4 Natural Deodorants To Keep You Stink-Free This Summer

I’ve talked about this before on NMDL and from countless conversations I’ve had and other blogs I’ve read, I’ve deduced that natural deodorant is one of the trickiest things to switch over when you’re going clean. The catch is that it’s one of the most important, right? Aluminum in our anti-perspirants has been linked to cancer, especially breast cancer, for the fact that it’s been classified as an endocrine disrupter and can live in your skin’s tissue for far longer than that last swipe of Dove or Secret 48-Hour Protection. But in a sea of natural deodorants, which ones actually stand […]

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Megan Fox Inspired Makeup | 100% Pure Bold Red Lip | Winged Liner

The 100% Pure lipstick in "Poppy" gave me the urge to film a celebrity makeup tutorial. There are quite a few red lip lovers in the celebrity world, but I was looking for something simple and fresh, with the focus to be on this beautiful lip colour. Continue Reading →

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SSRI Antidepressants Put Patients at Clear Risk of Suicide

By Dr. Mercola

It is now estimated that 1 in 8 Americans are on serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants¹ and a shocking 1 in 4 among women in their 40s and 50s.² Yet the U.S. suicide rate of 38,000 a year has never been higher.³

Clearly the glut of SSRI prescriptions is not lowering the national suicide rate; rather there is compelling evidence that the popular pills are actually contributing to suicide.

SSRIs and Violence

The first suspicion that SSRIs can cause dangerous and unintended psychiatric effects was a Kentucky shooting in 1989⁴ in which pressman Joseph T. Wesbecker entered his former workplace, Standard Gravure, killed eight people, injured 12 and committed suicide after being prescribed Prozac.

Families of the wounded and killed soon filed a lawsuit against Prozac maker Eli Lilly and Company, claiming the SSRI contributed to the violence. The case went to a jury that sided with Lilly.

Yet three days before the shooting, Wesbecker's psychiatrist had written "Prozac?" in his patient notes as a possible explanation of his bizarre behavior.

Since the Standard Gravure killings, psychiatrists, drug safety advocates and bereaved families have consistently tried to expose links between SSRIs and suicides but are hampered by mainstream safety data that deny a suicide link. 

Study Suggests 'No Suicide Link' Is Not to Be Trusted

However, a recent study suggests the "no suicide links" findings are not necessarily to be trusted, noting that: "Therapists should be aware of the lack of proof from RCTs (randomized control trials) that antidepressants prevent suicides and suicide attempts."⁵

Dr. David Healy, professor of psychiatry at Bangor University and author of 20 books including "The Antidepressant Era," "The Creation of Psychopharmacology," "Let Them Eat Prozac," "Mania," and "Pharmageddon," heartily agrees that the SSRI statistics given to the public is problematic.⁶

"People haven't had access to the data. There have been no publications around it. This is one of the biggest problems on which there's a huge amount of data, but to which we've got little or no access ...

If we were getting our drug information from The New York Times instead of medical journals, we would all be a lot safer. When the Times reporter Jayson Blair was found to have fabricated stories, he was history.

But the editors and writers involved with journal fraud still have their jobs and the articles are not even retracted. In fact, Liz Wager, Ph.D., the chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is herself Pharma-linked."

The COPE website said about Wager,⁷ its former chair, "Liz provides writing, editing, training and consultancy services for various pharmaceutical companies" (most recently AstraZeneca, Cephalon, Cordis Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Merck Serono, Mundipharma, Norgine, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi Pasteur and Vifor Pharma) at the time of the interview with Healy.

Healy estimates as many as 1,000 to 2,000 Americans on SSRIs kill themselves each year, when they otherwise would not have done so. Violent acts against others and birth defects are also linked to the pills, he says.

Suicides Linked to Antidepressants Number in the Thousands

Even as high level links between medical editors and the drug industry prevented accurate information from reaching the public, in 1997, drug safety activists launched a website called SSRIstories.com,⁸ which archived credible and published reports that cite the role of SSRIs and related antidepressants in suicides and other violent behavior.

There are now thousands of entries. "The kind of energy, rage and insanity seen in a lot of crimes today was not seen before SSRIs appeared," said Rosie Meysenburg, a founder of the website in an interview shortly before her death.⁹

In addition to the thousands of suicides, "there are two cases of women on the SSRI Stories site who stab a man close to 200 times and a case of a man who stabs his wife over 100 times and then goes next door to the neighbor's house and stabbed the neighbor's furniture about 500 times."

The SSRI stories archive includes people on SSRIs setting themselves on fire, violent elderly people (which is rare) and bizarre cases of kleptomania and female school teachers molesting their minor male students. The common denominator in all the recorded crimes is the drug.

Drug companies routinely blame suicides on the depression that was being treated, not the drugs — but the experiences of patients treated with the same drugs for non-mental indications like pain and the experiences of healthy volunteers cannot be written off as the "disease."

The Dark Side of Cymbalta

In 2004, 19-year-old Traci Johnson who had no history of mental problems hung herself in the Eli Lilly Clinic in Indianapolis while testing the drug giant's serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) duloxetine, sold under the brand name Cymbalta, a type of antidepressant similar to SSRIs.¹⁰

The suicide did not delay the drug's approval and wide use. In 2008, the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology describes a 37-year-old man with a stable marriage, stable employment and no history of mental problems trying to kill himself two months after being prescribed Cymbalta for back pain.

"The patient was unable to state exactly why he wanted to commit suicide," wrote the four physician authors in the report, also noting that the man returned to normal when the drug was stopped.

The authors also report a 63-year-old man with no mental health history becoming suicidal two weeks after being put on Cymbalta for fatigue, insomnia and sadness, yet he too was "unable to explain why he was having thoughts of wanting to die."

Other cases of healthy people committing suicide on Cymbalta have been reported¹¹ and many still remember the suicide of Carol Gotbaum at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport who was on the drug. She was the stepdaughter-in-law of New York City's public advocate at the time, Betsy Gotbaum.

Writing for Slate, reporter Jeanne Lenzer identified 13 suicides¹² linked to Cymbalta besides Traci Johnson. Eli Lilly wanted to market the drug as a treatment for urinary incontinence too but withdrew its application and would not release the study data to Lenzer, she says. It may well have contained more evidence of suicide side effects.

The Drug Industry Still Fights Black Box Warnings Added in 2004

In 2004,¹³ in response to the outcry over antidepressant-linked suicides, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed drug makers to add a "Black Box" warning to SRRIs and related psychiatric drugs, highlighting suicide risks and the need for close monitoring of children and adolescents for suicidal thoughts and behavior.

"Today's actions represent FDA's conclusions about the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and the necessary actions for physicians prescribing these antidepressant drugs and for the children and adolescents taking them.

Our conclusions are based on the latest and best science. They reflect what we heard from our advisory committee last month, as well as what many members of the public have told us," said Dr. Lester M. Crawford, acting FDA commissioner at the time.

Unfortunately, then and now, drug industry funded doctors have tried to claim that the warnings scare doctors and patients away and heighten suicide. While it would be ridiculous to blame obesity on tighter restriction of obesity drugs, that is essentially what drug industry spokesmen have done with SSRI warnings and continue to do.

Even The New York Times was misled by such disinformation, reporting that SSRI warnings were causing a leap in suicides.

Journalist Alison Bass, however, revealed¹⁴ the paper on which the Times article was based was funded by a $30,000 Pfizer grant. The conclusions about higher suicides also turned out to be wrong because the researcher got his years mixed up.¹⁵

Contrary to drug industry claims about the warnings, the proportion of children and teens taking antidepressants actually rose in the U.S. after the Black Box was added from more than 1 percent to nearly 2 percent says Dr. Andrea Cipriani, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, in England.¹⁶

Still, both David Shern, Ph.D., president of Mental Health America, a group investigated by Congress for undisclosed industry funding¹⁷ and Dr. Charles Nemeroff, also investigated by Congress, blamed¹⁸ the Black Box warnings for rising suicides. Speaking to ABC News, Nemeroff said:¹⁹

"I have no doubt that there is such a relationship. The concerns about antidepressant use in children and adolescents have paradoxically resulted in a reduction in their use, and this has contributed to increased suicide rates."

False Charges About Black Box Warnings Continue

Nemeroff left his post at Emory University in disgrace because of his drug industry links²⁰ and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant he managed was suspended because of the conflicts of interest — a rare occurrence.²¹ Nor have the false charges about Black Boxes died down. Here is how a New York Times editorial read just last year.²²

"Worse, antidepressants, which can be lifesaving, are probably being underused in young people. Their use fell significantly after the FDA issued its so-called black-box warning in 2004, stating that all antidepressants were associated with a risk of increased suicidal feeling, thinking and behavior in adolescents. That warning was later extended to young adults.

It's not hard to understand why. The FDA's well-intended warning was alarming to the public and most likely discouraged many patients from taking antidepressants. Physicians, too, were anxious about the admittedly small possible risks posed by antidepressants and were probably more reluctant to prescribe them.

This very small risk of suicidal behavior posed by antidepressant treatment has always been dwarfed by the deadly risk of untreated depression ... Parents and teenagers, and their doctors, too, should not be afraid of antidepressants and should know that they can be very helpful. Indeed, with careful use and monitoring, they can be lifesaving. The only thing we should all fear is depression, a natural killer that we can effectively treat."

Blaming underuse of drugs and falling sales on warnings that made patients or doctors "anxious" is not limited to antidepressants. Recently, industry-funded groups charged that warnings on the bone drugs called bisphosphonates about fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw were scaring patients and doctors away and denying patients the drugs' benefits.²³

SSRIs Ignored in the Extremely High Rate of Suicide in the Military

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, troop suicides were higher than combat fatalities themselves and the majority of the suicides were among troops who had never even deployed.²⁴ But when a long awaited Army report came out, it largely blamed soldiers themselves for the deaths, especially highlighting illegal drug usage and barely mentioning the huge number of troops on prescription psychoactive drugs. In fact, the word "illicit" appears 150 times in the Army report and "psychiatrist" appears twice.²⁵

At the time of the Army report, 73,103 prescriptions for Zoloft had been dispensed to troops, 38,199 for Prozac, 17,830 for Paxil and 12,047 for Cymbalta.²⁶ In fact 4,994 troops at Fort Bragg alone were reported to be on antidepressants by the Fayetteville Observer.

Four years after the Army report, researchers addressed the military suicides in JAMA Psychiatry²⁷ again not finding or considering the high prescribing of SSRIs within the military. The authors had financial links to Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Janssen-Cilag, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Shire and Johnson & Johnson.

In a series during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars called "Medicating the Military," when SSRI use was mushrooming, Military Times reported:²⁸

"A Military Times investigation of electronic records obtained from the Defense Logistics Agency shows DLA spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric and pain medications from 2001 to 2009. It also shows that use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically — about 76 percent overall, with some drug types more than doubling — since the start of the current wars.

Troops and military health care providers also told Military Times that these medications are being prescribed, consumed, shared and traded in combat zones — despite some restrictions on the deployment of troops using those drugs. The investigation also shows that drugs originally developed to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are now commonly used to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as headaches, nightmares, nervousness and fits of anger.

Such 'off-label' use — prescribing medications to treat conditions for which the drugs were not formally approved by the FDA — is legal and even common. But experts say the lack of proof that these treatments work for other purposes, without fully understanding side effects, raises serious concerns about whether the treatments are safe and effective."

Many military administrators have unabashed drug company links, like Dr. Matthew Friedman, former executive director of the Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD,²⁹ who admitted receiving AstraZeneca money in a video on the Center's site a few years ago (a video since taken down) and served as Pfizer Visiting Professor while helming a government organization.³⁰

Recently, the Annals of Internal Medicine ran another study looking at military suicides without finding an antidepressant role. The study's editors at the Annals had links³¹ to Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Considering all the risks associated with antidepressants, it would be wise to use them as a very last resort. To learn more about safer treatment options, please see my previous article, "Supplements Proven Beneficial for Your Mental Health."

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For a Sound Body and Mind, Choose Cypress Oil

The Trouble With Tinnitus

By Dr. Mercola

Tinnitus, or chronic ringing in your ears, affects about 1 in 5 people. While it’s typically not serious, it can significantly impact your quality of life, and it may get worse with age or be a symptom of an underlying condition, such as age-related hearing loss, ear injury or a circulatory system disorder.¹

In the majority of cases, tinnitus is diagnosed after the age of 50 years, however, recent research has shown that tinnitus in youth is surprisingly common and on the rise, likely due to increased exposure to loud music and other environmental noise.²

Worse still, it may be a sign of permanent nerve damage that could predict future hearing impairment.

One-Quarter of Youth May Experience Tinnitus, Risk Hearing Loss Later in Life

In a study of 170 students between the ages of 11 and 17 years, researchers from McMaster University in Canada found “risky listening habits,” including exposure to loud noise at parties or concerts, listening to music with ear buds and use of mobile phones excluding texting, were the norm.

More than half of the study participants reported experiencing tinnitus in the past, such as experiencing ringing in the ears for a day following a loud concert.

This is considered a warning sign; however, nearly 29 percent of the students were found to have already developed chronic tinnitus, as evidenced by a psychoacoustic examination conducted in a sound booth.³

Youth with and without tinnitus had a similar ability to hear, but those with tinnitus had significantly reduced tolerance for loud noise and tended to be more protective of their hearing.

Reduced sound level tolerance is a sign of damage to the auditory nerves because, when nerves used to process sound are damaged, it prompts brain cells to increase their sensitivity to noise, essentially making sounds seem louder than they are.

Prevention Is the Best Solution to Tinnitus

Auditory nerve injury that’s associated with tinnitus and heightened sensitivity to loud noises cannot be detected by typical hearing tests, which is why it’s sometimes called “hidden hearing loss.” Further, such damage is permanent and tends to worsen over time, causing increasing hearing loss later in life.

Because there is no known cure, the best solution is prevention. Study author Larry Roberts, Ph.D., of McMaster University’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour has compared the emerging risks from loud noises to early warnings about smoking.

At this point, many people are unaware that listening to loud music via earbuds or at parties may be permanently damaging their hearing, particularly since they may still hear normally at this point in time.

If more people were aware of the risks, more would take steps to turn down the volume and give their ears a break. Roberts told Science Daily:⁴

"It's a growing problem and I think it's going to get worse … My personal view is that there is a major public health challenge coming down the road in terms of difficulties with hearing …

The levels of sound exposure that are quite commonplace in our environment, particularly among youth, appear to be sufficient to produce hidden cochlear injuries … The message is, 'Protect your ears.'"

Tinnitus Is Associated With Psychiatric Disorders and Stress

In adults, the majority of people with tinnitus (77 percent) may suffer from co-existing psychiatric disorders ranging from anxiety to personality disorders. Further, 62 percent of tinnitus patients may suffer from depressive disorders while 45 percent may have anxiety disorders.⁵

Further, there appears to be a close link between tinnitus and stress, such that stress may make tinnitus worse and vice versa. In one study, emotional exhaustion — or the feeling of being drained due to chronic stress — was a strong predictor of tinnitus severity.⁶

In addition, chronic stress may be as large a risk factor for developing tinnitus as exposure to occupational noise. Research has found that exposure to highly stressful situations and occupational noise each double the risk of tinnitus.⁷

Further, stress is especially influential in the transition from mild to severe tinnitus, with researchers concluding, “Stress management strategies should be included in hearing conservation programs, especially for individuals with mild tinnitus who report a high stress load.”⁸

Also of note, many people with tinnitus first noticed the ringing in their ears during a stressful life event, such as divorce, being laid off, sickness in family members, accidents or surgery. As noted in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry (JNNP):⁹

“These events can heighten the brain's arousal, and the tinnitus may be noted cortically [by the cerebral cortex]. This interaction between reduced auditory sensation and brain compensation might explain why some people are very bothered by their tinnitus and others just adjust to it.”

The researchers have suggested that tinnitus is not simply a condition affecting the auditory system but rather is neuropsychiatric in nature, which would explain why it often occurs alongside cognitive and behavioral symptoms.

Other Tinnitus Associations to Be Aware Of: Sleep, Trauma, Headaches and More

Tinnitus is often described as a symptom, not a disease in itself, and it may result from a variety of conditions. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one common cause, with nearly 40 percent of military personnel with TBI also experiencing tinnitus.¹⁰

Tinnitus is also associated with pain disorders and headaches, including migraines, and often leads to sleep difficulties such as delayed sleep, mid-sleep awakenings and chronic fatigue. In addition, tinnitus is also associated with cognitive deficits, including slowed cognitive processing speed and problems with attention.¹¹

There are different types of tinnitus as well, and the variety may give clues as to its origin. For instance, tinnitus may occur in one or both ears and be described as:¹²

• Throbbing or pulsing, which may be due to vascular tumors near the ear
• High-pitched and continuous (this is most common)
• Clicking, which may be related to muscle spasms in the roof of your mouth, which cause the Eustachian tube in your ear to open and close; temporomandibular joint (TMJ) issues may also cause a clicking sound in your ear
• Buzzing or humming

Abnormal bone growth in the middle ear, known as otosclerosis, may also cause tinnitus, as can damage to your vestibulocochlear nerve, which transmits sound from your ear to your brain. Such damage may occur from acoustic neuroma tumor or drug toxicity, for instance.

Additionally, certain medications, including certain cancer drugs, sedatives, and anti-inflammatories like ibuprophen and aspirin may also trigger tinnitus. 

If this condition is causing you serious emotional or physical distress, seek professional help. In many cases, however, natural interventions such as those described below may help.  

Effective Tinnitus Treatments

A slew of pharmaceuticals, including antidepressants, anxiety drugs, mood stabilizers and anticonvulsants, have been used to treat tinnitus.  A meta-analysis of a range of tinnitus management strategies revealed only antidepressants had a possible benefit, but even that study could not conclude that antidepressants were the answer.¹³

Considering their risks, and the fact that some antidepressants may cause ringing in the ears, non-drug options present the best course of action — and of these there are many.¹⁴

In many cases natural interventions, including the following, may help:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy: which has been shown to improve quality of life in people with tinnitus.¹⁵ Even internet-based guided CBT has been shown to effectively manage tinnitus.¹⁶
• Acupuncture: which was found to improve tinnitus severity and patients’ quality of life.¹⁷
• Nutritional interventions, herbal remedies and melatonin: specifically, zinc deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency may be associated with tinnitus.^18,19 Herbal remedies, including Japanese cornel, dogwood, bayberry, hawthorn leaf, ginkgo and black cohosh may also be useful.²⁰

• In animal studies, ginkgo extract led to significant improvement in tinnitus, including complete relief in some cases.²¹ Melatonin also shows promise, and in one study melatonin supplementation led to a significant decrease in tinnitus intensity and improved sleep quality in patients with chronic tinnitus.²²

• Organic black coffee: research has shown that women who consumed higher amounts of caffeine (mostly in the form of coffee) were less likely to have tinnitus.²³

• Specifically, women who consumed less than 150 milligrams of caffeine a day (the amount in about 12 ounces of coffee) were 15 percent more likely to develop tinnitus than those who consumed 450 milligrams to 599 milligrams.²⁴ The researchers weren’t sure why caffeine may reduce tinnitus risk, although past research has shown it has a direct effect on the inner ear or may be involved through its role in stimulating your central nervous system.

• Stress management: including exercise, relaxation exercises and the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), is important for tinnitus treatment and prevention.

Simple Home Remedies May Provide Relief

If tinnitus is interfering with your quality of life, home remedies may help to relieve your symptoms (and if not, there’s no harm done in trying). Organic Facts compiled several examples worth considering:²⁵

✓ Warm salt pillow: fill a fabric bag with warm salt. Lie down on the pillow and alternate each ear on the bag. Reheat the salt as necessary and repeat several times a day.	✓ Foot baths: alternate your feet in hot and cold foot baths. This may dilate your blood vessels and stimulate blood flow toward your head, helping to relieve tinnitus symptoms.
✓ Garlic oil: blend six cloves of fresh garlic with 1 cup of olive oil (the garlic should be finely minced in the process). Let the mixture steep for a week then strain out the garlic. Apply a few drops of the oil in each ear.	✓ Music: soft soothing music, white noise, nature sounds or even humming to yourself may help relieve tinnitus.
✓ Stimulate your little toe: use a toothpick to gently stimulate the edge of your little toe near the toenail. This should result in a tingling sensation near the top of your toe. Doing this once a day may relieve tinnitus symptoms.	✓ Ear drumming: gently drum on each ear using your fingertips for two to three minutes twice a day to help relieve ringing.
✓ Jawbone massage: massage the hollow and top areas of your jawbone behind your earlobes using coconut oil or sesame oil. You can also apply a hot compress to this neck area for relief.

How to Protect Your Ears From Loud Noise Exposures

While there are many causes of tinnitus, loud noise exposure is a primary culprit, especially among youth. It’s far easier to prevent related damage to your ears than it is to treat it. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends teens and young people take the following steps to protect their hearing and avoid hearing loss (although the advice applies to people of all ages):

✓ Turn down the volume on personal audio devices	✓ Try a decibel meter app for your smartphone, which will flash a warning if the volume is turned up to a potentially damaging level	✓ Wear earplugs when you visit noisy venues (or when using loud equipment like lawnmowers or leaf blowers)
✓ Use carefully fitted noise-cancelling earphones/headphones, which may allow you to listen comfortably at a lower volume	✓ Limit the amount of time you spend engaged in noisy activities	✓ Take regular listening breaks when using personal audio devices
✓ Restrict the daily use of personal audio devices to less than one hour

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Desk situation

When I need a proper boost of new energies (and caffeine is not helping anymore), desk re-organization is the way to go in my case. Both helps to avoid OCD crashes, and has a positive effect on creative burnout that happens from time to time. Life. This is what I have on my desk and

The post Desk situation appeared first on TLV Birdie.

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What Happens When You Stop Showering?

By Dr. Mercola

Many people are now aware of the importance of your gut microbiome. Some even take proactive steps to protect it, like minimizing the use of antibiotics and eating fermented foods to support a healthy balance.

Less widely known is that such microorganisms don’t only populate your gut; they’re found throughout your body, including on your skin. Just as your gut depends on a balanced microbial state to function optimally, the balance of bacteria and other microbes on your skin also matters.

What’s more, the average American showers close to once each day,¹ a hygiene habit that may be doing your body more harm than good.

A No-Shower Experiment

If you spend 20 minutes a day washing, that equates to about two years of your life spent in the shower or bath along with a hefty amount of money spent on the “necessary” accouterments like shampoo, conditioner, soap and moisturizer.²

What if you were to cut this back to showering once every other day, once every three days or, simply, hardly at all? Dr. James Hamblin, a senior editor at The Atlantic, tried the latter and wrote about his experience, explaining:³

“ … I started using less soap, and less shampoo, and less deodorant, and showering less. I went from every day to every other day to every three. 

And now I’ve pretty much stopped altogether. I still wash my hands, all the time, which remains an extremely important way to prevent communicable diseases.

I still rinse off elsewhere when I’m visibly dirty, like after a run when I have to wash gnats off my face, because there is still the matter of society. If I have bed head, I lean into the shower and wet it down. But I don’t use shampoo or body soap, and I almost never get into a shower.”

At first, you may have some odor and greasy skin or hair. However, this may be the direct result of your prior aggressive showering routine. Body odor is the result of bacteria feeding on oily secretions from your sweat and sebaceous glands.

Washing with detergent soaps wipes out the bacteria temporarily, but it quickly reestablishes itself, typically with an imbalance that favors odor-producing microbes.

When you give your body a break from the soap and shampoo, however, the ecosystem has a chance to right itself and, in so doing, offensive body odor largely disappears.

“ … [Y]our ecosystem reaches a steady state, and you stop smelling bad,” Hamblin explained. "I mean, you don’t smell like rosewater … but you don’t smell like B.O., either. You just smell like a person.”⁴

How Shrewd Marketers Sold Americans the Idea of 'Clean'

It wasn’t until the early 20th century, not coincidentally when advertising became prolific, that Americans began to be very concerned about personal hygiene. The advertising industry created a “need” for newfangled products like “toilet soap” and “mouthwash” where one had never before existed.⁵

Today most people engage in the habit of washing their hair and skin with soap and shampoo, which removes natural oils, and then adding those oils back via the use of synthetic moisturizer and conditioner.

The irony is that most of the lotions are far inferior to natural sebum and many, if not most, are loaded with toxic ingredients that ultimately will worsen your health.

The fact that daily washing can strip your skin of beneficial oil, leading to dryness and cracks (especially if the water is hot and harsh soaps are used), is a clue that your skin may be better off with a far less aggressive hygiene routine.

Though it may seem shocking to consider showering less, keep in mind that daily showering is a relatively new phenomenon.

Are There Risks to Excessive Showering?

There are risks on multiple levels, starting with the disruption of your skin’s microbial balance. The long-term repercussions of this are still being explored, but by removing beneficial bacteria from your skin, it could make skin conditions like eczema worse.⁶

Many members of the “no-poo” movement (a group of people who abstain from shampooing their hair) claim not shampooing leaves their hair healthier, shinier and less frizzy.

There’s also the issue of chemical-laden body washes and shampoos. When you cut back on showers, you negate the need for these products and their often-toxic ingredients. There are issues on an environmental level as well, especially in regard to water usage.

One seven-minute shower uses more water than a bath, and it’s expected that water usage for showers will grow five-fold by 2021.⁷

Not to mention, if you’re on city water and you don’t have a filter on your shower, showering is a major source of exposure to carcinogenic chlorination byproducts such as trihalomethanes (THMs). THMs are associated with bladder cancer, gestational and developmental problems.

Just the simple act of showering in treated water, in which you have absorption through both your skin and lungs, may pose a significant health risk to you — and to your unborn child, if you are pregnant.

Numerous studies have shown that showering and bathing are important routes of exposure and may actually represent more of your total exposure than the water you drink. So in this respect, cutting back on your shower time would be important to help limit your exposure.

The biggest issue, however, is that most people do not need to scrub their bodies from head to toe each morning or evening. It’s unnecessary and disruptive to the delicate and beneficial microbial communities living on your skin.

Try This for a Happy Medium

You may not be ready to give up showering but want to cut back from daily washing. One way to do this is to only wash the areas that really need washing.

In most cases, this would be your underarms, groin area and, possibly, your feet. As noted by Dr. Casey Carlos, assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine:⁸

“It’s the hardest thing to get people to use soap only where they need it … People don’t realize that the skin does a pretty good job of cleaning itself.”

About the only time I use soap on any body part other than my armpits or groin is when I am doing work in my garden and wind up covered with woodchip dust. Most of that dust I simply spray off with a hose. Typically, simply washing your armpits with soap and water is enough to stay smelling clean.

It’s been well over 40 years since I quit using antiperspirant or deodorant — even natural ones.

I find that regularly washing my armpits with soap and making sure my diet is clean with minimal sugar and plenty of fermented vegetables are all that is needed to keep my armpit odor from being offensive. If you still need further help, try a pinch of baking soda mixed into water as an effective all-day deodorant.

Tips for Giving up Your Shampoo

As for your hair, start by increasing the length between your shampoos. This will help you retain the natural oils in your hair and cut back on your exposure to detergents and other chemicals.

Better still, when you do shampoo your hair, look for a natural shampoo that’s more than just soap-based. The pH of soap-based cleansers is very basic, about 8 to 9, which can cause damage to your hair by lifting cuticles and causing reactions, which affect the disulfide bonds in your hair.

Ingredients like sodium silicate and borax are added to help overcome the scum formation and dulling effect on your hair. Look for a natural shampoo without harmful chemicals that also has botanical extracts added, like chamomile for shine and added strength (to help prevent split ends and breakages).

Other beneficial ingredients include triticum vulgare (wheat) protein, which is an oil that helps your hair retain its moisture, and red clover, which may promote healthier-looking hair. Some people also try “shampooing” their hair with conditioner. This helps avoid stripping your hair of its natural oils, however you’ll want to be sure the conditioner you choose is non-toxic. Another option is to use coconut oil on your hair.

Will Bacterial Sprays Be the Showers of the Future?

Live bacteria sprays are now on the market, with their creators claiming you can spritz it on to naturally enhance and protect your skin’s microbiome while cleansing it of sweat and excess oil. One such spray contains ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) that its co-creator, who hasn’t showered in more than a decade, uses personally.⁹

Probiotic (beneficial bacteria) soaps, lotions and other personal care products are also available at many health food stores. There hasn’t been much research on whether such products yield lasting results (or whether the bacteria is simply washed away with your next shower), but it’s an intriguing area of study.

It’s already known that probiotics can influence the health of your skin from the inside out, so it’s not a stretch that a topical treatment may also be useful, especially since so many people wipe out their microbial communities with daily sudsing. However, it may be equally if not more beneficial to let your skin’s microbes re-populate the “old-fashioned” way — by putting away your body wash and other cleansers so your skin has a chance to balance itself naturally.

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Product Review: Kari Gran Three Sixty Five SPF 28

  Last summer I had little patience for sunscreen. I barely wore it, opting for sunhats most of the time. After a number of years searching for “the one”, I still hadn’t found it. Vive Sana was the first mineral sunscreen I bought (remember that NMDL fav?), and it was far too rich and never absorbed properly—a trend I would come to recognize as all too common among natural sunscreens. Eventually I found a few that worked well only to see them reformulated for the worse not long after discovering them. Back to square one. I had a good run […]

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Amelia Moss Natural Skincare Trio

I often rave about beauty items that have impressively long ingredient lists with various natural extracts and oils. However, what I’ve noticed is that many of my top favorite beauty items that I turn to when having problems with my skin actually contain only one ingredient: rosehip oil, coconut oil, lavender hydrosol, and many others....

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​Can You Get Rid Of Dandruff Naturally?

3 Home Remedies To Help You Get Rid Of Dandruff

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Those irritating and embarrassing white flakes on your shoulders... 

Dandruff is one of the most common scalp problems that affect people at any age, and often keeps coming back. And when it does, we are ready to spend our life savings on desperate attempts to get rid of it. Dandruff is not a problem you can simply ignore (if nothing else, it affects one’s self-esteem), but it is also not an-impossible-to-manage skin condition. 

Have you ever asked yourself what might be the cause of persistent itching and scaling of your scalp?

Dandruff mostly occurs due to dryness of the scalp, excessive oil production, or an overgrowth of a fungus called Malassezia. The root cause, though, usually lies in our lifestyle, diet, and daily hygiene habits. Since prevention is always better than cure, before dandruff takes over your scalp, you might want to consider taking some of the following preventive measures:

• Properly brushing your hair at least twice a day will help remove the dead skin cells that your scalp naturally sheds. It will also improve blood circulation, which is important for the overall health of the scalp and the hair.
• Wash your hair regularly to prevent accumulation of oil, but do it with a mild natural shampoo,  free of SLS and SLES. Besides that, make sure to wash it off thoroughly, since any residue left in the hair might contribute to the dandruff problem.
• Use hair sprays, gels, waxes, and mousses sparingly , as they tend to dry out and irritate the scalp.
• Try not to stress. Excessive emotional or physical stress has a strong impact on our general health and on our hair, and it can contribute to the appearance of dandruff, as well as  hair loss.
• Pay attention to what you eat! Bad diet, consisting mostly of processed foods and refined sugars, can also be responsible for the occurrence of dandruff. Limit the intake of salt and sugar, and include more minerals (especially zinc), vitamin B, and omega 3 fatty acids in your meals. Remember to drink plenty of water.
• Regularly clean your hair brushes and never share them with anyone

If you are already facing the problem, there is no need to worry – as with everything else, nature has solutions to offer. There are many natural remedies that will help you keep your scalp dandruff-free. Pick one from our list below.

Image source Pinterest

Tea Tree Oil

Multiple studies have confirmed that tea tree oil has strong anti-fungal properties and high skin penetration abilities, which makes it one of the best cures for dandruff.

How To: You can mix it with your favourite hair mask, or add a few drops to your shampoo. Whichever method you choose, it is equally efficient and you can use it even if your hair is dandruff-free, as a measure of precaution.

Egg Yolks

Egg yolks are a natural source of biotin – an essential vitamin that helps in the treatment of scaling skin.

How To: Mix the yolks of 2 eggs in a bowl, and apply them to the scalp. Cover the hair with a plastic bag and wash it thoroughly after an hour or so.

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Coconut and Honey Scrub

Coconut moisturizes and nourishes the skin, while honey kills microbes, therefore this recipe cannot fail.

Hot To: Take 5 teaspoons of coconut oil and 2 teaspoon honey, mix them well and massage the mixture gently into your scalp. Keep massaging for 10 to 15 minutes to open up the pores and stimulate circulation. Let the scrub sit for about 30 minutes and rinse it off.

Neem and Olive Oil Paste

Neem has excellent anti-fungal properties, while olive oil re-hydrates dry skin and prevents it from flaking.

How To: Crush a few neem leaves into powder and mix it with 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Apply this paste to your scalp in the evening, before going to bed, and shampoo your hair in the morning. Your scalp will probably itch a little when you apply the paste, but it is completely normal and will soon pass.

Have you tried any of these natural dandruff remedies? Which one is your favourite? Do you know other recipes that work? Tell is in the comments below!

If you liked this post, let us know by sharing it! Share and get $5 off for your next order with La Mav!

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The Relationship Between Vitamin D and Insulin Resistance

Important Facts About Cholesterol and Heart Disease

Nearsighted in the Future?

Genetically Engineered Golden Rice Falls Short on Lifesaving Promise

By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin A deficiency is a major problem in developing countries, particularly in areas where diets are based primarily on rice. Without adequate dietary beta-carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A, people are at increased risk of infection, blindness and other health problems.

Children and pregnant women are most severely affected, and it's estimated that up to 2.7 million children's lives could be saved by providing adequate vitamin A.¹

As a solution, biotech companies created genetically engineered (GE) Golden Rice, which produces beta-carotene that, theoretically, the human body can convert into vitamin A.

For decades, Golden Rice has been touted as a game changer that would save millions of lives, despite numerous signs that the product is destined to fall short of its promises.

Golden Rice Is Still Years Away From Approval

Glaring problem No. 1 is the fact that Golden Rice is still not ready for the market, despite the fact that the idea has been around since the 1980s and research into the product has been ongoing since 1992.²

Critics have long argued that introducing Golden Rice in Third World countries could open the doors for a proliferation of profitable GE crops, and those in favor of Golden Rice have thus blamed environmental groups for slowing the product's introduction — claims researchers from Washington University in St. Louis say are unfounded.³

Lead author lead author Glenn Stone, Ph.D. professor of anthropology and environmental studies in Arts & Sciences, told The Source:⁴

"Golden Rice is still not ready for the market, but we find little support for the common claim that environmental activists are responsible for stalling its introduction. GMO opponents have not been the problem."

What has been the problem, according to a study by Stone and colleagues, is the rice has not been successful in test plots planted in the Philippines. They added, "It has not even been submitted for approval to the regulatory agency, the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI)."

Poor Yields and Lack of Proof of Effectiveness Plague Golden Rice

It was 2000 when a Time magazine cover story touted "This Rice Could Save a Million Kids a Year," referring to the orange-colored, beta-carotene-rich GE Golden Rice. In 2016, the rice has yet to be planted commercially, though it continues to be highlighted in the media with regularity and misplaced fanfare.

In reality, Golden Rice test plots in the Philippines have shown disappointing yields, with researchers noting "researchers continue to have problems developing beta-carotene-enriched strains that yield as well as non-GMO strains already being grown by farmers."⁵

Worse still, even if the GE rice becomes productive enough to entice farmers in Third World countries to grow it, no one knows whether it will save children's lives as advertised. One of the problems with this "solution" is that your body can only convert beta-carotene to vitamin A under certain conditions.

Specifically, beta-carotene is fat-soluble, which means dietary fat is required for your body to convert it into vitamin A.

Many people in developing countries eat very low-fat diets, as they simply do not have access to animal foods or other fat on a regular basis. Other potential problems highlighted by Stone and colleagues include:⁶

• Malnourished people might not be able to convert beta-carotene to vitamin A efficiently, making Golden Rice potentially worthless
• Little research has been done on whether the beta-carotene in Golden Rice will hold up during storage between harvest seasons
• It's unknown whether traditional cooking methods used to prepare the rice will destroy the beta-carotene

Golden Rice Only Worked in 'Children Who Did Not Need It'

In 2012, a study showed that beta-carotene in Golden Rice was as good as beta-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children.⁷ It's the only study to date that's shown such promise for Golden Rice but, according to Stone, it had a major flaw. Mother Jones reported:⁸

"The subjects were 'well-nourished individuals' who already took in sufficient fat in their diets.

The study 'demonstrated only that Golden Rice worked in children who did not need it' … (The study has since been retracted on claims that the author failed to obtain proper consent from the parents of the participants)."

Golden Rice as a panacea becomes even more questionable when you consider the unrealistic amounts of rice you'd have to consume each day to obtain the recommended amount of vitamin A. As stated in a golden rice case study from Iowa State University:⁹

"Even if golden rice is successfully introduced … a woman would need to eat 16 lbs. of cooked rice every day in order to get sufficient Vitamin A, if golden rice were her only source of the nutrient. A child would need 12 lbs."

Vitamin A Deficiency Declines Without the Use of Golden Rice

While vitamin A deficiency continues to be a major problem in India and Africa, rates have declined significantly in Southeast Asia in recent years. According to research published in The Lancet, only 6 percent of children in that area suffered from vitamin A deficiency in 2013, down from 39 percent in 1991.¹⁰

In the Philippines, vitamin A deficiency has also been on the decline in children. Among those aged 6 months to 5 years, 40 percent were deficient in 2003 compared to just over 15 percent in 2008.

According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, which is working to develop Golden Rice and other varieties, these improvements occurred not due to Golden Rice but because of "proven approaches to prevent vitamin A deficiency:"¹¹

"The exact reasons for these improvements have not been determined, but they may be the results of proven approaches to prevent vitamin A deficiency, such as vitamin A supplementation, dietary diversification, food fortification and promotion of optimal breastfeeding."

There is, in essence, no reason to create a GE food that contains beta-carotene in order to relieve vitamin A deficiency. Such foods exist already in nature.

The real solution would be to help the developing world improve access to real sources of beta-carotene and other nutrients, including animal products like eggs, cheese and meat, and vegetables such as dark leafy greens and sweet potatoes.

Genetic Engineering Is an Imprecise Process at Best

One of the inherent problems with genetic engineering is the assumption that you can modify one aspect of a plant or animal without affecting others — an assumption that doesn't always pan out in practice. As reported by Mother Jones:¹²

"After seed developers first create a genetically modified strain with the desired trait — in this case, rice with beta-carotene — they start crossing it into varieties that have been shown to perform well in the field.

The task is tricky: when you tweak one thing in a genome, such as giving rice the ability to generate beta-carotene, you risk changing other things, like its speed of growth."

This may explain why Golden Rice has failed to thrive in field trials. According to Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science in Society, genetic engineering interferes fundamentally with the natural genetic modification that organisms engage in to survive.

Under natural circumstances, this is done in real time as "an exquisitely precise molecular dance of life."

An Inherently Hazardous Process

Genetic engineering, which assumes that one protein determines one particular trait, such as herbicide tolerance or insect resistance, and can easily be swapped out with another, with no other effects, is dangerously simplistic or, as Ho says, "an illusion."¹³

An organism's genome is not linear, but fluid, and its biological functions are interconnected with its environment and vice versa, such that trying to control genetic changes via artificial modification is a dangerous game.

Compared with natural genetic modification, artificial genetic modification is inherently hazardous because it lacks the precision of the natural process, while enabling genes to be transferred between species that would never have been exchanged otherwise. Contrasting natural and artificial genetic modification:¹⁴

Natural Genetic Modification	Artificial Genetic Engineering
Precisely negotiated by the organism as a whole	Crude, imprecise, unpredictable and uncontrollable
Takes place at the right place and time without damaging the genome	Forced into cells with no control over where and in what forms the artificial constructs land with much collateral damage to the genome
Appropriate to the organism as a whole in relation to its environment	Aggressive promoters force foreign genes to be expressed out of context

GE Crops Do Not Represent the Future of Food

Proponents of genetic engineering claim it is the most effective way to feed the world, by producing plants unnaturally equipped with internally produced insecticides, or with genes making them resistant to chemical herbicides or, in the case of Golden Rice, containing enhanced nutrition. Some are advertised as drought resistant and/or higher yield producing, but the truth turns out to be quite different.

GE plants may produce foreign proteins making them potentially allergenic and often they require more pesticides and herbicides than conventional crops, while producing lower yields.

Meanwhile, what people in the developing world need in order to receive ample dietary nutrients like vitamin A is access to a diverse range of nutritious food. This is the type of diet that is attained from biodiverse farming — the opposite of what will occur if GE crops like Golden Rice are planted on a large scale.

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DuPont Deception

By Dr. Mercola

PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid (also called C8), was an essential ingredient in DuPont's non-stick cookware for decades. The chemical is now the subject of about 3,500 personal injury claims against DuPont, along with others filed against various companies that used the chemical.

The legal process has uncovered hundreds of internal documents revealing that DuPont knew of the chemical's danger to the public and employees, yet continued using it, despite the known risks.

A decade ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined DuPont $16.5 million for withholding decades' worth of information about health hazards associated with PFOA.

In 2005, a panel of three scientists was ordered as part of a settlement to determine the chemical's effects on people. After seven years of research, the panel linked PFOA to ulcerative colitis, imbalanced cholesterol,¹ pregnancy-induced hypertension, thyroid disease, testicular cancer and kidney cancer.

Its health effects were deemed to be widespread and occurred even at very low exposure levels. Now residents of Hoosick Falls, New York, where a string of rare cancer deaths, thyroid disease and other health problems occurred, are suing PFOA manufacturers for contaminating their local water supply.

Hoosick Falls Residents Demand Answers Over PFOA Water Pollution

Earlier this year, four residents of Hoosick Falls filed a class-action lawsuit against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International, which ran the area's plastics plant.

PFOA was produced at the plant as part of a powdery substance called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which was added to products to help them repel grease and water.

It's alleged that for a period of about 15 years, the "heavier-than-air" material was released from smokestacks and into the surrounding environment.

In the 1980s, "scrubbers" were installed in the smokestacks to help prevent pollutants from being released, and it's alleged that workers would clean the scrubbers and other contaminated equipment outdoors on a hill outside the plant, just 400 yards from the area's primary underground well. Times Union reported:²

"A toxic chemical that contaminated the Hoosick Falls water system may have seeped into the village's underground wells over a period of decades, when workers at a nearby plastics plant cleaned smokestack filters and other equipment on the ground outside the facility, including flushing manufacturing byproducts into a storm drain.

In addition, several people who worked at the McCaffrey Street plant, owned by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics since 1999, recalled how a powder-like smoke plume that seemed heavier than air often settled in the valley around the small plant that overlooks the Hoosic River. The facility is several hundred yards from the village's water treatment plant."

In 2014, one area resident, Michael Hickey, sent water samples to be tested after his father, who worked at the plastics plant, died of kidney cancer. The testing revealed elevated levels of PFOA in the water supply.

Initially, the response was slow from state and local government — the state Health Department initially told residents there were no health risks from consuming the contaminated water, then abruptly changed their tune after the EPA advised residents not to consume or cook with the water.³

Blood Tests Reveal Elevated PFOA Levels

While the EPA's long-term exposure limit for PFOA in residential water is 100 parts per trillion (ppt), levels in Hoosick Falls' water have exceeded 400 ppt.⁴ State-sponsored blood tests for PFOA levels in local residents have shown levels significantly above the national average in many cases.⁵

Water filters have been installed in residents' homes and a study is planned to monitor illness and mortality trends in the area, according to an impromptu June 2016 meeting between residents and state Operations Director Jim Malatras, Ph.D., According to Times Union:⁶

" … [R]oughly two dozen residents … voice[ed] their outrage over what they describe as a too-slow response from public officials to the perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA contamination of the … community's water supply, and the state Legislature's continued unwillingness to hold hearings on the crisis.

 … Several times, Malatras tried to turn the focus away from the administration to the company that has been designated as one of the likely polluters, Saint Gobain Performance Plastics.

(Facilities now owned by Honeywell have also been identified by the state Department of Environmental Conservation as another likely source of PFOA.)"

PFOA Cover-Up Compared to Tobacco Industry

As noted in a report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), DuPont knew about the risks of PFOA but continued making it anyway:⁷

"DuPont had long known that PFOA caused cancer, had poisoned drinking water in the mid-Ohio River Valley and polluted the blood of people and animals worldwide. But it never told its workers, local officials and residents, state regulators, or the EPA."

DuPont, along with seven other companies, including 3M, were involved in producing PFOA over the decades.

The chemical is being called the "tobacco of the chemical industry" because of the decades-long corporate cover-up of its health effects, the lawsuits pending and how difficult it is to make companies accountable for producing disease-causing products, even after the evidence is clear.

In DuPont's case, they had animal evidence of harm — from liver toxicity and kidney damage to death — for decades, but the company did not alert regulators of a potential problem.

Then there were the company's workers, some of whom gave birth to babies with birth defects after working in the company's PFOA division. DuPont knew of the problems and was tracking its workers for such health effects, but again failed to inform regulators of their findings.

Worse still, when 3M submitted a troublesome rat study to the EPA suggesting harm, DuPont told the EPA they believed the study was flawed.

While continuing to study the chemical's effects on its workers, DuPont was also tracking the chemical's spread into nearby waterways, as well as its emissions into the air through smokestacks.

At first, DuPont disposed of PFOA by dumping it in the ocean and later moved to disposing of it in unlined landfills and ponds. They knew the chemical was spreading widely into the environment and convened a meeting to discuss what to do about it, but decided to keep using the chemical anyway.

DuPont Allegedly Ordered Tracking of Its Own Numerous Dumping Sites

DuPont reportedly ordered a "thorough review" of the company's waste sites in the early 1980s, a task that proved to be colossal because of the sheer number of dumping grounds. According to The Intercept:⁸

"Tracking the contents of all these barrels, pits, dumps, leaks, landfills, spills and waste streams over time was a monumental task. Even back in the 1980s, the company, which was founded in 1802, had an environmental trail that defied cataloguing.

'There were waste sites from the '50s and '40s,' said [former DuPont government affairs employee Craig] Skaggs, who remembers there being 113 plants at the time — and the waste sites as being far more numerous. 'Waste would be hauled off in drums and taken to these sites and buried. And often, these sites were owned by other people.'"

Today, DuPont officials have disputed the existence of such a report, but Skaggs is adamant "it still exists somewhere … retained by the legal department."⁹ It's not only plastics factories that are to blame for widespread PFOA pollution. Water testing around military bases has also shown contamination to drinking water from PFOA and other perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, used in firefighting foam. As reported by The Intercept:

"Research on people in West Virginia and Ohio who had consumed water contaminated by leaks from a nearby DuPont factory showed probable links between the chemical and six diseases, including kidney cancer.

[Resident Lori] Cervera [who was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of 46] soon discovered that the very same chemical, as well as a related one, PFOS, had been found in drinking water in her area. Both were part of a larger class known as perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, 'emerging contaminants' that were still being studied — and had yet to be regulated.

And, according to public notices from the local water and sewer authorities, both had come from foam that was used to put out airplane fires and train soldiers at two nearby military bases ... "

Will DuPont Merger Allow the Company to Avoid Lawsuits?

Four of the more than 3,500 lawsuits filed against DuPont in relation to the company's dumping of PFOA into the Ohio River have already gone to court. One case was dismissed after a doctor changed the plaintiff's diagnosis, but in another, a woman who developed kidney cancer was awarded $1.6 million.

A third case — a man who allegedly developed ulcerative colitis after drinking PFOA-contaminated water — was settled, and a fourth case involving David Freeman, a man with testicular cancer, went to court in May 2016.¹⁰ Starting in April 2017, 40 of the cancer cases against DuPont will be heard over a 10-month period each year, although DuPont may be trying to skirt liability in any way they can.

In July 2015, DuPont created a new company called The Chemours Company, which heads up its "performance chemicals" division and now holds responsibility for a large amount of the company's environmental liabilities, including PFOA.

DuPont's Disappearing Act

In December 2015, DuPont further announced they would be merging with chemical giant The Dow Chemical Company and had plans to split the resulting company into three new entities. The Intercept reported:¹¹

"Together, the moves leave those struggling with DuPont's environmental legacy with lots of questions. So even as they're litigating the case of David Freeman, an Ohio man who developed testicular cancer after drinking water contaminated with PFOA, attorneys have also been asking the court to compel DuPont to demonstrate its ability to cover any awards to Freeman and other plaintiffs.

In particular, they want to know 'where the liabilities and obligations of DuPont will fall' if the merger takes place. In their most recent legal brief in what is known as the Leach case, submitted on May 11 to Federal Judge Edmund Sargus, lawyers reiterated fears that the proposed Dow-DuPont merger 'may be an attempt to extinguish DuPont's liability' for claims related to PFOA."

For the record, PFOA is only one of DuPont's (and now Chemours') toxic legacies. The company is also facing litigation over:¹²

• Benzene, a carcinogenic chemical used in some DuPont paints (one painter was recently awarded $8.4 million after developing leukemia linked to the paints). At least 27 other benzene lawsuits are pending
• Asbestos, including more than 2,000 upcoming lawsuits
• Silica (83 pending cases), which causes potentially fatal lung disease when inhaled
• Butadiene, a carcinogen used by DuPont to make neoprene

EPA Lowers 'Safe' Level for PFOA in Drinking Water

In 2015, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) suggested PFOA falls into the realm of substances like asbestos and lead — those we know are toxic at virtually any level. EWG's report found the EPA's safety guideline for PFOA in drinking water — 0.4 parts per billion (ppb) — may be more than 1,000 times too high to protect public health.¹³

Fortunately, in May 2016 the EPA announced new guidelines of .07 ppb for both PFOA and PFOS (including a maximum combined level of .07 ppb if both chemicals are present). The new standard takes into account lifetime exposure that would occur from drinking contaminated water.¹⁴

Unfortunately, EPA data shows that water systems in 18 states are contaminated with PFOA and/or PFOS above the new federal threshold. That being said, even the new threshold may not be low enough to protect public health. The EWG report stated the safety level should be 0.0003 ppb.

It builds on earlier research that found PFOA levels in human blood above three-tenths of a nanogram — a billionth of a gram — per milliliter could be harmful. EWG's Bill Walker, who wrote the report, told VICE News:¹⁵  " … [T]he truth of the matter is that it [PFOA] appears to be hazardous at very, very, very low levels of exposure … In practicality, when you're talking about these very, very tiny levels, there just may not be a safe level of exposure."

How to Reduce Your Exposure to PFOA and Related Chemicals

First and foremost, I recommend using a high-quality water filtration system unless you can verify the purity of your water. To be certain you're getting the purest water you can, filter the water both at the point of entry and at the point of use. This means filtering all the water that comes into the house, and then filtering again at the kitchen sink and shower.

In addition, you'll want to minimize your use of common products that contain PFCs like PFOA and PFOS. PFCs are used in a wide variety of consumer products, particularly those made to repel water or resist oil and stains. Products that often contain these chemicals include:^16,17

1. Takeout containers such as pizza boxes and sandwich wrappers
2. Non-stick pots, pans and utensils
3. Popcorn bags
4. Outdoor clothing
5. Camping tents
6. Stain-repellant or water-repellant clothing
7. Stain treatments for clothing and furniture
8. Carpeting and carpet treatments
9. Certain cosmetics, particularly eye shadow, foundation, facial powder, bronzer and blush

It's important to understand that while PFOA is no longer being used in the U.S., similar replacement chemicals have been added in its place. As recently as 2013, Greenpeace International tested 15 samples of waterproof clothing, shoes and swimsuits and found PFCs in all but one, according to EWG.¹⁸

Some food wrappers, beverage containers, pizza boxes and other food packaging may also be PFOA-free, but not necessarily safe, as the PFOA replacement chemicals have not been adequately tested for safety.

Eating organically grown, and biodynamic whole foods is a primary strategy and, as an added bonus, when you eat properly, you're also optimizing your body's natural detoxification system, which can help eliminate toxins your body encounters from other sources. When your diet is mostly fresh foods, you'll minimize exposure to PFCs common in takeout containers. From there, simply leading a healthy lifestyle will help you to have as minimal a chemical exposure as possible.

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Food Monopoly Aimed at Controlling Population Destroys Environment and Poses Serious Threat to Human Health

How Food Can Improve or Worsen Your Thyroid Function

By Dr. Mercola

With all the conflicting information out there pertaining to your thyroid, especially regarding what to eat and what to stay away from, it may be confusing. And when trying to ferret out the facts from most conventional health practitioners, the contradictions can get frustrating.

You might hear, “Stay away from cruciferous vegetables because they might prevent your system from absorbing iodine,” or, “Don’t drink coffee because it could block your thyroid hormone replacement medication.”

One important thing to know about your thyroid is how central it is to your overall health, so ensuring it’s operating properly is critical. Just as importantly, hypothyroidism is often manageable via your diet.

What’s Your Thyroid For?

The butterfly-shaped thyroid gland straddling your windpipe, right under your larynx, is the “mainframe” that regulates your metabolism, controls virtually every function of your body and interacts with all the other hormones, from your insulin to your sex hormones.

Thyroid cells are the only cells in your body that can absorb iodine. Your thyroid gland takes iodine from foods — the only way iodine can be obtained — combines it with an amino acid called tyrosine and converts it to three types of hormones: triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and diiodothyronine (T2).

T3 and T4 are then released into your bloodstream for transport throughout your body, where oxygen and calories convert them to energy.¹ Every cell of your body uses thyroid hormones, so thyroid-related symptoms can vary.

How Thyroid Issues Are Diagnosed: Symptoms, Tests and Complications

There are two main disorders related to the thyroid gland. Hypothyroidism, when your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone, is the most common, and often linked to iodine deficiency. Symptoms include:

✓ Cold sensitivity	✓ Hair loss, including eyebrows	✓ Rough skin; dry, tangled hair	✓ Lethargy
✓ Weight gain	✓ Constipation	✓ Hypoglycemia	✓ Memory loss

It should be noted, though, that there are dozens of other seemingly unrelated symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as:

✓ Fallen arches	✓ Asthma	✓ Psoriasis	✓ Neck pain and stiffness
✓ Carpal tunnel syndrome	✓ Hoarseness	✓ Pale skin	✓ Vertigo

Overactive thyroid, or hyperthyroidism,² often called Graves’ Disease, is sometimes described as your body attacking its own thyroid. In some instances, its most common symptoms are opposites of those caused by underactive thyroid:

✓ Restlessness and irritability	✓ Weight loss	✓ Brain fog
✓ Frequent bowel movements	✓ Irregular heartbeat	✓ Protruding eyes

Several tests to get to the bottom of a thyroid imbalance include thyroid antibody, basal body temperature or TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) testing. However, laboratory testing for thyroid issues is sometimes problematic.

As many as 80 percent of people with hypothyroidism fail to register as such with standard testing. According to The George Mateljan Foundation, a non-profit foundation that shares scientifically proven information about the benefits of healthy eating:

“Most physicians use outdated reference ranges when testing thyroid function. Also, studies have demonstrated that standard thyroid tests do not correlate well with tissue thyroid levels, which causes inaccurate diagnoses.

Most physicians and endocrinologists believe TSH is the best indicator of the thyroid function of an individual. However, someone can suffer from a significantly slow thyroid despite having a normal TSH, free T3 and free T4.

Some will test for T3. People can also have low T3 and show normal T4 and normal TSH. Many practitioners do not realize that this indicates a selenium or zinc deficiency, rather than a problem with the thyroid.”³

Naturopaths and doctors with a more holistic approach tend to understand the importance of examining a patient’s symptoms in combination with the tests.

Main Minerals: Why Iodine, Selenium Are Important for Your Thyroid

Iodine is directly involved in the development of your skeleton, brain and other crucial parts of your body. According to Organic Lifestyle magazine:

“Iodine is a trace mineral found primarily in seafood, seaweed, plants grown in iodine-rich soil, unrefined sea salt and iodized table salt. Many people do not get enough iodine, and contrary to popular belief, this includes many people in developed countries.

Iodine from iodized salt is poorly absorbed and is not a healthy choice for raising iodine levels in the diet. Refined table salt contributes to a host of health problems. Iodine is absolutely necessary for thyroid function, but too much iodine (especially iodine outside of food) can impair thyroid function as well.”⁴

It’s hard to overstate how important iodine is to prevent disorders such as thyroid disease and fibromyalgia. In the case of cancer, iodine induces apoptosis, meaning it causes cancer cells to self destruct.⁵

Good sources of iodine include sea vegetables, organic, grass-fed yogurt, raw and grass-fed organic cow’s milk, Celtic sea salt and eggs.

Selenium, important for thyroid health, helps decrease inflammation, regulate immune responses and prevent chronic diseases. It’s found in water, soil, wild-caught Alaskan salmon, Brazil nuts, dairy products, garlic, onions, tomatoes and sunflower seeds. One billion people in the world have a selenium deficiency.⁶

Tyrosine is an amino acid involved in nearly every protein in your body. It’s an essential part of the production of several brain chemicals, such as neurotransmitters and dopamine, regulating hormones such as the thyroid, and even affecting your mood.⁷

A few of the foods containing tyrosine, such as wheat and soybeans, are not healthy, especially for people with hypothyroidism. However, several good sources include almonds, bananas, wild-caught Alaskan salmon, organic free-range poultry, avocados, pumpkin seeds and organic, free-range eggs.

Eating Cruciferous Veggies Can Improve Dysfunctional Thyroids

You’ve heard it since you were a kid: eat your vegetables. For people with hypothyroidism whose doctors have advised them against eating cruciferous vegetables, it must come as a surprise to learn that ingesting radishes, cabbage, broccoli and kale can improve your thyroid function because they boost your glutathione levels.

In the 1950s, scientists examined foods with the possibility that, rather than playing a nutritive role, some might actually pose a negative risk, particularly in regard to the thyroid.

These they called goitrogenic foods, potentially causing a swelling in the neck called a goiter. Glucosinolates in cruciferous vegetables were implicated as a likely culprit. However, studies to that effect are scarce, as one article explains:

“In terms of human research, studies suggesting a strong link between cruciferous vegetables and thyroid disease are limited … The vast majority of the research supports the consumption of cruciferous vegetables to prevent thyroid cancer.”⁸

Additionally, deiodinase enzymes, central to the production of thyroid hormones, were discovered. Scientists have since modified their theory about cruciferous vegetables. Instead, the focus is connecting people with the nutrients needed for their individual, optimal thyroid function. According to the George Mateljan Foundation:

“Over the past 50 years … researchers have determined that there are no such ‘negative’ substances in food, but only health-supportive nutrients that are not a good match for certain individuals because of their unique health history and health status. Five decades of research have also determined that certain nutrients — like tyrosine, iodine, and selenium — play a unique role in thyroid health.”⁹

When examining your own nutritional needs, remember that small amounts are best, as too much of some foods, especially cruciferous vegetables, can prevent your body from absorbing iodine and otherwise hinder optimal thyroid function.

Other Foods for People With Underactive Thyroid

There are many more ways to expand the culinary options for those with hypothyroidism, particularly plant-based foods with plenty of antioxidants and electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, including these (keep in mind that most fruits should be eaten sparingly by most people due to high fructose content):

✓ Squash	✓ Bell peppers	✓ Carrots	✓ Green beans	✓ Peas
✓ Tomatoes	✓ Celery	✓ Cucumbers	✓ Asparagus	✓ Eggplant
✓ Purple grapes	✓ Mangoes	✓ Pomegranates	✓ Blueberries	✓ Pineapples
✓ Kiwi	✓ Apples	✓ Citrus fruits	✓ Cherries	✓ Apricots

Another nutrient good for your thyroid is niacin. A few of the foods with this nutrient not already listed include lamb and turkey.¹⁰

What Foods Trigger Thyroid Issues?

If you’re wondering about the fare that might bring thyroid troubles to your door, the worst ones have one thing in common: They’re not real. As noted by Mind Body Green:

“Refined, processed, homogenized, pasteurized, genetically modified, fortified, and artificially flavored (or colored or preserved) ‘foods.’ The key to fixing the body, not just covering up ailments or shifting symptoms, but truly fixing the body, is produce. The key to deteriorating your health is refined, processed foods.”¹¹

In particular, the following, which are often found in processed foods, might be problematic. First and foremost:

• Gluten: with any thyroid issues, the first thing to eliminate is gluten. It can cause inflammation, gastrointestinal malfunction, thyroid disruption and other problems.
• Non-Fermented Soy: no matter how many “natural” soy products claim to be good for you, soy may alter hormone function, especially in women. A plethora of studies indicate that soy phytoestrogens can damage your thyroid, as well as cause cognitive decline
• Genetically Engineered (GE) Foods: genetically engineered foods may trigger both Graves’ and Hashimoto’s disease by eroding your gut lining.
• Bromines: bromine is a processed, endocrine-disrupting food additive often found in the flour used in bread and baked goods, sodas, sports drinks, toothpaste, mouthwash, plastic computer parts, upholstery and pesticides sprayed on strawberries.¹²

Good nutrition goes a long way toward helping to manage and even reverse the symptoms of hypothyroidism. As always, it’s best to obtain your nutrition from foods rather than resorting to supplements, if possible.

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W.H.O. Reverses Position on Coffee Causing Cancer

By Dr. Mercola

A rare retraction of sorts among a well-respected international scientific body has caused a few raised eyebrows. The World Health Organization (WHO) has now concluded that a regular date with your favorite cup of joe may not cause cancer after all.

This has been met with elation on the part of many coffee drinkers, relief on the part of guilty addicts not really sure if their obsession was necessarily good for them and complete ambivalence on the part of people who don't care; either way, they intend to have their brew, and enjoy it, too.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)¹ report published in The Lancet Oncology, reads:

"After thoroughly reviewing more than 1,000 studies in humans and animals, the Working Group found that there was inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking overall.

Many epidemiological studies showed that coffee drinking had no carcinogenic effects for cancers of the pancreas, female breast and prostate, and reduced risks were seen for cancers of the liver and uterine endometrium. For more than 20 other cancers, the evidence was inconclusive."²

One caveat, however, is that hot coffee or tea can pose a health risk if it exceeds 149 degrees Fahrenheit, and may be culpable in relation to esophageal cancer.

Interestingly, the bulk of the IARC report dealt with the threat of drinking hot coffee as opposed to the apparently nonexistent hazards of the coffee itself. Little mention is ever made of the health problems that are introduced when adding sugar, fake sugar and fake creamer to coffee.

Coffee: Studies Show It to Be Beneficial for Health

There's been a firestorm of rhetoric at intervals over the past century regarding coffee and its supposed dangers, and just as much supposition about its incredible health-boosting advantages. The Atlantic reported:

"In the early 1900s, doctors and health agencies warned that caffeine was essentially 'poison,' and that drinking coffee would cause 'nerve storms,' according to a 1912 issue of The Salt Lake Tribune.

Nervous women, the newspaper cautioned, should abstain from coffee altogether. 'Unsteady nerves are foes of beauty,' it said.

… Over time, the debate about coffee — fueled by a combination of legitimate research, junk science, marketing and the rumor mill — has amounted to what the writer Andrew Revkin has called 'whiplash journalism,' in which sweeping conclusions about what's good or bad for you contribute to a mess of contradictions."³

Many in the scientific community have claimed for decades that coffee actually provides multiple health benefits. In fact, large reviews on the topic have come to the same conclusion that coffee can be erased from the "harmful" list of foods and placed on the "advantageous" list. According to The New York Times:

"Last year, a panel of scientists that shaped the federal government's 2015 dietary guidelines said there was 'strong evidence' that three to five cups of coffee daily was not harmful, and that 'moderate' consumption might reduce chronic disease.

Another group, the World Cancer Research Fund International, reported that coffee protects against multiple types of cancer. And several systematic reviews of studies involving millions of people have found that regular coffee drinkers live longer than others."⁴

The evidence is fairly convincing that coffee may not only lower your cancer risk, but also your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and neurological disorders.

Reports, Reviews, Evidence and Inconsistencies

It wasn't that long ago — 1991, to be exact — that coffee was termed a "possible carcinogen" linked to bladder cancer. The recent announcement included the acknowledgment that there was simply a lack of evidence that coffee might cause cancer at all.

As a matter of fact, early reports on coffee had compared its hazards with those of lead and diesel fuel.

Those previous studies hadn't taken into account that many of the coffee drinkers under scrutiny were also heavy smokers, according to Dana Loomis, Ph.D., first author of the report and deputy head of the WHO program focused on cancer-causing substance classifications. In addition, more up-to-date studies have become available.

When the group of 23 scientists from 10 countries met in Lyon, France, the issues surrounded the evidence for or against coffee, as well as "mate," a tea-like, high-caffeine drink popular in South America.

The group reviewed more than 1,000 studies, submitted over decades, the upshot of which: coffee failed to show detriment to health in relation to prostate, breast and pancreatic cancers, as had been previously conjectured. In the case of uterine and liver cancers, coffee was linked to a lowered cancer risk.

Twenty other cancer types showed "inadequate" evidential links of coffee being a carcinogen; many showed beneficial associations.

South American 'Mate' Drink Analyzed for Carcinogenic Effect

One of the interesting points made about the above-mentioned mate was that its review was likely based on "single-point-in-time" studies on South Americans with esophageal cancer who probably drank mate.

When the IARC researchers started looking at mate's possible link with cancer, it fell into the "drunk hot" or "very hot" categories. That must have rung a bell, since there's evidence that molten-hot drinks can do thermal damage to the cells in your throat and digestive tract, and possibly trigger cancer.

Further digging into the possibilities netted a bundle of case-control studies (which experts later called "the weakest kind").⁵ IARC subsequently entered very hot tea and other hot drinks to be a "significant" risk for human esophageal cancer.

As a result, IARC concluded that beverages hotter than 149 degrees Fahrenheit are "probably carcinogenic to humans." According to the Coffee Detective, the best temperature for brewing coffee is between 155 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit.⁶

Black Bear Coffee Micro Roastery suggests the slightly warmer temperature of 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit,⁷ but study author Loomis said North Americans and Europeans usually prefer to drink theirs at around 136 degrees Fahrenheit.⁸

Studies and More Studies Not Only Exonerate Coffee but Commend It

As previously noted, 40 studies found either zero connection between coffee consumption and cancer risk or found it actually produced a slightly protective effect. Some of the studies under most scrutiny were those associating coffee consumption with decreasing uterine and liver cancer risks.⁹

One of the most telling was a report that coffee drinkers exhibit a 15 percent decrease in liver cancer risk for every cup of coffee ingested per day.¹⁰ A Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analysis in 2012 reported that drinking coffee was linked to a decreased endometrial cancer risk.¹¹

Another study concluded that drinking at least five cups of coffee a day prevents some brain cancers by as much as 40 percent.¹²

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) submitted new dietary guidelines concluding that three to five cups of coffee a day — 400 milligrams of caffeine — was linked to a lowered risk of Parkinson's disease.¹³

With all this information about coffee, the Mayo Clinic noted on its website that in deciding whether coffee is a positive or negative, it's possible that the health benefits outweigh the risks.

Expert: Coffee Is 'Probably Not Something to Worry About'

It's interesting, however, that even with all the reviews indicating coffee may in fact be a nutritional asset, the WHO experts gave it rather tepid scores. They placed it in the same category as fluoride, low-frequency electric fields and a nail polish solvent called toluene, which they believe showed insufficient potential as a carcinogen.

Not everyone is thrilled with the findings or the halfhearted efforts the agency exerted to get to the bottom of whether coffee drinking is good or bad. Geoffrey Kabat, Ph.D., acancer epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, noted that the agency seems to diminish positive reports and magnify anything negative. He told The New York Times:

"What the evidence shows overall is that coffee drinking is associated with either reduced risk of several cancers or certainly no clear increase in other cancers … There's a strong signal that this is probably not something that we need to be worrying about."¹⁴

The IARC noted, "Since 1971, more than 900 agents have been evaluated, of which more than 400 have been identified as carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic or possibly carcinogenic to humans."¹⁵ That list includes substances like asbestos and also processed meats, cigarettes and wood dust. Finding carcinogens in water is pretty sobering to learn. So are reports of the health damage caused by cellphones. One article noted:

"The agency did not go so far as to give coffee its 'probably not carcinogenic' label. In nearly 1,000 carcinogenicity assessments, IARC has exonerated only a single substance — caprolactam, a compound used to make nylon — which has made it the target of vehement criticism."¹⁶

The Differences Between Shade-Grown, Organic Versus Conventional Coffee

There are many ways to make sure your coffee is both delicious and good for you, as opposed to not that great and terrible for you. Regarding organic versus conventional coffee, Equal Exchange¹⁷ noted:

"Conventional coffee is among the most heavily chemically treated foods in the world. It is steeped in synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides … Not only does the environment suffer from this overload, but so do the people who live in it.

Farmers are exposed to a high level of chemicals while spraying the crops and while handling them during harvest. The surrounding communities are also impacted through chemical residues in the air and water. These chemical presences are not just unpleasant; many are highly toxic and detrimental to human health."

In contrast, organic coffee contains no chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The beans have a richer flavor and come with natural antioxidants. It's healthy for you, more sustainable for the farms that grow it, and vastly better for the planet.

Additionally, coffee is a shade-loving plant, but growers often strip forests to make growing and harvesting easier. This destroys the ecological habitat of many natural pest deterrents, such as birds and lizards, while the pests flourish, resulting in additional pesticide use.

The downward spiral to the environment involves chemical run-off, erosion and potentially contaminated water supplies. Organic, shade-grown coffee is available at numerous retail markets, but you can also order it online. Equal Exchange adds:

"Industries can and do change based on the choices that you make in the grocery store or at your favorite café — so you can vote with your mug! By purchasing organic coffee … you support systems that value healthy ecosystems, sustainable methods and superior coffee."¹⁸

Differences Between Light and Dark Roasted Coffee

When choosing your next cup of java, it's helpful to know the differences in the way it's been roasted. If you're looking for a higher boost of caffeine by drinking a darker roast, you're not likely to get it, because the added roasting time to make it darker actually breaks down the caffeine molecules.

Moreover, the roasting process produces a toxic byproduct called acrylamide, linked to an elevated cancer risk. One would think this would necessitate choosing a lighter roast, but strangely enough, at least one study found that the highest amount of acrylamide appears earlier in the roasting process rather than later, after which the acrylamide level begins to degrade.¹⁹

Dark roasts also generate more of the chemical N-methylpyridinium than the lighter variety, which helps keep your stomach from producing excess acid. Further, Italian or French dark-roasted coffee or the types used for espresso or Turkish coffee contain more antioxidants such as vitamin E, neuroprotective agents and protein-building glutathione than lighter roasts. The upshot, then, is that dark roasted coffee may have a leg up, so to speak, on lighter roasts, for a couple of different reasons.

The Best Brew: Organic Coffee, Sans Cream and Sugar

Maybe you're one of those people who "cheats" in the coffee category by "indulging" in one of the countless non-dairy creamers at every store and nearly every condiment table. You'll find caramel macchiato, hazelnut or peppermint mocha — you name it. There are liquids and powders and even sugar-free options.

But what's in those products? Well, you'll often find sodium caseinate on the ingredients list, which is a thickener and whitening agent with nutrient-suppressing chemicals. Dipotassium phosphate, used as an anti-coagulant, is also used in fertilizers, and when enough is consumed may cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Those are only two of around a dozen highly questionable substances, and that's without mentioning the high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils, aka trans fats.

It's when you drink your coffee black, with no toxic sugar (which could initiate insulin resistance) or chemical-laced sugar substitutes such as Splenda, aka sucralose, aspartame or saccharine, that you receive the most benefits from the coffee. Even real coffee creamer may keep you from being able to absorb beneficial chlorogenic acids present in black coffee.²⁰

Dear IARC: Concentrate on What You Know Does Damage

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) believes that substances that are known to cause cancer and other diseases may be what entities like IARC should be concentrating on.

"Quitting smoking and reducing alcohol consumption are much more significant for reducing cancer risk than the temperature of what you're drinking … As a heavy coffee drinker, I have always enjoyed my coffee guilt-free, but now there is scientific evidence to justify that."²¹

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