How to Protect Yourself from Radiation Poisoning

How to protect yourself from radiation poisoning could save your life and/or prevent a radiation induced cancer.  In light of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan as a result of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, you better have a plan for dealing with radiation exposure.  The partial meltdown, hydrogen explosions, pressure releases and steam and core breaches have released radiation into the atmosphere.  This will affect the entire planet.  Japan will suffer with the highest radiation exposures but the trade winds will carry the radiation around the globe.

At this point in time, we have been told radiation releases have been minimal.  First off, I don’t believe them.  Second, radiation at even low levels can cause cancer (especially thyroid cancer), damage DNA and unleash oxidants / free radicals within our bodies.  Children, pregnant mothers and their fetuses are the most vulnerable.  DNA damage to fetuses can cause birth defects and cancers.

The most vulnerable point of the body to radiation poisoning is the thyroid gland.  Radioactive iodine collects in the thyroid (90% of people are iodine deficient so there are many iodine receptors open to the radioactive iodine).  The best protection is avoid radioactive iodine all together – unfortunately, this is not an option for all exposed.

Radiation pills as they are called are generally potassium iodide (KI), sometimes an inferior potassium iodate (KIO3) is sold (stay away from potassium iodate unless that is all that is available).  Iodine pills help by filling up the thyroid iodine receptors with radiation free iodine so it can not uptake radioactive iodine (a preventative).  In order for this to work, potassium iodide must be taken before exposure to radiation.  If the thyroid is saturated with non-radioactive iodine, the radioactive iodine will not be absorbed by the thyroid and therefore protecting it.

When to Take Potassium Iodide

Upon government notification of dangerous radiation levels in your area:
Daily dosage of Potassium Iodide for thyroid protection

• Adult is 130mg potassium iodide
• Age 3 to 18 – 65 mg
• One month to three years – 32 mg
• Birth to 1 month – 16 mg

Taken daily – until authorities announce that there is no more risk for exposure.  If you have a thyroid issue, consult a doctor before supplementing with potassium iodide.

Only take potassium iodide at these dosages for short periods of time during imminent radiation exposure – government warning or other credible warning FOR YOUR AREA. Generally, no more than 2 weeks at a time.

Potassium iodide only protects your thyroid against radioactive iodine (iodine 131) – the thyroid is the most vulnerable part of the body to this type of exposure, fortunately it is the most common type of radiation released.  The half life of radioactive iodine is 8 days.  Other types of radiation potentially released from nuclear reactors is cesium (cesium 137) and plutonium.  Potassium iodide will not protect you from these forms of radioactive materials.

Some have been touting “don’t take potassium iodide ever” because of a few individuals have adverse reactions.  I have taken potassium iodide in the past and had zero side effects.  Your choice if you want to take a chance at radiation poisoning or cancer.  Of course, if you have been advised by a doctor to avoid iodine because of a thyroid condition or adverse reactions then don’t take it.

A natural source of iodine which will do the same as supplementing with radiation pills is kelp or seaweed.  They naturally contain iodine and are considered health foods but you don’t know the amount of iodine you are consuming.  You can also buy kelp or seaweed supplements which state on the label the amounts of iodine they contain.  Remember, iodine is necessary for life, just don’t over do it.

Natural Supplements to Combat the Effects of Radiation Exposure:

• Kelp/Seaweed extract supplements – iodine source

• Ginseng – adaptogen
• Ashwagandha – adaptogen
• Chlorella – detox
• Zeolite – detox
• Fulvic Acid – detox
• Reishi Mushroom – healer
• Sea Salt – iodine source
• Miso – used after Hiroshima and Nagasaki with good results
• Vitamin C – antioxidant
• Magnesium – detox…
• Selenium – detox, cancer prevention/cancer killer
• Coconut
• Glutathione – antioxidant
• Melatonin
• Gingko biloba
• Garlic extract
• Curcumin – antioxidant
• Baking Soda
• Tulsi tea (Holy Basil)

Let’s hope this situation is under control and no more radiation will be released.  These tools will help.

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Potassium Iodide / kelp sources

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Sounds strange doesn’t it?  One would swear that salt is a 4 letter word with all the “medical” recommendations for a low sodium diet.  Actually, what most people use for salt (table salt) is a highly refined sodium chloride.  It doesn’t even resemble natural salt which is sea salt or from ancient salt deposits (from former seas or oceans).

True salt contains every mineral the body needs.  Salt water minerals are even in the exact proportions the body requires – how perfect is that?  My revelation was being on a “healthy” low fat, low sodium, high fiber diet – I was constipated – it didn’t make sense!  I read an article from a natural health practitioner that said constipation can be from lack of salt in one’s diet.  I drank a glass of salt water and the next day I was fine.

Highly refined salt is stripped of all the other minerals and you are left with sodium chloride and some chemicals to keep it dry and from clumping – (love those non-natural chemicals in my foods).  This form of “salt” is toxic and out of balance (sodium / potassium balance is important – as is calcium / magnesium balance) with what our bodies require.  They add iodine to table salt because it is stripped out and it is very important to health – iodized salt.  The sodium chloride form of salt can raise blood pressure.  It is not natural, you don’t need it.

Real salt is good for you and there is no need to watch how much you consume.  Look for a good sea salt or crystal form like Himalayan sea salt (an ancient salt deposit).  Salt does not need to be white.  Often it is gray in color or even pink – that is from the minerals.  Sea salt can even be damp – that is natural.

As always, it is only when humans “refine and improve” something that it becomes unnatural and it’s benefits fade.  Natural salt is one of the things that should be left as is so you can reap it’s benefits and should be in your salt shaker.

You can actually die from lack of salt.  Think about it, when you sweat, you are losing salt – right?  Without replacing it, you are subjecting your body to functioning without electrolytes.  When athletes sweat a lot their muscles cramp up from lack of salt which are electrolytes.  Electrolytes conduct electricity.  Our nervous system and cells communicate via electricity and chemical reactions.  No essential bodily chemicals, no action or reactions. The body’s symphony of of cellular communication and coordinated processes cease.

So use common sense when “authorities” tell you to do something that just does not make sense.  Salt is necessary and vital to health.  Stop feeling guilty – just use healthy sea salt!

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Best Sunscreen is an Organic Sunscreen

There are thousands of sunscreens and sunblocks out there.  The vast majority of them are loaded with carcinogenic chemicals (cause cancer) - kind of defeats the purpose of protecting skin from skin cancer doesn’t it?  Aside from some of these chemicals causing cancer, some are hormonal disruptors, cause liver damage, kidney damage, skin damage, birth defects, dermatitis, breast cancer, clogs pores and genetic mutation – attacks your DNA!  Obviously the best sunscreen contains none of these chemicals.

Organic sunscreens / natural sunscreens (also known as biodegradable sunscreen).  Do not contain these nasty chemicals.  As in natural nutrition, the closer you stay to nature, the better.  So read the labels on any suntan lotion, sunscreen lotion or sunblock lotion and stay away from chemicals that are detrimental to your health.  Sun protection by using a sun screen or sun block is vital so if you are in the direct sun for an extended period of time, wear sunscreen.

Avoid These Ingredients in your Sunscreen:

Parabens – Endocrine disruptors

Octyl salicyclate

Sodium laurel, lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate – becomes nitrosamine

Avobenzone

Mineral oil – clogs pores, disrupts hormonal function

Oxybenzone

Propylene glycol – Dermatitis, kidney and liver abnormalities

Cinoxate

Padimate O  (PABA) – attacks DNA, causes genetic mutation

Octyl-dimethyl (PABA) – same as above, different name

Octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC) – kills skin cells

Dioxybenzone

Phenylbenzimidazole

Homosalate

Toluene – liver and kidney damage, birth defects

Acrylamide – breast cancer

Sulisobenzone

Menthyl anthranilate

Phenol carbolic acid – Circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma, death from respiratory failure

Trolamine salicyclate

Octocrylene

The Sun is Good for You

If you listen to the TV, radio, print media, medical journals, you would swear sunlight is your worst enemy!  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Think about it.  The promotion and use of sunscreen over the last 30 years has been universal.  During this same time, the most common skin cancers, basal cell cancer, squamous cell cancer, and melanoma have also risen.  Why would they rise if more and more people are “protecting” their skin with sunscreen lotions and sunblock lotions?

Unless you have been living in a cave, you could not have avoided all the press about the health benefits of vitamin D.  D3, the natural form is best.  The best way to obtain vitamin D is to expose your skin to 10 to 20 minutes of direct sun, without suntan lotion or sun block.  THEN use an organic sunscreen (which is also a biodegradable sunscreen) to prevent sun burn and skin damage.  The sun is only strong enough during the summer to produce vitamin D through your skin (converts cholesterol to vitamin D).  Vitamin D is a powerful cancer fighter and preventer also.  So by blocking the sun, you are blocking the production of vitamin D.  During all other seasons, supplement with vitamin D3.

The sun’s rays are many but as far as sunburn goes, UVA and UVB (ultraviolet radiation A & B) are the culprits.  The sun protection factor – SPF is the rating of the blocking of UVA and UVB rays.  If you burn in 10 minutes without sun screen, an SPF 30 sunscreen will give you a sun protection of a factor of 30 or 30 times longer before you burn (instead of 10 minutes, you would not burn for 10 x 30 = 300 minutes or 5 hours).

We have established the benefits of tanning and vitamin D production.  One must be conscious of their exposure so not to burn their skin.  Go a short time working on your suntan without using sunblock, then apply an organic sunscreen with the appropriate SPF for:

• How sensitive to the sun your skin is
• The time of day (sun’s strength)
• Length of time in the sun

As important as sunscreens are to protect your skin from skin cancer, skin damage, wrinkles and aging – moisturizers, skin conditioners , nutrition and antioxidants will protect and rejuvenate your skin.  Certain nutrients like coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10 and resveratrol have a repairing effect and anti aging properties.  If you spend a lot of time in the sun or want radiant, glowing skin, consider adding these nutrients to your nutritional regimen.

Skin Care, Anti Aging and Anti-Wrinkle Creams

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Health Tips

It is another new year and time to make some New Years Resolutions.  One of the most important and within everyone’s control is health and wellness.  Very attainable and easy to implement.  Depending upon your current state of health, genetics, age and physical status will determine what you need to do and how aggressively you need to pursue it.

What You Need to Be Healthy:

• Nutrition
• Rest/Sleep
• Exercise
• Detoxification
• Stress Management

Nutrition is the fuel and building blocks for repair and growth of the body.  Your body is a symphony of chemical actions and reactions.  Like a recipe, one missing ingredient and the result is not as good as intended.  One missing or deficient vitamin or mineral can interfere with bodily functions and processes.

Food should be the primary source of nutrition for the body.  Supplementation helps fill in the gaps as our food today is not as nutritious as in the past – depleted soils, chemical fertilizers, mega-farming, food processing stripping out nutrients…  Animals loaded with hormones, antibiotics, toxins such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides are all detrimental to human health.  Water polluted with chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones – all of which adversely affect bodily processes.

Nutition Plan

• Drink filtered water
• Eat organic when possible – grass fed/free range animals
• Take a food based multivitamin daily
• Supplement according to your body’s needs
• Additional supplementation of:
• vitamin D3 (5000iu)
• vitamin C 2000mg+

By taking 5000iu of Vitamin D3 and 2+ grams of vitamin c daily, I have not been sick at all.  My family and my coworkers all have been sick a couple of times this winter alone – colds, flu, swine flu (H1N1)…  If I feel a tickle in my throat, I take a couple extra grams of vitamin C, an allicin (garlic) immune booster and beat it before I get sick.  I have not used a sick day at work in years!

Sleep/Rest

Everyone is a little different in their sleep requirements but generally need 8 hours of quality sleep.  The majority of bodily repairs and growth occurs during sleep.  It is a “recharging” of the body.

Sleep Tips

• Do not eat anything 2+ hours before bedtime
• Train yourself to stop thoughts while laying down
• Eliminate noises and distractions
• Go to bed the same time every night

Exercise

The human body is meant to move and several bodily processes are assisted by moving:

• Digestion/Elimination
• Lymph movement
• Circulation
• Detoxification…

It does not take hours a day to achieve the benefits of exercise.  If done correctly, 10 to 15 minutes a day is enough to become fit and healthy.

Quick Fitness Tips

• Build your heart and lungs with oxygen deprivation exercises
• Sprinting, sprinting up stairs or a hill
• Short intense bursts of up to 2 minutes until you are breathing heavy
• Any heavy weight lifting that makes you breathe hard

The key here is to push yourself to oxygen deprivation (to the point of breathing hard).  This forces your heart and lungs to improve efficiency and capacity.  With a strong heart and lungs you will feel almost invincible.

Detoxification

In our polluted world (especially indoor air pollution) and contaminated food and water supplies make detoxing important.  There are several methods to do this but 2 of the best are sweating/sauna and chlorophyll (algae – chlorella, grasses – wheatgrass, Kamut…)

Consume a chlorophyl green drink or tablets
Sit in a sauna or exercise in the heat and sweat out toxins

Stress Management / Stress Relief

Long term stress is accumulative and interferes with hormonal levels.  Cortisone being the main stress hormone but other hormones are involved as well.  Much of how we handle stress is determined by our mindsets and beliefs.  How one chooses to allow external factors affect one self is very powerful.  Generally, if it is outside of your control – let it be.  Do not focus on anything negative, try to see a positive for every situation or tell yourself – this will pass.

Tools for Stress Reduction

• Deep controlled breathing
• Meditation
• Bio-feedback
• hypnotism
• exercise

Notice how exercise covers, physical fitness, detoxing and stress (and more)?  That is 3 major benefits in one!  Find a way to incorporate this in your daily routine.  Entire books are written on each of these areas so for brevity I am passing along the main points of wellness.

To recap – Give your body:

• The nutrition it requires
• The rest/sleep it requires
• The exercise/movement it requires
• The detoxification it requires
• The stress management / stress relief it requires

What to Avoid

Just as important as what to provide your body for good health is what to avoid.  Here are some of the biggest health threat offenders:

• Sugar & HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) – diabetes, obesity…
• Artificial sweeteners (excitotoxins – kills brain cells)
• Highly processed foods (nutritionally empty calories)
• Junk foods (high calorie, low nutrition, bad for gut bacteria…)
• Sodas, fruit drinks (empty calories and HFCS or artificial sweeteners)
• Fake fats – trans fats – margarine, vegetable oil, canola oil, hydrogenated oils…
• Chlorinated water, fluoridated water

Do this and you will be healthier than 99% of the world.  Be the top 1 percent, feel great, accomplish much and be happier!

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Health secrets – what are they and why are they secret?  Actually they are not secret at all, just not well known.  Even most medical doctors lack the knowledge to obtaining and maintaining good health.  It is not taught in medical school or their other college courses.  It is not taught in our public schools so how would we know how to obtain optimum health?  The knowledge is not provided by any government agency, how would one know?

Yes the government and other health related agencies push their agendas and mediocre at best health tips and advice.  The food pyramid is a perfect example of bad information.  Recently revised food pyramid pushes carbohydrates, tells people to shy away from meats and fats which are essential to good health (sorry vegetarians – you are operating under bad knowledge).  Too many carbs are bad.  Notice how we are getting fatter and heart disease, cancer and diabetes is growing?

How many times have they retracted their statements on health?  Eggs are bad – nope eggs are good, butter and lard are bad, use margarine and vegetable oil – wait, margarine and vegetable oil are hydrogenated oil / trans-fat – causes inflammation clogs your arteries and veins.  Dairy must be pasteurized and homogenized(per FDA) – changing the milk into Franken-proteins which wreak havoc on our digestive systems and bodies – not to mention the antibiotics and hormones pumped into the cows.  Milk is not even a good source of absorbable calcium.  This “health knowledge” is pushed by whoever funds the study (profit or control is the motive) – not your best interest.

With our ever increasing knowledge of health, why the increase in allergies, heart disease, digestive problems, diabetes, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety…  Why the need for drugs which only treat symptoms, they don’t fix a thing.  Ever look at the over the counter drugs in the grocery store?  At least an entire isle is set aside for heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, pain, female issues, allergies, colds, coughs – the list goes on and on.  There is more money in treating symptoms – if you cure the illness or affliction, you are no longer a customer.

What are Health Secrets?

Genuine health tips that work.  Here are the building blocks of good health:

• Nutrition – Our bodies require nutrients to function properly

Nutrition – protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber and many more are all required for optimal health.  Like a recipe, 1 missing ingredient and the dish is not as good – same with your health.  Nutrition from our food is the best source if you can find or afford organically grown  fruits and vegetables, organically raised, grass fed livestock and chickens…  Natural based nutritional supplementation must fill in the gaps.

• Exercise – Our bodies need to move

Blood circulation, lymph movement, digestion and detoxification are all improved with exercise.  Compare it to a car that hasn’t moved in some time – seals dry out, fluids break down, corrosion all occur without movement.

• Toxins – Removal of the unnatural poisons in our body that man has created

Man has created over 70,000 chemicals, many of which are unhealthy, causing disease, inflammation, DNA damage and cellular death.  These toxins are consumed in the air we breath, water and food we consume and every other un-natural product we consume, bath in or put upon our body.

• Pathogens – Removal of bad germs, viruses, fungus, yeasts and parasites

This may be the one exception where a drug can cure rather than just mask the symptoms although there are many effective natural alternatives to drugs.  Notice I said bad germs / bacteria, our digestive system and immune systems require “good bacteria” in our gut to assimilate nutrition from our food and displace or kill  bad bacteria, yeasts, food poisoning…  The good bacteria in our gut is said to comprise 80% of our immune function.

• Mindset – Positive attitude, relieve stress, promote happiness, have purpose

Our minds are very powerful influences on our health.  Psychosomatic illnesses are negative manifestations of our thoughts/mindset and are very real.  A strong will to survive, abundant happiness and positive thinking go far in maintaining health and relieving stress – another killer.

Genuine Health

To have genuine health you must educate yourself in the areas of natural health and self improvement. Don’t fall for every fad or “miracle supplement” out there but filter it with common sense and more natural health information. There is a lot of good information out there and a lot of crap. A good all around natural health website to visit is Mercola.com. There are many good ones out there, some require subscriptions. I have 7 natural health subscriptions to various print and online information websites. For me, it has improved my health immensely and is well worth it. Read some books, go online and find some health secrets.

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