Natural Cures Not Medicine: 10/09/13

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How to Improve Vision Naturally

by Dr. Ben Kim | Drbenkim.com

Contrary to popular belief, your vision doesn’t have to decline over time. With regular exercise of the muscles that control your eye movements and visual acuity, you can reduce eyestrain and maintain or even improve your vision. Utilization of a few acupressure points can also help your vision by encouraging healthy blood flow to your eyes.

The six muscles that control your eye movements are as follows:

Lateral rectus - Primarily moves your eye outward, away from your nose.

Medial rectus - Primarily moves your eye inward, toward your nose.

Superior rectus - Primarily moves your eye upward.

Inferior rectus - Primarily moves your eye downward.

Superior oblique - Primarily rotates the top of your eye toward your nose.

Inferior oblique – Primarily rotates the top of your eye away from your nose.

Perhaps the single greatest reason why people in today’s society suffer from chronic eyestrain and deteriorating vision is the amount of time that is spent staring at computer monitors and television screens.

Your eyes are designed to move regularly. Frequent movement of your eyes is what promotes optimal blood flow and nerve tone to your eyes and the six muscles that control your eye movements.

What follows are several simple eye exercises that you can do on a regular basis to keep your eyes and vision as healthy as possible:

1. Look as far to your right as possible for 3-5 seconds, then as far to your left as possible for 3-5 seconds. Rest for a few seconds, then repeat this sequence several times.

2. Look as far up as possible for 3-5 seconds, then look as far down as possible for 3-5 seconds. Rest for a few seconds, then repeat this sequence several times.

3. Slowly roll your eyes in a circle, first clockwise, then counter-clockwise. Rest for a few seconds, then repeat this sequence several times. Be sure to roll slowly – it should take at least 3 seconds for you to roll your eyes in a full circle.

4. Hold a pen in front of you, about an arm’s length away. Focus your vision on the tip of your pen for 3-5 seconds, then shift the focus of your vision to an object that is farther away for 3-5 seconds. The greater the distance between your pen and the distant object, the better. If you are indoors, look out a window to find a distant object to focus your vision on. Repeat this sequence of going back and forth between your pen and a distant object several times.

Just for interest’s sake, this exercise is used by some professional baseball players to optimize visual acuity, which is essential for the hand-eye coordination that is needed to play pro ball.

Please note that all of these exercises should be done with your eyes, not your head and neck. With this in mind, keep your head and neck still while you take your eyes through the movements described above.

If you would like more comprehensive guidance on how to improve and protect your vision as you age, I highly recommend that you read:

Relearning to See: Improve Your Eyesight – Naturally!


This is an outstanding book that offers a comprehensive array of exercises and information that can help you support your vision. And if you wear eyeglasses or contacts, following the guidance provided in this book may actually help you do away with your prescription eye wear or at the very least, help prevent deterioration of your visual acuity as you age.

Beyond doing the exercises described above on a regular basis, another way to reduce eyestrain and promote your best vision is to use your fingers to apply gentle pressure to three acupressure points that can help promote healthy blood flow to your eyes and the muscles that surround your eyes.

The best such acupressure points are as follows:

Bladder-2 (BL-2)

BL-2 is located under the innermost section of each of your eyebrows, in the top-inner region of each of your orbital sockets. When pressing on this point, you should feel direct contact with the bony surface of your orbital socket.


Additional pictures of this point and how to apply pressure to it can be found on pages 90 and 91 of Acupressure’s Potent Points: a Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments

For those with knowledge of human anatomy: Application of pressure to BL-2 is meant to stimulate optimal blood flow and nerve function to the tendon of the superior oblique muscle, a number of smaller muscles that surround the orbital cavity, branches of the frontal branch of the trigeminal nerve, and branches of the supratrochlear and supraorbital arteries.

Stomach-2 and Stomach-3 (St-2, St-3)

St-2 and St-3 are located under the mid-line of each of your eyes. St-2 is about one finger-width under each eye, while St-3 is located at the bottom of each of your cheekbones. These points are described together because it is quite simple to apply pressure to both of them at the same time on both sides of your face by using your index and middle fingers.

Additional pictures of these points and how to apply pressure to them can be found on pages 90 and 91 of Acupressure’s Potent Points: a Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments

For those with knowledge of human anatomy: Application of pressure to these points is meant to stimulate optimal blood flow and nerve function to the infraorbital nerve, branches of the facial nerve, and branches of the facial and infraorbital arteries and a number of muscles below and within the orbital sockets.

***
Please note: before self-administering acupressure, it is always best to consult with your doctor to make sure that there are no contraindications to doing so.

If you work with a computer on a daily basis, and you haven’t read through a two-part series that I wrote a while back on how to stay healthy in the computer era, I recommend that you view it here: How to Protect Your Health in the Computer Era – this article provides several practical tips on how to protect your eyesight while working with computers.

Source: : drbenkim.com/

The 10 Healthiest Foods on the Planet


The 10 Healthiest Foods on the Planet

These 10 superfoods are proven, expert-beloved disease fighters and energy boosters.




1: Lemons

Why They're Healthy:
-- Just one lemon has more than 100 percent of your daily intake of vitamin C, which may help increase "good" HDL cholesterol levels and strengthen bones.
-- Citrus flavonoids found in lemons may help inhibit the growth of cancer cells and act as an anti-inflammatory.

Add a slice of lemon to your green tea. One study found that citrus increases your body's ability to absorb the antioxidants in the tea by about 80 percent.

More health benefits of Lemons:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/amazing-healing-power-of-lemons.html

2. Broccoli

Why It's Healthy:
-- One medium stalk of broccoli contains more than 100 percent of your daily vitamin K requirement and almost 200 percent of your recommended daily dose of vitamin C -- two essential bone-building nutrients. Also helps stave off numerous cancers.

Zap it! Preserve up to 90 percent of broccoli's vitamin C by microwaving. (Steaming or boiling holds on to just 66 percent of the nutrient.)

More health benefits of Dark Chocolate:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/dark-chocolate-health-benefits.html

3. Dark Chocolate

Why It's Healthy: 
-- Just one-fourth of an ounce daily can reduce blood pressure in otherwise healthy individuals.
-- Cocoa powder is rich in flavonoids, antioxidants shown to reduce "bad" LDL cholesterol and increase "good" HDL levels.

A dark chocolate bar contains about 53.5 milligrams of flavonoids; a milk chocolate bar has fewer than 14

4. Potatoes

Why They're Healthy: 
-- One red potato contains 66 micrograms of cell-building folate -- about the same amount found in one cup of spinach or broccoli.
-- One sweet potato has almost eight times the amount of cancer-fighting and immune-boosting vitamin A you need daily.

Let your potato cool before eating. Research shows that doing so can help you burn close to 25 percent more fat after a meal, thanks to a fat-resistant starch.

5. Salmon

Why It's Healthy: 
-- A great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to a reduced risk of depression, heart disease, and cancer.
-- A 3-ounce serving contains almost 50 percent of your daily dose of niacin, which may protect against Alzheimer's disease and memory loss.

Opt for wild over farm-raised, which contains 16 times as much toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) as wild salmon.

6. Walnuts

Why They're Healthy: 
-- Contain the most omega-3 fatty acids, which may help reduce cholesterol, of all nuts.
-- Omega-3s have been shown to improve mood and fight cancer; they may protect against sun damage, too (but don't skip the SPF!).

Eat for dessert: The antioxidant melatonin, found in walnuts, helps to regulate sleep.

More health benefits of walnuts:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/the-health-benefits-of-walnuts.html

7. Avocados

Why They're Healthy: 
-- Rich in healthy, satisfying fats proven in one study to lower cholesterol by about 22 percent.
-- One has more than half the fiber and 40 percent of the folate you need daily, which may reduce your risk of heart disease.

Adding it to your salad can increase the absorption of key nutrients like beta-carotene by three to five times compared with salads without this superfood.

More health benefits of Avocados:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/why-you-should-eat-avocado-day.html

8. Garlic

Why It's Healthy: 
-- Garlic is a powerful disease fighter that can inhibit the growth of bacteria, including E. coli.
-- Allicin, a compound found in garlic, works as a potent anti-inflammatory and has been shown to help lower cholesterol and blood-pressure levels.

Crushed fresh garlic releases the most allicin. Don't overcook; garlic exposed to high heat for more than 10 minutes loses important nutrients.

More on Garlic:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/04/garlic-does-more-than-you-think.html

9. Spinach

Why It's Healthy: 
-- Spinach contains lutein and zeaxanthin, two immune-boosting antioxidants important for eye health.
-- Recent research found that among cancer-fighting fruits and veggies, spinach is one of the most effective.

Spinach is a healthy and flavorless addition to any smoothie. You won't taste it, we promise! Try blending 1 cup spinach, 1 cup grated carrots, 1 banana, 1 cup apple juice, and ice.

10. Beans

Why They're Healthy: 
-- Eating a serving of legumes (beans, peas, and lentils) four times a week can lower your risk of heart disease by 22 percent.
-- That same habit may also reduce your risk of breast cancer.

The darker the bean, the more antioxidants it contains. One study found that black bean hulls contain 40 times the amount of antioxidants found in white bean hulls.

More health benefits from beans:
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/03/health-benefits-of-pinto-beans.html

Article information provided by:
Originally published in FITNESS magazine, October 2008. 
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipe...

Brain-eating amoeba found in Louisiana water



According to (CNN) --" Brain-eating amoebae were found in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, where a 51-year-old woman died from an infection in 2011, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said. "

It's funny how the report says 1 woman died in 2011 (over 2 years ago) and now they do this.

"Residents, over the next two months, "may notice a change in the smell and taste of the water throughout the chlorine burn. However, the water will remain safe to drink," the department said."

We aren't sure why they would advise the residents to continue to drink the water when according to Pure-Health The chlorine used to reduce the risk of infectious disease may account for a substantial portion of the cancer risk associated with drinking water.

YOU MUST READ THIS:

Joseph Mercola - "The cancer risk to people who drink chlorinated water is 93 percent higher than those who don't".

The chemical element chlorine is a corrosive, poisonous, greenish-yellow gas that has a suffocating odor and is 2 1/2 times heavier than air. Chlorine belongs to the group of elements called halogens. The halogens combine with metals to form compounds called halides. Chlorine is manufactured commercially by running an electric current through salt water. This process produces free chlorine, hydrogen, and sodium hydroxide. Chlorine is changed to its liquid form by compressing the gas, the resulting liquid is then shipped. Liquid chlorine is mixed into drinking water and swimming pools to destroy bacteria.

Until recently, concerns about drinking water focused on eliminating pathogens. The chlorine used to reduce the risk of infectious disease may account for a substantial portion of the cancer risk associated with drinking water. Chlorination of drinking water was a major factor in the reduction in the mortality rates associated with waterborne pathogen. The use of chlorine was believed to be safe. This view is evident in an article, which appeared on the back page of the New York Times. The report stated that with the use of chlorine, "Any municipal water supply can be made as pure as mountain spring water. Chlorination destroys all animal and microbial life, leaving no trace of itself afterwards". This statement reflected opinion accepted until recent years when halogenated organic compounds, such as chloroform, were identified in chlorinated drinking water supplies. Recent surveys show that these compounds are common in water supplies throughout the United States.

These concerns about cancer risks associated with chemical contamination from chlorination by-products have resulted in numerous epidemiological studies. These studies generally support the notion that by-products of chlorination are associated with increased cancer risks.

Chlorine is used to combat microbial contamination, but it can react with organic matter in the water and form dangerous, carcinogenic Trihalomethanes. According to Dr. Joseph M. Price, MD, in Moseby's Medical Dictionary, "Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. It is an insidious poison".

In a 1992 study that made front-page headlines, and was reported on in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee found that people who regularly drink tap water containing high levels of chlorine by-products have a greater risk of developing bladder and rectal cancers than people who drink unchlorinated water. The study estimates that about 9 percent of all bladder cancer and 18 percent of all rectal cancer cases are associated with long-term consumption of these by-products. This amounts to over 20,000 new cases each year.

Morris, with epidemiologist Thomas C. Chalmers and his colleagues at Harvard, used a new technique called meta-analysis to combine the results from the 10 best studies, yielding the new findings. They report that people drinking chlorinated water over long periods have a 21% increase in the risk of contracting bladder cancer and a 38% increase in the risk of rectal cancer. "I am quite convinced, based on this study, that there is an association between cancer and chlorinated water.", says Robert D. Morris of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who
directed the new study.

About 90% of the population is drinking water which may contain hundreds of these Disinfection By-products (DBPs), also known as Trihalomethanes. The Environmental Protection Agency lowered the Maximum Contaminant Level for Disinfection By-products but it will be years before the new standard goes into effect.

In his book, Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine, Joseph M. Price, MD presents startling evidence that Trihalomethanes, are the "prime causative agents of arteriosclerosis and its inevitable result, the heart attack or stroke." These Trihalomethanes are created when the chlorine that is added to the municipal water supply reacts with organic matter such as leaves, twigs, or chemicals from agricultural runoff.

Here's What The Experts Have To Say:

"The drinking of chlorinated water has finally been officially linked to an increased incidence of colon cancer. An epidemiologist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities completed a study of colon cancer victims and non-cancer patients and concluded that the drinking of chlorinated water for 15 years or more was conducive to a high rate of colon cancer."
Health Freedom News, January/February 1987

"Long-term drinking of chlorinated water appears to increase a person's risk of developing bladder cancer as much as 80%," according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Some 45,000 Americans are diagnosed every year with bladder cancer.
St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, December 17, 1987


Does the Chlorine in Tap Water Raise Your Health Risks? | Gaiam Life

life.gaiam.com/article/does-chlorine-tap-water-raise-your-health-risks
New research underscores the health risks of chlorine in municipal tap water.

Sperm whale dies bringing us a message; a stomach full of plastic

July 29, 2013, a sperm whale was stranded on Tershelling, a northern island in the Netherlands. A rescue attempt was attempted, but unfortunately the whale died. A young adult at 13.5 meters was taken for a necropsy at the port of Harlington. The sperm whale had plastic in its stomach, an increasing common phenomenon say researchers at the Biodiversity Centre Naturalis.

Photo from facebook.com/occupyeducated 
In March of this year, a 10 meter long sperm whale washed up on Spain’s South Coast. This whale had swallowed 59 different plastic items totalling over 37 pounds. Most of this plastic consisted of transparent sheeting used to build greenhouses in Almeria and Grenada for the purpose of tomatoes for the European market. The rest was plastic bags, nine meters of rope, two stretches of hosepipe, two small flower pots, and a plastic spray canister. Cause of death was intestinal blockage. These are not uncommon incidents.

In 1989, a stranded sperm whale in the Lavezzi Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea died of a stomach obstruction after accidentally ingesting plastic bags and 100 feet of plastic sheeting. In 1990, a sperm whale examined for pathology in Iceland died of an obstruction of the gut with plastic marine debris. In August of 2008, a sperm whale washed up in Point Reyes, California with 450 pounds of fishing net, rope, and plastic bags in its stomach. The California Marine Mammal Stranding Database tells of another sperm whale stranded in 2008 with stomach contents that included an extensive amount of netting from discarded fishing gear. The sperm whale that stranded in the Netherlands had a large part of its lower jaw missing. Among hundreds of thousands of sperm whales that whalers harpoon, regularly encountered are sperm whales with broken or deformed lower jaws. Most of these whales have full stomachs and are healthy right before being slaughtered. This, and the fact squids are found in their stomachs whole and seldom show bite marks, lead to a theory that the lower jaw plays no significant role in catching of prey and that these sperm whales instead suck their food in. If this theory is true, sperm whales are just as vulnerable as baleen whales to the ingestion of marine debris.

Another family of deep diving, squid eating cetaceans is the beaked whales. May 2011, a female juvenile Gervais’ beaked whale was found on a beach in Puerto Rico with ten pounds of plastic in her stomach. In July 2006, a 20-year old female Cuvier’s beaked whale died in the Cook Islands, Rarotonga after ingesting a single plastic bag. Sperm whales and beaked whales are especially susceptible to swallowing plastic and fishing gear as they resemble their natural prey, squid, the same way a sea turtle is susceptible to swallowing plastic bags because they resemble jelly fish. Baleen whales suffer the same fate, not for the fact trash resembles their food, but because they gulp large amounts of water when feeding. In August 2000, a Bryde’s whale was stranded near Cairns, Australia. The stomach was found to be tightly packed with six square meters of plastic rubbish, including supermarket bags, food packages, and fragments of trash bags. In April 2010, a gray whale that died after stranding itself on a west Seattle beach was found to have more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, duct tape, a pair of sweat pants, and a golf ball, not to mention other garbage contained in its stomach. Plastic is not digestible, and once it finds its way into the intestines, accumulates and clogs the intestines. For some whales, the plastic does not kill the animal directly, but cause malnutrition and disease, which leads to unnecessary suffering until death. Whales are not the only victims to our trash. It is estimated that over one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year from plastic debris. In September 2009, photographs of albatross chicks on Midway Atoll were brought to the public’s eye. These nesting chicks were fed bellies full of plastic by their parents who soar over vastly polluted oceans collecting what looks to them to be food. This diet of human trash kills tens of thousands of albatross chicks each year on Midway because of starvation, toxicity, and choking. We can all do our part by limiting our use of plastic products such as shopping bags, party balloons, straws, and plastic bottles. Be a frugal shopper and recycle!

Sources: http://www.seashepherd.nl - http://www.invw.org http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/10/gray-whale-dies-bringing-us-a-message-with-stomach-full-of-plastic-trash.html -

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