I'll Take What Mommy's Having... SHAKED NOT STIRRED

This is the second article of my 3 article series about Consumptions during pregnancy. The first one was about drugs and pregnancy. Last fall I was driving down a highway and saw an advertisement on the billboard. A child stood there was a drink in his hand. The advertisement said something about it being ridiculous and so don't drink while you're pregnant. This is common sense, I would think, but unfortunately it's not. Apparently there are a handful of mothers who think an occassional drink would not harm them nor their fetus.
According to the March of Dimes website, each year up to 40,000 babies are born with "festal alcohol spectrum disorders" (FASDs). Any consumption of alcohol can effect the baby but not many mothers consider that. Alcohol breaks down slower in a baby's body because they are not fully developed and can cause from moderate to extreme damages to the development of the child. This includes mental retardation, behavioral problems, heart problems and more. Some babies might be even be stillborn because of it.
There is an article on the Discovery webpage starting that it is okay to do some light drinking during your pregnancy. They stated that a couple drinks a week wouldn't harm the child. But their definition of a drink is "a small glass of wine, a half-pint of beer or a single serving of hard alcohol." To be honest most people have a hard time measuring out just a little of something and keeping to it. What will stop a mother from pouring an extra glass or redefining the definition of a drink? If you are pregnant think about making positive decisions for your child.

Arsenic Consuption in our Water and Apple Juice

Arsenic is a semi-metal element that is odorless and tasteless. It was once a popular poison for assassins and unhappy widows. There has been a lot of debate lately on how harmful is the little bits of arsenic we get in water and apple juice. According to the Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) that there are non-cancer effects which includes "thickening and discoloration of the skin, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting; diarrhea; numbness in hands and feet; partial paralysis; and blindness." But Arsenic has also been linked to several including bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver and prostate.
I am not sure about you but reading this makes me concern. Then why are we letting juice companies tell us that the little bits of arsenic we are feeding not just ourselves but also our children is okay? It's not. In an interview with Fox News, Michael Taylor (FDA's deputy commissioner for foods) said "We continue to think that apple juice is generally safe based on the fact that the vast majority of samples are very low. But we want to minimize these exposures as much as possible."
Currently the FDA uses 23 parts per billion as a guide to judge whether apple juice is contaminated. Consumer Reports published an article recently about arsenic in apple juice. They tested several popular brands of apple juice to find there were higher levels of arsenic. "Five samples of apple juice and four of grape juice had total arsenic levels exceeding the 10 ppb federal limit for bottled and drinking water. Levels in the apple juices ranged from 1.1 to 13.9 ppb, and grape-juice levels were even higher, 5.9 to 24.7 ppb. Most of the total arsenic in our samples was inorganic, our tests showed." Consumer groups also stated that the FDA's level is too high and isn't enforced with enough urgency.
Not too long ago popular TV Doctor, Dr. Oz did a program that did similar testings. He was criticized and the FDA responded saying that most of the arsenic were organic so they were harmless. Since then the FDA now has new research that says that arsenic was really inorganic and that makes them harmful now. Doesn't this make you concerned? Sometimes I question if the FDA is concerned about the people or are they concerned about making the big corporations happy?

Free Workshop on Water Detox hosted by Dr. Trent Iverson at Bandana Chiropractic and Wellness Center at 11:15 AM. Call 651-354-8343 to reserve a seat today.

Vitamin D3

When was the last time you walked down the health and nutrition aisle at your local store? What was there? You probably remember looking at weight loss items then there were the health bars then finally all the vitamins. I never thought much of the vitamins. Personally when I was growing up the only one I really used was Vitamin E that my mom would mix with some lotion and rub on my face. The results was amazing skin for part of my youth. What about everything else? There's almost Vitamin for A-Z.

This blog entry today is about Vitamin D3 because I am catching a little cold and want to share what I have learned about Vitamin D3 with my fellow readers. Did you know that our body naturally synthesize this when we are exposed to the sun? Last year I went to a Vaccine Workshop with guest speaker Dr. Mayer Eisenstein. The Vitamin D3 actually helps boost your immune system and fight illness. He went on and recommended that when you are ill you should be taking your body weight in Vitamin D3. So for example let's say I weight 150 lbs I should be taking 150,000 IU in Vitamin D3. That is what I am doing, starting today. On a regular basis you should be taking some Vitamin D3 to keep your immune system at bay.

If the natural way of synthesizing Vitamin D3 in our body is natural sunlight we should be trying to spend more time outside in the sun. In our office we have Homefirst Vitamin D3 which are 50,000 IU a pill and we have Maximized Living Vitamin D3 which is 5,000 IU a pill. We have to be more aware about our health. I am going to learn more about natural health and share it with everyone.

Feel free to comment and share about your experience with Vitamin D3 below.