Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation is the body's natural way to fight infection and respond to harmful organisms, irritants, damaged tissue or toxins.  In a healthy, well-nourished body, this natural response to this temporary problem should result in a system-wide "all clear" within a few days or weeks.

Food, stress levels and ongoing toxin overloads are some of the primary decision makers in whether your body uses inflammation, fever and other healing pathways for a short season, then subsides or whether your body goes into a state of chronic inflammation which brings in another level of trouble and poor health. 

Sadly, we often look at health problems as something to be gotten rid of, not a warning signal that there is something amiss in our body, our environment or our mental state (meaning staying in a place of high stress and not addressing the cause).

Diets high in sugar, saturated fat and overprocessed foods can spur inflammation.  This can cause overactivity in the immune system, which can lead to joint pain, fatigue, and damage to the blood vessels, which is often step one, two and three in a downward spiral of poor health.

The typical Western diet – high in processed foods, refined starches, added sugars and animal fats and low in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and omega-3 fatty acids – fuels inflammation, according to a 2006 paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Choosing to apply toxic substances to our skin, hair and environment, breathing in toxic fumes, can all exacerbate the problem of inflammation as your system must be in overdrive all of the time.  Smog, pollution, dust, mold....  all problematic.

Living in a world of chronic stress... aka "the modern world" also brings its own set of damage inducing inflammation.  Lack of sleep, lack of quiet, lack of community, lack of being "unplugged" EVER..... some of the modern stresses so many of us deal with.

Perhaps today, make a different choice.  Choose to shut off some of the stress.  Choose to stay away from the chemical bath that the modern world offers us.  Look at your toothpaste, your shampoo, your soap, your lotion, your cleaning products.   If you would not eat them, don't put them on your skin or breathe their fumes.  Choose to eat wholesome, nutrient-dense, slow cooked, soaked, REAL food today.  Visit a farmer's market, talk to the small farmers about what they do to produce food.  They are almost universally knowledgeable.  Embark on a balanced exercise program, play, turn off and tune out for a while.  Allow your body to settle down and come to a more natural place.

Foods, spices, savory things and oils are a potent, long-term way to activate your immune system into a proper response and to provide a proper level of healing and long-term vibrant health.  The lists below are certainly not an exhaustive list, just some suggestions
.

Some of the foods which can help minimize chronic inflammation, please note:  This is assuming that the foods are organic, non GMO and properly prepared in a nutrient dense fashion:

Avocado, dark leafy greens, soaked walnuts and almonds, sweet and hot peppers, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, sweet potatoes, beets, beet greens, unsweetened dark berries, cacao, red grapes, broccoli, tart apples, citrus, chia seeds, red cabbage, celery, whole, soaked grains, fermented foods and liquids, high quality, minimally processed sea or harvested salt, wild caught salmon, grass fed beef, poultry.

Some of the spices and savory things which can help with chronic inflammation:

Turmeric, ginger, basil, onion, garlic, oregano, mint, cumin, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, black peppercorn, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.

Some of the oils which can help with chronic inflammation:

Oregano, fennel, clove, thyme, wintergreen, myrrh, frankincense, camomile, tea tree oil, lavender.

Remember, this is just a starting place.  Primarily it is important to remember that what we eat, breathe and put onto our skin is what fuels our body. Give it good fuel.  Avoid fuel that clogs up the system.  Go simple, go clean, go vibrantly healthy.

Blessings

Cindy

GMO - Activist Information

Personal note from me before you read any of this.  If you have had a lot of GMO's in your diet, or are struggling with some of the terrible side effects, I really believe that you can correct much of the problems by changing your diet.  We are "fearfully and wonderfully made" and have mechanism's in our system, placed there by God.  They just need the right nutrients, some time and some energy to work.

Don't roll around in self pity or hopelessness, instead, change your diet and your families way of eating.  This is dead serious stuff though, please spend some time studying it.  It is important.

No GMO Activist Information

Some of you know that I have been following the GMO story for years.  It is a long, troubling, terrible story of power, money, corruption and borderline insanity.  If you have been following this story, and are persuaded that GMO's are endangering our food supply, our healthy children, our mental abilities and our reproductive capacity, you don't need to read further in this note.  I would, however, encourage you to become activists.  Wherever you land on the political scale..... fight WITH one another to stop this evil, awful perverse ruination of our food.

The best way you can fight is to NOT purchase ANYTHING that contains GMO's.... and contact companies that you used to do business with or purchase products with and tell them why.  If the top 10 American companies shifted away from GMO's, it would change the future.

To help with this, I would like to pass on some very helpful stuff.  The first is an I-Phone app.  It gives you a list of companies that refuse to use GMO's in their processing.    Type in ShopNoGMO and the free app will come up.  You can also go to this website and print up a list of foods that are and are not made with GMO's.  I have printed a bunch of them and will hand them out and take them with me to the store.

The website for this is:  Non GMO Shopping Guide

For those people willing to be genuine activists, there is an excellent website.  I MUST warn everyone.  This group has people from all corners of the political spectrum.  There are folks from the far, far left to the far, far right and everywhere in between.  We all share a common goal of a safe food supply.  Please make allowances for philosophical differences and focus on what is important.  This is a good plan.  Their website can be found at the first link and their information page at the second link.

Institute for Responsible Technology - Action Page

Responsible Technology - Information Page

If you are on Facebook, they have a No GMO's Fan Page which you can join.

Now, if you are unsure about GMO's and the damage that they can do, I would like to list a bunch of articles.  All I am going to say personally is that, in my opinion, GMO's are terrible.  Anyone with young children or in their child bearing years, or anyone who wishes to have optimal health should spend some time studying the effects of GMO's.

If you think that ANY regulatory agency is responsible for keeping your food, your medicine or your health safe, you are naive.  The regulatory agencies tend to have an absolutely incestuous relationship with the corporations and industries that they should be regulating.  Most of them are run by career bureaucrats, not elected officials.   Please, do NOT take my word for any of this.  It is your responsibility to keep your family as safe, as happy and as healthy as possible and you need to know the damage these insidious food products cause.

Sadly, the information we are now acquiring is not based on animal testing.  World populations are the test group.  Spending time on this subject again brought me to probably one of the most appalling quotes I have ever heard.

“Maybe the GM soy will solve

the overpopulation problem.”

 Dr. Mercola, as well as many other groups, have published quite a few articles over the past several months. The reason much of this is coming out is apparently a court case which was won and required the publication of some clinical trials.  I tried to research it myself, but it was overwhelming.  I am going to just post some of Dr. Mercola's articles for sake of consistency.  He might have some pop up ads, if so, I apologize.  I  went ahead and joined the site because of the wonderful articles.  I have found NOTHING in his articles to disagree with... on the GMO issue (unusual for me) and he is a good, clear concise writer.   I have stuff posted on the GMO issue by other authors as well.  You can find it under the GMO label.

One last personal note from me.  The FDA had all this information, and probably more.  Don't allow government officials to tell you what is healthy and what is not.  You need to make wise decisions for your family and loved ones based on knowledge.  You should never just swallow a decree by a bureaucrat.  Be persuaded by facts based on genuine research, not the rigged, bought and paid for stuff they call research.  Deuteronomy 31:6 gives us direction. 

"Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

So, here is some further reading for anyone that wants to be educated on this subject.  Probably the most evil of all is what GMO's do to reproductive development.  There are two articles on this subject, one an overview, one focusing on reproductive and organ failure.  Please go to the first article and scroll down.  Observe the close up of the rat testicles fed gmo and non gmo, and the cell pattern below it.  It is pretty amazing.

I don't know if the high incidence of retardation, development problems or infant mortality are in any of these articles, but should be looked at as well.

10 Reasons why no one needs GM foods

Organ and Reproductive Failure

One of the more perverse aspects appears to be what happens to young children exposed to GMO's.  Is it pure evil that one of the first uses of a genetically modified food was infant formula made with GM soy?  Without testing (that we know of).   Certainly without oversight from anyone that cared.  This article has some excerpts from "Genetic Roulette" and some good info on what can happen to kids fed GM foods.

GM Foods more dangerous for children than adults

This one covers some of the intimidation used on the researchers who tried to sound the alarm early on.  These are just a few... there were more.

If You Find Problems with Genetically Modified Foods Watch Out 

This next one covers the fine art of rigging studies.  A true art form if you ask me.  Not for the novice thug, it takes genuine professionalism.  Luckily, there appears to be plenty of that to go around.

Rigged Studies 

This next article shows some of the enormous influence of Monsanto over Washington D.C.  One man was with the FDA under George Bush, Sr..... and appointed back by Obama.  He worked at Monsanto between times.  Conflict of interest?  It is all over Washington.

We have shipped our evil wares all over the globe.  Our regulators labeled them safe without due diligence.  The headlines in this article cover;  Covering up Health Dangers, Fake Safety Assessments, Promoting and Regulating don't Mix, Evaluations miss most health problems, Hidden information, lack of standards, breaking law and Humans as Guinea Pigs.

An FDA Created Health Crisis Circles the Globe 

Last, but certainly not least, is a warning on the danger of GMO's from the medical profession.

Doctors warn to avoid GMO's 

I think that is all that I can take of this for now.  I can only go back to this every so often.  It is depressing.  For our family, we grow as much of our food as we can using heirloom seeds.  We buy local and organic from people who live in our community and are like minded.  We make an effort to purchase from organic and Non GMO companies (even if I disagree with their politics) and we avoid genetically modified foods like the poison that they are.  Eating out is difficult. 

For the most part, be aware that highly processed food in any form should be suspect.  If it doesn't rot, don't eat it.  Study, learn, be alert and aware, be proactive, be responsible for your families health.

Best of Health to You

Cindy

Assorted GMO Information and links

Some links for genetically modified foods

I spent some time looking into the GM stuff. The first link is pretty amazing.... just scroll down and look at the titles of the links there. It appears to be a clearinghouse of stuff....... just read the links listed.

Seeds of Deception

The second one I am reposting from Dr. Mercola

Dr. Mercola

This third one is pretty in-depth. Not for the faint of heart, but I would like to pull a paragraph from it......

exerpt: When mouse embryos were exposed to glufosinate, it resulted in growth retardation, increased death rates, incomplete development of the forebrain and cleft lips, as well as cell death in part of the brain. After pregnant rats were injected with glufosinate, the number of glutamate receptors in the brains of the offspring appeared to be reduced. When infant rats were exposed to low doses of glufosinate, some of their brain receptors appeared to change as well.

Glufosinate herbicide might also influence behavior. According to Kuroda, "female rats born from mothers that were given high doses of glufosinate became aggressive and started to bite each other-in some cases until one died." He added, "That report sent a chill through me."

Disturbing gut bacteria

If the herbicide is regenerated inside our gut,it will likely kill gut bacteria. Gut microorganisms are crucial for health. They not only provide essential metabolites like certain vitamins and short fatty acids, but also help the break down and absorption of food and protect against pathogens. Disrupting the balance of gut bacteria can cause a wide range of problems. According to molecular geneticist Ricarda Steinbrecher, "the data obtained strongly suggest that the balance of gut bacteria will be affected" by the conversion of NAG to glufosinate. end of exerpt.....

Organic Consumers

And on that cheerful note.... :)

Path to Progress:  For information on Baking Soda