Detoxification - Cleansing the Body

The best way for anyone to regain their health and stay healthy is to periodically cleanse and detoxify the body of any accumulated waste. A sluggish, constipated, swollen bowel, retaining pounds of old fecal matter can either compress a nearby area causing disease, or emit infection and toxins which can affect and infect any area of the body.

What Is Detoxification?

Detoxification is the process of clearing toxins from the body or neutralizing or transforming them, and clearing excess mucus and congestion. Many of these toxins come from our diet, drug use, and environmental exposure, both acute and chronic. Internally, fats, especially oxidized fats and cholesterol, free radicals, and other irritating molecules act as toxins. Poor digestion, colon sluggishness and dysfunction, reduced liver function, and poor elimination through the kidneys, respiratory tract, and skin all add to increased toxicity.

Detoxification involves dietary and lifestyle changes which reduce intake of toxins and improve elimination. Avoidance of chemicals, from food or other sources, refined food, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and many drugs helps minimize the toxin load. Those lifestyle changes are a direct result of choices you make in your life.


Intestinal Detoxification Program

A sluggish, constipated, swollen bowel, retaining pounds of old fecal matter can either compress a nearby area causing disease, or emit infection and toxins which can affect and infect any area of the body.

The list of of health problems that could be healed by cleaning out the colon before ever applying any specialized treatment is almost endless: heart problems, blood pressure problems, breathing problems, blood sugar problems, hormone imbalance problems, fertility problems, liver problems, cholesterol problems, immune problems, urinary problems, adrenal and lack of energy problems, prostate problems, digestive problems, lower back problems, leg circulation and nerve problems.

No matter how far removed the problem seems from the colon, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to do a bowel cleansing program instead of brain surgery, cleanse the bowel first and see what happens. If you’re like his patients, you will be thrilled with the results.

Why Colon Cleansing should be your first step

The best way for anyone to regain their health and stay healthy is to periodically cleanse and detoxify the body of any accumulated waste.
Seasonal detoxification program done on a regular basis greatly reduces risk of getting sick. Everyone wants to do a Detox. Everyone wants to repent their faulty lifestyle sins. But before anyone can do any type of Detoxification or Cleansing program, no matter whose detox program it is, they must make sure that ALL of the elimination channels are open and the bowel is the first place to begin. There is a simple reason for this. When you do any detox program, the whole idea is to start programs, juice fasting, saunas, exercise, whatever, that will dissolve and purge accumulated waste, poisons and toxins out of your skin, fat, muscles, every cell of the body. All this waste that is removed, ALL OF IT, is deposited into your colon for final removal. If your colon is sluggish, constipated or blocked, then all of this dumped toxic waste will just sit there, IT CAN EVEN BE RE-ABSORBED BACK INTO YOUR BODY, YUCK! This can make you feel worse, not better, and this is the reason so many people feel horrible when doing a detoxification program and quit it after a few days. If you clean your colon first, any detoxification program should be fun and you should feel great during it and vibrant when you are finished.

Source: American Botanical Pharmacy

The Difference Between Natural Healing and Medical Intervention

Symptoms

Natural Healing:
We Listen when our body "talks" and use this communication to guide us in our healing process Stop, Look and Listen

Medical Intervention:
Dull, Suppress or completely Remove the Symptoms, most often assessing that the symptom is the Disease itself and never getting to the cause of why our body is "communicating"

Focus

Natural Healing:
To Create a Healthy Person

Medical Intervention:
To Destroy, Kill or Cure a Disease

Method of Treatment

Natural Healing:
Setting up a proper living environment so our body can heal itself. This is done through changes in our Food Program, Elimination, Movement, Emotions and Lifestyle. Assistance

Medical Intervention:
Attacking, Killing and Removing disease using drugs and surgery. Altering or removing malfunctioning parts or organs (ex. coronary bypass surgery, appendectomy, mastectomy,) Intervention

Therapeutic Products

Natural Healing:
Products of Nature - WholesomeFruits, Vegetables, Grains, Seeds, Sprouts, Legumes, Nuts, Herbs, Concentrated whole food supplements such as sea vegetables. NO Side Effects

Medical Intervention:
Man Made Products - IsolatedDrugs made from petro-chemicals, animal waste and toxic elements. Man made vitamin and mineral pills. MANY Side Effects including latrogenic DEATH

Therapeutic Modalities

Natural Healing:
Vegetarian (Vegan) Food Programs, Cleansing and Detoxification Routines, Exercise and Movement, Bodywork, Hydrotherapy, Emotional Healing, and Changes in the way we Live, Work, Play, Relate

Medical Intervention:
Surgery, Radiation, Toxic Chemotherapy, Stimulant, Sedative and Suppressive drugs, Carnivore DIEtetics, Dialysis, Colostomies, Changes in ones Lifestyle and Habits are rarely discussed.

Emotions

Natural Healing:
Positive Attitude, Excitement, Strength, Trust in Nature/God, Love, Laughter, Empowerment.

Medical Intervention:
Negative Attitude, Coping, Anxiety, Fear, Weakness, Depression, Being out of Control, Our life is in someone else's hands.

Responsibility

Natural Healing:
We have created our current health level and therefore we can change it and heal our self. Being in control.

Medical Intervention:
I "caught" this disease. I am an unlucky victim. Doctor/God, please heal me.

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_15.htm

What Determines Your Current Level of Health?

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_15.htm

Your current level of health is perfect reflection of how your Body, Mind and Spirit is responding to the environment and lifestyle you have created for yourself.

Intake
the quality of air we breathe, the liquid we drink, and the food we eat

+ Elimination
the function and efficiency of our organs designed to remove and expel waste

+ Movement/Circulation
the ways we move our body to keep it toned, flexible with good circulation

+ Lifestyle
how we live, work and play

+ Emotions/Spirit
do we have positive/healing or negative/destructive emotional and spiritual habits

+ Inherited Constitution
your physical, emotional and spiritual constitution inherited from you parents, your genetics and what you choose to do about it

= Equals your Level of Health

壞食物大翻身

愛吃冰淇淋、披薩、花生醬、巧克力……？
不必再有罪惡感，最新研究發現，你可以吃得理直氣壯！

文／黃惠如

披薩

這是美國心臟協會（American Heart Association）第一次將披薩視為「好速食」。

義大利的科學家發現，披薩可以降低59％食道癌發展的機率，而且愛吃披薩的人也可以降低34％得口腔癌和26％得結腸癌的機率。

秘密都在番茄中的茄紅素和其他抗氧化物。「我們知道番茄醬可以對某些癌症提供保護力，但我們沒有料到作為一個完整食物的披薩，也提供相同的保護效果，」義大利米蘭馬立歐．尼格里藥學研究所喀魯斯（Silvano Gallus）博士說。

的確，披薩的好處除了番茄和番茄醬提供的茄紅素之外，披薩上撒的起司也能強健骨骼，降血壓和抑制結腸癌。

不過如果你懂得挑選，就能吃得更好。12吋的辣味香腸大披薩熱量就超過2000卡、飽和脂肪60克；但如果你點兩片脆皮蔬菜披薩熱量只有300卡、飽和脂肪只有2.5克。所以點一個小披薩，多要一點番茄醬，還要搭配沙拉和蔬菜湯。

冰淇淋

歐洲83％的營養師同意，令人感興趣的食物如冰淇淋，才能真正幫助人們維持長期的健康飲食。那不僅是因為冰淇淋是很好的蛋白質來源，它也有重要的礦物質如鈣與鉀可以維持骨骼和牙齒的健康。

美國《預防雜誌》（Prevention Magazine）甚至曾推廣冰淇淋減肥。雜誌中建議，選擇一杯半約125卡的低卡冰淇淋在減肥餐中，並搭配低卡起司、沙拉、低脂牛奶和低卡貝果（Bagel）。
美國營養學會同意，夏天冰淇淋的確是一個新鮮的鈣質來源，但請注意份量。平常一球冰淇淋雖然提供120毫克的鈣和150毫克的鉀，但不可忽視也有195卡的熱量和10克的脂肪。

因此營養師們建議，多加一點水果在低卡冰淇淋裡。

香蕉

坊間流傳「香蕉傷筋骨」，以致年紀稍長、有退化性關節問題的人對香蕉退避三舍，台北市立聯合醫院中醫院區醫療部主任程惠政卻說「我都叫我病人吃」。

從中醫典籍來看，老祖宗從未曾提及香蕉傷筋骨。《本草綱目》記載香蕉「甘、大寒、無毒」；《本草求原》則記載香蕉「清脾滑腸，脾火盛者食之，反能止瀉止痢」。

香蕉的確「性寒」。不過程惠政說，即使食物有其性味也要和體質相配。如因為香蕉性寒，寒性體質的人的確少吃為佳，但即使寒性體質的人若吃的份量不多，也不會有大礙。

程惠政也強調，性味是古代人的主觀感受，仍不能盡信，常會發現幾本古籍中對相同食物的性味分類並不相同。

若從西方營養學來看，香蕉則好處多多，是不折不扣的好食物。

一根香蕉約是半碗飯的熱量，是很好的熱量來源。運動選手上場時，如果吃太多食物會想嘔吐，這時香蕉就是補充體力最佳食物。曾經來台馬拉松環台的日本打擊樂團體鬼太鼓座，每天早上跑馬拉松前，不吃任何食物，只吃香蕉。

香蕉也可以預防中風，因為有高量的鉀，是繼黃豆之後，被美國食品藥物管理局（FDA）許可，可以在香蕉產品上標示：「具高鉀與低鈉，可以降低中風、高血壓的發生」。

更令人雀躍的是，香蕉還是「快樂食物（pleasure food）」。香蕉中所含的血清素、正腎上腺素、多巴胺都是腦中的神經傳導物質，可以抗憂鬱，振奮精神。

巧克力

愈來愈多美國人流行吃黑巧克力，台灣也愈來愈多巧克力標示著可可純度，都和人們想吃美味的健康食物有關。

眾多的科學研究都發現，巧克力裡有多種抗氧化物質，如可可多酚和類黃酮可以降低壞的膽固醇（低密度膽固醇，LDL），提高好的膽固醇（高密度膽固醇，HDL）。類黃酮也可以舒緩發炎，打開血流，增進血液流通。

美國加州大學戴維斯分校於2006年發表在美國《營養學會期刊》的最新研究發現，每天吃富含巧克力多酚的可可棒，持續6週後可以降低低密度膽固醇。

義大利科學家的研究也發現黑巧克力可以降血壓。這份研究同時也顯示，黑巧克力可以預防第二型糖尿病，因為類黃酮可以鼓勵荷爾蒙轉化醣類成為細胞的燃料。

除此之外，巧克力之所以令人著迷，被稱為愛情靈藥，是因為巧克力中的色胺酸有助於合成血清素，這是一種帶來喜悅的神經傳導物質。但這項成分不僅可以增加浪漫情趣，近來也被發現可以對抗慢性疲勞症候群（chronic fatigue syndrome）。

遺憾的是，並非所有的巧克力產品都有這些功效，這關乎於可可的純度。最近美國農業部研究發現，可可粉是所有的巧克力產品中，含有最多的類黃酮和抗氧化物。烘焙用巧克力（baking chocolate）次之。黑巧克力和烘焙碎巧克力（baking chips）因為製造過程會去掉部份抗氧化物更次之。而大家最常吃的牛奶巧克力（milk chocolate）含有最少的有用物質，約只是可可粉的十分之一而已。

咖啡

科學家現在會告訴你，一天一杯咖啡，醫生遠離你。

美國斯克藍頓大學（University of Scranton）選出咖啡是美國食物中最高的抗氧化物來源。第二名是紅茶、第三名是香蕉。

抗氧化的好處是可以幫你抵禦各種癌症、心臟病、糖尿病和中風，「我認為一天一杯咖啡對心臟是正面的，」斯克藍頓大學化學教授文森（Joe Vinson）說。

如果你擔心喝太多咖啡讓你心悸，好消息是可以選擇低咖啡因咖啡，科學家發現兩者的抗氧化物數量差不多。

但是要提防「咖啡的伴侶」──糖漿和奶精。一杯大杯美式咖啡熱量只不過15卡、無脂肪，但如果加上奶精和糖漿的大杯摩卡星冰樂可要420卡、脂肪16克。

花生醬

花生醬的確有很多油，但並非所有的油都對身體不好。

花生醬裡的單元不飽和脂肪酸和維生素E可以降低壞的膽固醇，保護心臟。這是美國喬治亞大學與韓國國立忠州大學聯合發表在《食物科學期刊》（Journal of Food Science）的研究。

花生醬還可以預防糖尿病。美國哈佛大學公衛學院的研究指出，一週吃5次、每次1匙花生醬，可以降低21％第二型糖尿病的機會。

當你下午肚子餓，土司塗花生醬當點心是很好的選擇，花生醬裡的油脂可以馬上有飽足感。但不適合在已經熱量很高的食物如餅乾、蛋糕，再塗上花生醬。

雞蛋

很多人一看到蛋，就想到膽固醇，害怕心臟病的人碎碎念「要遠離它」。但現在科學家已經知道，真正危險的敵人是飽和脂肪。喬治華盛頓大學心臟學家約翰．拉羅沙博士表示：「飽和脂肪增加膽固醇的威力，比食物含有膽固醇本身，要高出4倍。」

飽和性脂肪都在動物性油脂裡，如肉類、乳製品。所以要遠離奶油、豬油、雞皮、全脂牛奶等。雞蛋的脂肪極少，一顆蛋只有5克脂肪而已。

況且雞蛋的營養濃度極高，一顆蛋裡就有維生素A、B6、B12、E、K、葉酸、鐵等，可以防止脂肪沈澱在肝臟，蛋裡的黃體素也可以保護眼睛健康。

但烹調方式會影響雞蛋健康與否。水煮蛋或多加點蔬菜在蛋裡，可以讓你每一口都可以吃到營養。

牛肉

不用再吃乾巴巴的雞胸肉了，牛肉（與各種紅肉）和膽固醇、心臟病的關連已經沒有那麼深。美國約翰霍普金斯大學刊登在《內科學文獻》（Archives of Internal Medicine）的研究指出，瘦牛肉和雞肉、魚一樣，不會增加膽固醇。因為畜牧技術的進步，現今的牛肉已經沒有那麼「油」，所以沒有那麼多的飽和脂肪。

況且牛肉裡含有很多女性補充不足的營養，如鐵、鋅、和維生素B12。

不過還是要選擇瘦牛肉，不能選肋排或丁骨牛排，這種牛排的油脂和熱量還是瘦牛肉的兩倍。

鴨肉

很多人說，鴨肉有「毒」，所以皮膚病、手術開刀的人不能吃，甚至還擴大到所有人都不宜多吃鴨肉。

中醫師程惠政說，「食物沒有毒不毒的問題，」雖然本草綱目上記載鴨肉「甘、冷、微毒」，但古人所謂的「毒」，指對身體明顯的反應，如立即引起腹瀉或過敏等，並不是現代科學觀念中的「毒」。

之所以會引起腹瀉，可能是因為體質虛寒或已經受涼的人吃太多鴨肉所致。因為鴨肉雖然無毒，卻是性寒，因此可以薑母、當歸等熱性食物一起烹煮，以平衡食物的性味，便是很好的補虛勞食物。現在你知道為何薑母鴨、當歸鴨那麼有名了吧。

起司

下次早餐的土司不要塗奶油，改夾起司。因為起司竟然可以抗癌，美國華盛頓州立大學的研究發現。

關鍵在於起司中的共軛亞麻油酸（Conjugated Linolenic Acid）。這種「好的」脂肪酸不僅發現可以阻止皮膚癌、肺癌、乳癌的成長，也可以降低心臟病、糖尿病的機率。共軛亞麻油酸也被發現可以降低飯後脂肪的儲存，因此可以控制體重。

不僅如此，起司一直都是良好的鈣質來源。鈣不僅可以預防骨質疏鬆，也可強健骨骼和牙齒。對於喝牛奶肚子會不舒服的人，起司更是身體可以快速吸收的鈣質來源。

美國《動起來的人生》（Active Wellness）作者營養師雷啟勒（Gayle Reichler）建議吃有強烈氣味的藍起司（blue cheese）或新鮮的羊奶起司（goat cheese），這些起司人工香料較少，而且羊奶起司一盎司（31.1克）熱量只有23卡，而一般的巧達起司（Cheddar Cheese）可有114卡。

本文出自　康健雜誌100期　封面故事：壞食物大翻身

BANANAS

Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose - combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. Research has proved that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.

A banana can help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must for our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND among people suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it the perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work: Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a "cooling" fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer, tryptophan.

Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's water balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be re-balanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in "The New England Journal of Medicine", eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by as much as 40%"

Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on the wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!

A banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around.

Soooooo.......... "A banana a day keeps the doctor away!"

Remember: If you have a latex allergy, check with your doctor before eating banana

PS Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time!

Indoor air pollution and health

More than three billion people worldwide continue to depend on solid fuels, including biomass fuels (wood, dung, agricultural residues) and coal, for their energy needs.

Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or traditional stoves results in high levels of indoor air pollution. Indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants, such as small particles and carbon monoxide, and particulate pollution levels may be 20 times higher than accepted guideline values.

According to The world health report 2002 indoor air pollution is responsible for 2.7% of the global burden of disease.


Scope of the problem

More than half of the world’s population rely on dung, wood, crop waste or coal to meet their most basic energy needs. Cooking and heating with such solid fuels on open fires or stoves without chimneys leads to indoor air pollution. This indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants including small soot or dust particles that are able to penetrate deep into the lungs. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can exceed acceptable levels for small particles in outdoor air 100-fold. Exposure is particularly high among women and children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth. Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for the death of 1.6 million people - that's one death every 20 seconds.

The use of polluting fuels thus poses a major burden on the health of poor families in developing countries. The dependence on such fuels is both a cause and a result of poverty as poor households often do not have the resources to obtain cleaner, more efficient fuels and appliances. Reliance on simple household fuels and appliances can compromise health and thus hold back economic development, creating a vicious cycle of poverty.

According to the 2004 assessment of the International Energy Agency, the number of people relying on biomass fuels such as wood, dung and agricultural residues, for cooking and heating will continue to rise. In sub-Saharan Africa, the reliance on biomass fuels appears to be growing as a result of population growth and the unavailability of, or increases in the price of, alternatives such as kerosene and liquid petroleum gas. Despite the magnitude of this growing problem, the health impacts of exposure to indoor air pollution have yet to become a central focus of research, development aid and policy-making.

The health impact: A major killer

The World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed the contribution of a range of risk factors to the burden of disease and revealed indoor air pollution as the 8th most important risk factor and responsible for 2.7% of the global burden of disease . Globally, indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is responsible for 1.6 million deaths due to pneumonia, chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer, with the overall disease burden (in Disability-Adjusted Life Years or DALYs, a measure combining years of life lost due to disability and death) exceeding the burden from outdoor air pollution five fold. In high-mortality developing countries, indoor smoke is responsible for an estimated 3.7% of the overall disease burden, making it the most lethal killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation.

Indoor air pollution has been associated with a wide range of health outcomes, and the evidence for these associations has been classified as strong, moderate or tentative in a recent systematic review. Included in the above assessment were only those health outcomes for which the evidence for indoor air pollution as a cause was classified as strong. There is consistent evidence that exposure to indoor air pollution increases the risk of pneumonia among children under five years, and chronic respiratory disease and lung cancer (in relation to coal use) among adults over 30 years old. The evidence for a link with lung cancer from exposure to biomass smoke, and for a link with asthma, cataracts and tuberculosis was considered moderate. On the basis of the limited available studies, there is tentative evidence for an association between indoor air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes, in particular low birth weight, or ischaemic heart disease and nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers.

While the precise mechanism of how exposure causes disease is still unclear, it is known that small particles and several of the other pollutants contained in indoor smoke cause inflammation of the airways and lungs and impair the immune response. Carbon monoxide also results in systemic effects by reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

Pneumonia and other acute lower respiratory infections

Globally, pneumonia and other acute lower respiratory infections represent the single most important cause of death in children under five years. Exposure to indoor air pollution more than doubles the risk of pneumonia and is thus responsible for more than 900 000 of the 2 million annual deaths from pneumonia.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Women exposed to indoor smoke are three times as likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as chronic bronchitis, than women who cook and heat with electricity, gas and other cleaner fuels. Among men, exposure to this neglected risk factor nearly doubles the risk of chronic respiratory disease. Consequently, indoor air pollution is responsible for approximately 700 000 out of the 2.7 million global deaths due to COPD.

Lung cancer

Coal use is widespread in China and cooking on open fires or simple stoves can cause lung cancer in women. Exposure to smoke from coal fires doubles the risk of lung cancer, in particular among women who tend to smoke less than men in most developing countries. Every year, more than one million people die from lung cancer globally, and indoor air pollution is responsible for approximately 1.5% of these deaths.

Disproportionate impacts on children and women

Household energy practices vary widely around the world, as does the resultant death toll due to indoor air pollution. While more than two-thirds of indoor smoke deaths from acute lower respiratory infections in children occur in WHO's African and South East Asian Regions, over 50% of the COPD deaths due to indoor air pollution occur in the Western Pacific region.

In most societies, women are in charge of cooking and - depending on the demands of the local cuisine - they spend between three and seven hours per day near the stove, preparing food. 59% of all indoor air pollution-attributable deaths thus fall on females. Young children are often carried on their mother's back or kept close to the warm hearth. Consequently, infants spend many hours breathing indoor smoke during their first year of life when their developing airways make them particularly vulnerable to hazardous pollutants. As a result, 56% of all indoor air pollution-attributable deaths occur in children under five years of age.

In addition to the health burden, fuel collection can impose a serious time burden on women and children. Alleviating this work will free women's time for productive endeavours and child care, and can boost children's school attendance and time for homework.

Millennium Development Goals are guiding international action

Tackling indoor air pollution in the context of household energy is linked to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in particular to reducing child mortality (Goal 4), to promoting gender equality and empowering women (Goal 3), to opening up opportunities for income generation and eradicating extreme poverty (Goal 1), and to ensuring environmental sustainability (Goal 7). WHO reports the "proportion of the population using solid fuels for cooking" as an indicator for assessing progress towards the integration of the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes. Yet, the central role of household energy is not currently reflected in the political responses to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Measures to reduce indoor air pollution and associated health effects range from switching to cleaner alternatives, such as gas, electricity or solar energy, to improved stoves or hoods that vent health-damaging pollutants to the outside, to behavioural changes. There is an urgent need to investigate which interventions work and how they can be implemented in a successful, sustainable and financially viable way.

What WHO is doing

WHO, as the global public health agency, is advocating for the integration of health in international and national energy policies and programmes. WHO collects and evaluates the evidence for the impact of household energy on health and for the effectiveness of interventions in reducing the health burden on children, women and other vulnerable groups. WHO's programme on household energy and health rests on four pillars:

- Documenting the health burden of indoor air pollution and household energy: WHO will provide a regular update of the links between household energy and health and, where feasible, offer support to key research undertakings.

- Evaluating the effectiveness of technical solutions and their implementation: Developing simple tools for monitoring the effectiveness of interventions in improving health and building the capacity to conduct such evaluations will help generate much needed information from ongoing small- and large-scale projects. This information will provide the basis for the development of a catalogue of options that review both the effectiveness of interventions, and lessons learnt in relation to their implementation.

- Acting as the global advocate for health as a central component of international and national energy policies: Ultimately, policy-makers will want to know whether it pays off to invest in large-scale operations to reduce indoor air pollution. In terms of health, a recent cost-effectiveness analysis of different interventions suggests that improved stoves and switching to kerosene and gas represent cost-effective solutions. In addition, WHO is working on a cost-benefit analysis of interventions that - beyond health - will take into account all the benefits associated with improved household energy practices.

- Monitoring changes in household energy habits over time: Information about the energy habits of poor, mostly rural households is scarce and WHO has the responsibility to work towards progress in this area and to report, on a yearly basis, the Millennium Development Goal Indicator 29 "percentage of population using solid fuels".

Key partners include the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank as well as many research institutions and non-governmental agencies around the world. WHO is already actively taking part in projects in several developing countries, including the most sophisticated scientific indoor air pollution study to date undertaken in Guatemala, and work in China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Kenya and Sudan. In the future, work will focus even more on those countries and populations most in need.


RELATED LINKS
- Indoor air pollution

Antibiotic Resistance

Superbugs - bacteria that resist the effects of the most powerful antibiotics - are being reported more and more frequently. Some doctors see their rise as heralding the end of the age of antibiotics. BBC News Online's health team presents an overview of the past, present and future of the 20th century's greatest medical breakthrough.

The emerging superbug
Visa is resistant to just about every antibiotic known to medicine and has been discovered in hospitals from Japan to Scotland - find out where it comes from and why it has got doctors worried.

Staphylococcus aureus - the root of the problem (picture: Pfizer)

The emergence of a superbug - a bacteria resistant to all antibiotics - could herald the end of the era of antibiotics, the biggest medical advance of the twentieth century.

That at least was the view of public health scientists in New York earlier this year when they reported a growing incidence of VISA - vancomycin intermediate-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

These bacteria have been proving resistant to vancomycin, the most powerful antibiotic in doctors' armoury, although combinations of other antibiotics have been able to halt it.

Vancomycin is seen as the last line of defence against MRSA - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - which is unaffected by most antibiotics and is becoming more common.

All around the world

The emergence of VISA shows that, in doctors' race to keep antibiotics advanced enough to defeat bacteria, the bugs are taking the lead.

VISA has been found in hospitals in Japan, America, France and, more recently, in Scotland.

Although only one person is thought to have died directly from infection with the bug, the fear is that more dangerous bacteria such as those that cause tuberculosis could develop the same characteristics that allow VISA to resist even the most powerful antibiotics.

Were this to happen, doctors would be back where they started before the introduction of penicillin - confronted by a host of diseases caused by bacteria and unable to cure them.

In February, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine recorded three cases of bacteria resisting vancomycin.

In two of them, cocktails of other antibiotics cleared up the infection. In the third, a combination of antibiotics failed and the 79-year-old patient died.

Larger problem

Dr Alexander Tomasz, professor of microbiology at New York's Rockefeller University, said in the journal: "This is the tip of the iceberg. At the moment such strains are very, very rare.

"But they are not as susceptible as they used to be. They have moved up the threshold of resistance. It is a warning."

The reports suggested that it would only take one small mutation for the bacteria to develop full resistance to even the most powerful drugs.

Dr Theresa Smith, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported two of the cases in the journal, and said the appearance of such bacteria "threatens to return us to the era before the development of antibiotics".

Optimism in Glasgow

However, when it appeared at the Royal Glasgow Infirmary Dr John Hood, consultant bacteriologist at the hospital's Infection Control Unit, was less alarmed.

He said that while the strain showed increased resistance to traditional antibiotics, it was not yet immune to them and newer drugs were also available to combat it.

But Professor Hugh Pennington, who conducted the inquiry into the 1996 Lanarkshire E. coli infection, described the development as "worrying".

"If it turns out to be the case that this strain proves resistant to Vancomycin, that really is quite bad news and would confirm our fears that these bugs are developing a full house of resistance," he said.

Links to more Antibiotics stories
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic Resistant "Superbug" on the Rise
New antibiotic-resistant superbug found
Super-Resistant Superbugs
Attack of the Superbug
Essential oils have been found to kill the deadly MRSA bacteria

The importance of inflammation & Asthma triggers

The importance of inflammation

Inflammation, or swelling, is a normal response of the body to injury or infection. The bloodflow increases to the affected site and cells rush in and ward off the offending problem. The healing process has begun. Usually, when the healing is complete, the inflammation subsides. Sometimes, the healing process causes scarring. The central issue in asthma, however, is that the inflammation does not resolve completely on its own. In the short term, this results in recurrent "attacks" of asthma. In the long term, it may lead to permanent thickening of the bronchial walls, called airway "remodeling." If this occurs, the narrowing of the bronchial tubes may become irreversible and poorly responsive to medications. Therefore, the goals of asthma treatment are: (1) in the short term, to control airway inflammation in order to reduce the reactivity of the airways; and (2) in the long term, to prevent airway remodeling.

Allergy Assist

The hallmark of managing asthma is the prevention and treatment of airway inflammation. It is also likely that control of the inflammation will prevent airway remodeling and thereby prevent permanent loss of lung function.

Figure I illustrates how important events in the asthma cycle are linked. Various triggers in susceptible individuals result in airway inflammation. Prolonged inflammation induces a state of airway hyper-reactivity, which might progress to airway remodeling unless treated effectively.

Asthma triggers

Asthma symptoms may be activated or aggravated by many agents. Not all asthmatics react to the same triggers. Additionally, the effect that each trigger has on the lungs varies from one individual to another. In general, the severity of your asthma depends on how many agents activate your symptoms and how sensitive your lungs are to them. Most of these triggers can also worsen nasal or eye symptoms.

Triggers fall into two categories:

- Allergens ("specific")
- Non-allergens - mostly irritants (non-"specific")

Once your bronchial tubes (nose and eyes) become inflamed from an allergic exposure, a re-exposure to the offending allergens will often activate symptoms. These "reactive" bronchial tubes might also respond to other triggers, such as exercise, infections, and other irritants. The following is a simple checklist.

Common Asthma Triggers:

Allergens

- "Seasonal" pollens.
- Year-round dust mites, molds, pets, and insect parts.
- Foods, such as fish, egg, peanuts, nuts, cow's milk, and soy.
- Additives, such as sulfites.
- Work-related agents, such as latex.

Allergy Fact

About 80% of children and 50% of adults with asthma also have allergies.

Irritants

- Respiratory infections, such as those caused by viral "colds," bronchitis, and sinusitis.
- Drugs, such as aspirin, other NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), and Beta Blockers (used to treat blood pressure and other heart conditions).
- Tobacco smoke.
- Outdoor factors, such as smog, weather changes, and diesel fumes.
- Indoor factors, such as paint, detergents, deodorants, chemicals, and perfumes.
- Nighttime.
- GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disorder).
- Exercise, especially under cold dry conditions.
- Work-related factors, such as chemicals, dusts, gases, and metals.
- Emotional factors, such as laughing, crying, yelling, and distress.
- Hormonal factors, such as in premenstrual syndrome.

http://www.medicinenet.com/asthma