Some Random Health Notes

The last three weeks have been pretty awful for me. Our neighbors took turns spraying pesticides, then last week someone near us sprayed industrial strength pesticide. That one was so awful it contaminated almost everything in our garage and house. We are still in recovery and decontamination mode, and I've barely been able to keep up with daily needs. I'm behind on emails and blog posts. So today I thought I'd just post some random health notes that I've been thinking about lately.


Dangers of Pesticides

Obviously this has been on my mind. Pesticides/herbicides are designed to kill and destroy. To say that they can kill pests/plants without causing harm to humans is simply untrue! They are poisons. They do damage. They may not kill a human right away, but the toxins in these products cause all kinds of health problems, including cancer, reproductive problems, and brain impairments such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

If you aren't already aware of the dangers, please check out these articles which give specific details about how/why pesticides are so dangerous - to people, pets and the environment.

And please keep sharing this information with others so we can work together for a healthier world.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/29/pesticide-exposure.aspx

http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/

This site lists some alternatives to pesticides -
http://www.pesticide.org/


Resource for Parkinson's

I did some research for a friend lately about Parkinson's. Ironically, I learned that there's a proven link between exposure to pesticides and Parkinson's. High numbers of gardeners/landscapers who regularly used pesticides, later were diagnosed with Parkinson's. This makes sense because many of the chemicals in pesticides directly affect brain function.

The good news is that I found a wonderful resource about recovering from Parkinson's!
http://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/
I was impressed with this site because it expresses many of the same concepts I've learned, such as:

- the body is able to heal itself when we provide the help it needs
- recovery is possible
- always look for root causes
- then use various natural means to help the body resolve those root causes

If you know someone dealing with Parkinson's, this is a great resource. There's a ton of information on the blog, plus there are archived radio programs and much more.


Eat the rainbow

One other note is something I heard in an interview with a nutrition expert. She mentioned this concept about diet of "eating the rainbow." I thought it was a fun way to evaluate and pursue a healthier diet. She suggested you take three days and simply write down everything you eat. Then on the fourth day, take markers and put a corresponding colored line next to each item. So if you ate an apple, put a red line. If you ate bread, put a white or brown line. Etc.

She said most people eat a majority of white/brown/yellow foods. (Mostly starches, processed foods, grains, junk food, etc.) By putting colored lines next to each food you'll get a visual representation of what your diet looks like. If you eat a lot of green or orange foods, you'll notice that right away. If you're missing blue, purple or red foods, you'll see that too.

Since listening to her interview I've been inspired to eat a more rainbow-like diet. =) I went to the health food store and came back with blueberries, kiwi, apples and a tangelo.

I realize eating a healthy diet is a tough thing, with so many individual variables. But I hope maybe this idea will give you something fun to try. =)


Ok, that's all for today. I hope your week is going well.
Blessings,
-Joanna