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!

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

Guest post by Nancy Cashman of Have Good Health For Life

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 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!

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.

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.

Resveratrol is made from red wine and its purpose is to help you live longer by making your cells healthier to fight the diseases of aging. Right now it is available in a natural supplement form, though there is aggressive research being done to make a pharmaceutical resveratrol form.  The serving size of Vivix (the brand I use) is only 1 teaspoon per day and it is equal to the resveratrol in 100 glasses of red wine!

I don’t know about you but for me there are things that happen in terms of the way you feel or something hurting that you tend to ‘put up with’ instead of addressing right away. These are things that affect your quality of life.

Three things that I re-discovered last week when I started taking Vivix again were the same 3 things that I liked about it when I first started using it. Now I have a new appreciation for these things that I don’t have to live without. We don’t have to ‘put up’ with anything less than feeling great everyday!

Alert

Almost 2 years ago this summer I was taking my youngest daughter to visit colleges. Most were 2 – 3 hours driving distance away and something that has affected my driving for almost as long as I can remember, and especially in the summer (not sure if it is the heat or what because we are inside an air conditioned vehicle), is that I want to take a nap. As soon as we get on the road, I feel tired.

What was different during those trips is that I wasn’t tired. Not at all. They were long drives to the destination, a presentation to sit through and then a tour of the school. We usually had a bite to eat and then back on the road. Once we visited two schools in one day. It hit me about half way through the trips that I was not tired at all driving, or during any of the events. I was alert and focused throughout the day. This was the same when I was home. Every day there is this alertness and ability to focus better that comes along with taking Vivix.

Energy

I won’t call the energy I get from Vivix a burst of energy. And I do take my Cinch Protein Shake every morning that contributes to the balanced energy I get all the way till lunch. Together, they give me a constant feeling of energy to go from morning till night and not feel tired.

I felt this within a week of starting Vivix. Now, for almost two years, I have grown accustomed to feeling good. Feeling alert, focused and having enough energy to last all day long. So why would I need to ‘test’ this. For starters I sold my whole supply of Vivix before I realized I was at the end of my own bottle (not sure how I let that happen). It was going to be close to a week until my new supply would come and by that time I thought why not conduct this personal little test and stop my Vivix for a month – see if I noticed any difference. Well, I only lasted 3 weeks.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the reasons I wanted to start taking resveratrol again. Sleeping better and feeling very rested when I woke up is another benefit I discovered within a couple of weeks after taking Vivix when it was first introduced on 8-8-08.  And it is something that I have come to expect.

This month, during my test, I could tell a difference. I have always been a good sleeper but I can’t say that I always felt rested when I woke up. This month not only did I have a few nights that I didn’t sleep well, which may have been unrelated, I didn’t feel as rested. I like that feeling of waking up, feeling good, and ready for a full day!

Conclusion

I don’t think that I will be doing more Vivix testing anytime soon, at least not in regard to pulling it out of my food supplement regimen. I believe in it too much and I am getting such great results. Why would I want to mess with that?

And the three I mentioned may not be the main benefits associated with resveratrol. It does a lot on the inside that we don’t see and won’t feel either. It is working at the cellular level to fight the diseases of aging while also giving us better quality of life. Still, these benefits that I have noticed are benefits lots of people notice and it is good to ‘feel’ some of the benefits.

Another thing that will appeal to lots of us is looking younger than our age. When resveratrol is hard at work keeping us younger, it is helping us look better. It is not a miracle worker, or surgery, but if you take it faithfully (EVERY DAY) I really believe that people are going to notice something different about you!

I mentioned earlier that resveratrol is currently available only in supplement form. Since I take a brand that makes all of its products at pharmaceutical grade and does a tremendous amount of scientific research on high quality supplements, I feel very comfortable taking it in supplement form. What will be different with a pharmaceutical resveratrol product if one is developed is most probably the potency. Drugs are more powerful than supplements and the amount of resveratrol in a drug may be higher than in a supplement.

So what are you waiting for? Do you want to feel younger? Do you want to live longer? (with a great quality of life of course!) I know that I do!

Today at Blair County Ball Park in Central PA, there was a Walk Now For Autism Speaks community walk to raise funds for Autism research. The energy and enthusiasm for this project was contagious. It is now an annual event with this being the sixth year. Family teams, corporate teams, individual walkers, agencies, organizations, and even Virtual Walkers participated!

In our last post we noted the high rate of Autism in children today: a shocking 1 in 110 children is diagnosed. A new case is diagnosed every 20 minutes. There is no medical detection or cure for Autism.

Here is a video of some pre-walk conversations and the start of the walk around Blair County Ball Park.

Here is a link to our previous article: Autism Awareness.

I was searching for information about Autism, in preparation for a local event that benefits children and families affected by it.  Today I am sharing some information from a few trusted sources.

In our next post will be at the local Walk Now for Autism Speaks event on Saturday, June 12, 2010, in Altoona, PA.  The statistics related to children who develop autism are shocking.  I had no idea that there are currently 1 in 110 children who are diagnosed with autism.  And 1 in 70 boys is on the autism spectrum.  To me, this is alarming.

On Dr. Oz’s Question & Answer page, he addresses, in an easy to understand way,  a theory about how autism is developed:

Ask Dr. Oz

When we’re infants, we have all of this brain material compacted in a small space. Like tree branches, they overlap. That garbled anatomy makes it difficult to do some things, such as making decisions, because the jumbled structures crossing one another make it nearly impossible for our brains to focus on one thing.

As we get older-3, 4, and 5 years old-our brain starts deciding which branch points get developed and which sort of fall off. So the more we use certain parts of our brain as toddlers, the more we develop those kinds of neurons, while the opposite holds true for those neurons we don’t use. The way we train our brains at an early age actually has an effect on which of those neuron systems will become good and strong and which won’t.

In autistic children, the current best theory goes, those underused links don’t fall off, meaning the jumbled mass makes it more difficult for autistic children to focus because too much is going on. This is different from Attention Deficit Disorder, which affects the ability to concentrate. Many of us actually had it as kids (but it was rarely diagnosed years ago), and difficulty concentrating on only one subject can be something we even carry into adulthood.

That explanation of neurological development can partly explain why our brains function in certain ways as we age. If we didn’t listen to music as a child, or learn how to ski, or learn to speak French, then it becomes more difficult to learn those things as an adult because those neuron connections aren’t developed for processing the necessary information.

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There was news this week on Autism research and it centered around genetic links to developing Autism.  Scientists say the finding could lead to genetic therapy to treat the disorder.

From:  Rare Genetic Patterns

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Autism Research at NICH

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Another Autism Research website.

Walk Now for Autism Speaks, Altoona, PA, June 12, 2010.

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Even without the added challenge of being out of work, people are just plain too busy. Most of the time we are too busy to even think. I mean the kind of thinking that doesn’t involve our next task, or destination, or meal to prepare.

When is the last time you had the time to sit down and think? For many people, this may be the quiet time you sit down to pray.

The story I read centered around the benefits of prayer. The writer stumbled upon a simple prayer that was able to comfort her, and then she questioned how that happened.

She talked with people in religious life, religious studies, searching for answers about why prayer was able to relax her and do such good things for her in the midst of chaos in her life.

The individualism of prayer was discussed. Prayer can be such a powerful force for a person without involving another person. It can take you out of your own life for that time and away from reality itself.

Having both the opportunity to feel like she is connecting directly to the source and also to step away from the current demands of life seem to appeal to women especially.

It’s not like most of us expect that everything we ask is going to be granted, so why is prayer this powerful force for many of us?

The next part of the article became interesting to me. What is the connection between faith and our bodies? Are there health benefits? There is current scientific research being done on exactly this question, and there has been progress made.

First was the connection between strong faith and lower rates of depression. Next it was discovered that there was a relationship between daily prayer and lower blood pressure.

There was also the discovery that attending public prayer services regularly was associated with having a stronger immune system. These are positive and powerful health benefits that prayer can influence.

Next came some challenging questions. Can you pray simply to gain better health results? Will we get the same effect if we simply slow down and spend time on reflection or meditation?

What about time spent engaging in yoga or other relaxation or meditative physical exercise? There seems to be a difference between prayer and meditation, even if both can provide health benefits.

Toward the end of the article a new scientific field of study was introduced: neurotheology, the biological basis of religion and spirituality. Scientists have shared some powerful information when looking at the brains of people in deep meditation or a deep prayerful state.

They expected to see the part of the brain where we concentrated was very active, but were surprised to see that part of the brain that would receive outside signals was shut down. This demonstrates the one-ness you can feel when deep in prayer.

Depending on your beliefs, you will have your own explanation for what happens to your body and to your mind. Is it God or is it your body? Or maybe the most important consideration is the fact that we have an outlet for our crazy lives.