Placebo – Obecalp – A New Way to Treat Patients
By Mark Schauss | July 2, 2008
Coming soon to a store near you will be a cherry flavored placebo for children. According to the New York Times and reviews by Dr. Martin Stein, the placebo Obecalp will be available to give to kids (Obecalp spelled backwards is placebo). Turns out that 10-20% of children with ADHD react positively to placebos so this may be worth a try. The only problem I see is that the cherry flavor may be synthetic and may increase the ADHD behavior in some kids.
I wonder how much research was done in the use of the flavor and colorings in the placebo. My guess is that they did no studies on this issue. Why should they as big pharma never looks into the effect of additives on behavior? That might show that food colorings and additives are causes of ADHD and that the drugs they use are worthless.
Topics: brain nutrition, Drugs, Health, Neurological Disorders, Opinion | No Comments »
Trans Fats – Ban the Garbage
By Mark Schauss | July 1, 2008
Trans fats are about the most health damaging thing you can ingest short of poison. While it is coming out of a lot of foods, because of labeling laws, manufacturers can list 0 grams of trans fats but still have it in the food as long as it is less than .5 grams per serving. I want to thank Jolene Park for sending out her blog email (which all of you should subscribe to) about trans fats today. A link she included is for a website dedicated to banning trans fats.
My mentor, John Kitkoski, told me many years ago that ingesting trans fats is like eating 10-40 motor oil. It is a picture that my mind could never forget so it was easy for me to never get into eating food made with the garbage. If you are going to do one thing to improve your health today it should be to eliminate trans fats from your diet completely.
Topics: Health, Research | No Comments »
Food Additives – The Ones to Avoid
By Mark Schauss | June 5, 2008
Jean Weiss wrote an interesting article for MSN Health & Fitness about the 12 Food Additives to Avoid. Sage advice from Ms. Weiss. One of the issues Tasya, my daughter has had to deal with is her sensitivity to a number of food additives, especially aspartame (a real neurotoxic poison) and food dyes.
In many people, food sensitivities are a real issue and can cause everything from irritable bowel syndrome to migraines and seizures. Other people see an increase in pain due to arthritis due to the inflammatory reactions that foods can cause. Each person has a different array of foods that they are sensitive to and the only way to find out what you are sensitive to is the LEAP test. Here is what Tasya’s test looked like. If you are interested in finding out more about doing this test, you can contact me by email me at markschauss at gmail dot com.
Topics: Epilepsy, Food, Health, Healthcare, Laboratory Tests, Neurological Disorders | No Comments »
How to Restart Your Sleep Cycle
By Mark Schauss | June 3, 2008
For many of us who travel a lot, especially across multiple time-zones, getting back in the swing of things, especially when it comes to sleep, is really difficult. But researchers at the Harvard Medical School may have an answer and it is fasting. Imagine instead of taking a week to reset your internal clock you can do it in one day. Lead researcher, Clifford Saper said “The neat thing about this second clock is that it can override the main clock … and you should just flip into that new time zone in one day.“
Here is how it works, just stop eating for 12-16 hours before you want to be awake and eat a good healthy meal. If you want to begin waking up at 3:00am, then you need to stop eating at 11:00am to 3:00pm the previous day. For those of us on the west coast who want to set ourselves for an early rise on the east coast, here is a simple way to get it done. So if you are going to Tokyo from say Colorado, just figure what time you would have breakfast on Tokyo time and fast for the 12-16 hours prior.
Why does this work? Here is an excerpt from the May 22nd issue of the journal Science.
“For a small mammal, finding food on a daily basis is a critical mission. Even a few days of starvation, a common threat in natural environments, may result in death,” the study said.
“Hence, it is adaptive for animals to have a secondary “master clock” that can allow the animal to switch its behavioral patterns rapidly after a period of starvation to maximize the opportunity of finding food sources at the same time on following days.”
The shift is a survival mechanism in small mammals that forces them to change their sleeping patterns, Fuller suggests. One starvation cycle is enough to override the traditional light-based circadian clock, the study suggests.
“This new timepiece enables animals to switch their sleep and wake schedules in order to maximize their opportunity of finding food.”
“A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock,” says Saper.
“So, in this case, simply avoiding any food on the plane, and then eating as soon as you land, should help you to adjust – and avoid some of the uncomfortable feelings of jet lag.”
Now you know how to avoid jet lag and reset your internal circadian clock quickly.
Topics: Health, Life, Research | No Comments »
Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Health Insurance
By Mark Schauss | June 2, 2008
In today’s ever escalating health insurance cost atmosphere, insurers try to get you to use the least of your benefits while charging you more and more every year. I’ve seen this scenario play out with my daughter Tasya, when Mega Health and Life Insurance screwed us by saying that the MRIs and CT scans she had were unnecessary even though it is considered the standard of care for newly diagnosed epileptics. BTW, never buy insurance from those people, it’s a waste of money.
While using the program Stumble, I came across the following article entitled Nine Secrets Health Insurers Don’t Want You To Know. Here is the nine topics they discuss. I suggest you read the article carefully if it interests you
- Don’t pay if you don’t have a say.
- You may be eligible for more coverage.
- To get tested, talk up your symptoms.
- Stall first, answer questions later.
- Letters are your best bet.
- Doctors can be good weapons.
- A little research can go a long way.
- There are ways to get drugs cheaper.
- An advocate can help you win.
Good advice that everyone with health issues should know about
Topics: Health, Healthcare, Laboratory Tests, pharmaceuticals | 2 Comments »
Phthalates in Your World
By Mark Schauss | May 27, 2008
One of my favorite organizations in the fight against our toxic world is the Environmental Working Group. They send out regular emails about issues relating to our environment and today’s was particularly interesting as it had a link to their Enviroblog talking about phathalates, that insidious plasticizer that is in all of our bodies.
Here is a little snipit of information you can find by going to the blog:
“Phthalates are endocrine disruptors linked to problems of the reproductive system, including decreased sperm motility and concentration in men and genital abnormalities in baby boys. (Oh, and did you know that average sperm counts have decreased significantly since the 1940’s?) More recently they’ve also been linked to asthma and allergies.”
It’s time to first get this chemical out of all products that our children have access to and then out of all of the products that adults come in contact with. They are finding this chemical in all of our bodies and the industry refuses to acknowledge its affects on human health despite the evidence. Go to the link posted here and read up on how to lower your exposure as well as your children’s.
Topics: Environment, Health, Research, Toxicity | No Comments »
Couple of “Greening” Websites
By Mark Schauss | May 21, 2008
I’m always on the outlook for new ideas, as well as old ones, to decrease my environmental footprint and to share my findings with everyone. Here are a few websites I have found with ideas on how to “green” your life.
Live Science has a top 10 list of things to do to Green Your Home. One problem though with it, as one of comments pointed out is that while it is nice to tell you what to do, it is important to tell you how to do it more effectively.
Here is a link to how to implement some of the ideas in a printable PDF file.
Treehugger.com is a great website to learn about all things green. Here is a link to some real usable information on green cleaning.
Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Health, Our World, Solvents, Toxicity, Websites | No Comments »
EPA and The Union of Concerned Scientists – More Evidence Against the White House
By Mark Schauss | May 15, 2008
The Union of Concerned Scientists, the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world, has published a scathing report about the interference by the Bush White House on the scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. In it they reveal just how much of an influence the White House administrators have on scientific fact when it does not match their political policy.
This is political interference at its worst. When honest science is reversed or covered up it is lie. Our children and their children’s lives are being threatened in a way far worse than a terrorist act from afar could ever hope to do to our people. The stated goal of the EPA is “To protect human health and the environment.” They are being stopped from doing that by greedy people who want to continue allowing businesses to put profit ahead of stakeholder responsibility.
The most telling quote from the 108 page report is the one from a scientist at an EPA regional office:
“Do not trust the Environmental Protection Agency to protect your environment. Ask questions. Be aware of political and economic motives. Become politically active. Elect officials with motives to protect the environment and hold them accountable.”
What is so disturbing about this administration is the breadth of interference to promote their hideous agenda. This cuts across so many agencies that it looks as if everything that has been done in the past 7 years is a total scam to enrich the few on the backs of the many. This is how communism and dictatorial administrations work, not democracies (until now).
Topics: Environment, Global Warming, Health, Life, Opinion, Our World, Politics | No Comments »
Pollution and the Birds and the Bees (and spiders too) – Another Indictment of Our Handling the Environment
By Mark Schauss | May 9, 2008
The White House’s recent evisceration of the EPA edict to lower pollution and smog may be another stake in the heart of beekeepers everywhere. Turns out smog and other parts of air pollution may be confusing the bees as well as other pollenators such as moths and bats so they can’t find the flowers. Under ideal situations, the floral scent of a flower can travel for miles, air pollution can cut the scent in half within 200-300 yards.
We, in our yearning to use up fossil fuels have again disrupted natural processes that are having devastating consequences. Another study shows that methylmercury is accumulating in high levels in spiders, which then moves up the food chain into birds that prey on the arachnids. Spiders, because they tend to be predatory, eat insects that are exposed to mercury. According to aquatic ecologist, David Schindler of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, “Anything that lengthens the food chain pushes mercury up and is biomagnified by about a factor of 10 with each step.” Guess what? Humans are at the top of that food chain.
Topics: Environment, Food, Health, heavy metals, Mercury, Politics, Research, Toxicity | No Comments »
What do the Numbers on Your Fruits and Vegetables Mean?
By Mark Schauss | May 7, 2008
Yesterday, before I started juicing some veggies and fruits, I became a bit annoyed at those little stickers on the fruits. I noticed the numbers and wondered what they meant. Turns out there is a lot of information in those numbers. Here is a brief description of the numbers:
Conventionally grown fruits have four digits and do not start with a 9. Most start with a 4. These can and usually are grown using pesticides and non-organic fertilizers.
Organically grown have five digits and start with a 9.
Genetically modified fruits start with the number 8.
Next time you go to the supermarket, get out the magnifying glass and check out your fruits numbers and make the choices that you feel most comfortable with. I will be looking for the number 9 and staying far away from the ones starting with the number 8.
Topics: Environment, Food, Opinion, Toxicity | 12 Comments »