Why does the CDC ask parents to use low fluoride or non-fluoridated water when mixing water with baby formula? Once again, it seems there is more to the story than we are being told…

Is our water decaying our teeth and damaging our bodies? CBS Atlanta recently interviewed Daniel Stocktin of the Lillie Center, a group whose sole mission is to remove fluoride from the public water supply. Stocktin warns of the known dangers associated with too much fluoride—dental fluorosis—and the unknown effects of the chemical on the soft tissues of the body. He warns that we ingest fluoride through water, food, and toothpaste and that it accumulates in the body.

Dental fluorosis is caused by the ingestion of too much fluoride. The first symptom is spotting on the teeth. More severe cases involve pits and holes in the enamel that resemble cavities. The worst cases involve severe erosion of the teeth.

The American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control continue to endorse water fluoridation, though they do admit excessive doses can be toxic. Both organizations declined to be interviewed by CBS Atlanta, instead referring the reporters to written information which Stoktin said is bad science and outdated.

Why does the CDC ask parents to use low fluoride or non-fluoridated water when mixing water with baby formula? Once again, it seems there is more to the story than we are being told, especially when recent data from the CDC states that two out of every five children have mild fluoridosis (spots on their teeth.

We want to applaud CBS Atlanta for taking on stories such as these. It is time for us to question all of the chemicals we breathe, put on our bodies, or ingest.

Cat Mutiny

I’ve been eating healthier than the average American for years and years. I stopped cooking processed foods thirty years ago when I realized the effect food colorings, preservatives, and additives had on my children’s ADHD and allergies. Eating better wasn’t good enough. Eating well, really well, took effort and discipline.

I struggled with my diet for years in an effort to battle auto-immune disease. I finally discovered what foods fed Candida and that I was sensitive to gluten. I’m sure I have celiac disease, but I have no intention of spending a few thousand dollars to confirm the diagnosis through conventional means. Why should I go through a biopsy when I know every time I eat gluten I break out in weeping sores and suffer from muscle and joint pain? Obviously gluten and I don’t get along.

So I’ve really cleaned up my diet. And because I eat so well and have eaten so well for so many years, processed foods and fast foods don’t taste good to me. The more I eat organic fresh fruits and veggies, the more anything else is second best—a far second. But this is only true because I don’t eat junk foods. The truth is, bad food and junk food, is truly addictive.

Recently our cats have reminded us how cheap bad foods crowd out the desire to eat well. We raised our cats on a clean, raw diet. Their typical fare was Bell and Evans ground turkey mixed with a little quinoa, spinach, carrots, eggs and eggshells, and a few other veggies thrown in. They loved it, so much so, we had to train them not to attack our hands as we lowered their bowls to the floor. Then they growled at one another and at us if we were stupid enough to try and pick the bowl back up.

But our indoor/outdoor kitties started eating junk food. We have a neighbor who feeds her cat regular kibble and leaves the bowl outside. So our cats have started eating out. And now, they have little interest in anything we try to feed them, even plain raw or cooked meat or fish. They sniff at their bowl and reject their food, going so far as to scratch the floor as if they could bury the offensive offering. So we bought a bag of organic kibble and they ate a little, then rushed outside to raid the neighbor’s bowl.

Now their health is suffering. Taz is chronically constipated. Both she and Jazz are copiously shedding for the first time in their lives. Obviously, an intervention is in order.

A recent study showed that rats fed a healthy diet and later fed junk food would rather starve than go back to eating a healthy diet.

This is such a reminder to us about the addictive nature of processed foods. If we give in to our children’s demands to eat fast foods, candy, sodas, and other junk foods—even as a rare treat, we are training their palates. We are toying with addiction. We are making food that is bad for them, deadly for them, a reward.

We deserve the best food. Our children deserve the best food. And so do our pets-100% of the time.

As the debate about vaccine safety intensifies, new laws have been passed to protect the pharmaceutical companies from litigation. No new laws have been passed to protect the victims of vaccine injury. Against rising proof that vaccines are unsafe and linked to autism, ADHD, and other serious outcomes, the same mantra is repeated by government sources—that there is no proof of cause and effect between vaccinations and health concerns.

Now let’s get real. The truth is, risks have always been known and accepted. Every parent who signs a vaccination form and bothers to read it, knows that they are risking their child’s life by agreeing to a vaccination. I will never forget the dread I felt signing those forms. Oh the risk was slight, but my child could contract the very disease I was vaccinating against or encephalitis or another complication. And death? Oh yes, that was listed as a possible outcome. And as this fact was sinking in, the nurse was pushing me to sign, telling me it was perfectly safe. I felt like I was sending my child outside to run back and forth across the street in hopes he would not get hit by a car. After all, the odds were on his side for that risk as well.

When my ADHD child was 3 and I told the testing psychologist I was going to try diet management (rather than the Ritalin he wanted to prescribe) he told me the link between diet and ADHD was nonsense and he had a study to prove it. When diet mnagement worked, with amazing and immediate results, he didn’t want to see the proof or witness the change in behavior. We do not as yet have good solid research to prove a link between autism and vaccines, but all you have to do is speak to a parent of a bright, verbal toddler who, after a vaccination, suddenly lost both speech and normal behavior to know the link is real. It is an dramatic cause and effect, witnessed over and over and over again by parents across the country.

I work for non-profit organizations, writing grant proposals. One of my jobs is to search grant databases, including grants.gov, the site for federal grant opportunities. Today I stumbled across two requests for proposals from the Department of Social and Health Services, grant opportunities to research vaccine safety.

One announcement reads, “This R21 research opportunity invites studies that address scientific areas potentially relevant to vaccine safety such as 1) physiological and immunological responses to vaccines and vaccine components, 2) how genetic variations affect immune/physiological responses that may impact vaccine safety, 3) identification of risk factors and biological markers that may be used to assess whether there is a relationship between certain diseases or disorders and licensed vaccines, or 4) the application of genomic/molecular technologies to improve knowledge of vaccine safety.”

Our government may be continuing to deny the link between autism and vaccines, but at least they are funding research.

Tired of Feeling Bad?

Are you tired of feeling bad? Do you have a chronic physical or mental illness? Does your immune system fail you when every virus or bacteria you come in contact with decides you are a perfect host? Then do something about it!

Step 1: Realize that whatever you put in body affects your immune system. Start with your diet. Go through your kitchen and toss out every single processed food in your cabinet. Eat a pure, nutrient rich diet. Go organic. Eighty percent or more of your diet should be raw, organic fruits and vegetables. You think you can’t afford it? Well you can. Cut out all the junk, the alcohol, the chips, the dips, the sweets, the treats. You’d be surprised how much you save. Plus think about how much you spend on medicines and doctors. And how much more you will spend in the future when processed foods rob you of your health.

Step 2. Clean out your bathroom cupboards—all of your soaps, lotions, creams, shampoos, and conditioners. Everything you put on your body is absorbed by your skin. Go organic. You don’t even need shampoo. Try rinsing your hair with water and baking soda. LuSa’s Organics makes wonderful organic bar soaps that lasts for weeks.

Step 3. Get rid of all your cleaning supplies that contain chemicals. A steam mop cleans your floors better than any cleanser. Wash windows and mirrors with vinegar and water. Scrub with baking soda.

Step 4. Toss out scented candles and air fresheners. They are linked to depression and auto-immune illnesses.

Step 5. Exercise . Yeah, you know you need it.

Step 6. Choose whole food vitamins and make sure your multi-vitamins contain vitamin D. If you live north of Atlanta, Georgia you probably need vitamin D supplementation, even if you spend time in the sun every day. Low levels of vitamin D are linked to cancer, diabetes, auto-immune disease, and more.

Step 7. Get good quality sleep. Make sure you sleep in the dark and that you get enough sleep. How many hours do you sleep when you are off work? If you sleep more than you normally do, your body is trying to tell you that you are sleep deprived.

Step 8. Have fun. Enjoy your life. Live it to the fullest. And know it is up to you to create your reality. Want a better one? Create it. Ready, set, go!

And the ramifications of the choices we make within our sick society

We live in a sick, sick society. And yes, I mean that literally as well as figuratively. We put toxins in our water through pollution and through fluoridation. We alter and process food until it doesn’t resemble its original components and loses all of its nutrition, then we put a little artificial nutrition back in before adding artificial coloring, preservatives, and flavorings to make it taste better and look inviting while increasing its shelf life.  We send our children to schools that feed them this processed garbage once or twice a day.

Most of us believe the FDA protects us, so we feed our children sugared cereal made from genetically modified corn for their breakfast along with pasteurized juice and milk from cows shot full of rBGH. Maybe we add a little fruit sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. For lunch our kids eat fast food with plenty of trans fats. Dinner comes out of a can, a box, or a frozen packet and is often irradiated. Oh and don’t forget the snacks: sugar filled sodas, cakes, cookies, and candy. We are raising a generation of children whose sugar and toxin intake negates their immune systems and their exposure to real foods is so negligible they cannot recognize or name most of our vegetables and fruits.

Next come the pharmaceuticals. We vaccinate our children with dirty, toxic vaccines. Our children get sick (need I repeat why?) and we treat their symptoms (not the cause) with over-the-counter drugs and prescription drugs. Our children exhibit behavior and mental health problems. Rather than clean up their diets and detoxify their bodies, we give them more drugs. At some point we may not be given a choice. If our child has cancer or another serious disease or is diagnosed with a mental illness we may be forced by Child Protective Services or the courts to follow conventional treatment including chemotherapy or psychotropic drugs. If we choose not to vaccinate, we may be forced by law to comply.

Pharmaceuticals, both over the counter and prescriptive, are marketed to us through television and print media. We are encouraged (brainwashed?) to improve our lives with the use of sleeping pills, tranquilizers, anti-depressive drugs, and stimulants. Our society demands that we be the best we can be through the use of these pills. And yet, cancer is at an all time high. ADHD, autism, and Alzheimer’s are epidemic.

We are cogs in the wheel of the 21st century economic machine. Wherever we turn, the typical American lifestyle is ruled by the interests of big business: the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the health care industry. Poor health is a profitable outcome for all three. Processed food is cheap to buy and cheaper to make. It yields enormous profits. Factory farming is profitable. Huge farming enterprises raising crops with chemicals on land stripped of nutrients are profitable. Pharmaceuticals are criminally profitable. The medical industry is fed by illness and married to pharmaceuticals. The cycle goes round and round. And the powers that be continue in their efforts to shut down naturopathic treatments including the sale of vitamins and supplements.

The strange thing is, this same diseased society that embraces conventional treatment is punitive and vengeful to those who use these prescription drugs. Are you aware that the use of a prescription drug may be the deciding factor of whether you spend the next fifteen to twenty years in prison if you are involved in a fatal accident? Even though you took that drug as prescribed?

In the State of Georgia, drivers involved in fatal crashes can be charged with a misdemeanor, second degree homicide by vehicle or with a felony, first degree homicide by a vehicle.  If charged in the second degree, the driver can face up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. If charged with first degree, the driver faces three to fifteen years (or up to twenty if the offender is found to be habitual).

So what constitutes a first degree crime in this instance? The law includes cases of death involving fleeing a police officer, failure to stop for a school bus, hit and run, previously being declared a habitual offender, reckless driving, or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Again, drugs don’t have to be illegal drugs nor do prescription drugs have to be abused. If you take a prescription drug and are involved in a fatal accident, you could be in trouble.

Michael Edwards (editor-in-chief) met a man who was sentenced to ten years in prison due to a sleeping pill prescription. He hadn’t taken the medication for several days before the accident, but the medication was the basis for a first degree charge. A recent case was bumped up to first degree when it was learned that the driver was prescribed Adderol for ADD.

We have a choice, a huge choice. We can continue to be a cog in the wheel or we can choose health—real health. We can eat real food, unadulterated, organic fruits and vegetables. Organic grains. Organic meats and raw dairy. We  have to fight to keep these foods available. We have to care about the foods given to children in our schools. We have to demand our rights to refuse medications, to choose whether or not to vaccinate, to demand, at the very least, that vaccinations be pure, that they are not tainted with mercury or other toxic substances. We have to demand that pharmaceutical companies are held responsible if they fail to provide safe vaccinations and medications.

The incarceration rate is obscene and rising. Justice has become a joke in this country. Once upon a time, an accident was an accident. A painful, horrific reality for a driver who lost control of a vehicle. Today, an accident is an opportunity to incarcerate someone, even if there was no negligence, criminal intent, or criminal wrongdoing.

When you choose your lifestyle, look at the whole picture. Which do you choose? If you choose an unhealthy lifestyle maintained through pills, be aware that your choices may sentence you to years in prison if, God forbid, the worst happens. An accident may be just that—an accident. Your choices are not.

How about some common sense? Vaccines are toxic!

I met another parent whose normal, happy, healthy child received an MMR vaccination and was sucked into the vortex of autism. “One day he was normal, the next day it was lights out,” said his father. “You can’t tell me there is no connection between vaccinations and autism.”

Many, many parents have reported the same result. And yet, we are told to ignore these reports, that there is no scientific “proof” of a connection.

For a minute let’s ignore the reality that scientific studies regularly contradict one another and let’s ask ourselves, “What happened to common sense?” You stick your hand in the fire and it’s burned. You give a child a shot and the next day your child’s speech disappears, he withdraws from the world, and his life is irrevocably changed. You don’t need the scientific method to deduce cause and effect.

The reports we read that refute parents’ claims gloss over the fact that the change is dramatic, clear, and immediate. We aren’t talking a change in behavior and ability weeks, months, or even days later. We’re talking about a 24-48 hour response to a vaccination. When any parent tells me his/her child was normal the day before a shot and autistic the next day I am infuriated when I read reports from the scientific community that deny the possibility of cause and effect.

We are bombarded with propaganda from pharmaceutical companies on a daily basis. We are taught to believe our government protects us. The truth is, our government protects the pharmaceutical companies, not us.

The news is finally reporting a possible connection between vaccinations and autism. But did we really need science to tell us this? Are we so disconnected from common sense we can’t open our eyes and see what’s right in front of us?

Environmental Issues are taking a toll

Take for example the issue of global warming. For years those of us who believed in global warming were laughed at and berated. Year after year we watched our ice caps melting while government officials and the scientific community claimed climate change was fiction. Study after study was ignored, but videos of glaciers breaking up and polar bears drifting on blocks of ice finally got through to the general population. Common sense prevailed. Science caught up.

So now we face another critical situation. Our food and water is being poisoned. Genetically modified foods are contaminating our food supply both through processed foods and by cross pollination. Our water is fluoridated even though studies show fluoride is toxic and doesn’t necessarily prohibit tooth decay. Our food is poisoned with herbicides and pesticides. We now grow foods with built in pesticides. We feed cows, pigs, and chickens antibiotics, hormones, and genetically modified feed. We allow companies like Monsanto to do their own safety testing. Our food supply has become one huge, dangerous scientific experiment. Cancer, auto-immune disease, asthma, ADHD, autism, obesity—they all tell us we are in deep trouble.

And yet, so many people believe our food is good for us. That poisons don’t affect us. That our government protects us.

We have to keep spreading the word, educating Americans about how big business is destroying our health, our soil, our seed supply, and our food supply. We have to make our leaders accountable. Our voices are growing stronger. We are beginning to turn the tide. If we persevere, one day we will tip the scales.

We need to realize the power we hold through consumerism. Buy organic. Stop supporting big business, especially those businesses that are destroying our food supply. Make noise. Spread the word. Share a link to Organic Lifestyle Magazine with all of your friends.

As our numbers grow and we demand healthy food along with our right to alternative health care, our leaders will have no choice but to listen. And suddenly the idea of eating untested genetically modified foods along with herbicides and poisons or eating meat full of hormones and antibiotics from animals raised on feed their bodies cannot properly digest will be seen for what it is, suicidal behavior. When our numbers grow, common sense will prevail. We can do it. We can tip the scales.