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What you should know about soy, by Dr. Richard Brouse

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What You Need to Know About Soy or How safe is your soy protein?
by Dr. Richard Brouse

Common Concerns About Soy:

Do soybeans cause cancer?

It is true that “overcooked” soy does contain “carcinogenic” compounds. When soy is extruded through high temperature, high-pressure steam nozzles to form what is called “textured vegetable protein – TVP for short”, this form of processing renders the soy “meat substitute” carcinogenic or cancer causing. TVP is what is used in soy dogs and soy burgers, and should be avoided.

What about roasted soybeans?

Whole soybeans are high in plant fat. If soybeans are roasted to eat as soy nuts, the heat alters the fat and makes it a trans-fatty acid, which causes both cancer and heart disease. As roasted soy nuts sit on the shelf or in the cupboard in storage, the oils are becoming more and more rancid and carcinogenic. AVOID roasted soybeans.

But I’ve heard that soy protein is hard on the kidneys!

Animal protein is much harder to digest than vegetable protein. Since many people have digestive difficulties, protein that is not thoroughly digested is very challenging to the kidneys. Powdered protein is in a predigested state, and the BEST protein source to choose! Protein is not the enemy – it is essential for life. It is true, however, that EXCESSIVE protein is hard on the kidneys, so if a person consumes more than 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily, AND does not consume adequate carbohydrates with it, this could cause kidney damage.

I have breast cancer, and I’ve been told I cannot have soy!

It is true that soy is a “phyto-estrogen” food, which means it contains substances that have hormone-like components. However, their estrogen strength is 1/1000th that of the body’s own stronger estrogens. Therefore, you want to load your digestive system with quality controlled raw soy powder, because these weaker estrogens will block the estrogen receptor sites from receiving your body’s own stronger estrogens and therefore be very protective against estrogen fed cancer.

Essential Seven Checklists for a Quality Safe Soy Product:

1) Were the soybeans ORGANICALLY GROWN?

Studies have shown decreased levels of food nutrients and increased levels of nitrates in chemically fertilized crops, when compared with their organic counterparts. There is a connection between the ingestion of nitrates & CANCER! Therefore, it is important to know that pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides have not been used during the growing process. In particular, with soybeans, since they are such a hardy plant, a powerful and DEADLY weed spray called Round up is usually used. For your safety, you must know that your soy products are organically grown.

2) Were the soybeans GENETICALLY ENGINEERED?

Genetically engineered soybeans are much cheaper to purchase, and most companies producing soy products look for ways to save money.

3) Does your soybean powder contain ALL of the nine essential amino acids?

One of the most valuable features of the soybean is that it is a complete protein and provides ALL nine of the essential amino acids. The body requires these daily to produce hormones, digestive juices, antibodies, and enzymes. HOWEVER, not all soybeans are created equal. Quality and amino acid content will vary based on soil conditions, and variable growing and harvest conditions. If one essential amino acid is missing, the immune system can be depressed 30%, and many important body functions are delayed or stopped. Therefore, it is essential that each batch of soybeans be checked for amino acid content if we want to depend on the soy isolate to provide a GUARANTEED supply of the nine essential amino acids.

4) Were the crushed soy flakes washed in alcohol or water?

Alcohol washing destroys isoflavones content up to 88%! It is the isoflavones that reduce the risk of breast, prostate, lung and bowel cancer! As well, it is the isoflavones that are so beneficial in hormone balancing and increasing bone mass.

5) Was the “anti-thyroid”, “anti-growth” substance in the raw soy removed?

Orientals, who have consumed large amounts of soy for years, have known that RAW soy contains an “anti-growth”, “anti-tyrosine” substance. Tyrosine deficiency will cause low blood pressure, low body temperature, and restless leg syndrome. Therefore, Orientals always lightly cook their soy foods to deactivate the “anti-tyrosine/anti-growth” substance. Shaklee has designed an extracting process that removes this substance, yet keeps the soy in a raw form in order to maintain the HIGHEST LEVEL OF AMINO ACIDS and ISOFLAVONES, which are very sensitive to heat.

6) Is your soybean food RAW or heated?

Amino acids are very sensitive to heat. In some studies, cooking protein has been shown to destroy up to 50% of some ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS. If an individual consistently consumes a diet that is lacking in all of the essential amino acids, inadequate brain development and hormones, or other body tissue development can be the result.

7) Has CALCIUM been added to your soy powder?

Some negative reports about soy say that soy powders are VERY ACIDIC and cause bone loss because it causes calcium to be drawn from the bones!!!! The raw soy bean is a NEUTRAL food–neither acidic or alkaline. However, the removal of the soybean oil (which is essential so the soy powder will not go rancid very quickly), makes the powder very acidic. Therefore, adequate calcium (which is very alkaline) must be added to cause the powder to be neutral again, or it can cause the above stated problem. Many protein powder manufacturers do not add any or enough calcium.

About the Author:

Dr. Brouse is a widely recognized authority in the fields of nutrition and prevention of chronic degenerative diseases. Dr. Brouse has a Master’s in Biochemistry and is a Doctor of Chiropractic. He was an Associate Professor of Clinical Nutrition for 14 years and founded the renowned Sunnyside Health Center in Clackamas Oregon in 1977. Since that time many people throughout the world have regained a greater measure of health while following the recommendations of the clinic’s health professionals.

For a quality soy supplements that meets all the above criteria [Click Here] 

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Soyfoods Review by Dr.Mark Messina

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 Soy and Your Health: An Update on the Benefits

 

By: Mark Messina, PhD

 

Soyfoods have been a part of Asian diets for centuries. Today, there is a growing interest in these foods among westerners because of their proposed health benefits and also because their versatility makes them valuable for replacing meat and dairy foods in the diet. Soybeans provide excellent nutrition and contain a number of biologically active components that collectively may be responsible for a variety of health benefits. However, most of the interest in soy is due to their isoflavone content. Isoflavones have been rigorously studied for their protective effects against several chronic diseases including osteoporosis, coronary heart disease and certain forms of cancer.

 

Soy Isoflavones

 

Isoflavones are essentially unique to soyfoods; no other commonly-consumed foods contain enough to impact health [1]. Although they are among a group of naturally-occurring compounds known as phytoestrogens (plant estrogens), isoflavones are much different from the hormone estrogen. In fact, they are most accurately classified as SERMs (selective estrogen receptor modulators) [2]. Other examples of SERMs are the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and the breast cancer and osteoporosis drug, raloxifene. The effects of SERMs vary depending upon a variety of circumstances. SERMs like isoflavones may have estrogen-like effects, but depending on a number of factors, they may also have effects opposite to those of estrogen or no effects at all in tissues that are affected by estrogen. Therefore, looking at the health effects of estrogen doesn’t provide much information about how isoflavones act. The only way to learn about the effects of isoflavones is to look directly at their biological activity in studies.

 

Soybean Nutrition

 

Soybeans are unique among legumes, a group of foods that includes beans, peas, and lentils, because they are much higher in protein and fat than other beans, and lower in carbohydrate [3]. The fat in soybeans is primarily a combination of heart-healthy essential polyunsaturated omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids [4]. This makes soybeans one of the few plant foods to provide both of the essential fatty acids. The carbohydrate in soy is comprised primarily of simple sugars that have been shown in some studies to act as prebiotics, thereby stimulating the growth of healthy bacteria in the colon. Soyfoods are also good sources of B vitamins and minerals such as potassium, iron and sometimes calcium. Soybeans are perhaps best known for their high protein content. Although soybeans contain trypsin inhibitors, compounds which can interfere with the digestion of protein, the normal processing used to produce soyfoods inactivates these compounds. As a result, protein in soy is very well digested; digestion typically exceeds 90 percent. For this reason, and because of its 2 excellent amino acid profile, soy protein is comparable in quality to the protein in animal products [5].

 

Soyfoods and Heart Disease

 

Research suggests that incorporating soyfoods into the diet may decrease LDL-cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) by as much as 8 percent [6]. When soyfoods replace conventional sources of protein in western diets, saturated fat intake is reduced and polyunsaturated fat intake is increased. As a result, blood cholesterol levels will be lowered. That soyfoods contain a combination of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is especially important for reducing risk of heart disease [7]. In addition to the healthy fat found in soy, soy protein has been shown to directly reduce levels of blood cholesterol. The Food and Drug Administration awarded a health claim for soyfoods and coronary heart disease on this basis in 1999. The effects of soy protein are comparable to cholesterol-lowering benefits of soluble fiber, the kind found in oat bran.

 

In addition to lowering LDL-cholesterol, soyfoods give a modest boost to HDL-cholesterol, which is protective against heart disease, and reduces levels of triglycerides (another fatty compound in the blood that can raise heart disease risk). Finally, soyfoods may reduce heart disease risk in ways that are independent of their effects on cholesterol. For example, soyfoods may lower blood pressure [8] and research indicates that isoflavones directly improve the health of the arteries [9]. Therefore, even people with normal cholesterol levels can benefit by consuming soyfoods.

 

Soyfoods and Breast Cancer Risk

 

In Asian countries, where soyfoods are a usual part of the diet, breast cancer rates are much lower than in western countries. This observation helped fuel speculation that soyfoods reduce breast cancer risk. However, after years of research, it is not clear that women who begin to consume soyfoods in adulthood will lower their risk of cancer. Rather, the protective effects appear to be related to early soy consumption. That is, women who consumed these foods in childhood and/or the teen years may have a lower risk for breast cancer later in life. Protective effects of soy are thought to be due to actions of soy isoflavones on the developing breast in ways which make breast cells more resistant to being transformed into cancer cells later in life [10, 11].

 

Studies conducted in China and the United States show that the consumption of modest amounts of soy—1 to 1[1]½ servings per day—is associated with a 25 to 50% reduction in risk. Although the hypothesis that early soy intake is protective against breast cancer remains speculative, because the amount of soy needed for benefit is modest and soyfoods provide good nutrition, there is no reason to wait for the results of future research before encouraging young girls to consume soy.

 

Prostate Cancer

 

In studies of Asian populations, consumption of unfermented soyfoods such as tofu and soymilk, is associated with a reduced risk for prostate cancer. These studies show that Asian men who consume about two servings of soyfoods daily are about 30 to 50% less likely to have prostate 3 cancer than Asian men who consume little soy [12]. Some evidence also shows that, in men with prostate cancer, eating soyfoods may slow the rise of blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein associated with tumor growth [13]. Also, an important study in prostate cancer patients indicated that consuming soy isoflavones could reduce levels of an enzyme involved in cancer metastasis [14]. Finally, consumption of soyfoods may reduce some of the side effects associated with radiation therapy for prostate cancer treatment [15].

Osteoporosis

 

Because isoflavones exert estrogen-like effects under certain circumstances, scientists have been studying whether soyfoods reduce risk of osteoporosis. Two important studies show that among Asian postmenopausal women, those who are in the upper quarter of soy intake are about one third less likely to suffer a fracture [16, 17]. However, studies in which postmenopausal women have been administered soyfoods, soy protein or isoflavone supplements have produced mixed results. Some studies show an improvement in bone mineral density and some don’t. Thus, more research in this area is needed before conclusions can be made. However, because some soyfoods are good sources of calcium, and all soy products provide high-quality protein, which is important for strong bones, soyfoods can play a beneficial role in diets aimed in promoting bone health regardless of the effects of isoflavones.

 

Skin Health

 

A number of cosmetics and lotions that contain soy extracts have been shown in clinical studies to improve the health and appearance of skin. Recently, there has been interest in the effects of dietary intake of isoflavones on the skin as well. Isoflavones bind to estrogen receptors in the skin and the hormone estrogen is associated with improved skin appearance. Several small studies suggest that isoflavone intake improves skin elasticity and increases collagen synthesis [18-22]. Although it is too early for definitive conclusions about the benefits of soy for skin, research in this area is promising.

 

Hot Flashes

 

The drop in estrogen levels that occurs in menopause is linked with the onset of hot flashes. The

estrogen-like properties of isoflavones may be one reason why western women report having hot

flashes to a much greater extent than women in Japan. More than 50 clinical trials have evaluated the effects of isoflavone-containing products on the alleviation of menopausal symptoms. The most recent analysis of this research, which includes 19 studies, shows very clearly that isoflavones are effective [23]. On average, isoflavones produce a 50% decrease in the frequency and severity of hot flashes. The amount of isoflavones found in two servings of traditional soyfoods appears to be sufficient to produce this benefit.

 

Intake Recommendations

 

The 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines call for increasing the intake of plant protein. Soyfoods are an excellent way to do just that. The quality of soy protein is comparable to animal protein but soyfoods contain only minimal amounts of saturated fat. There is also intriguing evidence indicating that, independent of the nutrients they offer, soyfoods provide a number of health benefits. Based on Asian intake as well as the amounts of soy shown to be beneficial in clinical studies, a good goal is to consume about 15 to 25 grams of soy protein per day. These amounts are provided by about 2 to 4 servings of soyfoods.

 

About the Author:

 

Dr. Mark Messina is an adjunct associate professor at Loma Linda University and the Executive

Director of the Soy Nutrition Institute. He has been studying the health effects of soy for more

than 20 years and has published more than 60 scientific papers and given more than 500

presentations on soyfoods to health professionals.

 

References

1. Franke AA, Custer LJ, Wang W, Shi CY. HPLC analysis of isoflavonoids and other

phenolic agents from foods and from human fluids. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 1998, 217,

263-73.

 

2. Oseni T, Patel R, Pyle J, Jordan VC. Selective estrogen receptor modulators and

phytoestrogens. Planta Med. 2008, 74, 1656-65.

 

3. Messina MJ. Legumes and soybeans: overview of their nutritional profiles and health

effects. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1999, 70, 439S-450S.

 

4. Wu Z, Rodgers RP, Marshall AG. Characterization of vegetable oils: detailed

compositional fingerprints derived from electrospray ionization fourier transform ion

cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. J. Agric. Food Chem. 2004, 52, 5322-8.

 

5. Rand WM, Pellett PL, Young VR. Meta-analysis of nitrogen balance studies for

estimating protein requirements in healthy adults. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2003, 77, 109-27.

 

6. Jenkins DJ, Mirrahimi A, Srichaikul K, Berryman CE, Wang L, Carleton A, Abdulnour

S, Sievenpiper JL, Kendall CW, et al. Soy protein reduces serum cholesterol by both

intrinsic and food displacement mechanisms. J. Nutr. 2010, 140, 2302S-2311S.

 

7. Ramsden CE, Hibbeln JR, Majchrzak SF, Davis JM. n-6 Fatty acid-specific and mixed

polyunsaturate dietary interventions have different effects on CHD risk: a meta-analysis

of randomised controlled trials. Br. J. Nutr. 2010, 104, 1586-600.

 

8. Dong JY, Tong X, Wu ZW, Xun PC, He K, Qin LQ. Effect of soya protein on blood

pressure: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Br. J. Nutr. 2011, 1-10.

 

9. Li SH, Liu XX, Bai YY, Wang XJ, Sun K, Chen JZ, Hui RT. Effect of oral isoflavone

supplementation on vascular endothelial function in postmenopausal women: a metaanalysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2010, 91, 480-6.

 

10. Messina M, Hilakivi-Clarke L. Early intake appears to be the key to the proposed

protective effects of soy intake against breast cancer. Nutr. Cancer. 2009, 61, 792-798.

 

11. Messina M, Wu AH. Perspectives on the soy-breast cancer relation. Am. J. Clin. Nutr.

2009, 89, 1673S-1679S.

 

12. Yan L, Spitznagel EL. Soy consumption and prostate cancer risk in men: a revisit of a

meta-analysis. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2009, 89, 1155-63.

 

13. Messina M, Kucuk O, Lampe JW. An overview of the health effects of isoflavones with

an emphasis on prostate cancer risk and prostate-specific antigen levels. J. AOAC Int.

2006, 89, 1121-34.

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

No Magic Pill to end Arthritis Pain

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Gentle Reader,

In the end, and in the beginning, there is only one thing we –you and I– can do to bring lasting health to our aching bodies.  Life style change.  As I travel the Alaska Marine Highway, eat in the cafeteria on board, snack along the wharf in the various Inside Passage towns, I struggle with how to maintain my eating habits with poor choices everywhere.  Some people go on vacation and throw their healthy life-style to the winds for those 7 – 21 days.  Unfortunately the stomach doesn’t know you are on vacation and when the deep fried foods, extra sour dough bread with butter come rolling down the intestinal track, the joints react.

I’ve been having a few digestive and joint issues until yesterday when I found an IGA in Skagway with a ripe peach, some snap peas, and carrots.  Amazing how getting back to the healthy routine will quickly restore one to their mobile less-pained body.  Did I mention I also found a 4 mile round trip hike up to Dewey Lake right out of Skagway on 2nd Ave?

hiking in Skagway
hiking in Skagway, Dewey Lakes

So good to move after strolling.  What a difference.

This article about the new weight loss drug Dexaprine came across my desk.  Dr. Chaney talks about the hazards of relying on a magic pill to take care of the pounds that weigh our joints down.  It simply doesn’t work. Read his whole article here.

Want to really make a difference in your health?  Lose 10 pounds.  Safely.  Let the fat go, keep the lean muscle.  Have the energy to work out, or a least begin a walking program.  Change the way you eat, permanently.  That’s what the 180 Turnaround kit and the Lean and Healthy Kit are all about.  Consider these Shaklee products as a way to launch yourself into a permanent life-style change.  Personally, I’ll be drinking –or pouring over my breakfast cereal–a Shaklee 180 smoothee for the rest of my life, just as I have been doing ever since I achieved my goal weight 25 years ago with the Shaklee shakes and vitamins.  Why not?  Excellent science behind the product.  Delicious. Sustains energy all day. Convenient to use (I have packets with me on this trip.)  Cheaper than the fast food items at Starbuck’s or McDonalds.  Begin today.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

PS to catch the latest on the Alaska expedition, click here

PPS Leave me your diet success/struggle stories in the comment section.

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Another Diet Pill Bites the Dust

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Everyone is looking for an easy way to lose weight.

Let’s face it. Losing weight is difficult. You have to give up your favorite foods. You’re often hungry and cranky. You have to change your lifestyle. And did I mention that you might need to put on your running shoes and go for a run or, heaven forbid, actually go to the gym. It’s so much easier to take one of those diet pills. You know the ones I’m talking about. They promise to give you energy – burn the fat – suppress your appetite. All you need to do is take one of those little pills every day and, voila, you’re ready to try on that bikini.

But are those diet pills really safe? Lots of diet pills have come and gone over the years. Some have just faded away because they didn’t work. They didn’t live up to their claims. Others have been withdrawn from the market by regulatory agencies because they were dangerous or actually killed people- Ma huang and Fen-Phen come to mind, but there have been many others.

And now it looks like yet another diet pill, one called Dexaprine, may have the same fate. The ads make it sound like a wonder pill……

“With one little change…you could feel energy all day long”

“With one little change…you can suppress your insatiable appetite”

“You can try another unsuccessful diet without it, but when you’re ready…the ultimate fat burner will be waiting for you with open arms.”

And yet, like most diet pills, it also has a dark side. Side effects include insomnia, sweating, heart palpitations and high blood pressure. As if that weren’t bad enough, the supplement manufacturer that makes Dexaprine conducts no clinical studies on their products, so they have no idea whether their product is safe or not. And, it appears that it may not be safe. Dutch authorities banned Dexaprine a few days ago after reports of 11 adverse reactions associated with Dexaprine use in Holland since March of this year, including hospitalizations and severe heart problems. British authorizes followed suit the next day and issued a warning against use of “fat burner” supplements in general. It’s probably just a matter of time before other governments step in and ban Dexaprine as well.

And, it’s not just Dexaprine. New diet pills hit the market almost every day. And, they all have those same “magical” claims.

It reminds me of the wise advice that a physician colleague of mine gave to the UNC medical students near the start of their first year. He told them “The only safe drug is a new drug”. He went on to say that he didn’t mean that new drugs were safer than the older drugs. It’s just that we don’t know all of their bad side effects until they’ve been on the market for a few years.

Too many promises, so few results with weight loss magic pills
Too many promises, so few results with weight loss magic pills

 

Diets pills are no different. They burst on the market full of promise. But, once they’ve been on the market for a year or two, reports of their bad side effects start to appear. We start to learn just how dangerous they are. And, one by one, they all bite the dust.

The Bottom Line

1) There is no “Tooth Fairy”. There is no “Easter Bunny”. And, there is no magical pill that will SAFELY melt the pounds away. You simply don’t want to risk the diet pill solution – no matter how easy it sounds. No magical, “quick fix” diet solution is worth permanent heart damage – or worse.

2) If you are fortunate to lose weight safely using one of those diet pills, you won’t have learned anything. You won’t have changed anything. The weight will come right back on.

 

3) Permanent weight loss requires a permanent change to your lifestyle. Some of those changes will be difficult at first, but once those lifestyle changes become habits – once they become part of who you are, they will become easy.

You can achieve both the weight and the health you want!

To Your Health! Dr. Stephen G Chaney

 

 

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Alaska, here we come

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Gentle Reader,

My sister-in-law, Joan Bell, arrived last Wed. just as I was cleaning the paint residue from the back garden and deck. We were Alaska-bound and she had the excited energy that quivered, “Alaska, here we come.”  Of course, I had a few more things to do to be ready for our Friday morning departure. We got away by 9:30 on the 16th, heading north in the Shaklee car, my 2002 Prius.  Two stops along the way included the return of an air purifier to a customer after getting it fully functional once again, and a lovely lunch stop with the Schleh family in Mt. Vernon.  All three grandchildren were there, a rare opportunity.  Young adults are hard to gather in a clump.  They were between fairs.  Daniel and Ian proudly showed me their belt buckles, winnings for showmanship in the Skagit County Fair.  By now they have hauled into the Monroe Washington State Fair with Boar goats, Saanen goats and Highlander cows.  This will be the first year in many that I will not watch them parade their animals around the ring.

Tents on the stern of the Columbia
Young travelers to Alaska bring their own state-rooms.

Over tuna salad, Joan Schleh, my step-daughter, regaled us with her tales of jumping on a ferry for Ketchikan, fresh out of high-school, back-pack laden and ready for work in the canneries.  She had heard the call:  Alaska, here we come, figuring she could make money as well as the Filipino women who were working the line.  Without a map or a number to call, she got off the boat after 36 hours of sleeping on the deck and sharing pot luck with other campers.  Unable to locate the friend-of-a-friend, she boldly caught a ride to where there was work and signed on.  Two weeks later, she’d called home and discovered there was a job waiting for her in Washington, DC and she caught the next ferry home to try her luck on the other side of the country.  It was just as well.  No place to stay at the cannery, the foreman had cleared a shelf and indicated the space was her’s for the sleeping.  Joan’s children listened to their mother’s adventure, rapt with attention.

Columbia ferry lifebouy with Bellingham in the distance
Bellingham, WA from deck of the Columbia

We departed from Bellingham, the starting point of the Alaska Marine Highway.  My great friend and sponsor in Shaklee lives in B’ham where she has become a well-known ceramic artist. We stopped by a gallery featuring her work on our way to the ferry.  The Columbia is the biggest boat in the 11 boat fleet.  About half the crew got off with us in Ketchikan having worked a week, traveling up to Juneau and then back down to Bellingham, thence home.

In stark contrast to Joan Schleh, Joan Bell and I enjoyed a cabin with bunk beds and a bathroom with shower, money enough to eat in the dining room after drinks in the luxurious bar.  The inside passage proved to be as intimate an encounter with wild shoreline, leaping Orca whales, porpoise, harbor seals and eagles as advertised.  While we are disappointed that the uncharacteristic cloudless days of July are gone in this early Fall, the mist and fog drape the low-rise islands with seductive vails, layering green on green, reaching higher and higher into the cloud cover.  Armed with rain pants and umbrellas, we are loving the cloud-play and ever-changing weather.

View from the cabin Joan and I rented for4 nights.
Intimate harbor in front of Christmas House B&B in Ketchikan AK

Here in Ketchikan, we are tucked into an old 1940s cabin on stilts with high-tide water under the floor boards, an old propane burner in the center of the patterned linoleum floor.  Our windows look out onto an intimate harbor complete with eagle, heron and king-fisher.  Both of us have slipped into memories of cabins in Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire and Oklahoma from our childhood family vacation days.  We have 4 nights here and will not run out of things to do or places to visit.  Just today we spent several hours at the end of the road going north where its turnaround is just beyond a well-kept state park.  Various civic groups helped construct one of the safest, most extravagantly beautiful stair-filled hiking trails I have walked.  The deep sun-dappled rain forest floor covering is a Bigalow carpet of moss and tiny golden mushrooms.  Moss drips from the prickly branches of the Sitka spruce.  Brilliant red berries hang from elderberry shrubs and light the path from the centers of bunch-berry dogwood.  Salmon swell the swollen river plummeting down from the steep hill that characterizes these Inside Passage islands.

We spent the late afternoon at the fish hatchery at the extreme south end of the Tongass highway watching black bears feed on salmon, along side flocks of argumentative seagulls.  Even though three enormous and grotesquely out-of-place cruise ships dock in Ketchikan every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the streets and coffee houses are not overly crowded.  I’m not sure where all the people go.  Perhaps they are swallowed up in the various tours offered by entrepreneurial guiding services.

My step-son, who fished further north during his high school and college days, scoffed that Ketchikan was worth 4 hours at most.  Certainly not 4 days.  We are content to gaze out our window, sleep late, cook local sea food, read and read some more in between long wandering visits to the magnificent parks and trails our rental car takes us to.  Four days will be perfect.

In spite of old bones, creaky knees and complaining hips, we are both moving comfortably  helped by Pain Relief Complex and, in my case, a long session on the cabin floor to get things oiled up and moving.  That is the main remedy after all, moving.

Let me know if you have ever answered the call, Alaska, here we come.

Be well, Do well and Keep moving yourself.  And pass this along to your friends.

Betsy

206 933 1889

 

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Confessions of an arthritic painting contractor

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Gentle Reader,

Confessions of an arthritic painting contractor:

Taking down paintings, emptying book shelves, moving furniture, rolling up rugs, pulling up old wall-to-wall carpet, removing electric face-plates and then spackling, sanding, taping, and painting every wall that faces the outside is a sure-fire recipe for arthritic flare-ups of major proportion.  No matter how many times I lay down on the floor and hung my knees over the Back2Life machine; no matter how many of Shaklee’s herbal Pain Relief Complex tablets I took, I could not prevent pain from coming on.

The people I was supervising as general painting contractor were:

Carsten Rossen and Jack Dahlstrom, 14 and 16, grandsons who did major lifting and prep work and even some priming.

Hanna Rossen and Ben Killorin, 17 and 19, grandchildren who turned out to be excellent painters and were able to mask, spackle, sand, edge and roll paint with only a few drips here and there.  They each put in hours of time, their music blasting, bags of gorp and dried mangos, enormous sandwiches and Shaklee Performance drink for rehydration consumed.  Ben made the sandwiches as his first summer job was the Deli department at a local grocery store.

Elizabeth Skewis, friend of Grace, my oldest daughter, and now a great friend of mine, is a woman who has done everything under the sun for a living including painting.  She was my right hand gal, with skill and stick-to-itiveness, esthetic judgment and coaching for me and the teenagers.

Pete Rossen and Hanna, father and daughter, came to move the furniture back where it belonged after the final (almost final) painting was done.  He was the one who suggested I could hire my grandchildren when I was fretting about whom to get to do the painting.  I loved their youthful energy in the house and their “there, there, Grandma. Don’t lift anything.  Just tell us and we’ll do it.”

Mike Walker, my renter who lives down stairs and is a finish carpenter.  He put all the running toe board back in every room with his power tools.

The problem child in this final stage of the energy upgrade was, you guessed it, ME.  I love hard work and couldn’t stop myself from all the above mentioned tasks.  I did stop lifting.

Two observations that may help you who suffer from arthritis when you are over-active.

1.  Don’t stop moving.  In the middle of this ordeal I took a 3 ½ mile neighborhood walk which included a long downhill, then a beach walk and finally a 190 tread staircase and 4 long blocks uphill.  Moving keeps the nutrients flowing to the joints which are poorly nourished.  Without good nutrition, the crumbling joint cannot heal itself.  Which brings me to the second point:

2.  The cells in our joints are constantly repairing and rebuilding new, healthy cells to replace the worn out ones and to solve the problems of collapsing vertebrae.  Peggy Cappy talks about this in her meditative CD “Healing Back Pain” which I listen to nearly every day.  Wednesday, after hiking 9 miles round trip, 2000+ ft elevation gain, on Mt. Rainier’s east side to Summerland alpine meadow, I stopped for the evening with one of my hiking buddies.  Her husband is a neurologist with Group Health here in Seattle.  In our conversation he stated that these broken down joint cells do get replaced with fresh, healthy new cells that attempt to fix the problems.  He has told me many times to keep moving, no matter what.  Find something to do that doesn’t hurt and keep doing it.

Today, I spent the morning hanging pictures and scrubbing pain spots off the hard wood floors.  I have no pain.

You can build healthy joints, but you must keep moving to help your body accomplish that feat.

The house is beautiful.  It was all worth it.  Here’s a video I put together to show the energy upgrade work that was done.  When you see the space age water heater, you’ll appreciate the remark made by the city inspector when he came to sign off on the stepped-up electrical power,

“Wow.  This thing should be in the living room where you can sit with your friends, smoke a joint and watch it.”

Whoa!

May I offer a further explanation of the energy improvements under the new roof.  The Crown Roofing guys took off the old stuff including the particle board and before they put the new base and shingles on, the Vesta Performance guys laid down rigid insulation covered by a thin layer of reflective material which would further divert summer heat from entering the house.  They also installed a fan system circulating air in the summer and avoiding mold build-up from a poorly ventilated crawl space over the ceiling and under the roof.  I desperately needed a new roof and was able to fold the cost of the roof itself into the energy upgrade low-interest loan from the Puget Sound Community Credit Union.  This banking institution works with the city of Seattle to implement the Community Power Works program for the homeowner who wants to lower their carbon foot print.  A new roof by itself may or may not reduce heat loss from your house.

You are welcome to drop by and tour the garage and I’ll offer you a cold drink of some sort, but mostly you won’t notice anything different about the house.  It does look fresh and clean but I didn’t change the colors or the furniture.  If you are a person who notices roofs (is there such a person?), you’ll see that mine is beautiful, new and no places where the shingles have flown off in the latest wind storm.  But who looks at roofs?

I am so proud to have done this major effort to reduce my carbon foot print as part of Seattle Community Power Works.  The final numbers came through in the blow test today.  Looking good.  One tight house.  It’s for the Planet and the grandchildren.  I hope you’ll take advantage of any opportunity you have to do the same.  Congratulations if you already have.

Leave me a comment and while you are at it, please ‘like’ my Face book page.  I’d appreciate it.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Betsy

www.EmpoweredGrandma.com

206 933 1889

 

Arthritis, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Joint pain reaction to bee sting

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Gentle Reader,

The energy retrofit continues this week.  The work took me and one roofer through a yellow jacket nest on the side of my hill.  The result was painful stings.  Mine were on the belly and chest.  The roofer had to be taken to the emergency room for treatment. He became short of breath and had other severe reactions.  He didn’t return to work the next day.

Arthritis pain can be greatly exasperated by insect bites.  Here’s what I learned doing a web search after experiencing so much joint pain.

“Allergic Reaction

“An allergic reaction involving the entire body can occur, this can be due to one or multiple stings and may range from mild to fatal, and death can occur in minutes. The majority of the reactions occur within the first 15 minutes, and nearly all occur within 6 hours. There is no connection between the number of stings and how severe the reaction will be. As a general rule, the faster the symptoms come on after the sting, the more severe the reaction will be. Death that occurs within the first hour of the sting is usually from airway blockage or low blood pressure.

“The earliest symptoms consist of itchy eyes, facial flushing, generalized hives, and dry cough. Symptoms may worsen rapidly causing  chest or throat constriction, wheezing, difficulty breathing, bluish discoloration of the skin, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, chills and fever, shock, fainting, loss of bowls or bladder, and bloody, frothy sputum. The early mild symptoms can progress quickly to shock.

“A delayed allergic reaction, appearing 5 to 14 days after a sting can occur. Typical symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, hives, enlarged lymph nodes, and multiple joint pains. Commonly a person will have forgotten about the sting and will not understand why the symptoms have suddenly come on.” Advanced Patient Education.

My own joint pain occurred in the first 36 hours.  I didn’t put two and two together for a while. My weekly hiking buddies and I went up a steep trail on one of the so called Issaquah Alps foothills of the Cascades, Squak Mt.  My knees were killing me and my hips.  The Pain Relief Complex helped, but I was glad to get to a flat area where I could stride out and loosen the joints up.  The crazy remedies that helped with the swelling and the tenderness included one of our skin care treatments called Calming Complex and our toothpaste, called New Concept Dentifrice, and a third product, Desert Wind Roll-on Antiperspirant.  All these products are effective because of the ingredients.  You can read about them at the resources page.

If you have a remedy you have used for insect bites, I’d love to hear about it, and so would my readers, so please leave a comment.  If you’d like to see the videos I’ve been shooting as this project goes forward, here is one.   Go to my You Tube channel to see others.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving!

Betsy

Resources

Calming Complex, Toothpaste and Roll-on deodorant for bee stings

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What’s behind these products that makes them effective after the redness and itchy results from insect bites?  Bee stings?  Mosquitoes? Wasps?

When the reaction is severe, see a doctor immediately.  The after effects can be soothed using these Shaklee products.

Enfuselle Calming Complex designed by Shaklee’s scientists for sooth the skin as part of a complete anti-aging treatment system.  When used as directed:

  • Natural, gentle beta glucan creates a soothing barrier of protection against the environment
  • Refreshes and calms the skin while minimizing the appearance of fine lines
  • Significantly improves skin smoothness within 1 month
  • • 145% decrease in the appearance of fine lines in 28 days
    • 150% decrease in the appearance of wrinkles in 28 days
    • Significantly improves the skin’s ability to retain moisture
    • Hypoallergenic
    …Remember, Calming Complex is “calming and soothing” to the skin and it also gives deep
    hydration. Both oily and dry skin will benefit from Calming Complex — it has a “balancing” effect, leaving the skin neither oily or dry – just smooth and soft.

Calming Complex is a comforting, skin-smoothing, hypoallergenic formula that gives you the protective and soothing benefits of beta glucan, for a quick recovery from environmental stress.
It’s the perfect “after” product – after sunburn, after skiing, after airplane travel, after hot/cold shifts – after anything that makes your skin irritated and craving for comfort.

Paraben free.

Desert Wind Roll-on antiperspirant 

Gentle, long-lasting protection against wetness and odors is the hallmark of this fresh-scented roll-on. Its non-sting formula contains soothing allantoin for a smooth, comfortable feeling.

Active Ingredient: Aluminum Chlorohydrate

Inactive Ingredients: Water, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Isopropyl Myristate, Cyclomethicone, Petrolatum, Glycerin, Octyl Palmitate, PEG-5 Soya Sterol, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Isopropyl Lanolate, Dimethyl Sebacate, Allantoin, Lanolin Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Fragrance

New Concept Dentifrice 

A safe decay preventive dentifrice, especially for those who prefer to clean and brighten teeth without a lot of additives or artificial sweeteners. Its highly concentrated formula removes stains and leaves breath minty fresh.

For use with bee stings, toothpaste contain glycerine which dries out the venom. Toothpaste is an alkaline substance which neutralizes acidic venom.

Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness

I’m reducing my carbon foot print

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Gentle Reader,

I am reducing my carbon foot print. My house is organized chaos. All the furnishings are stacked in the middle of each room, covered with sheets. Two young men are drilling holes in the outside walls of every room, caulking the heat registers, the joint where wall meets floor, and every nook where air can leak.
In Seattle we have an Energy Upgrade program to entice a home owner to do this. Over two thousand families have opted in, gotten their financing together, had the energy audit and done the work. The opportunity for low interest loans and government rebates may be extended if Cascadia Consulting, the small, forward reaching firm who operates this program can persuade the city to do another round, without Federal dollars.
What took me so long to sign up for this? I have a reputation as a carbon off-setter. I have bought shares in wind farms on the Lakota reservation. I have planted trees through Re-leaf America, the oldest environment organization in the US, founded in 1903. But my house was more of a tent with permanent walls, leaking air like a sieve.

Hudson River from Mary Ann's
Looking through leaky windows toward the Hudson River

After a recent trip to New York City with my granddaughter, I find myself reflecting on the actions of a single individual in the face of the enormity of the problem facing the world. We must get our carbon parts per million down to 350 or find ourselves in an irreversible environmental catastrophe. Compare the interest and effort in this far flung corner of the US with New York City.

My hostess, Mary Ann, lives in a beautiful rent controlled apartment on the Upper East Side, the Hudson River in full view from her spacious north facing balcony. The fine old metal and glass paneled windows do not latch. Walking along the path beside the river just 100 yards from her building’s front door, Ellie and I joined cyclists, mothers with baby carriages, old people leaning on canes, joggers, strollers. This is one New York’s back yard retreats.

Hudson River view from Upper West Side
New York’s back yard, walking along the Hudson

 

The sun danced on the wavelets of a calm river. New green, that not-shiny-yet true green that appears miraculously every May after a hard winter of snow and bitter cold. This year in New York, they were locked in a cold that would not stop, seeping into bones and the cracks in all the houses.

I asked Mary Ann how she managed to stay warm in this 17th floor apartment with its rusty metal-framed windows.

“The heat in the building is so great; I have the windows open all winter.”
Can you believe it?

The carbon foot print of New York City by itself, if reduced by 15%, could turn 400 ppm to 380, I have no doubt. This is an emergency. Federal dollars could reverse the course of disaster by compulsory retrofitting every building in New York City, changing every light bulb. People would be put to work in the process.

It would be worth every penny. Repeat the process in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and Gary, Indiana. Every major city where old high rises scrap the sky as wicks of heat pouring into the atmosphere.

I have learned in talking with my environmentalist daughter that NYC has excellent energy recovery projects underway. It is a huge job.

My little project will off-set the carbon foot print I create every time I get on an airplane for the next 10 years. It is a drop in the bucket. My visit to New York discourages me from the belief that we can save our planet for future generations.

What are you doing in your neck of the woods? Let us know, please.

By the way, are you reducing your carbon foot print by using highly concentrated, biodegradable cleaning and laundry products?  Check them out on my shopping page.  You’ll be so glad you did.  You’ll throw away 1 bottle for every 50 of those other products.

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving, Betsy

ps:  I made a video showing the energy upgrade project.  You can see it on YouTube. <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ta1n0-YU9jI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Business Op

Freedom is what I want for you

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Gentle Reader,

Freedom from living pay check to pay check, from debt, from a schedule you did not create yourself, from worry about the back-to-school expenses and freedom from not being able to give to the people you love:  all these Freedoms and more are on my mind this morning.

I just back from Denver where I was learning even more about how to achieve this freedom.

I already have this freedom.  How did I get it?  By joining a multilevel marketing company 25 years ago.  I joined because of the health products–which saved my life–and I stayed because I recognized that selling the products would give me the life I wanted, like the one my sponsor enjoyed.

She took long walks with her friends, was home when her children returned from school. She wrote and worked in her garden.  She worked hard in a disciplined way about 3 nights a week on the phone, and over lunch most days, meeting with people to demo products and help them achieve the healthy life they were looking for.

I hated my job and wanted this kind of life.  And I have had just that kind of life for 25 years.

My second biggest dream was offering this same freedom to others.  Several people saw the possibility for themselves but couldn’t achieve the same results.  At last I have the educational tools to offer you through the Star Achievers Team, so you can have this freedom, too.  The system has a price tag and is available on line just the way Stanford University or Pheonix University teach you on line for a fee.  The first is a training manual with flow chart, scripts, marketing tools that allow you to work at home and people come to you.

Dust off your dreams of a better life.  The stories I have heard of people changing their attitude and then changing their lives were nothing short of miraculous.  Not everyone who works this online business is successful.

Earning big check with Shaklee. Results may vary. You must make a commitment to yourself and your dreams to have these results. Be aware that most people don’t go this fast.

 

What are your dreams?  Join me.

Be well, Do well and Keep Moving,

Fondly, Betsy