AntiAgingByDesign.com

Lots of people buy water in individual size bottles.  If you look around, you see them for sale everywhere and you see people drinking them everywhere.

Why is this NOT good?

First, let me say that drinking water is definitely a healthier choice than drinking soda or other sugary drinks.  But there are a couple of issues with bottled water to consider:

1)  It may not be as pure and safe as you think.

2)  The bottles pollute the environment and cost energy resources to produce.

Facts:

Bottled water may not be contaminant free.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found a total of 38 contaminants in the water of 10 popular brands.

Unlike public water utilities, the bottled water industry is not required to publicly disclose the results of any contaminant testing it conducts.

In 2007, 8.8 billion gallons of bottled water were consumed in the U.S.

In 2007, 1.64 million tons of bottled water packaging materials were produced in the U.S.; only 34% of those materials were recycled.

According to the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s resolution, it taks 1.5 million barrels of oil every year to facilitate the production of water bottles made for use in the U.S.  That’s enough oil to power 50,000 cars for a year!

How about bottling our own water?

The consideration we have with bottling our own water in re-usable containers is that our tap water may not be acceptable to drink as-is.  We may want to consider filtering it.

Contaminants in Drinking Water

An EWG study found a total of 316 contaminants, including 97 agricultural and 204 industrial contaminants, in the tap water of 45 states.  More than half of the contaminants detected have no drinking-water safety standards.

Chemicals such as pesticides, heavy metals and industrial pollutants can be in your water.  These harmful contaminants enter our water supplies and have the potential to create long-term health challenges.

The EPA says that the water we drink is responsible for up to 20% of the lead exposure in humans and at least 13% of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in each of the past five years.

And.. 20% of human lead exposure comes from drinking water (scary).

Reasons to filter your tap water:

When you turn on the water in your kitchen sink, will you see anything alarming?

Your water looks clean.

But how safe is it exactly?

Are there chemicals potentially harmful to your healthpresent in the water that comes from your tap?

The very same water that your family drinks?

What you can do:

When you filter water you can choose a filter that will reduce up to 99 percent of the lead.

A refillable carbon-block filter system can clean your water of chemicals that can be harmful to your health for pennies a gallon.

You can choose a filter that removes industrial and agricultural pollutants (many brands don’t)

Make sure your filter removes disinfection by-products

Environmental benefits:

Filtering your own tap water and drinking it instead of buying bottled water will save more than 2,400 plastic bottles from the landfills per filter.

Refillable carbon-block filter system reduces the amount of plastic to throw away (regular filters are housed in plastic that gets thrown away after each use).

To learn more about new technology in water filtering that reduces harmful contaminants and uses a refillable carbon-block filter system that is friendlier to the environment, visit http://antiagingbydesign.com/tap-water-filter.

*Source:  ewg.org/tap-water/

Brita, PUR, Culligan, GE and HoMedics WATCH OUT. There is a new drinking water filter in town!

Comparing Drinking Water Filters for Water Pitchers:

Even PUR, which filters more disinfection by-products and agricultural pollutants than the other brands listed above, doesn’t filter all of the industrial pollutants.

Do Alachlor, Dinoseb, Methoxychlor, 2,4,5-TP (Silvex), Chlorobenzene, Styrene, Xylenes, Trichloroethylene, Ethylene Dibromide, Pentachlorophenol and 1,2-Dichloroethane sound like Greek words to you? They do to me!

The important thing to know is that of the 6 drinking water filter brands reviewed here, only Get Clean Water by Shaklee filters all of these.

Filter life? Shaklee Get Clean wins this category as well.. the only 4 month filter. You can actually buy a one year option and then forget about your clean drinking water for the rest of the year!

When studying the comparison chart (link below) I was surprised to learn that some of these brands primarily only filter four heavy metals, ignoring disinfection by-products, agricultural pollutants and industrial pollutants.

*All Shaklee products are 100% money back, satisfaction GUARANTEED!

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Check out the official Comparison Chart:

Drinking Water Filters

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Learn More:
Drinking Water Filter Review

Leave a comment if you have used Get Clean Water or if you have any questions about it!

*Get Clean Water is certified by the Water Quality Association (WQA) that is more comprehensive than NSF certified.

Would you feel better knowing that your tap water filter is getting rid of all the harmful chemicals it is targeted to do? After you read this article, you will!

The Real Dirt on Clean Water

Does it seem like healthy people are getting sick and there are in general a lot more illnesses and diseases today? We know that there are many more chemicals in use today than there were even 30 years ago. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that they established a “Chemicals of Concern” list and are increasing measures to protect human health. Is there a connection?

Here are the facts:

More than 300 agricultural and industrial pollutants were found in tap water of 45 states according to an Environmental Working Group study. Many of these pollutants do not have tap drinking-water safety standards.

Up to 20% of lead exposure originates from drinking water – in infants and children the risk is reduced IQ, learning disabilities and impaired growth, in adults the risk is kidney problems, nerve disorders and high blood pressure

Public water utilities violate the Safe Drinking Water Act (more than 700,000 times in the past 7 years)

What is in your drinking water?

1) Disinfection by-products: we know that if you have long-term exposure you may have an increased risk of cancer or liver, kidney or central nervous system problems

2) Heavy metals – associated with behavioral problems and learning disabilities

3) Agricultural pollutants – increased risk of cancer and eye, liver, kidney, spleen, blood and nervous system problems

- Atrazine is one of the most frequently detected pesticides in ground water, surface water, and drinking water; it is outlawed in Europe and 70 million pounds are used per year in the U.S.; long-term exposure may cause cardiovascular and reproductive problems

4) Industrial pollutants – long-term exposure may cause increased risk of cancer and blood, nervous system, kidney and liver problems.

- Benzene: up to 6 million pounds are released into the U.S. each year; long-term exposure may cause anemia, decreased blood platelets and increased risk of cancer

Problem:

We need to disinfect our public drinking water in order to control waterborne disease. The problem is that the chemicals used can form by-products in our treated water that increase the risk of cancer.

Bottled Water not the answer

1) 100s to 1,000s more expensive than tap water

2) bad choice for the environment
– 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to make bottled water each year
– 1,640,000 tons of packaging waste
– only 34% of water bottles are recycled

3) may not be contaminant free – 10 popular brands had a total of 38 contaminants

Answers:

1) Educate yourself: go to epa.gov/safewater/ccr to learn what is in your water

2) Look for tap water filter systems that are independently certified to reduce contaminants that are hazardous to your health

3) Filter your own water and use a re-usable water bottle – enjoy cleaner, healthier water and help the environment

To learn more about the most effective and affordable water filtration systems, visit our clean and safe tap water filter page.

Sources: ewg.org/tap-water/executive-summary; EPA.gov/ogwdw000/hfacts.html; epa.gov/safewater; epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadinfo.htm

*Get Clean Water is certified by the Water Quality Association (WQA) that is more comprehensive than NSF certified.

Guest post by Nancy Cashman of Have Good Health For Life

What should you look for in a multi-vitamin?

Ultimately, a multi-vitamin supplement should contain all of the essential vitamins and minerals that are part of the U.S. Daily Values and be formulated in a way that is closest to how we eat the nutrients in food and easily digestible.

-contain plant-based phytonutrients at 100% of the daily value

-more than twice the value of vitamins C & E – important antioxidants that help fight free radicals

-vitamin K to help your blood clotting process

-enough vitamin D since many people today are deficient

-balanced B vitamins because they work best when they are together in the right individual amounts (hard to find in many multi-vitamins)

-minerals that help support good health including calcium

-trace minerals essential for developing and maintaining healthy bones, including selenium, chromium and seven others that help your metabolism

-a form of zinc that is gentle on the digestive tract

-vitamins formulated in the same balanced state that you find the ingredients in nature (this is one area that separates a few quality brands from all of the rest)

-available with or without iron (men don’t need the iron; women and children do)

The most important advice is to do your homework and find a brand that has the science and research behind the individual product (not another company’s research). It is also important to check if the brand does quality assurance checks on ingredients. Remember that vitamins and food supplements are not regulated and so you have to trust the brand that they are using good quality, safe ingredients.

Last, there is now a long-term landmark study on food supplements. The study showed that blood test results in people that used certain brands of vitamins were actually worse than if they used no vitamins at all. And people that took high quality vitamin supplements had significantly better blood test results.

I love the beach and playing in the water as much as anyone, and just returned from a 4 day trip. The picture here are the waves on the second day. They were wild! The sun is another story. We know today exactly how damaging it can be and yet it is amazing how people will still ‘bake’ in the sun unprotected. There are SPF sunscreens in every possible strength and can be targeted at certain people like babies or activities such as sport lotions that you won’t sweat off.

I recently read a story about sun addiction and how you can be addicted to laying out in it for hours. In fact, endorphins, the mood-lifting chemicals produced in your body when you lay out in the sun are the same that make you feel good when you eat chocolate, exercise or have sex. It’s not all in our head ladies!

So feeling good and looking great – a tan is commonly associated with a healthy, beautiful look – are great draws to the sun. However, the sun can be and is deadly for many people. Some skin cancer survivors still find it hard to stay out of the sun but most have been woken up with the reality of ongoing tests and scans to make sure it doesn’t come back. The threat is always there.

The sun is a good source of vitamin D, and on the other side of getting too much sun are people that get NO sun because they don’t have one un-protected moment. They apply sunscreen from head to toe anytime they are outdoors. There has been a recent increase in the rate of people deficient in vitamin D. Doctors are prescribing high doses of supplements for patients to avoid a list of health challenges associated with being deficient.

I think we have to be smart and manage our time in the sun. We certainly have preventive measures and more knowledge about the benefits and risks than ever before. And we have choices the same as we have in all areas of our physical health. We can build good health and still enjoy what we like!

I have read several articles this week about Dementia and Alzheimer’s.  I admit that the two are confusing to me.  Symptoms of Alzheimer’s include memory loss and confusion.  And Alzheimer’s is a form of Dementia that can start as early as 45 years of age.  With Dementia you gradually lose intellectual function and it usually occurs past 70 years old.

According to the Alzheimer’s Caregiver Resource:  Another way to compare dementia vs. Alzheimer’s disease is to realize that dementia is a medical term used to describe a number of conditions characterized by the gradual loss of intellectual function. Certain symptoms, as defined by the American Medical Association, of dementia include memory impairment, increased language difficulties, decreased motor skills, failure to recognized or identify objects, and disturbance of the ability to plan or think abstractly.

There are meds that help with memory issues but none that will stop the disease. Prevention ranges from exercise to natural supplements and even green tea.

The USA Today this week stated that three studies have shown exercise, green tea and vitamin D levels may help prevent dementia. Study results include:

1- people with moderate to heavy levels of physical activity had a 40% lower risk of getting dementia at all
2- people with lowest amount of physical activity were 45% more likely to get dementia
3- tea drinkers of one to four glasses per week had 37% lower mental decline than non-tea drinkers
4- cognitive impairment in people deficient in vitamin D was 42% higher and 394% higher when people were severely deficient (there is currently a high rate of people deficient in vitamin D in the U.S.)

The good news is that there are a lot of studies that show lifestyle and preventive choices can make a significant impact on disease prevention.

You may be a person who welcomes a scar on your body as a sign of toughness. However, most of us search for ways to get rid of scars. Birthmarks are not always welcome identifiers either. While there are people who claim to get significant results when using Vitamin E to help with scars and birthmarks, the fact is that to date there is no scientific research to back that up.

Antioxidant

Vitamin E is an antioxidant. The role of an antioxidant is to help fight free radicals that want to do damage to your body. It is a good source of nutrition for your skin because it works together with other nutrients as healing properties, and it helps keep your skin from aging by protecting it against free radicals. You get vitamin E in your food and you can take vitamin E supplements as well.

Vitamin E Used Internally

The natural sources of nutrition you consume in your diet along with extra vitamins in supplement form have positive effects on your skin. Vitamin E provides many scientifically proven health benefits for your body, including healing and maintaining healthy skin. In your food, you get vitamin E from: wheat germ, liver, eggs, nuts, sunflower seeds, dark green leafy vegetables, avacado, and yams. The recommended dose of vitamin E in supplement form is 400 – 800 IU per day. More has not been proven to give added benefits.

Vitamin E Used Topically

Vitamin E is used in many skin care products because it supports healthy skin by protecting skin cells.  While the ability for vitamin E as a topical solution to help heal your scars is still being studied, there are doctors and natural health practitioners that still recommend using it and people who state they are getting good results.  One consideration of using vitamin E topically is that it can result in dryness of your skin.

Scars

The body has a way of protecting itself when something traumatic happens to it.  When your skin is damaged, the body will support the wound healing by bringing extra connective tissue to the site.  Unfortunately this can result in a scar.  The connective tissue is thicker than the rest of the skin because it doesn’t have the same healthy blood supply your skin normally has.  Vitamin E that is consumed will help from the inside of your body.

Used topically as a skin conditioner, vitamin E may loosen and soften your scar. People who have obtained positive results using vitamin E to impact scars point out that massaging the vitamin E into your scar on a regular basis is key to the process. It may take weeks or months to see improvement. The suggested way to use vitamin E topically to help scars is to obtain it in liquid form or squeeze it from a gel tablet and apply directly to the scar.

Vitamin E for Birthmarks

Birthmarks, caused by an overproduction of cells, are either red or pigmented and can fade or even disappear over time. People have used natural solutions like applying vitamin E to the birthmark successfully, although it is not scientifically proven. It has also been found helpful to add orange oil to the Vitamin E and apply to the birthmark.