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BPA, the chemical found in hard polycarbonate plastic water bottles is also in the liners of canned food.

I’ve noticed a big change at the gym I work out of – those colourful hard plastic water bottles have become an endangered species, due to the risk of bisphenol A (BPA) leaching into the water.

Everyone appears to be switching to the stainless-steel variety, which seems to me to be a much better choice. Many families have stopped using baby bottles and sippy cups made from #7 plastic to feed their infants and toddlers.

Europe has banned the substance in items for children under the age of 3, and Health Canada indicated that it is adding BPA to its toxic substance list.

When huge outdoor-gear companies like Mountain Equipment Coop listen to their customers' concerns and decide to stop selling the offending water bottles, and the companies that make them (like Nalgene), suddenly lose very large orders, they take notice and change.

Nalgene, which always did have alternatives to the no. 7 lexan water bottles, is now going out of its way to promote BPA-free alternatives, whereas in the past they tended to dismiss the concerns as baseless. We reached the tipping point, where concerned consumers have made BPA in water bottles unsellable. Congratulations, everyone!!!

This is the way positive change can happen – consumers have more power than governments to change corporate practice by choosing where they spend their money. Now we need to do this on the food front.

A quick review for those that may have missed my earlier articles on BPA in water bottles.

Bisphenol A is a xeno-estrogen and therefore an endocrine disruptor, meaning it is a chemical that mimics estrogen in the body, thereby messing up our normal hormone messaging. Synthetic xeno-estrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children.

BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. For more of the science on the effects of BPA on our endocrine system etc. see these studies: Environmental Health Perspectives Journal.

So, have we resolved the BPA problem? Far from it. It is still being used in the resin that lines canned food.

Liquid infant formula sold in cans would be the most problematic, as any BPA leached would have a bigger relative effect on a small baby. According to a recent Globe and Mail article, Health Canada tested 21 cans of liquid formula and found every one to be positive for BPA in amounts ranging from 2.3ppb to 10.6ppb.

If you can't breastfeed and you no longer want to use canned liquid infant formula, I highly recommend you purchase the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and use her infant formula recipes located near the back of the book.

Your baby will thrive on these formulas much better than on canned or powdered formula. And the book is a wonderful cookbook full of nourishing recipes for you and your family.

Foods are heated in the can to destroy microbes, and the heating process causes the BPA to leach into the food.

Acid foods like canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and apple juice leach more BPA into the food than non-acidic foods. Examples of canned foods that tested positive for BPA in the Globe and Mail/CTV study included:

• Hunts Tomato Sauce
• Chef Boyardee
• Mini Beef Ravioli
• Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup
• Allen's Apple Juice
• Unico Tomatoes
• Molson Dry Beer
• Labatts Ice Beer,
• Heinz Tomato Juice
• ZoodlesBeans
• Beans with pork and tomato sauce
• Green Giant Cream Styled Corn
• Del Monte peas and carrots

All the food companies involves said that they felt the BPA levels were too low to be of concern, just as the water bottle companies had stated previously.

Replacing canned food with fresh food will improve one's health, not just because of the reduced exposure to BPA, but also because fresh food contains vitamins, minerals and enzymes that get destroyed in the heating process of canning.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but to be healthy we need to eat REAL food, not processed food that comes from a factory.

Please do keep the comments coming!

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Which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals?
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Making some changes in one’s lifestyle can help lower blood pressure. Here are some ideas for you.

First of all, what IS blood pressure exactly? Your doctor tells you two numbers, say 130 over 80 – what do they mean?

The first or top number is the pressure or force the blood is exerting on the walls of the artery while the heart is contracting, and the bottom number is the pressure or force the blood is exerting on the walls of the artery when the heart is relaxing between beats, and filling up with blood.

So, if the pressure is high, it means the arteries may be constricted or possibly partially blocked, which is why blood pressure is an easy way to detect potential cardiovascular risk factors.

The bottom number is particularly telling, because if that number is higher than it should be when the heart is between beats, it is likely there is a problem. “Normal” blood pressure is considered to be 120/80, and most people get put on medication if their blood pressure rises to 140/90.

I find it interesting to note that in the primitive cultures that were studied in the 1920s and 30s, blood pressure tended to decline with age, rather than go up, as we are currently witnessing in Western society.

Here is the Cole’s Notes version for lowering blood pressure naturally. For more info on each, click through the links. (Except for the refined sugar and starch section, which I'll expand upon below.)

• Cut out all refined sugar and refined starch (flour products like baked goods, pasta, crackers).
• Figure out what your major stresses are, and deal with them if possible, accept them if they are out of your control.
• Dwell on the good in your life, and what makes you happy, rather than dwelling on what upsets you.
• Exercise enough to make you feel good. Walking is enough for many, not enough for some.
• Drink half your bodyweight in pounds, in ounces of pure water each day
• Switch from using white and dry table salt to using
  gray and moist air-dried sea salt.
• Get adequate dark time each night, so melatonin, your rest and repair hormone can do its magic.
• Eat according to yourmetabolic type.
• See an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner or a NUCCA chiropractor to ensure that your top vertebrae (the atlas) is in its proper alignment.

There are two mechanisms by which eating too much sugar and flour (which the body treats as sugar) increases blood pressure. First, diets high in refined sugar and starch cause a greater insulin response, which I have discussed at great length in other posts.

High insulin increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, all of which increases blood pressure. So, eat no added sugar and refined carbohydrate, lower the insulin response, lower the blood pressure. I think that doctors that study their patient data have probably noticed that frequently high blood-pressure patients also have higher insulin levels.

The other way in which eating easily digestible and refined carbohydrates increases blood pressure is by causing the kidneys to retain salt. The body then retains water in order to keep the blood sodium concentration constant.

So water is not necessarily retained by consuming too much sodium, but rather by the easily digestible carbohydrates stopping the excretion of the sodium which is already there.

So, stop eating the added sugar and flour products, the kidneys stop retaining salt, the body stops retaining water. A much healthier diuretic than a drug!

Another idea that can work is seeking out Bemer Therapy, which improves microcirculation. Once capillary beds are open, less pressure is required to push the blood through the circulatory system.

A Bemer is a mat which one lies on, and it uses pulsed electromagnetic fields to improve microcirculation – arterial, venous, lymph circulation. The EMFs are very low – between the AM and FM radio signals, and definitely lower than what cell phones emit.

In addition to improving blood pressure, improved microcirculation also helps nutrition get to cells, and waste leave cells, and may reduce external pressure on arteries and veins caused by edema, by getting lymph to flow as well. If you want to actually see the impact of Bemer Therapy on improving microcirculation please watch this short video.
Unblocking a blood vessel with Bemer.

If you want to try Bemer therapy, google your home town and Bemer, to find out where you can go to give it a try, and if you are considering getting a Bemer for home, please comment below.

I'd love to hear your comments!

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Exercise intensity and over-training
Customized nutrition

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Meal replacements claim to be high in easily assimilated nutrition, but are the claims true? Are these drinks healthy?

On occasion over the last few years, I’ve known people, usually elderly, that were told by their physicians to take “Ensure” or “Boost”, or some other meal replacement beverage, in order to be certain they are getting all the nutrients they need. And even when a plate of healthy, real food is offered, the dutiful patient follows the doctor’s advice and chooses the artificial drink instead, believing they will get better nutrition from the drink than from the food. Doctors are doing their very best, but please remember that most have had very little if any nutrition training at all. The weight-loss industry also frequently markets meal-replacement beverages as part of their weight-loss plans. Having looked at the ingredient list on these beverages, I don’t think they should be recommended to anyone!

Here is the ingredient list for “Ensure”: water, sugar (sucrose), corn syrup, maltodextrin (corn), calcium caseinate, high-oleic safflower oil, canola oil, soy protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, corn oil, calcium phosphate tribasic, potassium citrate, magnesium phosphate dibasic, natural and artificial flavor, soy lecithin, sodium citrate, magnesium chloride, salt (sodium chloride), carrageenan, choline chloride, potassium chloride, ascorbic acid, ferrous sulfate, alpha-tocopheryl acetate, zinc sulfate, niacinamide, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, cupric sulfate, vitamin A palmitate, thiamine chloride hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, chromium chloride, biotin, sodium molybdate, sodium selenate, potassium iodide, phylloquinone, vitamin D3 and cyanocobalamin.

After water, the first three ingredients are all sugar, two made almost certainly from genetically modified corn, as the product is not organic. Sugar devastates the body, accelerating heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, cancer and most other diseases of civilization. Soon after on the list are three vegetable oils, which increase inflammation due to their high omega 6 content (canola and corn oil being worse than the high-oleic safflower) and the fact that the oils are almost certainly refined, meaning they are rancid and will cause free radical damage in the body. Then we have soy isolate on the list, an endocrine disruptor, and whey protein, which is also a highly processed product. After that for the most part is a list of synthetic vitamins, mixed in with flavourings, which entails another long list of chemicals that they do not have to put on the label. Do the synthetic vitamins redeem the product? I don’t think the isolated synthetic vitamins can overcome the fact that one has consumed a bottle/can of sugar and rancid vegetable oils, two of the most harmful ingredients one can have if one values one’s health. And of course, the poor liver has to detoxify all the chemical ingredients, of which there are many! Not a burden one wants to put on the liver if unhealthy!

The bottom line is to be healthy one needs to consume real food. What comes from a factory simply will never be as healthy as fresh foods that are picked, pulled out of the ground or chased after to obtain, or come from the ocean. The food needs to come from live sources, not made out of chemicals. Real food does not need to advertise that it is healthy. If a label is telling you it is healthy, it probably isn't.

I realize that these meal replacement beverages are a convenience, and sometimes when people are sick they need something liquid. There are so many healthier options than artificial meal-replacement beverages, if it is possible to take the time to make them. Soups made of bone broths, containing a variety of pureed vegetables, and possibly some pureed meat too. Smoothies with natural yogurt as a base, and filled with all kinds of wholesome, real food, including nuts, berries, coconut oil, an egg etc. Freshly made mixed vegetable juices with flax oil added. It takes some planning, but one would get all the nutrition needed without the problems, and it would taste better too!

What do you think? Am I being too harsh? I look forward to your comments!

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Oils and fats – the good, the bad, and the ugly
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Artificial and natural flavours

To view post titles by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca

Read this week’s edition of Grand Rounds at Health Business Blog – there are more posts on wellness this week, and a very interesting post on the real dangers of Accutane, the drug commonly given for acne. Check it out! Pretty interesting to see what those within the medical community are thinking and doing.

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There is a growing body of evidence of harm from long-term use of cell phones, and although the jury is still out, it may be wise to heed the early warning signs.

Although I have heard the warnings and the reassurances with respect to cell-phone safety and have been meaning to write about this topic for some time, it has taken me this long to broach this topic because I feel a bit like I am walking on foreign territory – something I don’t understand too fully, and am trying to wrap my head around. So I will present what I have found, and you can follow the resource links and make up your own mind. I use my cell phone daily, but am now trying to get into the habit of using the speaker phone option, rather than holding the phone to my head. Once again, I figure better safe than sorry.

The radiation the cell phones emit is between 1 and 3 Watts, in the microwave range, and that radiation DOES get absorbed by the head, or whatever body part is nearest the phone. Initially the concern was that this radiation heated the cells causing damage, but from the resources I’ve looked at, it looks like the body is able to dispel the heat quite easily. Based on that knowledge, claims to cell-phone safety have been made.

However, the radiation emitted from the phone is pulsed, and apparently very similar to the electrical oscillations sent within the brain (alpha and delta brain waves). Our body is a very sensitive electrochemical system, so it seems reasonable that radio waves from external sources at similar frequencies to our internal frequencies may interfere with our bioelectrical systems, in much the same way that cell phones interfere with airplane controls and hospital equipment. One can induce a seizure in photo-sensivitive epileptics by flashing a light at 15hz. The seizure is not caused by a reaction to the heat of the light, but rather by how the brain interprets or recognizes the frequency of the impulses. So it is the similarity to the frequencies commonly used within the body, confusing the body which may be problematic. One of the frequencies used by cell phones seems to be similar to one that induces cell division in the body, perhaps explaining the links between cell-phone use and brain cancer. Other EMF studies have shown links to Alzheimers, leukemia, ALS, breast cancer, blood pressure, heart disease, fertility, miscarriage, joint pain, migraines, fatigue, concentration difficulties, increased reaction time, and sleep disorders.

Children under the age of 16 are particularly vulnerable because their skulls are thinner and much smaller, increasing the radiation absorption. And if they are using cell phones at such a young age, they will have many more years of exposure than if they were starting later, potentially exacerbating the damage, as studies seem to indicate that the longer the exposure, the heavier the use, the more likely a problem. Some people may be far more sensitive to this electromagnetic pollution than others, and Bluetooth handsets actually increase rather than reduce exposure. Since radio frequencies are known to disrupt melatonin production, if you have difficulty sleeping, it may be worth getting a land line, rather than having a cordless or a cell phone, to reduce exposure. If you have a cell phone, carry it in your briefcase, knapsack or purse rather than in a pocket.

To check the the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) (the quantity of radiofrequency energy that is absorbed by your body) of your cell phone,
click here.

Comments and feed-back keep most writers going, so please do comment!

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I think to a large extent, happiness is a choice. One can choose to live in the moment and enjoy what we are currently doing, rather than wishing we are doing or enjoying something else.

Next time you are feeling unhappy or dissatisfied with your life, try examining your thoughts. I find that when I am unhappy I am either comparing myself to others who seem to have what I perceive to be a more "ideal" life, or I am comparing myself to some ideal that I have not yet achieved, resulting in my feeling less than adequate. I think much unhappiness stems from not accepting what is. When I feel that way, it helps a lot to remember everything I am grateful for. That immediately brings me back to my reality and reminds me that my life is pretty good! Furthermore, I have found that faking happiness actually works! Next time you are feeling down, smile and pretend you are happy. I bet you feel better too!

Some very interesting research on happiness done at Harvard and explained in this entertaining 21 minute video called "The Secret of How to be Happy", show that human beings are capable of synthesizing happiness. Which future would you prefer – life as a lottery winner or life as a paraplegic? Most people would probably guess that they would be happier as a lottery winner, but research shows that a year after either becoming a lottery winner or a paraplegic, happiness levels are the same. Any event that happened more than three months ago probably has little impact on one’s current happiness.

Another very interesting fact that is somewhat counter-intuitive is that the more choice or options we have, the less happy we are. The video shows clearly how the students that were given a choice were far less happy than those that were not. Who knew? But we agonize over our choices, and we often second-guess ourselves even after having made a decision. If we are not given a choice, we just accept whatever we must accept – no agonizing = more happiness. Do we really need so many different mutual funds, or even jeans to choose from? I must admit that there are times that I wish someone would simply make a decision for me, especially when it comes to stuff I know nothing about, like choosing a new computer. I become paralyzed because of all the options available, and this doesn’t make me feel good. With so many options, not only do we have to spend time figuring out what we want, but we also may have higher expectations than if we had no choice. So, maybe the moral is to simply make a quick decision and then not look back. According to the book “Blink”, often our gut instincts are correct anyway.

I haven't yet travelled to many of the poorer nations of the world, but one frequently hears stories about how happy people are despite their poverty. Might this be partly due to limited choices? Happiness also seems to be found in good friendships, relationships, and spending time together, and not so much in stuff. In the western world there is so much emphasis and pressure on us to "get ahead", so we work and stress ourselves to the bone so we can retire at some future date. Hopefully we will be healthy enough at that time to enjoy our retirement. And hopefully once we retire we will actually remember what recreational activities we enjoy, so we won't be too bored. And does money buy happiness? The research seems to indicate that the answer is no. So, perhaps it is worth slowing down, even if it means a little less money, and spending time doing things we enjoy, with those we care about.

I recently finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. He suggests that a better life plan is to take many mini-retirements (4 months to a year) throughout one's working life, rather than save it all for the end. I'm liking that idea! He says that often it is not as expensive or difficult as one would think. He suggests that the opposite of happiness is not sadness, but rather boredom, and therefore a synonym for happiness is excitement. So what would you like to do that would excite you? Always wanted to live on the beach in Thailand? Always wanted to learn Italian among the Italians? What do you need to do to get the ball rolling to be able to do it within the next 6 months? Maybe it IS worth throwing everything you have achieved in your work life away, in order to pursue that dream … What would be the worst case scenario if it didn't work out? Probably it wouldn't be that hard to resume your old life if you really needed to. What do you think? If this idea appeals to you, read Timothy’s book for hints on how to go about changing your life in these ways.

I am happy to announce that Wellness Tips is three-years old this week! Thank you for allowing me into your life on Sunday mornings! I am grateful to my subscribers from all over the world for keeping me researching regularly, which not only provides fodder for the tips, but also expands my knowledge base. One of my life goals is to understand as completely as possible human health and wellbeing, and through writing Wellness Tips, I have learned SO much over the past three years. I really don’t think that would have happened without knowing that I have readers that expect something in their inbox once a week. So, thank you all for helping me move towards my goal! Comments and feed-back keep most writers going, so please do keep the comments coming!

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