Simmering Hope

If not, what are you waiting for?
Maybe you have never heard anything about it or maybe you are just very skeptical that all that hype surrounding this root may be true.
And who can blame you? There are so many new super foods you are bombarded with, almost on a daily basis, that it’s becoming more and more difficult to trust something, let alone try it.

I have used maca root for about two years, and for me and my husband it only brought benefits, not only increasing our sexual drive, but bringing us the most precious gift of all: our son.

Known as “Peruvian Ginseng!”, “A Miracle Product!”, “The 21st Century Food!”, the little root vegetable that grows at high altitude- 14 000 ft above sea level- in Peru, is quickly gaining the attention and interests of a growing number of people daily.
Peruvian maca root’s main fame lies in it’s ability to increase the sexual urges and fertility rates of men and women. But there are numerous other benefits and attributes of Peruvian maca root that also are well known such as it’s ability to make people more energetic, stronger and have more endurance, and to make them feel better emotionally. Peruvian maca root is renowned for relieving the symptoms of menopause and andropause and correcting hormonal imbalances in men and women as well. As a woman approaching menopause, I can tell you that the emotional change I experience almost every day it’s overwhelming. Buts of depression alternating with insane rage, lack of patience, etc.
I have interrupted my intake of maca due to negligence mostly, but today I placed again an order and hopefully I will be able to keep my emotions under control.

According to scientific literature Peruvian maca root is amazingly rich in amino acids, phytonutrients, fatty acids, vitamin and minerals. Maybe because of the volcano enriched soil where Peruvian maca root grows and the rarified air and amazingly pure atmosphere around that area, Peruvian maca root has an abundance of trace minerals, and even some that scientists have not even classified yet. Peruvian maca root is truly a powerhouse of nutrition and energy and life giving ingredients, and a few spoonfuls of this powder every day can be a most beneficial supplement for you to take. If you are not taking a vitamin or mineral supplement, but you are taking Peruvian maca root, you will probably not be missing many essential nutrients from your diet. There is so much nutrition and goodness in this humble little tuber root that it is like a once a day supplement itself. Scientists have discovered that Peruvian maca root has the ability to regulate, support, and balance the hormonal systems of both men and women for optimal function. One of the very great things about Peruvian maca root is that it is not “gender specific” and works equally well at the hormonal changing benefits for both sexes equally.

Maca is an adaptogen, and by definition, adaptogens are substances that raise the physical body’s state of resistance to diseases through physiological health and emotional health improvements. Peruvian maca root somehow supports and rejuvenates overwhelmed, tired adrenal glands eventually resulting in much greater energy, stamina, clarity of mind and spirit, and the ability to handle stress. It should be pointed out that adaptogens work gradually and at their own speed, so the changes may take a little while to notice according to the make-up and physiological state of each individual. But continued, and persistent use of Peruvian maca root does promote phenomenal and profound changes in the hormonal, physical, and emotional states of people.

As I have already mentioned, today I placed an order. This time I am going to give it a try to gelatinized version, which does not contain starches and it’s much better for your digestive system.
Personally I like maca’s taste, although I have heard people complaining about it. It tastes somehow like backed sweet potato.

Bottom line: if you have not tried maca root yet, please do yourself a favor and try it. Preferably in the powder form, not capsules. Mix the powder in your morning smoothie and you get a nutritious and fast breakfast.

Most people will have a New Year’s resolution related to losing weight, eating healthier, being more active, etc.
Wait a minute! Did I say ‘eat healthier’? Yes I did.
Now this is when we step into uncharted territory.
Why? Because all the health gurus are going to tell you that eating less fat, meat, and more vegetables and fruits will make you feel better and all together be healthier.
But somehow all is forgotten about engineered foods, found all around us.
I remember reading about the seeds irradiated in space by some Chinese scientists, seeds that eventually yielded bigger crops. At that point I am pretty sure that most people clapped their hands in ecstasy thinking about how easy would be to feed more population with less food basically.
But those seeds were genetically modified at that point.

Moving back to North America, in the USA, over 80% of all processed foods contain genetically engineered components.
You will say that it’s easy then to avoid them: steer clear of processed foods.
But the problem is that genetically engineered foods are found in everything we eat: rice, corn, wheat; in soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils, vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat, chicken, pork and other animal products.

We don’t know what we are eating because nowhere on the label is anything mentioned about genetically engineered food.

We know that cows are treated with growth hormone (rbGH), which will affect the milk.
The milk from cows injected with bovine growth hormone has much higher levels of the hormone IGF-1 that risks breast, prostate, colon, lung and other cancers, and it has lower nutritional value.
I was talking the other day with our secretary and she said that back in time, when she grew up at a dairy farm, they drank the milk fresh from the cows, cows not injected with hormones. The milk was not supposed to be good for 10 days or a week, because it did not have any chemicals added. Now it’s a different story; they treat milk to increase the shelf life.
The treatment of poultry and animals with hormones and antibiotics is standard procedure these days, unfortunately and it costs lots extra to buy ‘organic’ meat coming from animals not treated.
But… what did they eat?
If they were fed animal by-products (they were not apparently, or so it’s the claim made by the organic growers) it still not clean meat. Of if they were fed corn or other grains coming from genetically engineered seeds…. we are back to square one.
Disease-resistant crops may promote human viruses and eating these products may produce toxins associated with Alzheimer’s, diabetes, allergies, kidney disease and cancer.

What people seem to fail to understand is that as soon as you genetically modify something, the long time effect of this modification is unknown.

FDA and other regulating bodies, in bed with the big agribusinesses, like to say that GM crops are the same with ordinary seeds, when in fact they are not.
Agribusiness giants like their money and I have serious doubts that they would cave in and accept how dangerous GM are. On the contrary, they funded studies to prove they are safe. Really?
How objective a testing funded by this industry could be?
The most probable scenario (not unknown to other industries like the pharmaceutical one for example) is that the study funded by agribusiness would fail to investigate the impacts of GM food on liver, kidney, gut function (studies on rats showed smaller than normal liver and kidney and bigger pancreas), on the immune and endocrine system, in blood composition (studies on rats showed a decrease on the white cell counts), would fail to present the effects on the unborn as well.

Furthermore, they would cook the books.
How could they cook the books?
By diluting the GM component of feeds used, limit the duration of feeding trials, keep sample sizes too low for statistical significance and ignore animal deaths and sickness.
And most important: hide the negative results.

I took an introductory genetic course, enough to make me understand the implications of genetically modified foods.
The picture is like this: you take a seed and genetically modify the DNA. That will trigger changes in the natural functioning of the resulting plant. The inserted gene can become truncated, fragmented, and different than the original design, expressing a new GM protein maybe different than the one intended, with characteristics that may be harmful, even if the industry claims that transgenes are destroyed by our digestive system.
In reality and contrary to industry claims, transgens are not destroyed by the digestive system and the surviving foreign DNA can be transported by blood to internal organs, may proliferate over time, and get into cells DNA, possibly causing chronic diseases.
Another aspect not to be ignored: Antibiotic Resister Marker (ARM) genes are attached to transgenes prior to insertion to allow cells to survive antibiotic applications. They potentially can cause antibiotic-resistant super-diseases and these is already fact not fiction (see my article on hospital superbugs).

To the industry claim that there are no harmful effects claim I would give the example of the L-Tryptophan epidemic. L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid, was identified as the cause of the 1989 epidemic of Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome [EMS] in country-wide litigation against Showa Denko K. K., a major Japanese petroleum corporation that manufactured and sold L-tryptophan in the U. S.
L-tryptophan was sold as a food supplement during the late 1980s to induce sleep “naturally,” because this amino acid produces serotonin in the brain, similar to the calming role of milk as a sleep inducer.
Showa Denko’s pills had several unique contaminants that were likely to be responsible for the epidemic. In addition to that, the manufacturer was genetically engineering bacteria to produce the L-tryptophan more economically. Genes had been inserted into bacteria’s DNA in order to produce high concentrations of several enzymes used in its production.
EMS is a painful and progressive, multi-system disease which causes permanent scarring and fibrosis to nerve and muscle tissues, continuing inflammation, and provokes a permanent change in the body’s immune system. EMS is a serious systemic illness characterized by elevations of white blood cells known as eosinophils and by severe muscle pain.

Probably there is an international conspiracy of big agribusiness to control the world food supply, therefore our moaning over the health hazards of GM food fall on deaf ears.
The worries are dismissed and the pink fluffy picture of big crops and happy farmers showed to us.
The giants who are currently controlling our future existence are: Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Agrisciences, Syngenta in Switzerland (from the merger of the agriculture divisions of Novartis and AstraZeneca) and - Germany-based Bayer CropScience AG (division of Bayer AG) with its Environmental Science and BioScience headquarters in France.
Just reading the names will get your skin to crawl.

Years ago I worked in a bacteriology laboratory identifying various pathogens and I remember my boss always reminding me two things: wash your hands for at least one minute and don’t wave the loop (the gizmo used to culture bacteria).
At that time I was concerned about E.coli, S.aureus and mostly anthrax. But somehow I rested assured that there was medication around and apart from some diarrhea and other unpleasant short lived symptoms, everything would be fine.
It seems not to hold true anymore. Today we are worried about the nasty hospital superbugs, resistant to even the strongest antibiotics.
These superbugs are having a very unnerving habit: to morph into something more and more dangerous.
Disease Control and Prevention. Health Canada reports that superbug infections cost $24-33 million annually to manage and that rates of infection and colonization have doubled annually for each of the past five years.

The scientists seemed to agree that the over-prescription of antibiotics and the increased presence of antibiotics in meat and fish contribute to bacteria developing resistance to the drugs.

It’s seems to be a circle of death: antibiotics over-prescribed and meat treated with antibiotics weaken our immune system- we are more susceptible to mutant strains resistant to common antibiotics- to combat them we need stronger antibiotics which will weaken our immune system even more- bacteria will adapt and morphed to fight the antibiotic.

Let’s review the most dangerous superbugs:
- MRSA- Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
- VISA/VRSA- Vencomycin-Intermediate/Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
- Clostridium difficile

C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) usually occurs during or after the use of antibiotics. Main symptoms include: diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain and nausea. Found in feces, it is usually spread through contaminated surfaces such as toilets, bedpans, handles and common chairs.
It is treated with….antibiotics.

MRSA is a potentially lethal bacterium that causes infections in humans and is difficult to combat because it has developed a resistance to certain antibiotics, among them being methicillin.
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus usually strikes in hospitals, where conditions suit it, but it can occur in otherwise healthy people who have not been recently hospitalized or had a medical procedure involving surgery, dialysis or catheters which tend to be a breeding ground for MRSA.
S. aureus is a bacteria normally found on the skin and mucus (nose). Most S. aureus will cause infections, like the ones normally occurring when we get a cut and it’s not properly disinfected. The bacteria move from the surface of the skin into the wound and as a normal response the white cells fight the intruders. To be on the safe side we are using over the counter antibiotic ointments like Polysporin. Again, antibiotic.

To fight MRSA the chosen antibiotic would be vancomycin, until recently when new strains of MRSA showed antibiotic resistance even to vancomycin.

Hence the new and ‘improved’ strain: VISA or vancomycin resistant S. aureus.
Treatment for this strain: the new antibiotic platensimycin.

So, to treat two highly antibiotic resistant bacteria strains we have to use stronger and stronger antibiotics.
Or, maybe start reconsidering the whole antibiotic strategy and switch to phage or maggots therapy.
Disgusting as it may sound, maggot therapy seems to be very effective.
It’s a type of biotherapy involving the introduction of live, disinfected maggots into the non-healing skin and soft tissue wound for selectively cleaning out the necrotic tissue within a wound and promote wound healing.

Phage (bacteriophage) therapy involves the use of viruses (bacteriophages) that invades only bacterial cells causing the bacterium to burst and die, thus releasing more phages.
The theoretical benefits of phage therapy:
- less side effects
- don’t stress liver
- a small dose is sometimes sufficient
- they are specifically designed to match the bacteria

What can we do to prevent the spread of these nasty superbugs?

Apparently become cleaner.
Wash our hands more often using warm water and lots of soap and disinfect with alcohol rather then using other chemicals that will only make the bacteria to morph into something new.

I am not going to touch the stringent subject of how the contracts are given to shady companies for cleaning the hospitals even if I believe it’s one of the reasons for the hospital mess. Maybe next time.

I had a routine check yesterday evening and to my big surprise I found out that my blood pressure was 144/101.
My whole life I have had low blood pressure, on the range of 80/60 and I am puzzled about the huge jump.
I did gain some weight compared to 10 years ago, but not that much, probably around 5 kg. Could it be too much for my petite frame?

According to the literature, high blood pressure is a blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or higher and once high blood pressure develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. High blood pressure is called the silent killer because it usually has no symptoms. Some people may not find out they have it until they have trouble with their heart, brain, or kidneys. Apparently it can be treated and controlled.

Things that can raise blood pressure include:
· Eating too much salt- I do eat salty but not that much
· Drinking too much alcohol- It’s not the case
· Not getting enough potassium in your diet- That may be true, although I started eating bananas
· Not doing enough physical activity- That is definitely a problem
· Taking certain medicines- Which ones?
· Having long-lasting stress- That is the most probable reason
· Smoking (smoking can cause a temporary rise in blood pressure)- I don’t smoke

It boils down to dealing with stress in a better way and starting working out again.
Stress- I guess I have to restart meditation and yoga
Exercise- I need more discipline, that’s for sure

I am not taking any birth control pills, any hormone replacement therapy and I am not postmenopausal.
I can conclude that it’s the stress factor.
Before panicking I will go tomorrow to have another quick blood pressure check. Maybe it was just a fluke.
Regardless the result, I am going to treat it like a wake-up call and start doing something before it’s too late.

Vitamin D is the only vitamin that’s also a hormone and the only vitamin that you can manufacture on your own when your skin is exposed to the sun.
But in the darker winter months, especially here in BC -where it’s pissing rainy three quarters of the year-, you need to boost the vitamin D intake somehow. Latitude has a negative influence as well, so for us, Canadians, it’s a double whammy.
Hence the need of supplements and/or better-balanced meals.
Actually according to some new findings, you can’t get the necessary amount of vitamin D exclusively from food.

Numerous studies linked the vitamin D deficiency with various medical conditions.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women with a lack of vitamin D, will deplete the baby from this vitamin as well.
Some signs of vitamin D deficiency:
- tooth decay
- trouble sleeping or insomnia
- lack of energy
- nervousness
- insulin production affected, hence worsening diabetes

But how much do you need daily?
The new guidelines recommend 1,000 IU a day for older people and those with dark skin. Some researchers think levels of up to 2,000 IU a day should even be considered.
What is known- so far- is that the safest dose of vitamin D is 1000 IU.
Over 2000 IU is too much and can lead to kidney problems- including kidney stones- and bone and muscle deterioration.
As much as you would like to keep it all natural and food related, it’s almost impossible to get this amount from food.
You have to use supplements.

One of the major sources of vitamin D is fish. Tuna, salmon and sardines are coming highly recommended.
But, you cant’ eat too much tuna due to the high concentration of mercury. And how much can you munch on sardines? I bet that after eating fish three times a week, you start feeling nauseous only when you smell it.
I love sushi for example, and if I don’t have it for, let’s say a month or two, I feel like I could eat sushi every day. But as soon as I eat two days in a row, I have a different opinion.

Now let’s analyze how much vitamin D you find in some foods:
Food Vitamin D IU
Salmon (3.5 ounces) 360
Tuna, canned (3 ounces) 200
Sardines, canned (1.75 ounces) 250
Milk, cow’s (1 cup) 100
Milk, soy (1 cup) 100
Margarine (1 tablespoon) 60
Fortified cereal (about 1 cup) 40
Egg (1 whole) 20

Do the math now and find out how much you have to eat every day to get your proper vitamin D intake… like 2 cans of sardines, 2 cups of milk (but lots of people have lactose intolerance and some studies showed that milk is not good for adults), 10 eggs (say good bye to your good cholesterol), 2 cups of fortified cereals and the rest could be margarine (yuck).

Or if you have the stomach to do it: code liver oil.
One tablespoon provides about 1,400 IU of vitamin D.

I remember when I was in daycare, eons ago, our caregivers used to give us once a week a teaspoon of fish oil, not sure what kind, followed by a slice of lemon with sugar.
It was quite disgusting that fish oil.

In conclusion, sometimes you have to admit that we have to use vitamin supplements and it does not make you less righteous food wise.