More from Dr Ralph Moss and the humble Pomegranate

I spoke last week about Dr Ralph Moss' ire over the FDA targeting a purveyor of the humble pomegranate, which has been shown to beneficially affect various cancers. The company was told that publishing scientific reports on the effects was 'selling' the pomegranate as a medicine.

Here's Dr Moss' latest comments on this unhealthy health issue.

Re Nano Filtration

I had an email regarding my comments on the perils of nanotechnology. The writer wanted me to retract my comments about aluminium in the nanofilter. Well, sorry, but I stand by what I say; let the buyer beware. Some nano filters do indeed contain extremely fine 'hairs' of aluminium and I repeat my comment; I wouldn't want to use any filter that has such components, because the jury is still 'out' on the effects of aluminium and its possible link to Alzheimers'. And hey, at age 63, I need all the help I can get to keep my marbles.

In the writers' defence, there are good nano filters in the marketplace without aluminium in them, and I assume he represents one of them. There is, for instance, the Chanson reverse osmosis system on the market using a specialised nano filter that doesn't remove everything. It leaves all minerals in the water.

However my own philosophy is that if I am going to take advantage of RO for its superior filtration, then I only want the alkaline minerals, not the acid ones like fluoride, chlorine, sulphur etc.

So the philosophy of using an RO system that retains all minerals is that you then add a water ionizer to the output water line. Yet linking a complete water ionizer to one of these nanofilter RO systems doesn't make a lot of sense to me either; can you imagine the filter replacement costs and hassles of such a complicated system? Not to mention the space it would need!

That's why I designed the AlkaPure RO. It removes ALL minerals and only replaces them with alkaline minerals, energizing the water as it adds minerals. So there's no need for an additional water ionizer because the AlkaPure is doing it all. That being said, the AlkaPure is still a more difficult filter replacement task than as standard water ionizer and a more difficult installation. So my choice is two-fold. For maximum filtration ability, the AlkaPure. For convenience, ease of installation and filter replacement, any of the AlkaWay Water Ionizers.

But buy an RO AND add on a water ionizer? Nah. Makes no sense.

Revealed: The Source of Pharmaceuticals in our water supply.

Bracing morning showers and soothing bedtime soaks were blamed late Wednesday for increased water pollution due to medicated soaps and shampoos.

In a study unveiled at a National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco, scientists said they have zeroed in on a major source of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are an ever-worsening environmental concern.

"We've long assumed that the active ingredients from medications enter the environment primarily as a result of their excretion via urine and feces," said Dr. Ilene Ruhoy.

"However, for the first time, we have identified potential alternative routes for the entry into the environment by way of bathing, showering, and laundering."

Ruhoy said lotions, creams, gels and skin patches are to blame for a significant amount of the APIs in ground water.

She encouraged consumers to use their medicated products sparingly and doctors to prescribe lower-dosage levels to cut down APIs.

"We need to be more aware of how our use of pharmaceuticals can have unwanted environmental effects," Ruhoy said. "Identifying the major pathways in which APIs enter the environment is an important step toward the goal of minimizing their environmental impact."

Ian's Facebook

I've been neglecting our Facebook page but now it's up and going. Love to have you join me!
Here's my Facebook link.

and.. my Twitter link

Pomegranates classed a defacto drug

As you are aware, here at AlkaWay we've chosen the 'safe' path by not publishing any of the many scientific studies carried out on alkaline water. We attempted to have our water listed with the Australian TGA but were told that because it had been classified 'exempt' we should not apply. WQhen we asked whether that meant we could publish scientific studies, the answer was 'No'. But.. we ecountered.. you just said our water was exempt. That doesn't matter came the extremely confusing reply. So.. we rely on our customers going to sites like YouTube and pubmed.com and searching for ERW (Electrolytic Reduced Water).

Now this report comes in from Dr Ralph Moss, the person I respect most for comments on cancer alternative treatment. And it's all about a parallel situation in the US where a pomegranate juice supply company was prosecuted because they published a true scientific study showing the beneficial effect of the juice on PSA readings in cases of prostate cancer. Not advertised, mind, just published.

So the company cannot alert the public to the over 20 studies already published on the benefits of pomegranate juice in treatment of cancer.

The world is going nuts.

Aluminium in a water filter? You gotta be joking!

One of the latest entries to the water filter market is a home countertop system that promises all sorts of benefits, not the least being far better filtration using a new 'nano' form of ceramic in a filter. It reads wonderfully.

Only one problem; it fails to mention what the 'nano' parts of the filter are made from. These nano parts are like tiny hairs that attract sediment by being electrically charged. Which again, is all fine, except one would think that something so small could easily break off and end up in your glass of water, especially when coated with sediment.. So what is this nano material? Aluminium.

And why does this surprise me?

Because according to The PAQUID study in the American Journal of Epidemiology, (Rondeau, V., Jacqmin-Gadda, H., Commenges, D., Helmer, C. and Dartigues, J.F. (2009) American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(4); 489-496.),
"the risk of dementia was higher for subjects with a high daily aluminium intake (for intake greater than or equal to 0.1 mg/day, adjusted relative risk (RR) = 2.26, P=0.049). An increase of 10 mg/day in silica intake was associated with a reduced risk of dementia (adjusted RR = 0.89, P = 0.036). There was no dose-response effect for aluminium seen.

This study found that the risks of cognitive decline and dementia were higher for those who had a high aluminium intake from drinking water."

Sure, it's nanoparticles, but wouldn't it add to the cumulative total of aluminium your are ingesting from other sources?

So again.. aluminium in a water filter? You gotta be joking!

PS: Just in: Dr Mercola has an article along the same lines. I am not alone.

The Japanese are right - hangovers are helped by alkaline water

Yep, they're coming in. More and more reports every day. I've never heard of Dr Hart, but obviously she has heard of our water!

Dr. Cheryle Hart has researched hundreds of hangover remedies. Her top recommendation for preventing and minimizing a hangover involves drinking a lot of water since alcohol is very dehydrating.

"Studies show that alkaline electrolyzed water speeds up metabolism of alcohol and protects your liver better than regular, plain water," she said.

Hart says avoiding a hangover should start before you start drinking alcohol. In addition to drinking plenty of water beforehand, she says eating a meal with complex carbohydrates and some dietary fat as well as taking a vitamin B 50 complex supplement can help avoid feeling bad post-party.

Hart also recommends drinking water between alcoholic beverages and avoiding darker colored drinks since they’ve been proven to cause more severe hangovers.

After partying, Hart says drinking at least one liter of water can help flush the alcohol out of your system and keep you hydrated.

"Drinking plenty of alkaline, electrolyzed water is key in my program," said Dr. Hart.

New Eyes For Old

I'm sitting at my computer in Bangkok today. Two days ago I had my eyes replaced. And last night I read a menu at the local restaurant that Cassie couldn't read.

I'm excited. Very excited.

Some years ago I took a look at Laser Eye Surgery. I’m not exactly blessed with good eyes and all this computer work certainly hasn’t helped. Over the years, Steve Brady, my eye specialist has given me increasingly discouraging reports on my eye health, to the point a couple of months ago where he showed my eyes on his new super imaging equipment as pre-cataract. The lens in both eyes were clouding over, so getting an ever more powerful set of specs was not really going to help.

Steve has been a real trusted advisor for all of the time I’ve been seeing him, and he is not about to recommend anything he doesn’t personally approve of. In the past he warned me of the dangers of Laser Eye Surgery, and as a result I found a very disturbing website of stories from people whose laser treated eyes had not delivered and had in fact caused all sort of insoluble additional problems. So when he suggested that I replace my lenses with intra-ocular lenses using a process called phaeco-placation, I listened.

The process involves cutting a small hole in the side of the eye about the size of a ballpoint pen. Through this hole the specialist inserts a tube to DISSOLVE my old natural lens, and then inserts a new manufactured, optically correct, UV light stabilized acrylic lens. And here’s the most amazing part; as long as your astigmatism isn’t seriously advanced, (mine wasn’t) you can have a multifocal lens.

For those of you unfamiliar with the advantages of multifocal glasses, allow me to explain. A multifocal lens has different (but graduated) areas with different optics to cater for shortcomings in both your long and short sightedness.

And because it’s graduated, you can, as I have for many years, wear the same glasses to look at the computer as you use to watch whales. This is the sort of glasses I've been wearing for years. But.. being a male, I also make a habit of sitting on glasses, so it's been a rather expensive exercise.

Now just imagine the design work in incorporating the same degree of precise optical perfection into a lens that is flexible and implanted into the eye. That's just so amazing!

So.. Cassie found the Thai Eye Clinic on the Net. It may be scary to some of you to find medical services in other countries, but if you have someone like Cassie who is a terrier of a researcher, then rest assured the info you need is there.. as long as you can find it. It turns out that the doctor who performed my op. had performed the same op. on the King of Thailand, so we figured he must be OK.. he's still alive.

The big difference you need to get used to in Thai medicine is the service. It's fantastic! The Thai people are naturally gentle and considerate so a health services industry in Thailand is a match made in Heaven. You would simply not believe the efficiency, the courtesy and the care given. I have never seen it in our overworked understaffed accountant-driven medical establishment in Australia!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had my tests one day in the space of 30 minutes, the next day I was in theatre, and the next day I returned for the operation on my second eye. Apart from a bout of primal terror causing me to grip the operating table like a liferaft from the Titanic , there was NO pain, and the operation was over in half an hour. Sight was fuzzy for a day, but here I am, reading, seeing, enjoying, taking long, long looks at my beautiful partner... thank you Thailand!

What's that you asked? The price? 69,000 Thai Bhat per eye. At current rates, that's AU$2300.

Nothing to do with health..but what a good idea!!!

Pam Turner of Minnesota, the sewers (not drains!) of the world salute you. Your no-thread needle is one of the great inventions and stands alongside the i-Pod and the electric bread maker!

Government Subsidised Obesity

...the average 18-year-old today is 15 pounds heavier than the average 18 year-old in the late 1970s. Adults have put on even more weight during that period. The average woman in her 60s is 20 pounds heavier than the average 60-something woman in the late 1970s. The average man in his 60s is 25 pounds heavier. When you look at the chart, you start to understand why.

Doh-Oh of the Week

Alcohol a 'recurring theme' in youth violence

The chair of a long-running Federal Government inquiry into youth violence says she is starting to see a recurring connection between alcohol and aggression.

And how much did it cost to find that out? Why not stand outside the 'local' any Friday night? (Ian)

Homeopathy and cancer

Given the punitive stance we saw in a UK Government Inquiry over Homeopathy, this study is going to stick in the craw of the many anti-homeopathy lobbyists. I'm sending you to Dr Ralph Moss's website for a very interesting article.

Dr Moss is the most open minded allopathic doctor I have read, and in his conclusion (part III) he challenges the abilities of establishment science to look beyond their present limits.

Here's Dr Moss's article.

It's all Maya

Independence - or Interdependence?

Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Successful People, convinced me many years ago that independence is a sorry state of mind. He demonstrated that independence is the state of attempting to self-manage a very part of one’s life, when all around you, a vast interdependent organism we call the world flourishes and grows doing what it does best; inter-relate, inter-mediate, inter-change, inter-mix and inter-depend.

Like it or not, believe it or not, we are an inter-dependent entity. However.. many of us, especially small business owners like me, like to think that we run our business to be independent. And on we struggle and strive, attempting to manage and control everything to remain independent, until (hopefully, eventually) we arrive, kicking and screaming, at the place where we began; with the reality that we are in fact dependent on the same staff we have harried and interfered with to make ‘em ‘do it my way’.

Of course when we arrive at that point we’ve already accumulated some serious baggage.

• We are now ‘The Boss’ rather than a team member.
• We have most likely incurred serious karma with some staff members who have been shown we care not a whit for their input.
• Our clients have picked up on our unwillingness to ‘risk’ control though our unwillingness to work with them rather than work to get stuff from them.
• Similarly, our suppliers aren’t willing to go the extra 30 days because you’ve already nailed their options to your wailing wall.

I have a theory I don’t often talk about. I believe that a small business has nothing or little to do with ‘business’. It’s to do with exposing who we think we are to who we really are. It’s about progressing our individual consciousness through the whiteknuckle exposure to the world of commerce, money and relationship. Money. Lack. Need. Perception of need. Ego.

And every day, I try my best to walk the line of ethical business, care of my employees and my clients and my suppliers, quality control and internal systems. And I KNOW after 40 years of doing the same and seeing the same mistakes, that every day is going to challenge a belief I hold onto about my own capability to make a difference.

So all that is good enough. But when I concede that I need the assistance of others to make my life dream fulfilled, then the flip side of the coin is the realisation that I am doing this because I don’t have the abilities to do everything as well as others may. But here’s where it gets foggy, because what you can’t know is what you can’t do. How do you KNOW what you are best and worst at in the first place if you come from a fixed position, like a sailor looking out of one porthole and claiming to have seen the world. What if the way you operate is actually instinctive? What if you have always operated the same way? Doesn’t it follow that you always will? And if that is so, why would you even try to do things you aren’t suited to do when you have fellow team members who would jump at the chance to do it BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THEY DO BEST?

The missing link, as we can see from the aforegoing, is KNOWING what I do best and what my team members do best. So let’s fantasize for a moment. What about a work environment where we all knew what our fellow teamsters could do best?

Just think about it. You would meet and swap tasks. Because everyone knows you aren’t good at say, analyzing the elements of a new project, even though you were great at visualizing it, they wouldn’t even ask you to analyse it. “Charlie over here is a whizz at it. Let’s give it to him”. Think of any strategy you use in getting things done, and you are looking at your instinctive drives foisted on relatively unwilling and unqualified team members. It’s like taking potshots in the dark.

So your instinctive drives are what you are, how you do things. They are not going to get you sacked because they aren’t good or bad. They just are.

Unfortunately, forced interdependence can be a pain in the balance sheet. A small business environment has to share the load when one person goes on holidays. A small business has to ask people to do things beyond their normal roles in times of pressure. And a small business loses a large chunk of itself when someone leaves or is retrenched. So small business is the most vulnerable to forced interdependence, but the most profitable if planned, conscious interdependence is standard practice.

Think now how interdependence would look if we all know what we could do best. It’s be interdependence on steroids!

I reluctantly ordered my I.D.™ (Instinctive Drives®) test developed by Paul Burgess at Link-up International Pty Ltd. Lord knows I’ve done so many questionnaires in my sixty years I was ‘over it’. But my friend Lindy pestered me. ‘We’d have so much to talk about!” she said.. and kept saying. So.. I did it. It took about 15 minutes on the net. And my results came back in a few minutes more.

To say I was amazed is not enough. This test nailed me! I saw why I did what I did when I did it. I saw how I disguised my real power from myself. I saw I didn’t need to downplay what I excelled at. I saw that I had set strategies in place related to who I thought I should be rather than who and what I was. And I was given realistic ‘Now’ replacement strategies to implement immediately. But what really amazed me was the revelation that yes, just as the report said, we don’t change our Instinctive Drives – ever.

We are what we are and on the Fourth day He/She declared it is Good.

When Cassie saw the results she laughed.. and cried.. and asked to do her own. Then we both laughed, cried, and planned together. We found we were both excellent at evaluating new projects and finding the flaws. We realized what a great team we were, forging growth slowly, surely and safely. But we saw we had the need for others around us who could fill in the many gaps we also saw where we were not suited to the task.

Luckily, we have a wonderful team in our Alkaway business; people committed to working with us to advance our group future. So we are about to give the I.D. questionnaire to everyone we work with; and then we’ll stand back, let it sink in, and begin rebuilding how we carry out the daily assignments that make up the guts, the essence, the FLOW of our small business. As Paul says, we’ll post a sign on the front door: “I.D. spoken here”.

One of my own 'Drives' is to micro-manage things with a view to constant improvement. I never stop evaluating our internal and external processes we already have in place to see whether we can improve them. But a problem with this can be that it is somewhat inward-focused. Perhaps that is why I never perceived that spending company cash on a simple test could create radical, beneficial change in how the organism (our business) we call Alkaway could perform. That is because I couldn’t see another way to do things.. and I venture to suggest that that is the problem faced by every small business owner everywhere. We do what we do because that’s what we do. So I suggest opening up your mind to a new way of doing business. I predict that this decade will be the decade of the smart and the gone. Smart businesses open to new ways will go forth and prosper. The others will be gone.

P.S. My friends at Link-up International have extended a special offer for our readers to have their I.D. done during the month of March 2010. Go here to check out the great deal.

Their offer will save you big $$ on the usual price.
This is the link:

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.48835/it.A/id.40/.f

...and be sure to enter your discount code, the word 'healthemail' to claim your discount.

By the way, I should add, I'm making nothing from this. it's just something the ID guys offered to me when they saw the article you just read.