Natural Remedies For Radiation Exposure

You might recognize the name Fukushima – just a couple years ago, a massive tsunami hit the nuclear power plants on Fukushima’s coast, which led to major radioactive leaks into the atmosphere and ocean. The government, and regulation authorities told the public “not to worry,” and that the levels of radiation were not harmful – well, they were wrong.

Just a few weeks ago, Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority raised the rating of radioactive water leak  from the Fukushima nuclear power plant to Level 3, making this incident much more serious than previously imagined (on an international scale of radioactivity). They upgraded the level from Level 1 (which was initially assigned to a leak of 300 tons of radiation-contaminated water from a tank at the Fukushima plant).

This level of radiation, now labelled as “serious threat” (level 0 being no threat to level 7 being the highest threat) should be taken into consideration, especially when it comes to diet. There are many harmful effects of radiation, and many of them go unnoticed in the body. Even over time, a low level of radiation exposure can lead to major digestive imbalances, blood alterations and destruction of tissue and organ systems at a cellular level. Symptoms may include things such as fatigue, headaches, nausea, scalp issues, and dry/itchy skin – in more extreme cases (aka. if you lived in Fukushima, or within a couple mile radius of the disaster), symptoms may include mood changes, memory problems, brain damage, attention disorders and slowed information processing and psychomotor abilities.

In particular, our circulatory and reproductive systems are incredibly sensitive to any level of radiation – the effect is reduced blood lymphocytes which can lead to higher incidence of body infections (also known as “mild radiation sickness”) – symptoms are often flu-like and can increase your likelihood of developing cancers of the blood (leukaemia and lymphoma) in the future. Long-term radiation exposure can affect our reproductive system, leading to birth defects and still-births (as well as infertility).

Here is a list of 10 foods which can be used to help protect your body against the harmful effects of radiation:

Cilantro

Helps remove heavy metals from the blood stream. It draws lead, uranium and mercury from your organs and blood which helps assist the kidneys in flushing out your system.

Red Beets

Studies have shown that beets can help aid the body in rebuilding damaged haemoglobin. With radiation exposure, haemoglobin gets broken down, so it is important to protect our blood systems at all costs. Eating beets has actually been found to help absorb and detox radioactive isotopes in studies with animals.

Dandelion

Dandelion is an amazing plant! Most of us don’t think twice when we rip them out of our lawns because they are considered “weeds” and not “aesthetically pleasing” but these plants are detox miracles. It helps keep free radicals at bay and ensures a healthy functioning liver (which ensures that toxins are properly eliminated from the body).

Apples & Sunflower Seeds

Apples and sunflower seeds contain high levels of pectin which helps to bind and remove radioactive residues from the body. Particularly, these two foods protect against caesium-137 which collects in the endocrine glands, pancreas, thymus and heart. Caesium-137 emits gamma rays, as well as beta rays which are incredibly toxic to the cells in our body. Consuming plenty of apples, and a healthy amount of sunflower seeds is a perfect snack addition to your day, and can help protect your body from radiation.

Burdock Root

This root helps remove radioactive isotopes from the body! Consuming 1-4 ounces (120-300 grams) of fresh burdock root, whether lightly cooked in a tea infusion or juiced using a juicer (this is the best method, because raw is always best – enzymes are not destroyed) can help reverse and prevent the DNA damage done by radiation.

Leafy Greens

All greens contain the molecule chlorophyll which is incredibly alkaline and helps provide protection from radiation damage. Since the early 1950s, studies have proven the miraculous effects of chlorophyll and radiation. These effects are even greater when darker green vegetables like mustard greens, and alfalfa leaves as well as kale and collards are used. Consuming two or more green vegetables together gives the greatest radiation resistance.

Buckwheat

Glucosides in buckwheat can help protect from radiation exposure, if consumed before radiation exposure has occurred. Cereal grasses help to cleanse our bodies of radiation in a similar way that other green foods do like leafy greens (rich in chlorophyll) and blue-green algae.

Ginseng

A great way to protect and treat yourself from radiation is ginseng! Ginseng’s ability to help heal radiation damage is still being studied, but preliminary studies have pointed to the conclusion that it is a wonderful healing agent for any type of radiation exposure. Consuming between 100 to 200mg of ginseng twice per day was found to help speed up recovery of individuals exposed to radiation (healing of bone marrow, skin, internal organs and blood cells).

Rosemary

Compounds in rosemary fight against the mutagenic effects of radiation. Studies have shown that the carnosic acid and carnosol found in rosemary allows it to provide this anti-mutagenic effect. As well, rosemary was found in another study to be 3.34 times better at protecting against radiation effects than a variety of other compounds studied.

Sources: Live Love Fruit

http://rt.com/news/japan-nuclear-leak-upgrade-100/

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/natural-remedies-for-radiation-exposure/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19446548

http://www.naturalnews.com/026079_radiation_exposure_rosemary.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/032770_ginseng_radiation.html

http://www.gaia-health.com/articles501/000502-apple-pectin-radiation.shtml

http://drjimmyscott.com/?tag=chlorophyll

Related Articles:

Radioactive Levels at Fukushima Jump 9000% in 3 Days

Signs & Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance

Could you be suffering from a gluten intolerance? Over 55 diseases have been linked to gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley, and in lower levels in spelt, kamut and oats), and around 99% of individuals suffering from gluten intolerances or celiac disease are never diagnosed. These individuals, unfortunately, fail to ascribe their ill health or symptoms to gluten sensitivity and instead try treating symptoms (with drugs) that otherwise never go away.

Gluten is a staple of the American diet. It is in pizza, pasta, bread, wraps, rolls, and pretty much all processed foods. It also causes serious health complications, with up to a 72% increased risk of death in those with gut inflammation related to gluten.

In fact, one study compared the blood of 10,000 people from 50 years ago to 10,000 people today and found that celiac disease rose by up to 400% during that time period. This is great news for the American healthcare system who claims millions of dollars off the drugs used to treat gluten-intolerance symptoms many individuals suffer from today.

The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 “diseases” that can be caused by eating gluten. These include osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, anemia, cancer, fatigue, canker sores, and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and almost all other autoimmune diseases. Gluten is also linked to psychiatric and neurological diseases, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage), as well as autism.

If you have any of the above diseases, or any of the symptoms listed below, you may have a gluten intolerance:

- Digestive Issues: gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation

- Nutritional Deficiencies: due to malabsorption (e.g., suffering from anemia (iron malabsorption) or “chicken skin” on back of arms (result of fatty acid deficiency and vitamin A deficiency secondary to fat-malabsorption caused by gluten damaging the gut)

- Weight loss or weight gain: gluten protein disrupts metabolism functioning

- Fat in stools: gluten prevents fat absorption

- Aching joints: gluten triggers inflammation in the body, causing swelling and pain in your joints

- Depression: intestinal damage caused by wheat leads to malabsorption, and prevents our guts from absorbing zinc and B vitamins which are crucial for regulating our moods

- Eczema: related to the inflammation that gluten triggers in the body

- Headaches: inflammation from gluten puts a lot of pressure on our blood vessels, which can cause pounding headaches

- Exhaustion: gluten is incredibly hard to process by the body, and slows our digestion, thus making us tired

- Irritability & Behavioural changes: same as depression, our bodies cannot absorb minerals and vitamins when our gut is destroyed by the gluten we eat. These vitamins and minerals help regulate our mood

- Irregular menstruation, infertility, miscarriages: gluten intolerance creates imbalances to our hormones and can lead to a myriad of female fertility and menstruation issues

- Cramps, tingling, & numbness: triggered by inflammatory response the body has to gluten protein

- Slow infant and child growth: due to nutrient malabsorption

- Decline in dental health: gluten sticks to our teeth and this causes bacteria to thrive

Test yourself for gluten intolerance:

Eliminating gluten from your diet for a few weeks to a month is a great way to tell if your body has an issue with gluten. Gluten is a very large protein, so it is important to recognize that is may take months or years to clear from your system, so extending this gluten-free fast longer than a couple months before introducing it (if you so choose) is best.

If you feel much better off gluten than you do on gluten, then gluten is likely a problem for you. Eating a whole foods diet, high in raw fruit and vegetables will ensure the levels of gluten in your diet are significantly cut back.

Source: Live Love Fruit

Connecting With Nature Boosts Creativity and Health

Please like us on Facebook > The Natural Health Page

"I've been arguing for a while that connection to nature should be thought of as a human right," Richard Louv told the crowd assembled in the courtyard of National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Louv was there to inspire the staff about the benefits of spending time outdoors.

Louv, the author of the bestsellers Last Child in the Woods (2005) and The Nature Principle (2011)-coined the term "nature-deficit disorder" to describe the loss of connection children increasingly feel with the natural world. Nature-deficit disorder is not a clinically recognized condition, he explains, but rather a term to evoke a loss of communion with other living things. Nevertheless, he argues, nature-deficit disorder affects "health, spiritual well-being, and many other areas, including [people's] ability to feel ultimately alive." (See "The Nature-Deficit Disorder and How It Is Impacting Our Natural World.")

The causes of the disorder include loss of open space, increasingly busy schedules, an emphasis on team sports over individualized play and exploration, competition from electronic media, and what Louv and others call a "culture of fear," in which people are afraid to visit natural areas or even go outside due to heavy media coverage of violent events.

To dive deeper into Louv's ideas, National Geographic sat down with him for a few questions.

It has been a few years since you published Last Child in the Woods in 2005. What has changed since then?

Quite a bit. I wrote another book, called The Nature Principle, extending the idea [of nature-deficit disorder] to adults. That's because I kept hearing from adults, who said, "It affects us too." At the time there were a lot of great people doing great work around nature, but in the media that issue was nowhere near the stove, let alone the front burner.

I didn't know it would have the impact it has. I never claim Last Child in the Woods started anything, but it proved to be a very useful tool, and things took off. Today, if you look at childrenandnature.org [the website of the Children & Nature Network, a group Louv founded], you'll see all kinds of good news from all over the country, and it's increasingly international. Nature preschools are beginning to take off. There are 112 regional, provincial, or state campaigns in the U.S. and Canada that are working on getting kids outdoors, many of which didn't exist before.

It doesn't seem to matter what someone's politics or religion is, they want to tell me about the treehouse they had as a kid, if they are old enough—for the younger people that is less likely to be true. This is the only issue I've seen that brings people together, because nobody wants to be in the last generation where it's considered normal for kids to go outdoors.

This week you spoke at an event with Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at the Center for American Progress in Washington, on the importance of getting children and adults outside. How did that go?

Sally Jewell is a former head of REI, and she is one of the people who stepped forward when Last Child came out. She took an REI daypack filled with copies of the book, went to the White House, and handed them out to staff and the president.

She will be the third Secretary of the Interior in a row to be fully committed to this issue. The first was Dirk Kempthorne, a conservative Republican under President [George W.] Bush, who was very committed to this. So was Ken Salazar [under Obama], and now Sally, who probably has the most experience with this issue. [Tuesday's] event illustrates that this issue is growing.

Can you share some specific examples of how a connection to nature improved someone's life?

[National Geographic Emerging Explorer] Juan Martinez is one example. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where he was headed for gangs and trouble. A principal told him he'd have to go to detention or join the eco club. He thought the club sounded like a bunch of nerds, but he joined. He resented it at first, but then had an assignment to grow something.

He had seen his mother break up concrete behind their house to grow chilis to eat. So he grew a jalapeno chili plant and took it home to show her that he could nurture life too. That plant, and later an eco club trip to the Grand Tetons, changed his life. He is now an environmentalist and head of the Natural Leaders Network, which is part of the Children &  Nature Network. He is also a National Geographic explorer and has spoken at the White House twice.

So nature can transform your life. He found not only nature, he found people through nature. He reconnected to South Central in a new way. (See video of Juan Martinez.)

How can city dwellers connect with nature?

As of 2008 more people lived in cities than the countryside. That marked a huge moment in human history, and it means one of two things: Either the human connection to nature will continue to fade, or it means the beginning of a new kind of city.

One way is through "biophilic design" [nature-inspired design], which is the incorporation of nature where we live, work, learn, and play, not only as something we drive an hour to visit. Not only parks, but also in the way we design our neighborhoods, our backyards, and our buildings.

I believe cities can become engines of biodiversity. It starts with planting a lot of native plants, which revive the food chain and bring back butterfly and bird migration routes.

The word "sustainability" is problematic, because to most people it means stasis, survival, and energy efficiency. We have to do those things, but that only goes so far in igniting the imagination. Increasingly, I talk about a "nature-rich society," a different way to look at the future that is not just about survival, but about something much better.

How do we get to a greener future?

I visited the Martin Luther King memorial yesterday. King demonstrated and said that any movement will fail if it can't paint a picture of a world people will want to go to. That world has to be more than energy efficient, it must be a better civilization.

I think we're in a cultural depression. The number one young adult literature genre today is something called dystopic fiction, which portrays a post-apocalyptic world in which vampires aren't even having a good time. I have a theory that most Americans carry images of the far future that look a lot likeBlade Runner and Mad Max. If those are the dominating images, and we don't have a balancing set of images of a great future, then we better be careful what we imagine.

You have written about the impacts of "nature time" on problems like anxiety, depression, ADD, and obesity. How important is that?

If you look at a new body of research on depression, ADD, physical health, child obesity, and the epidemic of inactivity, nature is a good antidote to all of that. I didn't coin it, but I like the phrase "sitting is the new smoking," because new evidence shows that sitting long hours every day can have serious health risks similar to those caused by smoking.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are investigating whether time in the woods could be used to supplement treatment of ADD. A study at the University of Kansas found that young people who backpacked for three days showed higher creativity and cognitive abilities. People in hospitals who can see a natural landscape have been shown to get better faster.

As an antidote, we need to figure out ways to increase nature time even as technology increases. It has to be a conscious decision.

Speaking of technology, how much are "screens" like TV, the Internet, video games, and smartphones to blame for keeping kids indoors?

I always resist demonizing technology and video games, specifically, partly because when people write about this issue they go immediately to that. But then they ignore these other things, like "stranger danger" [Louv has argued that sensationalist media has made parents fearful of letting children go outside] and bad urban design, the fact that our education system needs a lot of work, the fact that we are canceling recess and field trips—there are a lot of other reasons out there.

Having said that, there's no doubt that electronics have something to do with this. The Kaiser Foundation found that kids spend 53 hours a week plugged in to some kind of electronic medium, and I imagine that's true of adults too. I have an iPhone and iPad, I spend a lot of time with screens, but I think the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need as a balancing agent.

How can parents know if their kids might suffer from nature-deficit disorder? Are there warning signs?

I don't think this is something that can be reduced to individual symptoms in individual children. I've always felt it was a more generalized issue, a disorder of society that has implications for all of us.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Sources: Higher Health