lactobacilli, the good bacteria.  The ancient Chinese would analyze this digestive byproduct in determining the health of the Emperor.  When we eat foods with preservatives we slow down this process and make it inefficient.  Foods were intended to break down and deteriorate so that the nutrients could be separated and absorbed to nourish our cells.

Karen Horbatt is the President of The Green Turtle Bay Vitamin Co. since 1992.  She has devoted herself to helping others live a health, happy life.  She is the webmaster of this site:  http://www.Energywave.com  She holds a B.A. in mathematics and an MBA and is a member of The Herbal Research Society.