The One Year Audio Bible

I and my family are very blessed in many ways. One personal source of tremendous blessing is spending time daily in the Bible. Historically, daily Bible reading has been a challenge for me because I am reading challenged and it is hard to find contiguous un-interrupted time for reading anything.

This year however, I discovered The One Year Audio Bible produced by Tom Dooley. The One Year Audio Bible has set me free to get daily time in the Bible. Tom does a tremendous job of introducing and providing context for each passage.

I really enjoyed listening for free to the daily devotions over the last few months. However out of gratitude for Tom's tremendous investment in this work I invested in the whole set for only $59.95.

Tom, thanks for your excellence in all that you do.

If you struggle like I did to get daily time in the Bible, I highly encourage you to try out The One Year Audio Bible.

Blessings to you and yours!

Brad

What is Health Insurance?

In the United States this seems to be a promise by an insurer or health plan to pay for health care services in exchange for a combination of co-payments and premiums. However from a coverage perspective, it seems like the majority of insurers emphasize reactive care instead of proactive or preventative care. In other words, the insurers are will pay for over the counter drugs and medical procedures that address the symptoms of all sorts of disease. However, they rarely or in most cases never will pay for nutritional supplementation and exercise equipment or gym dues that could help prevent disease by keeping people's bodies healthy and well nourished.

On the nutrition front, I personally have benefited greatly from taking glyconutrients, great food sourced multi-vitamins, and other natural sources of intelligent nutritional supplementation. Good sources for these items isn't cheap. However to me, the quality of life that results from good nutrition is worth the investment. If I were to estimate how much money that I have saved by not having to go to the doctor for things other than a well check visit since I started my personal pilgrimage back in 2006, I would say it was well worth every penny. If the United States health care system took the same approach, I wonder how much healthier and happier the citizens of the US would be? Interestingly enough, even the Journal of The American Medical Association says that ALL Adults Should Take Vitamins.

On the exercise front, it isn't a good idea to pay for exercise equipment nor gym memberships without accountability. However, if insurers could hold people accountable for exercising on a regular basis, the health benefits and disease prevention would most likely be well worth the investment.

Given that the United States of America ranks 37th in the world for health care, you would think that insurers would be the main constituency that want to reduce costs by promoting prevention. That's my opinion at least.

If you would like to learn about the nutrients that have benefited me, contact me.

I hope that you and yours have a healthy and happy day!

Brad
--
When Quality of Life Matters,
  Get Good Sugars
    http://info.GoodSugars.net

Natural Sinusitus and Allergey Relief

Hello again,

It has been a while since my last post. One reason for the gap is that I have been studying and experimenting on myself with a natural alternative to anti-histamines. Like many, I have many allergies that can induce sinusitis due to swelling and drainage. This time of year is the worst for me as the grass pollens fill the air. I have tried most of the modern anti-histimine medications through the years. However, they make me either very drowsy or make it hard for me to mentally focus.

An Allergy Relief Alternative
With my new focus on wellness and not just symptom management, I started researching more holistic approaches. The best book that I have read thus far is Childhood Illness and the Allergy Connection: A Nutritional Approach to Overcoming and Preventing Childhood Illness by Zoltan P. Md Rona. There were many good recommendations that include diet, neti pots and supplementation with Quercetin and Bromelain . I had tried everything but the Quercetin and Bromelain with only mild results at best.

Putting It To The Test
This spring I decided to put Quercetin and Bromelain to the test. Before speaking to my personal results, lets learn a bit about these two ingredients. Quercetin supports a healthy histamine response for natural sinus support. Quercetin naturally inhibits the release of antibodies which cause a histamine response. However, Quercetin isn't easily absorbed by the body during digestion. Bromelain is added to make the Quercetin more bioavailable.

Food Sourced
From Wikipedia and other sources, we learn that there is a wide variety of foods that are rich in Quercetin including capers, apples, onions, and many more.
Also from Wikipedia, we learn that Bromelain is a protein-digesting enzyme from pineapples.

Consider The Results
Back to the results. At first I noticed some relief but it has continued to improve over time. Now after nearly 3 weeks I have almost no allergy symptoms. That is HUGE for me since this time of year my head is usually very congested. I would encourage anyone that suffers from seasonal allergies to try it for a few weeks.

Side-Effects
When I researched the cons associated with Quercetin/Bromelain I saw two issues. First, people with food allergies should make sure the ingredient list doesn't include any foods that they may be allergic to. If the ingredient list isn't available, start slowly and be prepared to respond appropriately if you do experience an allergic reaction. I found the following two resources on Quercetin and Bromelain provide a more extensive look at possible side-effects.

Second, some people just don't like to swall pills or capsules. For example, I took the recommended 2 pills/capsules three times a day on an empty stomach for maximum impact. For the results are worth getting over issues with swallowing a few pills daily. If you don't like to swallow pills, I would encourage you to consider your favorite food. Is there any food that keeps your body nourished for the full 24 hours of a day? The answer is no. Food based supplements are the same way. They need to be consumed just two to three times a day for maximum effectiveness.

What Helped Me
The two main products that I found and tried are from VRP and ProHealth. There may be more products from other companies over time but these were the ones that I tried. Feel free to find others through your favorite search engine.

Have a great and a healthy day!

Brad
--
When Quality of Life Matters,
  Get Good Sugars
    http://info.GoodSugars.net

CDC Launches Healthiest Nation Campaign

I just finished reading a great article in USA Today titled
CDC launches campaign to make the USA a healthier nation.

The article outlines a new plan proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (a.k.a. the CDC) that emphasizes the need for prevention for better health care. I couldn't find a specific web link within the CDC for this program but the CDC did have this "The Healthiest Nation" lecture series on it.

Here was my favorite quote from the USA Today article.

When people talk about investing in prevention, she says, "typically what they're talking about is 'let's invest in screening for early detection of disease.' That's secondary prevention. We're not really talking about the things we need to do before we get to the doctor's office."
Those things include building more bicycle lanes and walkable sidewalks, making school lunches more nutritious and banning smoking in public places, Gerberding says.

Clearly the things suggested are good ideas for government regulation and new ways to spend our hard earned tax dollars. However, even the most basic regular exercises like pushups, situps, and running or walking around the block are free alternatives that most anyone can do AND that don't require government intervention or increasing taxes.

The article also doesn't speak to encouraging people to eat healthy food and just as important finding nutritional supplements that will satisfy the deficiencies in their diet. This last part on nutritional supplements is what has really improved my own personal wellness equation. I encourage every human alive to learn more about Glyconutrients. If you are a techie that wants to dig deeper on Glyconutrients, check out LivingSugars.com.

The saddest quote from this article is the following.

Even if every American had health insurance, many still wouldn't be healthy, she says.

I could belabor this point but I won't. The truth is that many want wellness. But, few are those who get wellness because they refuse to choose wisely how to live and eat. I hope that you will (if not for your sake, for your children's and their children's sakes) choose wisely.

Blessings to you and yours!

Brad
--
When Quality of Life Matters,
  Get Good Sugars
    http://info.GoodSugars.net

A Safe Car Seat That Grows With The Kid And Your Budget

I took my family out this evening to look for a new car seat for our youngest, Noah. He turns 1 this week and he is ready for a new car seat. When looking for a car seat, we try to find a mix between great safety, reasonable functionality, a good price and a seat that will grow with the child. With our next to last boy, he out-grew his car seat much quicker than we had planned because he is a stout fella. So we upgraded him to a Sunshine Kids Radian65 Convertible Car Seat. This is a great car seat with a metal frame that is very sturdy and very comfortable for children up to 65 lb using the 5-point harness.

Although we have really liked the Sunshine Kids Radian65 Convertible Car Seat, this time we decided to go with a Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat in Matrix because it was less expensive and shared most of the key characteristics of the Sunshine Kids Radian65 Convertible Car Seat.

      

The Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat in Matrix has a metal sub-frame for strength. But it also has all of the additional padding necessary to make a 1-year old comfortable as well. To get the extra padding for a 1-year old from Sunshine Kids, I would have to upgrade to the Sunshine Kids Radian80 Convertible Car Seat. But that car seat costs $249. I think we would rather save the $122 to go toward something else for our children.

I hope that you find this helpful in your car seat pursuits.

Brad

Is Oprah Winfrey Paraben Free?

As many of you know from my blog, I am an avid advocate for healthy skin care and highly encourage the cosmetic companies to provide FULL disclosure of ALL the ingredients they use in their products. However, few have accepted the challenge. Oprah Winfrey has one of the largest audiences in the world. For that reason, I was really glad to hear about her promoting the use of safe skin care on a recent episode titled A Beautiful Earth, a Healthy You.

In this episode, Sophie Uliano encouraged people to find high quality products that are free of potentially harmful ingredients like parabens. That is a great affirmation for organizations like Breast Cancer Action that have been heralding the position of applying the precautionary principle on parabens and phthalates.

While doing the research for this blog though, I discovered a secret that Oprah may not even be aware of herself! I discovered from this page that Oprah's makeup artist Reggie Wells prefers products that either don't list their ingredients at all or when they do have ingredients best avoided. For your convenience, I looked up each of the products ingredients to see what they contained. The results were not so great for Oprah or you if use the same products. Here is the list

Bare Escentuals

• Mineral Veil - No Ingredients Listed

Beyond Skin Science

• Cleanser - Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil which is an allergen to many
• All-Day Moisturizer - Glucosamine HCL
• Face Radiance Mist - Methylparaben, Propylparaben, and Phenoxyethanol
  
• Night Cream Sets - Glucosamine HCL, Phenoxyethanol
  

Bobbi Brown

• Creamy Concealer Kit - No Ingredients Listed

CoverGirl

• Outlast Smoothwear Lipliner - No Ingredients Listed
• Smoothers Lipliner - No Ingredients Listed
  

Estée Lauder

• Tender Blush - No Ingredients Listed

Dispite this oversight, Oprah does have some great episodes where she promotes the use of safe skin care. Here are the three that I found by searching on her site.

Parabens in Beauty Products Green guru Sophie Uliano says to look for paraben-free products when browsing the beauty aisle.

Cosmetic Safety: Steps You Can Take To protect yourself, experts who spoke to WebMD offer the following tips for safer cosmetic and personal care use.

Cosmetic Safety: Long-Term Health Consequences Environmentalists say there may be long-term health consequences from some of the chemicals commonly used in cosmetics.

Kudos to Oprah on promoting long term good health through avoiding potential hazardous ingredients. I hope Oprah will also encourage cosmetic companies to disclose the FULL list of ALL ingredients in their products so that consumers can make health conscious informed decisions.

Oprah, if you are genuinely interested in freeing yourself and everyone else from these potentially dangerous ingredients, I encourage you to research this skin care system. Consider the following benefits of this system:

• Preservative Free
• Fragrance Free
• Colorant Free
• Non-Comedogenic (Will Not Cause Or Aggravate Acne)
• Allergy Tested
• Suitable For All Skin Types (Even For Sensitive Skin)
• Requires no refrigeration
• Lasts up to 3 years sealed
• Lasts up to 1 year unsealed
• Contains proprietary nutrients that nourish the skin
• Based on cellular science. NOT on hype and marketing!

After just one use consumers had 80% increase in skin moisture!

After 8 weeks customers reported:

• 100% increase in skin moisture
• 96% decrease in roughness
• 73% increase in radiance
• 32% decrease in lines and wrinkles
• 31% increase in skin tone
• 21% increase in firmness

Blessings to you, yours and the millions that you serve.

Regards,
Brad
--
When Quality of Life Matters,
Get Good Sugars
http://info.GoodSugars.net

Can Your Skin Care Hurt You?

The short answer is absolutely yes. Obvious examples include using skin care products in unsafe ways in which they were never intended such as ingesting them. That shouldn't be an issue for those of you that read and follow the directions.

However for those that know what you are doing, you could be at risk as well. Cosmetic allergic reactions can result from the ingredients of the skin care products or the combinations of different skin care products.

There are other more insidious possibilities that may not become apparent until years down the road though. There is mounting scientific evidence to suggest that increased exposure to toxic substances such as those found in the table below may be increasing risks to your health as well.

Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)	Can affect breathing, may damage a developing fetus, can irritate your eyes and skin, may cause headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion and passing out, and lastly may damage the liver. Other Reference: CDC
Parabens	May be disruptive to normal hormone functions. May also be correlated to breast cancer.
Petrolatum	Impurities associated with petrolatum may be linked to cancer.
Sodium Metabisulfite	Can irritate nose, throat and lungs causing coughing and wheezing, can irritate your skin and eyes, Other Reference: Haz-Map
Triethanolamine	May be a human carcinogen. Is also suspected to be a skin toxicity hazard. Other References: Haz-Map CDC

Consider for example very commonly used preservatives called parabens. Most skin care products like soaps, lotions, creams perfumes serums and after shaves are laden with preservatives. Without preservatives the skin care products may start to grow bacteria and fungus which nobody wants. However, the main stream preservatives come with two bonus prizes that the cosmetic companies don't really want you to know about.

The first prize is accelerated aging of your skin. Wait a minute you say. That isn't what the marketing materials said. Methyl parabens which are natural preservatives used in most skin care systems when exposed to UV rays of sunlight can actually speed up the aging process.

The second prize is a possible increased risk of breast cancer Although there is no conclusive research connecting parabens to breast cancer, there is sufficient information around to apply precautionary principle at least until the critics are absolutely proven wrong. Consider the this precautionary article from Breast Cancer Action.

Believe it or not, the skin care companies privately recognize this issue and are aggressively looking for paraben-free solutions, but have yet to find a safe and viable alternative. Consider this dialog between the CEO of the company that developed Tensa™ Water and the VP of R&D of one of the foremost botanical-based skincare companies in the world.

Even so, until they have a viable solution cosmetic companies are disputing the mounting data suggesting that there may be health consequences with using parabens. This dialog between Breast Cancer Action and Avon is particularly telling of the differences of perspective between the cosmetic industry and concerned consumers.

If you want a truly healthy skin care product, you should look for one that is preservative free, colorant free, fragrance free non-comedogenic (will not cause or aggravate acne), allergy tested, and suitable for all skin types. That eliminates most of even the best cosmetic companies out there. And you shouldn't need to store it in a refrigerator just to keep it fresh. You body doesn't need to be stored in a refrigerator in order to stay fresh, so why should your skin care either?

If cosmetic companies really wanted to go the extra mile, they would do the little things that everyone should expect. For example, they would have their product line tested by an independent third party instead of the manufacturer. The results would be freely published for all to see. But probably most of important of all, you would want them to publish ALL of the ingredients in the product. Typically you will find that the cosmetic companies exclude active ingredients because they don't really want you to know what is in them.

To my knowledge only one company has responded to this challenge and satisfied every point. And not only that but independent test results showed the their skin care products actually made people look visibly younger. Other results were equally outstanding:

After just one use consumers had 80% increase in skin moisture!

After 8 weeks test results demonstrated the following remarkable changes:

• 100% increase in skin moisture


• 96% decrease in roughness


• 73% increase in radiance


• 32% decrease in lines and wrinkles


• 31% increase in skin tone


• 21% increase in firmness

To learn more about this revolution in skin care, visit my skin care web site.

To get a complete list of ALL ingredients in the industry's only preservative and paraben free line, send me a note via my contact me form.

Lastly, if you are interested in ordering some of this great skin care, contact me here.

Until next time, I hope that you and yours have a very blessed day!

Brad
--
When Quality of Life Matters
Get Good Sugars
http://info.GoodSugars.net