EPA Refuses To Ban Chlorpyrifos – Linked To Neurological Problems With Children

Due to concerns that the insecticide can harm the brain and nervous system, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned chlorpyrifos for household uses in 2000 but agricultural companies are still allowed to spray it on our food.

In August of 2015 public health groups petitioned the agency to reconsider their decision, stating the pesticide should be banned from agriculture. In August 2018, a federal court ordered the EPA to review a petition. The EPA has reviewed the decision and decided not to ban chlorpyrifos.

EPA has determined that their objections must be denied because the data available are not sufficiently valid, complete or reliable to meet petitioners’ burden to present evidence demonstrating that the tolerances are not safe.”

CNN

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

It is a tragedy that this administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health. But this is only a setback. Lawmakers in states like Hawaiʻi and New York are now showing the rest of the country that banning this dreadful pesticide is not only possible, but inevitable.”

Attorney Patti Goldman of Earthjustice – represents the groups that took the issue to court

Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxic pesticide that kills a number of pests including insects and worms. By inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase enzyme it destroys the nervous systems of insects. The enzyme also regulates nerve impulses in the human body. Acute poisoning causes convulsions, respiratory paralysis, and sometimes death. Chlorpyrifos is one of the pesticide most frequently linked to pesticide poisonings.

Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

Chlorpyrifos is associated with neurodevelopmental harms in children. Prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos can lead to “lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders, and delayed motor development.”




Autism Linked To Preservative In Processed Foods – New Study

Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have discovered cellular changes to neuronal stem cells when exposed to propionic acid (PPA), a preservative used to extend shelf life and reduce mold in processsed foods, breads, and cheeses.

The study shows how preservatives in food can reduce the development of neurons in fetal brains. highlighting the importance of diet for pregnant women,

Dr. Saleh A. Naser is Associate Director of the Biomedical Sciences department in College of Medicine’s Burnett School. He specializes in gastroenterology research. Dr. Naser saw reports that autistic children suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and other gastric issues. Curious about the gut-brain anxious and how it may affect children with autism, Dr. Naser examined the gut bacteria of those diagnosed with autism.

Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

Studies have shown a higher level of PPA in stool samples from children with autism and the gut microbiome in autistic children is different. I wanted to know what the underlying cause was.”

Dr. Naser – Science Daily

PPA exists naturally in our gut. But the study shows that eating foods containing the preservative can increase PPA in the woman’s gut, which can then crosses into the fetus.

Laboratory tests show that exposing neural stem cells to excessive PPA damages brain cells. The acid reduces the number of neurons and increases the number of glial cells (excess glial cells disturb connectivity between neurons and cause inflammation).

Related: How To Heal Your Gut 

Excessive amounts of PPA also damage pathways neural pathways that communicate with the body. Reduced neurons and damaged pathways disrupt the brain’s ability to communicate. This can cause repetitive behavior and difficulty socializing.

To understand the inflammatory response and GI disorder in individuals with ASD, we studied the effect of PPA on gliosis and inflammatory cytokines in differentiated hNSCs. Our data showed that PPA seems to upregulate TNF-α and IL-10 and increase the level of the cytokines (Fig. 6). Since PPA induced glial cell differentiation and increase in TNF-α and IL-10 transcription and translation, we propose that exposure to PPA during gestation may be related to gliosis and inflammation as reported in multiple neuro-developmental diseases including ASD. Specifically, exposure to high dose of PPA during early stages of neural stem cell development promotes proliferation and activation of glial cells, recapitulating the state of neuro-inflammation as reported in the post-partum autistic brain18,19,20,35.”

Propionic Acid Induces Gliosis and Neuro-inflammation through Modulation of PTEN/AKT Pathway in Autism Spectrum Disorder




Glyphosate Still Contaminates Organic Oats, Children’s Cereals, and Other Snack Products

It shouldn’t be a surprise but, of course, it still needs to be reported. The kid’s cereals and other packaged marketed to children still contain alarming amounts of glyphosate, the cancer-causing ingredient in Roundup, the herbicide produced by Bayer-Monsanto. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected the carcinogen in all 21 oat-based cereal and snack products sampled in their latest testing.

Nearly two dozen popular children’s cereals and other snack products tested and show to contain glyphosate.

Organic oats were not exempt from glyphosate contamination either.

EWG noted that only four products “contained levels of glyphosate higher than what EWG scientists consider protective for children’s health with a sufficient margin of safety.”

The new tests were performed by independent laboratories and they confirm the findings from EWG’s testing in July and October of last year. Honey Nut Cheerios and Medley Crunch showed the two highest levels of glyphosate at between 729 and 833 parts per billion. The EWG “children’s health benchmark” is 160 ppb.

EWG-commissioned independent laboratory tests of oat-based products found glyphosate present in 95 percent of samples made with conventionally grown oats and 31 percent of samples made with organic oats. Conventional products had much higher glyphosate levels than their organic counterparts.

It is common practice for conventional oats to be sprayed with glyphosate prior to harvest, as a desiccant that kills all crops uniformly. Organic oats are not treated that way, but may become contaminated by glyphosate drifting from nearby conventional crops.

How Does EWG Set a ‘Health Benchmark’ for Glyphosate Exposure?

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

Products testing positive include:

  • Honey Nut Cheerios (147 ppb)
  • Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal (729 ppb)
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios (400ppb)
  • Cheerios Oat Crunch Cinnamon (283 ppb)
  • Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch (833 ppb)
  • Multi Grain Cheerios (216 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Baked Oat Bites (389 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Granola Peanut Butter Creamy & Crunchy (198 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Granola Protein Oats n Dark Chocolate (261 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Fruit & Nut Chewy Trail Mix Granola Bars, Dark Chocolate & Nut (76 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Fruit & Nut Chewy Trail Mix Granola Bars – Dark Chocolate Cherry (275 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Sweet & Salty Nut granola bars – Cashew (158 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Oats and Honey (320 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Peanut Butter (312 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Crunchy granola bars – Maple Brown Sugar (566 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares – Blueberry (206
    ppb)
  • Nature Valley Soft-Baked Oatmeal Squares – Cinnamon Brown Sugar (124 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Granola Cups – Almond Butter (529 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Granola Cups – Peanut Butter Chocolate (297 ppb)
  • Nature Valley Biscuits with Almond Butter (194 ppb)
  • Fiber One Oatmeal Raisin soft-baked cookies (204 ppb).
Related: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

EWG purchased products via online retail sites. Approximately 300 grams of each product were packed in our Washington, D.C., office and shipped to Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco. Glyphosate levels were analyzed by a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method described here.

In New Round of Tests, Monsanto’s Weedkiller Still Contaminates Foods Marketed to Children




How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an intestinal disorder that causes pain in the belly, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. Sometimes the condition goes away without treatment, and for some, it ends up being a lifelong affliction. IBS is often associated with stress, depression, anxiety, or a previous intestinal infection. IBS is often referred to as spastic colon or spastic bowel.

What’s the Difference between IBS, IBD, CD, and UC?

IBS: irritable bowel syndrome

IBD: inflammatory bowel disease

CD: Crohn’s disease

UC: ulcerative colitis

Dysbiosis: gut microbial imbalance

With irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), there is an autoimmune reaction to foods, bacteria, or other substances in the intestinal tract. Most conventional medical professionals do not believe that IBS causes inflammation, ulcers, or other damage to the intestinal tract. The digestive system looks normal under x-ray, but it doesn’t function properly. Conventional medical professionals believe IBS has a physiological basis. It is associated with stress, depression, and anxiety. But today, newer technologies are now being used with older methods to reveal specific abnormalities associated with IBS. For doctors keeping up with research, it’s no longer thought of as primarily psychosomatic.

Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are both inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). IBD is not believed to have a physiological basis (it’s not associated with stress, depression, anxiety). IBD can be debilitating and can cause life-threatening complications.

How to Know if You Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Doctors call IBS a “functional disease.” A person with IBS will have many or all of the following symptoms, but current medical testing won’t show any physical explanation for these symptoms. IBS is also sometimes called spastic colon or spastic bowel. Symptoms will often fade or even become nonexistent for a period of time.

Symptoms of IBS can include:

  • Abdominal pain
  • Cramping
  • Gas
  • Diarrhea
  • Constipation
  • Alternating diarrhea and constipation
  • Bloating
  • The feeling that a bowel movement may be incomplete
  • Stools that contain mucus, which may be white in color
  • Nausea after eating
  • For women, symptoms tend to flare up during their menstrual period

There is no test to definitively diagnose IBS. Doctors generally look at medical history and perform a physical exam along with other tests to rule out other conditions. If you have IBS with chronic diarrhea, the doctor should also test for celiac disease.

How to Know if You Have Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease is an umbrella term for disorders that involve chronic inflammation in the digestive tract. Types of IBD include ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD).

UC is characterized by chronic inflammation and ulcers in the innermost lining of the large intestine and rectum.

CD is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract. Crohn’s can affect any part of the digestive tract, from the mouth to the rectum, but it usually affects the small intestine near the connection to the large intestine.

IBD is considered a “structural disease.” This means there is underlying physical damage that causes the symptoms. With IBD, doctors can see physical signs of chronic inflammation or ulcers when they examine the gut.

IBD can cause serious longterm damage to the digestive system, and it will increase one’s risk of colorectal cancer.

New research shows that IBD may be the body’s way of compensating for a “leaky gut.”

“Both have significant overlap in terms of symptoms, pathophysiology, and treatment, suggesting the possibility of IBS and IBD being a single disease entity albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum.”

NCBI

“Irritable Bowel Syndrome may be related to chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and may be a strong correlation with Leaky Gut Syndrome.”

Alt Med

Our results suggest that when there is a chronically leaky intestine, defects in the immune system need to be present for the development of IBD.”

Charles Parkos, MD, PhD

Symptoms of IBD can include the previously mentioned symptoms of IBS and the following:

  • Blood in your stools
  • Black stools
  • Weight loss
  • Loss of appetite
  • Fatigue
  • Severe, frequent diarrhea
  • Progressively worsening symptoms
  • Fever
  • Inflammation throughout the body

The Difference Between a Healthy Gut and an Unhealthy Gut

Scientists estimate that there are 100 trillion or so microorganisms in the human body, and they say approximately half of these microbes live in the gut.

“…the number of microbial cells we carry can be as much as 10 times greater than the total cell number in the human body, and their genetic information is at least 150-fold greater than that of our human genome.”

Microbial endocrinology

Dysbiosis (also called dysbacteriosis) is a gut flora imbalance. We now know that such an imbalance profoundly affects our wellbeing. We know that it can lead to neuropsychiatric symptoms and conditions, autoimmune disorders, allergies, cancer, bowel diseases, obesity, diabetes, and more. We know that a gut imbalance can exacerbate every chronic disease. On that note, I surmise that a gut imbalance is the cause of more than 99% of modern chronic diseases.

Scientists are just beginning to understand the importance of gut health and the connection it has with autoimmune diseases. For a naturopath, it’s a pretty interesting time to be alive. While social media giants are censoring natural cures, credible scientists are busy discovering that gut microbes are found all over the body, and how an unhealthy gut may make one more likely to suffer from adverse vaccine reactions, mental disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

Allow me to take some liberties to explain what’s really going on in the gut.

The Gut Microbiome

For a long time, we’ve had this idea that the gut lets certain items pass into the rest of the body and blocks certain items, end of story. Supple, permeable living tissue doesn’t work that way; it’s not so black and white.

A healthy gut has a healthy gut microbiome. A healthy gut microbiome is a gut lining of bacterial biofilm that covers the entire intestinal tract.

We are on the verge of a health revolution. In fact, we’re in the middle of one. Gut microbes are being discovered in various glands and organs and all over the human body. We also have recently come to find that there are not merely hundreds of different kinds of bacteria on our gut, but thousands. This number will keep growing for some time.

Gut bacteria does so much more than just digest food. A healthy microbiome breaks down and removes toxins from the body like heavy metals, glyphosates, and BPAs. Healthy bacteria can also cause an anti-inflammatory response in the gut and throughout the entire body. Our beneficial gut bacteria also produce enzymes we need for good health. The microbiome acts as a shield that lines the intestinal wall and breaks down particles before they pass through the intestinal wall into the body. This process not only allows for nutrient assimilation, but gut bacteria also synthesize vitamin K and B vitamins including cobalamin, folates, pyridoxine, riboflavin, and thiamine. And that’s merely what we now know. There could be many more necessary nutrients that our bacteria produce for us.

Let’s look at B12. It’s been said that B12 is only created in the lower intestine where we don’t absorb the nutrients. I suspect there may be a mechanism for which the nutrients can move up into the lower part of the upper intestine, but there’s no evidence of this. So the consensus has been that humans need to either eat meat, supplement with B12, or eat our own feces. But, a study found that there is actually some bacteria in the small intestine that can produce B12 in some people. This bacteria is less common in people who adhere to the Western diet, and this makes sense because the Western diet and lifestyle stifle bacterial diversity in the gut.

The gut microbiome also houses gastrointestinal immune cells, known as “Peyer’s patches.” These immune cells protect the intestinal tract against infection by releasing white blood cells.

In other words, our gut bacteria contains white blood cells (a healthy gut microbiome contains more white blood cells) and these cells and the gut bacteria together act as a barrier to keep undigested particles (and toxins) out of the rest of our body, and they synthesize nutrients we need. Our gut bacteria also suppresses cancer, helps regulate our hormones, and even affects our DNA! We need a lot of different kinds of bacteria to do right by us. Chronically ill people have less diversity in the gut microbiome. The diversity of gut bacteria helps keep each and every potential pathogen in check.

The Most Interesting Part – THE GUT ALWAYS LEAKS

In my mind, the most important and interesting job of our gut bacteria is how it affects our immune system throughout our whole body. As mentioned previously, there was this belief that our gut bacteria pretty much stayed in the gut, only leaking out of the gut if the gut is “leaky.” This is wholly inaccurate.

The gut “leaks” our beneficial bacteria into our entire body. A healthy gut is a factory that produces a vast array of, and massive quantities of, beneficial bacteria. This bacteria seeps into and all over the body to provide protection from pathogenic activity. But most people in our modern world do not have healthy gut microbiomes.

If you have an ache from an old injury that never seems to heal all the way, you have pathogenic activity infecting that injury, causing inflammation and pain. Damaged or dead cells in the body feed microbes. If the body is full of beneficial bacteria the damaged and dead cells will be feeding beneficial bacteria, and the dead and damaged cells will be broken down and cleaned up by enzymes and beneficial bacteria.

The “bad” bacteria and other pathogenic microbes attack the body, as we all know, and their lifecycle causes off-gassing that damages the surrounding cells while they feed off of the damage they create. With more pathogenic activity in the body, the immune system becomes overwhelmed and begins reacting to allergens.

Have you ever walked by the perfume aisle in a department store, or walked through the cleaning products in your grocery store and suddenly noticed a bad taste in the back of your mouth? This is post nasal drip caused by chemicals damaging the cells in your nasal cavities. Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other pathogens feed off of or otherwise benefit from damaged cells. Damaged cells release sugars, starches, and fats that feed pathogens, and they allow the proliferation of viruses. If your body contains lots of pathogens, breathing in chemicals will cause an immediate proliferation of pathogenic activity, which can lead to illness.

A body with massive amounts of a wide variety of healthy bacteria will have a different reaction. The beneficial bacteria will still feed off of the damage like pathogens do, but the vast variety of healthy microflora eliminates the possibility of infection by any one type of microbe. If you have only a few kinds of bacteria in such a situation, one or more are likely to proliferate and become pathogenic, or yeast or other pathogens can take over. Many of the beneficial bacteria within us are capable of causing infection. It is the variety of bacteria that keeps everything in check.

This is a very simplistic way of explaining this concept. Many kinds of beneficial bacteria strains will not ever infect us. Some will only cause problems under very unusual circumstances, and many will cause problems if left to flourish without enough beneficial microbe diversity to keep them in check. Plus, there are also autoimmune reactions and allergy issues that can come into play in this scenario. But the point of this section is to provide an understanding of how important a healthy microbiome is to our immune system. Earlier I wrote, “allow me to take some liberties” because I do not yet see that science has discovered this function of our microflora. So, feel free to take my conclusions here with a grain of salt, but we do know that the gut bacteria work this way (warding off infection) in the gut, and we know how and why variety is paramount to good health (keeps bacteria and yeast in check), and we now know that gut bacteria also is found in the brain and the liver (it’s all over the body, we’ll discover this soon enough). And we know that gut bacteria evolves based on its environment. To understand how to achieve optimum health you just need to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Dysbiosis Causes IBS and IBD and Other Autoimmune Diseases

As mentioned, dysbiosis is an impaired or unbalanced microbiota. An unbalanced microbiome causes poor digestion of food, poor nutrient uptake, a “leaky gut” that leaks food particles and toxins into the bloodstream allowing pathogenic activity. Typically, with our modern, antibacterial world and our limited gut bacteria, virulent bacteria (often antibiotic resistant), viruses, parasites, and lots of fungi are able to flourish in our bodies.

Consider the examples above (the perfume aisle, aches, and pains that don’t heal). It’s easy to understand how chronic inflammation and autoimmune disease works.

Celiac Disease May Be Causing Dysbiosis

If diarrhea is a predominant IBS symptom, celiac disease or another gluten intolerance is a likely cause. Celiac disease is characterized by gluten causing chronic inflammation of the small intestinal mucosa. This causes the intestinal villi (small finger-like projections of tissue called villi which increase the surface area of the intestine) to atrophy (waste away), which leads to malabsorption (nutrition is not absorbed properly). Dysbiosis can cause these symptoms too, so it’s a bit of a chicken-egg issue. Gluten allergies and wheat allergies are also common with gut issues and may be precursors to celiac disease.

Research suggests that many people with IBS and IBD have celiac disease. Medical professionals are starting to see that wheat can trigger IBS and lead to IBD and celiac disease. Research also suggests that many more people have celiac disease than originally thought.

Celiac disease can be diagnosed using simple blood tests, but even if tests come back negative, other gluten intolerances are still likely.

If you have an impaired gut, get off wheat! Even the healthier varieties of breads are problematic until the gut is healed. For more information on why wheat is such an issue for so many, check out Gluten Intolerance, Wheat Allergies, and Celiac Disease – It’s More Complicated Than You Think.

How to Treat IBS, IBD, Dysbiosis

Like almost everything else in conventional medicine, treatments for IBS and IBD focus on relieving symptoms, not on curing the disease. Conventional treatments don’t work because they don’t address the actual cause. Conventional treatments include a wide variety of drugs to manage inflammation (which will make the health problems worse in the long run), minimal (insufficient) diet changes, and a few supplements (often of dubious quality) like fiber and probiotics. For IBS, many doctors also recommend therapy.

In order to manage dysbiosis, one needs to manage their diet. Cut out refined foods, wheat, dairy, and chemicals such as artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, soy, GMOs, and MSG.

How To Cure IBS, IBD, Dysbiosis

Managing disease is for suckers. Ridding the body of disease is a much better option. It takes patience and time, but it will likely take a lot less time than how long it took to develop the autoimmune issues.

Most prescription drugs cause or at least exacerbate gut problems. One can still make the gut much healthier and elevate many chronic conditions while on prescription drugs, but as long as prescription drugs are consumed the gut will not be fully well.

This is also true for over-the-counter medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol. And if you smoke, you’ll have to quit. Smoking wreaks havoc on the gut in a variety of ways. You will never have a healthy gut if you smoke.

One of my favorite quotes:

‘There is only one disease: cellular malfunction. And there are only two causes of disease: deficiency and toxicity.”

Raymond Francis

The key to better gut health is eliminating toxins and getting the proper nutrition. You might be thinking, “If only it were that simple…” And in a way, it is. But in other ways, our modern world complicates things.

Diet for Dysbiosis – How To Build Healthy Gut Microbiota

The best bacteria love the best foods. Nature wouldn’t work right if it were any other way. The healthiest foods are raw vegetables and herbs. A wide variety of healthy bacteria is essential for optimum health. Different bacteria like different foods at different stages of digestion. This means that if you blend your vegetables in a blender before you consume them you’re missing out on feeding some of the bacteria that would have broken down the vegetables to that state. Unprocessed, unadulterated vegetables and herbs are essential for building incredibly diverse, strong, and healthy gut flora. Salads are the key. And not just any salad. I’m talking about huge salads with 15 different vegetables and five different herbs. All fresh. Here’s the salad recipe: Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included. The cranberry lemonade recipe in that article will also help detoxify and bring the body into homeostasis.

Many people can’t digest salads well enough. This may cause discomfort. I recommend starting off with smaller salads and building up while snacking on small amounts of random vegetables throughout the day. But any doctor who tells you that salads are bad for you because your body is different, or because you need more “heat producing” foods, or whatever, is wrong! Most people will benefit from ingesting huge salads right away, and a select few need to work their way up to them, but this is the most important step to building a healthy gut colony in the gut.

Other meals should only include whole foods and these meals should be prepared by you. Do not let a company prepare your meals. Don’t even buy nut milk. Make it yourself. It’s easy and much cheaper, here’s how.

I do recommend grains (brown rice, wild rice, amaranth, montina, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and sorghum. But avoid oats until the gut is well.), legumes (when soaked and/or sprouted properly), and nuts and seeds (seeds are typically easier to digest than nuts). But these foods will need to be brought into the diet slowly if digestive troubles occur when they are consumed. Once the right kind of bacteria is flourishing in the gut, whole healthy foods are much easier to digest.

Cooked vegetables are also wonderful for you. I eat an 11 cup salad for breakfast and I also usually put tons of vegetables and herbs in my dinner. Dinner at my house usually consists of a grain, a legume, lots of veggies, and lots of herbs.

Meat from a healthy free-range animal is typically fine for people who are healing the gut. So are eggs when they’re from healthy chickens. Like with the aforementioned, these may need to be introduced slowly if stomach troubles occur.

Avoid sweet fruits at first and slowly introduce them later as the gut gets better and better. Most of the fruit that we eat is not what we would have found in nature. We’ve evolved to eat fruit seasonally, and most of the fruit we did eat was not nearly as sweet before hybridization.

The benefits of eating like this also include not having to take a bunch of vitamins and minerals. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies will normalize and the body will take what it needs and discard what it doesn’t. But if you still feel you need vitamins and minerals I recommend Total Nutrition and Liquid Light.

Best Supplements For IBS, IBD, Dysbiosis

Most Important:

The SF722 kills all fungi better than anything else I know of. Abzorb supplies vitamin D, Magnesium, systemic enzymes, and a probiotic. Take Abzorb without food to heal the gut and with meals to help digest the food. Berberine is an anti-microbial pre-biotic with tons of other health benefits, read more here. The MycoCeutics is an anti-microbial fungal complex, and MicroDefense kills non-beneficial microbes including parasites.

Optional (depending on symptoms and budget):

Shillington’s Intestinal Detox is a clay, fiber, and charcoal intestinal detoxifier. It can slow down bowel movements. Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse kills parasites and restores gut function. It can make bowel movements easier. The two work very well together. Shillington’s Total Healing Poultice Powder is good for ulcers. Syntol AMD is another probiotic enzyme blend. Total Nutrition is a good multivitamin that contains algae, astragalus, alfalfa, seaweed, lots of vitamin C and some B vitamins. Liquid Light is a multi-mineral formula.

If you’re curious about more supplements to help heal the gut here’s a list of 25 more.




Remove Pesticide Residue With Baking Soda

Pesticides and herbicides get absorbed by the crops they’re sprayed on but most of the chemicals are left on the outer most part of the produce. Organic is better than conventional but organic certification does allow some pesticide and herbicide usage. Produce usually looks clean at the store but there’s plenty of pesticide residue on them.

The apples you buy in grocery stores are already washed, usually in a bleach solution, and rinsed before they’re sold, says study author Lili He, Ph.D., assistant professor of food science at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The purpose of this, however, is to remove dirt and kill any harmful microbes that may be on the fruit. “It’s not intended to wash away pesticides,” He says.

Consumer Reports

Many people are buying designed to wash produce, or scrubbing foods in running water, or using bleach, but according to new research, these options don’t do much good. But baking soda does.

Surface pesticide residues were most effectively removed by sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, NaHCO3) solution…”

Effectiveness of Commercial and Homemade Washing Agents in Removing Pesticide Residues on and in Apples

The study used thiabendazole and phosmet as the pesticides. Apples were exposed to the pesticides for 24 hours, “applied at a concentration of 125 ng/cm2.”

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

The authors say that a baking soda washing solution can completely remove thiabendazole and phosmet surface residues of apples in about 15 minutes. That’s a lot of washing! The study authors are not clear if the produce needs to be scrubbed or just left to soak or what, but we suspect just letting them soak in a solution of water and baking soda for fifteen minutes should work. We’re attempted contact with a couple of the authors and are awaiting clarification on this. We’ll update if we hear back.

Their results showed that 20% of the thiabendazole and 4.4% of the phosmet penetrated into the apples following the exposure. So it’s not practically possible to remove all of the chemicals from the produce.

 In practical application, washing apples with NaHCO3 solution can reduce pesticides mostly from the surface. Peeling is more effective to remove the penetrated pesticides; however, bioactive compounds in the peels will become lost too.

It should also be noted that different fruits and vegetables will absorb chemicals at different rates and some will have better results from baking soda washing than others.

Recommended Reading:

How To Heal Your Gut

Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

Stop Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet




Trump Administration Wants To Relax Rules on GMO Crops

The Trump administration wants to exempt many new genetically engineered crops from regulation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Trump wants it to be easier for genetically engineered plants and animals to enter the food supply. He signed an executive order on June 11th to have federal agencies simplify the “regulatory maze” for genetically modified food producers.

The administration says it wants to cut the cost of genetically modified crop development and exempt crops that have similar traits to plants that could be produced through hybridization (traditional plant breeding). GMO companies would be allowed to determine if their products are exempt from regulation.

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

The administration argues the approach will allow regulators to focus on ‘increasingly complex products which, in turn, may pose new types of risks.’ “

Bloomberg

Crops produced with the newer gene-editing technologies wouldn’t automatically be subject to special oversight under the proposed rule. GMO companies say gene-editing makes it so that they can easily and more precisely alter the DNA of plants and animals, and that these changes to the DNA could be done with conventional breeding techniques.

Jaydee Hanson of the Center for Food Safety warns that these new gene editing techniques can make significant changes, “including those that would never happen in nature,” and says that the companies need oversight.

The proposed rules are open for public comment through Aug. 5 before the department issues a final regulation.

The Trump Administration has been friendly to companies like Bayer (formerly Monsanto) in the past. In 2019 Trump’s administration lifted Obama’s ban on GMOs and bee-killing chemicals in wildlife refuges.




Oregon To Allow Dentists To Vaccinate Patients

Governor Kate Brown of Oregon signed House Bill 2220 on May 6, 2019, to allow dentists in Oregon to administer vaccinations including MMR, HPV, and influenza shots to their patients during dental checkups

Dentists will need to be certified in order to administer the vaccines. They will need training on vaccination and they will have to comply with state vaccine storage and reporting regulations.

Dentists in Minnesota and Illinois can administer influenza vaccines to adults only. Oregon is the first state in the U.S. to allow dentists to vaccinate patients of any age or to vaccinate with more than only the flu shot.

Before dentists start vaccinating patients, the Oregon Board of Dentistry needs to figure out how to implement the new rules safely. Board director Stephen Prisby says one of the issues to be addressed is how dentists will know what vaccines their patients already received.

They won’t have all the vaccine history of a patient. They’ll have to communicate with the primary health care provider or have access to those records. So that’s one of those wrinkles we’ll have to be addressed in rules.

Stephen Prisby

Recommended: