For those who may have received perfume, cologne or aftershave for Christmas–beware. Even expensive perfumes are usually made with a toxic soup of dangerous and untested chemicals that can produce problems from allergies to hormone disruption. The problem is that manufacturers are exempt from listing the ingredients of anything labeled as a "fragrance," and many of the ingredients used to make fragrances are toxic. A recent study by the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics had well-known, name-brand fragrances analyzed for their chemical content. The group sent 17 perfumes to an independent testing laboratory, and found some surprises that you need to know about. Here is what they found: The average perfume contained 10 known allergens that can trigger reactions from asthma to headaches to contact dermatitis. Even more disturbing, the researchers uncovered 10 chemicals known to disrupt the hormonal (endocrine) system. Each perfume contained an average o…

A new study, "Prevalence and Severity of Dental Fluorosis in the United States, 1999-2004," has estimated that dental fluorosis now affects 41 percent of adolescents aged 12-15 in the U.S. Fluorosis is mottling of dental enamel. It is characterized by a white chalky appearance to the enamel, whichgradually undergoes black and brown discoloration, as well as cracking and pitting of the teeth. Fluorosis is caused by a child receiving too muchfluoride during tooth development. Dentists will tell their patients that fluorosis is just a cosmetic problem. It is not. Fluorosis is the external manifestation of toxic fluoride poisoning. The bones are also being affected. This is called skeletal fluorosis, and it often results in a misdiagnosis of osteoporosis. Fluoride does not prevent tooth decay. It is a dangerous toxin that must be avoided. Do not drink fluoridated water, and do not use toothpaste that contains fluoride.…

Here’s something to think about the next time you stop by the meat counter at your local grocery store – there may be drug-resistant strains of bacteria lurking in that steak or chicken. A study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute, found that Staphylococcus aureus – a bacteria that causes most staph infections including skin infections, pneumonia and blood poisoning – are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at "unexpectedly high rates." Researchers found nearly half of the meat and poultry samples — 47 percent — were contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria — 52 percent — were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. For the study, researchers looked at 136 samples involving 80 brands of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 26 grocery stores in five cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff and Washington, D.C. Experts say although Staph can be killed with proper cooking, it still may p…

According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, approximately 10 percent of Americans are taking antidepressant medications.This means that over 31 million Americans are gobbling Prozac, Zoloft, Norpramin, Luvox, Paxil, and other antidepressant psychiatric drugs like M & M's. This drug use accounts for billions of dollars in pharmaceutical sales annually. Yet according to a landmark study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association say that antidepressant medications work - as well as placebos and not more. In other words, people in depression studies who are given sugar pills instead of antidepressant drugs do as well as the group who gets the drugs. Before you ask yourself whether you should simply take a Tic Tac instead of a Paxil, there is more disheartening news about these drugs. Many Americans are taking antidepressant medications instead of changing their own behavior or life circumstances. According to Maryland medical doctor Ronal…

Fluoride is one of the biggest medical frauds in history. Fluoride is an extremely powerful toxin that has for more than a half century been falsely promoted as preventing dental cavities. Fluoride causes a wide array of severe health problems, including cancer, hyperactivity and/or lethargy, muscle disorders, and damage to immunity, teeth and bones. And as studies continue to confirm, fluoride damages the brain. A recent study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials concluded that chronic exposure to elevated levels of fluoride results in decreased memory and learning ability. Levels of fluoride in drinking water, within the range of levels currently allowed, negatively impact children’s intelligence. Numerous studies in humans have found an association between high levels of fluoride in drinking water and reduced intelligence. More than 100 animal studies have linked fluoride to brain damage. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 41 percent of 12 to 15 year-olds have dental f…

We all know that smoking is unhealthy and that secondhand smoke is harmful. However, did you know it can harm your hearing? A surprising new study from the U.S. Department of Tobacco Control has concluded that nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke are 14 percent more likely to suffer hearing loss in the low to midfrequency range. The mechanism by which the hearing loss happens is not fully understood. Previous studies have also found an association between smoking and hearing loss.…

A new study in the Journal of Internal Medicine regarding treatment of infectious diseases found the same shocking inadequacy as previous studies. The researchers concluded that only 14 percent of the recommended treatments are based on sound scientific evidence. This finding is right in line with all the other studies that have found only 10 to 15 percent of medicine to be science based. The researchers discovered that, even when doctors follow existing medical guidelines to the letter, 86 percent of the time they are using treatments that have little or no scientific support. The problem is when doctors follow the existing guidelines, they mistakenly believe they are practicing "evidence-based medicine," but there is no scientific evidence behind the guidelines. In reality, the guidelines are based on the assumptions or opinions of the members of the guideline-drafting panel. Most people have the misconception that their doctor is using the best that modern science has to offer…

A recent study in the Journal of Neurology found that people who consume foods rich in vitamin B12 reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer’s in their later years. Vitamin B12 is found in animal sources of food, which is one of the reasons a strict vegetarian or vegan diet is not advisable for most people. Vitamin B12 deficiency has resulted in many documented cases of brain abnormalities in strict vegetarians.…

The U.S. government is encouraging farmers to dump ash leftover from burning coal into their fields. The government sees this as a way to dispose of these toxic wastes. As usual, the government is not looking out for our health. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 130 million tons of ash and sludge are produced each year from burning coal, enough to fill one million railcars. This ash contains toxins such as arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals. When used for farming, these metals will get into our food and poison us. Lead stays in soil for hundreds of years and accumulates in green produce. The results of such misguided policy, dumping toxic waste onto our food supply, will be even more disease and more cancer than we have now. This is just one more reason to purchase organic foods exclusively.…

ConsumerLab, in their latest testing of ginseng supplements, has found that five out of eleven ginseng supplements were contaminated with lead and/or pesticides. Ginseng has often been promoted for increasing vitality, and studies indicate that certain preparations may help prevent colds and flu or keep blood sugar levels down in people with diabetes. A range of other uses have also been suggested. But all is not well in the world of ginseng. Tod Cooperman, M.D., President of ConsumerLab.com said, "Consumers need to be wary of the quality of ginseng supplements … there is enormous variation in the amount of ginsenosides—key ginseng compounds— in marketed supplements." Consumers need to be aware of these problems, and unfortunately, problems with quality are not limited to ginseng. This is why BHN has always cautioned readers not to purchase supplements unless they are certain of the quality.…

Women who don’t breastfeed are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. A study in the September issue of the American Journal of Medicine concluded that mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates, twice the risk, of type 2 diabetes later in life than mothers who breastfed. This study is just one more argument for breastfeeding. Another problem is when women are not breastfeeding; they are feeding inappropriate food to the infant, causing obesity in the children. A recent study in American Journal of Medicine concluded that mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates, twice the risk, of type 2 diabetes later in life than mothers who breastfed. This study is just one more argument for breastfeeding. Another problem is when women are not breastfeeding; they are feeding inappropriate food to the infant, causing obesity in the children. A recent study in Nutrition & Dietetics found that mothers were feeding infan…

. . . more you can do on the above issue S. 1310 is currently "in committee." It is standard practice that when bills are introduced in either the Senate or the House of Representatives they are sent to a special committee made up of Senators (or Representatives) to study the bill and then come back to the whole group with recommendations. Since the committees receive hundreds of bills, many bills never get reviewed. Instead they "die in committee," and need to be reintroduced the following year. S. 1310 has been sent to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. If any of your state senators sit on this Committee, contact them and let them know of your opposition.  The members of the Committee are: Alaska - Lisa Murkowski (R) Arizona - John McCain (R) Colorado - Michael Bennet (D) Connecticut - Richard Blumenthal (D) (co-sponsor of S. 1310) Georgia - Johnny Isakson (R) Illinois - Mark Kirk (R) Iowa - Tom Harkin (D), Chairman of the Commit…

. . .slow cooking at lower heat is best Holidays are times when everyone breaks a few rules. However, you can minimize damage with these 5 tips for a healthier thanksgiving meal. 1. Choose organic turkey. Organic turkeys are usually more delicious than conventional birds, and they're free of pesticides and hormones. They're given antibiotics only when sick rather than as a standard practice, to stimulate growth and compensate for unsanitary living conditions. 2. Use low temperature cooking. Cooking at high temperatures saves time, but high temperatures (over 370 degrees Fahrenheit) create excessive toxic chemical reactions. It's best to preheat your oven to 325 degrees and cook the bird at this temperature until the stuffing reaches 165 degrees (at this temperature any harmful bacteria have been killed) and the meat in the inner thigh is 180 degrees. 3. Make a healthy stuffing. If you need to be strict in food combining, "stuff" with a quartered, peeled yellow onion; a bunc…

. . . cancer-causing fumes There's a good reason why many people get headaches when they stand near tumble dryer vents. Prof. Anne Steinemann, a pollution expert at the University of Washington, led research that analyzed fumes emitted from clothes dryers drying clothes washed using scented detergents, with added scented dryer sheets. The researchers found more than 25 volatile organic compounds including 7 hazardous pollutants -- 2 of them, acetaldehyde and benzene, carcinogens. Steinemann pointed out that such toxins are health hazards not only for people living in homes where scented detergents and dryer sheets are used, but chemicals from these products get into public air and go down the drain into public waterways. Acetaldehyde is a toxic emission from automobiles. Steinemann and her group estimated that acetaldehyde emissions from the top five brands of scented laundry detergents would equal about 6% of automobile emissions in the Seattle area. Non-toxic laundry deterge…

. . . You're on your own for now! You might be wondering how it's possible that dangerous chemicals are allowed in common personal care products. It's because our laws in this area were written before "better living through chemistry" had shown its darker side, and they've never been brought up to date. As a result, manufacturers can introduce and include any chemicals they like in their products without safety tests. It's left up to the public to prove the chemicals are harmful through the courts. This is next to impossible when you're dealing with a slow erosion in health caused by hundreds of different toxins working together. Two new laws, the Safe Chemicals Act and the Safe Cosmetics Act, were proposed this past spring to remedy the situation. They embody the "precautionary principle" of not allowing synthetic chemicals into general use until they've already been proven to be safe.…

. . . it can be challenging How about products that say they're "hypoallergenic," "natural," "herbal" or even "organic?" Sorry, but because this market is unregulated, such product descriptions are meaningless. How about buying products at the health food store? Sorry again, but genuinely non-toxic products are relatively rare, and most health food store products don't pass the test. Now manufacturers do have to list all ingredients on the bottle, so you can become an expert on the particular ingredients to avoid. I've written about many of these in prior Newsclips, and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has done an excellent job in making educational materials about common toxins available on their website. (Also see, "Is Your Bodycare Toxic" by the EWG, at www.shareguide.com/bodycare.html.) However, manufacturers don't have to list unintentional ingredients, i.e., impurities. For example, a Canadian study recently found heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead and others)…

 . . . many don't remove enough to meet current standards I firmly believe that our Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System is the best bargain in home filtration systems available. Yes, there are cheaper ways to purify water, but do you really get a pure, safe product? A recent article in The Chicago Tribune reported that many popular pitchers with built-in filters, including Brita and PUR, don't reduce lead enough to meet current standards. If you purchased one of these pitchers before 2007, it may have been sold as reducing lead, but that was before industry standards required that filters remove lead particles as well as dissolved lead. The water pitcher type filters simply can't do this. Certification now requires that a filter take water with 150 parts per billion (ppb) of lead and reduce it to 10 ppb or less. Our Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System not only meets these certification requirements, but greatly exceeds them. The two causes of disease are nutritio…

. . . they do permanent damage and are devastating our health We have more bacteria and other microflora in our bodies than we have cells, and our health is totally dependent upon them. Yet antibiotics devastate these populations and, in the process, devastate our health. I've been talking about this for the past 25 years. Now an establishment doctor, Martin J. Blaser, MD, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine, has come to similar conclusions. In a news making commentary in the journal Nature, Blaser states that although concerns about antibiotics have been centered on bacterial resistance, there is a much worse problem in the "permanent changes to our protective flora." He has urged the medical community to curtail use of broad-spectrum antibiotics which kill both good and bad bacteria, citing findings that some of the beneficial bacteria may never recover, and that this may lead to increases in infections and other diseases, specifically obesity, alle…