But we’re not all playing with laser pointers, so does this story about laser pointers matter to us? Maybe if we just don’t use laser pointers we’ll be safe? Not the case.

As time goes by, we learn more and more that the many things around us that we consider harmless, are in fact crippling us. Have you ever eaten bread? Pasta? Pizza? Sure you have, because we consider wheat and its products to be safe.  Did you know that its porting Gluten is linked to many diseases, including heart disease and cancer?
Are you using a cell phone? Probably. Did you know that using cell phones is linked to brain tumors?  Even World health Organization considers cell phones as probably carcinogenic, but not the organization that should protect us first — the American Cancer Society. The question is why? Is it cell phone industry lobbying?
Are you drinking tap water?  Do you know that recent study found arsenic tap water contamination? Are you going to drink tap water again?

Based on the above, do you think we’re surrounded by toxins that we mostly don’t know about? Lasers, noise, radio smog, air pollutants and food are all things we may not even notice on a daily basis. But the truth is, they can be causing more damage than the things we actively try to avoid.

We know to stay away from certain things, but what happens when we live in the city? We open our windows at night as we’re used to the noise of the city. Or the light of the alarm clock, the nightlight, or television glow? What about radioactive waves that we can be exposed to? How dirty is our air? How toxic is our food?

There are so many things that we need to see doctors for. We grow older, we get medicated, we get diagnosed, and we learn to live with ailments and diseases.

Below are several practical tips on how to stay away from unexpected crippling toxins:

1.   Don’t point a laser pointer at people or mirrors.
2.   Turn off fuses at night.
3.   Don’t use a microwave.
4.   When you sleep, use fabric that isolates and protects you from radio waves.
5.   Turn off regular lights at night like computer lights, alarm clock, etc.
6.   Stay away from electric lines with a high voltage.
7.   Avoid processed food.
8.   Use air filters and purifiers for air cleaning.
9.   Vacuum bedroom often to get rid of dust.

References:
1.  http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1005818
2.  Ludvigsson JF, Montgomery SM, Ekbom A, Brandt L, Granath F. Small-intestinal histopathology and mortality risk in celiac disease. JAMA. 2009 Sep 16;302(11):1171-8.
3.  Hardell, Lennart; Carlberg, Michael; Söderqvist, Fredrik; Mild, Kjell Hansson; Morgan, L. Lloyd (2007). “Long-term use of cellular phones and brain tumours: Increased risk associated with use for ≥10 years”. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 64 (9): 626–32. doi:10.1136/oem.2006.029751. PMC 2092574. PMID 17409179.
4.  International Agency for Research on Cancer (2011-05-31). “IARC classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans” (PDF). Press release. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
5.  http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/AtHome/cellular-phones

How to protect yourself from toxins:

1. Stay away from mercury: fish, amalgams for fillings.
2. Stay away from lead, lead paints, etc.
3. Avoid MSG – eat food that you’ve prepared yourself.
4. Eat organic.
5. Eat raw food, provided it is safe.
6. Drink filtered water.

References:

1. http://www.livescience.com/15217-shrinking-brains-cost-longevity.html
2. http://www.msgexposed.com/msg-causes-rapid-brain-cell-death/

Back and forth goes the FDA when it comes to a decision regarding Avastin, the breast cancer treatment drug. The drug itself has an interesting history and relationship with the FDA. Back in 2004, Avastin received approval by the FDA. In 2007, the FDA suddenly pulled the approval, by a 5-4 vote. But only several months later re-granted the drug accelerated approval. Over the next couple of years it became a staple for women fighting breast cancer.

Until last month, when the FDA announced it was questioning some of the studies done by the company and pulled approval once again. But what about the women who have been on it all these years?

The debate is heated and not anywhere close to over yet. A study says it adds five months to your life, but now evidence says it actually marginally helps people on it.
This is yet another terrifying example of what we are dealing with when it comes to “life-saving” drugs. It is one thing to read a story about drugs being pulled off the market, but what if you have been on it for years? Or forget it not helping, what if the drug actually caused damage like another diabetes drug pulled recently, which was said to possibly be linked to bladder cancer?
So what can we do? Well, we can’t cure cancer just like that, but we can try to take as many precautions as we can to not expose ourselves to known cancer-causing agents.

Here are some natural ways that we can protect ourselves from cancer. There is nothing we can do to guarantee that we won’t get it, but it can never hurt to be healthy and careful:

1. Make you sure you get a good night’s sleep: It is during sleep time that our body fixes itself and corrects the things that need to be corrected
2. Detoxification: Check yourself for toxins and get detoxified.
3. Eat organic: less chemicals=less risk
4. Eat a Paleolithic diet of proteins, fruits and vegetables. No carbs, no milk, and cook food as little as possible to keep in the nutrients.
5. Stay out of the sun during the worst hours. Only go out before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m.  Make sure you wear sunscreen.

That’s the age-old question. So many people cheat on their spouses, or quit their jobs at the wrong time, or date someone who is bad for them, or continue to eat terrible even though they are gaining weight, or put themselves in bad situations knowing the possible outcome. Maybe it’s not just because we are naturally flawed. We can make a joke that the Congressman was thinking with the wrong body part, but why?

And this isn’t a tirade against one person. Look at former president Bill Clinton, or Governor Arnold Schwarzennegar, or countless other disgraced public figures and stars. And it’s not only about sex. Look at actor Robert Downey Jr, who keeps getting chances at fame only to give in again and again to drugs, or Lindsay Lohan, who, no matter how many opportunities she has to get herself well, continues to be a part of the nightlife that destroyed her career.

Maybe it’s time to not just blame the people, but blame the environment as well. Toxicity can very well help us to figure out just how someone so smart or talented can take such a turn.

We have talked before about the term “mad hatter,” which came about after so many hatters were exposed to years of mercury poisoning (1), causing harsh effects on their brains. Heavy Metal Toxicity is a huge problem (2), but also one that can be treated with detoxification done by a holistic professional.

An unhealthy gut can also cause people to act unlike themselves. Get your gut checked!

Gluten intolerance is said to contribute to behavior issues, including possible symptoms of bipolar disorder. But why is something like bread so poisonous? Because our body isn’t made to ingest the gluten that is in breads now. The bacteria is different in the breads we eat today, which are unhealthy for you. Maybe We are not meant to eat bread? (3)

So, even though there is no way that a wife will forgive her cheating husband based on his gluten intolerance or heavy metal toxicity, it is important to know that we, too, are products of our environment. Our flaws not only come from how we were raised, but also where we were raised and what he have been exposed to.

References

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hatter
(2) http://www.cidpusa.org/heavymetals.html
(3) http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/forum/52-gluten-intolerance-and-behvior/

Disclaimer: to every blog post –  This blog post does not intend to give you advise how to treat, improve or cure any disease.

What this means is that this drug is not really effective.  Otherwise why would FDA say that it did not definitely show benefits? As a matter of fact the FDA held up the approval for some time because it wasn’t clear about the benefits of the drug.

The next question is: if it is not clear about benefits, they why did the approve it? For fun? To earn more money? To give false hope?

So, what do we do? If not drugs, then what other ways can we deal with lupus?

It is very well known that Lupus is caused by an abnormally high amount of Immune Complexes that are so numerous they cannot be removed from circulation.

Maybe the logical solution would be to look for the source of chronic inflammation or infection that causes the immune complex formation?

Potential sources of infection could be: undiagnosed teeth infections, especially in those who have root canals, chronic urinary tract infections, unhealthy gut issues, etc.

To figure out what is going on you need a Functional Medicine Doctor to find the root cause of your problem and eliminate it.

Good luck!

References :

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-benlysta-lupus-20110310,0,6813599.story
(1) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703453804576191024114240558.html?mod=djemHL_t
(2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/09/AR2011030905132.html
(3) http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm246489.htm

Disclaimer: to every blog post –  This blog post does not intend to give you advise how to treat, improve or cure any disease.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association may be the explanation.  What they found was that people have a 35 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and cancer because of something we deal with every day.  It was not cholesterol or other fats; it was not smoking or other toxins.   Sugar? No.  Sodas? No. We all know about them.

What you do not know is that gluten might be killing you.  We get gluten from whole grain bread, for example, and other food products that contain wheat, barley, rye, etc. I’m talking about most of the processed foods. Even sauces or lipstick may contain gluten.
It is very well known that gluten can cause celiac sprue.  What we did not know was:

1. It is gluten that gives can give us cancer and heart disease. It may not be cholesterol or salt that is killing you, but rather the bread you had for lunch today.
2. You do not need to suffer from a full-blown form of the disease, suffer heart disease or get cancer from it.  You might feel perfectly healthy while gluten is killing you. You only need to have a sensitivity to it.

So, how is it that this was just discovered?
That is because gluten sensitivity is a great imitator.  It can present as:

1. Irritable bowel syndrome.
2. Inflammatory bowel disease.
3. Migraines and Osteoporosis.
4. Anemia and Fatigue.
5. Depression, Schizophrenia and Dementia.
6. Autism, Seizures, etc.

So, what is behind all those diseases? How can such a small protein molecule cause so much damage?  The answer is simple: inflammation.  Have you ever had a common cold? Sure, you did. Could you think clearly when your nose and throat were inflamed? Obviously not.

How could it happen that a staple of our diet — wheat– could be so harmful?  Isn’t whole wheat natural?

No! When men were created there were no agriculture.  Therefore our digestive system is not designed to digest wheat.  Period.

How can you find out if you are sensitive to gluten? A simple blood test can answer this question.  What we need to do is to check if you have some specific antibodies in your blood.  If yes, then you may benefit from going to a gluten-free diet.

The bottom line is simple: if you are suffering from unexplained symptoms like fatigue, anemia, mood problems, etc., you’d better check if you are sensitive to gluten because the cure may be very simple: just stay away from wheat and its products.
References:

(i) Ludvigsson JF, Montgomery SM, Ekbom A, Brandt L, Granath F. Small-intestinal histopathology and mortality risk in celiac disease. JAMA. 2009 Sep 16;302(11):1171-8.
(ii) Rubio-Tapia A, Kyle RA, Kaplan EL, Johnson DR, Page W, Erdtmann F, Brantner TL, Kim WR, Phelps TK, Lahr BD, Zinsmeister AR, Melton LJ 3rd, Murray JA. Increased prevalence and mortality in undiagnosed celiac disease. Gastroenterology. 2009 Jul;137(1):88-93
(iii) Green PH, Neugut AI, Naiyer AJ, Edwards ZC, Gabinelle S, Chinburapa V. Economic benefits of increased diagnosis of celiac disease in a national managed care population in the United States. J Insur Med. 2008;40(3-4):218-28.
(iv) Farrell RJ, Kelly CP. Celiac sprue. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jan 17;346(3):180-8. Review.

While the FDA runs around trying to catch up with what is contaminated, and a food safety bill sits stalled in the senate since July, we are left with dangerous foods.

It is almost impossible to keep track of food recalls today. When we worried about mad-cow disease, the whole world seemed to stop and take notice, the tomato scare, a little bit less, the peanut-butter thing, ehhh, what could it really do? It’s how we as a society react to real threats. Unfortunately, media decides how we truly feel about something. Sure, if you look deeply into any subject you will know so much more, but most of us get our information from the evening news, or maybe a newspaper, possibly on our computers during lunch-hour, and if our reporters aren’t covering it, you aren’t hearing it.

Here’s a true story: several years ago, there was a summer when all you heard about was shark attacks. Do you remember? Everyday, there was a shark being spotted here, a person being attacked here. We were suddenly at risk of sharks. Then, all of the sudden, they disappeared. Truth was, that the year before, there were actually way more shark attacks than the year it was covered in the news, but you never would have known it. Here’s why. It was simply a boring summer. There were no elections, race riots, no stars being arrested. Media still has to fill an hour of TV time. They still need to get you to read their paper instead of someone else’s. And the way to do it is fear. Oh my gosh, I might be attacked by a shark. I should buy that paper and read how I can protect myself.

But, with food safety, it’s actually the opposite. Here, these are things we need to know, but media knows that they can only keep a person’s interest for so long. Everyone knows that blood sells, and there are way more exciting things to read about than people who got diahrrea from contaminated food. But it’s still so important, as little by little, we contaminate our bodies with unclean food.

You can keep up on food safety at www.foodsafety.gov, which lists all the most recent recalls and safety information. But that is not enough. You need to take control of the foods you eat.

Recently, there was an outbreak of salmonella in pistachios (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/31nuts.html). That is just weird! There should be no way in nature that it would happen.

There was a case a while back where several people suddenly fell ill with stomach infections. They all had gone out to eat and had a Caesar Salad  (http://www.carec.net/pdf/mobidityreview/8.%20Food-borne.pdf). But what in a Caesar salad would cause them to get so ill? Turns out, the lettuce was contaminated from not being properly washed.  Read more here: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/foodspot.htm We think of diseases from things like dirty hands, meat and milk. But lettuce? How?

Everybody knows that food born diseases are caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses or their toxins.   But where do they com from?  They do not come from air!  Most of the time they come from feces:   human of animal.

Cows! Cows are just one example of animals being raised in confinement, being fed hormones to make them produce more milk, and leaving the animal succeptable to many more illnesses. When they move their bowels, it goes into the soil, the soil is used as fertilizer for our  lettuce, which is, in turn, not properly washed.

The most practical advice here is to wash, wash and wash. Wash your hands. Wash your salad. Don’t trust labels that say something is pre-washed. Just think of who is out there washing your lettuce the way it should be washed.

Also try to know the source of your food. If you can, you should grow your own, or buy organic where possible.

Make sure that you have acid in your stomach. What happens is that most of the people don’t have enough acid to fight off these infections. This is where you need to be under the care of a holistic doctor to help monitor you.

Now what about you?

• Are you suffering from food poison?
• Do you know if your body can fight certain viruses?
• Do you need to increase your immune system?

For more information visit Dr Kalitenko’s website at  www.doctorkalitenko.com to make an appointment or call our offices at 718-382-9200.

You may also find interesting:

• Mexican Serrano Peppers May Be Dangerous to Eat
• How much water do you need to drink every day?
• Poisons in the Tap Water

Drugs that give us a quick fix, medications from the drug companies, could be giving us more than we bargained for, as we are learning in the many examples where drug companies are not telling the truth:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/02/26/another-drug-company-accused-of-hiding-negative-study-results/?mod=djemHL

The Department of Justice’s complaint against the lab that markets Celexa and Lexapro has once again brought to the forefront that drug companies may be hiding bad results of their medications, while only releasing the better data.

I don’t argue that we need drugs sometimes for a quick fix, but in the long run, natural solutions are the only thing that we can trust with our lives.

www.clinicaltrials.gov was created to encourage drug companies to be open about their trials, may be helpful in finding some information, but shouldn’t be wholly trusted either.

Sometimes the Food and Drug Administration subsidizes studies, and we’ve seen before that those can’t always be trusted as well, but many studies are subsidized by the drug companies themselves. How much honest information can you expect?

You can look naturally to find long term solutions, to find the root cause of a problem and help you get rid of it, rather than relieve symptoms temporarily with medication.

There are many things you can look to find where something is coming from:

1.    What you eat

2.    Your stress levels

3.    The medications you are currently on

4.    Hormone deficiencies

5.    Your happiness

6.    Vitamins

It’s been a controversy for years. And yet, it’s also the butt of jokes, something you do in high school with your friends. You hold up your hand, fingers together. And depending on the length of your ring finger as compared to your index finger, it tells you if you are gay or not. And in high school it is then put aside as a joke.

However, some scientists take it very seriously and there have been several studies that claim to actually show a correlation between the length of your fingers and your sexual orientation.

Scientists in Berkeley, California almost 10 years ago released a study that says lesbian women and gay men have a greater difference in length between their ring finger and index finger than straight women do.

See the full findings at http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2000/03/03-29-2000a.html

According to a BBC article published at the time about the study, the scientists were testing a theory that higher levels of androgen – male sex hormones – in the womb influence both finger length and sexual orientation.

Normally, it was thought that the ring finger and index finger tend to be about the same length in women, while in men, the index finger is usually shorter. But, the study found that in lesbian women, they seemed to have a shorter index finger.

Everybody wants to smell nice to attract the opposite sex. But it may be too pricey.  Because using deodorants may not always be safe for several reasons.

1.  Deodorants often contain parabens, linked to cancer.

2.  They often contain antiperspirants with aluminum. It is a neurotoxin and clogs the pores of your sweat glands.

Keeping in mind that most of the toxins from your breasts are going to the armpit to be eliminated, do you think, that that it is a good idea to clog the pores and prevent toxins from your breast to be released?

Let me ask you a question: why do we always have a biopsy and check histology of the breast lesions and cancers, but in clinical practice we never check their toxicology? I think you know why.  Because if we do it we would know which toxins may be responsible for cancer.

So what is the solution?

1.  Do not shave hair. It prevents sweat from accumulating and being destroyed by bacteria with resulting odor.

2.  Baby soap and water are good.

3.  Essential oils like eucalyptus, coconut, lavender, peppermint, and rosemary in an olive oil base are worth to try.

Any other suggestions?

Watching sports games on television or in person, doubled the cardiac events rate.  A new study, published in New England Journal of Medicine, showed that watching sports games on television or in person, doubled the cardiac events rate.  Do I suggest stop watching games or TV? No.  What I suggest is to have meds handy while enjoying excitement.

Long, thick and dark eyelashes! Who would refuse?

The problem is that except cosmetics, we do not have any way to get eyelashes longer. But there is a rumor, that very soon we’ll have a new drug to do it.

The new product is going to be manufactured by famous Allergan. The story of this product is similar to Botox: doctors noticed that glaucoma drug Lumigan makes eyelashes longer, darker and thicker. And the decision was made to use this drug, containing Bimatoprost, for eyelashes.

This drug should be applied to the eyelid margin. So far Allergan is waiting for FDA approval. There is no drug name yet.

There is an unconfirmed rumor that Wyeth Pharmaceutical is requesting the FDA approve its new antidepressant Pristiq for hot flashes secondary to menopause.

In other words, instead of hormone replacement therapy our women will get another antidepressant? Does it make any sense to you? Not to me.

I think, that primary menopause treatment should be hormones, not chemicals. We don’t need another drug, but an actual solution and in my field I have found that this is a real solution.

An unknown pharmaceutical company recently filed an application for the generic version of Cialis.

Cialis is widely known for how it helps erectile dysfunction. It is available as a once-a-day medication so that men can be ready at anytime, and also as a quick-shot pill that works within a half-hour.

If it is approved, and competition heats up, we may expect prices to go down soon.

There is a new study from Israel suggesting that cell phone use is related to increased incidents of parotid tumors.

Parotid glands are the largest salivary glands in humans. The risk was higher for those who use the same ear most of the time to talk on the phone.

Looks like the majority is blaming radio waves.

Maybe the better explanation is repeated mechanical micro trauma of parotids by the cell phone itself?

When Britney Spears had her nervous breakdown early last year, reporters had a field day calling her crazy. But there is truth behind the usual jab when someone says it must be a hormonal imbalance.

I don’t  know for sure if Spears’ breakdown could have been prevented, but very often, mood swings are caused by serotonin deficiency.

A seratonin deficiency can lead to depression, anxiety, poor sleep, panic, obsession and suicidal tendencies.

The famous antidepressant drug Prozac works by increasing serotonin concentration in the brain because of reuptake inhibition. As per my knowledge the most of serotonin is produced in the gut.

It is known that the deficiency can be caused by a bad diet, so maybe we should fix out diet and hence our gut to avoid mood swings and dangerous behaviors such as we witnessed in this star?

The Food and Drug Administration may approve use of meat and milk from cloned animals for consumers. I wonder, what the basis is for the assumption that it is safe.

The first cloned sheep, Dolly, was killed at age 6 1/2 because of a virus-induced lung tumor called sheep pulmonary adenomatosis. This would make me think that something might be wrong with meat or milk from cloned animals, maybe carcinogens? Viruses? We’ll see.