Feeding Your Thyroid

My latest update on Facebook from Janie Bowthorpe was basically a continuation of her disagreement with Forest Pharmaceuticals and their changing the formulation of Armour Thyroid and Janie’s successfully getting many people to switch to Naturethroid and Westhroid. It is all getting old to me and I will apologize right now to any readers that offends and tell you that I am grateful to Janie Bowthorpe for her very informative book Stop The Thyroid Madness. I have a different take on the subject of the new formulation causing relapse in everyone and I will share it with my readers.

Early this winter I finally talked my very open minded doctor, Rob Bruley, in to prescribing Armour Thyroid instead of my compounded pharmaceutical T3 and T4 because we were not resolving my hypothyroidism issue after more than a year of constantly increasing my dosage. Admittedly he reluctantly did it, but he did it and told me I had to take a 3 grain dose of Armour Thyroid which by the way had to be special ordered at Target pharmacy (I tell you because it is useful information). 3 grains was equal to the T3 and T4 I was taking that wasn’t working very well although we had corrected several aspects of my thyroid malfunction. At that time I also started a bio-identical testosterone cream and progesterone tablet because those hormones were low in a recent hormone test I had taken.

I don’t want to quote exact times here because it is all a blur of history but approximately 6 weeks later I was having heart palpitations and sudden jolts that would awaken me in the middle of the night. I started taking half a 3 grain tablet at that time and when I called Dr. Bruley he agreed that this was the right thing to do, so he prescribed a blood test  which showed my T3 was now too high, T4 was okay and the TSH was within range although on the low side. I continued on 1 1/2 grains and when I had the next blood test I didn’t take my Armour the morning of the test as it will affect the T3 reading according to Janie and I was not in the mood to take any higher dosage. I was now feeling rather hyper at times and for instance if I was writing something it would almost look scribbled because I was writing too fast (my own test) so I knew I was a little over medicated but the test would tell.

That test came back with both T3 and T4 within range but my total TSH was .3 which indicates suppressed thyroid. I have since cut my half tablet in to half which amounts to 3/4 grain of Armour Thyroid. I will need a blood test in a few weeks but I can tell you that I still feel a little hyperthyroid. On 3/4 grain my heart palpitations are almost non-existent but at times I feel agitated like I need to run a marathon but I don’t run anymore.

Now to my point, the newly formulated Armour has seemingly corrected my thyroid problem greatly reducing my need for thyroid stimulating hormone. I don’t take it sublingually anymore because most of my digestive issues are resolved by not eating grain of any kind and drinking kefir every day. Swallowing Armour allows for slow release of the thyroid stimulating hormone. If and when I did what Janie suggested and took the tablet sublingually I would get a jolt in the morning that was uncomfortable and if I took some early afternoon when it had worn off I was too hyper to relax by bedtime. Swallowing it with my morning tea works perfectly for me I have sustained energy during the day and I am ready for bed at night.

I am now taking Alpha Lipoic Acid (300 mg) twice a day (with breakfast and supper) as well as a B-Complex vitamin for energy and liver health. If you take ALA you must add a B Complex as the ALA lowers your levels of the B vitamins. I also take 200 mcg of a sodium selenate/selenomethionine supplement. When I feel an energy lag I have a great B12 supplement called ProBoneO by Life Enhancement (Dr. Wright). I eat a diet free of gluten, with lots of greens, fresh eggs, avocados, grass fed meat, etc. My conclusion is that by balancing my hormones and taking the right supplements (no excipients or fillers), following a gluten free diet and staying away from excititoxins I am healing my thyroid.

Instead of complaining about the reformulation of Armour Thyroid I would tell you to try it. If it doesn’t work or you start to experience hypo symptoms again follow this advice before you change to Naturethroid or Westhroid:

Balance all your hormones not just your thyroid hormone.

Eat a gluten free diet full of greens which can be from Barley grass and Alfalfa grass or greens from the garden that are raw or lightly steamed. Add homemade kefir with no sugar added for a health gut.

Throw away supplements that have excipients and fillers as they negatively affect your immune system and create a bio film that keeps you from absorbing the supplement.

Judiciously stay away from MSG which means making your own fresh food with no boxed convenience foods and reading The MSG Myth.

Exercise using the T-Tapp method as she concentrates on cleaning your lymph system and allowing your body to heal itself.

If you do all these things and still suffer from hypo symptoms then it is time to try something new. If you choose not to try these steps first don’t cry foul on Forest Pharmaceuticals point your finger at the real guilty party, you.

“Chew On That”

Recently, I was reading an article about chewing licorice gum for your digestive complaints and was reminded that I wanted to update the information on anti-carious items you can easily incorporate in to your day, one simple way being chewing gum. Anti-carious simply means that a substance has inhibitory properties when used in the oral cavity. In other words it can stop decay (caries) in its tracks. Let me start by giving you some basic background on how decay occurs.

Every time you eat or eat/drink sugar laden foods you decrease the pH of your mouth to a point where the bacteria that cause decay (cavities) thrive. To put it simply the bacteria feed on the sugars and get all sticky and glue themselves to the surface of your tooth called enamel (enamel is the outer layer of every tooth and is 3 mm thick). These bacteria that are now attached to your tooth actually defecate on your tooth surface (yes, that is right they poop on your tooth surface) and their excrement is laden with acids and those acids are detrimental to the enamel. About 15 minutes after you eat or drink the pH of your mouth will return to a more normal basic pH of 7 but if you then have one more sip of soda or eat a piece of candy your pH returns to an acid state and some people keep their mouths constantly acidic by sipping soda all day or sticking one more piece of red licorice in their mouth all day.

Just imagine now that you have this acid factory going on in your mouth, it is rather like an atomic bomb of decay. If you don’t brush thoroughly every 24 hours the layer of sticky acidic plaque gets thicker and more viscous and more difficult to remove with just a toothbrush often resulting in a need for a hygienist’s instruments to remove the now hard layer of calculus (not just a math term, it is Latin for tartar) but in the meantime the bacteria are laboring away in an attempt to eat your tooth away.

By the way, if you were to put that plaque (the sticky substance that is on your teeth and needs to be brushed off) under an electron microscope you will see thousands of microscopic bugs moving around and each one of those bugs produces acidic waste that they spew on your teeth and the acid eats away the enamel. If you leave this acidic plaque on your teeth it will destroy the enamel and eat in to the dentin of your tooth. Once it is in the dentinal portion of the tooth it spreads like wildfire because dentin is soft, much softer and more porous than enamel, and it is easily destroyed.

We fast forward to your six month preventive care appointment at the dentist. She is “picking ” away at your teeth and she says to her dental hygienist “Let’s watch number 21 occlusal” (listen to them they will say things like that). That  simply means that there is some decalcification (white chalky areas) on the enamel chewing or flat surface of a back tooth. It hasn’t etched the enamel enough to drill out the sticky part but it is on its way in to the dentin and they want to keep their eye on this area, so it is recorded in your chart and watched with eagle eyes. These white chalky areas can be remineralized and the decay stopped dead in its tracks with proper care.

Or let’s say you look at your teeth and you see chalky white spots on a flat vertical surface (called facial or buccal) of your front tooth. Those are also areas (“watch” areas) where you have left bacterial plaque and the bugs are working hard at destroying your tooth and you will soon need a “filling” which simply means the dentist will remove the soft decayed bacteria laden portion of your tooth leaving a cavity that needs to be filled with a plastic tooth colored or silver amalgam filling to keep it from decaying again.

Children are notorious for presenting with white chalky areas on almost any tooth surface and while the first time they come in and we find “watch” areas they may not have a cavity or need a filling they are dangerously close. If their oral hygiene cannot be improved the next time they come they will most assuredly be returning to have the dentist remove the decay and leave in its place silver amalgam or a composite of tooth colored plastic. The same is true of an adult, if there are watch areas there are things the person can do to halt the decay but it requires better oral hygiene and other useful adjuncts.

That segues nicely to what you can “chew on” to halt the progress of all those nasty bugs hanging in your mouth. I have in a previous blog entry discussed Xylitol a natural sweetener traditionally made from birch bark (although now made from corn in China by many manufacturers). One of its many beneficial properties is that it disables the bacteria that cause decay, it destroys them and thus their ability to cause decay is foiled. Xylitol can be found in mouthwash, mints and gum. Global Sweets is a good online source of birch tree sourced Xylitol which is unquestionably the best Xylitol and the superior Xylitol products. However, if you aren’t an online shopper there are several products you can pick up at your local Target, Walgreens, CVS store and in today’s world where simpler is always viewed as better what could be easier?

When you shop for Xylitol containing products the one thing you need to look for is that Xylitol is the first ingredient listed not sorbitol, mannitol etc. The ability to deter decay is directly proportional to the amount of Xylitol added to a product, so if it is listed as the third or fourth ingredient as it is in Trident sugar free gum it is doing you very little good. Look for Xylitol to be the first ingredient as it is in Ice Breakers Ice Cube (IBIC) gum. IBIC gum is available in several flavors, so every palate can be sated. I don’t really want to encourage gum chewing but if you have an insatiable need for sugary soda or one more piece of red licorice chewing a piece of Xylitol sweetened gum for 5 minutes afterwards will neutralize acid and halt the production of those hard working cavity bugs. If you are at work and cannot brush after eating lunch chewing a piece of Xylitol sweetened gum for a few minutes will not only make your mouth feel fresher it will help prevent decay.

Altoid peppermint and cinnamon gum also list Xylitol as the first ingredient and it comes in these cute useful little tins that once empty can hold your daily supplements or jewelry if you are traveling. However, if you look at the list of obnoxious ingredients those gums contain it would be better to risk decay than chew on the chemicals. Spry gum and mints are a tasty option but again they are difficult to find as are XyliChew products. One might be better off using Biotene mouthwash or gum which is found in the dental section of your convenience store and does contain Xylitol not to mention enzymes known to inhibit decay and periodontitis. It is primarily recommended for people with xerostomia (dry mouth) but its gentle flavor and Xylitol content make it okay for everyone to use.

As a dental hygienist I think everyone could benefit from putting some Xylitol in their mouth once in a 24 hour period perhaps the best time would be right before you go to bed.  When you sleep your salivary flow slows and no longer has the decay preventive action it does during the day. If you brush your teeth and then coat your tooth surfaces with Xylitol before you go to bed you are adding a coat of armor that the cavity bugs will have trouble penetrating and hopefully keep you out of the dentist’s chair now and forever. Chew on that.

Something smells corny

Thanks to a friend’s question last night I started researching Xylitol and to my surprise my favorite brand is made from corn and worse yet comes from a manufacturing plant in China. As I type my mouth is agape and I am appalled. It seems to me that anything made from cooked down corn be it from a corn cob or the kernels is potentially full of unbound glutamate and that means it is rich in excitotoxins and not good for anyone but can be downright dangerous to people who are sensitive to MSG.

Perhaps you didn’t know that Xylitol was traditionally from birch trees and is a naturally occurring sugar with 40% less calories than typical cane sugar and a much lower glycemic index (7) thus making it safe for diabetics. Because it has only 5 carbon atoms versus the normal 6 it inhibits bacterial growth and thus has been found valuable in dentistry to help stop rampant decay much like fluoride but much safer in my opinion. It has been used in Europe for decades but really only found some popularity in the USA in the last decade when it was promoted by companies like XClear at dental conventions and online as a nasal spray for chronic sinus infections. I think it is a great sweetener because it is useful in dentistry and it tastes great and looks just like sugar but lacks the calories of sugar. BUT, I have a problem with corn derived products.

Let me count the problems I have with it. Corn is one of the most genetically modified crops that American farmers grow. If you boil corn down you hydrolyze it and create free glutamate. Corn is a common allergen and corn crops if not rotated totally deplete the earth they are grown on and massive erosion occurs (I have experienced it with my own eyes). High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is in almost any packaged food you buy and is known to be a link in our food chain that may cause obesity and a host of other problems for the consumer. Even Ethanol production presents numerous problems not first of which is pollution of our air. Corn fed to animals creates meat that is unhealthy for human consumption and sickens animals who are ruminates and not meant to eat grains or corn. Did I say something smells corny? Well there is no way Xylitol needs to.

Xylitol is originally from birch trees and my sweetener will from now on be from birch trees. It will contain no excipients and it will not come from China. I highly recommend Xylitol as a sweetener.  I even use it in my morning tooth powder (baking soda, Xylitol and Celtic Sea Salt) because of its antibacterial qualities. However, do not buy the brands that are coming to us in giant poison filled containers from China. Look for “Made in the USA” and check its source to be sure it comes from organic birch trees and not the ubiquitous kernel or cob of corn.

Selenium and your Thyroid

Just a brief note regarding Autoimmune Thyroiditis. I was reading “Reducing Thyroid Antibody Titers” this morning on a site at http://www.suite101.com and came upon the following valuable information:

Selenium is deficient in both autoimmune hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Magnesium is deficient in hyperthyroidism and contributes to arrhythmia’s.  Copper is deficient in autoimmune hyperthyroidism. Zinc is decreased in autoimmune hypothyroidism. Calcium can be deficient in both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Essential fatty acids and oil soluble nutrients such as Vitamin D are deficient in many autoimmune conditions, including thyroid disorders.

I find the Selenium deficiency very interesting because Selenium is crucial in helping the body naturally detoxify all the chemicals and hormones we unnaturally put in it and expose it to. If you have any thyroid disorder it might behoove you to ask your physician about Selenium. If said physician says they know nothing about this deficiency refer them to this article. It is recommended that you include 200 mcg of Selenium a day in the form of Selenomethionine, as that was found to be the most effective in reducing thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO). One should not exceed 400 mcg of total Selenium as it can be toxic.

It never hurts to assist your bodies natural detoxification process and Selenium is an essential trace element you shouldn’t be without.

T-Tapp for a New Body

You read that right, T-Tapp, and it is a form of exercise that was developed by Teresa Tapp. My initial impression was that it looked ridiculous and I thought it had ruined my back, so I rejected it. However, there was something about it that made sense and kept calling me back.

First, I found out about T-Tapp from Mary Shomon an expert on thyroid disorder. She recommended T-Tapp for anyone with autoimmune disorders. Then I bought Teresa Tapp’s book “Fit and Fabulous in 15 Minutes” which I found interesting but not very helpful. It was filled with testimonials and I just didn’t get much out of that and I found her exercise instruction difficult to follow. Buying the book was not a complete disaster as it provided me with the ability to get one DVD and a sampling of products very reasonably. I chose “Walk Away the Inches” as my DVD and despite my harsh review of her book I do refer to it and have loaned it out to help others learn about T-Tapp form.

The first time or two I followed the exercise on my newly purchased T-Tapp DVD I found myself with serious back problems which I naturally felt the DVD exercise had created, so I set it aside and went back to Kathy Smith. I think having done exercise with Teresa Tapp and her very specific instructions left me feeling something was missing and that coupled with realizing that it was the Kathy Smith DVD that had started my back problems brought me back to the T-Tapp DVD. I was a bit bored by the “Walk Away the Inches”, so I ordered the Total Workout and that brings me to the present state of being totally hooked on T-Tapping.

Teresa Tapp has a rehabilitative approach to fitness, so even with bad knees you can successfully use her DVDs, your weak and achey back will become stronger and hurt less. I cannot speak to losing weight (I do not weigh myself and that is another blog) but I have lost inches and my back fat is all but gone. I was ecstatic yesterday when I looked in the mirror and noticed that the crease in my back that I thought was a permanent feature was disappearing (which is why I thought I had to let you know about T-Tapp). I stand taller and straighter, my shoulders are no longer rounded and my knees feel great. I am excited to purchase her “Breast Health Package” because I feel prevention of breast cancer is the real key not curing it once someone has it. Teresa is donating $10 of each package purchased to the United Breast Cancer Foundation and she has partnered with that foundation to develop programs to help women with breast cancer and to help the rest of us “prevent” breast cancer.

T-Tapp will remind you of yoga, or Qigong as it is very form specific. The exercises are done with no music and I guarantee you will not miss it as her constant reminders are imperative. You will find yourself “tucking butt” and pushing your knees out to little toe every time she says “KLT”. You exercise from the core out and when you are done your muscles are fatigued, your heart is pumping and your lymphatic system has been purged. Check it out and read all about T-Tapp at http://www.ttapp.com

April Fool’s Joke, I Wish

This is no joke, unfortunately, but I wish it was. For months now I have faithfully been making my spousal unit a glass of vitamin packed juice every morning with a vitamin packed powder from a company called Ola Loa recommended by Mike Adams the self declared “Health Ranger”. My reasoning was that a glass of drinkable vitamins was better for him than the pasteurized glass of orange juice he had had for breakfast for decades as that has no beneficial properties. After all, drinking a glass of pasteurized orange juice, or any pasteurized juice, is no better than drinking a glass filled with water topped off with several tablespoons of sugar. Pasteurization of anything kills all the natural enzymes and vitamins and pasteurized juice is basically just a useless sludge. When I read Mike Adam’s interview with the owner/founder of Ola Loa I was convinced this product was far superior and it has been served most mornings since that time.

Fast forward to this morning when I tuned in to http://www.msgmyth.com to check on something a friend had mentioned to me recently regarding gelatin and its excitotoxin properties. As I perused the list of names that “they”  use to disguise the use of MSG in food, aspartame was listed along with l-cysteine an amino acid. When I saw aspartame mentioned I had one of those infamous light bulb moments, the SU’s vitamin packed Energy drink listed aspartic acid as an ingredient. Aspartic acid is just another name for aspartame, which may or may not be just another name for the excitotoxin MSG but it has the same affect on the body. Here I am the queen of healthy eating, the spokesperson of the anti-artificial sweetener campaign feeding my unsuspecting SU a drink with aspartame in it every morning without giving it a thought.

No wonder they called it “Energy”! Excitotoxins fill one with a false energy that eventually can reveal itself in unexplained migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, heart palpitations but initially energy is its by product. The question I now have is why would Mike Adams the self declared “health ranger”, the man who purports to be looking out for us uninformed consumers, ever recommend these vitamins as the best on the market? At the very least perhaps he could read the list of ingredients in all the Ola Loa drinkable vitamins and recommend only those that don’t have aspartame such as the “Kid’s” packets or the “Repair” packets and tell his readers to avoid the “Energy” and “Sport’s” variety(“Energy” has aspartame and some “Sport’s” packets have maltodextrin another excitotoxin) but other varieties of Ola Loa drinkable vitamins are filler free and excitotoxin free and thus safe to drink.

Again and again (and you think I would learn) I am reminded of the slogan “Buyer Beware”. If you feel strongly about the healthiness of the food you eat, READ THE INGREDIENTS of every morsel that goes in to your mouth and before you read the ingredients go to http://www.msgmyth.com or read Russ Blaylock’s Excitotoxins:The Taste That Kills and educate yourself on the hazards of consuming MSG and how manufacturers have disguised MSG in many products you unknowingly consume. “Buyer Beware” and that isn’t a joke.

Gluten free evenings (or Sunday brunch)

If you do or do not suffer from gluten intolerance I have some information that might fascinate you or at the very least make you say, “I didn’t know that.” If you have Celiac’s Disease this is information that could be critical. I fall somewhere in the middle of intolerance and Celiac’s so it was a light bulb moment for me.

Let me first say that until I talked to a friend of mine (thanks Chloe) who is well informed on food and drink that contains gluten I had no idea we needed to worry about alcohol containing gluten and some still say we don’t need to be concerned but it is possible that this is one of those gray areas where it is better to be safe than sorry.

There are now several gluten free beers and ales with names such as Bard’s Tale Beer, Lake Front Brewery, O’Brien Brewery, Redbridge, Ramapo Valley Brewery and Green’s. I haven’t tried any of them yet but a patient reported that the Redbridge is very nice. Woodchuck Draft Cider is gluten free and I can vouch for its crisp cider taste. If anyone tries the gluten free beers and has an opinion feel free to add a comment.

Under the wine category one must be aware that oak casks are often sealed with flour and water thus presenting the gluten sensitive person with a problem. As much as it bothers me to say (I am a bit of a romantic about the “old ways”) some of the less expensive wines are safer to drink as they are aged in stainless steel. The ever popular wine coolers are not gluten free as they are made from barley, so beware. The following vineyards produce wine that is safe to consume: Beringer (my dirty little secret is my preference for Beringer White Merlot), Fenn Valley, Five Oaks, Ingleside (most but not all), Kendall Jackson, LaRocca (also Sulfite free and organic), Louis Jadot (most but not all) and Meridian. Thank you Mother God Azna for my gluten free wine.

And then there is the Sunday brunch favorite Bloody Mary’s. This drink is most likely made with Vodka but also Tequila (yes tequilla makes a dandy Bloody Mary). I always thought Vodka was made with potato but many in today’s market are made with grain alcohol. The potato vodkas have a smoother taste and Blue Ice, Chopin and Teton Glacier are potato vodkas. I have an organic vodka (Prairie brand) in my cupboard that is made from corn, so it would also qualify as gluten free and it is made in Minnesota and sold at Costco. Good tequillas are made from the blue agave plant and are gluten free but not all tequillas are gluten free and you need to ask the manufacturer to be sure. To be on the safe side you can enjoy Sauza (always gets good reviews under the value for money category) and Jose Cuervo brand tequilla.

There are numerous online sites where one can obtain information regarding gluten free food and drink. I am going to continue to share my knowledge of the products that I have tried and enjoyed. If you would like to educate yourself further on the subject of gluten free food and drink check out http://www.glutenfreekitchen.org/ it has a plethora of reading material to fill your free moments whilst you enjoy your Bloody Mary, pint of ale or glass of wine.

PACE with Kathy Smith

I have had Kathy Smith’s DVD called Functionally Fit Peak Fat Burning (FFPFB) for sometime and enjoy working out to it immensely. It had occurred to me sometime ago that it fit very nicely in to the Progressively Accelerated exercise program that Al Sears devised and I thought it was worth a mention to those who like PACE.

Kathy Smith does it with a bit of humor as she does occasionally make mistakes that are not edited out but I enjoy a smile when I am exercising, so that is alright with me. She takes you through a stretch and warm up and then in to the exercise itself quite effortlessly. The exercises are accelerated for 2 minutes at a time for 6 different segments and following each accelleration there is a cool down that she uses to work your lower body. The total workout is 45 minutes ( longer than Al Sears suggests you need) but it flies by and you feel energized when you are done.  At the very end you can do her stretch or your own stretch. I happen to like the stretch she does on her DVD titled Power Walk for Weight Loss, so I choose to do that when I am done.

I do FFPFB every other day and mix it up with the Power Walk because she works your upper body in that program and it is shorter for those days when you don’t want to spend lots of time getting fit. It also does have you work out at different levels but it is not a PACE type of exercise.

If you  mix this exercise with 5 minutes in front of your Vitamin D sunlamp three times a week and 20 minutes in your Sunlight FIR sauna almost every day you have done everything a body needs to be healthy and you will feel fighting fit.

Mercola, my health guru

I am ruminating today as I am want to do now and then but Joe Mercola has been on my mind lately and I want to share some thoughts with you the reader.

Several years ago I, quite by accident, came upon Mercola. No one pointed me to this site I was not solicited online but it popped up when I “googled” a health issue I had, namely high cholesterol and a high lipoprotein reading on some blood work I had done. My practitioner was telling me I had to go on statins or die of a heart attack even after I had emphatically told her I was not interested in statin drugs due to their side affects.

I got busy “googling” sites with answers, albeit their answers, but the one site that offered a possible solution and proof to back it up was Mercola.com. I read the research and read and read (because he and his staff of researchers have endless studies for one to look at). I finally tried Mercola’s protocol at that time which involved high doses of Vitamin C, non-flushing Niacinamide and two amino acids. I went back three months later and my readings were within acceptable margins and no talk of heart attacks.

I have tried other recommendations on his site and honestly more often than not he is right on. I say the proof is in the pudding and I have learned countless things from experimenting with his “far out” suggestions and those very ideas are now being proven to be correct by even the mainstream researchers and promoted by our pitiful media. I researched raw milk and found the people who sell it because of Mercola’s site. I have pursued medical professionals who are better than average because of the information on his site. I have pursued alternative practitioners because of evidence on his site. We eat healthier as a result of the plethora of articles dealing with that subject on his site. My family is healthier and wiser, so I guess you could say we are an example of what one can be if you just read all the information that he provides on his site and act on that which makes sense to you.

Now, you might ask why I am going on and on? Many people I talk to are very turned off by his site and I may or may not understand their reasons. One person said he was “schlocky” and that his face represents a disturbed person. Another health care practitioner stated that he had gone overboard on selling products and his message was therefore lost on her. I will admit that I nearly quit reading his online site last year when he went to Hawaii and then told me in every newsletter that I was a fool to stay in the northern climes and risk dying (or something like that). I could hardly stand one more day of seeing him in his Hawaiian print shirts, so I get that he can be annoying BUT…………..

If you want to form your own opinion, if you want to know what is going on with our medical paradigm that is really, really wrong and then find out what you can do about it you really must start reading what he has to offer. It is not untruthful, it is not deceitful, you don’t have to buy anything or read any of his self promoting articles, just read and learn and you will find yourself disgusted and ready to make a change. It won’t be the change that the mainstream media preaches, or that our government promotes but you will have educated yourself and made your own decisions as painful as that may be. Go ahead check out Mercola today and be amazed at the knowledge you glean from reading just one article and then let me know if you think I am right or wrong.

Cheese bites

I was online shopping the other day (something I am rather good at doing) and ordered my third wheel. Third wheel of raw milk cheese that is. I am truly chuffed that I have found the best cheese and it is made right here in Minnesota from the raw nectar of some really lovely pastured cows.

The dairy is in Carlton County near Duluth Minnesota and it is run by the Hedquist family. The dairy name is Green Pastures Dairy, Inc and their online site is Green Pastures Dairy. They rotate their girls, so they are always grazing a new pasture of green grass and they only make cheese in the spring, summer and fall from the richest possible milk.

What I can personally attest to is that their cheese is delectable and getting a wheel delivered to your front door is way too much fun. I have ordered the Gouda and the Cheddar and I love them both. The Carlton sounds positively divine and the aged Gouda is on my list but they are low on wheels of the aged Gouda at the moment. This time my daughter and I are sharing a wheel but the whole wheel will keep very well in the lower drawer of your refrigerator wrapped in butcher paper for a very long time. You simply cut away any mold that might form and feed the bacteria rich rind to your very eager canine companion who will benefit from the beneficial bacteria now occupying space in the lining of their healthier gut.

Why order raw milk cheese from grass fed cows who aren’t treated with hormones, antibiotics or rBGH? There are several reasons but first let me ask you this question.  Do you really want to eat cheese or any dairy products from cows that are fed hormones, antibiotics and rBGH? I don’t, and rightly or wrongly I think all those horrible additives are ruining the health and wellness of most of America (Who needs terrorists to bring us down when we are doing it so well ourselves?)

Now to the reasons offered in the brochure from the dairy. “Grass fed cows produce milk that is very high in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) in fact, it contains as much as  5 times more CLA than cheese from grain fed cows. CLA is mostly concentrated in milk fat, so the more fat in a given dairy product, the more CLA it contains. Nonfat dairy products have virtually no CLA. Two new European studies link a diet high in CLA with a lower risk of breast cancer. Research has shown CLA to actually shrink cancer tumors.”

Another positive health benefit from eating raw milk cheese is that unpasteurized milk has the enzyme phosphatase that allows the body to absorb the calcium from the milk. This allows for the digestion of lactose. Milk before pasteurization is rich in colloidal minerals and enzymes, which are necessary for the absorption and utilization of sugars and fats in the milk. When milk is heated it becomes precipitated with minerals that cannot be absorbed contributing to osteoporosis, sugars that cannot be digested and fats that are toxic. Unpasteurized milk has a cortisone-like factor in the cream, which is heat sensitive. This aids in combating allergies. Lastly unpasteurized milk has beneficial bacteria and lactic acids, which implant in the intestines and contribute to a balanced immune system.

I feel like I just can’t go wrong with this cheese. I get to shop online which I enjoy. I get to eat cheese that comes from very happy cows, tastes wonderful, melts beautifully and is really good for me. All that and it is delivered to my front door for a very nominal cost.

P.S. This is completely unsolicited, I just wanted to share my incredibly good find.